Will and Hope [Formerly Ro and Georgie, slowly editting]

Chapter 17

Britain 1725

She pulled in a ragged breath and put her hands to the centre of her stomach. She buckled over like she had been winded and a low whimpered squeak escaped her lips. Her knees went from under her and she lay on her side bringing her knees up to protect her from this weird world.

She stained her neck to look for the one she needed; Ro. Her lip quivered as it hit her that he wasn’t here, that he would never be and that he didn’t love her. He loved Olivia. Tears rolled down her pale cheeks. She once again looked up to look for any face that would comfort her. The stranger looked down at her in puzzled disgust and she quickly moved on to look at Joseph who seemed to be relishing in her pain with a twisted smile and her skin crawled at how she had let him control her so easily. As she looked up at him with what she hoped was a disgusted look on her face but most probably looked pathetic and vulnerable she noticed how he seemed to be radiating slightly, a golden glow rising on his cheeks. No, it was like he was emitting gold particles. She gulped in air and tried to push that thought away, her brain was lacking oxygen and she was hallucinating, that had to be the case, the only convincing case anyway.

She looked over at Roland and as she did he came to her side with a distressed look on his face. She would have loved to have loved him but he was so unlike Ro even if they were related in a very distant way. She felt disappointment flood her at how if Ro was here he would have been her knight in shining armour and would have pushed her out of the bullets way even if that did mean that he would be injured. A lump formed in her throat at the thought. Why would Ro take her corner so much if he was in love with Olivia? Was that just Ro being a good friend or was it that he liked to play Superman?

“What – what can I do?” Roland asked panicked and started fanning my face with his big hands. “Someone help me!” he ordered and we both looked over at the two other men who didn’t seemed to be making any actions to help me.

“Don’t.” Joseph snapped when the stranger stepped in our direction. He put his arm out in front of the man and he obeyed his orders. “It’s too late Roland, it’s a waste of your time to try and help her out. I have done what I intended.”

“Done what you intended?” Georgie whispered through her tears. “What do you mean by that?”

The cruel smile broadened on his lips. “Have you heard of propaganda?” he asked and she nodded thinking back to when she was doing history in Mr. Heskith’s class just before the accident had occurred. He had repeated probably over a million times about how Hitler and Goebbels were big on propaganda. “Well... you now know what I did.” he said smirking.

“So... so Ro loves me?” she was fading slightly and all around her was tingeing grey she furrowed here eyebrow to keep herself concentrating on what was unravelling in front of her. He nodded and he laughed maliciously as she looked at him she decided his was the most disgusting face she had ever seen. “YOU BAST-” she was going to finish it with –ard but she needed to gulp in breath just to keep alive for a while longer. She looked away and rested her chin on her chest trying to concentrate on breathing. She stared at the grass that was yellowing from and at the horse’s feet. The grey started to slowly intense and so did the rate of her tears as she blinked them back she saw a shadow. At first she just thought it was off one of the men but soon the shadow thickened and it became the figure of a woman, no a girl around Georgie’s height. The girl began to develop like in a Polaroid picture and soon Georgie knew that the girl was around her age by her clear skin and the innocent look that was starting to emerge on her face.

Georgie may not have known it but the girl that she believed she was hallucinating was her, well it was Princess Georgina. As Georgie stared at the girl who was slowly appearing at her side Georgie began to fade slowly. It was only slightly, so slightly that the men around her would never have noticed not even Sir Roland who had his hands firmly on her body watching her as he watched her die slowly. At one point Georgie and Georgina both got at the same point in their fading or appearing.

It was at this point that Georgie gasped as she looked at her pale skin which now looked like condensation coming off a person’s breath on a cold morning. The sound was so quiet that Roland didn’t here, the difference in space between Georgie and Princess Georgina’s bodies that he didn’t take in the fact of the weirdness when his hands fell and landed on Princess Georgina.

Georgie looked down at the four of them as everything went blurry and she disappeared completely from this life with a small smile on her face.

Ro Byrnes 2012

I sat down in the big terracotta coloured leather chair next to Georgie’s new bed. This room was so much nicer than the other one. She’d been moved in her after the doctor had found the results and noticed how her heart was doing something to the monitor. We were now in the Chiron ward. When the doctor told me this I grinned from ear to ear. Chiron is supposed to be the centaur that represents the zodiac sign Sagittarius. Sagittarius happened to be Georgie’s star sign. Georgie had gone through a crazy voodoo stage about three years ago and I picked up on some of this crap.

Georgie had been washed properly today because of how she had improved so much. I mean she had obviously been washed it was just not so thoroughly. Her short hair was now splayed on her pillow all shiny and slightly wavy from how the nurses couldn’t dry it with a hair dryer. She looked like some kind of mermaid with her hair done like that and she had a smooth angelic look on her face.

I put my elbows on my knees cupping my chin so I could watch her. Her mum and dad were sitting silently on the little couch at the wall across from the bed. I quickly glanced at the two of them and Matt cocked me a smile as Jill had her head resting on his arm as she slept quietly with a small smile on his face. I grinned back and looked back at her.

***

I jumped a mile when a snore ripped from Matt’s mouth. I looked over to see them both lolling to one side on the couch and couldn’t help but laugh at the pair. I knew Matt was a heavy snorer, as much as he was a heavy sleeper. I had spent dozens and dozens of nights at Georgie’s over the years and was used to hearing hi snore reverberate through the walls, I shouldn’t even mention how many times I’d had sleepless nights whilst Georgie was here but I wanted to blame that on that fact. That she was here.

“Cuuuu!” my head snapped up and looked over at Georgie. That was definitely her. A smile slid onto my face as I jumped up and steeped over to Georgie’s mum and dad’s side.

“WAKE UP!” I yelled and Jill shot up straight away leaving Matt to fall on the cushions where Jill had been and wake up by a smack of hot leather. “She’s awake, she’s awake!” I trilled in a song.

“What?”

“She coughed!” I said hopping from leg to leg in a dance. “I’ll go get the nurse.” I ran out and down the hall running head first into Georgie’s doctor. “She’s awake!” I said a laugh bubbling out of my throat. “She coughed.”

Just like the last night before the doctor stepped into a run and I kept up next to him as we went back to Georgie’s room.