Chapter 34: Chapter 34

Water.

So much water.

A pool of iridescent water, an ethereal oasis. Empyrean light casts down splinters of Solomon-gold, making the surface crests sparkle like elf-light.

And deep within the pit is a floating body. Hair as white as snow billows from her head, her skin is as light as a winter sky. Her seraphic form is covered in angelic garb, different parts of it splayed out in the water.

It is merely an illusion of beauty. The waters turn cold, as cold as a ghoul’s soul, and the sharp bite jolts the slumbering one awake.

Her siren-like eyes snap open. She swoops her arms, moving from a horizontal to a vertical position, seeing nothing but endless water.

Keila swims to the surface, but just when she thinks she’s at the top, there’s just more water.

Keila swims harder and faster, but still. There is more water.

She doesn’t know how long she’s been underwater for, how long she’s been holding her breath, or why her lungs do not burn for relief. It makes her question if she is even still alive.

Keila swims up again. But still. There is more water.

She flounders. Sown seeds of panic begin to germinate.

She whirls around, sensing that she’s not alone in the aquatic abyss. And she is not. The darkness blinks several times over like a wave, a maelstrom of burning eyes stare back at her.

The malevolent glow of their beady eyes sparks as they flash their scalpel-sharp teeth at her.

Keila releases a muffled, sonic scream, bubbles exploding from her mouth in horror.

***

Mia jerks awake, simultaneous to the others.

Opal lifts her head from the pillow, breaths coming out as rasps. Mia’s chest heaves and she grips onto her forearm and Opal does the same, drawing a sliver of solace.

They give each other reassuring looks before releasing one another, and they fix their attention on the boys.

Akin sweeps up and buries his face with his hands. Aries rips off the blanket and moves to sit straight, plowing a hand through his hair and leaving it there, clutching a fistful of his dark strands.

Opal and Mia push themselves upright on the mattresses.

It’s still early morning, too early to distinguish dawn from night.

“How did we all snap awake like that?” Akin removes his hands from his face, blinking rapidly. “How is that possible?”

“What did you dream about?” Mia asks.

“Keila,” everyone answers in unison.

“It’s not a dream, then,” Opal says dazedly, her eyes unblinking. “It’s a message.”

“A message?” Akin repeats.

“Did you forget that we’re still bonded to ~it~?” Muted light glimmering in her eyes, still breathing heavily. “He wants us to know he has her.”

“Why now?” Akin questions.

“Because we didn’t listen,” Mia answers, her voice quietened to the murmur of water.

“He couldn’t get us all, but he got Keila. He used her as bait for us, knowing that we would know that he has her. And that we would come for her, but we didn’t. Let’s call this his way of confirming.”

“So”—a tremble in Akin’s voice—“what do we do?”

“We get her back,” Opal says resolutely, coming out of her stupor. “We go, and we get her back.”

“Just like that?” Aries asks, as if to point out a flaw in her suggestion. “No plan—even if we had one, it wouldn’t work.

“We’re talking about a…~thing~. A world we didn’t know existed, with a creature, that shouldn’t even exist. Tell me how you plan to go back there and take her back like he’s not a whole demon.”

“So we should just let her die?”

“Did I say that?” His eyes cut into Mia. “I’m saying there’s literally nothing we can do. And there’s nothing any of us will do, understand? I’m not risking any of your lives.”

Opal flops back down, hands stamped on her forehead. “It took Erin. We didn’t listen. It took Keila and we’re still not listening. There will be consequences if we keep ignoring him.”

***

Doctor Jo makes her way to Braidwood High.

The cup holders are occupied by a Frappuccino and a latte. The passenger seat is reserved by a packet of muffins, fresh out of the oven from Carl’s Café.

She listens to Mozart. Many kinds of classical music to boost cognitive function, relaxation and reduce stress. But trivial life problems are soon to be the least of her worries.

The woods darken suddenly, a great shadow befalls the timberland. Sunlight gagged, silenced by the malevolent hand of darkness, blinded by its density.

She looks into the rear-view mirror at the tsunami of spook-gray mist barreling toward her and, in an instant, she is engulfed. She switches on the headlights and drives slower, not thinking much of it. Her eyes stray to her Frappuccino, longing to sample a taste.

She picks it up and takes a careful sip before she leans closer to slot it back inside the holder.

She looks ahead and stomps on the brakes. The cupholder drops and hot liquid drenches her lap, but she is immune to the pain that shock is dulling, muting the burn.

Her eyes glide up at the growing form, knitting together in a flourish. A stark black against the striking paleness of the surrounding fog.

She gawks at the masked being and it stares back at her, tilting its head to the side. Dread gnaws at her insides, fear choking her and hampering her airways.

Suddenly, the car lurches, making a groaning sound before it lifts off the tarmac. Josephine frees several strangled gasps and she gapes at the window, peering down at the ground shrinking from her.

She looks up, and the car launches forward, arrowing to a distant tree at a jarring speed.

***

Mia enters the school with a jittery Opal beside her, Akin walking behind them.

“You going to be okay?”

“I had to convince Aries, now I have to convince you?”

She scans her pointedly. “You’re shaking like a Chihuahua. Sorry if I’m concerned.”

Opal liberates an exasperated groan. “It’s cold in here.”

Neither right or wrong, the season is shifting; the temperature is neutral, neither warm, neither cold. Akin and Mia escort her to her register class, fifteen minutes before first bell. Opal’s protests fall on deaf ears. Once she’s inside, only then Mia and Akin decide to separate.

“We’re still on for after school?”

Akin nods eagerly. “I’m sending someone to drop off my car later, since we came here with Aries.”

Mia pauses, looking back at him with an inquisitive smile. “Dang, I forget that you’re super rich.”

He gives her a serious look. “How else are we gonna get there?”

“With an Uber like a normal person. Unless you want to take your chopper to cut through traffic?”

He rolls his eyes, looking away, suppressing his smile. “I don’t have one.”

“It was a joke,” she says, walking away.

“You’re not funny,” he says to her back.

Mia makes her way to Doctor Jo’s office, and when she arrives, she nearly collides with the door when it doesn’t open for the first time ever.

She tries the handle several times in disbelief. The good doctor is never late. ~Perhaps something came up, or she was sick~, Mia dismisses.

But a gut feeling warns her of something different. Not ready to let this go just yet, she journeys to the front office and goes up to the receptionist’s desk, setting her forearms on it.

“Hey.”

The secretary looks up, closing her date book slowly.

“Mia. Wow, it’s been a minute. Longer than a minute, look how much you’ve grown,” she fawns, taking her all in with a once-over.

“And your hair, long hair suits you very well. So what brings you to this corner of the school?” She is the woman that recommended Mia to Doctor Jo during her junior year at Braidwood High.

“Doctor Jo, is she in today or sick? She’s always here before school starts. It’s our usual unofficial session.”

A mournful look the woman’s face, her smile withering with remorse filling her eyes.

“What…what is it?”

“Mia, I’m sorry.” She takes a moment to compose herself. “A formal notification was going to be made later today.”

A wince pinches her face. Mia backs away a step, a sob grating the back of her throat.

The secretary lifts a calming hand. “She was in a car accident—”

Mia’s quivering hand clamps over her mouth to cage in any sound.

“—I was just informed a few minutes before you got here. But she survived. She’s in critical condition but she’s alive, for now. She’s at Braidwood General, a private hospital with expert care. She’s in good hands.”

After school, Mia informs Akin about what happened and he happily delays their restaurant plans to beeline for the hospital.

After half an hour, Akin parks the Jeep in a spot closest to the entrance and they head inside. Mia marches to the front desk, inquiring about Doctor Jo’s condition, but she is still in surgery.

Upon instruction, she goes to the waiting room and waits and Akin waits with her. Shortly, Doctor Jo’s husband and parents arrive demanding new information, but none is given.

The family joins the two in the waiting area. The husband immediately recognizes Mia.

He approaches cautiously, and Akin monitors his steps.

“I’m sorry,” he says with misty eyes. “Are you Mia? Mia Trinket?”

Mia gazes up at the posh-looking man. His mother-in-law is feverish with panic behind him and her husband is failing to calm her down.

“Yes…”

“My name is William Lauder, I’m Jojo’s husband—Josephine,” he rambles, a mix of nerves and delirium. “You know her as Doctor Jo.”

Mia nods stiffly.

“She talks a lot about you,” he says, outrightly. “Jojo, she likes working with children and she loves psychology and thought of putting the two together as a profession.

“She loves all the kids she works with, children and youths alike. But she talked so much about you, I felt like I knew you. She was very fascinated by you.”

This makes Mia want to cry even more, her eyes misting, but she blinks them back.

He comes closer to her by a few tiny steps.

“Jojo loves children,” he says with teary eyes and a sad smile. “Which is why it pained her when she couldn’t have any of her own. She would…wake from her surgery right now if she knew I was telling you this, but…”

He lapses, his throat burning, a sob searing its way out. “She never wants to talk about it. But she was pregnant once.”

Mia’s eyes fill her sockets, her lips parting.

“Years ago. It was a miscarriage. It was a girl and if she had lived, she would’ve been the same age as you.”

***

Each hour claws over the other, every second excruciating.

Mia’s hand drums incessantly on the armchair, drawing Akin’s attention. His hand nears hers, skin brushing against skin, fleeting contact before Mia leaps to her feet at the sight of the incoming nurse.

Doctor Jo’s family jumps up. The nurse informs them that Josephine has been stabilized and sustained serious injuries but is expected to make a full recovery.

A cry of relief fills the room like everyone has freed the breath they have been holding in.

She is still unconscious and only family members can see her. Two at a time. And her parents go in first.

Mr. Lauder returns to Mia and asks for contact information. When Josephine is able to have outside visitors, she is the first person he will call.

***

Two weeks later, Mia is called back to the hospital.

She meets with Mr. Lauder in the atrium and he escorts her to her room that Doctor Jo shares with one other person.

When they reach the place, he opens the door for her and Doctor Jo looks up from her cell phone screen, one arm secured in a plaster cast.

Mia doesn’t even greet her She hurries to the side of the bed and gives her a careful hug. Doctor Jo grins, holding onto her with her good arm.

“This is a welcome surprise.”

Mia withdraws and moves back to sit on the visitor’s seat.

“I’ll be back,” Mr. Lauder says. “I’m going to go get some coffee.”

He leaves with a smile, closing the door gently behind him.

“Are you okay?”

“Doctor says I’ll be out in no time,” Doctor Jo says good-naturedly. “I’m fine and just…happy to be alive.”

She shifts her head on the pillow to look back at Mia properly. “I truly appreciate you being here. It means more than you know.”

Mia nods with a halfhearted smile.

“If I’m not mistaken, today is a school day? And it’s midday.”

“Your point?”

“You should be in school,” she says reproachfully.

She bops her shoulder. “I should be doing a lot of things. It’s not like I went AWOL. My mom knows I’m here. In fact, she’s the one that dropped me off.”

A pensive look floats over Doctor Jo’s face.

“What?”

“I just remember my husband telling me that you were, frequently, with a tall, dark-skinned, athletic young man.”

Mia frowns at the description. “Was his skin color necessary to add?”

“Yes, because there are not many at Braidwood High. Which is something they need to change,” she notes.

“But I instantly knew he was speaking about Akin Ballo, is it?” she says, looking at Mia suggestively.

Mia thwarts a smile and looks away, giving her a nonchalant shrug. “You knew he was an old friend of mine.”

“So the old became the current?”

“How about we focus on the one that nearly died? What happened to you?”

Doctor Jo mimics Mia’s shrug. “I have no memory of the car wreck. I just remember driving and it was foggy and I suppose that’s why I crashed. I do remember a lot of mist.”

Mia nods thoughtfully. “And only you were injured?”

“Only me.”