The Guardian's Protector: The Chamber of Souls (38 page)

As if she knew what Amy was thinking, Adaizi took her hand and peered over her glasses.

‘You can do this!’

Amy smiled for her words of encouragement but, even with the knowing sparkle in Adaizi’s magnificent eyes, her mind was filled with trepidation.

CHAPTER 26

THE CLOSE CALL

Amy made no progression over the following weeks. To make matters worse, the beginning of March saw her dad drop out of consciousness frequently. By mid-March, the hospital moved him to the ward’s last room, dubbed ‘the dying room’. The room looked set for ensuring the last moments of his life were comfortable, but Amy knew it was so the other patients didn’t have to watch what would soon be their own fate.

It was one dark, rainy morning that the telephone rang and her mother was on the other end.

‘Oh, Amy, I thought we’d lost him,’ Joan cried.

The panic in her mother’s tone made Amy’s heart race. ‘Why? What’s wrong?’

‘The beeper thing went off because his heart stopped, but they rushed in and…and saved him!’ Joan was now howling down the phone.

‘I’m coming now!’ Amy yelped. She slammed the phone down and ran into the classroom. ‘I’m going to the hospital,’ she said, flustered. Tom’s eyes began to fill with tears as Mark took her outside the classroom and closed the door.

‘Is everything okay?’

‘I don’t know,’ she admitted. ‘I don’t know how long I’ll be there. Are you okay to look after Tom?’

‘Of course.’ He placed his arm around her. ‘I’ll order you a taxi,’ he offered, walking into the living room to make the call. She gave him a frustrated look. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t managed to get her light powerful enough in time. His eyes grew sad in response to her pain.

When the taxi pulled up in front of the hospital, Amy threw the money at the driver, ran past the main reception and up two corridors to her dad’s ward. After being buzzed in, she rushed past the nurse and straight to his little room.

‘Oh, Joan,’ Thomas wheezed in a faint voice, ‘I’m okay! What have you phoned Amy for?’

Amy was amazed he still had the strength to scold. He was so thin that his small nightgown hung from his weak and frail arms, his pasty skin looking like it had fell off his bones. His good looks long gone, it looked like all the life had been sucked out of his face. Amy couldn’t help the pity in her eyes. ‘Of course she should phone me, Dad.’

The nurse followed behind Amy. ‘We shouldn’t be having many visitors, Mr Croft,’ she said with a look to Amy. ‘We don’t want you to do any talking.’

‘I’m okay. I wish…you’d all stop…fussing!’ He tried to lift his head but fell back with exhaustion.

Amy turned to Joan. ‘Let’s leave him to rest,’ Amy said. ‘We’ll go to the café for some breakfast.’

‘I don’t want food.’

‘You’re beginning to look as weak as Dad, Mum.’

‘I
can’t
eat, Amy!’ she said as they walked out the door.

‘You have to!’ Amy retorted firmly.

Once they reached the café, Amy ordered some toast and two pots of tea, but when it came, Joan simply fiddled with it.

‘Sometimes he’s delirious,’ Joan began mournfully, pushing the toast around her plate, ‘and sometimes he’s angry with me.’ She looked at Amy as if for help, but all Amy could do was hold onto her mother’s hand. This was the first time her mother had ever looked unkempt. She was always so prim and together. To see her parents this way killed Amy inside.

‘What actually happened, Mum?’ Amy asked.

‘He was asleep and the alarm on his machine went off and the nurses came running in with equipment. I think his heart stopped.’ Joan stared at Amy for a moment, looking guilty but then whispered: ‘It’s nearly time.’ Tears trailed down her washed-out cheeks.

Amy wanted to get up and hug her mother, but she knew she would embarrass her. Joan was even silencing her cry with her hand and trying to wipe her eyes discreetly. Amy just held her hand until she’d eaten a small piece of her toast.

Amy stayed until she was asked to leave at eight p.m. As she arrived back at the home, Tom was waiting up to kiss her goodnight. He flung his arms tightly around her and held on longer than normal. She could feel his hands turning cold and, as the tingling sensation began, she took his hands into hers.

‘I’m okay,’ she said, giving him an unconvincing smile as she sat at the kitchen table where Mark had placed a cup of tea.

‘Thank you,’ she added, avoiding Mark’s eyes.

Winston, George and Mad-Doris, who sat in the living room, came to join them in the kitchen. ‘Everything alright?’ Winston asked sheepishly.

‘Not really. They’re giving him more drugs and…well, keeping him alive.’ No one knew what to say.

‘Can I see Granddad, Mum?’ Tom asked.

‘Err, well, I don’t think that’s a good idea just yet, Tom,’ she said kindly.

‘But, Mum, I’ve got a strange feeling…and I can’t work it out.’

‘What’s that?’ she asked without thinking.

‘I feel like I’m going to lose not just my granddad but all of them! Yet I believe he’ll live.’ A few people in the room passed confused looks, but Amy’s eyes shot to Mark.

Amy couldn’t believe it. Even though what he had said was upsetting—that he
would
be losing them all—if his feelings were true, it meant she could save him. As her heart began to race, the sound of the Divine Realms’ music came flooding inside her head and, as though he was shouting in the distance, she could distinctly hear the Decision Maker’s voice, soft yet sonorous: ‘Believe.’

As she pulled Tom into her arms to comfort him, she couldn’t speak. She hated leaving him confused when she could easily tell him what was happening. She wanted to tell him that he may be right, if only she could heal him, but then she would also have to tell him he was right about losing them all. She knew she would have to tell him when the time came, but for now, she didn’t want him questioning her powers.

For the first time in months she felt hopeful. After she’d watched her dad suffer, Tom’s words gave her the spark she needed. She smiled pitifully at him as she tucked him into bed. She then headed to her room to continue with her concentration. It was three a.m. when she finally gave up and went to sleep.

The next morning, before Amy made her way downstairs to start her day, Mark was outside her door, about to knock.

‘I’m glad your dad’s okay,’ Mark offered.

‘For now,’ Amy added, feeling a quick, sharp pain in her heart. She knew she was being off with him, but she didn’t know why.

‘Take the day off to practice. You need all the time you can get,’ he suggested, his eyes shifty. She looked at his face and there was that expression again; one she had come to realise meant something.

‘You know something, don’t you? You know when it’ll happen!’

‘Yes,’ he whispered, his voice hushing her as he pushed her back into her room and closed the door.

She stared at him wide eyed. ‘When?’

‘Soon.’

‘I know it’s soon! Any fool can see that! When exactly, Mark?’ She was almost shouting at him. His head dropped like he shouldn’t be informing her. ‘Tell me. I don’t care if you’re not allowed. Tell me now!’

‘Tomorrow,’ he said. His whole body deflated as if he hated his psychic ability.

‘Tomorrow,’ she repeated, dropping on to her bed in shock. She couldn’t believe how little time she had left; there was no way Tom could have been right.

‘Train all day and I’ll come and see you this evening to see how you’re doing.’ She looked up at him. There was something in his tone and expression she now couldn’t put her finger on, but she nodded in agreement as he left.

She took her hands and held them in front of her and, as she pushed the light out, every angry thought flooded out of her. She held it for a good few seconds. Each time the light faded, it enraged her more, which enabled her to keep it for longer the next time.

At mid-day Jack knocked on her door. ‘Your mum’s just been on the phone,’ he said sympathetically. ‘The hospital has asked all the family to go up. ‘They say he’s in his…final hours.’

‘I can’t. I’m busy!’

He looked around the room for evidence before searching her eyes. ‘Busy with what?’ he asked, trying to keep a sympathetic tone.

‘Stuff!’

‘Amy…’

‘No!’ she said, pushing him out the door. ‘You’ve got to go. I’m too busy for this.’ She closed her door in his face.

Hours and hours she kept concentrating until she fell on her bed and let out a frustrated howl. All the anger she could conjure wouldn’t help her; it only served to make her feel worse. By the time Mark knocked on her door, she’d fallen asleep with exhaustion.

‘I can’t do it!’ she cried as she woke.

‘You can,’ he asserted. ‘Stand up!’ He took her hand to help her. She stood feebly and stared at him. ‘Anger is a powerful emotion, but there are stronger ones inside you,’ he said with a strange air. He grabbed her and pulled her to his chest then placed his hands on her cheeks.

‘What are you…’ she began to say, but he shook his head and hushed her lips with his thumbs.
The proximity between them made her heart race.

Looking deep into her eyes, he ran his hands down her arms. Their fingers locked and he moved closer to her lips, the contact making all of her limbs turn to jelly.

He lingered there for a moment before running his fingers back up her arms and brushing them lightly over her shoulders. Then, his intense, glistening eyes never leaving hers, his hands lifted her hair and moved to the back of her neck. He then leant in even closer, his lips hovering an inch from hers, his sweet, minty breath becoming heavy.

It was the passion in his eyes that made her feel the weakest. Her skin beginning to heat up, she knew it would be everything she needed to be intimate with him right now.

As his hand hooked the back of her jeans pocket, she caught her breath in her throat. ‘You’re not playing fair,’ she said, her lips touching his as she spoke, sending more shivers of delight through her.

‘We’ll see,’ he replied. His lips, touching hers so gently that he wasn’t actually kissing her but teasing her, felt like butterfly’s wings. She couldn’t help her response. Every fibre in her being wanted to lean in and kiss him as their lips connected but, just as her eyes began to close, just as she was about to seize the moment, her body set alight with a cold fire. Gripped by the realisation of what he’d caused her to create, she leapt back and let magnificent orbs of light loose from her hands. ‘Call Adaizi,’ Mark said with a hopeful smile.

As he let her go and walked towards her door her heart leapt into her mouth. Her body screamed out at him to return to hers but through a pale voice she called: ‘Adaizi.’ As if his lips were still on hers, they sizzled as she spoke.

‘Oh!’ Adaizi said, shocked to see her hands so bright as she Light-Voided into the room. ‘Let’s go, beautiful,’ she added, impressed. Adaizi took hold of Amy’s shoulder and, after the sudden flash and warping sensation, they were in the empty corridor outside her dad’s ward.

‘They won’t let us both in at this time,’ Amy said. Adaizi winked as she pressed the intercom.

‘Hello?’ said the nurse.

‘
May
?’ Adaizi asked.

‘Yes?’ May replied.

‘Can you let us in?’

‘Yes.’ She buzzed them in but, as they walked through, she stood in alarm. ‘Oh no! You can’t come in,’ she said to Amy. ‘Your dad’s asleep and stable at the moment. Haven’t you been informed? All your family have gone! You can come back tomorrow! Only your mother’s allowed at this hour and she’s asleep too…’ Her voice trailed off as she spotted Amy’s luminous hands.

Amy looked to Adaizi for help. Adaizi walked towards the nurse, took her hand and, looking deep into her eyes, said: ‘But of course you will let us in…won’t you, May?’

‘Of course,’ she answered, with a beaming smile. ‘No problem.’ She then sat back down in her chair and turned to watch her small television. They walked into her father’s room and the nurse didn’t give them another glance.

‘Who’s there?’ called a frail old lady in the room facing her father’s. ‘Can’t I get
any
peace?’ The lady squinted her eyes at them suspiciously as they entered her dad’s room.

Joan was fast asleep in the chair by his side. The monitors and respirators seemed louder at this hour. As they huffed and puffed, they seemed like threatening hisses, trying to dissuade their approach. As she stepped closer to him, her heart began to beat hard against her chest.

‘Shall I try now?’ Amy asked, lifting her hands to him, but looking at Adaizi for confirmation.

‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘With all that you have.’

Amy pressed her hands on top of his head and pushed out with her mind. Pushing further, she could feel the power flow from her, colder and colder, the light almost blinding as she poured her energy into him. With her dad’s life in her hands, Tom’s spirit in mind, and Mark’s taste still on her lips, her power felt immense.