The Guardian's Protector: The Chamber of Souls (41 page)

Just before they left in a Light-Void, Amy saw her family relax back to normal—whatever normal now was for them.

THE CHAMBER

THE EFFECT

Like a silk ribbon falling from a great height, Nevaeh’s shimmering being slid into a pearlescent spiral at the bottom of her Omni-Pod. Her energy drained, each tiny fleck of glitter disintegrating in her eyes, she felt heavy, pained and uncomfortable.

No longer able to see inside the Transmitting-Disk that now glistened above her head, she lay looking out to the Bright One who, witnessing her meltdown, had slid to the bottom of his own Omni-Pod to be by her side.

Don’t leave me
, he thought, his green eyes turning violet as they fixed on hers.
I need you.

Like a virus had entered her being, she didn’t have the strength to use her telepathy. She just lay, hoping he could feel her love.

I know you love me,
he said, which showed her just how unique he was.
I will help you, Mother, in any way I can.

As he spoke a shiny, silver tear rolled down Nevaeh’s cheek. She couldn’t believe she’d let him down at such an early stage. She’d believed she could handle the mission, knew completely that she was strong enough. How wrong of her.

The Decision Maker was above her, but she didn’t have the strength to look up.
Hold on, Nevaeh
, he said.
If anyone can come out of this, it is Amy. I believe in her. She can pull through.

Nevaeh hoped he was right because like he said, it wasn’t up to her any more; it was down to Amy now. Even though she believed in him and the Bright One and knew she was a strong, gifted soul, she also knew that once a magical being had gone to Sleep, there was no way to wake until death. Defeated in mind, she had already accepted that she was doomed to wait like this—a failure, until that time came.

CHAPTER 28

THE SLEEP

Abruptly weak, eyes streaming with tears, Amy fell to the floor in the white room, her body tightening as she did.

‘Oh no,’ Adaizi said, a swipe of her hand removing the brightness of the surrounding room, turning it into nothing but a closest. ‘Run and get Mark,’ she told Tom, opening the doorway that would lead him through the coats with a swipe of her hand. ‘Tell him to come without his guard! Without his guard, do you hear?’

As Tom ran, Amy tried to move but with white-hot pain cursing through her veins, her body stiffened even more. She wanted to scream with the pain but a tightening in her throat squeezed her vocal cords shut.

‘There, there,’ Adaizi cooed, stroking Amy’s head. ‘Relax if you can.’ Amy couldn’t do anything but think. Knowing the people she loved, her own flesh and blood, didn’t know her any more, made her want to curl up and die. Every memory they had of her, everything she’d ever gone through with them, they were now oblivious to. Her parents now believed they had only ever had Frank. It was unthinkable. Unfathomable.

‘No,’ Mark yelled, running towards her. ‘It can’t be!’

‘You need to carry her upstairs,’ Adaizi said. ‘We can’t Void her now.’

‘What’s happening?’ Tom asked, his shade the only light in the room.

‘Tom,’ Adaizi began, standing and guiding him out of the room, ‘you need to stay away from your mom at the moment. Your light could kill her.’

Amy didn’t know why. As Mark lifted her into his arms, all she could think of was how much she hated the fact that she had wanted to do this in the first place. As she did, any remnants of a connection she had to Nevaeh and the Divine Realm were pushed away. She wanted Omnipion to be as distant to her as it actually was.

Like instant punishment for the way she felt, a cold, sizzling sensation attacked her insides. The gut-wrenching feeling felt like her power was poisoning her. She winced and tried to curl into a ball, but she had no energy to lift her knees.

Mark carried her up both sets of stairs to her room where he gently laid her on the bed, a tear falling from his eye as he did. ‘You can wake, Amy, I know you can,’ he said.

Amy made to speak, but horrendous sharp pains began to stab at every inch of her body and she fell unconscious.

Amy didn’t know how long she had been asleep, but for a few days at least she flickered in and out of consciousness, recollecting Adaizi in front of her, wearing surgical gloves, washing Amy from head to toe and placing her in a nightgown. She then recalled having some kind of instrument placed on her bladder and a needle into her vein, connected to a drip. Not that she cared.

This bed was all she wanted. This bed was her escape from reality and, even if she could move, it would be the only place she’d want to be. Amy wanted out from this twisted, horrid world she had volunteered to be part of. She was glad she couldn’t move. Her only wish was that this state would take her one step further into death.

Each time she woke, she felt the same. She had become used to the pain but she couldn’t get used to what she had done. Deeper and deeper she sank into depression, unable to compute what had happened, a heavy, muddled fog clouding her mind.

Unable to enter her room, Tom shouted outside her door every morning that he loved her. Instead of his words having the desired effect, it only reminded her of what more she had in store, all she was opposed to. She didn’t know if it was due to lack of energy because she had no food inside her, or whether her body now refused to work, but she could no longer cry. When her eyes were open she just stared at the ceiling.

She’d never felt so detached from life, and at this point in time she didn’t care. Not for Nevaeh. Not for being Tom’s mother. And certainly not for the mission. As if her thoughts were a cancer, they ate away at her mind, leaving her void of emotion and, like the disease had spread, it left her body feeling simultaneously pained yet empty.

Even the fact that the man she loved came in and out, stroking her hair from time to time, seeing her looking like something he’d brought home from the soup kitchen didn’t trouble her either. Without communication, she knew he was looking after Tom. And without showing any sign of being grateful to him, she knew she could take him for granted. All she wanted was numbness. Oblivion. Death.

No matter how many times she heard Adaizi muttering suggestions to him before he came in, Mark knew what pain she was going through. After a few weeks, however, Adaizi’s tone had become instructional.

‘We’ve no protection on the home,’ she told him, ‘and Tom’s had a vision.’

‘I know,’ Mark said. ‘She’ll make it!’

‘You’re fooling yourself. Can’t you see? If we leave her much longer, we will lose more than just Amy.’

‘We won’t,’ he asserted, closing the door on her. Amy caught his eye for a moment, but looked away before he could act on it.

It was during sometime in the middle of the third or fourth week—Amy had lost count—that other members of the home began to knock on her door. Amy realised they had no idea what she was going through. It had only just dawned on her they too must have had their memories changed or taken about Amy’s family. Maybe they now thought she was and always had been an orphan.

Mad-Doris, out of all the members of the home, bugged her first. Without bothering to knock, she pounded through the door and almost fell onto the bed. ‘Share yer disease wi’ me!’ she shouted, her boggling eyes serious as she took deep breaths in through her nose in an attempt to sniff in her suspected germs. Amy realised that must be the story everyone had been told.

Harold came next. He brought her some of his homemade cough syrup. Then George, who brought her a large box of chocolates. Mary simply asked her if she needed anything, and when Amy didn’t reply she left. Lucy made her a get-well card and placed it shyly on her bedside cabinet, whispering she missed her. Even Winston came who, knowing her situation, just told her Tom was fine. It was only when Jack came knocking that Amy took the first bit of notice.

‘Can I come in?’ he said, popping his head round the door gingerly. Amy’s eyes moved at last, filling with tears at the sight of him. She was so grateful he could remain in her life. She didn’t know what he knew any more but for now, he was here and acting the same. ‘We’re all looking after Tom, just so you know.’

The mention of Tom did nothing; she was still too deflated to care. It was Jack’s presence that stabbed her body with more pain.

‘Has he told you what he’s been
doing
?’ he added, with a curious look in his eyes. ‘Hasn’t Mark even told you?’ he continued as if he knew she couldn’t answer. ‘Amy, a lot has happened while you’ve been ill,’ he said, with a surprised smirk and a baffling shake of his head. ‘Tom’s been telling people’s fortunes and healing peoples’ headaches and things! He’s even been telling people about their long lost relatives and stuff. It’s well weird!’ he said, sounding alarmed yet like he at least knew it to be true.

Her heart missed a beat, reminding her she was still alive. For the first time in weeks, someone, something, had gotten her attention. Her eyes widened.

‘I know,’ Jack said, thinking her stunned expression was to do with the knowledge of what he could do and not that he had done it. ‘He’s like the regular in-house entertainment. I always knew he was like advanced and different and stuff, but I didn’t think he had actual psychic powers. He said you knew about it. Why didn’t you ever tell me?’ he said, not realising how much was now going on inside Amy’s mind.

Amy concentrated on the word ‘ever’. Her pained body welling up with desperation, longing to cling onto her one remaining kin, hoping, with him saying that word, he had still known her forever in his mind.

‘What?’ he said, looking at her like she had gone mad. ‘I wish you could speak, Amy. I’ve never heard of this disorder you’ve got, but I hope you get better. I’m here for you, you know. I always knew you were hiding something. I know I’m a bit of a sceptic where psychics and such are concerned, but when you’re faced with the real deal there’s not a lot you can do.’

She felt confused and panicked. Realising he still remembered things from their past, she suddenly feared he would have his memory taken. Then, like lightening had struck her mind, her panic shifted to Tom. Fear written all over her washed-out face, her motherly instinct re-awoken, she wondered what everyone was saying about him. She made to move, to ask if people were treating him differently, but the pains inside her body worsened, attacking her like fresh knifes to an old wound, and her face contorted with the pain.

‘You rest,’ Jack instructed, looking worried. ‘Don’t worry about Tom. He’s being treated like some kind of magical being. Everyone loves it!’

The word ‘magical’ only fired up more panic inside Amy. The last thing she wanted was any more trouble. She didn’t want everyone in the home to have any of their memories taken. She didn’t want Tom to not be able to tell people if that’s what he wanted either.

‘He’s okay, Amy,’ Jack stated, noting how distressed she had become. He took her hand in his and looked at her like he always did. ‘Have I ever lied to you?’ he asked.

Amy relaxed with his words but, as he left, she wondered again exactly how long he now thought he’d known her. She was sure he was still the same person. She was sure he was still her cousin.

She closed her eyes ready to slip back into oblivion, back to ignorance and unconcern, but, like trying to go back to sleep when you’ve been well and truly woken, she could no longer switch off like before. Her mind, now active with thoughts other than what she’d been solely consumed with, was unable to rest.

As Mark entered Amy made eye contact.
Can you read my mind?
she thought.

‘You want to ask me something!’ he said, sitting by her side, the bedsprings creaking under his weight. He took her hand, a hopeful look plastered across his face.

Tom. Psychic. Is it allowed?
she thought.

‘Yes, it’s allowed,’ he said.

Why?
she asked.
How do I know it won’t be taken it from Jack’s and the others’ memories?

‘Because they just know he’s psychic and some kind of healer, that’s all. Most people have heard of this kind of thing so, even though it’s fascinating, it’s accepted inside the Test because it doesn’t really affect it.’

Amy stared back at the ceiling. To her, the conversation was over but to Mark, it was his opportunity.

‘Tom misses you,’ he said. His words were meant to be kind but they hit her where it hurt.

She turned and glared at him.
That’s emotional blackmail!

‘Tom
needs
you!’ he added, not fazed by her accusation.

He needs a Guardian. In the old fashioned sense!
she thought.
If he were christened I would make you his official godfather,
she thought, waiting for a faint smile to light up his eyes.
So do your job!