Charlie was so determined that he didn’t notice their reactions. Nor did he hear Antony shout, “No!” Charlie just kept his eyes focused on the snakes as they landed in each of his palms and, in bright explosions of golden and ruby-colored light, transformed into staff form. He raised the staffs high, like Moses splitting the Red Sea, and looked up to the heavens. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, calming his excitement and pulling himself closer to the present moment.
It didn’t take heightened senses for Charlie to figure out that something was amiss. While he hadn’t anticipated any particular reaction to his feat, the silence was more than unexpected. Charlie slowly opened his eyes to find looks of sheer terror on the faces of the other orphans. He glared back. “What?”
They didn’t respond, afraid their voices might trigger something. Afraid that they might cause Charlie to lose focus. Charlie studied their faces. Their concern had no effect on him; his will and belief were too strong. That is, until he saw Naomi. The panicked look in her eyes was enough to plant the smallest seed of doubt in Charlie’s mind. That was all it took. Charlie lost control of his breath and his mind wandered. Almost immediately, he felt one of the staffs turn back into a slick and scaly snake.
Naomi’s eyes went even wider. “Watch out!” she shouted.
Charlie heard Naomi’s warning, followed by a soft rattling. He turned his attention toward the snake in his raised hand. The rattler let out a vicious hiss, its razor-sharp fangs exposed and dripping with venom, before sinking them into Charlie’s wrist.
The staff in Charlie’s other hand transformed back into a garter snake. Charlie’s arms fell to his sides. His hands unclenched, releasing both of the serpents.
The garter dropped to the ground, while the rattler hung on, determined to infuse Charlie with as much poison as possible. The rattler didn’t let up until it sensed the orphans moving in to assist their friend. It quickly retracted its fangs, freeing itself, and stealthily slithered away just as soon as it touched down on the grass.
Charlie swayed as the venom began to take hold of him.
“Are you all right?” Antony said as he steadied Charlie, grabbing him by the shoulders.
Charlie’s eyes rolled into the back of his head. His body went limp, slipped through Antony’s grasp, and crashed to the earth in a heap.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
“Find the rattlesnake!” Malika shouted as she knelt down to tend to Charlie. “We need it to save him.”
The orphans scattered about the clearing, searching for the rattlesnake that had disappeared as soon as it hit the grass.
“I got it!” Eddie exclaimed. He held up a staff.
Only there was no red aura.
“That’s just the garter,” Naomi said.
“Dammit,” Eddie said, and then tossed the staff.
“Keep searching,” Malika said.
Antony scanned the area. He got a visual of the snake’s rattler just before it disappeared into some brush on the edge of the woods. “Over there!” he said, simultaneously pointing and breaking into a sprint in the direction of the snake.
When Antony got to the brush where the snake had vanished, it wasn’t anywhere to be seen or heard. Naomi, Eddie, and JP quickly joined him, huffing and puffing.
“Where’d it go?” Eddie asked.
“I don’t know,” Antony said. “We need to flush it out.”
The orphans furiously overturned rocks and logs in a desperate attempt to startle the snake from its hiding spot.
“Be mindful,” Antony reminded the crew. “We gotta use all of our senses.”
Naomi and the others followed Antony’s recommendation, searching with as much haste and attention as possible. Naomi was about to flip over another log when she was greeted with a hiss. But she immediately knew that the snake wasn’t under the log. She could tell by the ensuing rattle that it was directly behind her. “I think I found it,” she said. “Or it found me.”
The others stopped what they were doing. They spotted the snake just a few feet behind Naomi. It had her cornered in a cluster of trees, well within its striking distance.
“Don’t move,” Antony said. He grabbed two sticks and slapped them together to get the rattlesnake’s attention.
The snake craned its head toward Antony. It flicked its tongue and shook its rattle. A faint smile crossed the serpent’s mouth, as if to say it relished the challenge. The snake made no noise to tip off its assault; it simply shot off toward Antony, and launched itself toward his leg.
Antony swiped his hand down to block the attack like a hockey goalie protecting the five-hole. The rattlesnake’s teeth were just meeting the loose jean on Antony’s pant leg when he wrapped his fingers around its neck. The snake instantly turned into a staff. However, the momentum of the snake carried the staff forward, colliding into Antony’s shinbone. “Ah!” Antony shouted, wincing in pain. He hopped around on his good foot for a second, quickly shook it off, and then led the charge with a limp as they made a mad dash back toward the clearing and Charlie.
By the time they returned, Charlie was drenched in sweat. His hand and wrist had doubled in size and continued to swell with each passing second.
“What do I do?” Antony asked Malika.
“You must use the staff to suck out the poison,” she said.
“How do I do that?”
“Believe that you can do it, and it will become reality.”
Antony held the staff over the raw puncture marks on Charlie’s wrist. He took a deep breath in, exhaled even deeper, and focused his mind.
The tip of the staff transformed into a wooden likeness of the snake’s head, with its mouth stretched wide and fangs extended. Tiny waves began to roll down Charlie’s arm like a helicopter was landing on his skin. The ripples came from both ends of his arm. Starting at his shoulder and fingertips, they grew in size as they came to a head at the bite. The skin around the bite tugged away from the bone until it released two golf-ball-sized globs of venom, one from each of the incision marks. The orbs floated from the wound for a second before being absorbed by the staff.
Eddie patted Antony on the back. “Great job, brother.”
Antony nodded.
“Now you must cauterize the wound to prevent infection,” Malika said.
“Same instructions as before, just believe?” Antony asked.
“Yes. It should not take much effort.”
Antony kept the staff away from Charlie, just to be safe. As he imagined making a fire, the ruby tip of the staff began to pulse, brighter and brighter, like a fire iron that had been left in the flames too long.
“Scale it back a little,” Malika said.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Antony said. He narrowed his eyes. The pulses dimmed and slowed.
“Perfect.”
Antony held the flame to Charlie’s wrist.
The others cringed as Charlie’s skin sizzled like bacon on a hot stove. A couple seconds later, the crackling faded and Antony removed the staff. Charlie’s wound had been replaced by a massive black scab that covered all of his wrist and most of the back of his hand.
“That looks even worse than before,” Antony said.
“And it’s still pretty swollen,” Eddie said.
“There was a surprisingly large volume of venom,” Malika said. “It will most likely take a day for all of the swelling to go down. And then a couple more days after that before he really recovers. It all depends how quickly he can recover mentally.”
“But he’s gonna be okay, right?” Naomi said.
“Yes. Right now he just needs rest.” Malika hoisted Charlie up on her own and carried him inside the church.
The rest of the orphans remained outside in the clearing.
“Well, now that Charlie’s okay,” JP said, “we should probably eat quick and then get back
to training. Antony, you wanna hook me up with my staff so I can I can give it a run?”
“Are you kidding me?” Antony said.
“No. Why?”
Antony shook his head. “Malika said we aren’t ready for it. And what just happened made that pretty damn clear.” He heaved the staff like a javelin. It flew through the clearing and well into the woods.
“Don’t you think that was a little unnecessary?” JP said.
“Not at all. Unnecessary was giving the rattlesnake to Charlie. You almost killed him.”
“That was an accident,” JP said, not appreciating the accusation. “The only reason I tossed it to him was ‘cause he told me to. He came in all screaming. I was caught off-guard. Everyone was.”
“We were all caught off-guard,” Naomi said.
Eddie tilted his head and shrugged in agreement.
“I obviously wouldn’t have given it to him if I was thinking and had remembered it was a rattlesnake,” JP said.
Antony didn’t say a word. He just stared at JP.
“What? You don’t believe me?” JP said, getting annoyed.
Antony kept his mouth shut.
JP threw his hands in the air. “You know what? I don’t care if you don’t. It was an accident.”
“Breathe,” Malika said as she exited the church and attempted to throw cold water on the argument that had escalated in her absence and quickly become a heated exchange.
“No,” JP said. “This is ridiculous. I’d rather consciously not calm down right now. I’m genuinely sorry that Charlie got hurt, but the only thing clear to me is that he’s still way behind the rest of us. Now it’s gonna take him a week to get better and who knows how long to catch up. It’ll probably take Charlie at least two weeks to be ready. That’s at a minimum. In that time, who knows what could happen. The Beasts could steal the souls of hundreds of other kids’ parents, or even worse, launch their attack on Heaven. We can either start saving our parents and the world, or we can just keep waiting here.”
“We’re not just waiting,” Antony said, “we’re growing.”
“And how much more do you actually think we need to grow? Because it almost seems to me like you’re trying to keep us here. Why? Don’t you wanna save your dad?”
“Don’t even go there,” Antony said, getting in JP’s face.
“Seriously,” JP said, not backing down. “Do you have some agenda? ‘Cause all I wanna do is save my parents.”
Eddie slid in between JP and Antony, separating them. “That’s all any of us want,” Eddie said.
“I’m not convinced,” JP said.
“If Malika says we aren’t ready,” Antony said, “then we aren’t ready.”
“She doesn’t know everything,” JP said. “She doesn’t even know when the Beasts are gonna attack.”
“He’s right,” Naomi said. “We know we can kill them now. We’re just wasting time.”
“I say we draw straws and see whose parents we save first,” JP said. “When Charlie is ready, he and Malika can join us. What do you think, Eddie?”
“I don’t know,” Eddie said. “I mean, it’s not a bad idea.”
“No, it’s not a bad idea,” Antony said. “It’s a terrible idea.”
“Why don’t you at least wait until you draw before you make up your mind?” JP said. He plucked four long blades of grass from the ground and then split the bottom of one of the pieces. “Split grass wins. Who wants to go first?”
Naomi turned to Eddie and Antony, gauging their interest. Neither of them moved a muscle, and neither did she.
“Fine,” JP said, “I will.” He grabbed one of the blades and held it up. The bottom was intact. “Looks like it’s not my parents. Antony?” He offered his hand for Antony to draw from.
“I’m not drawing anything,” Antony said.
“Fine,” JP said, “I’ll draw for you.” He pulled another blade. The bottom was intact. “It’s not Antony’s dad, either. We’re down to a fifty-fifty shot. Who wants to make the pick? Eddie? You know you do.”
“Ladies first,” Eddie said.
Naomi looked to Eddie and Antony, to the two blades of grass protruding from JP’s clenched fist, and then back to Antony and Eddie.
“We’re stronger when we stick together,” Antony said.
“I know,” Naomi said. “I’m hoping we stick together.” She grabbed a piece of grass and held up her selection. The bottom of the blade was still intact.
JP opened his hand so that the last remaining piece fell into his palm and displayed the tiny tear at the bottom for all to see. “Looks like you were right, Eddie,” he said with a smirk. “Ladies will be first. Assuming you’re down, we’ll start by saving your mother. What do you say?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
“This really sucks,” Eddie said. “It shouldn’t be like this.” He and Antony sat on the church steps, watching as JP and Naomi moved one of the bench seats from the campfire and back into the van.
“I know,” Antony agreed.
After Eddie had turned down the offer to save his mother when Antony held firm that he wouldn’t leave without Charlie, Naomi and JP redrew, with Naomi selecting the winning blade of grass. None of Eddie’s pleading had been able to convince them to stay.
Malika exited the church, a couple medium-sized cloth pouches in tow, and stood next to Eddie and Antony. “Both Charlie’s pulse and temperature are down. It appears he may have turned a corner.”
“Finally, some good news,” Antony said.
“I get the whole free-will thing,” Eddie said to Malika, “but you don’t have to make their decision easier by driving them to the train station.”
“It would make no difference if I drove them or if I did not,” Malika said. “They have made up their minds. They have made their choice and decided to leave.”
“Yeah, but still,” Eddie said.
“But still, nothing,” Malika said. “The both of you must let go of any feelings of disappointment you harbor. Acknowledge them and release them.”
Antony and Eddie took deep breaths and exhaled. While it was obvious that much, if not all, of Eddie’s weight was lifted, Antony appeared to hold onto his. Antony kept quiet as JP and Naomi joined them at the church steps.
“I think we’re good to go,” JP said.
“Before we leave,” Malika said, “I found these inside.” She handed both JP and Naomi their own pouches. “They shall work perfectly for carrying your serpents.”
Naomi hefted her pouch. The contents wriggled around. “I’m assuming there’s a garter already in there.”
“Yes, there is,” Malika said. “And if you should deem it necessary to carry rattlesnakes or any equally venomous serpent, which I do not doubt that you will, I would recommend using something sturdier than cloth, preferably leather.”
“Thanks. I definitely will,” JP said. He looked to Naomi. “I guess that’s it, right?”
“Yeah,” Naomi said. “Although, I feel like I should say goodbye to Charlie first.”
“He just fell back asleep,” Malika said. “It would be best to leave him as such.”
“I don’t need to wake him. I’m pretty sure I saw some loose-leaf paper inside. I can just write him a note. It’s at least better than nothing.”
“That should be fine.” Malika stepped aside.
Naomi cut in between Antony and Eddie and disappeared inside the church. All of the others stayed back.
A couple uneasy moments passed.
“You know, it’s not too late for you guys to change your minds,” Eddie said.
“It’s funny you mention that. Because I was just about to say the same thing to you guys,” JP said. He chuckled, laughing at his own joke.
“Fair enough,” Eddie said. “So, how should we get a hold of you guys when we’re ready?�
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“Since none of us have phones, email is probably the easiest,” JP said, and then gave them his address, which was just his name and some numbers. “Hopefully, it doesn’t take you guys too long to get out of the woods. Otherwise, I might have to save your parents for you.” He looked at Antony while he said the last part.
Antony stood up from the steps. “Yeah, well, hopefully you guys don’t end up in over your heads,” he said. “And then we have to come save you.”
“Ha!” JP said, feigning laughter. “Now, that’ll be the day. I’d bet it’s more likely you guys never even leave here.”
“We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Naomi exited the church, her return interrupting the escalation. She nodded solemnly to Malika. “You were right,” she said. “He was out pretty hard.”
“Sleep is his best medicine,” Malika said.
“Hopefully, it starts kicking in soon.”
“It will. But his full recovery will take time.”
“Speaking of time,” JP said, “we might as well get going. I’d be willing to bet the trains don’t run that late around here.” He gestured to Naomi. “Are you good to go now?”
Naomi nodded.
They all said their goodbyes, some more genuine than others, and then continued to the van as a group. JP and Naomi climbed into the van and shut the door.
“The train station is about a half hour away,” Malika said to Antony and Eddie, “but I think it would be best if I wait there with them, so it might be a couple hours before I return. However, I will leave you with a little something to keep you occupied while I am gone.” She scooped two large mounds of dirt and blew them into the wind. A slew of miniature tornadoes swept across the clearing, depositing sparring vessels in their wake. When it was all said and done, the vessels stood in a tight formation, six per row and ten rows deep, like some imposing irs agent versions of the terra-cotta warriors.
“Those dudes look like they’re here to party,” Eddie said. “I can’t wait to show them a good time.”
The Orphans (Orphans Trilogy Book 1) Page 21