“So mom’s doing better?” George asked.
Geoff nodded. “Yeah. She really is. The doctor was right. The shock therapy really is helping. It brought her out of the worst of it. She only has two more treatments left, and then the doctor says she can probably come home.”
“I want to go see her tomorrow if that’s okay,” George said.
“Sure, it is. She’ll be happy to see you.”
“Will she really?”
Geoff nodded. “Really.”
“I remember how she was when I saw her in the hospital before.”
“She was on the wrong meds and in for something completely different. She’s very calm and non-violent now. No screaming.”
“Okay,” George said. “That’s the only reason I didn’t go see her today. I wasn’t sure how she was.”
“I understand,” Geoff said. “It’s okay. She’ll really be happy to see you.” He looked at Laura. “And you, too, Laura.”
“Yeah?” Laura asked.
Geoff nodded. “There are a few side effects, though. From the shocks.”
“Side effects?” George asked. “Like what?”
“She’s had some memory loss. She’s forgotten some words, too. She struggles to remember the right words sometimes when she talks.”
“Memory loss? Like what? Aside from the words?”
“She doesn’t remember much about Genny.”
“Really?” George asked. “That’s terrible. Like, she forgot about her entirely?”
“No,” Geoff said, “Not entirely. You’ll see when you talk to her. She knows that something is missing. Something big. But she just can’t grasp that it’s Gen. She doesn’t recognize her in pictures. She can’t remember much about her. It’s like the treatments zapped her right out of her mind.” Geoff took a deep, unsteady breath. He glanced at Laura quickly, then looked at his plate.
“She knows, dad.”
Geoff looked sharply at George. He narrowed his eyes. “You…?”
“Yeah. I told her. She’s family now, you know?”
Laura shifted in her chair. “Do you, uh, want me to, like, go for a minute or something?”
Geoff shook his head. “No. If you already know, you already know.”
-
A little after ten the next morning, Laura and George drove to the hospital to see Gabrielle. George was right. She was happy to see them.
When she saw George, Gabby’s face lit up with a smile. “George!” She hugged him tightly, then hugged Laura. “How are you, sweetie?”
Laura nodded. “Good, Mrs. Summers. Really great. I graduated last week.”
“That’s wonderful. And you still have one more semester to go, right, George?”
“Yeah, mom. I’ll graduate in May.”
“I’m so proud of you both,” Gabby said. “I’m so glad you’re here. I have my next treatment in a couple of hours. Two more left. It’s the…” She struggled to find the word she was looking for. “The…” She started to get frustrated, then took a deep breath. “Only one more after this one. I hope you’ll be with your father when we check out of here and go home.”
“Sure!” Laura said. “Of course we’ll be here to take you home.”
“Good.”
“So,” George began, “What’s it… you know… what’s it like?”
“Oh, I really don’t know,” Gabby said. “They knock me out before they do them. They start my IV in here, then I wake up back in here after they’ve done it. It’s like having an operation. I don’t remember any of it.”
“Well, at least that’s not terrible, I guess,” George said.
“The anesthesia makes me a little sick.” Gabby made a face. “I don’t like throwing up. But only two more.”
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay, honey. Don’t worry. I’m all right. I feel like something’s missing. Like I’m looking for something. Someone, maybe. I really don’t know. You know when you’re about ready to leave and you can’t find your keys? You can’t remember where you put them for the life of you?”
George and Laura both nodded.
“It’s like that, except I have no idea what I can’t remember. It’s frustrating and kind of scary. But Doctor Perry says that we’ll do some cognitive therapy after a couple of weeks and we’ll work on memory recovery. Until then, I have to learn how to deal with it. I feel some anxiety, that’s for sure.”
Gabby wasn’t allowed to eat lunch, so she talked to her son and future daughter-in-law until about two o’clock. Then the anesthesiologist came in to put in the IV. Gabby gave both George and Laura a hug and a kiss and said she hoped they’d come back tomorrow. They assured her that they would, and they left.
They put Gabby under and administered another treatment. In the darkness of her mind, each of the bright flashes showed her a pretty young lady with striking orange butterfly wings. Gabby had no idea who she was.
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Gen wasn’t sure what to expect when she heard the word “Pillars.” She thought the pillars might be tall, narrow, stone columns, protruding from the waters of the Lagoon. She was amazed to see millions of perfectly hexagonal, transparent columns. She flew up to one and put her hand on it. It was cool to the touch and very smooth. Her fingers didn’t pick up any imperfections, only flawless smoothness.
“It’s like a freshly Windexed window,” Gen said.
“What’s Windexed?” Shae asked.
“Never mind.”
Shae rubbed her fingers up and down one of the pillars. “It’s like super smooth, clean glass!”
“Yeah,” Gen said, “that’s what I said.”
“No,” Shae argued, still rubbing her fingers on the pillar, “You said that it–”
She stopped talking and looked up to see a thick arc of electricity crackled between two of the tremendous glass pillars, high above their heads. Then smaller arcs spread out, bridging the set of pillars one step farther away, and so on, thinning until there was nothing left after a dozen or so hops.
“Wow,” Gen gasped. “That was amazing.”
“I don’t think we should–” Shae began.
Gen traced her fingers up and down one of the pillars and kept rubbing it once the lightning shot out from it. It continued sending the thick, initial blasts to the surrounding pillars and spread out even farther this time. She shook her head in wonder and stopped rubbing the pillar. She gazed upwards but the pillar extended farther than she could see.
“We should go see how tall these things are.”
Herron shook his head. “Absolutely not.”
“Look,” Gen said, “We’re probably the first fairies to ever be here. I’m definitely the first human to ever be here! We should look around a little!”
“We’ll get cooked by that lightning,” Herron said. “I don’t want to get shocked to death.”
“Okay,” Gen shrugged, “then nobody rub them on our way up!”
“No.”
Gen looked at Hope for support.
Hope shrugged and shook her head. “Don’t look at me.”
Gen growled in frustration and flew on. Shae, Herron, Hope, and Slynn followed.
Slynn flew next to Gen and whispered, “I kind of want to see what’s up there at the top, too.”
Gen raised an eyebrow at him. “I never know anymore whether you’re my mom or Slynn.”
“Oh, honey…”
“Ok, now you’re mom. What do I call you? I mean, you’re both in there, right? I have the same thing going on. Ivy’s in here with me, but we’re more… I don’t know… together, I guess, than you are. You and Slynn seem to be kind of co-habitating like The Odd Couple. With Ivy, it’s more like we’re the same person. Anyway,” Gen shrugged, “I just kind of know what you’re going through, and if you need to talk about it or work through it or anything, I’m here.”
Slynn laughed. �
�You’re here for me to talk to, huh? That’s funny. But thank you for having advice for me. That’s sweet.”
“Yeah, well,” Gen said, “How often do you get to help your mom through a difficult period in her growth?”
They both laughed.
“Call me mom,” Slynn said, “Even when you’re not sure who’s up front.”
“Okay, mom. You know what?”
“What?”
Gen looked slightly embarrassed. “I’m really glad you’re here.”
“I am, too, Genny. I never thought I’d get the chance to see you again.” Slynn squeezed Gen’s hand and they flew through the rows of pillars together.
“Uh,” Shae called from behind, “Gen?”
Gen looked over her shoulder at Shae. “Yeah?”
“I’m afraid it’s possible that I might have some bad news.”
“What?”
“Slynn said there were dragons here, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I think they’re coming to eat us now.”
Gen, Hope, and Herron all drew their swords.
Hope muttered under her breath. Gen could only make out, “…if I still had my bow…”
They gathered together and hovered between the pillars. The algae-covered water under them was completely still.
Gen looked around suddenly – left, then right, then down at her arms. Every hair on her arms was standing up straight.
“Mom? Remember that electricity thing at the museum? Where you put your hands on it and all of your hair stands up from the static?”
Slynn nodded gravely, clearly already making this connection. He drew his sword.
Hope glimpsed movement to her left and she spun to look. There was nothing there. Her short, white hair was sticking up from the static. She whirled around the other way and realized what she saw: reflections and distortions from the transparent glass pillars. Something was moving. She glimpsed it again out of the corner of her eye, but she couldn’t see where it was actually coming from.
“Come on,” Gen said. “We can’t just sit here and wait. Let’s keep going.”
They flew onward, slowly making their way through the forest of glass columns. They hadn’t gotten very far when Gen stopped again. She looked down at the water. There were ripples on the surface, then the thick green carpet of algae split as the scaled, spiny back of a serpentine creature broke the surface. The creature was huge, with a long, scaly body. Its flat-tipped tail had barbs above and below the fin. The creature rose above the water and then disappeared under it. The algae merged as the water calmed, making the bright green surface of the water appear unbroken once again.
“Uh…” Shae looked quickly form left to right, then back down at the water, then back to Gen. “This is not good.”
“If they’re in the water, I think up might really be a good option,” Gen said. She started flying upwards.
“Gen! No! Wait!” Herron yelled after her.
Gen paused and looked down at Herron, who was still hovering with the rest of the group. She caught movement and turned to face a gigantic yellow eye. She flinched and dodged backwards, bumping into a glass pillar. She realized the eye itself wasn’t directly in front of her. She was seeing the eye distorted through the glass. As she pushed off from the pillar behind her, she heard the crackle of lightning overhead, charged from her friction against the pillar. A deafening, hissing roar came from all around her, then a blast of flame shot toward her. Gen twirled and ducked underneath it, having no choice but to slide down against another one of the pillars. Another series of lightning bolts arced out from the pillar and there was another loud roar.
The water broke beneath them again, and a huge, snaky dragon launched itself out of the water at Hope. Hope whirled to the side and grabbed onto the dragon. She grabbed the edge of a scale and yanked it away from the dragon’s body and plunged her sword into the opening. The creature roared and slammed that side of its body into one of the pillars. Hope let go and fell a little ways before catching herself and flying around to its other side.
The dragon was a dull, golden color, reminding Gen of the color of an old, neglected wedding ring. She couldn’t figure out how it was flying. It didn’t have any wings. It writhed through the air toward Shae and bared its long fangs before it snapped at her. Shae dodged out of the way, but the humungous dragon could move as fast as she could. It chased her and continued to snap after her, missing narrowly and getting closer to her each time.
Another golden dragon swirled from above around the pillars and coiled its way down to Gen. Gen zipped off to the side and flew underneath it. The dragon saw where Gen was headed and it smashed its body into the pillar, pinning her tightly against the glass. The dragon kept pressure hard against her and it withdrew, pulling itself back upward. Gen’s body was buzzing from the static electricity and the lightning was streaming out of the pillar as the dragon continued to pull Gen up against it.
Hope made a signal to Shae and Shae led the dragon chasing her in Hope’s direction. Shae was flying at top speed and she zipped past Hope. Hope flew out from the side of a pillar and landed hard on the dragon’s back. Again, she worked a scale free to make a space and stabbed her sword into it. The dragon shrieked and rolled over so that its back was facing the water instead of the sky. Hope held tight and, clinging upside-down, she continued stabbing under the dragon’s scale. After a moment, the scale ripped free from the dragon’s body and Hope plunged toward the surface of the water. She caught herself and flew back up toward the dragon.
Herron landed on the dragon’s side that was now facing upward and repeated Hope’s attack, lifting a scale and slicing at the soft, golden flesh underneath. Again, the dragon rolled to put that side underneath it. As it did, Hope leaped on its other side and ripped another scale free. Hope and Herron stabbed the creature, only stabbing enough for the scale to come loose when they were on the top-side of the dragon’s long and sinewy back. The dragon corkscrewed through the air, spinning around. Hope lost her grip and flew off of it. Herron kept his hold on its scales and the dragon slammed into a pillar, smashing Herron into the glass. The scale Herron was holding onto popped free and the dragon dragged its rough, long body hard against Herron until it had gotten all the way past him, then it arched its tail and smacked Herron hard. Half of Herron’s body was scraped bloody from the dragon’s scales and the pillar was so charged with electricity that it hummed under Herron’s body before the lightning exploded from its surface above him.
Herron was dazed and couldn’t keep himself upright, and he fell. He crashed through the surface of the water and almost immediately, the ripples stopped and the blanket of algae merged over him again, leaving no sign that he’d fallen in. Slynn dived down after him and splashed under the water.
“No! Mom!” Gen yelled from above. She started flying down near the surface of the water, but the second dragon appeared beneath her and coiled itself around the pillar closest to Gen. Gen couldn’t move out of the way in time and she crashed hard into its body. She saw the other dragon chasing Shae off to her right, so she rolled left off of this dragon’s back to fall the rest of the way down. The dragon uncoiled its body and chased after her.
Slynn burst through the surface of the water again and yanked Herron’s face above the water. The algae crept back around them. Slynn tried to get out of the water but every time he could get his wings clear of the algae, it covered Herron’s face and dragged him back beneath the water.
“Wait there!” Hope yelled. “I’ll come down for you! Shae, let it chase after you again, okay?”
Shae zipped in front of the dragon’s face to attract its notice, then flew through the pillars, slaloming left and right through them.
Hope flew to the water and grabbed Herron’s hands. She pulled him out of the water, and Slynn got his wings out so he could take off again. He shook the water off of him and scraped as much of the algae off of his body as he could as quickly as he could, then he flew under Herron an
d took him into his arms and flew upward. Hope glanced after them to make sure Slynn could keep going, then chased after Shae.
The dragon chasing Gen was trying to bite at her but she kept dodging out of the way. The dragon roared again and shot ahead of her, then it coiled its body like a rattlesnake, and, with a speed and strength Gen couldn’t believe, it unfurled its body and lashed out with its tail at Gen. She stopped her wings in an instant and fell underneath the strike. The dragon’s finned, spiked tail smashed through the glass, breaking the pillar. Thousands of arcs of lightning fanned out from the break and the top of the pillar toppled down. It crashed into other pillars, breaking into more pieces, and cracking several of them.
“Get above it!” Gen shouted, and she flew upward.
Hope and Shae flew up, too. The dragon that was chasing them followed until Hope swerved away from a chunk of falling glass. It smashed into the dragon’s face. The dragon shrieked and broke off its pursuit. It returned to the water and dived under.
They flew up and up, chased by the other dragon. Finally, they burst above the tops of the pillars. The pillars were all the same height, slightly domed on top. Looking down on the hexagonal pillars from above was like looking at a beehive, except several cells were missing as those pillars shattered and fell to the surface below. The dragon flew above the tops of the pillars after them, then abruptly dived back down for the surface. It coiled itself around a pillar, then slithered in a large figure-eight pattern to rub across five or six different pillars at once. There was a tremendous burst of lightning, and it caught Herron and Slynn. Slynn cried out in pain and fell onto the smooth top of one of pillars that the dragon was sliding against. The top of the pillar was crackling with electricity. A web of blue lightning bolts crackled over Slynn. He screamed in pain.
Gen and Hope flew down and met just behind the dragon’s head. They grabbed onto its horns and swung at the dragon’s eyes. Hope’s blade pierced the white of the dragon’s eye and it roared in pain. The dragon writhed from side to side. It crashed hard into another pillar, smashing through the glass. The pillar crashed into the pillar next to it, and like dominoes, the next dozen pillars all crashed down together.
Sovereign (Realmwalker Book 3) Page 7