by James Hunt
It was cold, refreshing, the water breathing life into the dried cracks of her skin, replenishing what the desert had taken. Amy plunged headfirst into the water. She gulped thirstily until she was about to burst and then stood, the water already up to her chest, soaking her to the bone.
Gasping for air, Amy looked around and found that the desert sand had been replaced with trees and greenery, life sprouting up from the desolate earth.
With the water levels rising, Amy swam toward the edge of the lake, and eventually the water tapered off. She was able to crawl out of the water. Her body cooled down and the pain disappeared.
The water in the lake sparkled beneath the sunlight, and everything dead and broken in that place transformed into life and beauty. Even the heat had subsided.
Amy skirted around the lake’s shoreline, searching for anything that she could use to transport herself across the water. After going all the way around, she found nothing. “Shit.” Her arms slackened, and she flung her head back in exhaustion.
The realm had provided everything she needed so far, so she had to believe that there would be something here for her to use. She just needed to find it.
“Think, Amy.” She paced the shoreline, splashing into the water to keep herself cool, and caught her reflection in the still water. She tilted her head as she stared at herself, a woman that she no longer recognized.
The water shimmered with her reflection, shifting the features of her face, distorting her image. Seeing her image distorted in the water reminded her of how she saw herself for the past three months. Constantly changing, never the same person twice.
Amy turned away from the lake and faced the trees that circled the shoreline. They were palm trees… with coconuts. Amy hurried toward the closest tree and tried to shimmy her way to the top, but her target was too far away and the trunk of the palm tree provided no branches for her to climb.
“Shit.” Panting hard from her failed attempts to reach the top, she eyed the rest of the lake, searching for anything she could use to knock them down, but saw nothing on her initial glance. She paced around the lake, pausing when her gaze fell upon patches of green grass that had sprung up near the lake, covering the sand.
She paused to stare down at it and then dropped to a knee before pressing her hand against the green patch of life. It was soft beneath her palm, and cool despite its exposure to the sun.
Everything here was so real. The pain. The relief. Fear. Hope. In some ways, her experiences here were even more intense than the real world.
Amy removed her hand and glanced farther down the shoreline. She frowned. A pile of starch white popped against the patch of grass that surrounded a tree. She stood, eyes locked on the new image, and moved forward hesitantly.
Keeping to the soft sand that was still wet with water, cooling her feet, Amy slowed the closer she moved toward what she’d seen.
A skeleton was propped up against the tree. All bones, any flesh or muscle already decayed and rotted off the frame.
The skeleton’s head was tilted to the left. Its jaw hung open, with its face turned back toward the desert. It was beneath the shade of the tree, as though it had walked there and placed itself underneath.
Amy looked at the coconuts hanging from the tree above the skeleton’s head. Before she thought better of it, she yanked one of the arms off the skeleton’s body and adjusted her grip around what she figured to be a piece of the forearm.
She glanced back down at the skeleton’s body. “Sorry.” She cocked her arm back, aiming for the coconuts at the top of the tree, and then threw as hard as she could.
The bone flew past the hard brown ball without even brushing against the side. She yanked another bone from the skeleton, picking it apart as she missed repeatedly. She tore apart the skeleton’s ribs, flinging them above her head like a boomerang, this time at least knocking the coconuts a few times, but still unable to bring it down from the branch.
“Dammit.” Amy plucked one of the limbs she’d thrown from the sand outside of the oasis that had sprung up around her. Once she crossed that threshold, she was thrust back into the extreme heat and death that she had trudged through for so long.
The difference between the two environments was unreal. She stepped back into the safety of the oasis, immediately cooled by the waters nearby. She glanced back to the skeleton, wondering who they were, or if it was just meant to be another disturbing element in an environment that had spent so much effort to torture her.
It was probably the latter.
Amy lifted her gaze toward the coconuts. She focused on the closest one, which dangled far out on a branch. She cocked her arm back, then paused. She was tired of being here. She wanted to get home. And she knew that the longer it took for her to get that coconut down from the tree, the longer her girls were meant to suffer.
With her joints and arms aching from staying in the same position, Amy flung the bone, grunting as she released it from her grip, and watched it connect firmly with the coconut, dropping it to the sand with a thud. She reached for it quickly and then with the same bone, she cracked a hole in the thick husk. She dumped out the coconut water and then plunged the dismembered fruit into the lake, filling it to the brim.
With her objective complete, all Amy needed to do now was figure a way out of this place. She glanced up to the sky, coconut tucked beneath her arm. “I’m done!” Her voice cracked, but nothing else happened. The skies didn’t part and there was no answer.
Amy circled the lake, searching for a path that led to anywhere other than the endless desert ahead of her, but found nothing.
Her frustration grew the longer she went without an exit. She had come so far, and she was so close to finishing it, that it grew harder and harder to concentrate on the simple task of leaving.
Amy shut her eyes and paced in a tight circle, muttering to herself. “How do I get back home?”
The medicine man’s words felt like a lifetime ago, and the sun had baked and wreaked havoc on her memories, as she was unable to recall the few details of what he had told her and how to escape. She shook her head, trying to force something into fruition, but had no success.
Amy kicked the sand, tweaking her knee in the process, the landscape once again reminding her of who was in control. She stared down at the coconut filled with lake water.
Bubbles pulled Amy’s attention away from the coconut and toward the center of the lake. She stepped toward it, the bubbles growing stronger at the lake’s center, and as she stared at it, she noticed the water rushing past her ankles and being sucked into the center of the lake. If there was ever going to be a sign, then that was it.
Amy waded out into the water, moving quickly as the water continued to disappear. The ground rumbled and she turned behind her to find the oasis being swallowed up by the sand, the palm trees sinking into the earth.
She spun back around, breaking out into a sprint and moving as quickly as she could toward the lake’s center. The water was being sucked up so fast that she never had a chance to swim on her journey, but her arms were flailing so wildly that the water she’d collected was spilling out of her makeshift holder.
Amy plunged the coconut into the lake, replenishing it before the water disappeared. The water drained faster and faster, and Amy couldn’t keep up with the rate in which it was circling the drain.
With the water at her knees now, Amy lifted her legs as high and as fast as she could move, aiming straight for the center of the vanishing lake. She checked the coconut, finding that it was still mostly full, and with less than twenty yards to go before she reached the center, Amy saw the hole in the ground that was draining the spirit lake.
She wasn’t completely sure if this was the way out, but it was the only opening that she’d seen since she arrived here, and if there was another way out, she didn’t know how to find it. Every instinct in her body told her that this was her shot, her one chance to make it out.
The water was at her ankles with less than ten yards to go, and
Amy could clearly see the hole. It was big, but getting smaller as the water disappeared. She checked the coconut one last time, then plunged it into the water just to make sure that it was still full.
Amy sprinted as the last bits of water disappeared down into hole in the sand, and she dove for the hole, which shrank quickly, growing smaller after the water had gone. She shut her eyes as her head dove into the hole, and her stomach lurched as if she was falling.
She kept her eyes squinted shut, and it wasn’t until her stomach stopped flipping that she opened her eyes.
Instead of darkness or the blinding blue sky that had plagued her in the desert, she now saw the reflection of orange light flickering on top of a canvas. Her body was covered in sweat, and she panted heavily, but she couldn’t move.
“What’s wrong with me?” Amy asked, slurring her words.
Running Water appeared in her field of vision and placed his finger to his lips. “You must be quiet. Calm yourself. The longer you fight against your soul readjusting to your body, the longer it will take.” He placed his palm over her eyes, casting her back into darkness. “Just breathe. Relax, and breathe.” He inhaled deeply, and Amy found herself mimicking the same motion.
Deep inhales were followed by slow exhales, and Amy slowly regained feeling and control in her extremities. She wiggled her fingers, and then her toes, and finally Running Water removed his hands and she lifted her head, finding the coconut that she had brought back with her from the spirit realm.
“You did well,” Running Water said.
Amy shifted herself to an upright and sitting position, her hand still curled around the coconut’s base. She stared at it and then looked around the tent. It was exactly how she left it. “How long was I gone?”
“Time passes differently in the spirit realm,” Running Water answered. “What may have felt like days for you was only moments for me.” He gestured to the fire. “The first log hasn’t even burned out yet.”
Amy turned to find the fire still raging as it had been when she first went under, then quickly stood, wobbling a bit on two legs as Running Water held out his hands to try and stop her.
“You need to rest,” Running Water said, then reached for a concoction in a bowl. “Drink this.”
“I don’t have time, I have to—” Amy stumbled, nearly spilling the water she had brought back with her. She managed to catch herself before she tumbled to the ground.
Still on the ground, Running Water reached for Amy’s arm and snatched her wrist. “It will take only a moment. Drink.”
Eventually the dizzy spell forced Amy back to the ground, and she obliged Running Water by drinking from the bowl. She was thirstier than she expected and quickly downed the entire bowl in one sitting. She let the liquid work its way through her veins, and after a few minutes, she felt better.
The pain in her body had disappeared, and the bad, foggy memories of her time in that other realm melted off her like ice in the desert. She looked to Running Water, the old man smiling, accentuating the wrinkles along his face and neck.
“Now go. Save your daughter.”
57
Amy leaned forward in the passenger seat of Kara and Ben’s truck. She bounced her leg nervously and made continued glances at the speedometer, wishing they could go faster.
When the hospital finally came into view, Amy unbuckled her seatbelt. “Drop me off at the ER’s entrance.”
Ben pulled the truck through the half-loop drop-off, and Amy had the door open before the truck was fully stopped. She moved quickly through the automatic doors, bypassing the nurse at the ER desk and heading straight for the elevators.
The nurse stood quickly, leaning over the edge of the counter, concerned over Amy’s aggressive movements toward the elevators. “Ma’am? Ma’am!”
Amy checked the floor chart near the elevator and saw that critical condition patients were on the third floor. She stepped inside the elevator and smacked the button for the third floor. The elevator doors started to close as the nurse came around the station counter, but she didn’t make it in time.
The floor numbers illuminated as the elevator ascended, and Amy watched them anxiously, firmly holding the bottle of water that now held the water from the lake.
The third-floor button lit up. The doors opened, and Amy squeezed through the opening.
The group of nurses at the station in the center of the hallway all looked at her when she slammed to a stop against their desk. “Liz Holloway. Where’s her room?”
It took a moment before any of them spoke, but eventually one of them sputtered, “Room three-twelve,” and then gestured down the hallway.
Before Amy left, one of the nurses pointed toward her chest. “Did you sign in? I don’t see your visitor’s badge— ma’am?”
Amy didn’t turn around, her attention focused on counting the room numbers that she passed until she spotted three-twelve and rushed inside, and then abruptly stopped.
Liz lay motionless, her body hooked up to an array of machines that monitored her vitals. Amy approached the bedside quietly, afraid that her presence would upset her daughter even in her vegetative state.
Footsteps down the hall brought Amy back into the moment, and she quickly unscrewed the cap of the water bottle as a nurse burst into the room.
“Ma’am, stop!” Hands gripped Amy’s shoulders as she tried to funnel the water into her daughter’s mouth.
“Let go!” Amy turned her torso left and right, swinging her elbows and knocking the nurses off balance. She separated herself from their hold for only a moment, but that was all she needed to get the tip of the bottle into her daughter’s mouth.
“Orderlies!” The nurse yelled, reaching for the bottle and yanking it backward, spilling more along Liz’s chest than what got into her mouth, wasting the precious liquid.
More nurses rushed into the room, followed by the orderlies, hands grabbing Amy, pulling her back, stopping her mission to save her daughter.
“No!” Amy screamed, fighting against the bodies swarming her. “I need to save her! You need to let me save her!” She thrashed, her motions violent like a wounded animal. Her eyes never left their concentrated gaze on Liz.
“Get security, now!” one of the nurses shouted.
Amy sensed her window closing and offered one final push, breaking free of the cluster of hospital staff that had tried to restrain her.
Fingers clawed at Amy’s back as she reached Liz’s bedside again. She placed the bottle’s open lid against Liz’s lips and tilted it, funneling the life-saving water down her daughter’s throat. Some of it spilled over the sides of her mouth, but a good amount made it down her throat.
The bottle emptied just as the security team rushed in, relieving the nurses of their struggle in trying to remove Amy from the room.
With the water gone, the fight went out of Amy and she allowed herself to be removed. Her body hung limp in the arms of the security team, but she kept her attention focused on Liz.
“My baby,” Amy whispered.
And just when the security detail was about to pull her from the room, Liz gasped, jolting upright, pulling everyone’s focus toward her.
With the security detail distracted, Amy broke free and pushed her way through the bodies to her daughter.
Over the past three months, Amy had experienced an array of emotions from her daughter. Hate, anger, disgust, pity, but she had never looked at Amy with the cold-blooded terror that she did in that moment. Amy stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Liz’s expression.
“No,” Liz said, her voice trembling as she shook her head.
Amy stepped closer. “Lizzy, what—”
“Get away from me!” Liz jerked backward and then hopped off the bed, keeping the cot between herself and her mother.
Amy passively held up her hands. “Sweetheart, it’s okay.”
But Liz wasn’t listening. She backed up against the wall, pointing to her mother, that expression of terror still fresh and wild upon
her face. “She tried to kill me!”
Amy remained still while a few of the other nurses stepped around the side of the cot, moving slowly and trying to make sure that they didn’t spook Liz.
“Sweetheart, everything is all right,” the nurse said.
“Get her out!” Liz said, still shouting at Amy while the nurse grabbed hold of her shoulder. “I want her out of here, now!”
“Lizzy, I—”
The security detail that had stormed in and tried to peel Amy out of the room once again placed their hands on her shoulders, but this time she didn’t protest when they slowly backed her out of the room. But her eyes never left her daughter’s until she was pulled into the hallway.
Amy allowed the guards to take her down the hallway and onto the first floor, where she was placed in a chair and told to wait. A few minutes later, an officer joined the security team, and Amy stared at the white-tiled flooring, which reflected the halogen lights from above.
The cop questioned her, asking for identification and her relationship to the girl, but she didn’t answer. Amy just stared at the same spot on the white tile, Liz’s expression seared into her mind. It was like Amy had tortured her daughter, and that she was an evil entity.
But she had to bury that feeling, because right now she still had one more daughter to save.
58
It wasn’t until Terry arrived at the hospital that the chaos died down. Amy hadn’t seen either Kara or Ben, both of whom had decided to stay away from any potential areas of authority.
Amy sat in the chair in the hallway, watching Terry speak to the police, and then walk over, head down, avoiding any eye contact with Amy even after he sat down next to her. When Terry said nothing, Amy spoke up. “What’d he say?”
Terry inhaled and exhaled before he answered. “I convinced him that you were under a lot of stress and our family is going through a difficult time, and he’s going to report back to his department and see what his superiors want to do.”
Amy nodded and then noticed that Terry’s eyes were red and glassy, like he’d been crying. “Are you all right?”