R.E.birth
Page 43
I begin dragging my feet going up the stairs. The comfortable bed calls out to me and I collapse on it, quickly called off to my own form of nothingness. Sleep.
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Being back at home, the days pass slower and I find myself bored with no adventuring. Planting seeds has kept me busy long enough, but revitalizing the garden was halted by rainfall. Looking out the window from the kitchen I see the horses huddled together under the destroyed apple tree and it seems terrible to leave them like that.
If we are going to keep them I will have to build a stable.
Ami appears through the swinging door and presents me with a new shirt to make up for the one stolen from me. On it is her trademark symbol for men: the orange chrysanthemum. Smiling, she quickly shoves it at me and turns around and I take that as an indicator that she wants me to don it now. Removing my current one I quickly pull the new one over my head and as I tug on the end to straighten it she twists back around.
“Hey! What if I was still changing?” I proclaim in jest.
“It’s not like I haven’t seen it before.” She pokes me in the stomach.
“True enough. Thank you. I promise to try not to have this one stolen from me.”
“You better fight them for it and win,” she laughs, then looks around me at the table and my sketches.
After a brief pause in our conversation I redirect, “I was just thinking. What are we going to do with the horses?”
“Well, horses would prove valuable,” she shrugs.
“It could have saved me some time finding your mother, and we could have gotten away from Eve before we were taken hostage,” I chuckle.
“No, my men still would have captured you,” Eve’s voice rings out from the living room.
I shake my head and grin. Ami nods, agreeing with me.
“I’d like to make them a stable. I could break the cart down and use the lumber from it to at least make a frame. Would you put some paper and a writing utensil in my room later?” I ask.
“Sure. I bet we could put it right up against the side of the house but we should ask Mother.”
“Okay,” I wave my arm past Ami toward the door to indicate for her to lead the way.
Instead of simply turning around and leading, she grabs me by the hand and pulls me through the kitchen door. Entering the room gains the attention of Eve who is lying on the couch. She looks over and glares at us, but Ami either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care. Walking into the dark hallway, I hear Eve sit up.
“Hey, where are you going?” Eve asks.
“Maybe to my room. Not that it’s any of your business!” Ami retorts and pulls me down the hall faster.
Eve gets up and follows us. Ami glances behind, grinning, and I realize that she’s purposely piqued Eve’s interest. Moving down the long hallway, Ami quickly pushes into her room, pulling me with her, shutting the door and locking it. Eve bangs on it.
“Hey, come out here!” Eve hollers.
“No, go away. I’m going to spend some time alone with Rain!” Ami taunts her.
“What makes you so special?!” Eve yells, clearly upset, while she bangs on the door and jiggles the handle.
“Rain, sit down on the bed,” Ami says loudly to provoke further response from Eve. “How would you like a shoulder rub?”
“Don’t touch him! Come out here and fight me for him like a real woman!” Eve shouts and bangs on the door.
Ami giggles and pulls me to the bathroom. She releases my hand to sneak over to the door. Slamming it shut she locks that one as well and proceeds to antagonize Eve more by turning the shower on.
“How about a shower together, Rain? I could wash your back for you!”
This actually makes me blush, despite knowing that she’s kidding around. Eve becomes infuriated and begins beating heavily on the bathroom door.
How much can that door withstand before she breaks it down?
“Oh no you don’t!” Eve yells. “If anyone’s going to shower with Rain, it’ll be me!”
Blushing even more, I feel the joke has reached its limits. I turn the shower off and proceed to unlock the bathroom door, having to jump backward to avoid it, as Eve bursts in, ready to fight Ami.
Grabbing Eve by the shoulders I put my weight into her and hold her back from hitting Ami. Ami laughs and walks out of the bathroom while I restrain Eve. She struggles against me, attempting to grab Ami’s hair, but misses when I put my shoulder into her sternum.
“Calm down Eve, she was kidding.”
“It doesn’t matter.” She stops struggling. “She deserves a beating.”
“We’re not your captives, Eve. You don’t get to beat us,” Ami bats back while heading down the hallway again, presumably toward Agatha’s room.
Feeling Eve no longer struggling, I pull myself away from her and exit the bathroom. Eve grabs at my hand, but I avoid her grasp by pulling it in front of me. While it may be cold, I don’t want Eve getting the wrong idea by me allowing her to hold my hand.
If I were to allow her to do that I would open a door that couldn’t be closed.
While I follow in Ami’s footsteps she has already reached her mother’s door and is knocking. A faint voice can be heard from inside and Ami opens the door, turns to me and holds her index finger up, closing the door behind her. Leaning against the wall, I can hear their voices behind the thick wood door but it’s muffled, so I have to wait until Ami returns to find out what Agatha says. It doesn’t take long and Ami returns to me, shutting Agatha’s door behind her.
“She says against the house is fine, but not to start until tomorrow as she is still recovering.”
“Sounds good to me.”
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The next day comes and goes, as well as a few more with me keeping busy building the framework of the stable out of wood that I’ve torn from the cart.
Only having a rough idea sketched out of what the stable should look like and how big it should be, I have to improvise as I move along, however it doesn’t look completely terrible. Using the thicker pieces as the outer bracing and the thinner planks as supports, I find that it is coming together fairly well.
The only problem will be the roof. When I am through tearing the cart up, there won’t be enough. We’ll have to pick some more wood up after we shift through time again.
Wiping the sweat from my brow I lean against my handiwork and look out into the woods, half wondering if the Princess will return. Her claim of being my ancestor is a little mind boggling due to the whole time travel factor, but I am able to comprehend it slightly. Wondering about paradoxes and if meeting her has created one in some way, I suppose I won’t know unless my memory returns.
Eve wanders through my vision out in the woods. She has been pacing out there for hours, determined to prove us wrong on being stuck with the house. Her thickheaded ways are not deterred by our attempts to convince her that she is stuck with us despite neither of us really wanting to be with each other. Noticing me, she waves fervently and I nod in her direction.
“I’m not sure what would be funnier,” I yell out to her.
“What do you mean?” She hollers back.
“The look that would be on your face if we actually disappeared and left you sitting there in the woods all alone, or the look that will be on your face as you hit the ground when the vortex pulls you in.”
“Yuk it up Rain. I will be grinning from ear-to-ear when I no longer have to tolerate Ami. You should come sit out here with me and wave to them too!”
“I know better than that,” I laugh at her.
“Please come out here Rain. I will miss you if you disappear!” She pleads playfully.
Shaking my head and heading for the well, I draw the bucket up and take a large drink out of it and then splash some on my face. As I dump the rest back into the well, I feel that familiar rumble but something new happens. The house shudders and I can hear a faint moan, though I cann
ot tell if the moan was from someone or if it was the house.
Quickly looking over, I see Eve and a swirl of air circles the house quickly. Her face turns sour and she screams.
As the world begins to change around us the horses neigh in distress from the tree and I watch as Eve is picked up and launched, or pulled rather, into the side of the house. Into my stable. I hear the crunch and snap of wood as she hits it. As I rush to check on Eve, a bright white light blinds me and I have to shield my eyes. Running around the house, I slam my shoulder into the corner as it becomes unbearable to open my eyes against the brightness and I can’t see where I am going. Moving by running my hand against the siding of the house I try to make my way to Eve. The horses neigh wildly and I can hear them thrashing about.
“Rain!” Ami calls out from the back yard.
“Ami, I’m on the side of the house! Eve, are you okay?”
Silence falls as the wind dies down, no response from Eve. But it is not a normal silence. An eerie quiet falls around us and I open my eyes to a squint to see what is happening.
“Rain.” Ami’s voice is closer. “Can you see anything? I can’t open my eyes without being blinded.”
“Ami, Rain?” Agatha calls out.
“We’re on the side of the house, Agatha. Stay there, we’ll come to you,” I answer to let her know we’re okay. “Ami, I am being blinded by whatever is going on as well. Eve, can you hear me?”
A grunt comes from a few feet in front of me and straining to see through the blinding light, I move slowly so as not to trip over anything. Finally finding the stable, I face the house and open my eyes a little more. Eve is collapsed in a heap of wood and likely injured, but I can’t see any apparent blood. Ami grabs my shoulder.
“Eve, grunt again if you can hear me.”
She grunts. I bend down and grab Eve’s hand and tug a little to show her that she can use me to pull herself up. As she does, she complains.
“My back! What did you guys do to me?! What is this light?”
“We don’t know,” Ami snaps back.
As Eve hobbles into me it appears that minus a back injury, she isn’t wounded too badly. My eyes adjust a bit more to the light flooding in and I cannot comprehend what I am seeing.
There is nothing beyond the green boundary of the vortex line. White is all that surrounds us. No land, no sky, no sun. White nothingness engulfs the house and we are the last bastion in nowhere. We are utterly alone in a quiet void…
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~~~~~~~~~To continue in R.E.solve!~~~~~~~~~
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Thomas W. Everson loves spending time with his wife whom he adores, Brandi, and their amazing son, Bubby. They indulge in the fantastic and stretch their imaginations with books, shows, movies, LEGOs, and video games. Thomas is inspired by much, and loves to test the boundaries of fiction in his books.
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