My mother went to the open door and peeked outside. I glanced down at my legs, annoyed that my skirt hindered me. I was used to my high heels so that didn’t bother me quite as much.
‘We need to get out of here,’ my mother said, gesturing for me to get up.
Clambering to my feet, I glanced around the shop. There were still a few items on the shelves but not much remained. The owner had left in a hurry. The cash register was open and empty. It didn’t look like they would be back anytime soon.
I skimmed my finger across the counter. Dust lined every single shelf, showing that the blast of the bombs made the remains of the bricks shatter, sending dust everywhere.
My mother clapped her hands at me. ‘Come on!’
Shaking myself, I touched my hair to make sure it was still in place. When I reached my mother, she grabbed my arm and pulled me outside.
We looked up the street towards the shelter. My mother’s hand covered her mouth as a gasp left her throat. I instantly bit my lip. The bomb had fallen onto the entrance of the underground. A long line of smoke reached up into the clouds.
‘See, sometimes it’s good to be late.’
I regretted my words as soon as I had uttered them. My mother’s frown made me bite my tongue. Maybe it wasn’t the right time to be flippant. Letting go of my arm, my mother left me standing there. She marched towards the impact area. I waited, unsure whether or not I could face any more destruction. I didn’t want to get used to seeing dead bodies. Maybe I didn’t have a choice.
My mother didn’t glance back once. She had obviously given up on me. It wasn’t anything new, she often left me behind. Sometimes I didn’t understand why but on this occasion I did. It wasn’t a good time to be joking about being late. Even though it had probably saved our lives.
‘Are you just going to stand there?’ a young man said as he moved towards the scene.
I debated whether to take my heels off and run to catch up to him. How dare he judge me on a day like today? Instead, I sighed and followed him slowly. There were many people already at the site of impact. I wouldn’t really make a difference.
The rubble of a bombsite told how destructive the bomb had been. The underground entrance was gone completely, flattened to the ground. My mother spoke to the young gentleman who had insulted me. Other men tried to move some of the bricks out of the way. The station was no longer in use, the tunnels blocked off. The small area below was used as an overflow shelter.
The people inside may have survived but they were now trapped. I swallowed hard as I imagined their faces. They were probably looking at each other, wondering whether or not they would get out alive. The bomb hadn’t killed them but maybe the aftermath would.
‘I hate to interfere,’ an old woman said to me. ‘I want to let you know that it’s okay to be scared.’
The woman had crept up behind me. I jumped when she put her hand on my shoulder. Was I really that obvious? Just because I didn’t want to start digging out the bricks for human bodies, didn’t mean that I didn’t want to help. It wasn’t because I was lazy. It also wasn’t because I thought I was too good. I just couldn’t handle another death. No more pain.
I bit my lip as my eyes started to sting. The woman was elderly, only a few years younger than my grandmother. The grandmother that had died in the first wave of bombs a few weeks ago. As a tear travelled down my face, she smiled and pulled me to her. Her small arms wrapped around my back. She was very short, coming up to my chin. It didn’t matter though. Her warmth enveloped me as a massive weight lifted off my shoulders.
‘My name is Mary and if you don’t mind, I would like to get to know you better. You see, I have a feeling that we’ve met before.’ The old lady gestured towards my mother.
A full rescue operation was now underway. Men worked together to shift bricks and mortar. They communicated so that each one of them knew what they were doing. They had to succeed. They needed to rescue those people.
I glanced down at the woman as she stepped away from me. ‘Do you mean that you’ve met me before? Or my mother?’
She chuckled, reaching up and tucking my perfectly set hair behind my ear. I swallowed hard, resisting the urge to untuck it. No one ever touched my hair any more. I had loved it when my mother used to brush it as a child.
‘Will you come over here and help?’
Turning from my new friend, my gaze met my mother’s. She glared at me, communicating her disgust with just a look. She had never approved of me. Not since I’d grown-up, anyway. In fact, it seemed that as soon as I had become engaged to John, she decided that I was no longer good enough. That’s how it felt, anyway.
I patted the elderly lady on the shoulder. ‘It was nice to meet you.’
Going over to my mother, I hissed at her. ‘What would you like me to do?’
As the words left my mouth, I heard the tone of them. Bitterness coated them so thoroughly, it shocked me. I clamped my teeth together and looked to the ground. My mother shook her head. I could see the gesture in her shadow on the ground.
‘When will you ever stop thinking about yourself? Isn’t it time you grew up?’
I kept my head down. She was right. All around us people rushed to save lives. And there I was begrudging my mother for ordering me around. I was being unreasonable.
‘I’m sorry, I-’
‘Don’t apologise, just get on with it.’
As she strode away, I glanced over my shoulder at the elderly lady. She had disappeared. Her energy had calmed me but I still didn’t know what to do.
‘Here, can you hold my daughter, please? That way I can help with the rescue.’ A young man handed me a baby. I dropped my bag on the floor as my arms were all of a sudden full. A bundle of blankets filled with a small baby rested against me. The man moved away to help.
The life that nestled in my arms was precious. I stood back as a man was pulled from the rubble. His head was badly injured but he was still alive. I breathed out the air held in my lungs as he was pulled to safety. The child I was holding made a mewling sound. I moved the blanket to take a peek at her little face. Her tiny little nose screwed up as the cool air hit it.
‘There’s someone else here,’ the daughter’s father shouted to his mates. ‘He didn’t make it.’
I couldn’t look up. The hope in my heart as the little baby moved made me keep my eyes down. The man that died had a family. Someone loved him and someone had lost him.
John popped into my head. Whenever there was a rough day, which was most days, I hoped and prayed that he would live through it. I hadn’t seen him in a long time but we were supposed to get married in two months’ time.
The elderly lady appeared next to me again. ‘I have something to tell you,’ she said, smiling down at the baby.
Her face was almost directly in line with the new-born. Her gaze was sweet and soft as she watched her. My own face was probably as smitten. There was something soothing about new life around so much death and destruction.
‘Do I know you?’ I asked her.
The sense of familiarity was too strong for me to ignore. Maybe I had known her as I was growing up. Although, I was sure I had never seen her before.
She shook her head slowly at first but nodded all of a sudden. The gesture was confusing and a little odd. ‘If I told you how you knew me, you would never ever believe me. Let me start by saying that you and John do not belong together. I don’t say that to be unkind,’ she said, looking up into my face. She must have read my expression. My heart started beating very fast. How dare she tell me that my fiancé and I were not meant to be together?
‘I don’t expect you to understand. We’ve been here many times before, you and I. In fact, I’m surprised I’m not her…’ She gestured towards my mother.
My mother bent over the injured man. Leaning down, she ripped the bottom of her skirt off and started to wind it around his bloody head.
‘She’s selfless. Gives you far too much. You’ve become spoilt, unable to
see past yourself. That wasn’t the aim of this lifetime.’
The child stretched her arms, her little tiny fingers poking out of her blanket. I wrapped her up again and took a step away from the lady. She was starting to make me sweat. Clearing my throat, I glanced around us. A small hole had started to appear where the shelter entrance had been. My stomach clenched when I heard a shout from deep inside. They were alive.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said, ‘maybe it’s the bombs today. It’s probably made us on edge.’
The lady laughed. I couldn’t help the frown that came to my face when she dismissed me with a wave of her hand. ‘I told you that you wouldn’t understand, didn’t I?’ She took a step towards me. I was torn. Her energy felt so warm, yet her words were…strange.
‘I know you think you love John. But you are due to meet a man right now that is nothing like you expected. You had a lovely relationship with John. This new man won’t be as easy to fall in love with. However, you don’t have a choice.’
A rush of heat washed over me. I stamped my foot on the ground and glared at the woman. The baby started to whimper in my arms. Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself. The woman was obviously a little crazy.
‘Now listen here, I don’t know you. I hope that you have family nearby because I don’t want to speak to you anymore. I don’t know how you know me or John…’
That was a point. How did she know John? I hadn’t told her anything about him. She had known his name by herself.
‘Don’t worry, dear, I don’t mean any harm. You’ve been dragging your heels. The time is coming for you to meet your soulmate, the man you will be spending the rest of your life with. Like I said, it’s not going to be easy. But you have to do it this time. We can’t waste any more years. Please, please allow this to happen,’ she said, shuffling her feet.
A yelp of pain coming from the rescue made me tear my gaze away from the woman. I gripped the baby to me as I spotted a hand protruding from the bricks not far from where the men worked. The fingers were long and delicate. The nails, although cut, were shiny and well looked after. Similar to my own.
‘Hey! Hey, there’s someone under there!’ I shouted.
I caught the eye of the handsome man that stood on top of the pile. He raised his eyebrows as his gaze traced my figure. Even in a time of desperation, a man would be a man. I pursed my lips as I pointed to the hand. His gaze followed. When his eyes landed on the trapped person, he hurried over the mess and started to move bricks away.
‘It’s a woman,’ he shouted, nodding at me once.
I held my breath in anticipation, completely forgetting about anything else. I crossed my fingers as hard as I could. I needed the person that was buried to be alive. She had to be alive. I couldn’t watch another body being pulled from the rubble.
The man got to his knees and reached slowly into the area. It was as if everything was in slow motion. He had obviously cleared enough to get to her. His hands disappeared and I couldn’t see anything. Was he testing her pulse?
‘She’s gone,’ the old lady whispered.
I glanced at her sideways. No matter how crazy she sounded, I couldn’t be angry with her. After all, she was going through as much hell as we were. She probably had grandsons overseas, battling for us to survive. Like John. My love who now flew in the sky trying to defend us, just so we could live.
Watching the man, I stifled a scream as he pulled the woman out. Her arms dangled away from her body. He shook his head at me and turned, climbing down the other side of the rubble so that I didn’t have to see her. She was dead.
I bit my lip as the tears dribbled down my cheeks. The baby started to cry, obviously feeling my distress. The old woman clasped my shoulder tightly. Her own tears ran freely, which made me question how sane she was. Surely, if she had completely lost the plot, she wouldn’t feel the emotion?
‘How did you know?’
I couldn’t look away from her. Her face was wrinkled. The corners of her lips naturally sunk down, giving the impression that she hadn’t smiled a lot in life. My chest squeezed as I imagined the pain she had been through. I didn’t know her but somehow I knew she had suffered.
‘There are things in the world that cannot be explained. For instance, you are much more than you think you are. A young girl working in a factory to build the guns and bombs that kill other people. It’s not your destiny. This life may be a short one, I know that. However, you have to meet him. Whatever happens, you have to meet him.’
She stroked my cheek, ever so gently. We were back to the mad ranting. Although her voice was softly spoken, her words were crazy. We had witnessed someone die, it was time to be kind. No matter what she said.
‘Who is this little angel?’ my mother said as she approached us.
She bent over and peered into my bundle of blankets. The child had quietened down as soon as the old lady had put her hand on my shoulder. I realised it as the baby started to move again. The woman had removed her hand, waiting patiently beside us.
‘I’m taking care of her for someone. See, I can be helpful.’ I couldn’t help it, she always believed that I only looked out for myself.
The old lady turned away from us without saying another word.
‘Wait! Where are you going?’ I called after her as she went to hurry away.
Her footsteps slowed but only briefly. She glanced over her shoulder, throwing a grin at me. ‘I have delivered my message. There is nothing more for me to do here. Just remember what I said, won’t you?’
My mother frowned as the woman disappeared. ‘Who was that?’
A bubble of laughter escaped from my chest and up my throat. The sound was foreign amongst the destruction. The clattering of bricks as they hit the floor. The yelling of men as they moved as much as they could, as quickly as they could. The shouts of the people inside the shelter. And there I was, laughing.
‘I will never understand you,’ my mother said.
The mirth hadn’t left. I clamped my mouth shut as the laughter tried to rise out of me. A gurgling sound came from the little girl in my arms. I turned away from the woman that judged me, glancing down at the bundle of joy instead. I couldn’t help it. Every emotion possible overcame me as I looked at houses that were destroyed. Bedrooms blown wide open. Kitchens disintegrated into the ground, taking their owners down with them.
‘Excuse me,’ a man’s voice said from behind.
I turned to face the father of the young girl. His eyes met mine for the first time. When he had handed her over, I hadn’t taken any notice of him. He was only young. Not much older than myself. It was admirable that he had his daughter with him, yet she should have been at home with her mother.
‘Thank you so much for holding on to Isabella,’ he said, lifting the blanket to check that she was okay. ‘I won’t be too much longer, are you all right with her?’
I couldn’t help my smile as he grinned. He was taller than me by quite a bit. His smile wasn’t really for me; it was for his daughter as he looked down at her. The glow of his cheeks made me feel fuzzy inside. I had never seen a man show that much affection towards their child before.
‘Yes, of course. Please, carry on.’
The hole by the entrance was getting wider. It wouldn’t be long until they could reach the people inside. The man went to walk away but I called him before he could leave. ‘Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude but do you want me to take her to her mother? Will that be of help?’
He paused, letting his head and fringe fall forward. He faced away from me but I could tell that I had hit a nerve. His shoulders sunk at the same time his head dropped. He slowly turned to me. ‘We lost her a month ago.’
I bit my lip as he gave me a small smile and turned towards the destruction again. I let him go as I resisted the urge to kiss the child on the forehead. She had no mother. My throat closed as her blue eyes flickered open. She gazed up at me before the corners of her lips lifted into the cutest grin I had ever seen. Moving the blanket, I reached he
r hand and let her little fingers wrap around my own.
Blinking furiously, I swallowed back the tears that threatened to fall down my cheeks. Lifting my head, I watched the muscles of the man who was now a widow. His back moved as he lifted bricks and threw them to the ground. He wiped his forehead and joked with the others, trying to keep their spirits up.
‘Your father is a very brave man,’ I said to the baby.
My heart started to beat faster when he glanced over his shoulder and grinned at me. The little wink of acknowledgement made me lick my lips. The fact that he had brought his daughter outside so that he could help others made me admire him. Whoever he was, I would let him know that.
Chapter Nine
The whisper of voices woke me up. My head throbbed as I came to. I tried to lift my arm but I couldn’t find the strength to even think about moving.
‘She’s awake.’ Matt’s voice was tight.
I dragged my eyes open, squinting when the sunlight poured in. The room was stark white, like most hospitals. The car crash came into my mind. I wasn’t sure what had actually happened.
Matt stood close to my side, his hand caressing mine. Derek was at the end of the bed, moving from one foot to the other. His nervous energy made me close my eyes.
‘Are you alright?’ Matt squeezed my fingers.
I couldn’t open my eyes again. The pain in my head was too much. I heard Derek’s feet retreating from the room before he called to a nurse in the hallway.
‘Don’t try to move, will you? The nurse is on her way. Is your head hurting?’
My automatic response was to nod but the discomfort made me stop instantly. Matt stroked my cheek, which made me smile. It was good to have him by my side.
‘What happened?’ I said limply, squeezing his fingers back.
The sound of the nurse coming into the room made me open my eyes. Derek followed her over to the other side of the bed. She got out a light and shone it into my pupils. I squinted. It hurt. A lot.
Cancer: Book 5 in a Young Adult Paranormal Romance Series (The Zodiac Twin Flame Series) Page 6