The Legend of the Stones

We all stood still where we were for a moment, taking deep breaths, and restoring our emotions.

I didn’t have much luck with that. I couldn’t believe what had just gone down. I hadn’t known my mother could harbor that much hate – for her own children, at that.

Holding Aaliyah tightly, I looked around at each of my sisters, then my cousins. They looked… well, shell-shocked, to say the least. Never in their life had they seen my mother behave so rudely, so shockingly. Of course, there had been many moments over the years – particular the year just passed – where she’d shouted, yelled, and let off a bit of steam. But never, ever had she let herself be overcome by her feelings, and display them like that. Especially not in front of Alyssa and Allyra, her third and fourth favourite daughters.

Jack and Liam’s face startled me. I was expecting the same sort of expressions as my sisters, but instead they just displayed a hard look of finality, as though they had known this was going to happen.

As I thought back over the years, I realised that they probably did know, but didn’t want to tell us. They didn’t want to hurt us with the upsetting fact.

I lowered my eyes. My cousins were so sweet sometimes.

Finally, after what seemed like a millennia, Jack cleared his throat.

"Well, we have all chosen to stay on Earth with Lyvvy. I think our first plan is to get her out of here, pronto. We all know what the tabloids do when they find a scandal. They grab it around the neck, throttle it, and then chuck it in the dump.” He glanced over at me. “Sometimes quite literally.”

The Stone family were widely well-known, wealthy and respected – but that also meant that thousands of people wanted to know too much about us. The paparazzi and tabloids had matured greatly over the past few hundred years, going so far as to kidnap, drug and even kill people to find out just a crumb of gossip. No one is quite sure

“The last thing we need is to be held up by people who mean no good to us." Jack continued, looking around the room. Liam nodded his head, face set in stone. I could see a twinge on his jaw though – a sign that meant he was worrying about something. I would have to ask him about it later, once my voice remembered how to work.

Meanwhile, my heart ached for my two sisters. They looked utterly crushed. Jack, Liam and I stared at them for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, they both nodded, grasping each other's hands.

"We'll go distract the nurses and doctors," Lyss volunteered, somewhat dully.

"There's a fire door just down the hall," Llyre added, without any emotion. "If we can get through that, run down the stairs and then outside, Lyv can put in the teleportation codes and get us out of here.”

"Sounds like a plan," Liam said, shooting them a small consoling smile.

Just then, my mouth decided to open up and spurt out a few words.

"Woah, woah, woah. Guys. Hold up for a second. I think that if I stand up and start running now, I will trip over and go splat."

I was still incredibly weak from the birth and the painkillers. They had made my vision turn occasionally blurry, and make Aaliyah require a medicrib. A medicrib was a special crib for newborn children that helped them stay alive for the first few days after birth.

“You don’t have a choice,” Jack snapped. “Do you want to be kidnapped?”

I bit my lip. “Aaliyah and I aren’t allowed to leave for a few more days…”

“Doesn’t matter. We have all the medical equipment we need at home.”

"There's no way we'd get a hospital bed down the stairs without someone noticing."

"Well, we'll have to carry you," Liam said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

"But what about Aaliyah?" I demanded. My eyes found her face again and I inhaled a short breath. She was so beautiful.

"Just carry her with you!" he replied.

"Oh yeah, like Lyv's gonna risk something happening to her child," Lyss scoffed, some feelings showing through her seemingly impenetrable walls.

"She has no choice!" Llyre protested, for once against her sister. "This is our only chance of getting out. We have to take it."

"But -”

"Okay, here's the deal," Jack cut in. "Lyss, Llyre, you guys go and create a big ruckus outside. Draw everyone as far away from the fire door as you can."