The Morgan Effect: Life's Chronicles of a New Era

Contradictions

Chapter Seventeen

            She drug her body as far as she could, following the whispers. They were taking her somewhere she could be safe. Her request was to be sent to someone who could help her. At first there was an argument about where that actually was and she couldn't manage a legitimate rebuttal to saying a specific place. There was nowhere she could think of where someone would help her and not demand more than she could give. The whispers stopped responding for a little bit, but then they came back. They told her a place and she whispered it to them. They were heading there now.

            When she didn't feel like she could limp much further she withdrew the energy making her invisible. Instead it cloaked her with a dark and inconspicuous fabric. It solidified with much concentration and the remaining energy went to her ankle and foot. In the collapse her ankle had been twisted and now it was swollen and painful to move much. She still couldn't feel her foot. They were close to the place her help could be found, but her energy was fading. There wouldn't be enough to turn the corner on, so she regrouped. She sent it out as a light. The light glided on the sun's rays and flowed behind the whispers.

"Cosette!"

"You?"

            Eirini Augustus stood above her and neither of them looked less than dumbfounded.

"What happened to you?"

"I met Barney, and he had a tea party. He was out of Passion Flower, so we settled for some Fog tea.... What do you think happened?"

"Your sarcasm is unnecessary ma'am.... You look terrible; give me your hand."

"No."

"Why?"

            She lifted her head and caught his eyes. It'd been a while since he'd seen those stormy eyes, but something was different about them. There was a sharpness and aptitude about them that made him want to leave her as she seemed to want. But he couldn't just do that.

"I'm waiting for someone."

"So you are the one who sent me that light."

"You? You're the one who's supposed to be able to help me? That's impossible. I need a doctor not a murderer! In fact that kind of contradicts my request entirely."

            He flinched at her words, and she noticed. Kneeling to the ground, he reached out his hand to her.

"I will help you. You don't even have to come willingly, but I will help you. In fact, didn't I tell you that when we fist met?"

            He scooped her from the cold dirty ground and her covering fell off. He saw, for the first time, the full extent of her injuries. She cried out. Her ankle was red and swollen, so much so someone might miss the bones misplaced in her foot. Her left leg had burns along the sides of it and her right held cuts. There were little patches of energy covering what were obviously gunshot wounds. She was at the end of her energy reserve, and some of the holes were bleeding. He had to act quickly or she'd run out of time. Just like her father.

"What are you doing? Put me down!"

            She didn't have the strength to fight him now and his jogging was painful. He placed her in the back of a car and got in the driver's seat. It was comfortable on the back seat, and though she tried, she couldn't help but go to sleep. Her eyelids slid down over her eyes and her head found the perfect position. Eventually she was quiet and resting, but that came with problems. She wasn't practiced enough and once she stopped concentrating the energy faded from her wounds. It took Augustus little time to realize this though. He plugged them then.