Sundew

Chapter 14

"Liv?" The girl asked, daintily, innocently.

"Don't move, Alexia," Olivia responded, "you're gonna be okay. We're gonna get you out of here, safe and sound."

"That's nonsense, Oliva. It's strange. When I saw Alice and Gary dying from the worms, I thought it'd hurt, but I guess that's reserved for when they punch out of my chest." The little girl tried to smile in a reassuring manner, but Sunny could see just how nervous she really was. A twitch of the facial muscles as she smiled here, a dart of the eye there, the girl was pretty obviously mortally terrified. Sunny simply observed all this from outside himself. Olivia slipped her hand around Alexia's in a terribly familiar manner.

"Liv," asked Alexia, "do you remember when you first came to visit me in the ER? I was alone, my parents had gone missing, the only thing that was left of them was a message scrawled in black on their bedroom wall reading, 'Come home, Alexia.' Then, the house fire. The police never figured out what caused it, but the flames licked me pretty good. I was confused, scared, in pain, the doctors still barely managing to repair the burned half of my body. I felt low, but then, you came around. You just started talking to me. You didn't really pay attention to my burns, like all the other doctors. I did see you trying to hide the fact that your eyes were drawn to my burns, and I thank you for pretending like you didn't actually care about them. When you started talking to me, you introduced yourself so enthusiastically, and you asked me who I was, even though you had my patient sheet. I think the shift manager even had to intervene and tell you to tend to the others because we talked for so long. We talked about movies we'd seen, books we read, and then I brought it up: chess. You told me how you and your brother used to play chess all the time when you were young. Then, the next day, you brought in the chess board. You agreed to play chess with me until I fell asleep, and we laughed. We didn't take it too seriously, we joked with each other and teased one another like two old friends reuniting, years later, at a diner. Despite us never having been related, I always called you 'Sis' or 'Big Sis,' because that's what you were to me: a role model. You were so kind to me when everyone else—the other kids here at the hospital, the adults, all of them, looked at me as if I were a leper. I sucked at chess, and feigned pouting when I lost, trying to stifle my own laughter, but you agreed to help me learn. Well, it looks like there won't be any more sessions of chess, unless you've got some way for me to learn it easily in the next few seconds."

"Alexia, don't say those things," Olvia said, trying to get near to the little girl, before being warned back.

"Careful, Liv. Keep back. You touch me and the worms get into your system." Alexia looked at Sunny, then the floor, then back into Olivia's eyes

"Olivia?" Asked Alexia, innocently.

"Yes?" Olivia's tone was pleading, desperate and heart-broken

"If ever you find that guy you told me about, the one responsible for selling his body, I want you to do two things for me. For me, do you understand?" Olivia nodded in response, "Only if you do both those things will my soul rest in peace."

What's that?"

"Bring him to justice, but forgive him once he is behind bars."

"..."

"Only if you do both those things will my soul rest in peace." Alexia emphasized, her voice sterner in contrast to the pleasant mask she typically wore. She looked Olivia in the eye

"Yes. I will." Olivia answered, determinedly, promising but trying to hide the twitch Sunny noticed in her face as she spoke—Sunny had felt that twitch before, when he'd lied to others in the past, so he now felt pretty confident he was seeing a bad liar. Alexia looked down at the sudden motion in her stomach, a knowing look in her own eyes as she tilted her head back up to meet Olivia's gaze.

"Goodbye, Big Sis."