The Society of Imaginary Friends (Book 1 of The Conjurors Series)

Chapter 44

By the time Henry and Valerie lugged an unconscious Thai across five miles of open grasslands to the closest hospital, they were exhausted. The hospital turned out to be not much more than a simple building with one large room that contained rows of cots. Luckily it wasn't busy, so Thai was given immediate attention. Valerie vaguely explained that he had been bitten by a poisonous frog on their hike, hoping the nurse wouldn't be too suspicious. She breathed an internal sigh of relief when the nurse nodded, unsurprised.

"Many people come here after they're bitten by frogs and snakes near the falls," she said. "We'll fix him up in no time."

The nurse opened a drawer, took out a syringe filled with a milky fluid, and injected it into Thai's abdomen. Color quickly returned to his cheeks and his eyes fluttered open.

"I'm okay," Thai rasped, seeing Valerie hovering over him anxiously. She squeezed his hand, and his eyes searched hers. "You're really here? You're not just projecting from the Globe?"

Her heart lifted at the energy returning to his voice. "It's a long story—I'll tell you everything when you've had a chance to rest. I was so afraid that I was going to lose you."

"Did you really think a little poison could get the best of me?"

"How silly of me," she quipped.

Then Thai slept, and the hospital staff let Valerie and Henry collapse on two of the unused cots nearby. As she rubbed her gritty eyes, she noticed that the Laurel Circle was just a gray lump of metal around her thumb. It was dull and plain choked off from the magic that lit it up from the inside out. Now that she was back on Earth, she also felt as if her energy had faded without her magic to lend her strength. Her old illness tugged at the back of her mind. How long would she survive with Earth's rules binding her power? However, despite these worries and physical exhaustion, her mind was at peace. At last, everyone she loved was safe.

The next day, while Thai lay in bed recuperating, he and Valerie gave Henry a very long explanation of everything that had happened to them. When Thai got to the part about Venu attacking Mrs. Leeds in the alley, Henry became tense.

"He hurt Mrs. Leeds? Is she okay?" he asked anxiously.

"She's fine. The paramedics got there in time. I thought Venu's attack on her was random, but I guess not, since you obviously know her."

"She's my teacher. Why would he hurt her?"

"Maybe Venu thought she might know where to find you," Valerie said thoughtfully.

"You're probably right," Thai agreed. "But no need to worry, Henry. I made sure that she was okay before I left. She's probably back at work by now."

Henry nodded, reassured, and Valerie continued the story, telling Henry all about the Globe, how she had discovered that he was her brother, and the defeat of Sanguina. As he listened, fascination replaced the fear in his eyes.

"All this time—Sanguina couldn't touch me," Henry said, shaking his head as if he couldn't quite believe it. "It all seemed so real, like she could choke the life out of me at any time. But that wasn't the worst part. She knew things about my family, like how my dad blames himself for my mom's death. Once, when I disobeyed her, Sanguina punished me by pretending to be the ghost of my mother, blaming my dad for letting her die. My dad believed it was Mom and was so depressed that he didn't come out of his room for days. He's never been the same since. After that, I was too afraid not to do whatever she wanted."

"How horrible," Valerie said. It was still so strange to hear about her brother's life—so different from her own in many ways, but filled with the same loneliness and terror.