The Sun and Moon and Stars

Chapter XV

Winnie sighed loudly, her eyes trailing Frances as if expecting a reaction. "I just miss being a family."

"Please don't say that, Winnie. Your mother is still around."

"She doesn't make us a family. She and Papa were always fighting. Then you came and we were a family again. Now you and Papa are fighting. And we're not a family again."

Frances took a seat at the table. She reached out her hands to Jem and Winnie and smiled encouragingly. Jem took her hand immediately.

Frances turned to Winnie who eyed the extended hand with apprehension.

"Winnie... please."

She obliged.

***

"Frances?" Winnie sat up in bed.

Frances turned back in the doorway. "Yes?"

Winnie paused. She sighed. "I wish we were still touching the moon."

Frances placed a shaky hand on the doorknob.

"Oh... Winnie."

Winnie laid back down, her eyes locked on the ceiling where the candlelight drew golden patterns. "I wish...I wish—"

Frances stepped out into the hall and turned back to face the room, the glow of the candle was cold, emphasizing the shadows instead of sending them scurrying.

"Me too..."

Winnie's blue eyes glanced in her direction.

Frances smiled sadly. "...me too."

***

Frances' heart ran cold even before she knew she knew she was awake. She almost didn't recognize Jem's voice. She had never heard him scream before.

And it didn't stop. The frozen lump in Frances' chest trickled into to her gut like a handful of pebbles and she rushed into the hall.

There was Julian, his chest bare and his eyes glazed, a candlestick in his hands.

They paused for a moment, as if connecting with each other's panic before running into the children's bedroom. Jem stood on his bed, looking out of the window. He turned to look at them. His eyes were dry but wide. Spittle drooled down his chin. He didn't even take a breath.

Frances jumped on the bed and scooped the boy into her arms. She pressed him to her chest and looked out the window. The pond glimmered with the reflection of the stars. Frances felt the bed bounce and Julian kneeled beside her, his hands pressed on the glass.

And then they saw it. Something was floating in the water. A log or...

Frances turned to Winnie's bed. The sheets were rumpled near the foot of the bed. It was empty.

And Julian was gone. His bare feet thundering down the stairs.

Jem continued screaming into Frances' shoulder. Rebecca whimpered from her crib.

She pressed the boy into the folds of her nightgown. The warmth of his body burned through the linen.

"Jem..." she whispered and the screaming stopped. She pulled the boy away. His large brown eyes were lined with tears. His bottom lip was puckered as he tried to hold in another scream.

"It's okay, Jem," she said, the sound of her voice light and unsubstantial. "It's just a piece of wood. It's okay."

She lay the boy back down on his bed. "It's just...just a log." The boy nodded but then looked up at his sister's empty bed.

"Winnie's just gone for a glass of—water." Frances' voice caught in her throat. "It's okay."

She pulled the blankets up around Jem's shoulders and closed the curtains. "Go back to sleep, Jem."

She stepped back into the hall and suddenly, her heartbeat drummed in her chest. Quick. Heavy. Like a man trying to tap dance in boots on wooden floors.

Her entire body started shaking to the rhythm and her feet began moving on their own. Down the steps, out the front door, around the porch, to the grass. The only thing she could feel was the bottom of her feet as they moved from warm wood to soft rug to cold wood and finally to prickly grass. Nothing else seemed to work. She couldn't even swallow, her throat tight and stinging.

That's when she heard it. Heavy breathing...a wet cough.

She walked towards the edge of the pond where a kneeling shadow rocked back and forth. She stopped behind his shoulder.

He shivered, soaked through, the moonlight glistening off his back and hair. His arms wrapped around a little form, clenched tight to his chest.

Frances dropped to her knees beside him. His eyes were clenched shut and he wheezed through his clamped jaw.

Frances reached over and pulled Winnie's hair from her face. Her face glowed under the moon, her round soft cheeks pale...so transparent blue veins traced their way towards her eyes. Her lips, purple here eyelashes glistening with crystal.

"I didn't—" Julian choked back a dry sob. "I didn't even hear her scream."

Scream...Frances bit one back. But it pressed against her chest again.

"I didn't even...even have a chance to stop this."

Frances leaned her forehead into his neck, her ear against his ear. "No one did."

"She was all alone."

Tears pooled in her eyes and dropped one by one onto Winnie's nightgown. She gasped for a breath. "Only on the outside."

He pulled away and met her eyes. She could barely see him through the haze. But then he nodded slowly and pulled her close.

Winnie's lifeless fingers brushed against her wrist.

Frances buried her face into Julian's chest, praying that she'd feel warm again.