Firstborn

Chapter 13 - Crazy

Knock...knock...knock! Avi hurriedly withdrew his hand from the window and checked, in vain, to see if his uncles were back. The knocking was coming from within the outbuilding. Avi gripped the grills tightly and pushed his nose between them so his face was further in the room. It worked. He could just about decipher shapes easily. It was unfortunate however that he could smell the stench too. Narrowing his eyes, Avi focused down to the limited square footage and found a dari, a cloth mattress with a shawl or blanket heaped at the corner. A splinter of sun light broke through the clouds behind him and lifted the darkness for a few hesitant seconds. He glimpsed three legs of a stool and above them, on their seat were two big toes peeking from under a dirty grey shroud.

Knock... Knock... Avi's gaze travelled up the shrouded body which was slowly elongating from its squatting position upwards using the bare brick wall for support.

'Ow!'

Avi could see the material draped round her body was trapped on a nail. The same nail must have scrapped her exposed midriff too. He helplessly watched her tug hard on the material, making the uneven leg tilt backwards.

"Watch out!"

He was too late. The unstable stool gave way and she toppled hitting her head forwards against the wall before falling flat on her face, in the dirt.

"Can you get up?"

She cocked her head sideways and then began to lift her upper body to a sitting position. Through her entangled hair, her piercing grey gaze punched him low in his gut. Her mercurial eyes were identical to the ones he viewed in the mirror when he used it. Una was right.

A stream of slow drool trickled out of Rosetta's mouth, as she mouthed something at him - but he couldn't work out what it was. Frantically, she swung her gaze from the door and then back at him several times.

Avi shook his head in sadness and said, "No keys."

Hurriedly, she rose and noisily dragged the fallen stool to the wall under the window beneath him.

The expected rocking noise began again.

"Careful Rosetta," Avi took an indrawn breathe and held it; any moment now he was going to be able to see her closer.

A rock nicked him in the neck from behind.

"Get down from there! What do you think you're doing?" Riki shouted,

"I say let's get him and throw him in," Chaz sniggered.

One of his three uncles grabbed his legs and tried to dislodge him off the oil drum. At the same time he felt something touch his fingertips. His eyes darted to them and he glimpsed gnarled, yellow fingernails gripping his fingers wrapped around the grills. His hand's blood temperature rapidly increased causing circular bubbles to appear under his fingertips. He gasped in shock as claw-like appendages pushed through his fingertips and then retracted. He lost his grip on the grills and fell on his uncles winding them.

-X-

Back in Avi's bedroom, Meeru gave a salute to Major's imposing uniformed portrait hanging over the bed she sometimes used. She kissed her father's cheek in the portrait and sighed, "Sorry Papa, your time is up."

Tentatively, she tilted the portrait and rested the heavy frame on her forearm. Next, she swiped her free hand hastily up and down the length of the back of it. Her upper arm was protesting under the bulk. Yet, removing the framed portrait was out of the question due to its colossal size and weight; her father's ego and pride had dictated the grandeur proportions. Finally, she yanked her hand from underneath the frame after grasping a narrow and short box between her fingers, which she quickly dropped onto her pillow. Meeru placed the box under the pillow. It wasn't quite time to open it. Sitting patiently on the bed, she cast a thought to her brothers and wondered if they had found her nephew before her father did.

-X-

Avi's uncles grabbed at him as they escaped from under him.

"Let's get him in to the house before Papa sees him," Niki grunted.

Avi struggled to free himself from their grasp so he changed his tactic. He let his body go limp, thus making himself heavier as they began to drag him to the house. This impeded their progress and bought him some time to think of his next move.

"He is heavier than the last time when we dragged him to the Crazy. How can he have put on weight while he was incapacitated for the last two weeks?" Riki groaned.

"The Crazy probably did some black magic on him."

"Don't call her that!" Avi retorted.

"What's that dickhead, don't what..."Niki asked, punching Avi with his free arm.

"He said don't call her that." Chaz said unhelpfully. He was in the front of the procession, carrying Avi's legs while the other two were at the side of Avi carrying him by holding his arms.

"CRAZY! CRAZY!" Chaz chanted.

In the next moment, Avi contracted his torso and thigh muscles. He brought his knees to his chest and pushed violently away knocking Chaz to the ground, loosening the twins' grip on his arms at the same time and freeing him completely.

"You will call her Rosetta."

A gun shot stopped all movement on the compound, unnerving the parakeets who had remained on Dev's house. In unison, they hurried, panic stricken, back to the jungle near the temple, from where they originally came. While they flew they squawked - The trigger has been released.

-X-

It couldn't have started before she had even summoned him?

Hurriedly, Meeru removed the cardboard box from under the pillow, opened the flap and tilted the contents into her palm. She raised the object to her lips after saying a quick prayer and then blew the soundless whistle.

A/N Keep with me...Avi's life depends on it.

Feel free to leave your votes and comments.