Heart of Glass

Chapter 29

The sound of shattering glass continued to echo through her mind, those final moments replaying on a vicous loop. She imagined she could still hear her heart beating, but she knew it had to be impossible. There was no hope it could survive after being broken so completely.

Ariel struggled with her thoughts, drifting lazily in the darkness. She wondered how long it would take to die. Her Gran had taken a few days to die from her illness. She hoped her Gran hadn't been stuck in her own mind as her body wasted away like she was. It's probably some after effect of the curse, she thought.

There was also the issue of the strange weight sitting on top of her. She couldn't pinpoint where it was, but she knew it was there. She wished it would go away, so she could die comfortably. When it didn't go away she tried to ignore it until eventually she could take it no longer.

Get off of me! She pushed with everything she had, imagining her arms lifting the object off her chest so she could breathe normally. Wait, her mind stilled.

I'm breathing?

"Ariel!"

Her eyes flew open and she inhaled sharply.

She was lying on a soft bed, not on the floor in her bedroom. Her head tilted back, as if Lucas would still be just behind her, but instead she saw a wall with a chain of daisies creeping towards the ceiling.

Her hands moved weakly towards her chest, for the weight still pressing down on her – but there was nothing there. Confused, she tilted her head forward to her chest, and only her hands rested there.

"It's okay, Ariel." Ariel turned her head, and Paige smiled, tears glistening in her eyes. "It's going to be okay."

Paige? She croaked, staring at her sister. "How are you here?"

"Amelia came and got us – Lainie and I –" she motioned beside her and Ariel's eyes drifted further down the bed to her best friend sitting by her feet. "When she said we had to come right away and wouldn't tell us what had happened..."

Her voice broke and she looked down, reaching out to take Ariel's hand.

"She told us it had been broken, but they weren't sure how long it would take for you to recover," Lainie continued. "I'll go and tell the Doctor you're awake."

She started to get up when a tiny voice said form across the room, "I'll do it."

Emily appeared behind Paige's shoulder, looking down at Ariel as if it was her first time meeting her and all thoughts fled Ariel's mind. There was a line of bruising down the left side of her face, and her hands were wrapped in bandages.

"Em," she whispered. "Wait. Are you okay?"

Her eyes slid away and she nodded. "I'm okay, I'll just get the Doc..."

She rushed from the room, and Ariel's chest tightened, feeling heavier.

"She blames herself, for what Kestral made her do," Paige explained. "We know it wasn't her fault. She didn't want to sit in here because she thinks we do, but we sort of forced her when we kept tripping over her outside the door."

The words filtered through her brain sluggishly, and she shook her head as she failed to process them.

"I don't understand," she looked at them both. "My heart broke, why am I still here?"

Removing her hand from Paige's she dug her elbows into the bed and tried to push herself up. She gasped as the weight pressed down on her chest and automatically she reached towards her scar and started rubbing it.