Those Lovely Children Of Lys

Chapter Nine ~Voices and Whispers~

Everything was black, floaty. In the black, a vision-- small hands scratching something invisible. 'Discover us,'  a voice hissed. The hands looked like those of small children, smooth and unlined. Suddenly, the scratching stopped. A cruel female laugh echoed across the black. 'She's come back,' The voice said. The hands retreated into the dark. The feeling of suffocation was gripping my throat like metal palms. 

I gasped and got up, opening my eyes and looking around. I was still lying on the floor. 'She's opened her eyes,' came Jenna's hushed voice. Somebody sprinkled some water on my face. I sat up, looking around wide-eyed. 'What happened to me?' 'Shh,' Miss Wiltshire interjected, 'Don't exert yourself, dearie.' She helped me get up to my feet. I looked around. Most of the younger children were gone, and only most of the older girls were there. For guys, only Enoch and Julian were looking at me worriedly. The rest were sulkily hanging out near the wall, looking askance in my direction, or already gone.

'It's nearly dinner, poppet. Do you want to stay with me?' It sounds babyish, but I nodded, not wanting to be alone with the voices of the children. 'What happened?' I asked again. She bit her lip, and said, 'You fainted, dearie. You were muttering too.' Muttering? My head felt light and floaty. I felt confused, and like I wanted to sleep. But sleeping was out of the question. I couldn't let whoever they were near me. 

I felt myself trembling as Miss Wiltshire led me to the kitchen. The room burst into whispers as soon as I'd left.  She handed me a cup of strong tea, and said, 'Drink it all.' I sipped it, feeling better to my surprise. 

'I heard voices,' I began timidly, 'People...children, whispering. I saw things.' She looked at me with a strange look in her eye. She sighed and said, 'You've suffered a lot, Leta. After your mother's death, this was only normal. Don't brood over it.' 

I nodded at her, though in the pit of my stomach I still felt unsure. I said nothing and finished my tea.

 I set the cup down on the table, and prepared to leave for the dorm. I needed to sleep this off, and figure out what to do with my life. 

As I walked up the stairs to the girl's dorm, the lantern chasing shadows, I felt something like a hand enclose my ankle. What the hell? I stopped, and shook my ankle. Yep, it was free as ever. I shook my head, and continued along the path. 

"Do you dare to look back?" Came a voice and I jumped. I ran up the stairs, wondering why they seemed so never ending. The voice increased in intensity. "Why won't you look back?" I almost yelled back, but didn't want to wake the whole manor. Finally, I reached the end and walked to my room. I opened the door, shut it behind me, and collapsed in the bed. 

"Where will you go now?" And the last thing after that I heard was my scream. 

*

"She needs rest." 

"Are you blooming mad? You're going to leave her here?"

"Shh, Julian! You're not even supposed to be here."

"Deal with it."

"Hey, idiots, can we focus...? Look, she's opening her eyes!"

Everything was blurry and unfocused. I opened my eyes to see Julian, Blythe and Rosemary looking at me worriedly. "Hi..." I said, but my jaw must be broken, because it sounded like "hffmh" 

"It's just the medicine, Leta" Blythe said tenderly, "It is making your throat a little weird, but it will be fine soon, I promise." I nodded, but everything hurt. Was I in a hospital? I looked around, and found myself in my room. Jenna was nowhere to be seen. 

"We skipped breakfast." Rosemary explained. I tried to tell them they shouldn't have, but couldn't get the words out. "I snuck out of the boy's dorm, which is no picnic," Julian said, making me laugh a little. He mock celebrated, pumping his hands. "How are you feeling?" He asked. I grimaced. "No picnic." 

"First things first, you never saw Julian," Rosemary said, "And second, we stole some chocolate for you. Here!" She threw a bar of Hershey's at me as I sat up. "I need to brush," I said, and got up. My legs felt like they were made of jelly. I struggled to the bathroom door, and finally shut it behind me. 

I washed my face, and looked in horror at the mirror. I looked nothing like myself. 

My eyes were bleary and red, and my skin puffy. My forehead had a rose-shaped and violet-colored bruise.  I looked like a terminal patient. What the hell had happened? I brushed, washed, and slipped on a robe. I couldn't care less if they saw me in a bathrobe. I wasn't much of a looker at the moment anyway. 

I went back to the room, retrieved a pair of shorts and a loose T-shirt from my suitcase, and trudged back to the bathroom to change. As soon as I was done, I went back to the bed, opened the wrapper, and chomped on chocolate. 

"Nice," Julian said. Blythe shot him a look. "Your hair," She said. I shrugged, "I am not exactly trying to look good," I said. They all laughed. "What happened to me?" I asked, after swallowing my second bite of chocolate. Already I was feeling better. "We really don't know," Blythe said, "No exactly, right, Rosemary? We just came to the dorm, and then Jenna went to your room, and then she screamed for Miss Wiltshire. We found you on the floor, pool of blood around your head." 

I was horrorr-struck. "You were face down," Rosemary added, explaining my clean hair. "We cleaned your face and dressed that ugly wound, but while sleeping it must have come off." she said. "But how?" I burst out, "How did I fall? I don't remember shit!" 

They all exchanged worried glances. "I think I should go," Julian said, "Miss Wiltshire can come any moment to check up on you," he got up, and left the room. "Eat your chocolate and don't think much, Leta," Rosemary said, "It's the best we all can do for now." She patted my cheek and left. 

Blythe was strangely silent. I too, said nothing and ate my chocolate.