Chapter 20
Adam wished that Gemima would shut up for once. He kneeled beside Doris and gently shook her, "Doris? Doris, wake up. You got to eat this. Doris? Doris!"
Doris opened her heavy eyelids and could see someone beside her. Her vision was blurry but the faraway voice was surely Adam's. "A-Adam?" she asked in a barely audible whisper.
"I'm here," Adam said. He took out the medicine bottle and measured out 5ml of the vile-smeeling liquid. "Just drink this."
Doris could vaguely see something being thrust towards her. She lifted her hand which felt inhumanly heavy and groped in the air for the medicine. Adam handed it to her. "Cheers," Doris whispered before gulping it down.
Doris cried, "Yuck! What did you feed me? It's awful! I think I'm going to be si-" She got up without completing the sentence and began vomiting by the tree trunk.
"It's okay," Adam rubbed her back. "It's okay. You'll be fine." He held back her extra-long hair and mumbled some more 'its okays'.
Finally Doris stopped and wiped her mouth.
"Are you alright?" Adam enquired.
"Let me breathe, Adam," came back the reply. Judging by her voice, Doris seemed to be recovering.
"Oh my," Doris gasped. "That was the worst experience of my life. I was sure that I was about to die. But I suppose I wouldn't have died because I didn't see my whole life flashing in front of my eyes." Yes, Doris seemed fine. "I should have thought of that instead of worrying."
"She's alright," Adam smiled at Gemima who didn't look as happy as the situation demanded.
"Thank you, Adam," Doris hugged him. Adam was surprised but happy to hug her back.
"I see we are on talking terms again," Adam laughed.
Doris let him go, "I hope I haven't got vomit on you."
Adam checked his shirt, "This is my favourite shirt. You can't spoil it. Uh, I think I'm clean."
Doris smiled, "I'm sorry."
"I have a big heart so I'm forgiving you this time," Adam warned jokingly.
"Are you done with the little self-importance trip?" Doris asked, laughing. Her smile dropped when she saw her aunt looking at her.
Gemima looked away and said, "We should go."
Doris wanted to tell her exactly what she thought of her but she knew that they didn't exactly have the time to have a shouting match. Once the deal was fulfilled, Doris was not going to stay with Gemima a second more. Her trust was already lost and the only reason Doris was letting her come with them was because she didn't what else to do.
Adam, who was oblivious of the new chapter in Doris' family drama, nodded, "The Court officers are already here."
"So early?" Gemima asked.
"Yeah," Adam said, "they are just waiting for the time to be up and then they'll capture us. One of them was even debating whether it would be easier to catch us before the time is up."
"They can't do that," Gemima said. "It's against the rules. They have to have some morals."
"Faeries with no sense of right and wrong," Doris said sarcastically. "Why does that sound familiar?"
Gemima pursed her lips and started getting into the car when she was pushed back roughly.
"What the-?" Doris shouted.
Adam rushed to Gemima who lay crumpled on the ground. He was repelled back in a similar way by a gust of strong wind. Doris helped him up and looked around for whoever it was doing it.
She quickly formed an ice stake in her hand and tried to form a plan of escape when she saw who it was.
"Put that away, little girl," Laurine said, coldly.
"Leave," Adam commanded, sword in hand. Currently it was in ice form, having touched it on Doris' ice stake.
Laurine laughed, "That irritating weapon is still around? Surely you need to catch me to hit me and without wings I doubt you can do that." She hovered in the air on her dark wings. She waved her hand in Adam's direction and he felt the air punching him strongly in the gut. Adam staggered back but regained balance only to get another invisible blow.
Laurine brushed back her long, beautiful black hair, "But I don't need to catch you to hit you. My sylph often takes care of little insects like you, boy."
Adam caught sight of the air forming a human shape for a second. He could feel the atmosphere become constricting and anger-ridden. What was this sylph?
Doris waved her hand through the air and long ice stakes whizzed through the air in Laurine's direction.
Laurine dodged them easily. "You have improved your powers!"
"I met a friend who knew a thing or two about ice powers," Doris replied. She hoped to get Laurine distracted my talking and freeze her forever. "But tell me, how come you caught up so fast?"
"I'm not a half-faerie like you. I heal faster and your tracks were easy to follow since you were in my car!" Clearly Laurine wasn't happy to have been booted out of her own car.
"Your car is totally out of date," Adam managed to say while fighting and invisible monster that Laurine called a sylph. He was slashing through the air with his sword to no great success. He was rewarded for his cynical comment by a punch on his ear which made him see stars. He groaned, "Doris, a little help?"
Doris gave him an apologetic glance. She was concentrating on growing ice from the braches of a tree that was right behind Laurine. Due to the distance she needed more concentration and effort to do it but it was happening. However, the second the ice crept up to Laurine dark wings, Laurine flew out of reach.
Doris decided that throwing shards and arrows of ice was better than trying to freeze a powerful faerie. However, all such ice bits were easily dodged by the fast Laurine.
Doris was forced to stop when Laurine landed on the ground and held up Gemima, as a shield, in front of her.
"Give me the glass slippers or I crush her neck," Laurine smiled her wolfish smile, closing her fingers around Gemima's slender neck.
Gemima looked at Doris knowing fully well that Doris wouldn't give the slippers. Why would she? She would have given them to save her life earlier but now, knowing Gemima's hand in messing up her entire life, the chances of Doris bargaining for Gemima's life were next to nil.
At that moment Gemima wished for a second chance at life. A chance that she would take willingly and change each and every terrible step she had taken. So much trouble could be avoided in that chance but Gemima knew that there was no such magic. She would die a few miles away from Brandon and he would be left in that cage forever. The thought pained her more than anything else. Saving the man she loved...Gemima had lived so long for it and now she would die because she had been foolish enough to blab all her secrets in front of a dying girl.
Doris tried to think clearly. Maybe this was also part of Gemima's plan. Maybe Gemima and Laurine were continuing their little game of toying with Doris' brain. She didn't want to give the slippers. They were, after all, a source of power though up till now they had only succeeding in giving her feet blisters. Still, she didn't really need them. She could get rid of them once and for all but what if Laurine used them for harming people.
For once in her life, Doris didn't have a definite, sure answer. To give or not give and did she really have a choice? What if Laurine actually killed Gemima? Doris couldn't watch someone die in front of her eyes without doing something to stop it. True, Gemima was the cause of every bad thing that had happened in Doris' life one way or another but that didn't change the fact that it was in Doris' hands to save her life.
True, Doris was angry and hurt. True, a part of her wanted revenge but this was not the right way. Doris looked at Adam who was still fighting the invisible monster and wondered if Laurine would let them live after she handed her the slippers.
"I'll give you the slippers," Doris said.
Gemima's eyes widened with surprise and something like hope and gratitude flickered in them. Laurine smiled, "You are right in your thinking, Doris. Can't let family die after all."
"But first, you call off your sylph," Doris stated firmly.
"Of course," Laurine purred and Adam could finally breathe in peace. "That's done and now, the slippers please."
Doris walked towards Laurine and slowly took off her slippers. Laurine gestured with a toss of her head for Doris to back away.
Still holding Gemima's neck, Laurine advanced towards the slippers. She kicked off her shoes and gingerly, with her wolfish grin giving her face a greedy look, she put them on. Satisfied that Doris wasn't going to freeze or stab her, she tightened her grip on Gemima's neck, "And now time for cleaning the mess-" Her words were drowned by her shocked screams when the slippers caught fire on their own.
Laurine let go of Gemima and backed away, hopping on her burning feet. She tried taking the slippers off but they wouldn't come off. The fire spread over her body in seconds and her body was a burning beacon in the darkening forest. With a final scream, Laurine fell to the ground. The fire died out slowly leaving behind a charred body in its place.
Doris' mouth was dry when she spoke, "What happened?"
"The slippers didn't like her," Gemima said, calmly.
Adam looked shocked beyond words. He finally tore his eyes away from the ashes, looking visibly shaken. Doris supposed she looked the same. She felt the same at least.
Slowly Adam followed Gemima inside the car.
Doris let out a sigh and lightly touched the slippers. They were cold to touch as if seconds ago they hadn't caught fire at all. She put them on not because she had suddenly fallen in love with them but because hard, glass slippers are better than having no footwear.
Just as she was about to get into the car, Doris tripped over the hem of her dirty, silver gown. Irritated beyond patience, Doris willed a piece of sharp ice to her hand and cut short the length of the gown to her knees. With the same annoyed violence she brutally cut short her hair. Sadly it still reached mid-back.
Feeling lighter, Doris sat beside Adam, pumped up with a strange, new confidence that she could fulfil the deal.
Gemima started the car and breaking all speed limits, the car flew across the road towards the only man Gemima had ever loved.
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Time is ticking...
[Don't you just hate deadlines?]