Betrayed: The Chronicles of Luxor Everstone Book Two

by Jacklyn Daher

  Flashes of red and white streamed across her sub consciousness as a name and distorted images of wings caught on fire, Luxor Lily, and burst into a fireball.

  Astrid sat up leaning on her arms and looked at Meredith, her fingernails digging into her arms. Tears streamed down her sweaty face, the images still in her mind. She felt drunk and her words sounded foreign to her.

  "When she is ready, give this to her. Look after my angel. Tell her I love her, and I'm sorry," Astrid struggled to get the words out, and gasped for breath.

  What's happening? Why is she saying goodbye?

  "Where are you going? Stay with me. Please don't leave me again," Meredith pleaded for Astrid to fight.

  With a deep, gasping breath, Astrid unleashed an ear-piercing scream from somewhere so deep inside her. Luxor felt it all, the impending death. Split in two, a piece of her soul was extracted, infused and bundled in a small pink baby.

  In the background, the grandfather clock struck six times.

  Astrid’s head flopped, platinum hair scattered over Meredith's arms. The pain and disturbing images were replaced by a blinding light, clouding Luxor’s vision. An ethereal humming accompanied it, followed by harps and the flapping of wings.

  "Luxor, wake up."

  The screaming continued, as the maniacal shrieking vibrated the windows. Luxor was shaken, her head lolled from side to side, as the repeated slaps stung her cheeks. Prying her eyes open, Pandora held her in a tight embrace. Her night light was switched on, and the clock radio's numbers flashed six-zero-zero in the same hue as the blood in the vision.

  Luxor gasped and bolted upright, sweat saturating her and in a daze. She rubbed and placed her fingers over her eyes and lips, leaning against the headboard. Placing her hands against her stomach, a bump protruded.

  No, no, no.

  She pushed Pandora away and shook her head, and tumbled out of the bed, gripping the side table. Luxor attempted to stand up. She cried out. Pain shot through her feet.

  Blood streamed down her legs in gooey maroon clots. She touched the front of her silken white shorts, and lead up onto her top, the sticky pools of vital fluids, identical to her visions. Luxor took a step forward and the weight of her belly made her stumble forward, exacerbating the agony of the lacerations and burns. She panted as her heart thumped erratically, and she knelt on her hands and knees. Her throat swelled up and she clasped her hands around her neck.

  I can't breathe, I can't breathe.

  Luxor yanked her necklace from her throat and threw it across the room. She crawled as fast as she could towards the bathroom in the near darkness her nails scraping across the floorboards. She dry retched as bile rose in her throat, almost expelling the contents of her stomach. Before she reached her bathroom, she heaved and orange liquid was projected across the floor, and dribbled down her chin. Luxor held onto the cupboard for support, her legs weak and fatigued. She crouched over, and held her stomach as it gurgled, before she doubled over and heaved again, this time the liquid was clear.

  Pandora pounced into the room and immediately dropped onto her knees. “Luxor, are you okay? Tell me what to do?” she said, angst etched into her eyes. She entwined her fingers with Luxor’s, and held them in a vice-like grip.

  She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Nobody can ever do anything,” she whimpered. Her stomach fired with a fervent ferocity, and the acidic taste of bile stimulated her inflamed throat.

  “Shh, I’m here. Nobody can hurt you.”

  Luxor crunched Pandora’s finger and wriggled free. She stared into space, alternating her fingers as she repeatedly scrapped her arms, skin embedded underneath her fingernails. There was no pain, her emotions switched off, and desensitised. She hummed the ethereal tune, and rocked back and forward, her hands encircled around her knees.

  Meredith ran into the room, holding her dressing gown together, and bumped Pandora aside, scooting close. "Honey, what's wrong?" Her voice was a low hum.

  "Blood and lights," she murmured in a daze. "Wings flapping, humming." Her heart beat rapidly, her ventricles pulsated on the verge of combusting. Breathing became a luxury, she felt suffocation imminent on the horizon.

  Meredith placed the back of her hand to her forehead, and Luxor flinched as if she'd been burnt. "Pandora, keep her calm, I’ll be back in a minute,” she said and dashed away.

  Pandora nodded and enclosed Luxor in her arms. “I wish I could take your pain away, it’s my job to make sure you’re okay.” She stroked her hair lightly.

  She shivered and peered up at her guardian. “Do you believe me?”

  “You have no reason to lie.” Pandora whipped the blanket off the bed and draped it over Luxor’s shoulders.

  Meredith re-entered and knelt beside her. “Drink this." She tilted the cup to her lips, and held it upright.

  Luxor clasped her hands over Meredith’s, and took a sip. "Blood, Blood. All over me. Her blood is on me," she cried through the gurgles of water.

  "What blood Luxor? You're scaring me."

  The pain subsided, but the blood remained. Luxor wobbled on her feet and flicked on the light to inspect the damages, but as always, her distorted reality deceived her. She rubbed her eyes and stared into the mirror, tracing the outline of her reflection with her index finger. Welts marred her neck from when she ripped the necklace off, and despite her hair sticking out in all directions, there was no doubt. Aqua eyes stared back, not brown, and her lips were full shaped like Cupid's bow, not small and pouty. She smoothed her hands over her tender flat stomach, only to find no sign of a protruding belly. Her feet weren't blistered or burnt, but untouched apart from the vomit splatters.

  The reflection in the dream, the images, and the agonizing pain, were realistic. How was it possible to possess her mothers’ body and experience everything? It was just more questions that needed to be answered.

  Luxor dropped to her knees as loud sobs came from her. She squinted to shut out the images projected behind her eyes. Wings flapped and burned in an inferno. She rocked back and forward on the cold hard floor, gripping the roots of her hair. She smothered her ears with her hands, and hummed an ethereal tune to cease the buzzing and screaming. Beads of sweat poured down her spine, and the sides of her head.

  "No, no, no. It was there. Her blood. I saw her. I felt everything. Her pain." Salty tears welled in her eyes, the stinging causing her to repeatedly blink. Her hands roamed the length of her body, trying to find any evidence.

  "Who Luxor?" Meredith's face was ashen, her eyes widening in fear. She smoothed back her unruly hair.

  "My mother. I saw her, I mean I was her, a-and all real, I f-felt when she was giving birth to me."

  Meredith put her hand to Luxor's forehead. "You're delirious, I'm calling the ambulance."

  Pandora chewed on her lip. “For a fever? She will be okay.”

  Luxor clutched onto her nightgown, begging for her to believe her. "It was there." She held up her singlet, and smoothed her hand over her stomach. "You were there. You delivered me, in a house with a white picket fence. Hospital, y-you wanted to take her to the hospital, but she believed in you." Words tumbled out in a jumbled mess. "She was scared of my father. I saw you begging her not to leave you. I saw you take the necklace from her as she told you to give me the bag. I saw everything."

  Meredith face turned ashen, her features mirroring the ones in the vision.

  "Why didn't you take her to the hospital? If she was delusional, why did you take the chance? You let her die," she wailed.

  "Luxor you need to understand," Meredith urged, and held her close to her chest.

  Luxor pulled herself up holding onto the bedside table, woozy and unsteady, her legs like jelly. She sat on the edge of her bed, and crushed a pillow to her chest, unable to restrain the tears from cascading.

  "You let her die, how can you live with yourself?" She jerked away knowing Meredith would try to calm her down. "Get out. Don't come any closer." She shakily held the bedside lamp in her gra
sp. "I said get out you murderer!"

  The windows vibrated, and the frame of the balcony doors rattled off their hinges. Aware Meredith had left the room, Luxor reached over and gripped the lamp with trembling fingers, and threw the lamp in her direction.

  The pieces shattered into tiny jagged shards echoing her life.

  Luxor lay stiff as a board on a hard slab bed that was covered by a thin material. She was in an enclosure, all four walls had floor to ceiling bulletproof glass, keeping the glaring sun out. When she pried her eyes open, her vision was blurred. She swallowed and a large lump formed in her throat, but there was no saliva, she might as well have cotton balls inserted in her mouth.

  A hand smoothed over her forehead pushing the hair out of her face. Meredith's outline loomed over here. "Luxor, can you hear me?"

  "Where am I?" Luxor croaked, craning her head.

  "You're at the Renaissance Centre."

  Luxor furrowed her eyebrows, the confusion in her muddled mind set in as to why she was there. Her last memory was waking up from her night terror, screaming at Meredith, and drinking rancid water.

  The water!

  Luxor tried lifting her arms to avoid Meredith's touch, only she couldn’t. Bandages wrapped from wrist to elbow, sterling steel cuffs shackled her wrists with a code on the outside, and the flashing lights restrained her to the mattress. The same cuffs shackled her ankles, also rendering her disabled.

  "Why am I restrained?" She tried to twist her wrists.

  "You had an incident last night," Meredith mumbled pulling up a chair next to the bed. Luxor hissed and wriggled around, wanting to be free. "I'll let the doctor explain." She widened the distance.

  No, you explain, the doctor wasn't there.

  At that precise moment, Valencia entered, dressed in jeans, a floral top, and a blazer, a clipboard in her hand.

  How long have I been out?

  Luxor shifted around in bed, the thin sheet slipping, and exposing her nightwear.

  "Good morning, Luxor, how are you?"

  "Restrained."

  "I'll undo them in a minute," Valencia said. Taking a light pen out of blazer pocket, she shone the penlight in her eyes one at a time. "All good."

  "Well good to know, now can someone tell me why I'm here?"

  "You were brought in last night, an extreme case of hallucinations."

  Last night in her night terrors, the vivid images of being inside her mother's body, experiencing everything she saw and felt on the night she gave birth to her. Perspiration wafted off her nightgown, but last night that sweat was blood. The truth was revealed about Meredith delivering her, and there was no way she could have known that if it was an everyday night terror.

  "I'm not crazy, I wasn't hallucinating."

  "Explain to me where the blood was?"

  "Everywhere, especially between my..." Luxor nodded between her legs. "I wasn't hallucinating, it really was there," she pleaded to Valencia. “Tell her to leave, I don’t want her here.” She eyed Meredith.

  The chair screeched back, and Meredith quickly retreated to the doorway as if on the cusp of running away, her complexion drained of any colour. She allowed Valencia to continue on with the examination which consisted of a great deal of prodding and poking. "I don't know about you, but I recognise the signs and symptoms of having a mental illness," Meredith said.

  Luxor scoffed, narrowing her eyes. "Signs and symptoms, really Meredith? You're a midwife who inspects vagina, not brains, so don't psychoanalyse me." Whatever connection they ever made had been erased, and by trying to commit her, it served as yet another way to get rid of her.

  Meredith faced Valencia and continued on with her "evidence." There was the social withdrawal and loss of interest with connecting with others. When Luxor explained she had Evie, Ayla, and Pandora, she was ignored. There was the drop-in functioning at school or a loss of interest in activities, loss of concentration, nervousness where she was suspicious of others, mood changes, peculiar behaviour, sleep and appetite changes, and ending with illogical thinking such as believing in an exaggerated power or belief.

  Well when your father is one of the greatest entities in existence, yeah, I believe.

  Would medication help make me normal?

  Luxor shook her head and dismissed the thoughts. All these things happened after the accident; she wasn't always like this. She wasn't crazy, and she proved her dreams were true. And Meredith’s reaction proved as much.

  "Please undo these restraints, they're hurting me." She wriggled her fingers as they had become numb, and pins and needles shot up her fingers.

  "They are for your own safety. They will stay attached until we talk.”

  My safety? How could I possibly be in any danger of hurting myself? Maybe what she really meant was everybody else's safety was in risk, from me.

  “Tell me Luxor, do you always think you live inside other people," Valencia asked, pressing a button on the side of the bed which rose the bed into a sitting position. Luxor licked her chapped lips. Valencia poured liquid from the opaque jug, the stream a bright orange filling the cup to the brim.

  She eyed the contents warily. "Get that away from me." She shook her head and pursed lips.

  "You're dehydrated, you need to keep your fluids up." Valencia held her jaw, and brought it to her lips.

  “No, go away.” She thrashed and whipped her head from side to side as the liquid trickled in, and the saline hitting her taste buds.

  "You need to calm down." Valencia closed her jaw.

  She spat it out, and coughed. "You're trying to poison me, you all think I'm crazy." She heaved and pulled at the restraints.

  "Nobody is here to hurt you, only to help," Valencia said calmly.

  "Meredith, help me! I'll be a good girl, I'll always listen, I won't do anything wrong, please," Luxor pleaded, tears welling in her eyes.

  "Is this really necessary?" Meredith said.

  "Yes, it is. She needs to calm down."

  "Don’t fucking tell me to calm down!” Luxor thrashed her body around as spider-like cracks appeared in the ceiling, plaster raining down.

  Valencia gritted her teeth and held an arm across Luxor's shoulders nailing her down to the bed. She pressed the button attached to her ear piece. "We have a code blue, level eight, all assistance needed. Now!"

  "Let me go!”

  Four male medics in white lab coats barged in and pushed Meredith against the glass pane. A pair of hands pressed down on Luxor's knees, whilst another came around to the head of the bed, and held her head until she was completely immobilised with an iron grip. Pinned to the bed, her free will stripped, Luxor squeezed her eyes, the anger boiling in her veins. Her eyes rolled back, her body trembled, and unwittingly she screamed. The glass containing the liquid shattered, the ceiling fracture widening.

  "Sedate her," Valencia barked out orders to the medics.

  "She's too strong," a frazzled voice replied. "I can't get near her, she's convulsing."

  Luxor writhed, her body contorting into unnatural angles. She was unsure how much time had ticked, could have been a minute, or an hour but she began to regain awareness. Acutely aware, the grips were loosened and Luxor clenched her fists on her way to securing release. The medic sprang into action and wrapped a mask over her nose. Gas poured out, and Luxor slipped into an abyss, no longer able to fight and keep her eyes open. Down, down, down, until her limbs flopped against the bed, and her world turned to black.

  Luxor inhaled the crisp fresh air, the potent aroma of pine, and the thick smell of nectar. O Theós eísai ómorfi, she mumbled, a smile creeping up on her face. Everything was blanketed in darkness, but she continued to breath in nature as if it was her lifeline.

  "Angel," Hunter called out. "Angel, wake up."

  Where is he?

  The forest came closer, overwhelmingly her senses. "Wake up." A warm hand touched her face in the darkness, it's spark jolting her.

  Luxor flinched, her eyes snapping open, the darkness giving
way to the last person she'd expected to see. Dressed in a hoodie covering his head, he sat on the edge of the bed by her side.

  The room came into view; it was different than the last one. This one was a padded enclosure; walls and ceiling, the only thing that wasn't was a metallic door, with a sliding opening.

  I'm institutionalised.

  "Hey, how are you?" His toffee eyes, usually full of life and effervescent, were a murky brown, matching his hoarse voice.

  "What are yo—? How do you kno—?" Luxor struggled to form sentences. Her head pounded, as if skewers dug into her temples.

  "I'm staging a loony bin break out," he stated nonchalantly, his gaze fixated on the door. "I'm sure you're capable, but it appears you're all tied up at the moment."

  "How did... I don't understand."

  Keys jangled at the door, and Luxor froze, expecting to be drugged, or gassed again. Still restrained, she wiggled her fingers. Hunter reached out, his fingers entwined with hers, and she winced. A burn struck her side and she bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from yelping. Luxor leaned her head against his back, concentrating on her breathing. Instead of a nurse, a familiar lanky boy also in a hoodie stomped in.

  "Castor, what took you so long?" Hunter moved forward, giving his brother a bro hug followed by a fist pump.

  Castor?

  "How are we going to do this?" Castor said.

  Before they could decide on a form of action, the door swung open, and sure enough a stocky woman, with oily slicked black hair and white uniform entered.

  "What the hell are you doing in here? This is a restricted area," she growled, waggling her fingers.

  The woman swung the trolley to the side, the food and medicine teetering on the edge. She eyed the red buzzer at the head of the bed, scattering to call assistance, but she was too slow. Castor swiftly intercepted, and clamped his hands on her shoulder, and slammed her against the wall, her head rebounding of the soft padding.

  The woman shrieked, and tried to fight back, but was no match for Castor, her arms set in place, positioned by her side.