by E G McNally
“Ahh, GRANDPA!” She screamed and started crying while grasping her injured arm. All the reporters and journalists had questions for her. Tears were running down her eyes and blood was dripping onto the porch as she tried to move through the people blocking her door. But no one would move, they were intent on making a spectacle out of her, and the crowd was getting larger in the streets. People were rushing to see about all the commotion.
Grandpa ran out of the door with a baseball bat and started swinging at people who wouldn’t move out of his way. Grandma rushed over to Taylor and held her tight, pushing through the people to get Taylor back inside.
“You ‘all ought to be ashamed of yourselves, harassing a little girl like this. Go find some real stories somewhere else. How about figuring out where all those missing children are going, instead of hurting my little girl. Get out of here.” Grandpa swung his bat around a few more times and then retreated into the house, locking the door behind, and pulling all the curtains closed.
Grandma snatched a small quilt from the side of the sofa and placed it over Taylor, to comfort her. Grandpa rushed to the bathroom and brought back with him an emergency kit with some gauze and Neosporin. Taylor’s arm was bleeding very badly, the cut was about an inch long and deep enough to need stitches, which means that they would need to return to the hospital.
“What was that all about?” Taylor said through breaks in sobs.
“I bet one of those doctors at the hospital decided to get some credit from the press.” Grandpa muttered. He grabbed the phone and dialed the hospital.
Taylor listened as Grandpa had some harsh words with the staff member on the other line, and then he set up an appointment and hung up the phone dialing the police station next.
Grandma sat on the sofa comforting Taylor and dressing her wound, while Grandpa talked to the Police Chief. When he was done he hung up the phone and peered out of the curtains hoping the crowd had died down, but no one had left.
“They’re sending someone over to clear out the crowd, and then they’ll set up a regular drive by to keep the reporters at bay, but until then they said to sit tight and wait until someone arrives, which could be a while because they’re really tied up with a new missing child case, here in town.” He explained.
While they waited, Taylor turned on the television and placed it on the news channel. She could see the front door to her house on three different stations. There were several people in the yard and they kept replaying the shots of her opening the door and getting her arm cut, before her grandparents rushed her back into the house.
“Are you serious?” She mumbled. “These people are freaking psychos.” She said, tossing the controller over to Grandma. She realized that if the guy that Jake said was looking for her didn’t know where she was, he soon would. The thought made her feel sick to her stomach. Her arm was already throbbing, but now a bad feeling sent a chill down her spine, and the nausea became overwhelming.
“It’s going to be okay, Taylor. We’ll get to the hospital in no time and they’ll fix that right up.” Grandpa commented. He must have noticed the sickening look draw upon Taylor’s face.
A couple of hours passed as they waited. Taylor dazed off, pushing the pain to the back of her mind.
“Honey,” Grandma got her attention. “The police are here, so let’s get you to the hospital, for some stitches.”
“Do we have to go back there? I don’t want to go back there again. What if they want to do some more tests? I’m sick of tests.” Taylor whined. She was more afraid that they might not let her leave this time.
“Sorry dear, but you need some stitches.” She replied.
The car was outside, and so they needed to wait until the cop had cleared all the people away. Once they retreated back a safe distance, the three of them walked through the kitchen and out into the driveway, avoiding the commotion on the lawn, and waiting for the cop to give them the okay.
Once they arrived at the hospital, a doctor came right out and directed Taylor and her grandparents into a room.
“Here, just lie down on the bed and rest your arm on the side.” He told her. “Your leg is doing great, I see.” He commented, pulling out a container of gauze from the cabinet and a bottle of iodine, placing them on the small tray already arranged beside the bed with some sutures and a couple of operating tools that looked like pliers.
“Yeah, it healed up pretty good, I guess.” Taylor responded.
“This might hurt a little, but usually it doesn’t, I do have to clean the cut before I stitch it up though.” He grabbed a cotton ball and poured some iodine on it, before pulling off the gauze and preparing to rub down the large bloody area. As he removed the gauze both he and Taylor stared in awe. Grandpa stood up and walked over to the bedside, peering at the unusual scene in front of him, and Grandma braced herself against Grandpa, shocked.
They all stared frozen with confusion and possibly fear as the last small splice of skin merged together on Taylor’s arm, sealing itself closed like a Venus Fly Trap, leaving only the outline of a scar, and then that too, disappeared into the normal color and shape of her arm.
Everyone was still staring when Taylor noticed a strange look form upon the doctor’s face. He reached over to tray, swiped a scalpel, and more quickly than Taylor could pull her arm away, he sliced another strip of her arm.
Taylor squealed, and pulled her arm back.
“What on earth do you think you’re doing?” Grandpa yelled at the man.
“Just watch, don’t tell me you aren’t curious. You’re a man of science. You would do the same.” The doctor replied to Grandpa.
“I’d like to think I would get someone’s permission before I just start hacking away at them.” Grandpa claimed, glaring at the doctor.
“Well I’m sorry I didn’t ask, but just watch.” He commented again, pulling Taylor’s arm out and bracing it on the bed.
Grandpa and the doctor leaned in, both fixated on the newly exposed flesh trickling blood down her arm. The doctor glanced back and forth between his watch and her arm. After a minute the blood stopped running, and so he wiped it away, but nothing else happened for close to ten minutes.
“Enough is enough, why don’t you two just stop acting like kids and stitch that thing up, so we can get home. She’s been through a lot.” Grandma chimed in, tugging on Grandpa’s sleeve.
“WAIT! Wait a second, just look at that.” The doctor exclaimed. He pointed to the new cut and watched as the skin began to pull together. First the under-layer of dermis and then the upper layer tightly zipped together, leaving another scar, imprinted on her arm, until that too melted into her perfect ivory skin, and vanished.
“Well I’ll be frozen in hell.” The doctor exclaimed. He rubbed his chin, staring at the arm, puzzled, until a nurse came in, pulling him outside.
“There’s a Major Bradshaw on the line. He’s asked that you detain Taylor Saskia for questioning.” Taylor could hear the nurse say.
“This isn’t a police station. You’ll have to let him know, there’s nothing I can do. I can’t keep them here, especially with her grandparents breathing down my neck. If he wants to talk to her, he can come out here, himself, and deal with them. I’m a doctor and I have patients to deal with, especially if this is a matter of national security, than I don’t want anything to do with it. You tell him that.” Taylor and both her grandparents heard the doctor firmly explain to the nurse, before returning to the room.
“You guys are free to go. You have an amazing gift there, Taylor, just be careful.” He gave her a firm look, and then left the room, leaving Taylor and her grandparents confused.
“What’d he mean be careful?” Taylor asked.
“I don’t know, you heard as much as I did out there. Something about national security, let’s just go home. This day can’t get any stranger.
Chapter VIII: Leaving Port Angeles
Meanwhile, that morning, Major Bradshaw was back in Port Angeles harassing the police station
for more information on her whereabouts. He’d had no luck at Taylor’s relocation hearing because the child protective services wouldn’t release her new location.
“So, who do we have in there now? Jacob Stevens is it?” Major Bradshaw asked, browsing through a police file. “Haven’t we already talked to him a couple of times?”
“Yes, Sir, but he isn’t giving us the information we need. He and that Joseph Smith boy must be collaborating stories.” Dan, his right hand man, commented.
“Any luck at the Lake?” Major Bradshaw inquired.
“Nothing there, and quite frankly, I don’t think we are going to find anything. The monitors show no levels of activity at all, as a matter of fact, the only real activity we’ve seen has been some minor quacks on the fault lines in Seattle, California, Colorado, and something strange on the East Coast, other than that, this entire area has been dead as a doorknob.” Dan explained, leaning back against the one way mirror of the conference room Jake was sitting in.
“No way, that’s crazy.” A voice bellowed down the hallway of the police station.
“Chief, you should see this!” Another man yelled out from the lounge.
Major Bradshaw followed the Police Chief as he wandered down the hallway and into the conference room, where all the commotion was coming from.
“You’re not going to believe what some crazy news reporter just did.”
“Yeah, Chief, they’ll show it again. Check it out.” A couple of the cops in the room chimed. There was a small television centered on a table with a bunch of guys chilling around it, sipping coffee and eating doughnuts.
Major Bradshaw and the Police Chief both watched the replay of the news clip several times. He was rather surprised to see a news crew with several people standing in a yard harassing a young girl.
“Hey that’s the girl you’re looking for, Major.” The Chief commented. “She came in here after the little incident at the lake, but I guess she was a foster kid so the state had to make different arrangements for her and those files are almost always ironclad.”
“Hey maybe that news crew can tell you where she is. As far as I know she was shipped off to Maine to live with her grandparents.” Officer McGraidy offered.
“How’d you know that, McGraidy?” Chief asked.
“I dropped her off at the airport, remember.” He said.
“Oh right, you volunteered because you felt bad for the little girl. Softy,” Chief teased. “Shh, let’s catch the whole thing.” He turned up the volume on the television.
“We would like to interrupt you with the brief glimpse of what the fountain of youth might look like, or as this town puts it the ‘Devil Child.’ This young girl, of Randolph, Maine, no less than one week ago was in the hospital with a broken leg.” The news reporter pointed to a picture in the upper corner of the screen. A photo from the hospital popped up. There was a large creamy bone, jaggedly protruding from an even larger fleshy wound on the left thigh.
“Now imagine that leg, on this girl, less than a week ago. You can clearly see that she is walking, and now standing here, as if nothing had ever happened.” The little picture changed back to the girl at her house, live, with a large group of people swarming into her yard.
“Just one second, and one of our guys will show you the leg.” The news reporter commented and then watched as a young reporter leaned down at her leg and pulled her pant up to show everyone the leg. Dozens of flashes went off from several cameras.
“They’re calling her the Healing Girl. Her blood quite possibly holds the secret to health and longevity. Healing Girl, or Devil Child you decide for yourself, just stay tuned as we keep you updated on her status. Oh,” The reporter cringed as someone sliced a large chunk on her arm. “That looks like it hurt. But wait, here come the Grandparents to save the day. Well that looks like all for now folks, but stay tuned and we’ll keep you updated. This is KNBTY always giving you the best news.” The reporter finished, and then the station reran the clip several times, before continuing on with other news.
“Randolph, Maine, did they say?” Major Bradshaw commented to the Chief and he nodded his head in reply. “Well that’s where we’re headed then. Thank you for your help. I think we’ve gotten all the information we came to get.” He said to him.
“What do you want me to do with that Jake boy in the holding room?” Chief asked.
“Just let him go, whether or not he knows something won’t matter now. I know where she is. Have a nice day Chief.” Major Bradshaw shook his hand and left the police station with Dan following behind speaking rapidly on a cell phone.
“Airport will be ready in twenty minutes, if you want to head out there now?” Dan informed the Major.
“Good, it’s time we find that stone before she has any idea what it is capable of.” Major Bradshaw reached into his pocket, pulling out a small clear tube, and stared at it in his hand. He clenched his teeth together, shaking the shard of stone back and forth inside the tube examining it, and then placed it back inside his pocket.
The flight wasn’t too long on their nice jet. Dan stayed very busy on the phone scheduling meetings and negotiating with the reporters in order to put a hold on all the broadcasts with Taylor. The words national security and threat were thrown around quiet a bit, but eventually his phone calls died down and he joined Major Bradshaw skimming through files.
“I contacted the Police Chief. He said that they will be taking Taylor to the hospital for some stitches or something. Assuming that we land soon then this might be our only chance to get in there and search the house.” Dan explained, and then contacted the pilot up front.
“Okay sounds good,” Dan commented from inside the cabin, and then rejoined the Major. “He says another ten minutes and we should be at the airport. There’s a cab there waiting for us as soon as we land.”
“Good, we’ll have just enough time to get in there and do some readings, see if we can’t find where she might have put it.” Major Bradshaw said.
The plane landed and the two men rushed off and into the large Black sedan, waiting with a driver and all.
“104 River Road, Randolph, and step on it.” Dan ordered, knowing the address from talking with the Chief.
“Get the hospital on the phone, will you Dan?” The Major ordered. Dan punched in a few numbers and before long handed the phone to Major Bradshaw.
“Nurse Amanda, she’s talking on behalf of the doctor currently treating Taylor.”
“Hello, Amanda, lovely name.” He said.
“Oh thank you,” she replied.
“You have a girl in your care under the name of Taylor Saskia. She is a major threat to homeland security. I want you to keep her checked into the hospital as long as you can. Don’t act like anything is wrong, she may be very dangerous.” The Major lied to Amanda. His main purpose was to keep her there so that he might have more time to search the house.
“Dangerous, Oh dear. What should I do?” She began to panic.
“Don’t do anything unnatural, act like everything is fine. I don’t want her to know that anything is going on. Understand?” He stressed.
“Sure, I’ll tell the doctor. Is there anything else we can do for you?” She replied, calming herself down.
“Not really, thank you.” He replied.
“Just a second, I’ll go speak with the doctor.” She placed the phone on hold and he waited, watching as the driver pulled across the street from a large white two story house on a large lot above the river.
“We’re at the house,” the driver informed Major Bradshaw while he was on hold.
“Hello, Major?” Nurse Amanda returned to the phone. “I’ve spoken with the doctor, and he’s made it clear that you already understand his position and there is nothing more he can do to keep them here. I’m sorry we couldn’t help more. Have a nice day.” She hung up the phone.
Major Bradshaw tossed the cell phone back to Dan and led him over to the side entrance of the house. Dan pulled out a little gad
get and messed with the door lock before it clicked, and they rushed into the house.
“We’ve got a good twenty minutes and then we’ve got to get out of here.” Major Bradshaw said, pulling a tool from Dan’s hand and pointing for him to cover the second floor. They both scurried around the house, pointing what looked like radar guns, at different places in the house. Dressers, drawers, boxes, closets, anyplace they thought a stone might fit, but no luck. Nothing was registering on the guns. Seventeen minutes had passed and they had covered most of the entire house, finally Major Bradshaw called for Dan, but was surprised to find him sitting at the table in the kitchen.
“I didn’t find the stone anywhere, but check this out.” He said handing the old hospital forms to the Major. They were Taylor’s checkout forms from the leg injury and solid proof that she had in fact injured her leg and then healed four days later.
“Well, the stone’s not here. So either she has it or someone else does, but I’ll bet she has it.” Major Bradshaw said, grinding his teeth together again, frustrated that he’d have to track around a teenage girl. This was starting to become a delicate situation, one he did not like the look of.
“Let’s get going. We don’t want anyone knowing we were here. I think it’s best if we keep a tail on her for the next few days. I want to know if she knows about the power of the stone, and I don’t want to bring her in just yet. If the stone has become part of her than we may have some bigger issues.” Handing the papers back to Dan, so he could put them back where he found them, the Major stood up, and walked out the door, waiting for Dan in the car.
“I’ve got some work to do, so I’ll be returning to the Cyndac Facility, but I’ll have two guys join you. I want a tail put on her. You guys keep an eye out for any unusual behavior and keep me posted.
Chapter IX: One Bad Game
Taylor stretched her arms out, slowly waking up for the day. Today would be very exciting; she gets to start her first day at her new school. Setting up and gazing out her window thinking about the finite detail she dreamt of the other night about the spider building its web, she listened for the sound of any life stirring.
