Vitality (Vitality Series #1)

Chapter 54 Eclipse of the Heart pt.2

The twins came through the door, carrying bags. It was hard to tell anymore what was a dream and what was real. No Gabriel. No Freddy. Ava's head dropped back down.

"My God, Ava... She looks worse than you said, Christian." Ella sat the bags down slowly as she looked from Ava to Layton, who was standing at the end of her bed staring at them, impatiently. "The both of you look like you've been slowly dying away up here together."

Ava and Layton looked at each other through the accusation. Harsh reality was trying to push through, and it made her feel like an animal caught suddenly from the wilderness.

"When's the last time you guys slept or ate anything?"

"Eh." Christian stopped her. "I don't want to know the last time he ate. Or who." He shot Layton a look before heading towards Ava, his face then taken over with severe stupor. Ava returned it, still keeping Layton's exact presence in her peripheral vision, as if he was a shadow lingering at the edge of all her thoughts.

"I don't know how much we can do," the twins conversed in the background. Christian took Ava's hand in his for a moment and then turned it over and ran his finger down it.

Layton was leering an inch from Christian's face in that instance, grabbing his hand from her. "Don't."

Christian snatched his hand away. "She needs a hospital."

"The hospital is not safe. I told you this. And the doctor was already here! At this point, she needs more than modern medicine. You two can help with that."

"All right." Christian turned from him sharply and wiggled his shoulders. "We need you to leave the room."

Layton looked at Ava, and Ella shook her head. "We need you out of the room for this, and we need water for the tub. Go now. Hurry." She pushed him towards the door.

After he brought the water, Ella quickly closed the door behind him and blasted salt towards the door, as if it was a baseball and she was a pitcher. "Eh." She shook her body off before going to their bags and setting everything on the table, while Christian rounded the entire room with a line of salt. He poured the water in the tub as Ella threw herbs in.

"What are you guys going to do?" Ava asked.

"Well, we will try to cleanse the sickness from your body as much as we can— "

"Hopefully your mind, too," Christian said under his breath.

" —And invoke strength from the nature spirits for you. But, Ava, you're pretty advanced in illness; we're not sure there's much we can do... we're only practitioners with only so much pull in the universe, and a little guidance here and there."

"I'll just have to hold on until there is something we can do." There was a loud thunder, and Ava tried to sit up enough to look out the window. Layton was down there, on the bench.

"How did you get mixed up with that thing, Ava?" Ella asked.

"I still can't believe what's going on right now," Christian said to himself, walking around the room, struggling to focus.

"I wish I knew," Ava replied, still looking down, and shivered. Her teeth chattered. "I-I don't feel like myself anymore."

"You don't look like yourself anymore, either."

She closed her eyes and took in a nauseous breath. "My thoughts are a mess. My heart is a mess. I'm... trying to hold on." Her eyes curved open angrily, and her fingers came up to her head. "It's getting darker in here... Hope you guys can raise the dead."

"We can't. But you can. Okay? You can raise yourself from this."

Ava nodded. "So can Layton."

She didn't want them here. She didn't want any of her friends dragged into her ruin. Ava should have never befriended any of them.

Christian and Ella looked at each other and brought her to the tub. "It's cold, but with your fever, that will be good. Just lay back and try to relax. Let us do the rest."

Ava sat in the water and gasped. "Relax!" They pushed her back in. The water wasn't just cold, it was a thousand needles plunging through her body. Her mind was dazed. Her body shook.

Christian and Ella lit the candles around the tub and began chanting, until Ava's mind was a blurred labyrinth of shredding confusion.