Time's Tragedies- The Books Of Beginning [2]

56. Lili's Worst Fear

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh," Lili mumbled over and over. She was trembling fiercely, like a flimsy leaf in a hurricane. Her father and best friend had practically carried her back into the house after her episode outside, and now she was perched on the couch, hugging her knees to her chest. "Oh gosh."

Rafe draped a fuzzy checkered blanket over her shoulders, "it's okay, Lili. I'm here. You're safe."

"We're all here," Jake added, from where he and Abby were seated on the carpet. 

"I'm so sorry," Lili murmured, "I'm so, so sorry."

"It was an accident," Rafe soothed, "we know that. We just want to know why it happened."

Lili buried her head in her knees and murmured something ineligible. Rafe rubbed her back soothingly, "take your time. You just released a large amount of magic - that always exerts a toll on a magician's body. You probably feel sick right now."

"I feel dizzy," Lili moaned, "dizzy and achey."

"I know," Rafe said, "it'll fade, I promise."

"Do you want some water, Lili?" Abby inquired, wanting to do something, anything, to be useful, to regain a bit of control in a situation far more complex than just her.

"No," the blonde said, "no."

Rafe sighed, "okay, kiddo. What can we do for you?"

"I wanna be in my own bed," Lili mumbled.

"I can do that," Rafe said, "Abby, Jake, why don't you two go pick out a takeout menu for later tonight, while I take your sister upstairs."

He waited to receive their nods of affirmation, and once he did, scooped Lili, blanket-cloak and all, into his arms, one hand under her legs, the other around her shoulders and upper back. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she clung to him like she used to do when she was very small. 

With some effort and a bit of magic to keep them from toppling over, Rafe carried his eldest daughter up the stairs and to her room, placing her on her bed. Lili immediately fell over, laying on her side, half-suppressed sobs trying to force themselves from her lips. Each one was like a knife to her father's heart as he rearranged her blankets around her and gave her a pillow to hug in her arms like a lifeline.

"It's just us, Lili," Rafe pleaded, "it's me, it's dad. Just help me understand, what happened. I'm not mad or disappointed in any way, I'm just worried about you, and I need to know how to help you."

"I don't know-" Lili's voice broke. She swallowed and then tried again, "I was hallucinating, or something. It was like something out of a dream, like I was sleepwalking, only I felt lucid the whole time. It felt so real... I couldn't tell it wasn't real."

Rafe nodded slowly, "alright. Okay. What was this, this hallucination you were trapped in."

"It looked like a dream I've been having," Lili said, voice thick with emotion, "the world was ending, or something. Things were on fire, the earth was crumbling and flooding... I was trapped, between a ring of fire and an endless flow of water. The ground was breaking underneath me... it felt so real, dad."

"I know it did, Lili, I believe everything you're saying. Just explain to me what happened next," Rafe encouraged her to go on.

"Well during all of this I kept hearing this voice, but like, inside my head," Lili sobbed, "and it kept telling me things, telling me to make a choice, between light and dark and burning and drowning and it was terrible, dad. And then when the ground was breaking under me, I started screaming for all of you but you weren't there, or maybe you were, in the real world, but I couldn't hear anything you were saying. I thought all of this was really happening to me."