The Time Capsule

Chapter 26: Moonshine in Her Eye

Chapter 26: Moonshine in Her Eye

NOTE FROM THE WRITER: FEED CONNECTING, FEED CONNECTING, FEED CONNECTING...FEED STABLE! My goodness, you lot really are persistent, aren't you? Congratulations on being 'not dead' so far, a feat achieved by very few who cross the Seeing Pools and the Bridge in the Sky. Most people don't make it through The Library of Secrets. I'm sure there's many a skeletal remains hiding around every corner, searching desperately for the right bookshelf that moves the library for escape, only to end up wandering for eternity. A rather relaxing eternity, no? Free to dive into another world at one's pleasure. I'm getting rather ahead of myself. When in the middle of an adventure, it's good to take a step back and look back at the bigger picture in the small town of Shadowstream. That's still intense? 

Oh well. I tried. 

......

3 WEEKS AGO...

THe lights were blinding overhead as Mrs. Sparrow blinked open her eyes, a faintly familiar deep voice calling her out of her sleep. White, fluorescent lights, quite frankly the worst to be greeted with after what felt like a hangover but multiplied times ten. She shook her head to get her bearings and realized she was in some kind of hospital. Stuck here again, she groaned. Didn't people realize she had a daughter to protect, for crying out loud? Didn't they realize they were in danger every second they ignored the growls from the forest? Going about their day as the British do, brushing off the real danger right under their noses. 

Ibis instantly tried to get out of bed but groaned and clutched her head from throbbing in pain. Her veins shone with some sort of light...light that *wasn't* the fluorescent overhead. Dark gold; pulsing, it seemed to have a magic of its own. She faintly remembered Angelica calling her dance from the top of the tree house ladder, and groggily more details came back. She shivered as she remembered the huge creature's gnashing teeth almost swallowing her whole. And then...it was *him.* 

James Sparrow. He'd come back. Somehow...he wasn't dead. Somehow, he had decided that ten years was long enough for him, and there he was. No scratches, no bleeding, but *different.* Evil. He had tried to kill her. Her hands suddenly flashed in white light that burned her insides and she groaned in pain, alerting a doctor outside. He opened the door with that forced smile doctors always do to make it seem like the situation isn't that bad. 

"Just lie back, love," he said. "You hit your head quite hard, but you'll be fine. We found you in the forest. Alone. I'm sure it'll come to you in time." 

"Alone?" Ibis trailed off. "My daughter. My daughter is still in there, she could have been attacked with her friends and they're only teenagers!" 

"Oi, easy, easy!"" He gently pushed her back onto the bed as she moved to get up, realizing she was attached to a multitude of wires. "You've been here longer than you think, love. Nasty anesthetic does that, I'm afraid. Whatever was in the forest is long gone by now, as well as your daughter."

"Yes," Ibis said. "That's exactly what I'm afraid of. How long till I'm out of here?" 

"Nothing too serious, but we'd like to keep you one more night to make sure," the doctor gave the fake smile again. "Now, ma'am, I'm only asking because the police are hammering me with questions and the like. Did you see anything...dangerous in the forest? Anything that shouldn't have been there?"

Mrs. Sparrow shifted. Her eyes narrowed, her motherly state coming back even in the humiliating hospital gown she was in and certainly undesirable circumstances she found herself in. But she always had control of the room, and knew how to get it. 

"If I saw anything, doctor," she said. "I'm sure I'd remember right away, wouldn't I? And even if I did, my daughter's life is in danger. There are only two people I can place that trust in. One of them is dead. The other is myself. So do please ask a concerned mother on anesthetic if she saw anything dangerous. I'm sure it'll do you a world of good."