Sacrifice
A Sequel to Quietly into the Night
Conventional Couples
Rating: PG-13
Chapter Nine
Antar
A burst of light emanated from the storeroom, followed by the soft cry of a child. Saranara signaled Jereon to stay out front and she retreated to the back of the store. She quickly opened the door to the storeroom, slipped inside and closed the door behind her to find a small child standing in front of her.
"Hello," said Saranara, in Antarian. "I'm Saranara, and who might you be?" Lexie just stared blankly at the woman, confused by the garbled speech. "Hello," she tried again, this time in English. "I am Saranara."
"I'm Lexie, and I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."
"Well, that is very wise," said Saranara kneeling down in front of the child. "But we've just introduced ourselves, so we are no longer strangers. Lexie, can you tell me where you come from?" she asked with trepidation.
"That's a funny question," said Lexie.
"Where do you live?" Saranara tried again.
"Oh, I live in Roswell," said the child.
"That's what I was afraid of," said Saranara.
EarthMichael roared through the streets of Roswell and turned his bike into Max's driveway. Jumping from the bike, he ran towards the house, ignoring the crash as his motorcycle hit the ground. Crashing through the door, he ran directly into Philip Evans who grabbed him and hugged him tightly. "We've already said our goodbyes to Max," he said. "Michael, be careful, we love you and don't want to lose you. We want all three of our kids to come back safe."
"We'll be ok, and we'll be back, all of us." He hugged Philip and Diane tightly. "Watch out for Maria and Beth for me."
"We will son, we will," said Philip giving Michael one last hug.
"You ready?" Max asked.
"Let's do it," Michael answered. Together the two stepped into the beam of light that came from the orbs, and disappeared.
Antar"Lexie, would you like to play a game with me?" asked Saranara. The little girl nodded and Saranara continued, "I need you to be as quiet as you can be, and not make any loud noises. Can you do that?"
"Un-huh," she said. "But I want my Daddy." Her dark brown eyes filled up with tears.
"I know you do, and hopefully, he'll be here soon."
"Do you know my Daddy?" asked the girl hopefully.
"I'm sorry, I really don't, but I do know that your Daddy loves you very much, and he'll do whatever he can to find you soon. Now you wait here, and I'll be right back." She handed Lexie the Antarian equivalent of a pen and paper and told her to play.
Saranara slipped back out to the front of the store and Jereon gave her a questioning look. She looked around the shop to make sure they were alone before she answered his unspoken question. "It isn't them," she said. "It's worse, we need Kyle, now!" She had just finished speaking when the door burst open and the store filled with Kivar's guardsmen. They said little, but began to tear apart the store. "Please, what are you looking for?" cried Saranara in Antarian. "Tell us what you want, and we will gladly help you."
"Be quiet!" shouted one of the guardsmen. "We have no wish to converse with the daughter of a traitor. He turned to Jereon, who was being held by two more guardsmen. "You there, where is your father? Where are you hiding him?"
"We have no idea of where our father is," said Jereon, struggling to break free. "We haven't seen him for months."
The guardsman walked over to Jereon and punched him in the stomach. "Do not lie to me! Where is he?" When Jereon wouldn't answer, the guardsman proceeded to beat him severely. He nodded to the guardsmen who were holding him, and they dropped him in a heap on the floor. Blood trickled from cuts on his face, and he struggled to catch his breath. "I swear, we don't know where he is. We thought he was dead, but we are loyal to Lord Kivar. If we do see him again, we will turn him in. We don't want anymore shame brought to our family," he gasped.
"See that you do," said the guardsman as he and the others left the shop. "You will be hearing from us again," he said with a nasty laugh.
As soon as they were gone, Saranara ran to her brother and helped him up. "Jereon, are you alright? Come out back and lie down. I'll try and find a healer for you. She half led, half dragged Jereon to the storeroom. He collapsed on the small bed they kept back there and groaned with pain.
"Lexie," Saranara called softly. "Where are you child? It's ok, please come out. I'm sorry about all the noise out there. I hope it didn't scare you."
"I'm not scared of anything," said Lexie crawling out from behind some storage containers. "My Daddy says I'm a brave little soldier."
"I'm sure you are. Lexie, this is Jereon, he's my brother. He, um, he fell down and hurt himself. I'm going to go see if I can find someone to help him. Can you be a brave soldier for me and stay here with Jereon?"
"Ok," Lexie said.
"Now listen, this is very important. If anybody comes in here, I want you to hide again. It's part of our quiet game. Can you remember to do that?"
"Ok," she said again. "I'm a good hider. When we play hide and go seek, Unca Michael can never find me!"
"Good girl," she answered. "Jereon," she said, turning to her brother. "I'm going to try and find a healer. "Kivar may have outlawed healers, but I know there are still some in town. Hang on brother. I'll return swiftly." She left the storeroom, locking the door behind her and exited the store and began her search.
Lexie looked at the man lying on the bed from across the room. She approached his side slowly, and poked him in the arm. "You gots a boo boo mister?" she asked. Jereon groaned, but said nothing else. "I can fix them. My Daddy said I shouldn't fix boo boos, unless he was with me, but you look like it really hurts. Once, I fell and bumpeded my nose and it bleeded like yours. It really hurt bad, but my Daddy made it stop. Want me to make yours stop too?" She didn't wait for an answer, but put her hand on his nose. After a moment, the bleeding subsided. Lexie then moved her hand to the other visible cuts on his face and healed them as well.
"Thank you," Jereon whispered in English. " I hurt here too," he gasped pointing to his ribs. Do you think you can fix that as well? The boo boos," he stumbled over the unfamiliar Earth expression. Lexie moved her hands to his ribs and concentrated, and in a few minutes, Jereon was able to sit up. "Thank you very much," he said. "I am Jereon, brother of Saranara. Who are you?"
"I'm Lexie," she said. "Are you all better now?"
"Yes, thank you. I'm quite sure your Daddy won't mind that you made my injuries better. Would you like to sit up here with me, and I can tell you a story while we wait for Saranara." Lexie nodded, and climbed up on the bed next to Jereon and he began to tell her the story of the royal family.
"Hey, I knows that story. My Daddy tells it to me all the time," she cried excitedly. Oh, this is bad, he thought to himself.
The room filled with light and Isabelle appeared, slightly disoriented from her journey. "Lexie!" she yelled. "Where are you Lexie?" She looked around the room and saw her niece sitting on the bed next to a strange Antarian. "Get away from her before I kill you," she said raising her hand.