Here's the next part! again, some of the parts are made up so they may be not exact with the rest of the book, but only in tiny details! Please R & R
I knew the second Sky woke up. She was confused, and desperately unhappy. Sally and Simon had been at her side every second, but I felt too much like an outsider and too guilty to join them, so I had stayed in the uncomfortable waiting room seats, focusing on Sky with every cell in my body. Xav had been trying to convince us to let him heal her, to help, but we all knew it was already too late; the authorities were involved, and too much attention would be attracted by a miraculous recovery. I stood up as soon as Simon emerged from her room.
"Can I see her?" I asked immediately. I needed to know she was OK, she was whole and mostly well.
"She doesn't want any visitors." Simon said gravely, and slightly sympathetically. His eyes spoke to me, and I understood – she didn't want to see me. I felt the hope die from my eyes and I slowly sat down again. It wasn't supposed to be like this; we were meant to be together, no matter what, not forced apart. It was then that I realized Soulfinders could make a savant go dark in more than one way.
"Relax, kid." Simon placed a hand on my shoulder – somewhere between Sky sneaking out to be with me and her getting kidnapped and taken to Vegas, SuperDad had started to like me – and gave my shoulder a squeeze "She just needs time to heal. She'll come around." He patted me once more before hurrying back to Sky. I rubbed my face with my hands.
"He's right, Zed." Xav said gently "She's been through a lot; give her a rest and she'll be biting back soon enough." But I couldn't help but feel something was wrong; Sky's past was a mysterious and rarely talked about thing, full of deep shadows and rat traps waiting to snap.
"I'm gunna talk to her," Victor declared "see what she knows." And he strode off. That was Victor, no questions asked, just do it.
"We should leave, get some sleep." Dad said, looking at me "She'll be fine on her own; Sally and Simon are with her." I nodded numbly and we all stood. When I walked past Sky's room, I slowed, drinking her in; she looked better than in the warehouse, but by no means well. Her face was the same, but her eyes looked. . . troubled. Different. She looked at me. I stopped, and placed my hand on the glass - please, Sky baby, say something, so something, please, baby, I'm dying here, please. Sky clenched her fists on the sheets; fear shone in her eyes. The jug of water began to rattle, the light stuttered, the emergency buzzer crashed to the floor. My expression darkened, and Dad came up behind me.
"Let's go, Zed." He said firmly, and I nodded. Oh, so many emotions were put into those three words. I gave her one last look before moving on, and for once, I didn't think the strength of my family would be quite enough this time.
On the way home, I could tell everyone wanted to say something, but couldn't think of what to say. Dad assumed the disruption in Sky's room was the result of my frustrations, and I was never so grateful I had kept the truth about Sky a secret. Xav followed me into my hotel room when we got there, and even though we didn't talk at all, I was grateful for the company.
That night I went for a walk. Well, I went to find noise to push the worries from my head. Sky. The Kelleys. The FBI snoop. Sky. It all weighed in me like a block of lead, one for each trouble. I was alerted by a rowdy cheer from a drunken group of men; they were stumbling from a bar, The Velvet Monkey. I changed my direction and entered the full, stuffy place. The barman was middle-aged and grey-haired; I ordered something non-alcoholic, aware of the laws even if I didn't like them. The man next to me on the bar stool snorted; he must have been twice my weight. I wasn't aware I was also searching for a fight, but suddenly I wanted nothing more than blood on my knuckles.
"Something wrong, man?" I sneered, and the man turned to face me. He friend, seated beside him, brought his head up in interest
"No, nothing, dude – I just thought this was a bar, not a day-care-centre." He grunted, sipping a large glass of beer.
"You have a problem with me being here? Because we could go outside, man." I stood; a hush had fallen in those near us, and eyes were watching for a fight – they wanted one as much as I did. And I was never one to disappoint.
"Nah, man," he laughed drunkenly "I don't fight babies."
"And I don't fight assholes," I said pleasantly "but we both might have to make an exception here."
"Sit down, kid," the man's friend said "you're looking at a High School wrestling champion here."
"Oh, really?" I leaned in close to the first man's ear "Did you wear one of those latex costumes?"
Without a warning, the man reared up and punched me square in the jaw. My head snapped back, and I laughed, tasting blood on my lip. The man has turned back to his friend, congratulating himself on his hit with a high-five. Before he could react I swung a fast punch that winded him; he quickly replied with one of his own. I grunted and grinned; this was good.
"Had enough, kid?" the man teased to a roaring crowd "Wanna cry away to Mommy?"
"Oh, don't you wish." I said before my knuckles ground against his jaw, making him spit blood and saliva. I followed it with three more of the kind before a strong arm pulled me backwards. I brought up my fist, expecting another attacker, but stilled when I recognised the face.
"Give it a rest, Zed." Xav grunted, dragging me outside without giving me room to escape his grasp - the crowd leered and booed behind us as we left, and the man I was fighting called crude names after me. I swore violently back as Xav forced me into retreat.
"What are you doing?" I yelled at him "I had that son of a - !"
"No, you were two punches away from a police arrest." Xav interrupted "You can thank me later." And walked off, leaving me seething. He was right; but now Sky was back in my head, her face as she passed out in the ambulance. I was helpless, hopeless – useless. That was something a soulfinder should never be.
Thanksgiving flew by, but I found it hard to find anything to be thankful for. Sky still refused my visits. Victor went to talk with her, but I didn't get any spontaneous calls from Sky, no acceptances or any signs that anything had changed at all. She was moved to a rehab house – I knew she'd think of it as a loony bin – but in the end I couldn't stay away. I bad been strong for weeks; but this was a breaking point. So I drove down and visited, buying a prettily decorated box of chocolates; Sky's sweet tooth was legendary.
I just kept on taking deep breaths as I walked down the too-brightly-lit corridor, gripping the chocolate box in both hands. I had almost reached her room when two familiar figures stepped out, hand-in-hand.
"Hey, Zed!" Tina smiled, but, like the corridor, it was too bright to be true.
"Hey," I said lowly "how is she?"
"She's good." Said Nelson "Just as sarcastic, if a little thin."
"Good. Good." I couldn't think of another thing to say, so just walked past them and knocked on the door.
"Come in." Came a spoken reply, but it was unmistakably Sky. I opened the door and saw what Nelson meant about her being a bit thin.
"Hi." Good start, idiot. Was that all I could say? 'Hi'?
"H. . . hi." She stuttered, her throat working hard to get the words out.
I revealed the golden box from behind my back "I come bearing chocolate."
"In that case, you'd better sit down." Her voice sounded calm, but empty, like she was saying what she was meant to say, not what she wanted to say. I could feel her emotions churning like the ocean in a thunder storm. I put the box on her neatly made bed and went to stand beside her at the window.
"Nice view." I commented lamely.
"Yeah." She said around clenched teeth – I couldn't figure out why "We crazy people get to go out earlier in the day. I'm told there's a snowman down in the orchard that looks like the head nurse." I flinched at her words, but took her trembling hand in mine. The trembling stopped.
"You're not crazy."
Her laugh was strangled and slightly hysterical, and a hand came up to wipe away a tear.
"That's what everyone keeps telling me but my brain feels like cold scrambled egg." She said, looking down.
"You're still in shock." I explained helplessly, but we both knew she wasn't.
"No, Zed, it's more than that." she said, shaking her head "I see things I don't think happened. I've got all these terrible images in my head – stuff about you and Xav. But you're not like that – part of me knows this. And I think I shot you both. I wake up in a cold sweat dreaming there's a gun in my hand. I haven't even touched a gun in my life so how do I know what it feels like to shoot one?"
"Come here." It was all I could think to do – hold her in my arms until everything was better again and we were safe and she loved me. But she pushed away.
"No, Zed, you don't want to touch me." she sniffed, tears rolling down her cheeks "I'm. . . I'm broken."
I don't want her broken, not yet. I thought, pulling her close to me despite her protests.
"You're not broken, Sky." I struggled to keep my voice even – it was so hard to be the strong one when the strongest one of us all was crying in my arms "Even if you were, I'd still want you, but you're not. I don't know why you see those things, but if you do, there's a reason for it. Perhaps that dead savant messed with your mind somehow? Whatever it takes, we'll find out and we'll help you. But Xav and I, we weren't anywhere near you until we found you in the warehouse. Do you believe that?" she nodded, her blonde frizz scuffing against my shirt.
"I think I do." She murmured. I ran my hands down her back, trying to gently push out the tension and knots in it. She was stressed, too stressed.
"I thought I'd lost you." I admitted, and my voice broke just a little bit "I can't tell you what it means to me to hold you like this."
"You came for me even though you knew they might shoot you." She whispered.
"I was wearing a bulletproof vest." I said in objection – it was no act of bravery, it was an act of self-survival; because Sky was me. If Sky died, I died, if she hurt, I hurt. If she was broken – I was broken.
"You still could've been killed. They could've taken a head shot." I took her face in my hand, stroking her face. Sky.
"Price with paying." I said truthfully "Without you, I'd become the coldest, most cynical tough nut on the planet, worse even than the guys who took you."
"I don't believe that."
"It's true." I had made a point to say nothing but the truth to Sky a long time ago "You are my anchor, keeping me on the right side of wrong. I've been drifting since you shut me out."
"Victor told me." she admitted, and I frowned.
"I told him to leave you alone." I muttered; and I had, numerous times and in a voice much louder than the one I was talking with to Sky.
"He's worried about you."
"But you come first." I disagreed.
"I'm sorry I wouldn't let you visit. I was so ashamed of myself." Her face was hidden, so I couldn't see her expression, but I could feel every tense, frozen muscle in her body.
"You've nothing to be ashamed of."
"I left you to suffer."
"I'm a big boy – I can take it."
"You got into a fight."
"I'm also stupid." I commended. Sky smiled, just a hint of the real beauty of her full smile, and rubbed her nose against my shirt.
"You're not stupid; you were hurting."
"It's still stupid to take that out on a couple of Frat boys for looking at me the wrong way." I disagreed, shaking my head at my own behaviour; what was I thinking? Well, I hadn't been thinking. But Sky wouldn't like it if I got into a fight. I knew that "I know you're confused about a lot right now, Sky, but I want you to know one thing for sure: I love you and I would give my life for yours if it meant I could save you." Tears started wobbling in her eyes – I couldn't tell if they were good or bad tears.
"I know. I felt it. I could read your emotions. That's what told me my mind was lying to me." This was hard, immeasurably hard for her to admit; that she wasn't a normal human girl, that she was different, abnormal, strange. But I loved it about her. That she was different and abnormal and strange, that she thought in comic strips and spoke in a different tenor to her thoughts and played music so well she might as well have been an angel. But instead of saying all of that, I simply leaned down and kissed her forehead.
"And I think," She continued shakily "that under all this, when I find myself again, I will also find that I love you too." It was barely a promise, but it was still there and I clung onto it like a life jacket.
"That's good to know." I breathed. And then we just stood, wrapped up with each other I was sure I couldn't tell where Sky finished and I started, watching the stars twinkle in the black velvet sky and praying for a reprieve.