Xylem : 4

"Please, Amy." Dad's voice, but full of desperation. I lay motionless in bed on my stomach. I dared not move. I felt his presence walk by and stop by the side of the bed. "It's getting worse, we need to get it checked out."

"No." Mom's voice was curt, sharp. "If we go, they'll know about Newton." Her voice was coming from her bed. When did dad come back?

Dad let out a frustrated sigh as he moved away. His footsteps on the carpet paced back and forth. I kept my eyes closed, feigning sleep. Dad paced in silence for nearly a minute before speaking again.

"What if it's something serious, Amy? Most people when they have a hybrid child…they develop cancer."

"It's not cancer."

"You've lost weight, can barely eat, and the constant fatigue-"

"I said no, David." The springs in the mattress shifted as mom moved. Another long pause.

"Amy, be reasonable. Your life could be at risk. Is his life really that much more valuable than yours?"

"Of course he is!" Mom's voice rose higher but then she caught herself. "David, you're talking about your son. If WICKED ever found him, found out we hid him?"

"Let them find him! They would know what to do with him. Have you seen the news reports of wraith attacks? They're evil creatures that kill anything they come into contact with and infect any survivors. He's no son of mine, just a monster who's killing my wife." The door opened, his footsteps rushed out, and the door slammed behind him.

"Mom?" Lizzy jumped awake next to me. She scrambled to get upright. I finally opened my eyes and pushed myself up into a sitting position.

The room was dimly lit and sunlight peeked through the small gap in between the curtains. Mom stood in the middle of the room still staring at the closed door. Tears stained her face, but she quickly wiped them away as she heard Lizzy.

"Good morning, honey." She smiled over at her, then met my worried gaze. She cleared her throat and glanced away, briskly walking to Lizzy's side of the bed.

How much did he hear? The question shuffled anxiously through her mind several times.

"Was that dad?" Lizzy asked as mom approached her.

"Yes, he just came to grab a few things." She lied. She glanced sideways over at me.

Don't repeat anything to her, Newton.

"Can we swim in the pool?" Lizzy was unphased. She was bursting with energy and excitement. "Don't hotels make breakfast things? We should go get pancakes, and waffles, and eggs, and bacon."

Mom, Lizzy, and I sat at a small table in the corner of the hotel breakfast hall. Several other tables similar to ours sat around us, but most were unoccupied. We had come down to breakfast late and most people had already come and gone. There was only an elderly woman in the room now. She sat alone at her table across the room.

Such a cute little girl. She thought as she watched Lizzy playing with her bagel. I zipped up my hoodie and pulled my wings in tighter. No one could see them or my tail, but fear still lanced through my heart whenever someone walked into the room.

Mom sat across from me.

"Aren't you hungry, sweetheart?"

I looked up from my plate to glance at hers. She had barely touched her scrambled eggs.

Dad was right about two things. Mom barely ate much these days and she had been losing weight. It had been like this for nearly two months. Far too long for a cold or the flu. My plain bagel and bacon lay untouched on my plate.

'Cancer.'

'Let them find him.'

'A monster who's killing my wife.'

"Newt?"

I blinked and looked up. Mom was frowning and watching me intently.

"Am I a monster?" I whispered low enough so no one but she could hear. It was her turn to blink and she blanched at the same time. Then she quickly began gathering up all of our plates and garbage.

"Come, Lizzy, we're going to the pool."

"Dad is out trying to find a place for us to stay." Mom said quietly. We sat at a small picnic table in the farthest corner of the pool yard. Lizzy was out in the middle of the shallow end squealing and splashing with several other kids.

"What are wraiths?" I asked as I watched Lizzy. The sun was high overhead and made me squint. Mom didn't answer and I looked back at her. She was watching Lizzy too, but deep in thought. I waited. I wanted her to give me the answer herself, to tell me the truth.

"Wraiths are creatures."

"That have wings and forked tails too?"

Mom took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Yes."

"Where did they come from?"

"Newt, it's complicated-"

"I need to know." I set my jaw and stared at the corner of the table, my hands clasped in my lap as I leaned onto my knees. Mom's hand landed on my back and slowly rubbed small circles in between my wings.

"Years ago, before you were born, a team of scientists were working in their lab." She began. Her voice was low and tired. "They were trying to crash atoms together to break them apart and see what they were made of. But one of these tests did something different. Instead of breaking apart, the atoms exploded, and tore a large hole open."

"Tore a hole in what?"

"In the very fabric of time." She whispered. "At first the scientists were afraid. Nothing they did could seal the hole again. But then they realized that things could go into the hole and come back out. So the scientists decided to make the hole bigger, big enough so that people could go through, and you know what they found?"

"What?"

"An entire new world. One with thousands of new plants, animals, and places." Mom paused to give me a moment to process what she had just said.

"There's another world? Does it still exist? What happened to it?" I said quickly but mom held up a finger.

"Yes, it still exists. The scientists named it Xylem. It quickly became a huge source of fuel, medicine, food, and raw materials. But there was a catch to all this growth."

"Wraiths?"

She nodded slowly. "Wraiths are one of the creatures of the portal world, Xylem. They are about 5 feet tall at the shoulder, 20 feet long from their snout to their venomous tail, and have a 35 foot wingspan. They aren't like winged creatures from here. They have four legs instead of two, and have large jaws full of teeth. And do you know how they communicate?" She looked over at me and paused.

"How?"

"Telepathy, Newton. They can read your mind, send thoughts out to one another, and communicate over huge distances. The same thing you and Lizzy can do."

"But you can't?" I frowned. I had sent thoughts to her before. She shook her head.

"I can feel the general emotion of what you send me, but I can't understand words. You and Lizzy can have full conversations, I've seen you two." She winked at me and I looked back over at Lizzy. She was floating on a pool noodle as another little boy pushed her across the deep end.

"They sound really cool." I breathed. "But why does dad hate them?"

"I think that's enough for now, sweetheart." She sighed and leaned back into her chair. Dark bags sat under her eyes and her cheeks were beginning to sink into her face. "We should go back to our room now. Go get your sister."