Meridian. Part 9

53a "I want you to yell and scream as loud as you can, okay? I'll yell with you. On the count of ni three, start screaming, okay?"

*"Kay."

"One." I braced myself and swallowed.

54ani *

Chapter 11.

"Two." I gritted my teeth.

"Three."

She opened her mouth and got the first scream out before the pain hit her brain and she pa.s.sed out.

"Let me help." Tens appeared at my elbow and steadied my hands.

"Where were you?" I wanted to screech.

"I found her footprints; they circled back here. I lost you in the dark. I'm sorry." Tens finished opening the trap, inching Celia's leg out of it.

I held the jaws of the trap, praying the d.a.m.n thing wouldn't spring shut and make Celia's wound even worse. We moved her before she regained consciousness. I hoped she'd revive.

Blood oozed around the bone, the flesh torn and shredded. Could she survive the injury?

She had to. I refused to contemplate the alternative. It was selfish, but if she died there was good chance I might too.

"Dammit, I dropped my scarf." Tens glanced at me. "Give me yours. We have to stop the bleeding."' I gave him my scarf to tie around Celia's leg.

"Okay. Custos, you better find people to help us. Find help," Tens commanded. Even bundled in layers, Celia couldn't have weighed forty pounds. "Their ranch is over that next ridge. It's faster to go ahead and meet up with the search party rather than go back to Auntie's. I hope they have an ambulance there."

"But isn't Auntie's just back there?" I pointed behind us, seeing nothing but rolling white and pockets of forest.

"Meridian, we've been out here for four hours. We're nowhere near Auntie's." Tens lifted Celia, tenderly cradling her inert form.

I held the flashlights so he could see in front of him, and followed blindly in his tracks. It made wading through the snow arduous.

Custos bounded ahead, waiting for us, then going on. I hoped she had the sense not to walk into another of the traps, and I prayed my foot wouldn't find one either. Celia's breathing grew shallow and irregular.

"Hurry," I snapped, feeling the urgency, sure that we weren't moving fast enough. Weren't pushing hard enough.

"I can't go any faster." Tens sped up just the same.

55ani "Oh. I know. Sorry." Of course he was doing his best. He knew what was at stake too.

*"I'm dizzy." A little voice interrupted us.

Tens paused for a second. "Hi. Celia. We're taking you home, okay?"

I saw lights in the distance headed diagonally across the field. If they stayed that way, they'd miss us. "Tens? Look."

He handed Celia to me. "Hold her. Keep her as warm as you can. I have to get their attention." He grabbed a light and plunged ahead, shouting and waving his arms, "Custos, bark, help us!" I pleaded.

I unzipped my coat and wrapped it around Celia. The wet cold seeped into my skin and made me grit my teeth. "It's going to be okay. I promise."

Celia was staring up at me in the beam of the flashlight. "You're pretty."

"Thanks."

"It'll be okay, you know." she said.

"I should be rea.s.suring you, not the other way around." I knelt in the snow, worried I'd drop her.

"No, you don't really know, but you will."

"Okay." I hugged her tighter against me.

Her breathing slowed, but she opened her eyes and peered up at me. "Why did the man tell me to go under the tree?" Celia said.

"That was mean."

"What man, Celia? Who?" My left leg began throbbing and I felt pressure building inside of me. I looked around us, wondering if she knew what she was saying. I hadn't seen evidence of anyone else. Then I heard the dogs barking in the distance and the soft whir of snowmobiles, "Over here!" Tens boomed. A flurry of activity headed in our direction.

Celia couldn't die. Not now. Not ever. But definitely not while I was holding her.

"Hang on. Celia, they're almost here." I shook her as gently as I could, trying to keep her awake. A new, unfamiliar pain radiated up my leg. Fear sped up my breathing and my heartbeat.

Tens ran toward us, plowing up powder. I cradled Celia's small form against me.

"It's beautiful here," she said, snuggling into me with a sigh. "Thanks for finding me and fixing my leg. It doesn't hurt anymore."

56a "Oh, I didn't..." I had to get away from her. I had to get her help. There were so many ni reasons this precious girl couldn't die.

*Custos howled. The lights rapidly came closer and Tens was silhouetted against the snowmobile headlights.

I must have looked as terrible as I felt, because when Tens reached us he grabbed Celia from my arms and turned toward the snowmobiles. "Get away -go! Open the window!" he shouted, breaking the painful stupor I was sliding toward.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up. My ears felt like they needed to pop, and pressure built in my chest as if the air was being sucked out of me. The pain in the pit of my stomach intensified. "No, Celia, no!" I stumbled away, trying to visualize the window, but an irrational part of me wanted to resist -as if I could force her to stay alive by making it harder. Waves of excruciating, piercing pain crashed over me, forcing the breath from my lungs. I couldn't move fast enough. Or get far enough away.

She was dying. I knew this feeling.

My left leg gave out completely. Pain radiated through me as I fell into a s...o...b..nk. "No, no, no." Tears poured down my cheeks. I could feel her leaving her body.

I tried to stand, but I couldn't put any weight on my leg. It felt as if the bones poked through the skin. Custos tugged at my jacket and I dragged my leg behind me until I'd hobbled and crawled as far as I could. It didn't matter anymore; in that moment there was nothing left in me to fight. I leaned against a tree and focused on breathing through the scorching pain. My ankle throbbed and I struggled for each breath as I watched the scene unfold around me.

"Celia? Celia? Where's my baby?" An older woman frantically stumbled through the snow toward Tens, falling to the ground with grief. As she ripped the child from his arms, I turned to the side and vomited blood. I heaved until nothing came up. The pressure eased fractionally, and the pain loosened its grip enough that I could lift my head.

From a distance. I surveyed the vaguely familiar group before me as a tall, blond man said a prayer and made the sign of the cross over Celia and her mother. He seemed to be some sort of preacher, but his vibe was intimidating and oily. Where his features should have been illuminated by the headlights, there was only the black and empty blankness of a human form. I squinted but couldn't quite catch a glimpse of his face.

Like someone had flipped a switch, the feeling of Celia's soul pressing into me, through me, disappeared. The pain began to dissipate like fog in the sun. I forced breath back into my lungs. I felt as if I'd been freed from my own inhumane trap.

My teeth chattered and shivers racked my body. Celia liked Oreos, My Little Ponies, and helping her mom make chocolate chip cookies. I didn't know how I knew this.

Tens came to check on me as the conversation escalated around us. "Are you okay?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. My leg is messed up." The pain was slowly rolling off like a storm pa.s.sing, but the effort had left me weak and ill.

I heard Celia's mother wail as her father said, "She's gone. Honey, she's gone." He drew his wife up and picked up Celia.

57ani *Tens gently brushed the hair from my face. "I'm going to borrow a snowmobile to get us home. Wait here for a minute, okay?"

I nodded without opening my eyes.

"What thing is this that thou hast done?" asked the rich voice of a stranger.

I opened my eyes to blink up at the most handsome older man I'd ever seen up close. The blond man. A movie star. A Wall Street tyc.o.o.n. Surely People magazine's s.e.xiest Man Alive. He oozed confidence, cla.s.s, and charisma. He had such perfectly symmetrical features that I was spellbound until he continued speaking. "Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say. Amen.'" He didn't take his mercurial eyes off me. Eyes that appeared as black holes. No white shone, just swirling, oily voids. I tried unsuccessfully to make my eyes focus in the odd light.

"'And G.o.d saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.' We're watching, you know. Waiting."

Tens drove back into earshot before I had time to piece together this bizarre monologue.

"Tens, son, I was just introducing myself to Miss Sozu. I'm Reverend Perimo. It's so good to meet you, young lady. Your aunt has told me so much about you." It was as if a full transformation had occurred. "I offered her a ride back to her aunt's, but I think she's delirious from the cold."

"We're fine, thanks. I borrowed transpo." Tens's voice was smooth and modulated, but tension radiated from every sinew in his body.

"You sure? She looks like she's got a b.u.m leg there." The reverend's tone never slipped from friendly and concerned. I almost believed I'd hallucinated his odd language.

"We're good, thanks." Tens helped me stand. I could almost put weight on my leg. I straddled the seat and kept my mouth shut. Wrapping my arms around Tens's waist. I laid my cheek against his back. Custos ran alongside us. I must have dozed, because I don't remember the ride home.

Auntie met us at the front door, worry etching lines in her face.

Tens lifted me from the back of the snowmobile. When I registered that he intended to carry me, I cried, "Stop! I can walk." I was a complete sissy around him -that had to change.

"Sure. Tomorrow." He didn't stop. "You're a weakling, it's not a hardship." I swore he was teasing me, but he didn't crack a smile, so I didn't laugh.

"Thanks." I wrapped an arm around his neck, trying not to notice how silky straight his hair fell against his neck. Or how nice he smelled. Or how safe I felt with him holding me.

"My goodness, what happened?" Auntie asked, hovering. "Put her down. Tens, she's not a damsel in distress."

58ani "She's hurt." He didn't set me down until he reached the couch.

*"Okay, Meridian -what happened?"

59ani *

Chapter 12.

It felt like my leg was broken. It felt shredded." I fell back against the pillows and blankets.

"I thought I broke it, but now it's getting better."

"Right." Tens exchanged glances with Auntie. He shoved the couch closer to the fire and wrapped a quilt around me like he was rolling a cigar. I noticed his hands shaking.

"You're growling like a d.a.m.n grizzly with a bellyache. Move back." Auntie shooed him away and perched on the edge of the sofa to feel my forehead.

"I'm feeling better. Really. Must have only been a sprain." I was trying to rea.s.sure both of them, but it was also true. Breathing seemed preposterously easy around Auntie. I felt more awake, less fragile, less sick.

Tens loaded logs on the fire until it blazed and crackled. He paced, putting his hands in his pockets and then pulling them out.

"Easy, we're trying to warm her up, not roast her for dinner." Auntie pushed him away. "Go get her clean clothes. Now, let's see about that leg." As Tens ran upstairs, she carefully drew my sock off and rolled up my wet pant leg. She glanced up at my face.

The fire felt so good I could barely force my eyes to stay open. All that fresh air, exertion, and adrenaline about did me in. "Did I sprain it?"

Auntie gently patted my leg, rubbing the skin with soft, whispered strokes. "Little one, what happened out there? Did you see Celia?"

My eyes flew open. For a moment I'd been so happy to be back in this house, I'd forgotten what happened out there. "Celia, she ..." My voice broke and a tear spilled down my cheek.

Auntie nodded, "She died, yes?"

I confirmed this with a slight nod.

"Did she have an injury of any kind?" Auntie rubbed my other foot and the tingles of warmth became pinp.r.i.c.ks as the blood flowed back, I swallowed the bile rising in my throat and nodded. Tens hurried back into the room with my pajamas. My face flamed at the thought of him pawing through my stuff.

"What's wrong with her ankle?" Tens set my pj's on the coffee table and crossed his arms, keeping a distance.

Auntie sat back and peered at my eyes. "Nothing."

I sat up and stared at my ankle, pale and unswollen. Not an hour ago, it felt as if it were the 60a size of a watermelon. "But -"

ni *"What happened to Celia's leg?" Auntie asked, her expression knowing yet gentle.

I closed my eyes. "A trap. One of those clawed ones."

"And you were with her when she died?"

"Yes." I glanced at Tens.