Part II - Chapter 11 - Refuge

1/27/2020 --:--

Lucy awoke with her face to a rock wall. Upon rolling over and sitting up, she found she was deep within a cave. Feeling warmth and seeing a bright flicker of light out of the corner of her eye, Lucy turned her head to the right. She then saw the source of the warmth.

To her right, there was a fire. Near the fire sat a figure hunched over beneath a cloak. Without a word, Lucy crawled over to the figure and the campfire. Hearing her approach, the form turned to her. “Hi, it’s good to see you are awake.” A deep yet soft woman’s voice greeted her. Large, dark, kind brown eyes peeped out from beneath the cloak at Lucy with motherly concern. “Here, drink this,” she said, handing Lucy a mug filled with a dark, hot liquid with a comforting herbal scent.

Hesitantly, Lucy accepted the mug. “What’s in it?” she inquired in a small voice.

“It is a hot tea; it will help warm you right up and aid in your recovery.”

“My recovery?” Lucy asked, bewildered.

“When I found you, you were nearly frozen to death. I picked you up and took you here, where I tried to keep you alive. You are lucky I found you, any longer and you would not have survived.”

“Thank you.” Looking down, Lucy found she had been clutching a blanket around her shoulders. “Where are my clothes?” she asked, embarrassed.

“I put them over there near the fire to dry.” The woman responded, gesturing to Lucy’s clothes on a rock. “Wearing wet clothes saps the warmth from you. They’re all dry now if you wish to put them on.”

Lucy, finished with her tea, and feeling rejuvenated, got up and walked to where her clothes were and put them on, all except the hazmat suit. She then returned and sat down next to the woman. “Thanks for saving me. My name is Lucy Davis.”

At Lucy’s name, the woman seemed startled for a second, and then replied, “You can call me Emma. What brought you here?”

“Well, the short of it is inter-dimensional travel.”

Emma’s dark eyes deepened with interest. “Go on.” She said.

Lucy then launched into her explanation of how she got to this dimension, starting from what happened to Ryan, and ending at where she passed out. “Well! Professor Davis sounds like the perfect scoundrel!” exclaimed Emma. “Imagine taking advantage of you and your poor brother like that! Why I hope he pays for whatever happens to you a thousand times over!” Emma concluded wrathfully, her dark eyes burning with pure sympathy for Lucy and Ryan and pure hatred for Mr. Davis.

“Thanks” Lucy replied shyly, wondering why a stranger would care so much about her and her brother.

“I know just what we are going to do.” Emma exclaimed suddenly, a plan beginning to gleam in her deep eyes. “Once it’s light out, we shall go to where I found you and try to find your brother. I know of a town near where I found you, maybe he ended up there. However, I should warn you, the area we will be traveling through is a favorite spot of hostile creatures which we will not want to run into. When we are traveling, you must do exactly as I say.”

“Okay.” Lucy replied, taking a deep breath.

“In the meantime, let’s get some sleep.” Emma motioned Lucy towards a mat laid out on the ground. Suddenly realizing how extremely fatigued she was, Lucy crawled onto the mat, and covering her lithe form with the blankets, she soon fell fast asleep.

Hearing Lucy’s heavy breathing and making sure she was asleep, Emma silently glided up to Lucy’s sleeping form. As Emma gazed upon Lucy’s face with maternal love and sympathy, she saw Lucy’s peaceful expression change to one of fear and Lucy trembled. Emma reached down to stroke Lucy’s cheek gently with her forefinger.

This seemed to calm Lucy, as her shivering subsided and her peaceful slumbering expression returned and Lucy unconsciously leaned her head into Emma’s soft touch. Emma smiled lovingly as she stroked Lucy’s silky black lock. She then pulled her hand away hesitantly, wishing to hold Lucy’s head in her hands longer.

Softly, Emma whispered “Goodnight my baby girl I am here now and I will make sure we find Ryan, you can be certain of that.” Lucy and Ryan’s true mom then crawled to her bedroll and fell fast asleep.

Almost immediately after Lucy fell asleep, she began dreaming. She found herself standing in the middle of a forest of twisted trees at night. Shivers coursed up and down her spine, not just from the cold, but from the hostility that crackled in the air around her. Lucy felt her heart pounding in her chest, seeming to suck all breath away.

Suddenly, she heard a feral snarl. Lucy’s stomach seized up and she felt the hair on her neck raise as her muscles tensed. Lucy frantically looked all around her, forgetting about the tree branches above her. Lucy then heard the sound of a heavy object whistling through the air.

Lucy crumpled to the ground under the weight of the monster that pounced on her. Falling face down on the forest floor, Lucy felt her ribs and her thigh bone break with a muted crack like someone popping their muscles as her left shoulder was dislocated with a muffled pop. Feeling claws slice open her back and tearing at her shoulder blades, Lucy screamed in terror and pain and blacked out.

Lucy then opened her eyes, and found herself lying on a rough mat on the floor of a house. She felt like her whole body was on fire and everything wavered before her eyes, making things blurry. Lucy heard voices, one female voice saying “We’re losing her Ryan, she’s dying.”

Lucy also heard Ryan’s sobbing voice saying “This is all my fault.”

Lucy then detected another deep, strong, but wavering voice trying to comfort Ryan. “It’s not your fault; you did not know this was going to happen.”

“But I should have loved her better; I should have cared for her so much more than I did. I should have taken care of her like she did for me. Instead, I focused on myself, taking reckless risks and now she’s paying for it!” Ryan said before his voice broke and he heaved great heavy sobs of despair.

Lucy tried to reach out to him and tell him she forgave him, but she was too weak. I can’t die now! He needs to know I love him! He needs to know that it is not all his fault. These thoughts echoed in Lucy’s head as she fell down deeper and deeper into the black abyss.