Chapter 6

KHLOE GILES

I stayed in the hospital for two days and after I woke up, I was put on bed rest per orders of Leonna and Luis. By the time I got home I had over half a dozen phone calls to return and Abbey created a summer study list that I promised to ignore wholeheartedly. Instead, I took to returning the half a dozen phone calls. My first one was to Keith Sockwell, a fellow witch and dear friend who was responsible for the majority of the messages.

Laying out on my bed, I pulled up the dial pad and press 8. It gave half a ring before he answered.

“I’ve been calling you all damn week!” He greeted me.

“I know, what the hell is going on?” I wasn’t offended, especially if Keith was worried. He wasn’t the kind to freak out easily.

“They have her. They have Lil.” His voice cracked and I could hear him sob through the phone line. Keith never cried.

“When? How long? What the hell happened?” The questioned flow out before I could stop them and I wanted to ask more, but I didn’t. The Inquisition had Lil. My Lil? My best friend? The one person who had been with me from the very beginning, ever since I found out I was a witch? My stomach turned thinking about her in the hands of the Inquisition.

“Monday night. I don’t know how it happened. I wasn’t there. It was Bri who told me.” His voice shook.

“Monday night?” I cursed. “I’ve been in the hospital since Monday.””

“What the hell happened Monday night?” Keith breathed into the receiver.

“I don’t know. An Inquisition team caught a group of witches down Printer’s Alley. I helped battle and after it was over, I just……passed out. The doctors can’t figure out how or why.”

“What is going on out their Khloe?” He asked in disbelief.

“I don’t know, but it’s only getting worse, Keith. I’m on lock down until they’re sure I’m stable. There’s no way I can get to Lil in time.” There was a pause on the other end of the line, and I could hear his unsteady breathing.

“It’s okay. We’ll figure something out.” There was an emptiness in his voice, and I felt guilty.

“Keith I’m here okay? I’ll help any way I can.” My own voice trembled as I imagined the torture that Lil was receiving. The guards at the Inquisition were anything but nice, especially where witches are concerned.

“I know Kiv, I know. Just…we’ll think of something.” Keith sighs. My heart breaks for him and Lil.

“I’ll think Keith. I’ll try to work something up.”

“I know. We all will. Take care of yourself Khloe.” Keith sounds so defeated and I didn’t want to hang up, but I heard the click on the other end of line, and he was gone.

I tossed the phone aside and fall back onto the bed. Tears pressed against the corner of my eyes as I tried to think. Tried to figure out a plan, a good plan that would get Lil out of trouble. My mind was blank and soon exhaustion set in. I was almost asleep when my body jerked awake, alert and wide eyed. I sucked in air, glaring at the figure of Abbey standing in the door way, eyeing me with her usual contemptuous look.

“What?”

“What were you doing out Monday night? I know you weren’t working.” Her arms crossed over her chest, and she vaguely reminded me of a parent scolding a child.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about. Saw the smoke from the Drone from my window and ran out to help.” It was the same line I gave dad and mom when they questioned me about Monday. Luckily, Wes backed it up.

“You went again, didn’t you? You went out hunting.” Her eyes narrowed at me, daring me to lie.

“So what if I did?” I leaned back against the wall of my bed, unamused. She got on my nerves. It was Abbey who sat rules for the three of us. Abbey who decided when and how we used our powers. It was Abbey who decided what was safe and what wasn’t. Yet, when it was all said and done, she refused to even accept she had any witchy bone in her body. She refused to accept treatment or help that Keith and Lil provided and that alone had cost more than me going out at night.

“Look what happened! You could’ve been caught or killed!” She threw her hands up in the air, already frustrated.

“I didn’t and I wasn’t,” I shot back.

“You are wild, reckless, and selfish. You are going to destroy this family!” She raised her voice with each word.

“Unlike you, I can’t turn my back on innocent people. If I get taken out, I’m okay with paying the consequences. You know the truth, Abbey. How can you sit back and let horrible things happen to people who don’t deserve it?” I stood up, challenging my sister. She stared at me, a look of complete hate on her face.

“Don’t you see what you’re doing to us? To your family? Are you so inconsiderate that nobody else matters?”

“Have you ever thought that maybe I do this to protect our family? That is what we are born to do Abbey, we are born to be protectors!”

“Protect the people who hate us? Who want to see us dead? In what world is that right?” She demanded.

“Right or wrong doesn’t matter to me. Witches are innocent. You know it and I know it. It’s in our blood. We’re on the side of good. Those things that we fought Monday night; they were people once. They were like us once. They deserve peace. Not torture. Don’t you get that?”

“Don’t go hunting again or I swear you’ll regret it.” Her voice was empty.

I narrowed my eyes at her, staring her directly in the eye. Usually that was enough to make her back down, not this time.

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll tell Maxx. I’ll rat them all out.” She said it as if it is the easiest answer in the world. My eyes widen. Was she really threatening the only safe place witches had to go. “You would kill a hundred innocent witches?”

“To protect my family, yes.”

“I hate you,” I said the words before I could stop myself, “I hate everything about you Abbey Giles.”

She gave me a hard look. One that said she didn’t care. For a moment, it scared me. More than the Inquisition scared me. Even more so when she simply looked at me and said, “Good.”

As if the conversation was settled, she turned and walked out of the room.

I stared after her in shock. Had my sister gone completely mad? I contemplated this thought until the sound of my cellphone ringing migrated with the aching pounding in my temple. I picked it up and pressed the answer button.

“What?” I didn’t bother to check the caller ID.

“Well hello to you to sunshine.” Scotty Wells laughed in my ear.

“What do you want?” I was too tired to bother with pleasantries, or his constant flirting.

“I got results back on the beauty you carted in with you on Monday. Thought you’d want to know.”

“Beauty?” I had no idea what he was talking about.

“The sword?”

“Oh, yeah. Did the tests find anything?”

“Only more evidence to prove my theory from Thursday. But there was actually even more than that. I did find some new stuff you might want to see.”

I began to protest and started to tell him that I was bedridden for the next few days according to my family, but I stopped, thinking about Keith and Lil.

“You know what, yeah. When do you want to meet?”

“How about this afternoon? I work until one and then have the rest of the day off for the Burning tomorrow.”

“Burning?”

“Yeah, there’s a burning at two and Baulder’s funeral is at five.”

I sighed. “No one told me about that.”

“Now you know. Can you drive here, or do you want me to swing by and pick you up?”

“I’ll drive, thanks.” The idea of riding my Baby sounded perfect right now. Thought I wasn’t sure if I could actually do it and I knew I’d have to sneak out again. Wouldn’t be the first time.

“Alright, it’s a date.” I could hear the smirk in his voice.

“Not in the slightest,” I teased back.

“Awe, come on, give a guy a break.” He laughed.

“Sorry, sweetie. You aren’t my type.”

“I know who is.”

“Yeah? Screw you.” I snorted into the receiver.

“I think that’s Wes’s job. Wouldn’t want to make daddy’s boy jealous.”

“Scared?”

“Of that? Please.” He laughed. “See you tomorrow Giles.”

“Later, Wells.” We hung up and the headache was gone. Worry about Lil and Abbey seemed to float away for a moment before reality settled back in. I held on to my phone long enough to text Keith: I am going in tomorrow. Khloe.

A ping comes back saying that he had replied, but I’d already tossed the phone onto the dresser table beside my bed and curled up in a ball. The silence settled peacefully around me and soon, I drifted into a peaceful sleep.