Chapter twenty-two

Layla

“Layla, what’s wrong?” Martha asked as she walked inside the room, she saw when the phone fell from my hand and apparently my whole body showed the dread I was feeling.

“Martha, mmmy mom” her namesake, I said and thought, stammering and shaking all the while, my mouth was dry, I felt chilly to the bone but my insides were hot and in turmoil.

“What happened?” She asked full of concern, although from her wise eyes, I could see that she already realized that something terrible had happened.

“My mom…. my… mum, Martha, Please I need to leave right now. My mom… my mom…” I said still shaking and crying, I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud, it felt as if saying it would make it true, Lord please, this shouldn’t be true. I can’t lose my mom, not now, not yet, my mind prayed fervently even though I wasn’t a believer, but a miracle is what I needed right now.

“Talk to me Layla” she stressed looking so worried but I just ignored her and ran out of the room. “Wait!” she yelled after me with enough authority in her voice to make me consider her command despite the situation, I turned and saw the grimoire was headed straight for me, I caught it midair not at all wondering how she had such a perfect throwing aim while hefting such a heavy book.

“You might need that, seek for spells and say the words with the power in you” she said to me. Without fully comprehending, I nodded and ran on ahead. I met Victor and his family at the living room and I ran to meet them eyes full of tears.

“Please sir, my mom… my mum is dying and I need to go and see her… please sir…” I said crying and unable to form the words I needed properly.

“Your mum is dying? Are you sure? Or is this a scheme to squeeze money out of us?” Olivia was quick to answer me with so much spite obvious in her voice, ‘gosh, I didn’t need this right now’ my mind wept.

“Liv!, shut up! Why are you being so heartless?” Victor rebuked her immediately, getting outright furious even in the presence of their parents.

“Don’t shun me, let me tell the truth Vic, stop covering for her” Olivia retorted “You’re...”

“Enough of the argument” Their mum said cutting Olivia shut. “Young lady, what do you want?” She asked me, I was wondering in a daze how they had so little human feeling, I had just said my Mom was dying and they were bantering?

“I need permission to leave so I can go see my mum, please ma’am” I said still in tears.

“Of course, you may go” she said and I stood up in a hurry and ran outside after saying thank you. I headed out of the gate in a dash and was about to start running in the direction of my house while searching for a cab as I ran, but then, a Ducati roared over to block my path and Victor stretched forth an helmet for me.

“Get on and give me the directions” he said and I needed no further persuasion, I climbed on the bike and with one hand I held Victor while clutching the grimoire in my other hand. Please God, please God, pleased God… my mind kept on echoing, funny how it always happens this way, I didn’t believe yet I wanted Him to intervene, hope without faith.

We got to the house even before the ambulance I had told Landon to call whilst on our way here, he informed me that he had done that after calling me, so why weren’t they here yet? I ran as fast as I could inside the house, I saw Landon there in the living room crying profusely, and then, to one side was indeed my mom, lying seemingly lifeless in her own pool of blood, ‘that’s a lot of blood’ my mind stalled upon seeing the blood.

I ran to meet her.

“Mom! Mom you can’t do this to me and Landon. You’re all we have left in this world. Mom please wake up. Please wake up mom, please!” I said crying profusely as I hugged her to myself, my mom can’t die just like that, She’s really all we have.

I felt she was cold, but not as cold as she should have been, I brought my ears close to her mouth and nose and felt a very weak and almost undetectable breathing, her pulse wasn’t there because she was about to take her last breath, she wasn’t quite dead yet, I realized alarmingly.

“Landon! Mom is still alive!” I said and he jump up totally bewildered, Victor was close by and he looked as if he was about to do something as well, I was way ahead of them though.

“Sir, Landon, please get me towels, lots of it and other clothing and water, if I can stop the bleeding before the ambulance arrives…” I was saying but they didn’t let me finish, they spurred right into action.

I immediately opened the grimoire and placed it down beside body of my mom as soon as the boys were out of sight and with every ounce of willpower that I had, I sought for a spell that could save my mother’s life.

In the next instant, the book pages started to turn on their own and light in the room flickered consistently, the grimoire stopped at a particular page and everything settled, no more flickering lights either, I immediately took to the words written in the open page even though I didn’t know the language it was.

I had earlier discovered whilst going through the grimoire that it wasn’t written in any common language, searching some phrases online had brought some archaic Latin suggestions but that still wasn’t it, it was an older text, ancient even, the closest result I saw online was an ancient text, a torn scroll that was uploaded long ago and probably by slight of mind, it wasn’t pulled down, Martha had told me that I wouldn’t find answers online because all this was a closely guarded secret.

Could I read the texts in the grimoire now though? Yes, but only if I concentrated well enough or was desperate enough, only then would the words seemingly start to interpret themselves to me. Right now I was intensely concentrated and extremely desperate, the words cleared up in no time, pronouncing them sounded like “Ras va tul sur fec tasa ras, po tim tah, val sata fec tul” and it roughly interpreted to ‘restore life, restore essence, bring back was is about to be lost'

My eyes glowed, an intense blue, my hair bleached back to their fiery red, and flowed around me as if suspended in zero G, the lights intensified and dimmed in a loop and then I saw particles suspended in the air as if time was frozen, everywhere was indeed still as if time was frozen. I repeated the spell twice and I felt an enormous amount of energy gather in the frozen space and time only for it to be dispensed into the body of my mom.

I felt her take a deep breath and then she went into a state of rest, everything calmed once again, my eyes stopped glowing and my dark brown hair tint got restored, I took a deep shaky breath as I also started to get myself once again, it felt as if I’d been drained of all energy, I didn’t think I’d be able to stand upright even.

“Layla? ” I heard Victor’s voice from behind and swiped my head around in shock surprise to look at him, standing with towels and clothes in his hands…

**