She Sees What's Lost

(Oh, Chime, what a cutie. If any of you have a picture that reminds you of any of the characters I'd love to put it in the story. Okay, please enjoy!)

Saturday Morning

A sweet melody had escaped from downstairs and was wavering through my covers.

“Wakey Wakey, Love. You have pancakes waiting for you.” Chime curled his words through a motherly tone.

I grumbled and pulled the covers over my head.

“Now, baby, you have a long day ahead of you. Promotions to win, colors to see.” Something had collided by my side on the mattress. I slowly pulled the covers down allowing only my eyes to glimpse the already known lump. “Hey there.” Lying next to me was Chime, batting his eyelashes.

“God, you’re so annoying.” My voice was raspy and low.

“Jesus, it seems a Demon has infested your soul!” Chime collapsed on my body and straddled me between his thighs. “THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU! THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU!”

“It’s too early for this, UUUGH!” I tried to push him off, but my muscles were groggy from the night’s slumber. He collected my limbs and pulled me upwards. “What the HELL, CHIME! I didn’t forget how to walk you know. Put me down!”

“I simply can not understand you while you’re muttering with such a dirty mouth, young lady.” Kicking and pushing I tried to get free, but Chime had whisked me through the bathroom door and had thrown me into the shower. “Be quick or your love-cakes will go cold.”

He was so corny. “Get out so I can!”

“Don’t be so touchy. Well unless you want to, I’ll join you and protect you in the shower.” Chime started stretching his shirt upwards.

“LEAVE PERV!” We both burst out in laughter as Chime pulled the shower curtain close and left the room. Cheshire must have been moved during the night.

Smacking my soles on the hundreds of wooden stairs had left my skin tingling as I skipped into the kitchen. A wave of aroma from pancakes, butter, and syrup crashed over my body as the morning light sent a porous yellow glow through the kitchen. The black oak tree was waving good morning to me.

“Where’s Cheshire?” Fear was nipping at my senses; had he died?

Chime was shoving a melting pancake down his throat behind a white table while Moon was by the sink filling a cup with coffee.

“That lazy ass? He’s still in his room moaning about something or other.” Moon seemed to notice my concern and added, “He’s fine.”

Chime lifted a plate of pancakes upward towards me, the scent created an avalanche of hunger quaking through my stomach.

“Come on, girlie, they’re choco-chip.”

I tried to control myself, but as soon as I sat across from Chime I forced three gigantic butter filled chocolate chip pancakes into my mouth. Syrup trickled down my chin; reaching for a napkin my eyes raised up towards Chime who looked like he had just seen an elephant stick its head down a man’s throat.

“Well you guys barely feed me. Why don’t YOU try not eating for a while, hmm?” Chime just slid a warming smile across his face while I finished my feast.

Pulling up a chair to the table between Chime and me, Moon seemed to bring a business air to breakfast. “Chime told me that he has told you about our real jobs. I’ve decided that since you now know, we don’t need to stay here for more time than we need.”

“What about Cheshire?”

“He’ll be the same in the car as he is in a bed, healing.”

“Well… I...” I felt uneasy; I didn’t want to leave for “their” world. “I don’t want to go where you live.”

Moon was considering something. His eyebrows furrowed closer together with each second. “We’ll be with you. You’ll be fine.”

“Shouldn’t we wait until Cheshire can be a bit more…active?”

“Gather some courage! God, it’s not a big damn deal okay? No one’s going to die.”

“But…”

“This really isn’t open for discussion. I was letting you know. We’re leaving tomorrow.” Moon’s chair screeched, clawing at the tile. Chime and I were left in his angry wake.

“I don’t want to go, Chime.” My eyes were fixed on the white tile below my feet.

“You’re going to have to be stronger if you want to survive. It’s not only our world, but your father’s. Stop being afraid of something you don’t know.” Rough authority captured his voice. “Come on, we need to change Cheshire’s bandages.” As Chime hurriedly walked towards the door, his arm scooped up the first aid kit and waved towards me to follow. I obeyed and stumbled behind Chime like a puppy in its master’s shadow.

Chime was awake, resting his back on the wooden frame of the bed. “Hey buddies, nice to see you brought me a present.”

“Do you mean the bandages or Scarlette?”

“Well the bandages wouldn’t look too sexy naked.”

“I’m right here you ass holes.” Their speech was growing on me; anything sexual I kind of pushed out of the door in my mind. Chime tugged his shirt over his head, exposing the mess made two nights ago. Duct tape had engulfed half of his body; I hadn’t managed to wrap gauze quickly enough before Chime and Moon engulfed my white messy job with dull silver.

“This is going to be painful.” Cheshire sighed.

“Suck it up Mr. Man.” Chime lunged forward, ripping Cheshire’s skin with every tear of his hand. Cheshire didn’t make a single noise; his face didn’t even show pain. The white color around him had completely faded. I was the only one in the room cringing with each swipe. My knuckles were flashlight white around the handle of the first aid kit by the time Chime had reached the gauze.

“You’re wound is still pretty bad.”

“No way, normally two days is the perfect amount of time to heal a wound THE SIZE OF MY GOD DAMN HEAD!”

Chime chuckled while wrapping the egg white fluffy material around Cheshire’s body. He layered a strong sticky flesh colored gauze over the first layer and then left the room returning with pancakes. “Get better by tomorrow.”

“Fugga-why?” Cheshire’s cheeks puffed into balloons holding the fluffy pancakes.

“We’re leaving.”

“FUG-THAT!”

“Talk to Moon if you don’t like it.” Closing the white tin box, Chime left me with Cheshire who was absorbed in his food.

“I guess I’ll just…leave, then.” I twitched sideways and fumbled out of the door frame. God, I’m so awkward. I’m not used to being with people 24-7. I’d much rather just be with the trees. The car was un-locked so I grabbed my shoes and quickly slid them over my blistering feet which lead me into the orange sorbet orchard. Pink filtered through my hair setting every leaf in eyesight aglow. Above me was a blaze of orange and pink. Warm decaying wood spiced through my nose finding comfort on my tongue. I waved hello toward the red tree which I had fallen asleep under the other day and continued to dance further into the blinding thicket.

The orange light dimmed darker; crashing water caught my ear while curiosity moved me towards the sound. The forest of bark opened upon a small water fall wetting a stream of tiny black stones. My eyes flickered down the stream to a large shadow hovering on a rock. Moving forward, I tried to silent my footsteps on the rickety stones but to no avail. It was a boy. His eyes quivered open, shoving towards me.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

“Where did you come from?” His tiny voice broke mine off.

“The manor from…” I pointed my thumb behind me, “over there.”

“You’re too old to be training.”

“Oh you mean for, no I’m not doing that.” A biting breeze breached my back sending goose bumps along my legs.

“Then what are you doing here?”

“I like the trees.”

“No, what are you doing at the house? If you’re a vagabond you’re going to have to leave.”

“NO-no, It’s just I came with these three guys who used to live there.”

His eyes were inquisitive and multiple colors were spouting from his mind like sparklers; he didn’t seem to have the control which the other three have.

“We’re leaving tomorrow, so, sorry for disturbing you.” I quickly turned on my heels and skipped over the stream’s stones into the safety of the orchard.

“Creepy.” I didn’t feel like waiting for more men to pop out of no where and give me the third degree. Waving good-bye to the red tree, I scampered away from the orchard and up the sand pit to the mansion. Slamming the monstrous front door and leaning back upon it I finally allowed my lungs to do their jobs. My heart was a drum in a punk rock band.

“Do you enter every door like that?” My head fell sideways to see Chime and Moon standing in the living room; each one had a knife. The knives called the attention of my widened eyes.

“Oh, we were fighting to the death on the decision of whether to leave or not tomorrow.” Confusion melted over my face; Chime brought the knife to lay across his chest as his head was thrown back in laughter. “Nah, I’m just messing with you. We’re sparring for practice.”

“What the hell happened to you?” Moon was sitting on a near-by table.

“I ran into this guy in the woods. I guess I disturbed his meditation, but his questions creeped me out so… I ran home.”

“An apprentice. Could you guess how old he was?”

I was no good with appearances. “Nine maybe?”

“You don’t have to worry then. There’s not much he could do to us.” Moon’s feet brought him upward into a fighting position. Chime lunged forward and a dance of daggers commenced. When the chandelier caught a side of their metal, a lightning bright flash would enthrall the room piercing my vision for a split second. There’s no way a person could move this fast. Their bodies were actually blurred, like a photo taken of a runner through a camera with the wrong frames per second. Moon’s grunts were low and rumbled within my lungs with each movement of his body. Chime, on the other hand, would blow short gusts of strong air from his lungs. Intent stress wall papered the room. Heat from their working bodies reverberated from the carpet wrapping me in humid alertness. In a room of flying knifes, with two men that kidnapped my life and brought in painful memories, I didn’t wish to be anywhere else. Because within their contorting bodies, I knew they would protect me from the world; Cheshire had already saved me, trading his livelihood for my safety. Within this moment of steaming lighting, I surrendered to content.