CURSE OF THE MOON REBORN

Scarlet woke up with a start when the cramps became too much for her to ignore. She curled up her wrapped arms around her body as she squirmed in pain. The baby was gone, so Scarlet had no idea why she still hurt the ways she did. She wanted to scream but each time she tried, she couldn’t get a squeak out.

“Do you think Scarlet is still asleep?” Stephan had wanted to go to her, but Kayla had insisted that she needed her space. Time alone to heal.

“She’ll call us if she needs us. Jade, how are the school plans going?” Kayla hadn’t heard a word about it since the previous night’s incident.

“It’s not. SJ and I called the school, we decided to put it on hold for a while.”

“Why?” Stephan turned to his son who sat quietly in the corner.

“I am not going to be in school when my mother is here hurting. It will only be counterproductive.” SJ wasn’t going to change his mind. He knew he would have to forfeit his Ferrari and he didn’t mind.

“Your mother isn’t going to like this.”

“That’s why we aren’t going to tell her. I’ll re-enroll as soon as she is better.”

“What about you Jade?” Solara asked his daughter.

“Moral support. Besides I don’t want to be the only new kid in school.” She took out her frozen blood from the cooler. It was one of her new inventions, ice blood, the other being ice shake a mixture of milk and blood. So far she was the only one that appreciated her unconventional ways of feeding.

“Moral support,” Solara repeated. It was ludicrous but arguing wasn’t going to get them to school any faster.

“AAARGH!”

“Mom?” SJ ran up the stairs and burst into the room taking the door with him. He hopped on the bed as his mother squirmed around it, her hands on her belly. “What’s wrong, where does it hurt?”

“Scarlet.” Stephan came up behind him. He lifted her off the bed and onto his laps. “What’s wrong honey?”

Scarlet, bit down on her lower lip, her eyes squeezed shut. She didn’t attempt to say a word. She was in too much pain for that.

As her body coiled and went into spasms, Stephan held on to her as tightly as he could. “Can someone tell me what’s going on?” he looked over at Eric for some answers, but he was as blank as the rest of them.

Scarlet’s body jerked one more time then went limp, her hand falling from her belly to the ground. Stephan lowered his head over her chest and only relaxed when he heard the thumping of her heart.

SJ rummaged through the bed, turning the covers upside down, “No blood.”

Stephan lifted her so that he could look at his clothes, “None here either.”

Kayla smoothed out the bed before Stephan put Scarlet back in it, “So we can assume that she did have a miscarriage and this is like an after effect.”

“I don’t know, her belly hasn’t gone down. She still looks pregnant.” Stephan touched the little bulge.

“I don’t think that goes right away. In a few days, it will be untraceable.” Kayla pulled the covers to her chest. “Let’s go. Let her rest.”

“I’m staying.” SJ slid under the covers beside his mother.

“But she needs to rest.” Kayla urged.

“She will. I’m not moving from here. I want to be here when she wakes up.” SJ propped his head on his elbow and watched his mother’s face as she slept.

“Ok.” Kayla was fighting a losing battle and she knew it. She gave in, agitating him would not solve the problem they had. “Don’t stay long.”

“What now?” Stephan was leaning on the wall outside the door. He looked at Kayla hoping that she would have an answer that he didn’t.

“Now we wait.” She whispered. She could see the disappointed look on his face. He wanted a different answer but that was all she had. “You were expecting me to come up with a solution, weren’t you?”

“I was.”

“I read minds, I don’t heal. Only Jesus could do that.” She walked away, thinking of an answer she knew would never come to her.

Later that evening they all went out hunting, leaving SJ and Eric behind to look after Scarlet. SJ sat at the foot of his mother’s bed, watching closely for any change in her pained facial expression. He knew for sure she was in pain, but while she was asleep there was nothing he could do about it.

Eric sat on a chair across the room, watching SJ watch his mother. “You need to go outside for a second. Staring at her like that, not leaving her for a second is going to make you go crazy.” He chewed on a cold pizza as he slumped into the chair.

“I’m not leaving here, so stop trying,” SJ murmured his eyes still on her face.

“Then stop staring at her like that.” he rose from the seat and walked to the bed, waving his hand in front of his eyes.

“Stop that!” SJ beat it away, “Her face, it’s like she’s in pain. But she doesn’t whimper or cry. I keep expecting her to wake up screaming, but nothing.”

Eric tilted his head to the sides trying to see what he did, “She is frowning. Maybe she’s having a bad dream or something.”

“Maybe.” SJ wasn’t so sure.

“You doubt it.” Eric pointed out. “Maybe we should call Nikki, she may know what to do.”

“I don’t think so. I may have been a baby but I could feel how much my mother didn’t like her. I don’t want to make her uncomfortable especially in her delicate situation.”

“Then we wait. If she does wake up screaming we will be here for her. Lean back and chill a little. No use giving yourself a migraine trying to figure out what is making her frown.” Eric slumped back into the chair.

“You are right. I am kind of hungry.” He grabbed a slice of pizza from the box resting at Eric’s feet.

Scarlet was fighting with something she couldn’t touch. She could feel something put pressure around her neck. She was struggling for air at the same time trying to loosen the vice around her neck.

Finally, it let go and she could feel the pain of the air rushing back into her lungs. As she recuperated from the loss of air, she could feel a tingle of heat electrify through her body. Slowly with each second that passed, the tingle turned into a raging fire. She was back at struggling for comfort, for a second of relief.

Scarlet was desperate she was begging her body to sweat, to cool the fire that had engulfed every inch of her body. But nothing worked. No matter how hard she cried no tears rolled down her face to ease the heat on her cheeks.

Biting down, she ground on her teeth, braving the pain and wishing it away. Just as she surrendered herself to the eminent death that she was sure to face, the fire died down a breeze sweeping over her scorched skin.

The cool breeze grew colder and she welcomed each second of it. The icy chill on her smooth skin and the sleek sensation of liquid sliding all over her was relaxing. Scarlet inhaled the cool air a contrast to the heat that set her nostrils in flames.

The cold air began prickling her skin, scarlet groaned knowing exactly where it was leading to. She braced herself, waiting and expecting her body to freeze and shatter into a million pieces. She waited for the pain that would accompany her destruction.

Scarlet closed her eyes, taking refuge in the thoughts and memories of her family. She didn’t understand what was happening to her. She didn’t know where she was either. The place was unfamiliar to her. It was like a dark void but she could see a light in a distance. She could hear the sound of leaves rustling, smell the cool ocean breeze, and the sound of laughter. That was where she wanted to be, but instead, she was in the darkness alone.

***

SJ watched as Scarlet’s reflection turned from that of pain to relief, to pain, to fear, and then finally to content. Then fear. He was wondering what was going through her mind and wished that at least one telepath had stayed home or at least Jade.

“Maybe we should call them back.” He turned to Eric who was now flipping through his phone.

“They left an hour ago, they will be back in a while. Stephan said that they wouldn’t go that far.”

“I know. I’m just worried.” SJ wiped the beads of sweat forming on her forehead. His skin touched hers and immediately he pulled back on instinct. “Ok, this is freaky.”

Slowly he smoothed the tip of his finger on her forehead once more. He felt the ice-cold of her skin chill him to the bone. “Eric, I know my mom is part vampire but Aunty Kayla isn’t this cold.”

SJ gave way to Eric as he placed his palm on her forehead, immediately yanking it back with a yelp. “I don’t think the North Pole is this cold. We need to call you Dad. Now.”

SJ flipped his phone open and pressed the speed dial. Stephan picked up on the first ring, his voice alarmed.

“What happened?”

“She’s frozen.” Those are the only words he could find. The only correct way he could put it.

“Frozen?” Stephan was annoyed, one word did not identify what the problem was.

“Yes frozen. I know it sounds crazy but she is sweating and her body is ice cold.” SJ touched her once more to confirm it.

“Ok, we are on our way back.”

SJ tossed the phone to the side and wrapped Scarlet in the duvet like a taco. “Go get more covers.” He instructed Eric.

He rubbed the sides of her body hoping that the heat he was forming could seep in through the covers and get to her. When Eric came in with more covers he dumped them on her making sure she was covered head to foot and the only thing exposed was her nose, so that she could breathe.

“Make sure you don’t suffocate her. It will beat the purpose of keeping her alive.” Eric cautioned.

“Don’t say things like that. I wonder why she’s not waking up?” he leaned his ear over her nose to make sure she was breathing.

“Why don’t you just wake her up if you are that worried?” Eric suggested.

“I’m afraid to.”

“Why?”

“What if she doesn’t wake up? I’d rather let Dad handle that because I would go crazy.” SJ touched the tip of his finger to her nose.