Post by StoryGirl83 on Nov 10, 2011 23:28:51 GMT -5
Chapter Fourteen – The Bloody Trail
8:15AM (11:15AM in Duxbury)
Addison washed the blood off her hands, ignoring her reflection as she thought. Thanks to nearly empty streets and a police escort to deal with the rest of the traffic she had gotten the man to the hospital alive. After what seemed like an eternity she had been allowed to return to her hotel where she had ignored her sister and headed straight to the bathroom to throw up.
They had taken down her cell number, her hotel room number, even her home. They asked her repeatedly why she was vacationing in Duxbury when anyone who could afford it was fleeing as fast as they could. She couldn’t tell them that she was trying find a cure before her mom got sick. They’d understand her wanting to find a cure, but they wouldn’t understand her believing that there was anything she could do about it.
So much blood. She had never seen so much blood in her life. The idea that someone could lose that much blood and still live was a revelation she wished she had never had the chance to have.
Kneeling on the ground with her head over a toilet bowl had not been the most fun she ever had, but when she finally got up there had been bloody handprints all over the place. In order to deal with the dying man she had forced herself to ignore the blood and it had worked too well. She wasn’t seeing much of anything anymore. She wasn’t blind, but she wasn’t seeing anything.
“Addy?”
Addison looked up from the water running off her hands, but even then she didn’t quite look toward the door. She didn’t quite look anywhere. She stared straight ahead and despite all the images filtering through her mind . . . she saw nothing. Or at least nothing registered. It was probably a miracle she hadn’t killed anyone on the way back to the hotel from the hospital, but the road and those on it must have registered, because she hadn’t so much as ran a stop sign.
“Is everything okay, Addy?” Arielle pressed from the other side of the door. She was worried about her older sister. This wasn’t normal for Addison.
Addison heaved in a breath and sighed. “Come in, Ari.”
Arielle pushed opened the bathroom door and looked inside at her sister. “What happened? There is a blood trail leading here.” Her eyes widened as she took in the room. “Did you get cut?”
“It is not my blood.”
The lack of emotion in her voice worried her sister. Addison was usually full of mischief and trouble and excitement. This was scaring Arielle.
“Addy? What happened?”
“I was searching the forest around Duxbury,” Addison told her in a monotone. In her mind she could see the forest, again. She could remember the moment she had first seen the dead man. She shivered. “I had been there maybe an hour without finding anything.”
“And then what?” Arielle pressed as she gave her sister’s shoulder a squeeze. Something had happened to change her sister’s demeanor. It took a lot to shake Addison. It took more than anything Arielle had ever seen. Her older sister was always the easy going one who never let anything affect her. She’d never cared what anyone though with the recent exception of Piper Halliwell. That was mostly because, for some reason Arielle didn’t understand, Addison was obsessed with having a job there.
“I found a body,” Addison informed her. “Someone had carved him up.”
Arielle grimaced. She’d only seen dead bodies on TV, but they didn’t mean she didn’t have some idea as to what they looked like. And that certainly didn’t mean she liked it. “Is that . . ?”
“I barely touched him,” Addison declared, not wanting to hear the question. “I checked for a pulse, just as mother taught us, but there was none.”
Arielle waited. She doubted all this blood came from checking someone’s pulse.
“Then, I heard a sound, a moan,” Addison continued. “I found another man bleeding to death nearby. I could not leave him there and of course Sonya will not hear me when I call.” Who would have thought that she would regret chasing Sonya off? It certainly never would have occurred to her.
“You could have called me,” Arielle reminded her softly.
“I . . . I do not know,” Addison stammered. “It is not easy to think. I used my powers to hold his arteries closed while I got him to the car.”
“The car?” Arielle looked at her surprised. “So he made it that far?” She hadn’t expected that. Of course maybe the injuries weren’t as bad as they sounded, but if Addison had felt the need to use her powers to close his arteries, it must have been bad. Arielle didn’t even realize her sister could do that.
Addison nodded. “He was still alive when I reached the hospital. And he was still alive when I drove back here. I left my number with the hospital. I want them to tell me how he is.” She stopped and for the first time during this exchange she looked her sister directly in the eye. “He is a witch.”
Arielle blinked. “Are you sure?”
She was sure. While she was driving him to the hospital, he had tried and failed to call for his whitelighter. And he’d said something about a warlock. It was all rather difficult to follow, but there was no doubt in her mind that he was a witch. With a quick nod of her head Addison added, “He did not say a lot, but I think he was looking into this sickness that is caused so much trouble.”
“You think?”
“All I know for sure is he found something,” Addison informed her sister. “It is being passed about through the water, lakes, streams, rivers. That is how everyone is getting it. I guess Mother does not have if because she does not drink tap water.”
“Water,” Arielle repeated stunned. “You need to tell Mom, warn her. You need to tell everyone.”
“How?” Addison posed. “I’m not exactly a known expert on disease.”
“The internet,” Arielle decided after a minute of silence. “You call mom and dad. I have an idea.”