The Goddess’ Gift

Chapter 4

Lucie Pov

    Humming. I could hear…humming. Soft laughter, someone…laughing. A guitar, a soft melody strumming. Multiple voices singing softly, a band? They were so good at singing, why the heck was I near a band? I squinted my eyes tighter together, listening. Two guys were singing. One had a slightly deeper voice than the other. There was also a woman singing with them, she sounded older, like she could be a mother. Her voice was soft, confident, and beautiful. She went very well with the guys’ voices. Was this…Heaven? I’ve always wondered what Heaven would be like. Whether there’d be fat naked babies flying around with wings, or maybe like Supernatural where there's a long hallway and behind each door, a dead person is living in their own personal happy space for the rest of their existence. Honestly, I would have liked the Supernatural one. I’d live with Chris in my happy space, in a giant mansion with a pool and as much ice cream as he wanted; and books, of course. There had to be a library filled with books.  I heard a door open and close, but strangely no footsteps. The person walked silently, like a predator. “How are they doing, Sunshine?” A deep voice, a big yawn. How did someone with that deep of a voice walk without sound? He sounded tired. 

    “Zain,” One of the other guys said, a soft sound to his voice. Love, he loves him. It must be mutual, if the man named Zain called him Sunshine. The other boy and the woman were still singing softly, a peal of laughter to their voice. They sounded like a mother and her son, playing together. “No progress so far. Adaline thinks Lucie will wake before Chris.” He said. I stiffened, listening. They said…Chris. Right? I could feel myself shivering, everything automatically coming back to me, as if in a flash, flooding through my mind. Chris vanished, me begging those awful people to search for him. Finding out he had been in a car accident on the highway near our place. The drive to the hospital, the light, and the crash. The dark figure coming towards me in the water…someone had saved me all along. But then who were these people? Were we in the hospital? I didn’t have…friends. People wouldn’t come to visit me. I wanted to keep my eyes closed longer, to listen to their conversation. The one thing I realized growing up in the orphanage and multiple foster homes, it was better to pretend to be asleep. I could do it well. Keeping my breathing regular, my eyes shut, no flutter of my eyes under my eyelids. Keep still, relax, and listen. It was the best way to know when someone was coming at you, attempting to try and steal something that you had shoved under your pillow. At the orphanage I’d always hid my important things under the pillow, keeping it close to me for safekeeping. More than once I’d had to defend it.

    “She’s awake,” The guy that Zain called Sunshine said. I sucked in a deep breath, surprised. How in the world? “I can hear her heartbeat. Her blood, it’s singing.” He whispered, taking a deep breath. “I don’t know if I can be in here, I’m so tired, but she’s awake,” He whimpered. 

    The woman and the other boy stopped singing, the sound of chairs and the guitar being placed down as Zain shushed his Sunshine. “Here, drink. It’ll help.” He said. I frowned, confused. Drink what? How does that help him if he’s tired? Is it an energy drink? Maybe he brought him coffee. I shuddered, feeling a soft touch on my cheek. I wanted to automatically pull away from it but I was so tired, my body sore, and the touch…it was so warm. So soft, like…a mother. Dangerous, this touch was dangerous. I couldn’t let someone touch me like that. Instantly my eyes opened as I jerked away from her, falling over the side of the bed. The gasps gave me a second to see everything. With wide eyes I stared at them, confusion swirling through me for only a moment…before I stopped breathing. I screamed, backing away into the corner of the room, away from them, the monsters. 

    I curled into a ball in the corner, pulling my knees to my chest as I buried my face into my arms. Smaller, I needed to be smaller. Fear was racing through me, tearing at me. This wasn’t real, right? What the heck was going on? “Zain, you should have done that somewhere else, she doesn’t know anything!” The woman called, authority in her voice. So she knew? She knew that the two boys were over there, one with long teeth, biting the other one? The blood pouring from his wrist, trickling down…she knew? And she’s fine with it? Monsters, all of them were monsters. “Lucie, honey, it’s okay, let me explain,” The woman tried to say. 

    I could almost hear the reprimanding tone in her voice and shuddered over the authority in her tone. No, I couldn’t do this. I wasn’t ready for this. Slowly I stood, noticing absently that I had on a hospital gown as I kept my eyes trained down. I could see my bags stacked nice and neatly beside the bed I was laying in moments ago, and an automatic impulse caused me to sit on the bed, grabbing the bags and pulling them onto the bed. I shoved them both under the pillow, there wasn’t much there, to begin with, but I knew by touch that everything was there. I pressed the pillow on top of it and laid down, feeling the familiar pokes of the books, and sighed. I curled my body into a small ball, pulling the blanket over my body, over my head, trying to block it all out. If I go back to sleep, maybe I’ll wake up back in that horrible room with my three other foster sisters screeching at each other. Maybe I’ll wake up and go downstairs to make breakfast for everyone, like the servant they treated me as. Anything, anything was better than here. Where this woman gave soft motherly touches filled with the empty promise of love, and the boys drank each other’s blood. Monsters, every single one of them. 

    I slipped back into an uncomfortable sleep, my mind racing with images, everything blurred together. I kept seeing the accident. The water, the horror of the darkness. The feel of my fingernails scraping against the metal of the car, over and over and over again. I kept seeing the dark figure coming for me through the water, again and again, and again. I tried to wake again, but each time I started to surface I saw all of it attacking me over and over again. The accident, the water, the dark figure. The boy that was drinking the other boy’s blood. The older woman with her motherly touch. I wasn’t sure which horror was better, the dreams of pain, or waking to monsters. Finally, I awoke to the cool feel of a hand touching my forehead, my cheek. It wasn’t the same as before, but it was a female’s hand nonetheless. It didn’t have the motherly feel to it, but was soft, caring all the same. Slowly I opened my eyes, wincing in fear at what I’d see. I was met by a woman who looked to be in her early twenties. Her eyes were sharp, but calm. A light violet color, unnerving as they stared straight into mine, her eyebrow raised in surprise. Her hair was pulled into two low pigtails, pure white, hanging down from her hood and resting against her stomach. I was surprised to see a pink nose poking out of the hood, before the animal turned around, its orange tail curling around the woman’s face, before settling around her throat loosely like a collar. Was there a cat in her hood? Honestly…that was adorable. 

    I looked around the room slowly, apprehensively, noticing there wasn’t anyone else here. “My name is Colette. I kicked them all out. I could tell how hard that was. I was adopted too. Of course, I had the same parents all my life, amazing parents, but Adaline, I understand how hard it is to be near her. I never had a mother, not really. The closest I came was Caileen, back when I was engaged to Emmett, but I know how hard it is to be near Adaline. I’ve seen how hesitant Cain is with her too. Her motherly feeling is hard, for those that aren’t used to it.” She said. 

    Her words were so sure, cutting through me, bringing tears to my eyes as I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. I don’t cry in front of other people. Crying is a weakness. Even if this random stranger seemed to be able to see right through me, I wasn’t going to cry. “The boys…one was drinking the others…blood?” I asked hesitantly. My voice was soft, raspy, and I coughed, feeling the dryness of my mouth. 

    She let out a sigh as she grabbed a water bottle, absently opening it, before handing it to me. I could see her muttering something, probably cursing at the boys, before looking at me. “They’re good people. Everyone here, we’re all good people. I don’t want to just throw out a bunch of information at you, you’re scared and you don’t even know where you are. I’ll be the only one sitting with you, for now. Until you feel ready to meet the others.” She said with a nod. I looked at her, confused. “Adaline is the older woman, the one that is nice and soft, her motherly feeling that hurts more than she realizes. She doesn’t mean anything by it, though. She’s the nicest, sweetest woman you’ll ever meet.” She said. I nodded. Even if I didn’t know her, I could already tell the woman, Adaline, meant no harm to me. “Jaiden was the one with the guitar, the cute Asian boy. He is eccentric, wild, and innocent, but at the same time probably the smartest person you’ll ever meet. He’d be a good one for you to talk to, when you’re ready, because he also knew barely anything and learned as he went along. Zain was the taller one with blond hair, one eye is green and one is red.” She said. I shuddered, remembering. I didn’t see his eyes, because they were closed, a pleased look on his face as the other boy sucked on him. “He is hard to explain. A trouble maker, maybe? Nice, but he’ll tease you. He gives people nicknames.” She said with a chuckle, shaking her head. “When Zain and Jaiden are in a room together, they’re a handful. They’re best friends, you’ll notice that very fast.” She said with a shrug. I nodded, staring at her with wide eyes. Honestly, I wasn’t sure why she was explaining these people to me, but I listened anyway. There was something about her voice, calming. She made me feel like, if even for the moment, I was safe. “Then there’s Grayson. He was the one you saw…drinking Zain’s blood.” She said with a gulp, sighing. She muttered something again, brushing her hand over her face as she sighed. “I don’t know if it’s time to explain that to you yet, to be honest. But Grayson won’t hurt you. He’ll only drink Zain’s blood. Honestly, Zain wouldn’t let Grayson drink from anyone else even if he wanted to. They’re married, if you didn’t notice. Grayson is sweet, he’s kind, intense, and sure of himself.” She said with a nod. “All five of us, we won’t harm you. No one here will harm you, I can assure you that. But us five, you can trust. We’ll protect you.” She said, her voice calm, an eerie chill to it. 

    I stared at her, pulling the blanket closer to my body as I curled tighter into a ball. Absently she slid her finger down the side of the bed, chuckling as I gripped the pillow tighter to my body. It was an impulse, the protective feel of my belongings, the glare I gave her, the warning. She chuckled, holding up her hands. “I don’t want your things. Honestly, I was just thinking that Cain used to do that, when I first adopted him. Hoarding his things under his pillow. I guess that’s a common thing for those raised in an orphanage.” She said with a frown. 

    I wanted to ask her so much. So many questions. Who’s Cain? Where was Chris? Where was I? Why does no one here seem surprised by Grayson drinking Zain’s blood? If everyone is fine with him being a monster, were they all monsters as well? But…she didn’t seem like a monster. None of them did, not really. Not even Grayson, with his lithe frame. He seemed so small compared to his husband, and the way they held each other…I was so confused. Why did it seem…beautiful to me? I shivered, curling closer to my belongings. I couldn’t think like that. Monsters, they were monsters. I was going to Hell if I accepted this as normal. People drinking blood, wannabe vampires. That’s what they taught us in church, after all. Absently I ran my finger down the cross tattoo on the inside of my right arm. I felt my confusion swirling through my mind, but all of my questions were stuck, even though I knew slowly she’d answer each and everyone, if I had only asked. 

    “Why?” I asked softly, the question I wanted to know more than anything. The one that was roaring in my mind, the most confusing thing of all. She stared at me, a frown on her face in confusion, but she waited patiently for me to explain. How, though? How do I ask why? Why do I feel safe here? Why she felt, familiar? Why I wasn’t as scared of the blood-drinking boy as I should have been? How do I ask why? “Why are you taking care of me?” I asked, confused. Why me? Someone like me? Someone non-important like me? 

    She stared at me, and for a moment I wondered if she could see it. Everything floating around in my mind that I hadn’t said, all of my thoughts, reading every part of me. Finally, she shrugged, a soft smile breaking out on her face as she nodded at me. “Because We’re Protectors, Lucie.” She said with a soft chuckle, as if that made any sense to me at all in the least. “We’re your Protectors.”