For the Love of Chaos

The Best Chicken Soup

The light faded and Cassie rushed to her sister. She fell to her knees and cradled Lizzie's head in her lap—a habit left over from when they would sleep in the same room to comfort each other as children after their guardians had gone to bed. Cassie noticed that Lizzie's left arm seemed to have been broken and healed again at an unnatural angle. There were scratches covering the left side of Lizzie's body, some were bleeding but none of them looked too serious. She was relieved—she didn't have her first aid kit, and she hadn't started first aid training until she was ten. She was also fairly certain that there wasn't any muscle memory ingrained in this body. That would probably change very soon.

Cassie looked up and saw the ghost twins (Anna and Lyra, her mind provided) flying around in circles above her head with panicked expressions. She could hear them saying something but couldn't make out what they said.

...

The ghost twins were freaking out; they had never seen anyone hurt that bad before.

"What do we do! What do we do?" shouted Lyra.

"What even happened?" panicked Anna

"There was a light and—" Lyra began.

"It was at such an odd angle," Anna continued.

"Did you see all the—"

"And then it—"

Anna cut herself off and the ghosts flew over to the other set of twins and hovered over them, their faces twisted in concern.

"Is she okay?" Lyra asked.

"Is she dead?" The other two gave Anna looks of annoyance and panic.

Before they could say anything to Anna about being tactful when others were hurt, Lizzie began to shift. They all stared down at her and watched as her face twisted in pain and as she breathed out sharply when her left arm moved. Her eyes opened and she went to shut them again, but Cassie stopped her.

"No, Liz," Cassie chided. "You need to stay awake. You might have a concussion and if you do, we don't need it getting worse."

Lizzie's face scrunched up and she tried to sit up. Cassie gently helped her sit up and propped her up against a nearby tree. She sat across from her younger twin and the ghosts sat criss cross in the air above them.

"Where do you hurt?" Cassie asked.

Lizzie hummed thoughtfully. "My arm hurts like it got run over," she supplied.

"Does your head hurt? Any nausea, blurring of vision, or memory loss? Does the light or loud noises hurt you?" Cassie demanded.

"A little, no, no, don't think so, no, and no." Lizzie gave her a look. "Are you testing for a concussion?"

"Yep, but I don't think you have one." Cassie replied.

"Good. They suck."

"Can you hold out your arm?" Lizzie held out her right arm. "Your left arm."

Lizzie gave her a teasing smile as she was difficult on purpose. She winced as she held out her left arm, but kept it in the air anyway.

"Can you flip your hand so your palm is upwards?"

It took her a few tries, but eventually Lizzie was able to turn her palm both up and down.

"Hmm. I don't think that your arm is broken, but it kinda looks like it might've been," Cassie told her.

Lizzie's face lit up. "Did I use magic? Is that why there was a big light show before I passed out?"

Cassie's jaw dropped and her eyes widened as what her sister said sunk in. "You did magic!"