UP IN FLAMES - Lydia Martin

009. Something wicked this way comes

╰┈➤ chapter nine;
something wicked this way comes

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SKYLAR NEVER liked hospitals. The smell of cleaning products, the harsh bright lights and the painful silence made her avoid the building like a deadly plague.

So how was it that she was currently counting the tiles in her hospital room you may ask? Skylar had been knocked into a bookshelf by the fucking kanima.

Six hundred and seven, six hundred and eight, six hundred and nine –

"Skylar?" A small voice called out, interrupting her counting.

Skylar groaned and rolled onto the other side so she could see who was by the door. Lydia Martin.

"Go away."

Lydia mustered a light smile. "I just wanted to see if you were okay. You looked pretty hurt yesterday."

Skylar raised her right arm and placed it over her eyes. "Leave me alone." Her head was throbbing and it sounded like she was underwater. Every sound was far, far away.

"No."

Lydia gathered up the courage and walked over to Skylar. The strawberry blonde grabbed a stool from under the bed and sat down next to Skylar.

Skylar internally groaned. Why didn't the girl understand a simple command to leave?

"I told you to go." Skylar's voice came out slightly muffled due to her having her arm over her mouth.

Lydia closed her eyes for a second. "I know you did, but since when does Lydia Martin listen?"
The blonde removed her arm from her face and sat up, glaring into Lydia's eyes. Her view of Lydia was blurry and good thing she wasn't standing up, because the dizziness made her awfully nauseous. "Go." She said and it surprised the strawberry blonde how much authority it had within. "Before I make you."

Reluctantly, she stood up and left the room, sparing one last glance at Skylar who had went back to counting the tiles on the wall.

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Chris and Allison stood in Skylar's hospital room, talking over important information whilst the blonde girl listened and interrupted if needed.

"Hmm. This one, Sean?" Asked Chris, pointing to a picture of the man that was killed. "Sean was killed by this thing. Gerard says it's a kind of shapeshifter. It hasn't been around for centuries."

Allison nodded. "The thing you shot outside the club the other night."

Skylar cleared her throat. "A South American legend we know of calls it the Kanima. I've practically memorised the whole Beastiary."

Chris raised his eyebrows at his niece and pointed to another picture. "This one, Jessica? She was smothered to death after giving birth. The police think it was done by someone else. . .We think it's a person who's controlling this other shapeshifter. That means two killers, Allison – one human, one not. You know, the one question I had after Gerard first told me about our family? 'Why us?' He quoted me Winston Churchill. 'The price of greatness is responsibility.' Personally, I think it's more about knowledge. What we know – the truth, what we know about the world – that makes us responsible. For a young couple, their newborn daughter, anyone that doesn't have the power to defend themselves. Are you starting to get it?"