The Children Of Maddeline

Twenty-Five

Jadzia

I waited anxiously in the hospital bed, looking down at my semi-flattened stomach and twiddling my thumbs as I heard voices from the other side of the door. The three babies had been taken out of the room as soon as they had been born, I hadn't even caught a glimpse of one of them.

The door opened and a doctor came in, he sat in the chair beside me and sighed. He gripped my hand and looked into my eyes.

"The two boys survived, but..." He took a deep breath and I looked at him anxiously, "the girl's heart won't pump blood and her brain didn't form properly."

I burst into tears, wailing and sobbing. I still had the two boys, my two sons, but I'd lost my little princess. An idea struck me suddenly; I remembered how mum had told me about a nice water witch who lived under the green waters of the lake that was nearby.

"Get the witch." I said to the doctor.

He understood straight away, nodding solemnly and rushing out of the room. I thought I was only waiting for five minutes, but in no time at all the doors opened and the tallest woman I'd ever seen in my life entered the white room. Her long black hair was damp and it hung around her shoulders like rat's tails. She was easily seven feet tall with a sleek white gown covering her dark-skinned frame, whenever she moved the material shimmered and changed colours in the light. Gold and silver bangles were clustered together on her wrists, along with on her ankles. She had a weaved leather belt around her waist with tiny glass vials hanging from it, bubbling liquids inside all of them.

She took one look at me and glided to my bedside, she sat down on the chair very carefully like she was going to break it. Her bottle green eyes stared into my yellow ones, she took my small hand in her large one.

"If you want to your daughter to live, you must give up one part of each of your sons and give the parts to me." Her voice was deep, unusual for a woman.

I gulped and started going over every body part in my head, all the ones they would need. Wait. She had said part, not body part. I had a plan, but I wasn't sure if she would let me do it.

"One of them blind in the right eye, and one of them blind in the left." I spoke in a shaky voice, looking her in the eye.

She smiled and nodded, standing up and leaning down to kiss me on the forehead before gliding out of the door. I blinked, when her lips touched my skin I felt all my worries drift away and I was left with a feeling of trust and patience. Soon enough my mum and Gray entered the small room, mum carried two blue bundles and Gray carried a tiny little bundle of pink blankets.

I smiled at them and held out my arms, mum gave me one of the boys and I looked down at him. I half expected one of his eyes to be an ugly shade of murky blue, but it was just white. Entirely white, like the witch had removed his Iris and his pupil. Mum gave me the other boy as well, and like his brother, one of his eyes was entirely white.

"What shall their names be?" Gray asked, I noticed he was still holding my daughter.

I thought for a minute, looking down at the one who was blind in his right eyes but his left eye was an amber colour like Tyler's had been.

"Well this one is Tyler Gray Brennan." I looked up at Gray, he seemed surprised that I'd used his name as my son's middle name.

I looked at the baby boy who was blind in his left eye, "This one is Braydon Gabriel Brennan." Gray again looked surprised, I'd used his middle name as Braydon's middle name.

Mum took Tyler and Braydon from me, she stood back as Gray gently placed the tiny body of my daughter in my arms. I looked down at her, tears welling in my eyes. She was so tiny, so fragile, a small tuft of dark brown hair covered her head and her eyes were closed.

"Miracle." I murmured, looking up at my mother, "Her name is Miracle Maddeline Brennan."

Mum smiled so wide that I thought her mouth would stretch even wider and her skin would split. She handed Braydon to Gray and sat on the bed next to my legs, looking down at Miracle with such love and appreciation.

"Did the witch go home?" I asked.

"I am still here." I heard her deep voice, I looked past Gray and saw her standing just inside the room.

"Thank you, so much." I praised her happily, "but don't witches always want payment for things that they have done?"

The water witch shook her head, "I got the eyesight from one eye of each of your sons, if they want the eyesight back in the coming years, then yes they will need to give me two things."

I nodded as I started to understand her way of work, "what is your name?"

The witch shrugged, "I was never given a name, sold into slavery when I was young, the only name I ever had was AE2391."

I frowned, it didn't seem fair to me that she had helped my daughter and I didn't have a name to call her by. I frowned deeper as I thought of a name to give her.

"Your name shall be Alazrelle." She smiled at me and nodded happily, that had been the name of my favourite witches from a story Mora always told me.

Alazrelle stayed for a while longer, before leaving to go back to her pond. She said that she had a tiny baby sea serpent that she had to take care of. We bid her goodbye and put the triplets to bed, I sat on my bed and fiddled with the contents of Tyler's bedside table drawer.

I pulled out a small black box along with a torn of piece of paper with a message scrawled in messy handwriting. I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand, blinking back tears as I read the note.

"I love you and our child more than anything, I want to stay with you forever so will you marry me?" I sobbed quietly.

It was obvious that Tyler had written the words so he wouldn't forget what to say when he proposed. I opened the box and stared at the gold band with a large topaz decorating the top of it and smaller diamonds clustered at the base of it. I sniffled and slipped it on my finger, holding my hand in front of my face and taking a deep breath.

"Yes." I whispered.

'Good, I don't know what I would of done if you said no.' A voice in my head chuckled.

"Tyler?" I grew hopeful, looking around and looking for him.

'I knew something was going to happen, either to me or another member of the pack. So I asked the water witch to transmit my consciousness into the ring. Didn't I tell you that I'd always be with you?'

I laughed quietly with happiness, Tyler went on to tell me that whoever wore the ring would hear his voice and that if I lose the ring it would always magically appear back on my ring finger. I grew drowsy, having given birth to three babies, cried my eyes out more than I can count, met a water witch, and found out that my dead mate was still technically alive, I was damn tired.

My eyelids drooped and eventually I drifted off to the sound of Tyler softly singing my favourite song to me. And then it was one in the morning and I was woken up by three screaming babies in the next room.