The First Touch (68 page)

Autumn
waved at him dismissively and checked her appearance in the mirror on the wall in the hallway, and
then huffed, “I need to get out more
.”
Autumn
looked back at the white room and sniffed the air pretending to sniff her arm pits as she made her way to the door. As soon as she put her arm down to reach for the handle she felt a pain shoot through her ankles as they both cracked. Instantly she went flying down the hallway into the television mounted on the wall in the living room.
Autumn
bounced off of it landing on the floor then, and watched in horror as the white dots on the floor stirred moving erratically with each unseen step of her attacker.
Autumn
mouthed wordlessly, “
Lyla
,”
as she went flying into the book shelves on the other side of the room, her head finally breaking open with the impact on her skull.

As the blood gushed from her wound,
Autumn
found it difficult to concentrate. Though
she
did hear
the knock at the door again, and she slowly placed her hand on her
heart that was continuing to beat in her chest.
Autumn
felt her entire body lift off of the ground again and she watched as Sophia entered the living room. “
Autumn
is everything alright? I heard a bang.”
Autumn
heard Sophia’s scream before she even felt her own body hit the ground.
Autumn
watched in horror as Sophia was thrown into the coffee table sending punch flying into the air a
nd all down the front of
Lyla
.

Autumn
thought
,
finally, something worked
and then she slowly tried to pull herself up b
ut to no avail, her back spasmed
at the pressure on her spine and she collapsed again. This was just in time to see
Lyla
reach down to pick
up Sophia’s unconscious body,
shaking he
r violently.
Autumn
watched as she dropped her again seeing
her
move out of the corner of her eye.
Lyla
made her way stealthily across the room to chuck
Autumn
again. This time into the kitchen table,
Autumn
slid across the top knocking it over and cut her arms and the backs of her legs on the broken bowls.
Autumn
quickly pushed herself up and heard anoth
er knock on the door.
Lyla
yelled, “The party has been canceled.”

While
Autumn
, slowly drug
her body around the table
,
and watched as
Lyla
went to check on the front door.
She
pulled her body as quickly as she could back to through the living room past Sophia’s lifeless body.
Autumn
thankfully noted that she was breathing deeply, and that the red punch looked like it was just that, no
t
blood.
Autumn
continued her struggle towards the book shelves again as she listened to
Lyla
talking to a male,
Drake
she was guessing. “The party has been canceled go away
please
.”

Drake
on the other hand was arguing tirelessly
, “
I received
a call
and
I am not here for the party. I am supposed to meet someone here. Can you let me in please?”

Lyla
snapped back
, “
No, n
o visitors.
P
lease leave or I will be forced to call the police,
Sir
.”

Autumn
finally made it to the bookshelf and winced as she slowly pulled herself up to the shelf where she had left her daughters book. Then she called out, “
Lyla
I am ready now.”
Lyla
made her way back down the hall and back to the over turned table and then looked up to see
Autumn
sitting on the floor next to the book shelf again.

Then she followed the trail of blood and said
, “
My own little trail of bread crumbs.” Then she pushed the desk out of the way sending it into another wall and replie
d, “You don’t look so scary now
a
ll covered from head to toe in your own blood.”
Autumn
winced
inciting
Lyla
’s predatory nature, and she purred with delight.

“So Mirth sent his little pet to take care of me, did he?”
Lyla
sliced her cheek, and
Autumn
hisse
d protecting her face,
looking down at
Lyla
’s bloody finger tips
, she taunted further
, “Why didn’t he come himself?”

Lyla
hissed back, “He doesn’t even know I am here.”

Autumn
blinked, “What are you trying to get brownie points?”

Autumn
received another slice on her other cheek then, “Things are different now, he is different.”

Autumn
frowned her cheeks burning as she did,
Lyla
glared at her then and
Autumn
continued her questioning
,
coughing now, “Different like you, pulling me around the same few weeks and months over and over again?”

Lyla
looked at her surprised then. “You are the one with the power.”

She
hissed, “And the repeats?”

Lyla
sneered then, “You don’t know?”

Autumn
hissed back, “Know what?”

Lyla
savored the words, “You are the one who keeps moving us all around.”

Autumn
knitted her brows, “What?”

Lyla
smiled satisfied, and then as she spoke her words gained speed, “You keep changing the outcomes, chess pieces, like Mirth use to do. I thought that you were doing it on purpose, trying out your abilities, playing.”

Autumn
frowned then as silent tears slid down her cheeks, “I did this?”
Autumn
did not need
Lyla
to answer, then she said calmly her feeling of reassurance kicking in, “I did this.” She tried to push herself up to comfort
Lyla
then, “I can’t control it and...I thought I could keep the darkness back.”

Lyla
snapped, “You were trying different possibilities. The
problem is that, t
he virus
was released
long before you or Mirth
was
ever born, no amount of changes in y
our time line will fix
that.”

Lyla
continued still seeming distraught, “There was no reason for you to have hurt Mirth though, you could have left him, and you didn’t need to let him feel the bond break before you tried again. That was his undoing I think, yes, that was it. He won’t talk about that, so it must be it. I don’t understand why? Once you left that path and started another everything would have reset
itself
…
unless another time keeper showed
him
…
”

Autumn
wheezed, “I didn’t even know I was the one pushing the reset button
…
.wait time keeper?
”

Lyla
snapped ignoring her question,
“But
you knew that he would find out
.”

Autumn
hissed
, shaking her head
, “It doesn’t matter now
,
I will be dead soon anyways. Besides I thought that it was Gregory who told him. Who else remembers?”

Lyla
winced
, “
J
ust time keepers
would know but only
, after we have had a taste of true power,
like your blood. W
e are attracted to it
, according to Mirth.
Isisa kept hers
hidden
somewhere….
”

Autumn
thought,
Utvic
, but
asked confused, “And Gregory?
”

Lyla
snapped back, “
He found a way to steal a soul
of one of us
, that’s why others can see him, not that he matters anymore anyhow,
Mirth killed him as soon a
s I told him what he did to you in the other time line
.”

Autumn
huffed then trying to open up h
er ribcage, “Will
It
always end
the same?”

Lyla
frowned and nodded, “You can’t control him or
anyone
else until you
are born, or when you first see
your eyes change, or some crap
like that
.
”

Autumn
frowned, and
asked, “When I first see
my eye
s
change?”

“Yeah he said you’d dream it, or some such nonsense,”
Lyla
continued
, “
Anyhow, i
t’s too late to stop it; we will just have
to clean up the mess afterwards it seems.
”

Autumn
frowned saying,
“How many people are dead already?”
Inside her brain was racing,
my first eye change
…

Lyla
answered, “The plague is spreading slowly through Europe right now, but it reached its first Vessel a month or so ago.
The humans think it is contained for the
moment,
Mirth is w
orking along side of them
looking for a cure for it. It has become a super version of itself now; Mirth now believes that the mixture of the two has altered it so drastically that nothing can cure it but your blood.”

Then she slowed her decent, “You bonded with Mirth though and now...” Her eyes teared then and her thoughts became erratic, “And then you cut him loose, what was the purpose of that? Why would you hurt him like that? That was merciless; he waited a decade for you. He...loved you
….He still does.
” Her voice broke then and she began to
sob. “Now he won’t even look at me.” Then her eyes dilated and she turned a wic
ked smile towards her, “But you are
right
,
you are close to death, I can hear it in you heart beat. After you’re gone, being killed as a human, before you ever even changed, he will look to me for comfort. Then I can have my Mirth back, not this twisted version of him, a life that you have not touched.”

Autumn smiled and looked over at Sophia who sat up rubbing her head.
Lyla
cut her eyes over her shoulder and saw Soph
ia sitting up wide eyed. She stood
up slowly watching Sophia’s face turn to horror as she realized her predicament. To
Autumn’s
surprise Sophia picked up a shard of glass and held it out protectively in front of her slashing wildly at
Lyla
’s ghostly figure.
While
Lyla
was distracted
Autumn
began prying at the book that had remained closed for nearly three years now with her bloodied fingers. Sophia’s noble effort was quickly extinguished and she lay motionless once more,
Autumn
was finally able to rip the first section open as she wiped her bloodied face, smearing it onto the page.

Eventually she just stuck the book to her face and then reached for the half empty kettle and drank the rest of its contents. Then she sniffed the pages searching for any sign of change in scent from her own blood.
Lyla
’s face appeared in fr
ont of her
,
but luckily
,
the door
bell rang, and
Lyla
called out angrily, “The party has been canceled.” Silence followed and
Lyla
finally said, “So what is the story behind this book?
”
She snatched it from
Autumn’s
weak grip
, and inspected
it, “It’s not religious, and it reeks, so sentimental?” Then another knock at the door, and
Lyla
jumped up dropping the book yelling, “I said the party has been canceled, go away before I call the coppers.”