Phoenix's Lies

Maybe Not All Is Lost?

Phoenix

After the three of them leave the house falls silent again. Silent save for the sound of the tv in the lounge and the storm outside. Something that means I'll be trapped here for as long as it takes for it to move on. Trapped waiting and hoping that Lena and Riv wake up. Stop scaring me and wake up. Let me know they'll be ok. That she'll be ok.

A few hours pass and I find I'm back where I was before. Holding Riv gently and turning over in my hand the objects she'd hidden in her bag. The same ones I threw at her in a moment of anger but found myself missing, reaching to hold or tap unconsciously the weeks I didn't have them. Have the link to her. Libby seems a little less on edge so I can only guess that whatever Ari said cured her of some of her fear that her friend was leaving her. Hating how she is afraid of that since we'd lost mom. Luna. Zoey. Almost lost her. Me.

The time waiting for her I find myself looking back at the book Ari had given me a few days before this all happened. The one filled with her poems, the ones she wrote to me but never sent. Find myself lost in the mixture of emotions that are trapped there. Feeling through the words what she went through during the times her note says they're linked to. Able to see how she survived but lost herself, just as Kat said she did. Reading each one I find my answers differ from what I thought they would have been. Some come easier but some are harder. By the time I've looked through them all, some pages are filled, some half blank, and some empty. Waiting for me to fill them. I spend time with Libby and look after the two we are keeping safe. Hoping that no matter what happens she'll wake up. That they both will.

Two more days go by before we hear how bad the storm is. Explaining how it's supposed to stay for at least a month, maybe longer. Likely longer if their predictions are accurate and yet they don't know the cause. Not a hurricane or something like that, it's the wrong region they claim for one this strong. Not a monsoon either and yet the storm continues. Shielding us inside. Libby's quiet but I know she's just worried. Just as I am. Yet I can't find it in me to be upset with it since I can tell the two are getting better. Stronger. Not warming up as fast as I'd like but still looking better.

"H-Hello?" Unsurprisingly her little sister wakes up first, large hazel eyes worried when she opens them. "Where am I?" She finds me first and I can tell she's nervous until she seems to notice something about me that calms her. "Is Ri-Ri ok?" Her nickname for her sister is cute but I don't know how to respond when she shivers and pulls Libby's blanket. Still cold. "What happened to me?"

I take a breath, "That's what I was hoping you could answer for me Lena," She frowns but says nothing for a second. "I'm one of your sister's friends. You can trust me. I promise. I won't hurt you."

"How can I trust you? Other people say that and then they hurt me. Like mommy did." She gives me a fearful look. "Will you hurt me?"

"Never," I don't get a chance to explain or answer her before I hear Libby's voice and see El turn toward her. Instantly the other girl's tension eases and she faces me with another look, One I get.

"Your Libby's brother. The one my sister's in love with." Her words are blunt and shock me, not just because she knows them. More because she sounds so certain of it. Not that I know how since she keeps watching me. Trying to figure something out. "Is my sister ok?"

"Not sure Lena." I take a breath, watching her again. "Can you tell me what happened? Before you got here?"

She shivers a little and I feel bad for asking but it might help me understand what happened to her and Riv. how I can help them. "Mommy came back and she hurt Rivvy again. She hit and attacked her over what happened with her boyfriend. The one that hurt her." She gives me another look. "The one you saved her from with Ari." She pauses for a second then before continuing. "She hurt her. Because Rivvy tried to save me. Mommy tried to drown me and threw me but I hit my head. I don't know what happened to Rivvy after I almost drowned, it's all dark until I woke up just now."