Finding Calypso

Bacon

Chapter 23

~James~

My body convulsed with pain. A feeling I haven't felt for months now. I have almost forgotten how it consumes you. I try to hold onto Caly as she is ripped away from me, but the poison that is spreading through my body doesn't allow me any strength.

I can feel my body healing as quickly as the poison deteriorates it, and I just lay there letting it battle out.

I could feel myself going insane knowing Caly is getting farther away with every second that passes.

I don't know how much time has past. Laying there only felt like moments, but by the time someone found us it was already evening. I couldn't see them clearly, but they came to each one of us pouring a liquid into our mouths.

I attempted to swallow the solution that felt like a thick fluid filled with dirt and pine needles. It was equivalent to trying to swallow a pinecone.

My eyes remained blurry as I felt the poison subside. We all came too at the same time. Octavia had crawled to Gretchen and tried to help her sit up. I rolled over and did my best attempt to stand. My legs wobbled like jelly and my body felt intoxicated.

I reach my hands out to the girls and offer to help them stand. Every moment things start to become clearer. The pain starts to dissipate. Nothing mattered more to me in this moment than getting Caly back. Her being taken only heightened my need for her. I will never let her go.

When a loud clank comes from the sound of dishes in the sink, and I realize the scent of bacon in the air. I look to Octavia and her face is as surprised as I am. We have no idea who could be in the kitchen just beside us. Octavia proceeds first, holding herself on the wall as she walks and peaks her head around to see who is inside. She looks back to me, her face worried. I feel a twinge of fear because I still have almost no strength in my body, no way to defend us. Gretchen and I sneak up and peak around the corner as well to see Caly's grandmother cooking breakfast for dinner.

"I hear y'all shuffle around out there" she says with her Cajun French accent.

"Why don't y'all come sit down, food is almost done" she says.

I push past the girls to reveal myself threatening her presence. And she says

"Now now" pointing a kitchen knife casually in my direction as she speaks.

"I can heal your body just as fast as I can take it away. Now take this bacon to the table" she says, now pointing the knife at the plate of bacon on the counter beside her.

"You're not welcome here" I hear Octavia say behind me.

"I'm sure you feel that way" the old woman responds "and I will leave. I just needed to make sure you were safe for Caly's sake"

She put down the knife and started wiping her hands with a nearby dish towel.

"Just make sure you don't let all this food go to waste" she says to me as she begins to leave.

"Wait" I call back "where have they taken Caly" I demand.

My heart aches just saying her name. Scared to death I will never find her again.

She turns to look at us all three huddled together.

"Well right now I imagine she is probably with her family, and before you know it she will be sneaking off to see her friends again. Just give her some time" she says, with an assured glance before she turns to head out.

When I hear her yell back to us and say

"Eat the bacon".

As soon as the door clicks shut. We use all the existing strength we have to follow her. We jumped into our car. We kept our distance behind her as we drove down the highway. She didn't try to speed away or advert us in anyway. So we assume she never saw us, but something inside me said she was leading me to her. That she wanted me to find her.

Just before we got to our little town she pulls off onto a private drive. We slow down as we approach it and scope out the area as we slowly pass. I can smell a stench that permeated the whole area.

When Octavia says

"It's a wolf pack territory"

She slows and turns her head lights off. She slips onto the shoulder and we wait and listen.

Moments later, a line of black vehicles speed past us and down the drive.

"And that's the royal guard" Octavia says with a chuckle of defeat.