All Her Secrets

The Morning After - Pigeon

A/N: This is where the new content for “All Her Secrets” begins, so I hope you enjoy!

Also, I noticed some inconsistencies, so I corrected those, but the essence of the chapter hasn't changed.

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“Pigeon! Come on, we’ll be late!”

Carter had been calling my name for five minutes. I pried my eyes opne just enough to look at my clock- 2 o'clock.

Crap. He's right.

He was waiting so he could take me to gymnastics before he went to football practice. Groaning, I rolled over in bed. I would rather die than try to face the uneven bars today.

I don't even care if coach is mad at me... There is no way I'm making it to practice today.

All night my stomach had been hurting, and several times I had thought I was going to choke from coughing so hard. More than once I had wished that I would choke- between the chills and my aching bones, choking seemed better.

“Pigeon! What is taking so long?” I could hear Carter coming up the stairs, his steps practically shaking the floors. He hates being late to practice- his coach makes them run laps around the field. I wrapped my arms around my body as my muscles cramped up again, and my stomach turned inside out. Carter appeared in my doorway, and took a step back before covering his nose and mouth and coming in.

“You don’t look so good… I guess you’re staying home.” I nodded, and rolled off the bed. Catching myself on my hands, I gagged, wanting the sick feeling go away. “Whoa!” Carter placed my trash can under my chin and I spit into it. Slipping a hair tie around my long hair quickly, he began to back away. “Okay, you are staying home-” he stopped as I began to cough, waiting for a minute before raising his voice continuing. “I will be home from football at five. Call me on the house phone if you need anything.” He ran down the stairs, obviously eager to get away from me. Laying down on my floor, I waited for the room to stop spinning.

After what I think was around ten minutes, I managed to sit up and get to the bathroom, doubling over in the middle of the hallway from the coughing. Why am I so sick? I was fine last night… I continued to hobble to the bathroom, my chest and throat on fire. Two steps into the small room, I hit my knees and my coughing turned into gagging over the toilet for another ten minutes.

Crawling to the other side of the toilet, I leaned against the bathtub to my right and the toilet to my left, the ceramic being the only thing keeping my body upright. Waiting, I breathed deeply, and listened to the sound of a car without a muffler drive past my house. Slowly, I shouldered my way back onto my knees, stretching over the icy bathtub wall. Reaching for the water knobs, I turned it onto full blast. Mom used to do this when I still suffered from my asthma attacks, and I was hoping it would help with the coughing.

Mom... She'd know what to do...

Reaching again, I ran my hand under the faucet. Although it was as high as it would go, the steaming water still felt cold to me. Panting as I shook my hand off, I heard something clank against the metal, and then it hit my other hand.

Grabbing the object, I realized it was a necklace. Adjusting the water flow and pulling myself up onto the toilet, I looked at the charm.

A red crescent moon? When did I-

Last night was real. Holy crap. Last night really happened.

Witches are real.

Magick is real.

Holy crap. Holy crap! HOLY CRAP!

I felt my throat, the smooth pale skin hiding secrets, and a new thought hit me.

Does this mean I won’t be able to speak, ever again?

Taking a shaky breath and swallowing another round of coughing, I tried to say “Hello.”

My mouth moved, but no sound came out. At least, not in a word.

I screamed as my whole body tensed, causing me to slide off the seat and crumple to the ground. I began to cough so hard I hit my head on the toilet base, forcing my arms to pull myself over the ridge and gagging once the coughing stopped. My elbows hurt from pressing into the freezing ceramic and my hands were pressing on my head; it felt like someone was hitting me with a hammer every time my heart beat, which was speeding.

Falling back to the ground, I curled into a ball on the tile, trying to take deep breaths of the steam to calm my lungs. Tears ran down my face and I could only come up with one thought that made sense.

I am never talking again.