“What if we don’t make it? What if we die today or worse?”
“Paige, I don’t know. I never fought anything like this before. If you would have asked me if this was a possibility I might have laughed at you, now I know better. We’re in this together, live or die we do it as one. Who was it that said all we can do is fight the good fight?”
“It’s a Bible verse.”
“Then that’s what we will do. We’ll fight the good fight and see where we end up.”
“Alright, we better get ready before two little hurricanes knock us over,” she said, taking his hand as they left the kitchen.
They grabbed coats and gloves and were waiting when Vick and Mckayla came running down the stairs. Aviana trailed behind them.
“Are you sure you want to take these two out with you?”
“It’ll be fun, don’t worry we’ll bring her back in one piece.”
Aviana gave Paige a thankful smile before they left.
“Where are we walking to?” Mckayla asked, making a snowball to throw at Vick.
“Hey!” Vick returned fire as the two of them moved a little ahead playing.
“Do you want children, Paige?”
“I do. I always wanted a boy and a girl. One would look like me and the other like my husband.”
“I can picture a girl who looks like you, a boy who looks like me.”
“Hmm, sounds a little sexist to me. What if the boy looked like me?”
“Then he’d be extremely handsome, but I fear for a girl who looks like me.”
“Oh baby, with those eyes and those lips, you’d need to keep those claws sharpened. The boys would chase her like she was cat-nip.”
“She’s not allowed to date.”
“Oh, you’re so cute.”
Paige could see them walking with their children running ahead of them playing in the snow. She wanted that, she was determined to have a life with Cal, one that didn’t end today.
She stumbled when a searing hot pain burst through her breast. Cal caught her.
“It’s time to go back,” he called halting Vick and Mckayla.
They rushed back as he held Paige. In silence they returned to the house.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Cal gently placed Paige down on the bed, her body twisting in pain. He slowly removed her clothes not wanting to cause her anymore distress. He left her clad only in her underwear. Stripping quickly he joined her on the bed. The final battle or the first in many to come, he didn’t know which it would be; as long as she was with him he’d deal with whatever came their way.
“Paige, can you hear me?”
“Cal, it feels like putting your hand in a flame and then being too stupid to take it out.”
He ran his hand over her arm before opening his link to her. Her pain poured through leaving him bent over in agony. Stiffly he maneuvered himself from a seated position to lie next to her.
“It’s time, Paige. This time you have to invite me in. I can’t enter; you’re too strong now, you have to invite me in.”
Paige spun in circles, thoughts swirling around her head as she tried to get her bearings. She needed to find her way inside of herself. How was she supposed to do that without Cal’s help? She reached out to him, but could only feel the white hot pain branding her.
She tried to picture Cal but couldn’t; all she could see was Voyager’s face challenging her, asking her if she came this far to fail. His voice was like a hard slap of reality, one she actually appreciated. Taking everything she had, she pushed the pain down to a bearable level and began looking for the door that would lead her inside of herself.
It beckoned to her, red and fiery, warning her that entering in would lead to pain unimaginable. She squared her shoulders. The pain she felt now was unimaginable. What was a little more pain?
She moved towards that door taking a good look at herself, this was her essence, who she was without the shell of her body. She looked the same but she was light and airy, translucent. Color is what defined her, lots of yellow and white with patches of sky blue. Cal called her Sunshine and that’s what her essence reflected.
Reaching out she grabbed the handle of the door as the fire raced over her raising her pain to another level. The need to let loose of the handle screamed through her; instead she tightened her grip and began to turn. The handle resisted whispering seductive words of how good it would feel to let go. She continued to turn. You will die here, a malicious voice swept through her mind.
She dropped to her knees still grasping the knob turning the handle. Just when her strength seemed it might fail she fell through the door. She was in.
She took a quick look around; she was in her abdomen hovering over her stomach. Every place she looked was shrouded in color. She was in her body but on another plane; there was no need to worry about stepping on something or damaging her insides. The knowledge was pouring into her. Later she would wonder where it was coming from, now she needed to find cal.