Feral Phantom by Brooke De Lira

Author:Brooke De Lira [De Lira, Brooke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brooke De Lira
Published: 2018-04-24T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

A cool breeze swept over the rooftop where Nanda now huddled, the wallaby curled up in her lap. Goosebumps rose on her bare arms, an involuntary tremor pulsing through her body to warm her. She wore only a sports bra on her upper body, her shirt, headscarf, and neck warmer all wrapped around the tiny marsupial.

She leaned down to whisper softly into its ear. “Hold on, little guy. After you rest a little bit, I’ll take you home. You don’t have to be afraid anymore. ”

Warm tears blurred her vision until she blinked them away. She tried to hold onto her last grain of hope that the creature would recover and live a long life hopping through a wildlife sanctuary. But that hope was slipping away. She stroke the gray fur of the wallaby’s head, its eyes staring into nothing, like unseeing black marbles. Its breath hadn’t slowed in all this time. Why was he still breathing so fast?

Nanda sensed every tone of pain and anxiety that afflicted the animal, coloring her senses with heart-wrenching pangs of sorrow. The sensations cycled from fear and stress to peace and contentment and back again, tinged with uncertainty and loneliness. Her lower lip trembled as she held the wallaby closer. Was this what it felt like to die?

“Come on. Can’t you feel that I’m here? That I care about you? That I want you to live?”

She sensed the smallest shadow of comfort wash over the animal’s other emotions as she spoke, so she continued. “You’re not a prisoner anymore. You can be happy again.”

Her throat tightened, voice trembling more with every word. Tears flowed freely when she saw the animal begin to writhe as pain pulsed through its body in intervals. Its mouth opened in a silent cry, fear and pain flooding its mind. There was a moment of sweet relief between every death throe. But then the pain pulsed through its body again, stronger than ever.

Teardrops fell onto the shirt that swaddled the dying creature. That last grain of hope had fallen into the abyss that was death. The wallaby was in its last moments. She held it close to her face as the death throes came again.

“I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner.” She repeated the phrase several times, voice growing weaker until she was only mouthing the words.

Then it happened. The pain of the last death throe gave way to a cloud of complete peace that engulfed every other emotion. Then it dissipated, like the mist under the morning sun. There were no more emotions, no more pain. Just silence. The wallaby went limp in her arms, eyes still gazing into the night.

She hugged the creature tight as she let herself cry. Her body shook with every sob. She rocked back and forth, back and forth, repeating once again, “I’m sorry.”

She stayed like this for a long time, maybe an hour or more. She couldn’t tell. The sadness never waned, but an eclipse was coming. She clenched her jaw as a dark anger boiled inside her.

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