Shedding Strength pt. 10

Harmony pulled Kaia through a very stylish dining room with beautiful porcelain dishes on display in a glass cabinet along a short wall to their right. A large and rounded, mahogany table polished to a shine sat in the center of the pine-scented room. The spotless, tiled floor reflected sunlight beaming through the windows brightly enough to illuminate the entire area. Eight identical chairs circled the table, leading Kaia to guess why the house was so big. “You got a lotta brothers and sisters?” she asked.

The girl shook her head and led Kaia around the table. “One big sis! One little brother! And Mr. Growley!” Kaia frowned as she was pulled through a pair of slide doors and into a much darker den. The only light seeped in from the dining area since the fireplace on the opposite wall was unlit. Kaia couldn’t imagine the girl’s mother would be pleased with them tracking water on her plush, autumn-hued carpeting, but still Harmony guided her across the windowless room to a flight of beige-carpeted stairs with polished wood railings on either side. Harmony released Kaia’s hand and pointed to the top. “Mommy’s room is up there! Hoppy-hop to the top!”

When the girl started hopping up the steps, Kaia temporarily lost her awe with the mansion and concentrated on Harmony. One misstep and she’d be taking a dive with no water to cushion the fall. “Where is everybody?”

Harmony stopped hopping. She glanced around the ceiling for a few seconds. “Uhm… Big sis is in the woods. Little brother’s waiting with Mommy.”

The woods? Was her big sister a friend? Harmony didn’t really resemble any of them… maybe Isobel, but that was a stretch. “What about your daddy?”

Further up the stairs, Harmony turned around in confusion. “Who’s daddy?” She held up Mr. Growley by his paws and made him dance in the air. “Do you know Daddy, Mr. Growley?” While continuing the air dance, she hummed a little tune that seemed to ease away the confusion.

Kaia took a second to listen carefully. Even though the place was huge, she couldn’t hear footsteps shuffling across the floor, the humming of an air unit, nor a television’s random chatter. There were no sounds other than the girl’s humming. Kaia shivered and a streak of tiny bumps appeared on both arms. Tilting her head, Harmony stopped humming and gazed at Kaia with another puzzled look. Kaia’s stomach turned the moment their eyes met. Reacting on instinct, she stepped back and lost her footing on the stairs. Immediately, she reached out and grabbed the railing with her left hand as she fell backwards. Off-balance, her damp fingers slid across the smooth wood a second before they caught a firm grip. Her body’s momentum swung her back into the railing and the wall it was bolted to. Kaia squealed as the scrapes flared intensely. The rake must have dug deeper than she originally thought. The pain spreading through the middle of her back hurt worse than ever.

After regaining her balance, she pushed off the wall, but the agony continued. She blinked and her vision suddenly went hazy. A number of loud and jumbled sounds assaulted her ears, disorienting her and causing an intense wave of nausea. Blurry shadows danced in front of a bright light for an instant, but the muggy scene disappeared when she blinked again. She stood upright on the stairs, with a hand on each railing for support and staring down at her wet, bare feet. The nausea disappeared. The pain in her back vanished. “What the hell?” she whispered. Her mind raced, trying to make sense of what she just saw and heard.

“Careful, Kai-Kai.”

Kaia timidly looked up at Harmony who now stood at the top of the stairs and hugged Mr. Growley with both arms.

With her right index finger, Harmony pointed down to Kaia with a wide smile. “If you fall… you won’t get up.”