Chronicles of the Kiridians
Chapter 20

For it is written in the Chronicles of the Kiridians:

Don’t give up the good fight

Evil always lurks around every corner

Darkness will always try to prevail, but remember this:

Darkness cannot exist in the light

I wake up in a bed under a blanket. I look around the room I’m in and see the familiar dinosaur posters and science equipment and realize that I’m at Joey’s in his room. I sigh in relief and try to sit up, only to have my stomach hurt badly. I reach for it,and replace that it is wrapped in white tape, and I’m in nothing but a sports bra and a pair of sweatpants.

I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.

“Oh, you’re awake,” a comforting voice startles me.

I turn to my right and see Anya with a tray standing in the doorway. She comes into the room and closes the door behind her. She walks over to Joey’s closet and grabs a t-shirt out of there and throws it to me. “I figured you’d like to be covered now that you’re awake. We will just have to work a little harder when treating your injury.”

“You mean everyone has seen me like this?” I say with a groan as I attempt to sit up. Anya runs over to me and helps me slowly get into a sitting position. She helps me get the shirt over my body and then lays me back down on the bed.

“Unfortunately, yes,” she apologizes. “I hope that you’re not too insulted.”

“No, I understand.”

I lay down as she begins adding mixing ingredients into the cup. “This isn’t a magical cure, but it will help speed things along. It’s going to be painful. It also tastes like death,” she chuckles as she hands it to me. “Drink up, Lena,”

I bring the drink to my lips and take the first sip of it. She wasn’t lying when she said it was gross. It tastes as if someone had ate a whole bowl of ramen, threw it up, and then served it for dinner. I look at her appalled but continue to chug the drink.

“Here,” she says handing me a coke. “This will help the after flavor.”

I drink the soda like I haven’t ever tasted the sugary drink before in silence as Anya sits on the edge of the bed and just looks at me. She clears her throat as I set the can on the night table and beings to talk.

“I don’t want you to think I’m a monster, Lena, or I guess you prefer Kara.”

I look at her confused and shake my head, “I don’t think that at all, Anya.”

“You have to wear many different crowns as royalty. You’re not just expected to be one given thing. From a young age, I was expected to be Princess Anya, the wise. When my mother died I then had to get a new hat. Princess Anya, the Wise, and the caretaker. My siblings became my responsibility. What you saw wasn’t the version of myself I always want to be represented as, but I had no choice at that moment. I look forward to you getting to know the me that I see when I look in the mirror, Kara.”

“I look forward to it too,” I say honestly. “I respect how you handled yourself.”

It isn’t a lie. Raina, Brodie, and Anya are all stronger than I initially intended them to be. My fight with the king trails back into memory as I remember Raina with her blaster. The tears from the betrayal of her father, the way she didn’t hesitate to shoot the gun.

They did what they had to do. Why did I struggle with that?

The door crashes open and Raina runs into the room with a bright smile on her face. “Oh my gosh! You’ve been out for literal days, Kara! I thought you weren’t ever going to wake up!”

She comes and plops on the bed despite Anya’s disapproving look. She takes my hand and begins to squeeze it tightly as Joey and Brodie come into the room followed quickly by my mom. Even without the LOTUS to hide her actual age, she looks like she’s aged significantly since the last time I’ve seen her. My eyes don’t leave the doorway expecting my dad to walk in when the sad realization that he is gone creeps over me. Tears well up in my eyes, and my mom walks over and kisses me on the head.

“It’s okay,” she whispers. “I miss him too.”

We all sit there in silence for a moment, until Brodie clears his throat and steps closer to the bed. “We need a plan now that she’s awake. I don’t mean to be cold to everything we are going through, but we can’t just wait around and hope that Delmund is going to twiddle his thumbs. We have to assume that he is going to come back stronger than ever.”

“He’s right,” I agree. “Delmund will stop at nothing until he has you three again.”

Anya, Brodie, and Raina look at each other in fear and then turn to Joey. “Joey, how long until your parents get back from their trip to Georgia?” asks Brodie.

“My mom says they should be up there another week.”

“That’s enough time for the mixture to help mostly heal her ribs,” says Anya looking at her siblings who have begun muttering under their breath. They have a weird dynamic where they can talk, but don’t actually have to finish each other’s sentences in order to understand where the conversation is going.

“We need to replace Edwin is what it boils down to,” says Raina in a demanding voice. “That is our first step.”

The other two nod and they look at my mom, Joey, and I with a reassuring look. “Guys, we have asked a lot of you. If you want to back down now, it’s okay. We will under-”

“Don’t you even think about it,” says my mother placing her hands on Raina’s. “This is our planet too. I agreed to serve the royal family in any way I can when I took my oath as an elder. Personal tragedy aside, we are in this for the long haul.”

I grab her other hand and squeeze it hard. I’m proud of my mom for being able to focus clearly after what happened. “I agree,” I say. “We can’t save you guys if we don’t have all of you guys. Now that we have three of you, replaceing the last one should be our priority.”

“We need a pod for that,” says Brodie. “We need to try and track the signal.”

“Anya’s is out of the question I’m assuming?” asks Joey half-joking. I chuckle as the rest look at each other and scoff. It’s only now that I notice Raina’s hand entwined in his own. “And San Antonio seems a little reckless after what happened there. Not to mention it’s hard to get through the wooded area.”

“Which leaves the good ole’ cave,” Raina explains to Anya. “Where they found me.”

“Well, then it is settled. We heal Kara, we go to the cave. Track down the GPS and save Edwin.” Anya tells us while laying out a plan. “We can regroup when we replace him. I’m sure he’ll have some idea once we explain everything that’s happening.”

“For now,” says my mother standing up. “Let’s let Kara rest. We can’t solve it all in one sitting.”

The rest of the group nods, and everyone but Raina gets up to leave the room and walks toward the door. They close the door behind them and Raina comes up to the top of the bed and lays down next to me, curling up beside me.

“Thank you for saving me,” I say to her.

“It’s what friends are for, Kara,” she says. “I will always have your back.”

We lay there in silence for a moment before I clear my throat and glance over at her. “So you and Joey?”

“We are not getting into this right now, Kara,” says Raina with a laugh.

“I mean, I’m just saying, in your wedding am I going to be the maid of honor or am I going to be the best man?”

“Probably both!” she cackles from next to me.

When the laughter dies we both sit in silence as she looks at me with a scared expression in her eyes. “We are all going to get through this, right?”

“I can’t answer that,” I answer honestly. “But I know that no matter what happens, with all of us on the same side, we are going to put on one heck of a fight.” We lay there in silence until the soft sounds of Raina snores fills the room. I turn my head to the side and look toward the window. The stars are out brighter than normal, almost as if they’re warning us that this war is not over.

“I hope you’re ready next time, Delmund,” I whisper to the window as if he’ll be able to hear me. “Next time, I will be.”

THE END