Ellie: Wow Ellie, everyone feels the same way you do! You'll get an inkling of what's going on with Liz and her parents over the next few chapters.
Clari: Welcome! Thanks for leaving feed back. Yeah that chapter was a little shocking but there is a reason why this is happening to Liz. All shall be revealed, eventually.
Courtney: Well what can I say? This brilliant idea came from you in the first place. I'm just playing with it a little. Everything you requested will be in the story but I thought I'd add a little spice!
Ginger: You're right ... We would never do anything like this to our kids, or maybe we would depending on the reasons we are doing it.
XAF RU208: Thank you for leaving feed back. I'm hoping to keep posting on a regular basis now.
Natalie36: Oh don't worry about Tess just yet. She's got her hands full with what Max has just thrown at her, but then Tess has never been the kind of person to take things lying down, has she?
Carolyn: Don't worry, Max is about to find out everything but as Ellie stated in her feed back, what could he possibly do to help?
Eve: Yep, it certainly is creepy. It is very sad that poor Liz has had to put up with this for so long but trust me, there is a very good reason they are doing this. All shall be revealed in later chapters.
Thank you very much! I hope you enjoy the next chapter.
Chapter 30
Liz slowly came out of her deep sleep to feel something warm under her cheek. She couldn’t quite remember what happened last night. She felt someone stroke her hair and it all came rushing back.
Liz would have groaned if she could but she just slowly sat up.
“Good morning sleepyhead,” said Maria, as she stretched her aching legs.
“I’m sorry Maria, I slept on you all night?” signed Liz.
“The fact that you slept peacefully Liz made it all worthwhile believe me,” replied Maria.
A steaming hot cup of coffee was thrust in both Maria’s and Liz’s face.
They both looked up to Isabel with gratefulness.
“I’ve got breakfast on the go,” said Isabel, going back into the kitchen.
“Wow, that smells delicious Isabel!” shouted Maria.
“Blueberry pancakes and a side of bacon!”
Liz’s stomach suddenly made a loud growling noise and Liz’s cheeks turned bright red.
“I think Liz’s stomach agrees with your choice Isabel,” chuckled Maria.
As they all sat down to breakfast it was Maria that brought up the conversation everyone had been dreading.
“I think we should finish up here and then head over to Michael’s. We can fill them in on what went on last night and see if they can think of anything that could help.”
There was no way Maria was going to let Liz back out of this now.
“I think that’s a good idea,” said Isabel, backing up Maria.
Liz stopped eating as a sudden wave a nausea hit. How could she tell Max let alone Michael? She suddenly scraped her chair across the kitchen floor and ran towards the toilet.
“I guess that answers the question on whether she’s nervous about telling Max,” said Isabel, as they listened to Liz throw up in the toilet.
“We have to be strong Isabel. She has to tell someone, someone that might actually be able to do something about it.”
“Maria, what makes you think Max can do anything. We both saw that there was something ... god I don’t know ... supernatural going on.”
“Isabel, twice now Liz has spoken when Max has been around and my guess is whatever barrier is stopping her talking, he’s slowly breaking through. When he first kissed her the other day she spoke Isabel.”
“WHAT? Why the hell didn’t Max tell me?”
Maria shrugged her shoulders. “I guess sharing the fact that he had his first kiss ever with a girl wasn’t something he wanted to talk to his sister about.”
“I’m going to check on Liz, hold her hair up or something,” said Isabel.
*******
A loud incessant knocking finally permeated his sleep befuddled brain.
“Alright, I’m coming. This better be good,” said Max, as he swung the door to Michael’s apartment open, only to find the three most important women in his life looking like a freight train had hit them.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
“Erm Max, I think you’d better put some clothes on,” said Maria, pointing to his boxer shorts.
Max eye’s nearly popped out of their sockets. He blushed profusely and stole a glance towards Liz before slamming the door in their faces and running to his room to get dressed.
“YOU COULD HAVE LET US IN FIRST!” yelled Maria, laughing.
As Maria turned to look at Liz she laughed even harder. Liz was standing with a shocked look on her face, blushing and her mouth hanging open.
“Honey, don’t drool on the carpet. Michael will complain about it for the rest of the week,” teased Maria and then whispered “Never knew he had such a hot body on him, did you?”
“Maria! Please,” whined Isabel. “That’s my brother you’re talking about.”
Max had already put on his trousers and was frantically searching for his shirt. Where the hell was it? And then he remembered the heated look in Liz’s eyes, as she perused his body, when he glanced in her direction.
“What the hell,” said Max, out loud, as he made his way towards the front door.
“Sorry about that,” said Max, as he reopened the door. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“Obviously,” smiled Maria, as she breezed past Max. She couldn’t help noticing that he didn't have a shirt on and wondered if it was because he couldn’t find it or if it was for Liz’s benefit.
“So what are you doing here?” asked Max. “Not that I’m not happy about it, but you look like you’ve been through hell.”
“Max we need to talk to you but I’m going to get Michael,” said Maria, as she made her way towards his room.
“Maria, we didn’t get to bed until late. I don’t think you’ll get much out of him.”
“Honey, we didn’t get ANY sleep last night and if I can handle it, then so can he.”
A little while later, and a few heated voices from behind the door, Maria finally managed to drag Michael out of his bedroom.
“This better be good,” he said, and then stopped dead in his tracks as he saw how bad the girls looked. “What happened?”
“Okay this is going to sound really weird and you might have questions, but please let us explain everything that happened and then you can ask okay?” asked Maria.
“I thought I heard a noise,” said Alex, as he rubbed a hand over his sleepy face.
Liz shot her head up and then shook it hard.
“I can’t do this Maria, I can’t,” signed Liz.
“Liz, it’s Alex. There’s nothing you can say that would make him turn away from you as a friend. Please you have to trust us,” said Isabel.
“Hey look, whatever it is, if Liz is uncomfortable then I’ll leave,” said Alex.
Liz looked up and took a big, steadying breath. “No Alex, I’m sorry it’s not you. I ... well ... god why is this so hard,” signed Liz.
Maria patted Liz on the knee and Max immediately went over to Liz, scooped her up, walked back to the sofa and plopped her down on his lap. He gently cupped her face.
“Whatever it is Liz, you can trust us. We’ll do our best to help, I promise.”
She simply nodded, placed her face in Max’s neck and signalled Maria to continue.
“Okay, Alex this is going to sound weird and if you have any questions just wait until we’ve finished.”
Alex nodded his head in understanding.
Maria started telling them everything that happened that night from when she first woke up to Liz thrashing about. As Isabel took over the story, when Maria reached the bit where she went into overload and screamed, Max tightened his arms around Liz.
“Oh god, I couldn’t believe my eyes but I swear it was there Max. It was ... god it was awful. It was gripping hold of Liz’s leg and then it just sort of shimmered and disappeared when Liz sat bolt upright and started to scream.”
“So let me get this straight. You saw ... the ghost, for want of a better word, of one of Liz’s dead parents grab hold of her leg and then it just shimmered and disappeared?” asked Michael, not believing his ears.
“I almost vomited Michael. The smell of burnt flesh was overwhelming,” said Isabel.
“I ... I don’t know what to say, except whatever you were smoking last night I wouldn’t mind some.”
Michael really thought that they had just had one of those weird collective dreams or that they had definitely done something illegal last night.
“THIS ISN’T FUNNY MICHAEL,” yelled Maria. “It scared the living crap out of me, so much so that both Isabel and I kept vigil over Liz the entire night!”
“You’re being serious,” asked Michael, in shock. Surely they were just yanking their chain.
“Show them Liz,” said Isabel.
Liz shook her head. She knew that people wouldn’t believe it and now she felt so embarrassed.
“SHOW THEM,” insisted Maria.
Liz slowly raised one of her trouser legs and Max saw the angry red mark around her ankle, then she moved her hands to her wrists and raised each sleeve.
“Holy crap,” said Michael, as he clearly saw the outline of four boney looking finger marks across Liz’s wrist.
“Now do you believe us?” asked Maria.
“I’m sorry Liz; it’s just kind of hard to ...”
“Take in?” said Alex, finishing Michael’s sentence.
“Tell me about it,” said Isabel. “Try being there while it was happening.”
As the conversation went on around her, Liz found herself slowly drifting off to sleep. She couldn’t help feeling safe in Max’s arms, with his warm skin touching her face and that smell that was uniquely his, sort of soapy but manly.
Max had noticed Liz’s breathing even out and he picked her up and carried her to his room. He placed her gently on the bed and covered her. He kissed her on the cheek and then returned to the living room.
“Max, there’s something else,” said Maria.
“What?”
“While we tried to console Liz, she was sobbing, she was talking.”
“W...what?”
“She was talking Max,” said Isabel. “I don’t think she realised it because when we mentioned it to her she suddenly went mute again, but I swear she spoke. She confirmed that her parents had been badly burned during the car accident.”
“So it’s not something physical stopping Liz from talking. It’s the only way her brain can cope with what happened to her parents and the fact that they keep on coming back to haunt her,” said Alex, deep in thought.
“That’s what I think.”
“So what do we do now?” asked Max, feeling hopeless.
“You help her heal Max,” said Maria.
He looked up at Maria like she’d grown a second head.
“What do you mean, I help her heal? How the hell can I do that Maria? I'm not a expert on the paranormal, hell I don't even freaking believe in ghosts or whatever it was you saw!”
“Remember what you told me the other day?”
Max started to blush and nodded.
“She spoke Max, she talked for you. She did it in the hospital and she did it the other day.”
“It can’t be that simple Maria.”
“No it’s not Max. She has to exorcise those demons that have been haunting her since the accident and that’s not going to be easy.”
“I’m going to just ... um,” Max said, pointing towards his room.
“Go on Max. She needs you right now, we can discuss this later.”
Max slowly entered his room so as not to wake Liz. He pulled back the covers, lay down gently beside her and then pulled her into his arms. There was no way this girl was going to be hurt anymore. He couldn’t stand it. He could still see one of the angry red finger marks peaking from beneath her sleeved arm.
He had no idea what to do next to help her but he would die trying if necessary. She’d been through too much already. He still couldn’t process the fact that both Isabel and Maria had witnessed it but he believed them. He knew by the pallor of their skin that something had scared the living day lights out of them last night.
He just wondered how Liz had held on for so long without telling anyone.
He decided that the plan, to surprise the girls, he and the boys had come up with last night was going to happen.
It's coming.