Free Eternal Hope (The Hope Series) by Frankie Rose

Farley doesn’t feel well. Why don’t you go and have a little lie down, princess? Spare us the drama.”`
    “ Anna. ” The snarl in Kayden’s voice made all three of them jump. “Is it any surprise she feels unwell? There’s only so much of your vitriol one can take before breakfast. Can you please leave?”
    “Sure thing, angel. Right after you sprout your wings and fly away.”
    “Can everyone please just… shut up?” Farley whispered. Her hand went to her temple and she clenched her eyes shut.
    “Hey… hey, Farley? What’s going on? Are you okay?” Daniel moved his hand to the knee she had tucked up underneath her. She rested her hand over his. It was trembling, and she was freezing cold. A strange, vacant looked passed over her face.
    “Oh, no… Can you smell-” The consciousness slipped away from her eyes. She gripped hold of his hand tight, her face crumpling. A look of pure horror emerged.
    “ Daniel! ”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Eleven
 
We Are One
     
     
    It had been too long. She should have known. She should have known . It was well past due, and the hallucination- no, the vision- forced its way into her head with brutal determination. The last one she’d had was back in the hangar. That pain had been bad, but this… this was crippling. She needed to stand. Outside. She needed to get outside. She shot her hand out, but, with her eyesight gone, she ended up grasping hold of her cereal bowl instead of the wooden table. It clattered, something soft obstructing its fall, before it landed on the tiled kitchen floor. It didn’t break, just made an oscillating noise, growing louder and quicker all at once- the noise a coin makes as it spins on its edge before falling to lie flat.
    “Farley? What’s going on?”
    Daniel sounded worried but there was little she could do to comfort him. Her insides writhed; her head pounded; her eyes stung. It took everything she had to keep the vomit from rising up her throat. She didn’t know how, but she managed to collect herself enough to say, “I need to go outside.”
    Immediately Daniel’s arms were around her, and a second later she was lifted from the ground. The sound of the back door opening rattled round the kitchen, like he’d tried yanking it free before he’d turned the handle properly, and then the stillness of the warm morning air brushed lightly against her face. But the relief she’d thought she’d feel was missing. Every molecule in her body had promised once she was outside she’d feel better. But that wasn’t the case. With her first lungful of the open air, the vision descended.
    It started as a small pinprick of light. The smell hit her, too- the one she’d detected a faint hint of in the kitchen. Lilies. A whole rotting pile of them, decayed down to nothing more than slimy brown petals and shriveled, wasted stalks. It was a foul and deathly-sweet rancor. Its stench rolled over her in a wave, making her wretch.
    “Oh, wow, she’s gonna blow,” Anna said somewhere far away. She made a squawking noise, and the sound of a slamming door followed. “Thank you,” Daniel murmured.
    “What’s happening to her?” Kayden had followed them outside, and by the sounds of it had bodily forced Anna back indoors.
    “I don’t know. She has episodes. I’ve only seen her have one, though, and it wasn’t like this.”
    It was a bad sign that they were talking about her like she wasn’t there. That could only mean one thing: they didn’t think she was capable of responding. Bad. Really, really bad. A fact made more concrete by the sudden explosion of white light in her eyes. She clutched at her head, as though she might be able to hold it together with her bare hands. It was no good. The pressure exerted from the inside of her skull was well beyond her feeble attempts to contain it. She was instantly transported away from the cabin, away from Montana, away from summer and the heat