Muffin snuggled close to me purring. Meow,meow.=Our Sky come back to us, you see. “Thanks Muffin,” I said, “but I do not think she will be coming back alive.” Crystal called Sigurbjorn to come to my room. She did so immediately and started to massage my back again. “You really must try to relax Steve,” she said, “you are much too tense.” “I do try,” I said, “but it is hard right now. Who knows what is happening at the moment. What has happened to Sky. What about the others. We have not heard anything. And I can do nothing stuck in a wheelchair.”

“If you do not stop talking like that Steve,” said Crystal, “I am going to slap you, and hard.” Sometimes Crystal sounds just like Sky, and not just what she says, but how she says it too. Their voices are almost identical, they are the same size, both with blue eyes and long blond hair. They are not exactly twins however, but even their actions are much the same. Quite interesting really.

I was soon asleep once more, so Sigurbjorn went back to her room and Crystal remained with me. The rest of the night went by fast, too fast. “Rise and shine Steve,” said Crystal cheerfully, “it is a gorgeous day out there. And it is almost time for your shower. Chung will be here any minute.” Did that ever sound like Sky talking, I must be going crazy. I sat up while Crystal brought my wheelchair over. I then stood up, turned around and sat down.

“Steve, are you paying attention to yourself?” asked Crystal. It then hit me. I actually stood up and moved my legs! “My legs, they moved!” I exclaimed, “let me try that again.” Crystal helped me stand up and I looked over at the window. “I want to walk over to the window Crystal,” I said, “hold my arm.” She did so. “Now, do not be in a rush, this is not a race,” she said, “just slow and easy.” “We made it!” I said quite happily, “it is a beautiful day. Now if only someone knew how to make French toast in this place.”

“I can do that,” said Crystal, “how come you never asked before?” “I never thought of mentioning it to you,” I said, “only to the cook in the cafeteria.” “Well, I will make it for you this morning,” she said, “anything else?” “Just bacon with it, and coffee.” I turned to see Chung standing there with a big smile. “This is indeed a good morning,” he said, “I told you it was just a matter of time.” Crystal did make me delicious French toast, she and Sigurbjorn had some too.

It was actually a first for Sigurbjorn and she really enjoyed it. We then went to the solarium to sit among the tropical plants for a while. “Your thoughts are miles away again,” said Crystal. “Yes, I guess that is true,” I replied, “I was just wondering how things were going with the team.” “Well, remember, it is still night over there,” she said, “so it might be a while before we hear anything.” “Yes, I know,” I sighed, “waiting is always the hard part.” Just then Tracy and Sephira showed up to take over watching me so Crystal could have a break. They took me to the exercise room so I could have my physiotherapy session.

Meanwhile, back to the team… Finally, Rock took one more try and breaking open that steel vault door. He pounded against it with all his strength and the door burst open. Galyna had a canister of oxygen ready and put the mask on Sky and forced her to breathe. Sky was chained to the wall, so Kristina led Rock inside the vault and put his hands on the chains. He was still blindfolded at the time. Rock broke the chains quite easily, then Kristina led him out of the room and removed his blindfold.

“Sky has been beaten,” she told Rock, then returned into the vault with clothes for Sky. Rock looked at the man who had been in the room with Sky. He went over to him. “You beat her!” he yelled. “I had to,” he said whining, “Carole Ann ordered it. She would have killed me.” “Coward!” was all that Rock said, then hit the man just once, then he stood guard.

Kristina came and asked Rock to carry Sky upstairs, but she went first to make sure everything was okay. Then Rock came up, followed by Galyna and Astrid. Benson, though wounded, was standing in one end of the room, Erisman close to the stairs. Carine was sitting on a desk, with MC next to her. Angel and Storm were lying on the floor, covered with blood, and Ilda lying on the floor not far from them. John and Clarence were lying on the floor at the far end of the room…

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.