Chapter 41: How Does One Become Whole Again?

—Flashback: Four months before Oakley began attending Adolphus-

It had been one month, thirteen days, three hours, and ten minutes since I'd returned home. I'd not been able to call to my powers still, and the frustration had fizzled into a somber, defeated emotion.

"Please, goddess. She who hears my begging call..." I started, placing the mint leaves on the ground in front of me, lining them up just so.

It was my last chance, my only chance, to feel whole again. Mother had opened the door that night. Her eyes glazed over, near vacant. The last bit of my soul had shattered then, I'd felt it instantly.

She had commented on my arrival home. Scolding me for the late timing, she folded her silk robe across her petite body, and sulked back up the stairs. To say I was dumbfounded, would be an understatement.

The grueling journey I had just made, had all been for essentially nothing. There was no warm welcome back, there was no worry about what had happened to me. She hadn't even attempted a second glance to my injuries.

The next morning, I would be subjected to the knowledge of their divorce, and my father's disappearance. There would be no time to investigate my kidnapping, nor would anyone lend a listening ear to the rebellious, runaway nymph.

Tears began to cascade down my cheeks, and I placed the final mint leaf.

" Hail, Minthe, I ask you to join me in the circle tonight. I need you, help me." I begged, a lone teardrop fell upon the leaf, and I choked back a sob.

The wind began to pick up, and suddenly, I was hit in the face with a blast of air. The mint leaves swirled around me, and glittered in the moonlight. A light mist crept onto the dewy grass. My eyes were glued, however, to the beautiful goddess in the center of the circle. Leaves littered her bare body, covering the most intimate parts, and creating patterns amongst her olive skin. My breath had escaped me in the blast, and I wasn't sure it would return so soon.

"My sweet child, so hurt, so lost. How have you been treated so." She spoke, lips trembling. My eyes glistened with fresh tears.

I had no words, the same hurt carried in my heart, appeared on her face. The only person who had truly acknowledged what happened to me. My lips quivered, and I forced myself to look into her eyes. Her beauty, even when tearful, drove a knife through my core.

"Oh, goddess, I just wish to be whole again." I sobbed, as I caught my face in my hands.

"You're spirit has been blocked from your physical body. Beaten, torn from its owner brutally, inhumanely. My child, I will make you whole, rejoin you with your spirit. Upon one request." Minthe's voice chimed in the winds.

"Anything, goddess, anything." I replied, wide-eyed, and everlastingly grateful.

-End of flashback-

Even at my lowest, when I had no connection to my abilities, I did not feel numb. I had felt the intense pain, anger, and helplessness. Numb wasn't something that I could identify with, not something that I could pinpoint within myself.

However, that was the only description to the emotionless pit that dwelled in my stomach. There wasn't pain, like with the brutal wounds the whips made. There wasn't anger to inflict upon anyone that surrounded me. Helplessness, there was helplessness, but numb, that was the only word that felt right to describe this.

We were too late, and the price to pay for that was the life of one of the kindest, one of the most ambitious students on campus. I didn't even know, or understand, until it was too late. What kind of tone would hat set for the future ahead of us?

"What do we do? What do we do, oh goddess, Trey! What. Do. We. Do?" Ainsley's desperate scream rang through the forest, and I snapped my eyes to her.

Her whole body was shaking, and Trey did his best to keep her upright. A few sniffles followed her heart wrenching sobs, and I dropped to my knees in front of Alex. He'd brought Hannah's body into his arms, and had her cradled to his chest. His sobs wracked his body, and he kept his head down, mumbling a string of incoherent words. I kept my eyes on the top of his head.

"We have to get her to the nurse, Alex." I spoke softly, resting my hand on his forearm.

"No, no we can save her. We can save her. We have to save her." He mumbled, a bit louder, through his sobs.

"There's nothing more we can do, bud. Oakley's right. We have to get her to the nurse. They need to contact her parents." Coop spoke up.

I looked over my shoulder, and met his eyes. They were glossy, and pink. The emotion behind them spoke volumes: This is just the beginning.