Girl Possessed (Book 1 of The Girl Trilogy) Read Free Page B

left his shoes on the
mainland because he was barefoot now like me.
    I was concerned that he might injure
his feet. Another one of my strange deformities was that I had very
thick skin on my lower appendages that was almost immune to minor
injuries.
    I motioned him over to the cave. We
entered through a camouflaged access hidden by brush and young
palms. But, once inside, I saw that our cave had been ransacked, my
mother’s makeshift bed was blood soaked, and she was
gone.
    I looked at the boy, terror in my
eyes. A fierce expression spread across his face. At once, he
grabbed me by the hair and threw me to the ground.
     
    3
    A man was coming at me from behind
with an axe. The boy grabbed the weapon from his hand with perfect
precision and side swiped his legs out from beneath him causing him
to fall onto his back where the boy jumped on top of him holding
the blade to his neck.
    “ Where is the woman?” the
boy demanded.
    I scrambled to my feet.
    “ The serpent people want
her. We just needed the money. Nothing personal.”
    “ Where is she?”
    “ She’s just outside tied up
at the lagoon. We didn’t take her to them yet.”
    “ How many of you are
there?”
    “ It’s just me and my wife.
My wife’s watching her.”
    The boy shook his head in disgust. “Is
she conscious?”
    “ Yeah—she’s alive. We
really just wanted the girl. She’s worth more.”
    “ Stand up and take us to
her.”
    The man stood up, rubbing his shiny
balding head. He was shorter than the boy. His body sagged from his
sleeveless shirt.
    “ Keep your hands up or I’ll
kill you.”
    “ Hey, hey, hey—we’ll give
her back.”
    We followed him through the trees to
the lagoon. My wet dress clung to my body, but the hot air was
drying it fast. As we walked, I twisted a strand of my long wet
hair in my fingers as I often did when I was nervous. The boy
stepped carefully over the stones and twigs upon the ground
apparently trying to protect his bare feet.
    When we got to the lagoon, the man
hollered out, “Vataka—they caught me. Come out with your hands up.
We’re giving the woman back.”
    “ I ain’t giving her back
for free,” the woman hollered through the trees blocking the lagoon
from our line of vision. If they want her, they have to pay
me.”
    Suddenly, the balding man lunged at
the boy trying to grab the axe from his hand, but the boy swung the
axe across his neck in one clean slice. His head fell to the
ground. Then the boy charged through the trees and grabbed the
woman by the neck twisting her head in one slick motion. She fell
lifeless to the ground.
    Though I had seen a lot of death and
brutal fighting in the city before we took to the island, I had
never witnessed such agility and precise combat skills first hand
as this boy possessed. I felt like I was with a dome cinema
hero.
    We rushed to my mother. She was tied
up as the man said, but she was conscious. Her long sandy blonde
hair draped over her body, but it fell to the side of her injury.
The knife wound in her thigh looked infected, but it wasn’t
bleeding.
    “ Praise God, I’m Ok,” she
nearly whispered. Her voice was weak and scratchy. “Cordellia, when
I woke up and you were gone, I was so worried about
you.”
    “ Oh, Mom!” I held her in my
arms and didn’t want to let go. Even with everything she’d been
through, she still smelled of delicious herbs and spices. “You look
better than when I left.”
    As I released her, the boy untied her
carefully.
    “ I’m fine,” she wiped her
blood shot hazel eyes. They just took my herbs and other supplies.
I need to kill the infection.” Her forehead was
sweating.
    “ This is…” I looked at the
boy realizing I didn’t even know his name.
    “ Hi, I’m Shaul Hainsworth,”
he said politely shaking my mother’s hand as he released the last
knot. The rope fell from her body.
    “ Patravia Dressemme.” She
smiled weakly at Shaul. “How did you learn to fight like that?” Her
face was flush from