Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

P aige's eyes fluttered open as she sucked in a breath to ease the burning in her lungs. Her vision, blurred and still spinning, couldn't focus. Noises around her warbled instead of making any coherent sense.

She blinked a few times, desperately trying to regain her senses. Blobs flitted around the room as a dull ache formed at her temples.

She groaned, rolling onto her side and squeezing her eyes closed. "Paige?" a garbled voice cut through the din.

"Ugh," she groaned.

She opened her eyes, twisting onto her back. Devon knelt across the room, rubbing Drucinda's back. "It's okay, sweetie. I'm right here with you?"

Paige crinkled her features. "Devon?"

He snapped his gaze to her, his eyebrows shooting up. "Paige?"

"Yeah," she answered as she held her hands in front of her. "Am I back in my body?"

"That you are, Paige," Dewey said with a raise of his chin. "And no ill side effects either. "

Devon winced, rising and hurrying over to her. "It's okay, sweetie. I'm right here with you."

"Devon?" Paige's voice called from across the room.

Devon shifted his gaze back to Drucinda. "Wait…"

Dewey gasped, a paw flying up to cover his mouth.

"Ugh, I'm still stuck in Drucinda's body, I guess," second Paige said as she covered her eyes with her hands.

"Uhhhhh…." Dewey snapped his gaze to Eyva, his eyes wide.

"Wait…stop playing games," Paige said. "I'm back in my body. You must be Drucinda."

"I'm not Drucinda," second Paige answered. "I'm Paige."

"You are not," Paige said, scrambling to her feet and poking a finger at Drucinda's form. "I'm Paige. I'm the only Paige."

"Well, I am also Paige, so here we are."

Paige crossed her arms. "Oh, yeah? Prove it. What's my favorite pizza topping?"

"Pepperoni." The second Paige crossed her arms.

"That's too easy. What's my favorite…" Paige rubbed her chin. "Uh…"

"What did I call you that one time we got stuck in the creepy werewolf mansion dungeon and you lost your glasses?" Dewey asked.

"Velma," second Paige answered.

Dewey's jaw flopped open. "OMG. There are two Paige's."

"And no Drucindas," Devon said as he flicked his gaze between them. "So, umm, this is kind of awkward but…which one of you am I married to?"

"Me!" they answered simultaneously.

"Does it matter?" Paige asked. "Why are there two of me and none of Drucinda? Where is Drucinda?"

She glanced around the room in search of some sign of the woman. A cat rubbed against her legs, meowing .

Paige glanced down, her eyes lighting up. "Dickens!"

She scooped up the cat and held it close to her.

"Try again, idiot," the cat answered in a British accent.

Paige stared at the animal. "You can talk now?"

"No, moron, Dickens can't talk. It's me. It's Drucinda."

A boisterous chuckle escaped from Eyva. "Oh, Drucinda. What are you doing inside that kitty's body. Naughty girl, get back into your own."

"If I had a choice, I would have picked my own. Paige is hogging up both. I had no choice but to take over the cat for a time."

"Well…where is Dickens?"

"He's sharing with me, though I'm not exactly giving him much choice. Will you please remove the second Paige so I can flit back over to my own body?"

"Sure thing, Drickens, but the thing is, I don't know how," Dewey answered.

"Did you just refer to us collectively as Drickens?" Drucinda asked.

"I did," Dewey said with a nod.

The cat heaved a sigh, its ears plastered against its head. "Grandmother, do something."

"Would if I could, but I have no idea why she's multiplied." Eyva tapped a finger against her chin. "Fascinating, really. She's literally kept one body and returned to her original one."

"Hmmm," Dewey said. "Maybe it's a ghost left in the other body."

"Oh, could be, yes," Eyva answered.

"You said there are no such things as ghosts," Paige retorted.

"In the traditional sense, no," Dewey answered, "but in this instance, there's a ghost of your soul still stuck in Drucinda. "

"We may need to exorcise it out," Eyva proposed.

"Whoa, whoa, that sounds terrible. Don't do that."

"Of course, you'd say that you body hog," Drucinda snapped. "We wouldn't need to if you'd learned to share in kindergarten."

"I know how to share. But this sounds… dangerous. I don't want to end up in the outer ring of Hell after this."

"Mmm, I doubt it would be the outer ring you'd end up in, but there's always hope," Dewey answered. "I haven't done an exorcism before, have you?"

"Oh, many of them, yes," Eyva said with a nod. "We can pull this off if you'll assist me."

"I'd love to," Dewey said with a grin.

"Could you two stop being so giddy over this?" Paige asked. "I'm genuinely afraid of losing a part of myself."

Dewey waved a dismissive paw in the air. "Oh, stop worrying. It's a simple procedure."

"Simple procedure?" Paige cried. "Dewey, you said you had no idea how to do it."

"I don't. But from what I understand it's a simple procedure."

Paige pressed her lips together, shaking her head.

"Just let them do it. I would very much like to return to my body. I've got a strong urge to clean myself, and I'd prefer not to."

Paige patted the cat on the head. "Sorry, Drucinda. I just…don't want anything else bad to happen. And this feels like a disaster. I mean, how did I split in two to begin with?"

"The most likely reason was fear. You were afraid to leave the other body and go to your new one, so you literally tore yourself in half trying to accommodate both things."

Paige wrinkled her nose. "That doesn't sound right. I mean, I'm not that much of a scaredy cat. "

"Mmm, you're sort of afraid, Paige. You were always afraid of me. And I'm such a nice guy," Devon said.

"You tried to…never mind. Never mind. That's in the past. Okay, proceed. There…how's that for being brave?"

"False bravery is stupidity," Dewey answered, a claw poking in the air.

Paige frowned at him. "Okay, so what do you want? Bravery or stupidity? You can't have both."

"Silence," Eyva said. "You must be quiet so we can proceed with the exorcism."

Paige held up a hand, indicating her compliance as she pressed her lips together. Her stomach twisted into a tight knot, and she chewed her lower lip until it threatened to bleed as Eyva stretched her arms out to the sides.

The woman raised her eyes to the heavens, her features twisting.

Paige winced. "This looks intense."

Eyva returned to her normal posture. "Sorry, just stretching my back."

Paige shifted her weight, her features returning to a disenchanted frown. "I thought that was the start of it."

Devon wrapped an arm around her, squeezing her shoulder. "Try to relax, babe. It should be over soon."

Eyva approached Drucinda's form, eyeing her from head to toe as Paige's heart thudded faster. She sucked in a breath holding it.

Eyva grabbed hold of Drucinda's shoulders and gave her a shake. "Paige's ghost…get out of this body now!"

She raised a hand and slapped Drucinda's body across the cheek. "Now!"

She twisted to Dewey. "Your turn."

He grinned and rubbed his paws together. "Oh, gee. Okay."

"Give her a good slap on the other cheek. "

"Oh, leftie. Got it. Okay." Dewey raised his paw and cracked Drucinda's other cheek. "Leave this body now."

A blue-green haze poured from Drucinda's ears, dispersing into the air before it reformed into a tight ball and shot toward Paige, disappearing up her nose.

"Oh," Paige said with a wrinkled nose. "Why is it always up the nose? That is so uncomfortable. Ugh."

She pinched the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes closed.

"Oh, good. Yes," Drucinda said as her body sprang to life, her voice matching her form again. "I'm back. Thank heavens."

Paige fluttered her eyelashes, waiting for the burning sensation in her nostrils to die down. "That's it?"

"That's it," Evya said. "I told you…a simple procedure."

"Wow, I thought it would be so much more involved. I mean…when you said exorcism…"

"I didn't mean some sort of Hellbeast," Eyva answered. "Simply a stubborn part of your spirit that needed a bit of coaxing."

"You could have just said that instead of scaring the wits out of me."

"I don't think those were your wits, Paige," Dewey answered.

Paige heaved a sigh as she stroked the cat still in her arms. "Never mind. Let's just…move on. We're finally back to normal, and now maybe we'll have some good news with my mom."

"Should we head back to her room?" Devon asked.

"Yeah," Paige said with a nod. "I'd really like to be there when she wakes up."

Leaving Eyva behind to toy with a few potions, the rest of them headed for Reed's room, finding Ronnie still sitting quietly at her bedside .

"Any change?" Paige asked, her voice low as they crept into the room.

"Not yet," Ronnie answered, giving up her seat to Paige. "Looks like you got everything sorted out on your end?"

"We did. Thanks. I was hoping to find her awake."

"The doctor was in to assess her. She should be in at any moment with the results of her tests. Let's hope it's good news," Ronnie said.

Paige bobbed her head, threading her fingers through Devon's as they awaited the news.

Only the rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor split the silence stretching between them until the doctor shuffled in.

"How do the tests look?" Paige asked, a note of hope filling her voice.

The doctor offered them a sympathetic smile. "I'm very sorry to tell you that…it doesn't look like the serum is working at all."

Paige's chest tightened at the words, her heart plummeting. "What?"

"Perhaps we haven't given it enough time," Drucinda suggested.

The doctor shook her head. "No. If that serum was going to work, we would have at least seen some improvement in her numbers, but…we're actually seeing a decrease."

"The serum made her worse?" Paige asked, choking back a sob.

"No," the doctor answered. "Not worse. She's…deteriorating at the same speed she was before it. The serum has had no effect whatsoever."

Paige's features twisted as tears filled her eyes. Devon rubbed her back as the news sank in around the room.

"So…is there something else we should try?" Paige asked through sobs .

"I'm very sorry to say that at this point…it would take a miracle."

Paige's lower lip trembled as she broke down in tears with Devon doing his best to comfort her. Dewey landed on her shoulder, patting her head. "Really sorry, Paige."

"I know I've given you a lot of information, but at this point, we should talk about comfort measures for her," the doctor said.

Ronnie gave a soft click of her tongue. "Can you give us a minute?"

"Of course," the doctor said with a nod before she excused herself from the room.

Paige struggled to control the sadness threatening to overwhelm her.

Devon continued to rub at her back.

She finally lost the battle, throwing herself over her mother's limp body as she wept. Drucinda flicked a tear away from her cheek, crossing her arms tightly as she chewed her lower lip.

Paige cried until no more tears would come. Across the room, Ronnie whispered to Drucinda and Devon. Her husband bobbed his head before he strode toward her.

Devon leaned closer, brushing a lock of hair away from her face. "Paige, honey, why don't we step outside and get some air."

"No," she sobbed. "I don't want to leave her."

"I know," Devon said. "But I think the doctors need to do some things to make your mom more comfortable. And then we'll come back, okay?"

The words "make her comfortable" brought a fresh round of tears. "How could this happen? How could we find her and then lose her like this?"

Dewey patted Paige's head. "I don't know what to say, Paige. It stinks. "

"It does," Devon agreed. "Dewey and I agree on that. It's awful. But…you don't want your mom suffering, right?"

"No," Paige said, covering her face with her hands to steady herself.

She finally pulled them away with a shaky sigh. "Okay, you're right. Let the doctors do whatever they need to do."

Ronnie pressed her lips together as she bobbed her head and stepped to the door. A few minutes later, the doctor entered with a nurse.

She offered Paige a consoling smile again. "So, your mom is currently deteriorating, and we expect that to begin to pick up speed."

Paige sniffed as she rose, her wobbly knees doing less to hold her than Devon's strong arms around her. "So, she's going to go downhill fast?"

"We do expect that to happen, yes. This could be hours from now, it could be days from now. We don't think it'll be much longer than that."

Paige licked her lips, rubbing at her red nose. "Hours to days, right."

"In terms of comfort measures, we'd just like to establish a plan you're comfortable with. Once she begins to deteriorate, would you like us to perform life-saving measures to keep her alive as long as possible, or no?"

Paige's features twisted. "Uhhh, it won't…it won't bring her back, right?" A tear slid down her cheek.

"No," the doctor said. "It won't."

"Okay, then…no." Paige gulped back a sob as Devon rubbed her shoulder.

"Okay, so we'll just need some signatures to process her as a do-not-resuscitate so the care team is aware of that when the time comes. Given that choice, when she begins to slip away, it may be painful. I would recommend we use morphine to make her passing easy. "

Paige nodded, swallowing hard, but failing to clear the lump in her throat. "How will we know?"

"We'll know," the doctor said. "We're going to continue to monitor her organ function and vitals. We'll start to see organ shut down, and as soon as we do, we'll begin to administer the morphine."

Paige slid her burning eyes closed as she nodded again. Devon pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"If you wouldn't mind stepping out to sign the papers…" the doctor prompted.

Paige opened her eyes as Devon guided her from the room to the desk outside. Paige's hand shook as she scrawled her signature across the form, sniffling and wiping at her cheeks.

Devon pulled her into a tight embrace as she finished the last one, and she buried her face in his chest. "I know it hurts, Paige, but you did everything you could."

"I want to sit with her," Paige murmured.

"Of course," Devon said with a nod. "I'll stay with you, too."

"Thanks." She threaded her fingers through his, and they headed back into her mother's room. Drucinda vacated the chair by the bed.

"If you want to sit there, it's okay," Paige said.

Drucinda shook her head. "No, it's your mum, you should sit with her."

Paige gave her a shaky smile as she crossed to her backpack on the windowsill.

"I've got some tissues here if you need more," Drucinda offered.

"No, I…I want to play this music box that I got from Althea. I thought maybe somehow it would comfort her." Paige's shoulders slumped. "It's probably stupid. "

"No," Drucinda answered. "No, it's not. I think that's a lovely idea, Paige. I'm sure Reed would like it very much."

Paige tugged the wooden box from within the bag and shuffled to the bedside table, setting it on top and opening the lid.

Tinkling music filled the air as Paige sank into the chair and took her mother's cool hand into hers.

Paige studied Reed's face, peaceful at the moment, as she settled in to watch her mother die.