“Ava, just look at him.” Jack pointed at the jet black beast that barely resembled my beloved Hawthorne.
I looked at Hawthorne hard and saw no glimmer of his old self there.
“No.” I shook my head. I refused to believe it. “He knows me. He wouldn’t forget.”
Jack slowly released his grip upon me and this time I made my steps towards Hawthorne very slowly. He did not stop growling or glaring at us menacingly.
“I have a bad feeling about this.” Jack whispered, “They must have brainwashed him.”
“He will remember.” I said, fighting back the urge to run, “Hawthorne is good.”
“He has changed.” Jack said softly. Both Jack and R?ven had kept their distance. I was halfway across the room now and there was an equal distance between Hawthorne and the door. I was shivering violently from cold and fear.
“Hawthorne.” I said to him, “Hawthorne, it’s me.” I took another step closer and my fox let out a warning yowl so loud that I was forced to clap my hands to my ears.
“Avalon, stay away.” Jack said seriously, “It’s not safe.”
“We didn’t come all this way for nothing.” I said rounding on Jack who fell silent.
Scowling, I turned back to Hawthorne.
“Now you listen to me.” I said in a shaky voice, trying my hardest to stay calm, “We came all this way to rescue you, and this is no way to treat your friends, Hawthorne.”
The words did not register with the fox. All his intelligence and empathy seemed to have been wiped clear and replaced with evil. Hawthorne spread his great, black wings and beat them furiously at us, sending a powerful wave of air which whipped my hair in all directions.
“No!” I yelled at Hawthorne, “Just listen! You are Hawthorne. I am Avalon Redding, I saved you all those months ago from Jefferson, I took care of you, raised you!”
But Hawthorne had no idea who I was. It seemed he had no idea who he was either. I felt tears burning behind my eyes but I simply would not allow myself to cry anymore. This was absurd. This was my Hawthorne, and they had changed him, and I did not know if I would ever be able to change him back.
A thought occurred to me.
“R?ven.” I said quickly turning to face her. She was currently perched upon Jack’s shoulder. “Change back. Sing to Hawthorne!”
“And then what?” Jack said, seeming rather deflated, “Once R?ven has knocked him out cold, what do we do then? Carry all five hundred kilograms of him back to her home? Wait for him to wake up and see if he remembers who we are?”
While Jack had spoken R?ven had transformed into her usual self. She walked up to me in her usual swagger and placed a hand on my face.
“I will try.” She smiled, and at once I felt very calm.
Jack and I plugged our ears at once and clapped our hands over them for good measure. R?ven got closer to Hawthorne until the ice chain holding him back was at its tightest and would not allow any more movement in her direction.
R?ven took a deep breath before letting out a long, beautiful note of pure bliss. The ear plugs worked very well but I had the over whelming urge to pull them out and listen to the beautiful song. R?ven continued the calming melody for several minutes but Hawthorne showed no signs of calming down, or feeling drowsy. He remained the same, growling; the hair on his back standing on end, and his eyes bright red.
R?ven, utterly perplexed turned to Jack and I, somewhat crestfallen. This was the first time her power had ever failed.
I really didn’t know what else do to. How could we rescue Hawthorne if he wouldn’t let us?
“Jack, I … I don’t know!” I said panicked as R?ven came back and stood by us.
“I don’t know either Avalon. We didn’t really plan for this.”
“We can’t just leave without him! They’ve done something to him!”
“We don’t know how to reverse it.” Jack whispered carefully.
I felt the tears burning now. They stung my eyes as I tried to hold them back but it was no use. They spilled over and rolled down my face freely. When Jack saw the glistening tears he winced and looked away. He couldn’t bear to see me cry.
“Please Jack. Can’t you … can’t … can’t you heal him? Fix him Jack, fix what they’ve done!” I was begging now.
Jack looked down at me sadly, “You know I can’t heal things like this. His memory of us is completely gone. I can only heal physical wounds.”
Of course I already knew this but I was grasping for anything at the moment.
We couldn’t lull the beast into a calm state, nor could we overpower him or get close enough to free him from his tether. Even if we did manage to free him we were sure he would rip us to shreds. I was simply stuck for ideas and panic was beginning to take over now. My Hawthorne. My Hawthorne. They took my Hawthorne and changed him, and now I wouldn’t be able to have him back. Yet how could I just leave? The guilt would stay with me forever.