Her shuddering was caused by a variety of facts. One was that why would the old woman who didn't even knew them before poison the fried chicken she came to offer them as a neighborly gesture?
Another was her guts. She had the effrontery to show her face. To let them see her even after poisoning the chicken? It was too obvious and too simple. She offered them chicken, Fender ate it and now he was in danger.
The last and most pressing one was that they were originals. They could not be affected by a mere poison except the culprit was someone who knew their secret as being originals and knew just the correct elements to hurt them with.
That old woman, who exactly was she?
Why did she have the guts to poison a food she offered them herself with her two hands?
Rune knew she wasn't the only one thinking that as Farris shouted at the panic-stricken next-door boy and his friendr " Go, dinner's over, go!" he was yelling.
Sometimes, Farris needed to learn to calm and not vent his frustration on others. It was clear enough the boy was equally shocked and Farris yelling at him and his friend like that was not the nicest thing to do.
" He needs…He needs the ambulance" Asher stammered as his friend began to push his wheelchair out of the space they had created for it at the dining table.
They can never visit the hospital or their secret would be sold out. Their blood and entire body system were different from that of humans. No matter how hurt they are, they never go to the human hospital, they have doctors who are also originals but they call them healers. Those were the ones they visited during emergencies.
" No, no, no, don't " Rune went to press her hand on his assuringly. Trying hard to force a smile " Just go home and keep quiet about this. We will see to every other thing" she instructed, making sure her voice was steady.
" Are you sure it going to be okay?" Duncan asked with concern.
Rune brought her head up and allowed her eyes meet with his " It is going to be okay. We will take it from here, you boys can go first" she said matter of factly this time.
" But old Mrs.John is not the type to poison someone. I mean, she causes trouble but not this type of trouble" Rune heard Asher inform all of them.
It is not about what old Mrs. John what capable of doing or not, she poisoned the chicken. Nothing could change that.
As soon as she saw that the boys were out of the house, she ran back to the sitting room now. Fender was placed on one of the sofas. He was conscious but he was severely writhing in pain. As he cupped his stomach and turned about on the sofa, Rune wondered what type of poison it could be to affect an original to that extent.
" Did you eat anything apart from the chicken earlier?" Farris asked Fender and even in his suffering state, Fender could still be a dick.
" The crazy old woman poisoned the chicken. I ate nothing else except the goddamn chicken unless the cats added something else to the meal everyone ate that could hurt a rat and not everyone else" he said within gritted teeth. His pain was evident.
Rune knew he was joking about the cats adding something to the food but she still felt obliged to answer. " Will you shut up and let us think of how to save your glutton self?"
" Leave him Rune, he is suffering" Luna scolded her. Rune turned to the woman and she saw she was already close to tears.
Luna was just too human for her own good.
" But why would she do that?" August asked in wonder.
Farris addressed everyone of them all together " I think the question should be, what the hell is she? She definitely knows about us. It is not easy to find an element that could hurt an original that old woman is not a mere human"
" So, what do we do?" Amadio spoke but he still had his eyes fixated on Fender.
" We need the antidote" Gizem pointed out.
Calliope supported her notion " Yes, we save him first then we try to solve the puzzle. The old woman can wait for our retaliation now, we need to look for the antidote and save Fender"
" How do we even know the antidote when we don't know the kind of poison it is?" Vidal opposed. " We need to sabotage the old woman first. We need to get answers from her then, we proceed to saving him"
Calliope snapped at him immediately with her hands on her waist " Thank God you said we don't know the kind of poison it is. What if it kills his before then? What if we get the answers and then he died before we started thinking of saving him?"
" I say we take him to the supernatural doctors. After examining him, they can discover the kind of poison it is and then give an antidote that can save his life" Gizem added.
" And the old woman?!" Vidal hollered " What if she shoots the rest of us with arrows containing that lethal thing she used on Fender during our quest to save Fender first?"
Rune thought she had to interfere now. Vidal wasn't making any sense " Come on Vidal, you are an original no one can shoot you arrows" she lamented.
" Okay" Vidal turned to her " What if she discloses our location to the wild? Every moment she spent being a free man is a dangerous moment for us" he almost shouted.
What the hell was wrong with Vidal? Why was he acting out all of a sudden?
" Enough Vidal! Enough. What's wrong with you? The life of our kin is more important than vengeance. We will settle our score with her after" Luna who already lost all her patience whilst listening to Vidal's claims lashed out.
However, Vidal appeared unmoved. He was keen on standing his ground " We make decisions after voting amongst ourselves. I say we split. We are more than enough. Let some of us visit the old woman while the others go save Fender" He proposed.
" No need to vote. Vidal is right. We could all be I'm danger. Some of you can go check out what's wrong. While some of you take me to the supernatural healers and you better do it now. My insides are on fire" Fender winced while settling the argument.
Rune knew the rat could he annoying but he was a brother, a member of the family. He was also a smart and sharp original and she thought he just made the best selfless decision.
" Vidal, August, Gizem, Calliope. Go pay the old woman a visit. I will go with Amadio and Luna to take Fender to the healers" Farris instructed.
He just mentioned everyone's name except for Rune's. Farris better not try to leave her out because of her illness.
" what about me?" Rune blurted out.
As expected, Farris was indeed leaving her out because of this damn illness " You stay back Rune. You are not fit for any assignment" he shook his head while pointing a finger down in all seriousness.
" No Farris! You don't tell me what to do. I am fit for this and stop treating me like I have some terminal illness" Rune snapped back at him.
" Rune, it is a terminal illness," Luna said gently from behind.
She turned to the woman " Well, thank you Luna for reminding me" she said sarcastically and to all of their surprise, she carried Fender up like a baby and made for the door. " Let whoever is interested in going follow me," she said to them and stepped out of the house.
She knew Farris had no choice now. She already showed him she wasn't playing.
When she got out of the gate of the house and was about to wait for Farris and the others to come bring out the car, she saw the two boys in front of the house next door.
Duncan who had a candy bar in his mouth opened his mouth widely until it dropped.
" Whoa! She's so strong. I can't believe she carried him up like that" Rune heard him telling his friend with her elevated hearing.
She wanted to listen out for Asher's reply but Farris and the others stepped out and he went to bring the car out of the garage, and then out of the gate.
" Hop in," he said to her and the two couples beside her. Immediately, they entered the car and on their way to look for a healer.