Silent Echo Read Online Free Page A

childhood playmate and hated when her friends made digs at her.
    “Lance, perhaps you have a little crush, non?” Jacqueline teased.
    “Yeah, Lance,” shot Luke, “Me think thou doth protest too much.”
    “Yeah? Well me think you’re an asshole…”
    Portia was about to chime in and tell her friends to ease up on her neighbor, but the pain in her back began to intensify, radiating from between her shoulder blades all the way down her spine. Her chest felt tight and the pressure in her throat brought forth a coughing fit. Taking some sips of water, she attempted to calm the episode, wondering what would be causing such a strange combination of symptoms.
    Jacqueline was busy applying a fresh coat of lip gloss to her plump lips and from the way Luke and Lance were hanging on Felix’s every word, she suspected he was saying something about football.
    “…the fumble…going crazy…when they lost…” Felix’s voice traveled in and out of her reach. She tried latching onto it to bring herself back to the moment, but it was like trying to grab a moving wave. A ringing in her ears swelled, drowning out the din of the dining hall. Her throat grew tighter and an increasing pressure at the base of her neck made her feel like she was being strangled. As rivers of sweat ran down her face, a fleeting image of the mysterious white bird from the book clouded her mind, sending her heart rate into an altogether new stratosphere. Looking at her wrist, she could actually see the movement of her own pulse, a tiny balloon inflating and deflating at mind-boggling speed.
    Portia had always been stoic about issues regarding her health, reluctant to call any extra attention to herself. That fear of an endless cycle of doctor visits always loomed in the back of her mind. She would have done anything to avoid involving her friends in whatever it was that was happening to her. But as her breathing grew more labored, she knew she didn’t have a choice.
    Grabbing Felix’s sleeve, she tried interrupting him. He was so caught up in what he was saying, though, that he held up his hand without even looking her way.
    She tugged at him with greater intention.
    Finally he turned to look at her. “What? What is it—?” When he saw the strain in her face and the shade of crimson that had flushed her cheeks, Portia suddenly had his full attention. “Oh my God, Portia, what’s the matter?”
    Panic was snaking its way through every inch of her body. She was afraid of losing consciousness as the room spun faster and faster. The image of the white bird took on a sardonic smile, jolting her with an electric current. Before the attack overtook her entirely, she steadied her trembling hands long enough to sign out two desperate words to Felix.
    “Help me…”
    ♪
    Portia could barely remember the walk to the nurse’s office. She had a vague sense of déjà vu as she leaned against Felix for support while he escorted her to the small room on the lower level. By the time they got there, the episode had subsided a bit. Entering the sterile office, she collapsed onto the gurney, overwhelmed by an intense weariness.
    A deep sleep beckoned her, adding a weight to her eyelids that she didn’t even bother to fight off. She drifted off, welcoming the kind of slumber usually reserved for one’s own bed. The last thing she remembered before surrendering was Ms. Leucosia thanking Felix and sending him back to class.
    As she slept, Portia’s dreams traveled into unfamiliar territory. As a person obsessed with the avian world, it wasn’t so far-fetched for a winged creature to have a supporting role in one of her dreams. But the ones flying around this reverie were determined to play the lead. The birds were staggeringly white, almost blue in fact, the green of their eyes filmy and clouded.
    The breadth of their wingspans seemed endless as they circled her, each one making an odd throaty noise, something like bubble wrap being popped. Portia couldn’t