บท 92: 92

Henry watched her lithe body in fascination. He couldn't believe that how thin her legs were. It was a miracle that those limbs could even support the weight of her full body. Henry had thought before that it would have taken her months of physical therapy to get back on her feet again. It had assumed it would be a slow and arduous process. But there she was -- Ellie Chen never ceased to amaze him. She reminded him of a young child learning to walk by balancing on the side of a bed. Henry supposed that the staff that he had given the night off had forgotten that someone would need to inform him of staff to watch Ellie. Ellie had probably called out for someone to serve her in this empty house and then had to drag her body out of bed when she realized no one was there. It was a gross misstep on his part that he had not thought of her at all.

The soft white cloth slippers he wore made his movement completely silent as he began to approach her wandering form. She wore a thin white nightgown that made her look like a very innocent wayward child looking for it's parent. Henry felt his heart hitch in his chest. "Mrs. Wong, you really do need to go back to sleep. It's very late. No one should be awake including us."

She threw an arm out at the sound. Her eyes were strangely empty, as if she was still sleeping. Or, Henry realized quickly, sleepwalking. He felt a prick on the back of his spine, but decided to ignore it. Henry knew it was probably just a passing fancy that her withdrawal was completely over by now.

"Hey, we're going back now." Henry repeated with a stern note entering his voice as he felt more and more reminded of his father. "Ellie let's go to sleep."

"You . . . who is we? Who are you?" Her head rolled around as he tried to figure out where his voice was coming from with her hazed eyes.

"It's your friend. I'm just going to take you back. Don't you remember me?" Henry said quietly.

His voice seemed to soothe her as she began to lean towards him, but her swaying movements caused her to hit the thin railing guarding the drop below. His eyes almost bulged out of his head as her body as he realized the top of her body was bent backwards as she lurched to a deadly fall.

Horror blinded him as he raced towards her and tried to steady her. But her full weight was still unsteady on her emaciated legs, the top half of her body bent forwards towards the crystal chandelier that hung precipitous close to them. Henry quickly wrapped himself around her brief waist and with all of his strength shoved her into his embrace. For a moment, it was like they were both on a seesaw with the momentum tittering back and forth before the force of it sent them reeling backwards. Henry felt the solid wall poke into his back and he groaned as he realized Ellie was about to fully collapse. Her full weight was pinned on top of him so his grip tightened as he tried to give her some polite distance.