"Arrie!" Fi called, racing through the forest towards her twin's screams.
Careless of the branches that scratched her arms and face, Fi threw curses, withering the vines that tried to impede her. She had to hurry, Arrie's cries of pain were becoming more desperate, she was running out of time. Frantic, Fi called for more speed. As she raced past blurring branches, she started to make out a clearing up ahead. That was it. If she squinted she could just make out Arrie, broken and bleeding but alive, tied to a smoking pyre.
"Fi! Help me!" came the desperate, pain filled cry.
With a final burst of speed Fi stumbled into the clearing, and… Arrie was gone. Instead, there was a lone man in a cape with the hood pulled low.
"Where is she?" Fi demanded, trying to ignore the exhaustion that wanted to pull her into unconsciousness. "What did you do?"
There was no answer, just a chilling hissing sound. Fi watched in horror as the figure began to stretch taller, the bottom of the cape becoming longer like a train, the hood growing both wider and longer. Fi forced herself to stand her ground, even as the black material of the cape turned shiny like scales and holes in the hood ripped open to reveal blood red eyes. Fi fought her fear as she found herself face to face with an unnaturally large snake.
"By my blood, let me pass!" she ordered.
The snake paused a moment as if considering but then shot forward. Fi dived out of the way just before the snake swallowed her whole, and rolled into a crouched position. Concentrating, Fi felt the Sai tattoos come to life in her hands. Gripping the now corporal weapons, it was her turn to lunge. Striking out, she managed to drag one of the blades along the creatures face, leaving a severe burn. Without leaving it time to recover, Fi twirled back around dragging the weapon across one of the serpents eyes, turning it to ice. The second attack, though, came at a price. Before she could move out of its striking distance, the enraged beast snapped, catching her up in its mouth, impaling her with both its long fangs. Fi, desperately trying to ignore the pain, angrily brought both the blunt ended blades down into the creature, piercing it's face. Before it could react, she uttered an ancient and dangerous curse, and watched as poison leaked from the Sai and into the great snake.
It opened it's mouth in pain, pulling its sharp teeth out of Fi but also causing her to fall the ten feet to the ground. Instinctively, she rolled out of the creatures reach. As the serpent flopped to the ground, wreathing in pain, Fi covered the gaping wounds left by her foe with her hands and uttered a few words that were not English. The injuries didn't heal but the bleeding slowed considerably, and the poison seemed nullified. As the creature died, Fi ripped up her sleeves and tied them together to make a jury-rigged bandage, which she wrapped around the holes in her stomach. Once certain the beast was dead, Fi picked up her Sai blades and, concentrating, melded them back into the tattoos.
As she left the clearing, Fi found herself no longer in the woods but in an abandoned warehouse. The screaming was back.
"Arrie!" she called out desperately and, trying to ignore the almost debilitating pain in her abdomen, burst through the only door in the room.
Fi found herself in a stairwell, and started going up. She ran, and ran, and ran, but never seemed to get any closer. It was as if the stairs were infinite.
"Let me in!" she screamed, sounding slightly deranged.
Suddenly, she ran straight into a door that had appeared at the top of the flight of stairs she was currently on. Uncaring of the egg size bump growing on her concussed forehead, Fi wrenched the door open.
The smoke was horrific, it burned so badly. But Fi entered anyway, calling out for her dying twin. Arrie didn't respond to her calls but simply cried out in agony. Not knowing what else to do, Fi cast her arms wide and, as she mumbled under her breath, the smoke began to clear along with most of Fi's remaining energy. Seeing a mass up ahead, she stumbled for it. She reached it, to find a charred pyre and the skeleton of a girl, her twin. She had failed. Fi fell to her knees trying to fight the tears that wanted to overwhelm her.
"I'm Sorry."
Fi looked up to see Dorian standing over her.
"I'm going to kill you," she promised.
Fi woke with start, pushing sweat drenched hair out of her face. She made her way to the bathroom, and splashed her face with cold water.
-It was just a dream. It all happened months ago… I need to let this go, it's over-
With shaking hands, Fi reached for her toothbrush hoping to get the taste of smoke out of her mouth.
Still feeling shaken, she made her way back to her bed. She wasn't sure how she was going to fall back to sleep, when she noticed a txt message. She picked it up.
-Dorian, great-
Curiosity and concern getting the better of her, she opened it.
I hope that everything worked out with the family, love. I miss you already… Give me a ring sometime- Dorian.
She desperately wanted to call him, right that minute, and she hated herself for it- almost as much as she hated Dorian. Determined, she put the phone back down, and lay down. After a few minutes of lying there restless, she sat back up knowing what she wanted, needed to do. She knew she probably shouldn't, but she had waited so long already. She had to at least try. Moving quietly so as not to wake Annie, Fi made her way to the closet and pulled out a bag of candles, a lighter, and, after a moments hesitation, her cigarettes. She knew she needed to kick the habit but lately the nicotine was all that seemed to get her through her bad days… or nights. In the past six months she had went from maybe a cigarette a week to at least one or two a day, and she hadn't had one since she had left England that morning.
Fi sat by an open window in the attic, finishing off her third cigarette. After this one she really needed to get going, she was just wasting time. Putting out the butt of the cigarette, Fi stood and grabbed the lighter. First she stopped in front of the door and placed her hand flat on it.
"Not a sound escape beyond this point,
As my domain, this room I anoint."
The door glowed a moment and Fi felt the tingle of her magic obeying. Satisfied, Fi set the candles up in the outline of a pentagram and lit each one. Then, focusing her mind on Arrie, she closed her eyes.
"Life and death shall not divide,
As I bid your spirit ride,
Pass the grave at my behest,
To settle afore me to rest."
Fi, hoping greatly, opened her eyes, and found nothing. Fighting down her bitter disappointment and sudden tiredness, she made her way to the window to have another cigarette.
"You're playing a dangerous game Fiona, even one as powerful as you needs to be careful."
"Daddy?" she gasped, turning around.
And there he was, becoming corporeal as he stepped out of the pentagram.
"Hi, baby," he smiled, holding out his arms.
She ran to him. The last time she had seen her father he had been spirit, and she had been fourteen. This time he was solid, and she held on.
"Arrie is at peace, Fi, it wasn't fair of you to try and summon her."
"I know, I just…"
"Missed her?"
"Terribly."
"You've lost so much, had to endure so much, more than someone your age should have had to but you're stronger for it Fiona, it makes you who you are."
"What if I don't like who I am?"
"Change what you can, and learn to accept what you can't."
"I'm just so tired of accepting things, Daddy, it's not fair," she complained, knowing she sounded petulant.
"It's not, but you don't have much choice do you? I can't stay much longer, so-"
"But, you've barely been here any time at all. Can't you stay a little longer?" she pleaded, wrapping her arms around him again.
"I wish I could baby," he said, hugging her back. "Which is why you need to listen, Necromancy is very dangerous! Even the best of your kind, are cautious of it. Promise me, you won't do something like this again unless it is an absolute emergency."
"But-"
"Promise me, Fiona!"
"I promise," she agreed, reluctantly.
"Good," he said, pulling back and kissing her on the head. Then stepping back into the pentagram once again, he said, "Send me back."
Fi hesitated a moment before walking over to a candle and kneeling down, then looking up one last time, said "Bye, daddy."
"Bye, baby."
She blew out the candle, and he faded away. After extinguishing the rest, Fi made her way back over to the window for another cigarette, feeling even more restless than before she had come up, despite the exhaustion she felt from using so much magic.
