Chaper Eight – Trout Heart Replica

(I promise this will be longer)

Ash began to walk the slow steps back to her rental house, the group was always able to persuade a local home owner to allow them to rent for a night or two. Ash was never sure if this was due to look, or their many other powers of persuasion. She preferred not to think about it, not to think of their somewhat mind control type powers that they could use. Ash was surprised as she looked upon their home for the evening, as many lights were shining bright. The other members of her group were not ones to hang around a new city, they much preferred to go out and take in as much of the night life as possible. Ash cursed herself as she reached for her keys. She once again found herself missing them, a new game that started for her after she decided that paying for Adderoll on no insurance was not worth the cost. She tried the door, expecting little result, and was surprised as the door creaked ominously open before her. In the front foyer all looked to be the same, several bags and suitcases strung around as evidence of her group getting ready to go out for the evening.

"Hello! What are you people doing?" Ash cried out into the somewhat silent night, feeling an uncomfortable sickness in her stomach as a piece of her brain began to realize that the scene before her was not normal. Ash walked softly into the living room, unsure of what invaded the peace of her steps.

Drip Drip Drip

A rhythmic sound was all that was heard, one like a sink but without the final sound of the splatter that is made in the sink with errant drops. Ash walked into the living room with a darkness over taking her, and spotted a pair of feet on the floor. Ash would have found the scene somewhat comical, if the fear in her had not begun to choke all of her other emotions out. Her two sisters, ones that she had sung with for years, layed on the ground - bodies bent and bruised in ways that did not seem human.

After this Ash remembered little, the blur of it all began to create a scene that she did not believe could ever possibly be real. The ambulance showed up, and then the police. Ash saw her friends declared beyond aid and felt a thick veil descend over her which would save her from the schok and over coming emotion.

Ash remembered talking to the detective and others that were there, but in years later she realized she could not begin to recreate what was said. At the end of the conversations, when she was released, Ash went and stood outside with a shaking hand on her cigarette. Ash had always believed this process to be calming and cleansing for her, although she suddenly could not find a way to hold on to her own reality and calm.

The sudden shift in the wind and trees should have been startingly for her, but from her now blank view of the world around her, Ash felt no fear or surprise. When she turned around she saw Godric, who was appearing to glow in his old fashioned clothing.

"I have heard that your group has met some hard times, and I fear that this could be due to your connection with me".

Ash attempted to give some kind of solice, but found herself shrugging her shoulders and mearly looking away. "Guess it does not matter now. Nothing more that can be done it seems".

"Do not allow yourself to lose your humanity, you do not know how precious it truly is." Godric attempted to look within her eyes, and found nothing but an empty loss.

"You need to come with me, you can not be alone if others are after you as well." Godric did not stop to listen to the response to this statement. He picked Ash up like a rag doll and flew towards his nest. "I will give you solace from this storm." He whispered, finding a way to speak quietly against the rush of the wind.