A/N: Yay for reviews! 3
Random quote: Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici. (kudos to anyone ((OTHER than Mlle. Rae Lang, 'cause I know she knows)) who knows what that means in English.)
Allie stood at the tree, food still in the bag which she held in one hand. She was too nervous to eat—Kal was in jail….and she had just ran into Robin. The meeting had been brief…and unpleasant.
"Still protecting him, are you?"
"Robin, please…"
"Don't bother. You won't have to for much longer."
He had been the one that had tipped off the police; she knew it. She also knew that Kal thought she had done it—and why shouldn't he? She had been the one that told him to with them.
Well, this solves my problem, doesn't it? Now he's some where he can't do any harm.
Right?
Allie spotted a familiar, long-haired person limping up the street towards her, and her heart sank. He had escaped…and hadn't she anticipated that? Why else did she wait at the tree instead of leaving? She should have known he'd get out. Kal was covered in blood; his? Or some one else's? She hoped it was the former.
"H-hey…Princess…" Kal greeted her, his words punctuated with giggles. He had one arm wrapped over his stomach, and he was bent over: it was apparent he'd been laughing for a while. She wondered…then shelved her curiosity.
She probably wouldn't want to know.
"Let's go," he said, still laughing, scooping her off and unfurling his wings from his back. Behind him, people started shouting, and a few screamed. He grinned at them over his shoulder, and he looked completely and utterly insane for a moment…then the look was gone, leaving only mirth, as he took flight. He was still giggling a bit, and Allie could feel the spasms of the muscles in his abdomen.
"Kal, you broke out of jail," Allie said, keeping her voice under control. You flew away in front of all those people. Are you insane?"
"Yes," he replied in a matter of fact way. "Yes, quite."
"What's wrong with you?"
"Lots of things, Princess."
"Kal! Will you stop joking around!"
"I'm not joking." He had stopped giggling, at least, and looked a bit more in control…a very tiny bit. "No, not me."
"Yeah, right."
He looked like he was trying to remember something. "Know what day it is?"
"Um…July the 11th."
"Right." He fell silent for a moment, then grinned in a way that terrified her. "Well, 'bye then."
He dropped her.
Jessica?
Jessica gave Death with an irritated glare. "What?"
It…it's nearly the thirteenth.
"I am aware of that."
Well…I was hoping we could…could maybe drop our differences for that one day, and have a temporary truce.
Jessica looked back down at the small, lethal dagger she held in her lap. "You're asking me to leave Kalendrakk alone?'
For that day, yes.
"Alright."
Pardon? Death asked, thinking he had misheard her. What did you say?
"I said alright. I suppose I could take a little break."
Truly?
"Truly, absolutely, verily, whatever you'd prefer." She held up her hand as if swearing an oath. "I promise that I will not harm Kalendrakk on the 13th."
Thank you, milady Jessica. It was evident form the relief in Death's voice that he was expecting a negative answer. He bowed deeply from his perch on her bed roll. I am eternally grateful!
She waved her hand dismissively. "Go on, get out of here. I'd like to have some peace and quiet, for once."
Of course, milady. Farewell. He bowed deeply before hopping out of her tent, nudging the flap open with his beak.
Jessica smiled tightly, turning the dagger so it caught a beam of light. It shone off of the intricate runes that were set into the hilt with bronze wire. "Of course I won't harm Kalendrakk.
"I wouldn't be so sure about the Princess, though."
Kal dipped his wings and dropped into a dive. He fell faster, much faster, than Allie was falling. When he flared out his wings and righted himself, she fell quite literally into his open arms, hard. She looked like she'd very much lie to scream, but all that came out of her open mouth was a faint little squeak.
"Oh, did that scare you?" he asked conversationally, flapping to gain his former altitude.
"Why the hell did you do that?" she nearly shrieked when she finally found her voice. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"
Kal shrugged. "Don't know." He did know, though.
At that moment, he wanted to scare her (and, quite possibly, hurt her as well) just as much as he had wanted to kill those guards. His mind was starting to become affected by emotions…emotions he wasn't used to. He couldn't mentally handle things like giddiness, or euphoria or things the complete opposite, like sorrow. It wasn't the way he did things: anger, that was fine. A little bit of contentment, that was fine, too. But not this. He didn't need to be euphorically happy (with most of someone's heart sitting in his stomach), or nearly incoherent with old, old tears in the back of his eyes….or insane. He didn't need to be insane. He couldn't; afford to be, not now. It was too close to the 13th, much too close.
In his mind, he was replaying what had happened…but if he hadn't caught her. If she had fallen all the way to solid ground.
She would have broken open like an overripe fruit. Her blood would have painted the ground, stained it in so many wonderful shapes…
"If you thought that was funny…" the Princess was saying. He shook himself out of his daydream.
"Actually, I did."
She crossed her arms and grumbled to herself, crossing her arms. There was a stained paper bag in one of her hands. "Don't do that again. Ever."
"I'll think about it." But he was really thinking about large, red patterns on the ground…the fresh, coppery smell of blood…large eyes, white staining red, droplets of the crimson stuff spilling down her cheeks like tears…
Shut up. Just shut up.
"I'm not even saying anything!"
"Same here."
"No, you just told me to shut up!"
Is that bitch reading my mind, or—
"Stop thinking out loud, Kal." She waited a beat, then "And I'm not a bitch!"
"I was thinking, and if you don't keep your mind out of my head--!"
"Fine, fine, don't get all riled up about it. It was just an accident." Under her breath, she added "Like I'd actually want to know what you're thinking." She shifted until she was sitting up and opened the bag, taking out a breakfast bun. "Want one?" she offered, a little grudgingly. "There's two of them."
"No…I already ate."
Later on, they were back in the same forest they had left the night before, where Jake had met his early end by way of Kal (though they were a good ways away from that particular spot). While Allie wandered around aimlessly on the forest floor, Kal sat in the crook of the branches of a tall tree, watching her disinterestedly.
"Why are we here? There's nothing to do," Allie complained.
"Where else do you have in mind? Go find something to entertain yourself."
"But I'm so bored."
"Take a nap, for all I care. As long as you just shut up." He leaned back against the truck of the tree and stared at the sky.
Allie crossed her arms and rolled her eyes; her theatrics ere wasted on Kal, but she caught something out of the corner of her eye. A woman?
"Hey, you!"
"What?"
"No, not you! Her!" Yes, if definitely was a her, but before Allie could make out anything else of her face, she turned and ran. "Wait up!" Ignoring what Kal was calling after her, Allie followed the woman.
The stranger led her on a pretty good chase, and by the time she stopped, Allie's hair fell about her face and she was out of breath.
"Who are you?" She asked the woman, trying to catch her breath. The woman turned around, and Allie got her first good look at her.
She was actually quite pretty, for someone who was wearing cheap, torn men's clothes, with mud stains on the legs of her pants a dead leaf sticking in her hair. No, she was more that pretty, beautiful, even. She had a thin, angular face that was dominated by her large, soft brown eyes, thin-bladed nose, full lips, and elegant cheekbones. Though she looked to be Allie's senior by ten years or so, she wasn't much taller, and looked more delicate with her slight build. Her skin was the same tan shade Kal's was when he wore his illusion…in fact, this woman looked a little like Kal in other ways. Her hair, like his, was a black that seemed to shimmer with subtle purple tints when the sun hit it. And she had the same stubborn set of her mouth, same nose, same cheekbones…and the same look in her eyes that looked like they was laughing about something, and daring you to do something about it. Allie had seen Kal's eyes looking at her like that a few times…and this woman was looking at her the same way.
"Kiu," she said. The language was completely foreign to Allie, and yet familiar at the same time. "Qi Torelie, borii na'te--" she ended her sentence with a rueful shake of her head, her eyes now more sad than daring.
"I'm Torelie, mother of--." That's what she had said. Allie didn't know how she knew it, but she did, somewhere in the back of her mind.
But why had this woman, Torelie, broken off?
"What was that all about?" Kal dropped from a branch, landing between Allie and Torelie. "You ran off talking to nobody."
"No, I didn't! She's right there!" Allie pointed over Kal's shoulder, but Kal looked at Torelie without really seeming to see her. When he turned around, he raised a skeptical eyebrow at Allie.
"Now it's my turn to ask you if you're crazy. There's nobody there."
The woman's face seemed to break; where once it was strong and a little defiant, it now seemed heartbroken. "Siil boruu…" she whispered. She walked around until she was nearly body-to-body with Kal, and lifted up slim-fingered hands to his face.
My son…
Oh God! That's why they look so alike!
That's Kal's mother!
"Sill boruu," Torelie repeated. She collapsed against Kal's chest, holding onto Kal's shoulders for support, and yet Kal seemed completely unaware of it. How could that be?
Torelie continued to speak, but her words were so rushed and flowed together so that Allie caught only a few sentences and words, here and there.
Why…why are you so cruel, my son? You…killed…so evil, so cruel…your heart, it's so crooked…you're so torn and broken…so evil…why…killed so, so many…destroyed…
Then Torelie rounded on Allie, and suddenly they were nose-to-nose. Allie could smell decay and the foul, putrid odor of death on her breath.
AND WHY AREN'T YOU DOING ANYTHING, GIRL?
"Stop it!" Allie staggered backwards, holding her hands to her head; it felt like it was going to explode. "Stop!"
"What the hell!" Kal exclaimed, but she barely noticed him. Torelie reached out and grabbed Allie's wrist: Allie felt a skeleton's hand, icy and twig-like, instead of warm flesh.
WHY AREN'T YOU DOING ANYTHING? YOU'RE LETTING HIM SUFFER, YOU SELFISH HUMAN GIRL! WHY AREN'T YOU DOING WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO?
"I don't know! I don't know what I'm supposed to do!" Allie wailed, believing that, any second, blood would begin flowing out of her ears at the sheer force of Torelie's screaming inside her head. "I don't know!"
"Allie!"
YES, YOU DO!
"Allie!"
YOU DO!
"No, I don't!"
Kal grabbed her by her waist as she fell backwards, but she didn't feel his arms, or hear him yelling at her, or smell the blood that was still wet on his shirt. Everything was narrowed down to those horrible screams, which now sounded like they were being thickened by sobs.
YOU DO! WHY—
And then black, thick silence replaced the screams, and she was aware of nothing.
But not for long.