Sub-temporally Grounded
**Part 4**
I stared at the empty spot where Rachel had been. Then…
"What have you done?!" I cried. "Crayak! Crayak, what did you do?"
Crayak laughed. "MADE SURE YOUR WISH CAME TRUE, MY DEAR STUDENT."
"What wish?"
"YOU DO NOT KNOW? YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR. BECAUSE WITH YOUR… TALENT… IT JUST MIGHT COME TRUE."
The thought took some time to grab hold. But when it did, I felt despair rising.
"You mean she… went and drowned?"
"NOT QUITE," Crayak said. "I'M NOT ALLOWED TO LET IT GO SO FAR. BUT LET'S SAY SHE'S UNDER WATER, AND CAN'T MORPH HER WAY OUT OF IT."
"Still alive?"
"YOU COULD CALL IT THAT. BUT, ANOMALY? THIS TIME, YOU ARE KEEPING OUT OF MY REALM. YOU HEAR ME? YOU NEED TO WORK IN YOUR OWN."
With that, the presence of Crayak was gone. And I was left to save my friend as best I could.
My first thought was to panic. Then I realized it wouldn't help, and pushed back hopelessness to some deep corner of my mind.
My mind.
My mind had turned more and more material… it was no longer just an abstract presence. It was who I was. Controlling it was what I did. Had to do.
My body was less important. I could use my mind freely in "Crayak's realm" because there was no body there that distracted me.
I needed to work in this reality now. Time to put mind over matter, to speak in simple words, although there is no simple explanation for any of this.
I needed to find Rachel. Not with my eyes, ears, nose, or sense of touch, but with the senses of my mind.
In a few moments I knew what I had to do. I closed out my worldly senses, and focused on those of my mind.
And I thought about Rachel. Searched around for some trace of her.
I found it not long after. A faint shimmer of her thoughts, not that far off to the east. She was scared… a strange feeling to associate with Rachel.
But as soon as I had found where she was, I pulled a few strings in this reality and moved myself over to where she was.
Cold. Dark. Wet.
Those were my first sensations. I gasped for air and swallowed bitter water. My ears felt about to explode - I can't say for sure that they didn't - and my eyes stung as if someone had stuck needles into them.
I stopped trying to breath, knowing that it wouldn't do any good. I was under water. Deep under water, from how dark it was and the pressure that was made well known to my ears.
Rachel must be there, too. Somewhere. I needed to know where, so again I closed my worldly senses. And opened my mind.
A presence of to my left. The direct swarm of emotions from a near-panicking mind.
I kicked with my legs and pushed through the greasy, dark water. My lungs were burning by then. My lack of oxygen was making my muscles numb. I swam straight into her by that one kick. Which was lucky, because I wasn't sure how far I'd have been able to swim.
She kicked at me, not seeing me and probably thinking I was some sort of creature - who knows what she might have mistaken me for?
Before the lack of oxygen completely overwhelmed me, I grabbed hold of Rachel's struggling shape and kicked my legs to swim upwards. After a few moments she realized what I was trying to do and did her best to help. I kept a hold of her hand and we both swam for the weak light above us. All thoughts of 'cheating' were gone.
Suddenly, something swam past my face. I jerked back in surprise, but kept swimming. Then, my arm. A small, slimy being stroked the skin on my arm. And another one - past my ear. And another. Another. Everywhere!
Rachel had noticed them as well. We both kept swimming, desperate to reach the surface, and despite our aching muscles we sped up to get past the creatures.
I could see now. We were nearing the air above - and about time, too - and I could see faint shadows around me. Although the water was as far from clear as you can get.
Rachel was swimming about half a meter above. She's got a lot more stamina than me - while the lack of air was making me weaken very quickly, she somehow found strength enough to pull me upwards, and not the other way around.
But then she let go of my hand with a jerk and grabbed frantically at her ear. Her mouth opened in a silent scream, air bubbling out, and her fingers dug at her ear as if she wanted to rip it out.
It took me a few moments to take in what was happening.
But when I did it was too late.
I knew where we were. I knew where Crayak had left Rachel, knowing that I would see no choice but to follow. Where he had, very cunningly, tricked us both.
The Yeerk pool.
Right into the Yeerk pool itself.
Rachel stopped grabbing at her ear, thrashed at my face with her heels so that I had to duck to avoid being hit, and started swimming towards the surface again. I followed, going slower because I was using only my legs, as my hands were covering my ears. Yeerks prodded at me from all directions. I nearly cried out, but if I'd have tried my lungs would have filled with pool sludge - and Yeerks. They were that close. They swarmed around me like bees on honey. Like sharks around blood. Pressing their bodies against my face, my neck, my arms, my legs and especially against my hands, trying to squeeze through between my fingers.
Then, suddenly, air!
Sweet, cold, wonderful air!
I was above water and gasped for oxygen, filling my lungs to the brim with air.
"ANIMORPH!" someone roared.
It was Rachel. She flung herself at me, and pushed me down under the sludgy water. I struggled and kicked around me with hands and arms. The Yeerks began prodding at my ears again, but I couldn't clasp over them, couldn't cover them, I needed to get Rachel's hands of my head before I drowned, or before backup reached the pool and I'd be captured.
As Rachel was. Rachel was infested.
Yeerks nudged at my ears. One of them found the opening, and began crawling in, but I grabbed him and threw him away. He tumbled through the water and came at me again.
"HAHAHA. WILL YOU NEVER LEARN, HUMAN? YOU ARE STILL THINKING LIKE AN ANIMORPH. DON'T. THINK LIKE WHAT YOU REALLY ARE: AN ANOMOLY."
As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. Time to think like an anomaly. A freak. And that meant, first of all, calm down. I emptied my head, forced my limbs to relax. Built up the connection with the other reality, felt Crayak, who was there, tensing as I did so, preparing to intervene.
Felt the Yeerks digging into my ears, but knew it didn't matter.
Ha ha! a voice cried in my head. He hadn't taken complete control yet, but was about to. He was slow, but he would be able to seize control of my body - and my very extraordinary mind. Unless I stopped him.
Get out, Yeerk, I said calmly.
He prepared to answer, arrogant, cocky, completely convinced that he was in control. But by the time he took to prepare a reply, he wasn't in my head any longer. I'd moved him out, using the part of my mind I still controlled.
And in the same way I grabbed Rachel's wrist. Felt for the golden line that was connected to her. Noticed the golden line entwined with it.
First get out of the pool. Then get rid of the Yeerk. Don't forget to get rid of the Yeerk, Cassie, or you'll be worse than dead.
Rachel kneed me in my face, but I was too absorbed in my task to notice.
OPEN.
The order made the world jerk in surprise. Things around me stopped, as if someone had slapped it. With a sledgehammer. Then the very roof of the pool area's cave shuddered, and a gap opened right above us. Opened towards the free sky. Nothing else moved. Not even time.
I was still held down under water, but that was unimportant. My lungs had stopped screaming for air. The Yeerks had stopped prodding at my ears. The surface of the pool had stopped rippling, and the light no longer danced in beams under it.
UP.
I don't know if the world moved down or if Rachel and I moved up. I couldn't tell. But the next moment we were both above the surface of the pool. Far above it. Up in the sky; the nearest living creature being a pigeon, frozen in time and space, hanging in the middle of the sky as if on a string.
CLOSE.
The gap over the pool closed neatly, leaving no visible trace after it. But if you were Crayak, Ellimist, or the Drode, or even me, you'd have seen the rip in space-time. The fracture in the reality. No-one else would know.
I floated through the atmosphere, back towards the hideout. No-one would see me, unless they had the same talent I had or unless I let them. Which I wouldn't do, of course.
I landed - if that's the proper word, although it felt like I'd never even left the ground - near our camp. I sat Rachel down near a tree. From feeling her golden line, I had found the blockage that kept her from morphing. Removing it - after I got the Yeerk out, of course - would be a simple task after what I'd just done.
What I'd just done.
Well, Crayak, I thought. What do you think?
"VERY… ORIGINAL." He laughed his cold, twisted laugh. But there was something different about his voice. Something in the tone… bitter? Disappointed? "VERY SIMPLE, BUT VERY ORIGINAL."
I left Rachel where she was, after tying up her golden string in the way it is tangled when a person is knocked out - it would keep her unconscious for about quarter of an hour. I went to fetch the others.
I told them I'd found Rachel walking around in the forest near camp, but when I saw her she'd attacked me. I'd morphed and knocked her out, and suspected she was a Controller.
They believed me. Why wouldn't they?
Rachel herself would remember nothing. I'd seen to that, indirectly, when I'd "altered" reality like I had - a normal person can remember nothing of such things unless helped to remember because… I don't know. Something to do with the basic buildings of a mind, and how they cannot be disrupted, I think, but I don't know. I just knew that's how it was.
The Yeerk would remember nothing either, of course, but he wouldn't agree to my story. Who cared? He'd be dead after three days, or quicker if I wanted him to, and none of my friends would care what he said before then.
I didn't want to dig too much in Rachel's memories. This was easier than removing the Yeerk and parts of her mind. She'd remember the Yeerk getting into her head, being in the pool, and she'd remember waking up in the forest… and who knows what she might have "forgotten" before or between that? Who knows what the Yeerk might have kept secret from her?
It was the simplest way. And simple is good.
I had enough complications already.
So, directly after moving camp again as far as we could - one of us had been infested, after all - we locked Rachel up. I kept her from morphing by keeping her morphing ability blocked. And after three days she was back to normal.
Confused and scared, but back to normal. I didn't know exactly what she remembered, and I preferred not to know. Simple is better.
And, when the Yeerk died, I undid the knot on Rachel's golden line to allow her to morph again.
But there was one problem. One thing I'd forgotten.
"What happened, Cassie?" Rachel said to me. "I know something happened. I don't remember what was said, exactly, but you were mad at me, yelling something about drowning, and then I was in the Yeerk pool. THE BOTTOM of the Yeerk pool."
She glared at me, hands on her hips. "And something tells me you've got something to do with it."
"What makes you think that?" I asked wearily.
"First of all, you were there with me. I know that. Secondly, surprise surprise, you were the one to find me in the woods. Except, you probably didn't 'find' me like that. If I'd attacked you, especially as a Controller, you'd have been dead. Well? Guilty or not?"
I stared at the ground. "I can't answer that, Rachel."
"WHY! NOT?"
I chose the easy way out again. I turned and walked away, like a common coward, letting her yell after me. She was upset. She'd been infested; of course she was upset. She was angry. She wanted to know how it had happened; I couldn't blame her. She actually had a right to know.
But I couldn't tell her my secret.
I went flying. Got back later than usual. I flew in, landed in demorphed as the others were eating. Only my parents looked up and said hi. The others kept their eyes averted in a very obvious way.
Jake glanced at me, briefly, but sighed and shook his head.
I suddenly found that I wasn't very hungry. I walked away, but I had only gone a few steps when felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Cassie, I'm sorry," Rachel said lowly. "I know it wasn't your fault. You wouldn't do that. Sit down. Eat."
I pulled free. "Maybe it was my fault," I muttered, and increased the length of my steps as I kept walking.
One step. Two. Three.
And without warning my head began spinning. My mind went cold as a familiar presence grabbed hold and pulled.
I stumbled a step to the side, into a tree, and grabbed onto the bark for support when my knees buckled.
Let go, Crayak, I begged silently.
"NO."
I dug my nails into the bark. Firmed my thoughts, focused, and pulled back my mind into my body. Crayak gave another sharp tug.
But I was in control again. My mind was nearly back in it's place. Enough to know that, from having been ignored, I was the center of attention.
"Not again," my mom said as she removed my grip on the tree and sat me down gently on the ground. Her face was worried. "Please, not again."
I could have said the same thing. But I was busy trying to hold my thoughts in place.
"DO AS I TELL YOU," Crayak ordered. "DO AS I TELL YOU OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES."
He took a new hold, the cold cruelness almost breaking my thoughts down to despair. I struck out in panic, wriggled, and… suddenly my mind was free again.
Crayak touched the outer borders that suddenly stood guarding my thoughts, my consciousness. "VERY WELL," he grunted. "THE CONSEQUENCES."
He ripped all my defensive walls apart, reached in, and then there was a sudden unbelievable pain in my mind, my head, my entire body and my very soul, that made me cry out.
I've never heard anything like it. It wasn't human. Or animal. It sounded like it came from everywhere, from everything, as if everything cried out with me, shared my pain, shared my terror. It simply could not have come from me. Everything stopped. Paused, shivering. Time itself shuddered, clouds fled and evaporated, the sun flickered and for just that moment grew dark. No; no living being can sound like that. The three dimensions that humans exist in tumbled, the world twisted, shadows of space itself formed and disappeared, and when the screaming stopped everything returned to normal, the dimensions carefully creeping out of their hiding places.
And I burst away, free from my body, from Crayak's hold, free… free into that other reality, the only place I could go.
Free.
As free as anyone could ever be.
I was free from my golden line.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Author's Note;
Hehehe. The Cliffhanger Queen strikes again.
I don't know who first called me that, but it does have a certain ring to it...
I won't say "next part soon", cause it probably won't be soon. I'll just promsie that it WILL be put up. Some time. Summer's vacation is starting now, so... maybe soon. And maybe not.
**Part 4**
I stared at the empty spot where Rachel had been. Then…
"What have you done?!" I cried. "Crayak! Crayak, what did you do?"
Crayak laughed. "MADE SURE YOUR WISH CAME TRUE, MY DEAR STUDENT."
"What wish?"
"YOU DO NOT KNOW? YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR. BECAUSE WITH YOUR… TALENT… IT JUST MIGHT COME TRUE."
The thought took some time to grab hold. But when it did, I felt despair rising.
"You mean she… went and drowned?"
"NOT QUITE," Crayak said. "I'M NOT ALLOWED TO LET IT GO SO FAR. BUT LET'S SAY SHE'S UNDER WATER, AND CAN'T MORPH HER WAY OUT OF IT."
"Still alive?"
"YOU COULD CALL IT THAT. BUT, ANOMALY? THIS TIME, YOU ARE KEEPING OUT OF MY REALM. YOU HEAR ME? YOU NEED TO WORK IN YOUR OWN."
With that, the presence of Crayak was gone. And I was left to save my friend as best I could.
My first thought was to panic. Then I realized it wouldn't help, and pushed back hopelessness to some deep corner of my mind.
My mind.
My mind had turned more and more material… it was no longer just an abstract presence. It was who I was. Controlling it was what I did. Had to do.
My body was less important. I could use my mind freely in "Crayak's realm" because there was no body there that distracted me.
I needed to work in this reality now. Time to put mind over matter, to speak in simple words, although there is no simple explanation for any of this.
I needed to find Rachel. Not with my eyes, ears, nose, or sense of touch, but with the senses of my mind.
In a few moments I knew what I had to do. I closed out my worldly senses, and focused on those of my mind.
And I thought about Rachel. Searched around for some trace of her.
I found it not long after. A faint shimmer of her thoughts, not that far off to the east. She was scared… a strange feeling to associate with Rachel.
But as soon as I had found where she was, I pulled a few strings in this reality and moved myself over to where she was.
Cold. Dark. Wet.
Those were my first sensations. I gasped for air and swallowed bitter water. My ears felt about to explode - I can't say for sure that they didn't - and my eyes stung as if someone had stuck needles into them.
I stopped trying to breath, knowing that it wouldn't do any good. I was under water. Deep under water, from how dark it was and the pressure that was made well known to my ears.
Rachel must be there, too. Somewhere. I needed to know where, so again I closed my worldly senses. And opened my mind.
A presence of to my left. The direct swarm of emotions from a near-panicking mind.
I kicked with my legs and pushed through the greasy, dark water. My lungs were burning by then. My lack of oxygen was making my muscles numb. I swam straight into her by that one kick. Which was lucky, because I wasn't sure how far I'd have been able to swim.
She kicked at me, not seeing me and probably thinking I was some sort of creature - who knows what she might have mistaken me for?
Before the lack of oxygen completely overwhelmed me, I grabbed hold of Rachel's struggling shape and kicked my legs to swim upwards. After a few moments she realized what I was trying to do and did her best to help. I kept a hold of her hand and we both swam for the weak light above us. All thoughts of 'cheating' were gone.
Suddenly, something swam past my face. I jerked back in surprise, but kept swimming. Then, my arm. A small, slimy being stroked the skin on my arm. And another one - past my ear. And another. Another. Everywhere!
Rachel had noticed them as well. We both kept swimming, desperate to reach the surface, and despite our aching muscles we sped up to get past the creatures.
I could see now. We were nearing the air above - and about time, too - and I could see faint shadows around me. Although the water was as far from clear as you can get.
Rachel was swimming about half a meter above. She's got a lot more stamina than me - while the lack of air was making me weaken very quickly, she somehow found strength enough to pull me upwards, and not the other way around.
But then she let go of my hand with a jerk and grabbed frantically at her ear. Her mouth opened in a silent scream, air bubbling out, and her fingers dug at her ear as if she wanted to rip it out.
It took me a few moments to take in what was happening.
But when I did it was too late.
I knew where we were. I knew where Crayak had left Rachel, knowing that I would see no choice but to follow. Where he had, very cunningly, tricked us both.
The Yeerk pool.
Right into the Yeerk pool itself.
Rachel stopped grabbing at her ear, thrashed at my face with her heels so that I had to duck to avoid being hit, and started swimming towards the surface again. I followed, going slower because I was using only my legs, as my hands were covering my ears. Yeerks prodded at me from all directions. I nearly cried out, but if I'd have tried my lungs would have filled with pool sludge - and Yeerks. They were that close. They swarmed around me like bees on honey. Like sharks around blood. Pressing their bodies against my face, my neck, my arms, my legs and especially against my hands, trying to squeeze through between my fingers.
Then, suddenly, air!
Sweet, cold, wonderful air!
I was above water and gasped for oxygen, filling my lungs to the brim with air.
"ANIMORPH!" someone roared.
It was Rachel. She flung herself at me, and pushed me down under the sludgy water. I struggled and kicked around me with hands and arms. The Yeerks began prodding at my ears again, but I couldn't clasp over them, couldn't cover them, I needed to get Rachel's hands of my head before I drowned, or before backup reached the pool and I'd be captured.
As Rachel was. Rachel was infested.
Yeerks nudged at my ears. One of them found the opening, and began crawling in, but I grabbed him and threw him away. He tumbled through the water and came at me again.
"HAHAHA. WILL YOU NEVER LEARN, HUMAN? YOU ARE STILL THINKING LIKE AN ANIMORPH. DON'T. THINK LIKE WHAT YOU REALLY ARE: AN ANOMOLY."
As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. Time to think like an anomaly. A freak. And that meant, first of all, calm down. I emptied my head, forced my limbs to relax. Built up the connection with the other reality, felt Crayak, who was there, tensing as I did so, preparing to intervene.
Felt the Yeerks digging into my ears, but knew it didn't matter.
Ha ha! a voice cried in my head. He hadn't taken complete control yet, but was about to. He was slow, but he would be able to seize control of my body - and my very extraordinary mind. Unless I stopped him.
Get out, Yeerk, I said calmly.
He prepared to answer, arrogant, cocky, completely convinced that he was in control. But by the time he took to prepare a reply, he wasn't in my head any longer. I'd moved him out, using the part of my mind I still controlled.
And in the same way I grabbed Rachel's wrist. Felt for the golden line that was connected to her. Noticed the golden line entwined with it.
First get out of the pool. Then get rid of the Yeerk. Don't forget to get rid of the Yeerk, Cassie, or you'll be worse than dead.
Rachel kneed me in my face, but I was too absorbed in my task to notice.
OPEN.
The order made the world jerk in surprise. Things around me stopped, as if someone had slapped it. With a sledgehammer. Then the very roof of the pool area's cave shuddered, and a gap opened right above us. Opened towards the free sky. Nothing else moved. Not even time.
I was still held down under water, but that was unimportant. My lungs had stopped screaming for air. The Yeerks had stopped prodding at my ears. The surface of the pool had stopped rippling, and the light no longer danced in beams under it.
UP.
I don't know if the world moved down or if Rachel and I moved up. I couldn't tell. But the next moment we were both above the surface of the pool. Far above it. Up in the sky; the nearest living creature being a pigeon, frozen in time and space, hanging in the middle of the sky as if on a string.
CLOSE.
The gap over the pool closed neatly, leaving no visible trace after it. But if you were Crayak, Ellimist, or the Drode, or even me, you'd have seen the rip in space-time. The fracture in the reality. No-one else would know.
I floated through the atmosphere, back towards the hideout. No-one would see me, unless they had the same talent I had or unless I let them. Which I wouldn't do, of course.
I landed - if that's the proper word, although it felt like I'd never even left the ground - near our camp. I sat Rachel down near a tree. From feeling her golden line, I had found the blockage that kept her from morphing. Removing it - after I got the Yeerk out, of course - would be a simple task after what I'd just done.
What I'd just done.
Well, Crayak, I thought. What do you think?
"VERY… ORIGINAL." He laughed his cold, twisted laugh. But there was something different about his voice. Something in the tone… bitter? Disappointed? "VERY SIMPLE, BUT VERY ORIGINAL."
I left Rachel where she was, after tying up her golden string in the way it is tangled when a person is knocked out - it would keep her unconscious for about quarter of an hour. I went to fetch the others.
I told them I'd found Rachel walking around in the forest near camp, but when I saw her she'd attacked me. I'd morphed and knocked her out, and suspected she was a Controller.
They believed me. Why wouldn't they?
Rachel herself would remember nothing. I'd seen to that, indirectly, when I'd "altered" reality like I had - a normal person can remember nothing of such things unless helped to remember because… I don't know. Something to do with the basic buildings of a mind, and how they cannot be disrupted, I think, but I don't know. I just knew that's how it was.
The Yeerk would remember nothing either, of course, but he wouldn't agree to my story. Who cared? He'd be dead after three days, or quicker if I wanted him to, and none of my friends would care what he said before then.
I didn't want to dig too much in Rachel's memories. This was easier than removing the Yeerk and parts of her mind. She'd remember the Yeerk getting into her head, being in the pool, and she'd remember waking up in the forest… and who knows what she might have "forgotten" before or between that? Who knows what the Yeerk might have kept secret from her?
It was the simplest way. And simple is good.
I had enough complications already.
So, directly after moving camp again as far as we could - one of us had been infested, after all - we locked Rachel up. I kept her from morphing by keeping her morphing ability blocked. And after three days she was back to normal.
Confused and scared, but back to normal. I didn't know exactly what she remembered, and I preferred not to know. Simple is better.
And, when the Yeerk died, I undid the knot on Rachel's golden line to allow her to morph again.
But there was one problem. One thing I'd forgotten.
"What happened, Cassie?" Rachel said to me. "I know something happened. I don't remember what was said, exactly, but you were mad at me, yelling something about drowning, and then I was in the Yeerk pool. THE BOTTOM of the Yeerk pool."
She glared at me, hands on her hips. "And something tells me you've got something to do with it."
"What makes you think that?" I asked wearily.
"First of all, you were there with me. I know that. Secondly, surprise surprise, you were the one to find me in the woods. Except, you probably didn't 'find' me like that. If I'd attacked you, especially as a Controller, you'd have been dead. Well? Guilty or not?"
I stared at the ground. "I can't answer that, Rachel."
"WHY! NOT?"
I chose the easy way out again. I turned and walked away, like a common coward, letting her yell after me. She was upset. She'd been infested; of course she was upset. She was angry. She wanted to know how it had happened; I couldn't blame her. She actually had a right to know.
But I couldn't tell her my secret.
I went flying. Got back later than usual. I flew in, landed in demorphed as the others were eating. Only my parents looked up and said hi. The others kept their eyes averted in a very obvious way.
Jake glanced at me, briefly, but sighed and shook his head.
I suddenly found that I wasn't very hungry. I walked away, but I had only gone a few steps when felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Cassie, I'm sorry," Rachel said lowly. "I know it wasn't your fault. You wouldn't do that. Sit down. Eat."
I pulled free. "Maybe it was my fault," I muttered, and increased the length of my steps as I kept walking.
One step. Two. Three.
And without warning my head began spinning. My mind went cold as a familiar presence grabbed hold and pulled.
I stumbled a step to the side, into a tree, and grabbed onto the bark for support when my knees buckled.
Let go, Crayak, I begged silently.
"NO."
I dug my nails into the bark. Firmed my thoughts, focused, and pulled back my mind into my body. Crayak gave another sharp tug.
But I was in control again. My mind was nearly back in it's place. Enough to know that, from having been ignored, I was the center of attention.
"Not again," my mom said as she removed my grip on the tree and sat me down gently on the ground. Her face was worried. "Please, not again."
I could have said the same thing. But I was busy trying to hold my thoughts in place.
"DO AS I TELL YOU," Crayak ordered. "DO AS I TELL YOU OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES."
He took a new hold, the cold cruelness almost breaking my thoughts down to despair. I struck out in panic, wriggled, and… suddenly my mind was free again.
Crayak touched the outer borders that suddenly stood guarding my thoughts, my consciousness. "VERY WELL," he grunted. "THE CONSEQUENCES."
He ripped all my defensive walls apart, reached in, and then there was a sudden unbelievable pain in my mind, my head, my entire body and my very soul, that made me cry out.
I've never heard anything like it. It wasn't human. Or animal. It sounded like it came from everywhere, from everything, as if everything cried out with me, shared my pain, shared my terror. It simply could not have come from me. Everything stopped. Paused, shivering. Time itself shuddered, clouds fled and evaporated, the sun flickered and for just that moment grew dark. No; no living being can sound like that. The three dimensions that humans exist in tumbled, the world twisted, shadows of space itself formed and disappeared, and when the screaming stopped everything returned to normal, the dimensions carefully creeping out of their hiding places.
And I burst away, free from my body, from Crayak's hold, free… free into that other reality, the only place I could go.
Free.
As free as anyone could ever be.
I was free from my golden line.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Author's Note;
Hehehe. The Cliffhanger Queen strikes again.
I don't know who first called me that, but it does have a certain ring to it...
I won't say "next part soon", cause it probably won't be soon. I'll just promsie that it WILL be put up. Some time. Summer's vacation is starting now, so... maybe soon. And maybe not.