"Exactly what are you, then?" Johnny stared defiantly up at the being who
gazed down at him. The gentle warmth of its gaze was, for some odd reason,
infuriating. High on a patrol walk, Nny sat leaning against the low walls,
trying to suppress the shivers that wracked his thin frame as icy winds
whipped the tops of the castle.
"What do I look like?" the unicorn replied. "I'm what you see. But more than that underneath."
Johnny buried his face in his hands. His spine, curved against the stone, was aching, and Nny turned to the side to relieve the pressure for a moment. He didn't know what this unicorn was, and he didn't want to know. He found himself wanting to go home… but how could he do that? There was no way out of here. The stone walls were reinforced with barbed wire, there were guards crawling everywhere, and alarms blared constantly, only scattered a little by the winds. Yes, they knew he was gone. They were looking for him.
But somehow he knew they wouldn't find him. At least, the guards wouldn't find him. He didn't want those robed bastards after him… Nny wondered again why he'd gotten here... and how. This wasn't anywhere near his home. Nowhere near the town in which he lived. It was much too cold, and there was a fine dusting of snow on the ground constantly. The sun was low in the sky and often blurred out with clouds.
And this creature before him was even harder to explain. Especially in the fact that it was helping him. Johnny knew about unicorns; everyone did, although most dismissed them as myth. Unicorns were pure souls, and there were never exceptions to that; so why would a pure soul be helping a low-down piece of shit like him?
"Pine," Nny said after a moment, his mouth dry. It was almost a struggle to speak.
"Yes?"
"Go away." An ugly feeling was creeping up on Nny and he didn't like it at all. It was the feeling you get when faced with something so beautiful and good that next to it you see yourself as, at best, a despicable bit of garbage. The feeling of gripping the edge of the cloud on which sits the pearly gates of heaven, while your ugly little inner demon pokes and jeers at you before shoving you back down into the stinking pit of the real world.
"I can't leave until this whole 'experiment' is stopped."
"Then get… away… from ME!" Johnny's voice rose into a strangled shout, which he was instantly sorry for. They would find him, now… and Johnny did not see Pine anywhere. The soft, warm presence of the unicorn was gone as well, and Nny felt dreadfully exposed. Slinking low, he crawled as fast as he could towards the steel door in the nearest tower. He held his knife in one hand, and leaning back on his knees, reached cautiously for the handle…
He never got it. The door flew open and an armed guard ran out; and without thinking, almost as a reflex, Nny's knife hand shot out, slashing through the woman's thigh. A scream dropped from her lips as she stumbled, and Johnny lost no time in driving the knife upward through her stomach. Hot blood spurted from the wound as the body crumpled to the stone walkway, and Nny wasted no time darting through the door. Alarms jangled viciously, the shock of the noise making his head ache, but he ignored them, stumbling down the tower stairs. His boots, while not as loud as the ones of the guards, still thudded one the stone stairs with enough noise to make Johnny wince. He tried to slow down, but he was too tense, his breath was coming too fast. He had to find a way out of here, but as he paused a moment at a door in the side of the tower, a sudden feeling of cold fear washed through him.
Trusting his instincts, Johnny turned to continue down the tower stairs, when the door was flung open from the other side. Nny wheeled, the knife in his hand held in a death grip as he swung at the tall, robed figure on the other side. Johnny was a cobra in his element, lightning fast, but his weapon never got to its target. Cold energy seemed to envelop him, whipping at his clothes, tearing at his very soul. Rushing screams and wind filled his ears, and his eyes stung and clouded. He had to close them, and he felt himself falling… something hard struck his side, then his back, and a sharp pain lanced through his body. He thought he screamed, but he couldn't hear past the howls and the wind in his ears.
Pine was battling one of the elementals. He had not meant to abandon the young human, but when the poor thing had shouted, a wave of frustrated resentment and sorrow had coursed out from him for a bare moment, and it was enough to attract some of the spirits here. It appalled Pine, how one group of humans could pull so many beings from the astral to their aid, and it frightened him.
At any rate, Pine had leapt into the midst of the largest elemental and taken his battle with it to the next realm. The physical plane was no comfortable place to be for an astral creature, not even one so bound as the elemental or so determined as Pine. The battle was ferocious and too long, and while Pine attempted to dissipate the elemental, so it cruelly attempted to obliterate him. The unicorn did not like to fight; but he could do it when he needed and he could do it well. He would've been satisfied with freeing the creature's bond and casting it into some far off part of the realm, but there was something ugly feeding it, and it drove to destroy him. Even when he felt its bond to the physical fall apart, it still pushed on against the unicorn. Did it hate him so much? Why? Pine was forced to do no less than destroy the fact of the being's very existence. It was a terrible thing to do, but in this case it was an unfortunate necessity.
When Pine managed to collect himself enough to project back into the physical plane, he looked immediately for Johnny. He was unsurprised to find that the robed beasts that called themselves 'doctors' had hold of him again… Pine sighed softly. While he needed to save Nny from the certain fate awaiting him, Pine felt a stronger calling of duty to the crying and tortured souls that had been dragged back into bodies long abandoned. No souls, yet, that had been firmly entrenched in a new life and consciousness before being hauled back to their previous selves, but this was just as bad. Once a soul left the body and consciousness, it was gone and to bring it back was wrong… an upset of the natural balance, a perversion of the flow of life.
But for some reason he couldn't quite explain, Pine found himself galloping through the castle, his power and sight stretched far before him. He snatched imprisoned souls and turned them loose as he found them, though he had to stop for a few minutes at each one, but then he continued on his main goal; rescuing his imprisoned human.
When Johnny awoke, the first thing he saw was the arched ceiling. It was made of stone, or it looked like it was; but he could see the steel bolts reinforcing it in places. It was sharply in clarity, and tiny details kept leaping out at him, forcing him after a while to try and turn his head. The attempt at motion was met by his nerves with a scream of protest, which he vocalized intensely a moment later; made even more intense by a ragged throat and sore vocal chords.
"That won't do you any good, my boy," a familiar, soft voice spoke into Nny's ear. He did not try to jerk away, but he shuddered internally.
"You escaped before." The voice was farther away now, and held a cold edge to it. "I haven't quite figured out how, but it wasn't you. It was something else. What brought you out? I had you, you know. And I still have you. You are mine. And you will be an object of intense experimentation until I have learned all I can from you."
Fear hit Johnny's mind so hard that he reeled. He knew, somehow, that whatever experimentation this insane bastard was talking about, it was not something released by death. Death was part of it, and Nny knew this like a dead, chill weight on his soul. He remembered the unicorn, and how it had left in the face of his jealousy. And now he was trapped, possibly in a place worse than he'd been. Johnny felt a sob trembling in his throat, and when that oppressive cloud leered closer at it, it broke.
"Leave him alone," the distant voice said piercingly.
Dr. Kasavin pressed his thin fingers to his temples. He was agitated, both by the boy's escape and by the powerful presence that had accompanied it. He'd been having a lot of time, these past couple days, with that presence, but it had never interfered before. He'd thought it only an astral creature observing things, but suddenly, it had leapt into action, bringing a patient out from under the doctor's nose, and freeing re-called souls. Security had already found four crumpled bodies, vacant of the souls, in the upper bunkrooms. And Dr. Kasavin could feel others leaving. Whatever this creature was, it needed to be isolated, and banished.
"Your friend, Johnny C… the creature that rescued you," Dr. Kasavin continued after a long while. "Who was it?"
"Fuck you," was the weak reply. It was followed by another hollow, sobbing scream.
"I said, leave him alone," Dr. Kasavin said sharply, jabbing a harsh spike of energy at the spirit circling Johnny. It shrieked and retreated. The doctor wasn't even sure that Johnny knew what had rescued him, and if he did, it was doubtful he knew anything helpful. Dr. Kasavin already knew it was a unicorn. A creature of purity and balance… no wonder it was trying to free the souls from their old selves.
With a sigh he turned to look at his patient. Johnny was lying on a cold metal table, his arms bound at his sides and his legs strapped in securely. Nothing else held him but the dark energy that was in a cloud over his form. Dr. Kasavin sighed. He was not angry with the boy. No, he was beyond anger… he only knew the cold certainty that this unicorn, whoever it was, needed to be gotten rid of. Frankly, he didn't know how that would be accomplished, but a small group of the other doctors were working full time to contact and request aid of more powerful astral entities than the ones commonly used here. This was a dangerous thing to do, for it attracted their attention, and most of them refused to help. The doctors had decided against trying to bind or control a powerful entity… the risks were too great should it ever get loose. One of them, a younger one, had suggested spelling a dragon to help them, but the others had met that with harsh retort, and the young doctor's privileges had been revoked. Dragons were too powerful.
And so, it remained that the doctors would have to do the major act of the banishing by themselves. Tomorrow the exact time and place would be set; they would let Dr. Kasavin know, and the banishing ritual could commence.
Until then, the experiments would have to be put on hold… including all of the fascinating things that Dr. Kasavin wanted to do to his young man here.
"What do I look like?" the unicorn replied. "I'm what you see. But more than that underneath."
Johnny buried his face in his hands. His spine, curved against the stone, was aching, and Nny turned to the side to relieve the pressure for a moment. He didn't know what this unicorn was, and he didn't want to know. He found himself wanting to go home… but how could he do that? There was no way out of here. The stone walls were reinforced with barbed wire, there were guards crawling everywhere, and alarms blared constantly, only scattered a little by the winds. Yes, they knew he was gone. They were looking for him.
But somehow he knew they wouldn't find him. At least, the guards wouldn't find him. He didn't want those robed bastards after him… Nny wondered again why he'd gotten here... and how. This wasn't anywhere near his home. Nowhere near the town in which he lived. It was much too cold, and there was a fine dusting of snow on the ground constantly. The sun was low in the sky and often blurred out with clouds.
And this creature before him was even harder to explain. Especially in the fact that it was helping him. Johnny knew about unicorns; everyone did, although most dismissed them as myth. Unicorns were pure souls, and there were never exceptions to that; so why would a pure soul be helping a low-down piece of shit like him?
"Pine," Nny said after a moment, his mouth dry. It was almost a struggle to speak.
"Yes?"
"Go away." An ugly feeling was creeping up on Nny and he didn't like it at all. It was the feeling you get when faced with something so beautiful and good that next to it you see yourself as, at best, a despicable bit of garbage. The feeling of gripping the edge of the cloud on which sits the pearly gates of heaven, while your ugly little inner demon pokes and jeers at you before shoving you back down into the stinking pit of the real world.
"I can't leave until this whole 'experiment' is stopped."
"Then get… away… from ME!" Johnny's voice rose into a strangled shout, which he was instantly sorry for. They would find him, now… and Johnny did not see Pine anywhere. The soft, warm presence of the unicorn was gone as well, and Nny felt dreadfully exposed. Slinking low, he crawled as fast as he could towards the steel door in the nearest tower. He held his knife in one hand, and leaning back on his knees, reached cautiously for the handle…
He never got it. The door flew open and an armed guard ran out; and without thinking, almost as a reflex, Nny's knife hand shot out, slashing through the woman's thigh. A scream dropped from her lips as she stumbled, and Johnny lost no time in driving the knife upward through her stomach. Hot blood spurted from the wound as the body crumpled to the stone walkway, and Nny wasted no time darting through the door. Alarms jangled viciously, the shock of the noise making his head ache, but he ignored them, stumbling down the tower stairs. His boots, while not as loud as the ones of the guards, still thudded one the stone stairs with enough noise to make Johnny wince. He tried to slow down, but he was too tense, his breath was coming too fast. He had to find a way out of here, but as he paused a moment at a door in the side of the tower, a sudden feeling of cold fear washed through him.
Trusting his instincts, Johnny turned to continue down the tower stairs, when the door was flung open from the other side. Nny wheeled, the knife in his hand held in a death grip as he swung at the tall, robed figure on the other side. Johnny was a cobra in his element, lightning fast, but his weapon never got to its target. Cold energy seemed to envelop him, whipping at his clothes, tearing at his very soul. Rushing screams and wind filled his ears, and his eyes stung and clouded. He had to close them, and he felt himself falling… something hard struck his side, then his back, and a sharp pain lanced through his body. He thought he screamed, but he couldn't hear past the howls and the wind in his ears.
Pine was battling one of the elementals. He had not meant to abandon the young human, but when the poor thing had shouted, a wave of frustrated resentment and sorrow had coursed out from him for a bare moment, and it was enough to attract some of the spirits here. It appalled Pine, how one group of humans could pull so many beings from the astral to their aid, and it frightened him.
At any rate, Pine had leapt into the midst of the largest elemental and taken his battle with it to the next realm. The physical plane was no comfortable place to be for an astral creature, not even one so bound as the elemental or so determined as Pine. The battle was ferocious and too long, and while Pine attempted to dissipate the elemental, so it cruelly attempted to obliterate him. The unicorn did not like to fight; but he could do it when he needed and he could do it well. He would've been satisfied with freeing the creature's bond and casting it into some far off part of the realm, but there was something ugly feeding it, and it drove to destroy him. Even when he felt its bond to the physical fall apart, it still pushed on against the unicorn. Did it hate him so much? Why? Pine was forced to do no less than destroy the fact of the being's very existence. It was a terrible thing to do, but in this case it was an unfortunate necessity.
When Pine managed to collect himself enough to project back into the physical plane, he looked immediately for Johnny. He was unsurprised to find that the robed beasts that called themselves 'doctors' had hold of him again… Pine sighed softly. While he needed to save Nny from the certain fate awaiting him, Pine felt a stronger calling of duty to the crying and tortured souls that had been dragged back into bodies long abandoned. No souls, yet, that had been firmly entrenched in a new life and consciousness before being hauled back to their previous selves, but this was just as bad. Once a soul left the body and consciousness, it was gone and to bring it back was wrong… an upset of the natural balance, a perversion of the flow of life.
But for some reason he couldn't quite explain, Pine found himself galloping through the castle, his power and sight stretched far before him. He snatched imprisoned souls and turned them loose as he found them, though he had to stop for a few minutes at each one, but then he continued on his main goal; rescuing his imprisoned human.
When Johnny awoke, the first thing he saw was the arched ceiling. It was made of stone, or it looked like it was; but he could see the steel bolts reinforcing it in places. It was sharply in clarity, and tiny details kept leaping out at him, forcing him after a while to try and turn his head. The attempt at motion was met by his nerves with a scream of protest, which he vocalized intensely a moment later; made even more intense by a ragged throat and sore vocal chords.
"That won't do you any good, my boy," a familiar, soft voice spoke into Nny's ear. He did not try to jerk away, but he shuddered internally.
"You escaped before." The voice was farther away now, and held a cold edge to it. "I haven't quite figured out how, but it wasn't you. It was something else. What brought you out? I had you, you know. And I still have you. You are mine. And you will be an object of intense experimentation until I have learned all I can from you."
Fear hit Johnny's mind so hard that he reeled. He knew, somehow, that whatever experimentation this insane bastard was talking about, it was not something released by death. Death was part of it, and Nny knew this like a dead, chill weight on his soul. He remembered the unicorn, and how it had left in the face of his jealousy. And now he was trapped, possibly in a place worse than he'd been. Johnny felt a sob trembling in his throat, and when that oppressive cloud leered closer at it, it broke.
"Leave him alone," the distant voice said piercingly.
Dr. Kasavin pressed his thin fingers to his temples. He was agitated, both by the boy's escape and by the powerful presence that had accompanied it. He'd been having a lot of time, these past couple days, with that presence, but it had never interfered before. He'd thought it only an astral creature observing things, but suddenly, it had leapt into action, bringing a patient out from under the doctor's nose, and freeing re-called souls. Security had already found four crumpled bodies, vacant of the souls, in the upper bunkrooms. And Dr. Kasavin could feel others leaving. Whatever this creature was, it needed to be isolated, and banished.
"Your friend, Johnny C… the creature that rescued you," Dr. Kasavin continued after a long while. "Who was it?"
"Fuck you," was the weak reply. It was followed by another hollow, sobbing scream.
"I said, leave him alone," Dr. Kasavin said sharply, jabbing a harsh spike of energy at the spirit circling Johnny. It shrieked and retreated. The doctor wasn't even sure that Johnny knew what had rescued him, and if he did, it was doubtful he knew anything helpful. Dr. Kasavin already knew it was a unicorn. A creature of purity and balance… no wonder it was trying to free the souls from their old selves.
With a sigh he turned to look at his patient. Johnny was lying on a cold metal table, his arms bound at his sides and his legs strapped in securely. Nothing else held him but the dark energy that was in a cloud over his form. Dr. Kasavin sighed. He was not angry with the boy. No, he was beyond anger… he only knew the cold certainty that this unicorn, whoever it was, needed to be gotten rid of. Frankly, he didn't know how that would be accomplished, but a small group of the other doctors were working full time to contact and request aid of more powerful astral entities than the ones commonly used here. This was a dangerous thing to do, for it attracted their attention, and most of them refused to help. The doctors had decided against trying to bind or control a powerful entity… the risks were too great should it ever get loose. One of them, a younger one, had suggested spelling a dragon to help them, but the others had met that with harsh retort, and the young doctor's privileges had been revoked. Dragons were too powerful.
And so, it remained that the doctors would have to do the major act of the banishing by themselves. Tomorrow the exact time and place would be set; they would let Dr. Kasavin know, and the banishing ritual could commence.
Until then, the experiments would have to be put on hold… including all of the fascinating things that Dr. Kasavin wanted to do to his young man here.
