Pine found Johnny in a bad state. He was alone, strapped to a steel table
in a large room. The ceiling was high and arched, and white, glaring
lights spilled across the floor from wall fixtures. None of the robed
'doctors' were in here; they'd all gone to a secret meeting in one of the
towers. Pine had dropped by to see what they were up to, and it hadn't
surprised him to learn that they intended to banish him. Well, banishment
was unavoidable if done well, but Pine wouldn't give up. He'd keep trying
to come back, and unless they set up an energy ward to keep him out, he
could easily return. And even so, there were ways around those.
Pine stretched his neck out, touching his velvety muzzle to the human's pallid, sickly cheek. Rarely did the unicorn become physically tangible, but he could project over onto the physical plane enough to do so if he wished. Along with the touch, he sent a questing tendril of healing energy into Nny's mind.
Johnny woke up screaming. Panic and agony pounded at his brain, and coupled with the violent flames of several other emotions; it threatened to consume him. It might've, had that oppressive cloud of… whatever it was, still been there, or if a soft warm blanket hadn't been lain over him just then… as he became a bit more coherent, Johnny lifted his head to look down at himself; there was no blanket. But he did see the unicorn; standing next to the table he was strapped to. The warm and soothing feeling was coming from him, not a blanket.
"Hi there," Johnny said, his voice catching on a raw throat. "I've seen the giant puffly monkeys…" Wisely, Pine ignored the comment, and put another 'blanket' over his charge, who passed out within another minute.
When Johnny awoke again, he felt a lot better. Things were sharper, more tangible, and his perception didn't seem clouded by any influx of negative energy, or any other kind of energy for that matter. And, he was no longer strapped down. Sliding off the metal table, Nny cast his gaze around the room, but saw no hint of Pine. This was a terrible room, Nny decided, looking apprehensively up to the ceiling. It was the same arched stone ceiling, with the steel bolts at crucial architectural points, but at least it was no longer so vicious to his eye. Alarms no longer sounded through the walls, but Johnny had no idea how long it had been since the pain and shock had become too overwhelming to stay conscious in. It was so very quiet… as if the guards, the robed freaks, and the rest of the prisoners had all dissolved into ashes and been blown away quietly by the icy wind. Leaving Nny here, alone. Even Pine had disappeared… no; there he was, across the castle, his hooves beating soundlessly on the stone floors as he charged from room to room, freeing any re-claimed soul he touched upon.
Nny wondered, how he had happened to know that.
"This evening," said Denise Jackson. "And at the only place we have for such important things." The middle-aged woman gazed at each of the doctors at the meeting in turn. Her own long black robe shifted as she crossed one leg over the other to lean back in her chair. "It's essential to this project that as little as possible go wrong. A unicorn interfering with the displaced souls is something going wrong, and extremely so. We have to get rid of this creature, and an exorcism is the only way. It will be this evening at five o' clock. Everyone be there. Meeting adjourned." Gaunt robed figures stood and filed out of the room, taking their silent, cold ways down the spiraled stairs and off to their current projects. It was 3:30 now.
When Dr. Kasavin returned to the room where he'd left Johnny unconscious, lashed to the table, he was not surprised to see his patient gone once again. No matter, he couldn't get out, and soon that unicorn wouldn't be around for them to have to deal with.
"They're going to exorcise me," Pine said. He stood under the eave of a walkway, his head held down low, next to Johnny's. Johnny sat against the wall, his knees pulled up against his chest, staring at his boot-tops.
"You mean like a demon?"
"Yes."
Johnny pictured the tall robed figures standing in a circle and chanting, "The power of Christ compels you!" over and over again. He grinned, a manic, toothy grin, and then gave a shaky sigh as he ran a thin hand through his tangled hair. His insides felt like they'd fallen to pieces… bouts of shuddering struck him unexpectedly every few minutes, even after the warmth Pine gave him against the cold winds. His muscles were limp with weariness, and at the same time he was too nervous to relax. Somehow, Nny knew that the 'doctors' would not be calling on any godly power to get rid of Pine. Not a unicorn. They'd have to use something ugly and evil for that.
"Not necessarily. Energy has no good-or-evil nature of its own; it is given such by its user and its user's intentions."
Well, perhaps. Johnny didn't really understand and he figured it was pointless to try.
"It's never pointless to try."
"Are you reading my mind?"
"I'm saying what I feel you need to hear."
Nny sighed, wrapping his bony arms around his legs tightly. Though usually, such an invasion of his privacy would have flung him into a rage, he found he didn't care if the unicorn knew every secret thought he had. He knew Pine wouldn't judge him on any of it. Unicorns were like that. And people keep things private because they're afraid of being judged, aren't they? Johnny found himself wishing that the world was populated with unicorns instead of humans, and he felt the sense of Pine's amusement at that thought. Yes, it definitely would be nicer…
Another thought occurred to Nny that frightened him: if Pine were exorcised, he would be unable to come back, and Johnny would be left alone… alone to deal with the robed doctors and their crazy experiments with souls. A cold feeling sank into his gut at this realization, and his grip around his arms tightened, whitening his knuckles and probably causing fair sized bruises.
"Don't worry."
"Don't worry," hissed Johnny, distantly surprised at the venom in his own tone. "You're a phantasm. They can't touch you. They can lock you out, but then you're safe, you're free, and where am I?" Johnny's voice rose, and his eyes dilated slightly. His tone pitched towards hysteria as he continued. "Trapped here, goddamn it, you don't know what it's like to have to be trapped, in this limited body that requires me to use up so much of my time and energy taking care of it! And then something like this, there is no way out! Even death is not a way out in this place!" Fear and desolation was not just edging at his mind now; it was rushing through, hazing his decisions and his thoughts. The overwhelming despair that comes with the knowledge that you can't escape was not new to him, but it somehow managed to hit him deeply every time it came.
"You don't know… what it's like…" he finally managed, his voice low now and thick with hopeless tears.
"Yes I do. I have lived my time as a physical creature, I have lived as many things. You will too. You already have, and you will live as many more."
"Not with these creeps playing around with the souls of everyone they kill," Nny swallowed down the sobs that wanted to come, and swiftly wiped away the tears that had trickled down his cheeks. The idea of reincarnation wasn't something Johnny had ever thought about, anyway, and if it were true, what on earth had happened to him that time he'd dreamed… or was it a dream? Nny shook his head; it made his pitiable mind ache trying to puzzle these things out.
"I know."
"So what about this not worrying?" Johnny's voice held more control now, and he rested his chin on his arms. "Don't I have cause to worry?"
"Yes. But I will help you."
"You're going to be exorcised."
"There are ways around that."
"I hope you're right…" Nny's voice took on a bitter nuance and he sighed, deeply. Better, he supposed, to just accept whatever fate might be coming to him. They could not keep his soul imprisoned to their will forever.
Pine knew when the group of doctors had gathered in the ornate room in the center of the castle. Buried beneath three floors, and laced with candles and incense, the room held them in its isolated, mystical grip as they stood silently together, using only the power of their minds to draw up a circle and begin to focus energy, building it up inside the circle.
He knew easily what they were doing, exactly, and where they were. He did not try to resist it when they sent the energy out to find him. He felt it surround him, pushing at him in a way that was as corporeal as energy could get. It was then that he rose up to fight it. He did a very good job, using his own power to fend off the insistent energy that tried to drive him back and out. He cast off the ropes of power that sought to entwine him, twisting his own energy like a whirling dervish. But it kept coming; the doctors kept up their chants, kept building the energy, and sending it out, and eventually, Pine was overcome. He stopped resisting so that he would have a last look at the face of the human he'd taken charge of. Johnny couldn't see what was happening, and from what Pine could tell from that last brief contact, he couldn't feel it either. And then the unicorn was gone, back into his own world on the astral plane.
Johnny knew when Pine began to fight the exorcism; the unicorn had faded from perception, and otherwise Nny didn't know what had gone on. But when Pine was really and truly gone from the physical plane, Johnny knew it, by the cold that came from the castle around him, from the chill northern wind outside, from the unnatural magick practiced by the freakish doctors. He hadn't been so cold since Pine had been here. Sitting under the walkway, he shuddered, his muscles tensing and relaxing spasmodically until he was a shaken mess of ragged nerves. He wanted to hide, and he hoped desperately that they wouldn't find him huddled under here.
But he knew it was futile, even before he heard the echoing thud of boots approaching him.
Pine stretched his neck out, touching his velvety muzzle to the human's pallid, sickly cheek. Rarely did the unicorn become physically tangible, but he could project over onto the physical plane enough to do so if he wished. Along with the touch, he sent a questing tendril of healing energy into Nny's mind.
Johnny woke up screaming. Panic and agony pounded at his brain, and coupled with the violent flames of several other emotions; it threatened to consume him. It might've, had that oppressive cloud of… whatever it was, still been there, or if a soft warm blanket hadn't been lain over him just then… as he became a bit more coherent, Johnny lifted his head to look down at himself; there was no blanket. But he did see the unicorn; standing next to the table he was strapped to. The warm and soothing feeling was coming from him, not a blanket.
"Hi there," Johnny said, his voice catching on a raw throat. "I've seen the giant puffly monkeys…" Wisely, Pine ignored the comment, and put another 'blanket' over his charge, who passed out within another minute.
When Johnny awoke again, he felt a lot better. Things were sharper, more tangible, and his perception didn't seem clouded by any influx of negative energy, or any other kind of energy for that matter. And, he was no longer strapped down. Sliding off the metal table, Nny cast his gaze around the room, but saw no hint of Pine. This was a terrible room, Nny decided, looking apprehensively up to the ceiling. It was the same arched stone ceiling, with the steel bolts at crucial architectural points, but at least it was no longer so vicious to his eye. Alarms no longer sounded through the walls, but Johnny had no idea how long it had been since the pain and shock had become too overwhelming to stay conscious in. It was so very quiet… as if the guards, the robed freaks, and the rest of the prisoners had all dissolved into ashes and been blown away quietly by the icy wind. Leaving Nny here, alone. Even Pine had disappeared… no; there he was, across the castle, his hooves beating soundlessly on the stone floors as he charged from room to room, freeing any re-claimed soul he touched upon.
Nny wondered, how he had happened to know that.
"This evening," said Denise Jackson. "And at the only place we have for such important things." The middle-aged woman gazed at each of the doctors at the meeting in turn. Her own long black robe shifted as she crossed one leg over the other to lean back in her chair. "It's essential to this project that as little as possible go wrong. A unicorn interfering with the displaced souls is something going wrong, and extremely so. We have to get rid of this creature, and an exorcism is the only way. It will be this evening at five o' clock. Everyone be there. Meeting adjourned." Gaunt robed figures stood and filed out of the room, taking their silent, cold ways down the spiraled stairs and off to their current projects. It was 3:30 now.
When Dr. Kasavin returned to the room where he'd left Johnny unconscious, lashed to the table, he was not surprised to see his patient gone once again. No matter, he couldn't get out, and soon that unicorn wouldn't be around for them to have to deal with.
"They're going to exorcise me," Pine said. He stood under the eave of a walkway, his head held down low, next to Johnny's. Johnny sat against the wall, his knees pulled up against his chest, staring at his boot-tops.
"You mean like a demon?"
"Yes."
Johnny pictured the tall robed figures standing in a circle and chanting, "The power of Christ compels you!" over and over again. He grinned, a manic, toothy grin, and then gave a shaky sigh as he ran a thin hand through his tangled hair. His insides felt like they'd fallen to pieces… bouts of shuddering struck him unexpectedly every few minutes, even after the warmth Pine gave him against the cold winds. His muscles were limp with weariness, and at the same time he was too nervous to relax. Somehow, Nny knew that the 'doctors' would not be calling on any godly power to get rid of Pine. Not a unicorn. They'd have to use something ugly and evil for that.
"Not necessarily. Energy has no good-or-evil nature of its own; it is given such by its user and its user's intentions."
Well, perhaps. Johnny didn't really understand and he figured it was pointless to try.
"It's never pointless to try."
"Are you reading my mind?"
"I'm saying what I feel you need to hear."
Nny sighed, wrapping his bony arms around his legs tightly. Though usually, such an invasion of his privacy would have flung him into a rage, he found he didn't care if the unicorn knew every secret thought he had. He knew Pine wouldn't judge him on any of it. Unicorns were like that. And people keep things private because they're afraid of being judged, aren't they? Johnny found himself wishing that the world was populated with unicorns instead of humans, and he felt the sense of Pine's amusement at that thought. Yes, it definitely would be nicer…
Another thought occurred to Nny that frightened him: if Pine were exorcised, he would be unable to come back, and Johnny would be left alone… alone to deal with the robed doctors and their crazy experiments with souls. A cold feeling sank into his gut at this realization, and his grip around his arms tightened, whitening his knuckles and probably causing fair sized bruises.
"Don't worry."
"Don't worry," hissed Johnny, distantly surprised at the venom in his own tone. "You're a phantasm. They can't touch you. They can lock you out, but then you're safe, you're free, and where am I?" Johnny's voice rose, and his eyes dilated slightly. His tone pitched towards hysteria as he continued. "Trapped here, goddamn it, you don't know what it's like to have to be trapped, in this limited body that requires me to use up so much of my time and energy taking care of it! And then something like this, there is no way out! Even death is not a way out in this place!" Fear and desolation was not just edging at his mind now; it was rushing through, hazing his decisions and his thoughts. The overwhelming despair that comes with the knowledge that you can't escape was not new to him, but it somehow managed to hit him deeply every time it came.
"You don't know… what it's like…" he finally managed, his voice low now and thick with hopeless tears.
"Yes I do. I have lived my time as a physical creature, I have lived as many things. You will too. You already have, and you will live as many more."
"Not with these creeps playing around with the souls of everyone they kill," Nny swallowed down the sobs that wanted to come, and swiftly wiped away the tears that had trickled down his cheeks. The idea of reincarnation wasn't something Johnny had ever thought about, anyway, and if it were true, what on earth had happened to him that time he'd dreamed… or was it a dream? Nny shook his head; it made his pitiable mind ache trying to puzzle these things out.
"I know."
"So what about this not worrying?" Johnny's voice held more control now, and he rested his chin on his arms. "Don't I have cause to worry?"
"Yes. But I will help you."
"You're going to be exorcised."
"There are ways around that."
"I hope you're right…" Nny's voice took on a bitter nuance and he sighed, deeply. Better, he supposed, to just accept whatever fate might be coming to him. They could not keep his soul imprisoned to their will forever.
Pine knew when the group of doctors had gathered in the ornate room in the center of the castle. Buried beneath three floors, and laced with candles and incense, the room held them in its isolated, mystical grip as they stood silently together, using only the power of their minds to draw up a circle and begin to focus energy, building it up inside the circle.
He knew easily what they were doing, exactly, and where they were. He did not try to resist it when they sent the energy out to find him. He felt it surround him, pushing at him in a way that was as corporeal as energy could get. It was then that he rose up to fight it. He did a very good job, using his own power to fend off the insistent energy that tried to drive him back and out. He cast off the ropes of power that sought to entwine him, twisting his own energy like a whirling dervish. But it kept coming; the doctors kept up their chants, kept building the energy, and sending it out, and eventually, Pine was overcome. He stopped resisting so that he would have a last look at the face of the human he'd taken charge of. Johnny couldn't see what was happening, and from what Pine could tell from that last brief contact, he couldn't feel it either. And then the unicorn was gone, back into his own world on the astral plane.
Johnny knew when Pine began to fight the exorcism; the unicorn had faded from perception, and otherwise Nny didn't know what had gone on. But when Pine was really and truly gone from the physical plane, Johnny knew it, by the cold that came from the castle around him, from the chill northern wind outside, from the unnatural magick practiced by the freakish doctors. He hadn't been so cold since Pine had been here. Sitting under the walkway, he shuddered, his muscles tensing and relaxing spasmodically until he was a shaken mess of ragged nerves. He wanted to hide, and he hoped desperately that they wouldn't find him huddled under here.
But he knew it was futile, even before he heard the echoing thud of boots approaching him.
