"In a minute, dear
Love holds second
It'll come clear
Do you see pity?
Do you see love?
Ride away, dear love
Dash away
No-one hears you call
Do you see pity?
Do you see love?"
--James Iha
"For When You Return"
Part II
Location: The Time of the Sixth World
Two Eternities Before the Present Day
For the life of her, she couldn't even remember who she was anymore.
Clutching at the sides of her face in the manner of a madwoman, the young girl ran blindly
across the forest floor. Her feet pounded hollowly and askew in the manner of a flippant
heartbeat, and tendrils of thin dark hair clung to her cheeks and wound about her bony fingers
like weedy black veins. She looked like a mess -- but was at the spite of composure when it
came to what was ripping through her mind.
"Stop!" She wailed. The word was only one syllable, but she stretched it so that it covered
many more. Starting out in a low hiss, she slowly slid her breathless tone into a wail and
screamed as if she were being skinned alive. No one could hear her -- well, no one ever came to
her rescue, anyway. A person could not be saved from herself after all.
She didn't know who she was. Yes, her parents had called her Kei. She had been born in a city
called Jidoa and had been raised there for much of her life. Fifteen years old, if even that.
That was only a small part of the whole, however, for since birth she had known it, the
unavoidable truth:
There was another part of her. Another part entirely. Something that was not Kei.
Kei had been born with the gift of magic. In a world of science and technology this was a
terrible gift to have, and the child worked so very, very hard to hide it. But all was in vain
that fateful morning, the morning that she, having finally fallen mad... was discovered. The
other side of her had grown too difficult for her to contain.
A witch, they'd said. The girl is a witch! She was no longer Kei, child of Jidoa. She was an
object, a thing.
How it infuriated her! Just the thought of it made her feet move faster, her chest huff harder,
her face pinch up under her hands as if it were recoiling in disgust. It wasn't fair! She
hadn't asked for this! What was it, that made one person different than another? What was it,
that gave her this curse!
Her steps carried her west. West was her only hope. Kei did not yet know that she had a
continent to cross, and then an ocean afterwards... It wouldn't have mattered if she did. The
girl had nowhere else to go but west. The other half of her knew this, and Kei learned this
from her other half. She hated it, she trusted it, but she also sensed its apprehension in
going this way. She sensed its fear.
"I'll get you for this." She hissed. She had run only fifteen minutes, but this was in a sprint
and she was beginning to feel dizzy. Her hands dropped away from her face and clutched at the
trees as she passed them, as if touch would steal a touch of their life for herself. It didn't
seem to work. Still she tired, and with a mask of her matted and tear-soaked hair she ran on.
"I'll get you." Kei said.
"You already have me," Rattled her other half.
"I want you -out-," Kei said.
"I'll bring you with me."
And, just as that voice snapped its retort in her head her feet strangled themselves in some
foliage and tore away. A moment of silent panic hit her, slowed her so that she was fully aware
that she was falling. In half of an instant she was down, cracking her chin on a fallen log and
shredding her hands up the palms, having the breath knock back from her belly and ram its fist
into her spine.
Sobbing and choking on her sobs, Kei lie there for a moment, stunned. She knew that she was
going to die, perhaps not now but soon, and the eternity that it took her to get her lungs
un-collapsed was a bitter reminder of this. Throughout this entire ordeal she could feel the
smug knowingness of her other half.
"Leave me alone," She sniffled in the ghost of a whisper.
"Stand up."
"Stand up."
"Stand -up-!"
Kei let out a strangled cry and submitted enough to get herself into a seated position. Her
hands were beginning to burn, and the inky dirt that had gotten warped into her flesh accented
the redness of her blood. It hurt, it hurt so very much. Why was it that a witch... Oh, how the
word burned at her mind!...had to feel pain, too? Atop of everything else, why did she have to
hurt?!
"Get up." Her other half said.
"Why?" Kei asked bitterly. "Why bother?"
"They're after you."
"Let them come after me."
"They'll kill you."
Kei knew that she was already dead. It wasn't like she stood a chance here, in this life. It
was inevitable. However, the prospect of her family, her friends... people she had known and
loved... hunting her down like this was miserable. Even her own father, terrified by the
prospect that she could do her family harm, had jabbed an accusing finger at him after her
Madness came that morning.
The other half of her had finally broken out. It had spoken so that everyone could hear.
"Let them kill me." She said. But Kei had hesitated, and her other half knew it.
It needed not persuade further. The hunting party did that. Kei's head shot up at the sound of
branches cracking and voices. There's her trail, she went this way! Kei recognized the voice as
a man from her village. He had a son; she had played with him frequently. They had gotten close,
although their entire friendship was slaughtered by fear. She had turned to him that morning,
desperate for help, and he had shied away.
"-Run-," Her other half hissed.
Scrambling to her feet, Kei pushed off with a heel before she even gained her balance. Stumbling
over the log and then into a shaky run, she pushed off farther into the forest. This was her
only chance, yes, but it was also her mistake. The hunting party was close. She could hear them,
even with the voice in her head and her ears clogged with her misery. They, of course, could
hear her in turn.
"There she is!" A voice called. Kei could almost feel the dozen of them snap into attention.
Knowing that it was lost, she did not hide the wail from climbing up her throat and out of her
upturned mouth; it filled the air like a pathetic and animalistic shriek. Inhuman.
In plain view now, a figure of white against the dark backdrop of the forest, she knew what was
coming. It did. The first arrow whizzed by her ear, the result of hurried and fearful marksman
ship, and with another uncloaked cry she ducked--long after the shot was fired--and dipped in
another direction. Another arrow pounded into the ground in front of her, and she scurried away
from it at an angle, as if it radiated death itself.
Thus weaving through the unpaved wilderness, she was pursued. They were faster than she was;
more calm, and Kei relied only on her terror to guide her. Her heart pounded in her chest so
hard that it hurt, that it pressed against her lungs and closed them... She managed to gain a
few yards before her vision went out, until she was running with only a few spots of clarity to
peer through like tiny holes in a black shroud.
"Hurry!" Her other half said. "-Move-!"
This was a pointless thing to demand -- this was exactly what Kei was doing. Because of that
statement, Kei knew in the back of her mind that her other half was just as afraid as she was.
And then, suddenly, there was nothing beneath the toes of her right foot. Kei knew that this
time she was not merely tripping over a few vines. Her body, out of her control, kept moving
despite the fact that she screamed for it not to. And then, with a puff, she fell and hit her
chest on the opposite side of a small crevice in the earth. Desperately, wide-eyed, she felt
her weight pull her down into the pit with a rush. Fingernails straining back against the
sinews that held them to her hands, she caught herself dangling just when she thought that it
was hopeless, that she would have fallen and ended it all there.
Not that, of course, she gained any luck.
Clinging to the edge of the hole with her breasts along the rim, she strained to heave herself
fully out of the nature-made trap. However, at her angle she could gain no foothold, and was
not strong enough to rely on her arms alone. It didn't matter, however. She was too late. With
a rush of her fear-induced senses she heard the sound of footsteps coming to an abrupt
halt--even now, with her helpless, they were afraid to venture too close to a witch--and
arrows scraping against quivers. Bowstrings.
The first arrow struck the ground by her hand. The second impaled her above her right shoulder
blade. The third thudded into the center of her back. After that, she lost track of what she
felt and where she felt it.
She was going to die.
"Fall." Her other half said through her lips.
And Kei, knowing that this was the end, released her meager hold on the small crevice lip.
End Part 2/?
To be Continued.
Love holds second
It'll come clear
Do you see pity?
Do you see love?
Ride away, dear love
Dash away
No-one hears you call
Do you see pity?
Do you see love?"
--James Iha
"For When You Return"
Part II
Location: The Time of the Sixth World
Two Eternities Before the Present Day
For the life of her, she couldn't even remember who she was anymore.
Clutching at the sides of her face in the manner of a madwoman, the young girl ran blindly
across the forest floor. Her feet pounded hollowly and askew in the manner of a flippant
heartbeat, and tendrils of thin dark hair clung to her cheeks and wound about her bony fingers
like weedy black veins. She looked like a mess -- but was at the spite of composure when it
came to what was ripping through her mind.
"Stop!" She wailed. The word was only one syllable, but she stretched it so that it covered
many more. Starting out in a low hiss, she slowly slid her breathless tone into a wail and
screamed as if she were being skinned alive. No one could hear her -- well, no one ever came to
her rescue, anyway. A person could not be saved from herself after all.
She didn't know who she was. Yes, her parents had called her Kei. She had been born in a city
called Jidoa and had been raised there for much of her life. Fifteen years old, if even that.
That was only a small part of the whole, however, for since birth she had known it, the
unavoidable truth:
There was another part of her. Another part entirely. Something that was not Kei.
Kei had been born with the gift of magic. In a world of science and technology this was a
terrible gift to have, and the child worked so very, very hard to hide it. But all was in vain
that fateful morning, the morning that she, having finally fallen mad... was discovered. The
other side of her had grown too difficult for her to contain.
A witch, they'd said. The girl is a witch! She was no longer Kei, child of Jidoa. She was an
object, a thing.
How it infuriated her! Just the thought of it made her feet move faster, her chest huff harder,
her face pinch up under her hands as if it were recoiling in disgust. It wasn't fair! She
hadn't asked for this! What was it, that made one person different than another? What was it,
that gave her this curse!
Her steps carried her west. West was her only hope. Kei did not yet know that she had a
continent to cross, and then an ocean afterwards... It wouldn't have mattered if she did. The
girl had nowhere else to go but west. The other half of her knew this, and Kei learned this
from her other half. She hated it, she trusted it, but she also sensed its apprehension in
going this way. She sensed its fear.
"I'll get you for this." She hissed. She had run only fifteen minutes, but this was in a sprint
and she was beginning to feel dizzy. Her hands dropped away from her face and clutched at the
trees as she passed them, as if touch would steal a touch of their life for herself. It didn't
seem to work. Still she tired, and with a mask of her matted and tear-soaked hair she ran on.
"I'll get you." Kei said.
"You already have me," Rattled her other half.
"I want you -out-," Kei said.
"I'll bring you with me."
And, just as that voice snapped its retort in her head her feet strangled themselves in some
foliage and tore away. A moment of silent panic hit her, slowed her so that she was fully aware
that she was falling. In half of an instant she was down, cracking her chin on a fallen log and
shredding her hands up the palms, having the breath knock back from her belly and ram its fist
into her spine.
Sobbing and choking on her sobs, Kei lie there for a moment, stunned. She knew that she was
going to die, perhaps not now but soon, and the eternity that it took her to get her lungs
un-collapsed was a bitter reminder of this. Throughout this entire ordeal she could feel the
smug knowingness of her other half.
"Leave me alone," She sniffled in the ghost of a whisper.
"Stand up."
"Stand up."
"Stand -up-!"
Kei let out a strangled cry and submitted enough to get herself into a seated position. Her
hands were beginning to burn, and the inky dirt that had gotten warped into her flesh accented
the redness of her blood. It hurt, it hurt so very much. Why was it that a witch... Oh, how the
word burned at her mind!...had to feel pain, too? Atop of everything else, why did she have to
hurt?!
"Get up." Her other half said.
"Why?" Kei asked bitterly. "Why bother?"
"They're after you."
"Let them come after me."
"They'll kill you."
Kei knew that she was already dead. It wasn't like she stood a chance here, in this life. It
was inevitable. However, the prospect of her family, her friends... people she had known and
loved... hunting her down like this was miserable. Even her own father, terrified by the
prospect that she could do her family harm, had jabbed an accusing finger at him after her
Madness came that morning.
The other half of her had finally broken out. It had spoken so that everyone could hear.
"Let them kill me." She said. But Kei had hesitated, and her other half knew it.
It needed not persuade further. The hunting party did that. Kei's head shot up at the sound of
branches cracking and voices. There's her trail, she went this way! Kei recognized the voice as
a man from her village. He had a son; she had played with him frequently. They had gotten close,
although their entire friendship was slaughtered by fear. She had turned to him that morning,
desperate for help, and he had shied away.
"-Run-," Her other half hissed.
Scrambling to her feet, Kei pushed off with a heel before she even gained her balance. Stumbling
over the log and then into a shaky run, she pushed off farther into the forest. This was her
only chance, yes, but it was also her mistake. The hunting party was close. She could hear them,
even with the voice in her head and her ears clogged with her misery. They, of course, could
hear her in turn.
"There she is!" A voice called. Kei could almost feel the dozen of them snap into attention.
Knowing that it was lost, she did not hide the wail from climbing up her throat and out of her
upturned mouth; it filled the air like a pathetic and animalistic shriek. Inhuman.
In plain view now, a figure of white against the dark backdrop of the forest, she knew what was
coming. It did. The first arrow whizzed by her ear, the result of hurried and fearful marksman
ship, and with another uncloaked cry she ducked--long after the shot was fired--and dipped in
another direction. Another arrow pounded into the ground in front of her, and she scurried away
from it at an angle, as if it radiated death itself.
Thus weaving through the unpaved wilderness, she was pursued. They were faster than she was;
more calm, and Kei relied only on her terror to guide her. Her heart pounded in her chest so
hard that it hurt, that it pressed against her lungs and closed them... She managed to gain a
few yards before her vision went out, until she was running with only a few spots of clarity to
peer through like tiny holes in a black shroud.
"Hurry!" Her other half said. "-Move-!"
This was a pointless thing to demand -- this was exactly what Kei was doing. Because of that
statement, Kei knew in the back of her mind that her other half was just as afraid as she was.
And then, suddenly, there was nothing beneath the toes of her right foot. Kei knew that this
time she was not merely tripping over a few vines. Her body, out of her control, kept moving
despite the fact that she screamed for it not to. And then, with a puff, she fell and hit her
chest on the opposite side of a small crevice in the earth. Desperately, wide-eyed, she felt
her weight pull her down into the pit with a rush. Fingernails straining back against the
sinews that held them to her hands, she caught herself dangling just when she thought that it
was hopeless, that she would have fallen and ended it all there.
Not that, of course, she gained any luck.
Clinging to the edge of the hole with her breasts along the rim, she strained to heave herself
fully out of the nature-made trap. However, at her angle she could gain no foothold, and was
not strong enough to rely on her arms alone. It didn't matter, however. She was too late. With
a rush of her fear-induced senses she heard the sound of footsteps coming to an abrupt
halt--even now, with her helpless, they were afraid to venture too close to a witch--and
arrows scraping against quivers. Bowstrings.
The first arrow struck the ground by her hand. The second impaled her above her right shoulder
blade. The third thudded into the center of her back. After that, she lost track of what she
felt and where she felt it.
She was going to die.
"Fall." Her other half said through her lips.
And Kei, knowing that this was the end, released her meager hold on the small crevice lip.
End Part 2/?
To be Continued.