Title: Forever More
Author: Me and me and me.........
Authors Note: I've seen so many other people put up 'Authors Note' but
shouldn't there be an apostrophe between the r and the s? Oh well.
Just a random little thing. I just got a new computer so I've had to
save everything from various floppy disks which I have lost and then
found onto the new comp. Sorry for the delay. I always have a tendency
of not finishing my stories but I swear I shall try as hard as I
possibly can to keep this one alive.
Disclaimer: God I hate disclaimers. Oh well. I don't own King Arthur
or any of those characters that I desperately wish I did. My little
Kera belongs to me though! J. Once again... all hail Frank Thompson.
Chapter 3: ‡Last Farewells‡
The cold wind whipped past Kera as she applied even more
pressure to the gas. The chilly air stung her eyes. Squinting them
until they were mere slits, she tried to focus where she was. Yet, it
was quite hard to concentrate on anything after learning that the one
woman that had been there her entire life, longer than her mother ever
had been, was gone. Shaking her head, she wiped her mind clean. Now
the only thing she needed to direct her attention was on where she was
going.
Along the sidewalks, the streetlights cast a dim circle of
light around them, barely illuminating the trees behind them. Up ahead
of Kera, a stoplight turned yellow then red. Regardless of it, or if
there were any cameras around, she hunched lower over the handlebars
of the 1948 Indian motorcycle. The powerful engine growled loudly
between her knees as she meandered in and out of the few cars around
her. Ducking, though there was no need to, she passed the red light,
leaving everything behind her. It felt good to be back outside, in
touch with her senses. Looking up she saw that the street sign with
the street name on it read bGeorgia Avenue/b on it. Great. She had
no idea where she was.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a small shadow
dart out into the streets in front of her motorcycle. Jerking the
brake handle back with everything she could, she inclined towards the
left. The bike made an uneven half circle and nearly collided with a
stop sign. With a piercing screech, it halted. Looking over her
shoulder, Kera saw a squirrel sitting not ten feet away from her.
Resting on its haunches, its unusual bright green eyes stared back at
her. Its nose twitched slightly and she could have sworn it smiled at
her. Kera froze as her hands quivered on the motorcycle's handlebars.
Slowly getting off the bike, she stood up. For some strange reason,
this squirrel didn't seem at all like what it should be. It was too
bold and fearless, even for a squirrel, for it was so near a human
being. Bending down, she reached out a tentative hand towards the
squirrel's head.
"You okay? Did I um... hit you?" she asked more to herself
than the squirrel.
Suddenly, the squirrel opened its small mouth and let out
a bark that wasn't fit for its size. Snapping her hand back, Kera rose
from her knees quickly and backed away as she witnessed, in awe or
horror or both, at the metamorphism happening before her eyes. The
squirrel's eyes grew steadily larger yet they never lost its intense
stare. Its small ears increased in size as its head did the same. Its
nose pushed out farther away from the head to form a muzzle. The body
changed in shape as the legs became longer and more muscular and
taller. Underneath its black fur coat, a layer of muscle rippled. The
once bushy squirrel tail was replaced by a longer and furrier tail.
Large and sharp teeth bared inside its jowls.
Edging back towards her bike, Kera receded away from the
ebony wolf facing her. Cocking its head to one side, the wolf gave out
another bark as if to say "Follow me" just before turning around and
bounding off at an impossible rapidity down the road.
Kera stood there motionless for a moment, stunned. Then
shaking her head and cursing underneath her breath, Kera jumped back
on the motorcycle and revved the engine back to power. spiraling the
bike back around so that she was traveling in the correct direction,
she hurried in pursuit of the mysterious wolf. The bike gave one noisy
shriek of protest before jumping forward and chasing after the
squirrel or wolf or whatever creature that was. All that was left was
one long, black streak of smoking rubber along the otherwise deserted
street.
Pushing the motorcycle even faster, Kera asked for speeds
that she would have never done before. Yet if she ever wanted to keep
up with the wolf, it was the only thing she could do. She saw the
shadowy figure make a sharp left and she did the same, leaning
dangerously to the left that her knee almost scraped the asphalt.
Every so often she would lose sight of the wolf only to spot him about
a hundred yards ahead of her waiting at the next street intersection.
A pickup truck of teenagers not much older than her (that were
strangely out at this time of day... night) went hysterical with the
horn as Kera flew by.
Throwing wary glances around her, she felt unexpectedly
alone. There was no sound and everything around her seemed so big and
forbidding. She had no one now. Her parents, Joan and Brian, were
never much of a support so with them fussing over the funeral, it
wouldn't be a surprise to the lonesomeness she would feel or already
did. The 8 lane road suddenly didn't feel so big. The tall and willowy
trees that swayed ever so gently on either side of the street seemed
to encroach in on her own personal space. Kera felt like a toy now,
nothing more than a ripple in time.
Her speedometer read 75 miles per hour and rising. Though
what seemed to be fast, she knew that she didn't stand a chance
against keeping up with the wolf if she didn't hurry. The wolf now
just a quarter in the horizon turned its head and let out a long howl.
The streetlights brightened magically as she passed them then reduced
to faint glows as they disappeared behind her. They seemed to form a
one way road that the wolf was forming and leading. The blackness
chased at her from behind, urging her forward. Wrenching the throttle
as far as it would go, Kera hunched even lower over her bike.
After several moments, Kera saw that the wolf was nowhere
to be seen. Now frantic, she slowed the bike considerably and made a
large circle in the road searching anxiously for her guide. Another
bark rang out clear. Snapping her head around, she spotted the wolf at
the edge of the trees. It lifted up one great paw and pointed it into
the woods then galloped off into them.
"Oh crap," Kera said.
Making a small loop, she said a quick prayer in hope that
she would see morning before scanning around to see if there was any
other way to go around the woods. Lucky for her, there weren't. The
wolf let out a bark ahead of her, telling her to hurry up. Kera made
her decision.
In a scream of rubber and sparks, she leaned fiercely to
her right and swerved off the road. A small ditch separated the road
from the trees and the motorcycle's tires hit the bottom in a cloud of
gravel and dirt. Struggling to keep her balance, she gritted her
teeth. In order to get up the steep gully side, Kera powered the bike
forward as it fish-tailed erratically up the rise. Clawing at the
loose earth, the wheels spun wildly in effort. The once powerful
engine now whimpered pitifully as Kera forced it to its limit. She
urged it on, hoping it wouldn't stall.
Finally, the bike broke over the ridge of the hill and
into the trees. If it hadn't been all those times she had ridden on
the back of this very bike with her brother on the busy and more
hazardous freeway, she would have crashed into the trees no doubt.
Weaving in and out of them, she would occasionally go over rough
ground or a root jutting out from the ground and nearly fall off. But
only her shear determination to catch the wolf kept her from
completely failing. The headlights shined brightly, sending a vivid
beam of light ahead, catching the wolf's figure in its illumination.
Her motorcycle suddenly felt faster as the trees zipped
past on the left and right. Everything seemed to blur away as Kera's
eyes narrowed in on the wolf. She knew she should feel some sort of
panic or fear, but she didn't. She knew exactly where the wolf was
going. Narrowly missing an accident, she swerved left, then right, and
opened up the throttle. Now the speedometer read 80 mph.
iJust a little farther/i, she thought.
The bike lurched across the ground and all of a sudden, they were in
the clear. The forest receded and opened up to the empty main streets
once more. Making a hurried right, she turned off the street into a
parking lot. Approaching the main building at near 90 miles per hour,
Kera killed the engine at the last moment. Swinging her right leg over
the bike, she jumped off bike. Wincing, she heard the bike slid into
the SUV next to it.
SUVs were never really all that good cars to begin with, she thought
to herself.
The sound of metal scraping against metal still rang through her head
as she jogged up the sidewalk. Ahead, she saw the black wolf slip past
the automatic doors and into the hospital.
Entering the building, white dots swam before her eyes as she was
confronted with the harsh and not to mention bright lighting of the
hospital. Walking up to the receptionist desk she placed a hand on the
desk. Leaning over, she tried to catch her breath.
"Is there anything I can do to help you?" a nasal voice asked.
Lifting her head tiredly, Kera saw a blonde haired woman peer over the
wall of her desk. On her name tag it read: /b. She was
chewing gum the way a llama chewed on grass; her mouth hanging open to
reveal pearly whites. Held loosely between her fingers was a nail
filer.
"Uh yeah... could you tell me which floor—"Kera started when she saw a
large bushy tail disappearing down the hall. "Never mind."
Rounding the corner, she saw the elevator doors closing. Screaming
through clenched teeth she ran up and pushed the up button.
"Open up!!!!!!!" she yelled hammering her fists against the door.
Looking up she saw that the elevator had stopped on floor 4. A soft
/i brought her back to her senses as she entered the other
unoccupied elevator.
Stepping out on floor number 4, her shoulders immediately stiffened
and her hands curled up into fists. She didn't need the wolf to help
her find her grandmother. In the makeshift room directly ahead of her
laid a small, frail figure in the hospital bed. Walking towards the
bed, her steps became less and less sure. Tears flooded to her eyes
and she was choking back sobs even before she fell to her knees by her
grandma.
The petite woman lying on the bed had a small face. Everything about
her seemed small. Her cheekbones were well defined and led to a round
yet bony nose. Wrinkles creased across her forehead and surrounded her
little to no eyebrows. The only thing that stood out from her soft
features was her lips. Though little and straight, they always seemed
pursed in a hidden laugh like she knew something you didn't. Even now,
she had a sassy look to her. Frizzy white hair coiled around her
yielding face, like the bouncy ringlets little girls had. Both her
hands rested above the strangely messy sheets and Kera took them in
hers. They were cold.
"Grandmama..." she whispered through snuffles, "I miss you already..."
Her voice cracked as she rested her head on the edge of the bed. Her
tears fell from her eyes and splashed onto the cold floor beneath her.
Soon, there was a small enough puddle to be noticed. Getting up, she
asked around until she found the nearest bathroom which happened only
to be not three rooms away. Closing the door not all the way behind
her she went up to the sink. Looking hard into mirror above it, she
saw that her eyes were now incredibly puffy. Her nose was red and
overall she felt like throwing up. So... naturally... she didn't deny her
body what she felt like doing.
Getting down on her knees, she held the rim of the toilet and retched
up last night's dinner. Her back heaved as the contents spilled from
her mouth. Several times she gagged and tried to stop but the taste
was to disgusting and she gave in. Coughing up the last remains, she
got up. Grabbing a paper towel, she found herself standing once again
in front of the mirror. Wiping her mouth, she threw away the towel.
Pushing her dark hair away from her face she caught it in a ponytail.
Baring her neck, she saw the gold chain which she had always worn
beneath her shirt.
It had been given to her as a birthday present for her 8th birthday
from her grandma. The necklace was from pure rose gold and it had a
small dangling pendant of some intricate, Celtic horse rearing up made
of onyx. Kera had rarely worn it before until the day she found it
missing from her dresser top when she was ten. She searched almost the
entire day for it, asking her mother to drive her back and forth from
friend's houses to school, home, and back to friend's houses. When she
finally found it behind the toilet she had sworn to wear it every
single day from then, just so it wouldn't get lost again.
Fingering the pendant, it was when she caught a glimpse of something
in the mirror. Leaning over the sink, she watched as someone passed in
front of the not completely closed bathroom door and stop right
outside it.
Edging along the wall, she pressed her ear against the door lightly.
There were now two people standing outside her door.
"I searched everywhere on that woman. She doesn't have it!" a first
voice said. Man no doubt.
"Are you sure you checked everywhere? We can't leave without it you
know. Father-- Cerdic won't be happy at all about it." A second softer
voice answered.
"Positive! You don't know how long it took for me to even get near
that crazy bitch though. The nurses wouldn't let me see her in
private. Just had to say I was her friggen son and that got then
running. She was so delusional she couldn't even remember who I was.
Strokes can do that to ya. Not that I'd know but you know..."
"Yea. Yea. Get on with it." The second voice said with a hint of
irritation.
"I'm getting there. I tried to see if she was wearing it around her
neck, but when I tried, she kept clawing at my face. See this?"
A short silence.
"Got that from her! Got me right on the arm too. Well... you see what
happened next wasn't meant. She had her purse with her and I thought
'Hey! Maybe it's in there. Necklace. Pure. See my point? So when I
tried to look inside it, the woman grabbed my shirt and started
screaming at me. Nonsense of course. Something on the line of ' You'll
never get her for she has the brains and the determination that you'll
never have.' Kind old woman she is. No idea what she was talking
about. So while protecting myself I unhooked some wires. Long beep...
and she's dead."
There was a sharp slapping noise.
"What'd you do that for!" the first man asked pitifully.
"You killed her! Someone's going to get suspicious now! That wasn't
part of the plan. And definitely as hell not a part of Cerdic's
command."
"Sorry......"
A longer silence.
"Well, we really must be off. Cerdic doesn't like being kept waiting.
We'll just have to tell him what we found."
Slipping the necklace back underneath her shirt, Kera stepped quickly
to the other side of the door so she could see out the slight gap. The
two men's back were facing her. The taller one had a long blue-black
cape slung over his shoulder. Under one of his arms, he held a helmet.
Helmet?! He looked like he had dressed up for a costume party or one
of those parties where you dress up as whatever fetish you had. Toga
party or something. Placing a tentative hand on the door knob, Kera
steadied herself. The shorter man turned slightly around to face
Kera's grandmother's hospital room.
Kera almost fainted then and there.
It was her uncle.
Though she hadn't seen her uncle in quite a long time, two years to be
exact, there was no mistaking his boxy face and square jawline. Ever
since her grandma had gone through the first heart surgery, Kera's
mom, Joan, had decided that home wasn't the correct place for grandma
to stay. Since everyone was away during the day, what was to prevent
her from tripping down fourteen steps, and adding hip surgery to the
list? The hardest decision was when she decided to place Grandma Susan
in a group home which was slightly better than a nursing home since
there were only around 8 people living in the same house. But the fact
was that she wasn't home anymore. Uncle Andrew had refused to visit
her there, and if he wasn't going to even say hell or goodbye to his
mother once in a while, it wasn't surprising when he turned his nose
up to paying his share of the monthly group home bill. Around then,
Joan decided that the silent treatment was the only punishment she
could think of for her brother.
With an ugly sneer on his face, Uncle Andrew blew an insincere kiss
towards Grandma Susan.
"Thanks for nothing," he said before adding, "mother."
A growl rumbled low in Kera's throat as she kicked the door open with
everything she had. It slammed right into Andrew's face with a
resonant thump. Grabbing his cheek, he let out a whimper. Lifting his
hand painfully away, Kera was happy to see that a large gash had
formed along his right cheek.
"KERA!" he said, his eyes glinting with fear mixed in with surprise.
"You bastard," she said, her eyes burning with hatred, hands clutched
at her side.
The taller of the two men turned around. He was the one that had the
softer more slicker sounding voice and was actually quite young. His
hair was a dirty blond and his eyes were blue. Actually quite
handsome, he gave her a smirk of approval.
"And she would be..." he asked.
"Niece," Andrew said quickly. "How much did you hear?"
Kera laughed, throwing back her head.
"Everything."
The expression on the oddly dressed man changed immediately. His eyes
grew hard. Without warning, he drew from his side a short dagger. With
the flat side, he brought it hard across his body and slapped it into
Kera's face. Then turning around he pulled Andrew along side him as he
ran down the hall.
Still stunned by the attack, Kera swayed dangerously on her feet. Her
cheek stung like crazy and the blow seemed to have resonated into her
skull like after a loud bell has sounded and the vibration is still
stuck in your head. Shaking her head once or twice, she sprinted down
the hall after the two. Grabbing a hold of the corner wall, she swung
around just to see the two men fling open a storage closet. Yet what
was inside took away Kera's breath for the umpteenth time that day,
and brooms and mops don't do that to a person.
Inside floating about a foot off the ground was something that looked
like a looking glass. Except in the mirror wasn't a reflection but
rather millions of swirling colors that emitted a bright light along
with a slight mist that curled onto the ground and spread out like
swamp fog. Andrew and the other man ran headlong into the radiant
light without hesitation.
Stopping in her tracks, she faltered. Then turning around she ran back
to her grandmother's hospital room. Wrapping her thin arms around the
dead body, she hugged her grandmother one last time.
"I'm doing this for you, grandmamma. I'm doing this for you..."
With that she let go and sprinted back down the hall, crashing into a
nurse and knocking over a cart of medical supplies. Ahead of her was
the storage room still wide open with the strange mirror of light and
colors still waiting just for her. Digging her nails into her palms,
she ran straight for the mirror, never stopping until she had vanished
into it.
Behind her, a form emerged from the shadow of a deserted hall that
branched off from that hall. The wolf's lips turned up in what could
have been either a smile or a ferocious grimace. Sauntering slowly,
its tail held high behind it, it stepped around the fallen medical
supplies Kera had knocked over earlier and into the mirror. As soon as
its tail had gone through, the enchanted mirror shrunk until it was no
more and all that was left was a storage room filled with mops and
brooms.
Authors Note: I'm doneeeeeeeeeeeee. And I did it in one
dayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. YAYYYY. Please r&r and tell me if you like.
Author: Me and me and me.........
Authors Note: I've seen so many other people put up 'Authors Note' but
shouldn't there be an apostrophe between the r and the s? Oh well.
Just a random little thing. I just got a new computer so I've had to
save everything from various floppy disks which I have lost and then
found onto the new comp. Sorry for the delay. I always have a tendency
of not finishing my stories but I swear I shall try as hard as I
possibly can to keep this one alive.
Disclaimer: God I hate disclaimers. Oh well. I don't own King Arthur
or any of those characters that I desperately wish I did. My little
Kera belongs to me though! J. Once again... all hail Frank Thompson.
Chapter 3: ‡Last Farewells‡
The cold wind whipped past Kera as she applied even more
pressure to the gas. The chilly air stung her eyes. Squinting them
until they were mere slits, she tried to focus where she was. Yet, it
was quite hard to concentrate on anything after learning that the one
woman that had been there her entire life, longer than her mother ever
had been, was gone. Shaking her head, she wiped her mind clean. Now
the only thing she needed to direct her attention was on where she was
going.
Along the sidewalks, the streetlights cast a dim circle of
light around them, barely illuminating the trees behind them. Up ahead
of Kera, a stoplight turned yellow then red. Regardless of it, or if
there were any cameras around, she hunched lower over the handlebars
of the 1948 Indian motorcycle. The powerful engine growled loudly
between her knees as she meandered in and out of the few cars around
her. Ducking, though there was no need to, she passed the red light,
leaving everything behind her. It felt good to be back outside, in
touch with her senses. Looking up she saw that the street sign with
the street name on it read bGeorgia Avenue/b on it. Great. She had
no idea where she was.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a small shadow
dart out into the streets in front of her motorcycle. Jerking the
brake handle back with everything she could, she inclined towards the
left. The bike made an uneven half circle and nearly collided with a
stop sign. With a piercing screech, it halted. Looking over her
shoulder, Kera saw a squirrel sitting not ten feet away from her.
Resting on its haunches, its unusual bright green eyes stared back at
her. Its nose twitched slightly and she could have sworn it smiled at
her. Kera froze as her hands quivered on the motorcycle's handlebars.
Slowly getting off the bike, she stood up. For some strange reason,
this squirrel didn't seem at all like what it should be. It was too
bold and fearless, even for a squirrel, for it was so near a human
being. Bending down, she reached out a tentative hand towards the
squirrel's head.
"You okay? Did I um... hit you?" she asked more to herself
than the squirrel.
Suddenly, the squirrel opened its small mouth and let out
a bark that wasn't fit for its size. Snapping her hand back, Kera rose
from her knees quickly and backed away as she witnessed, in awe or
horror or both, at the metamorphism happening before her eyes. The
squirrel's eyes grew steadily larger yet they never lost its intense
stare. Its small ears increased in size as its head did the same. Its
nose pushed out farther away from the head to form a muzzle. The body
changed in shape as the legs became longer and more muscular and
taller. Underneath its black fur coat, a layer of muscle rippled. The
once bushy squirrel tail was replaced by a longer and furrier tail.
Large and sharp teeth bared inside its jowls.
Edging back towards her bike, Kera receded away from the
ebony wolf facing her. Cocking its head to one side, the wolf gave out
another bark as if to say "Follow me" just before turning around and
bounding off at an impossible rapidity down the road.
Kera stood there motionless for a moment, stunned. Then
shaking her head and cursing underneath her breath, Kera jumped back
on the motorcycle and revved the engine back to power. spiraling the
bike back around so that she was traveling in the correct direction,
she hurried in pursuit of the mysterious wolf. The bike gave one noisy
shriek of protest before jumping forward and chasing after the
squirrel or wolf or whatever creature that was. All that was left was
one long, black streak of smoking rubber along the otherwise deserted
street.
Pushing the motorcycle even faster, Kera asked for speeds
that she would have never done before. Yet if she ever wanted to keep
up with the wolf, it was the only thing she could do. She saw the
shadowy figure make a sharp left and she did the same, leaning
dangerously to the left that her knee almost scraped the asphalt.
Every so often she would lose sight of the wolf only to spot him about
a hundred yards ahead of her waiting at the next street intersection.
A pickup truck of teenagers not much older than her (that were
strangely out at this time of day... night) went hysterical with the
horn as Kera flew by.
Throwing wary glances around her, she felt unexpectedly
alone. There was no sound and everything around her seemed so big and
forbidding. She had no one now. Her parents, Joan and Brian, were
never much of a support so with them fussing over the funeral, it
wouldn't be a surprise to the lonesomeness she would feel or already
did. The 8 lane road suddenly didn't feel so big. The tall and willowy
trees that swayed ever so gently on either side of the street seemed
to encroach in on her own personal space. Kera felt like a toy now,
nothing more than a ripple in time.
Her speedometer read 75 miles per hour and rising. Though
what seemed to be fast, she knew that she didn't stand a chance
against keeping up with the wolf if she didn't hurry. The wolf now
just a quarter in the horizon turned its head and let out a long howl.
The streetlights brightened magically as she passed them then reduced
to faint glows as they disappeared behind her. They seemed to form a
one way road that the wolf was forming and leading. The blackness
chased at her from behind, urging her forward. Wrenching the throttle
as far as it would go, Kera hunched even lower over her bike.
After several moments, Kera saw that the wolf was nowhere
to be seen. Now frantic, she slowed the bike considerably and made a
large circle in the road searching anxiously for her guide. Another
bark rang out clear. Snapping her head around, she spotted the wolf at
the edge of the trees. It lifted up one great paw and pointed it into
the woods then galloped off into them.
"Oh crap," Kera said.
Making a small loop, she said a quick prayer in hope that
she would see morning before scanning around to see if there was any
other way to go around the woods. Lucky for her, there weren't. The
wolf let out a bark ahead of her, telling her to hurry up. Kera made
her decision.
In a scream of rubber and sparks, she leaned fiercely to
her right and swerved off the road. A small ditch separated the road
from the trees and the motorcycle's tires hit the bottom in a cloud of
gravel and dirt. Struggling to keep her balance, she gritted her
teeth. In order to get up the steep gully side, Kera powered the bike
forward as it fish-tailed erratically up the rise. Clawing at the
loose earth, the wheels spun wildly in effort. The once powerful
engine now whimpered pitifully as Kera forced it to its limit. She
urged it on, hoping it wouldn't stall.
Finally, the bike broke over the ridge of the hill and
into the trees. If it hadn't been all those times she had ridden on
the back of this very bike with her brother on the busy and more
hazardous freeway, she would have crashed into the trees no doubt.
Weaving in and out of them, she would occasionally go over rough
ground or a root jutting out from the ground and nearly fall off. But
only her shear determination to catch the wolf kept her from
completely failing. The headlights shined brightly, sending a vivid
beam of light ahead, catching the wolf's figure in its illumination.
Her motorcycle suddenly felt faster as the trees zipped
past on the left and right. Everything seemed to blur away as Kera's
eyes narrowed in on the wolf. She knew she should feel some sort of
panic or fear, but she didn't. She knew exactly where the wolf was
going. Narrowly missing an accident, she swerved left, then right, and
opened up the throttle. Now the speedometer read 80 mph.
iJust a little farther/i, she thought.
The bike lurched across the ground and all of a sudden, they were in
the clear. The forest receded and opened up to the empty main streets
once more. Making a hurried right, she turned off the street into a
parking lot. Approaching the main building at near 90 miles per hour,
Kera killed the engine at the last moment. Swinging her right leg over
the bike, she jumped off bike. Wincing, she heard the bike slid into
the SUV next to it.
SUVs were never really all that good cars to begin with, she thought
to herself.
The sound of metal scraping against metal still rang through her head
as she jogged up the sidewalk. Ahead, she saw the black wolf slip past
the automatic doors and into the hospital.
Entering the building, white dots swam before her eyes as she was
confronted with the harsh and not to mention bright lighting of the
hospital. Walking up to the receptionist desk she placed a hand on the
desk. Leaning over, she tried to catch her breath.
"Is there anything I can do to help you?" a nasal voice asked.
Lifting her head tiredly, Kera saw a blonde haired woman peer over the
wall of her desk. On her name tag it read: /b. She was
chewing gum the way a llama chewed on grass; her mouth hanging open to
reveal pearly whites. Held loosely between her fingers was a nail
filer.
"Uh yeah... could you tell me which floor—"Kera started when she saw a
large bushy tail disappearing down the hall. "Never mind."
Rounding the corner, she saw the elevator doors closing. Screaming
through clenched teeth she ran up and pushed the up button.
"Open up!!!!!!!" she yelled hammering her fists against the door.
Looking up she saw that the elevator had stopped on floor 4. A soft
/i brought her back to her senses as she entered the other
unoccupied elevator.
Stepping out on floor number 4, her shoulders immediately stiffened
and her hands curled up into fists. She didn't need the wolf to help
her find her grandmother. In the makeshift room directly ahead of her
laid a small, frail figure in the hospital bed. Walking towards the
bed, her steps became less and less sure. Tears flooded to her eyes
and she was choking back sobs even before she fell to her knees by her
grandma.
The petite woman lying on the bed had a small face. Everything about
her seemed small. Her cheekbones were well defined and led to a round
yet bony nose. Wrinkles creased across her forehead and surrounded her
little to no eyebrows. The only thing that stood out from her soft
features was her lips. Though little and straight, they always seemed
pursed in a hidden laugh like she knew something you didn't. Even now,
she had a sassy look to her. Frizzy white hair coiled around her
yielding face, like the bouncy ringlets little girls had. Both her
hands rested above the strangely messy sheets and Kera took them in
hers. They were cold.
"Grandmama..." she whispered through snuffles, "I miss you already..."
Her voice cracked as she rested her head on the edge of the bed. Her
tears fell from her eyes and splashed onto the cold floor beneath her.
Soon, there was a small enough puddle to be noticed. Getting up, she
asked around until she found the nearest bathroom which happened only
to be not three rooms away. Closing the door not all the way behind
her she went up to the sink. Looking hard into mirror above it, she
saw that her eyes were now incredibly puffy. Her nose was red and
overall she felt like throwing up. So... naturally... she didn't deny her
body what she felt like doing.
Getting down on her knees, she held the rim of the toilet and retched
up last night's dinner. Her back heaved as the contents spilled from
her mouth. Several times she gagged and tried to stop but the taste
was to disgusting and she gave in. Coughing up the last remains, she
got up. Grabbing a paper towel, she found herself standing once again
in front of the mirror. Wiping her mouth, she threw away the towel.
Pushing her dark hair away from her face she caught it in a ponytail.
Baring her neck, she saw the gold chain which she had always worn
beneath her shirt.
It had been given to her as a birthday present for her 8th birthday
from her grandma. The necklace was from pure rose gold and it had a
small dangling pendant of some intricate, Celtic horse rearing up made
of onyx. Kera had rarely worn it before until the day she found it
missing from her dresser top when she was ten. She searched almost the
entire day for it, asking her mother to drive her back and forth from
friend's houses to school, home, and back to friend's houses. When she
finally found it behind the toilet she had sworn to wear it every
single day from then, just so it wouldn't get lost again.
Fingering the pendant, it was when she caught a glimpse of something
in the mirror. Leaning over the sink, she watched as someone passed in
front of the not completely closed bathroom door and stop right
outside it.
Edging along the wall, she pressed her ear against the door lightly.
There were now two people standing outside her door.
"I searched everywhere on that woman. She doesn't have it!" a first
voice said. Man no doubt.
"Are you sure you checked everywhere? We can't leave without it you
know. Father-- Cerdic won't be happy at all about it." A second softer
voice answered.
"Positive! You don't know how long it took for me to even get near
that crazy bitch though. The nurses wouldn't let me see her in
private. Just had to say I was her friggen son and that got then
running. She was so delusional she couldn't even remember who I was.
Strokes can do that to ya. Not that I'd know but you know..."
"Yea. Yea. Get on with it." The second voice said with a hint of
irritation.
"I'm getting there. I tried to see if she was wearing it around her
neck, but when I tried, she kept clawing at my face. See this?"
A short silence.
"Got that from her! Got me right on the arm too. Well... you see what
happened next wasn't meant. She had her purse with her and I thought
'Hey! Maybe it's in there. Necklace. Pure. See my point? So when I
tried to look inside it, the woman grabbed my shirt and started
screaming at me. Nonsense of course. Something on the line of ' You'll
never get her for she has the brains and the determination that you'll
never have.' Kind old woman she is. No idea what she was talking
about. So while protecting myself I unhooked some wires. Long beep...
and she's dead."
There was a sharp slapping noise.
"What'd you do that for!" the first man asked pitifully.
"You killed her! Someone's going to get suspicious now! That wasn't
part of the plan. And definitely as hell not a part of Cerdic's
command."
"Sorry......"
A longer silence.
"Well, we really must be off. Cerdic doesn't like being kept waiting.
We'll just have to tell him what we found."
Slipping the necklace back underneath her shirt, Kera stepped quickly
to the other side of the door so she could see out the slight gap. The
two men's back were facing her. The taller one had a long blue-black
cape slung over his shoulder. Under one of his arms, he held a helmet.
Helmet?! He looked like he had dressed up for a costume party or one
of those parties where you dress up as whatever fetish you had. Toga
party or something. Placing a tentative hand on the door knob, Kera
steadied herself. The shorter man turned slightly around to face
Kera's grandmother's hospital room.
Kera almost fainted then and there.
It was her uncle.
Though she hadn't seen her uncle in quite a long time, two years to be
exact, there was no mistaking his boxy face and square jawline. Ever
since her grandma had gone through the first heart surgery, Kera's
mom, Joan, had decided that home wasn't the correct place for grandma
to stay. Since everyone was away during the day, what was to prevent
her from tripping down fourteen steps, and adding hip surgery to the
list? The hardest decision was when she decided to place Grandma Susan
in a group home which was slightly better than a nursing home since
there were only around 8 people living in the same house. But the fact
was that she wasn't home anymore. Uncle Andrew had refused to visit
her there, and if he wasn't going to even say hell or goodbye to his
mother once in a while, it wasn't surprising when he turned his nose
up to paying his share of the monthly group home bill. Around then,
Joan decided that the silent treatment was the only punishment she
could think of for her brother.
With an ugly sneer on his face, Uncle Andrew blew an insincere kiss
towards Grandma Susan.
"Thanks for nothing," he said before adding, "mother."
A growl rumbled low in Kera's throat as she kicked the door open with
everything she had. It slammed right into Andrew's face with a
resonant thump. Grabbing his cheek, he let out a whimper. Lifting his
hand painfully away, Kera was happy to see that a large gash had
formed along his right cheek.
"KERA!" he said, his eyes glinting with fear mixed in with surprise.
"You bastard," she said, her eyes burning with hatred, hands clutched
at her side.
The taller of the two men turned around. He was the one that had the
softer more slicker sounding voice and was actually quite young. His
hair was a dirty blond and his eyes were blue. Actually quite
handsome, he gave her a smirk of approval.
"And she would be..." he asked.
"Niece," Andrew said quickly. "How much did you hear?"
Kera laughed, throwing back her head.
"Everything."
The expression on the oddly dressed man changed immediately. His eyes
grew hard. Without warning, he drew from his side a short dagger. With
the flat side, he brought it hard across his body and slapped it into
Kera's face. Then turning around he pulled Andrew along side him as he
ran down the hall.
Still stunned by the attack, Kera swayed dangerously on her feet. Her
cheek stung like crazy and the blow seemed to have resonated into her
skull like after a loud bell has sounded and the vibration is still
stuck in your head. Shaking her head once or twice, she sprinted down
the hall after the two. Grabbing a hold of the corner wall, she swung
around just to see the two men fling open a storage closet. Yet what
was inside took away Kera's breath for the umpteenth time that day,
and brooms and mops don't do that to a person.
Inside floating about a foot off the ground was something that looked
like a looking glass. Except in the mirror wasn't a reflection but
rather millions of swirling colors that emitted a bright light along
with a slight mist that curled onto the ground and spread out like
swamp fog. Andrew and the other man ran headlong into the radiant
light without hesitation.
Stopping in her tracks, she faltered. Then turning around she ran back
to her grandmother's hospital room. Wrapping her thin arms around the
dead body, she hugged her grandmother one last time.
"I'm doing this for you, grandmamma. I'm doing this for you..."
With that she let go and sprinted back down the hall, crashing into a
nurse and knocking over a cart of medical supplies. Ahead of her was
the storage room still wide open with the strange mirror of light and
colors still waiting just for her. Digging her nails into her palms,
she ran straight for the mirror, never stopping until she had vanished
into it.
Behind her, a form emerged from the shadow of a deserted hall that
branched off from that hall. The wolf's lips turned up in what could
have been either a smile or a ferocious grimace. Sauntering slowly,
its tail held high behind it, it stepped around the fallen medical
supplies Kera had knocked over earlier and into the mirror. As soon as
its tail had gone through, the enchanted mirror shrunk until it was no
more and all that was left was a storage room filled with mops and
brooms.
Authors Note: I'm doneeeeeeeeeeeee. And I did it in one
dayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. YAYYYY. Please r&r and tell me if you like.