Hi all! Been a few days since I last updated, but before I do I just wanna thank each and every one of you for reviewing! Run away now if allergic to any of the following:1) Bears 2) Animal fur in general 3) Hugging.
iHUGtrees - Yes, come to the hannahthewriter all-natural shopping plaza, cliffies a speciality!
Shakia - Awww, thanks! :blush: I thought it'd be a good idea to put it here in case I lose my disc again, but I'm glad you think it's awesome.
Ria Erif - Dialogue is a wonderful thing, I agree. Er... sorry that what happens to Harper is not very pleasant. I can't help it! It's an affliction!
gotmilk - "HOLY DECAPITATION, BATMAN!" lmao! Bobby is a weird dude in general, but since I had Gerentex I couldn't resist dragging in another old friend too.
Darkside Alexis - Maybe we will get a Harper sighting sometime soon, or maybe not! But come on! Ghosts are supposed to go peeking at people in showers! It's like the law!
Jevvica - Come on, ya gotta love the dead Harper! You know you like it really, dinnae deny it! Hehe coudln't help myself with the MCR reference. I was listening to Thank You For the Venom when I was writing.
Vinya - LOL, your idea made a little more sense, but I wrote this fic a looong time ago. Um... too late to go back and change it? Oh well. :Continues to think of plot twists for TFP3:
Maikafuiniel - Phew! Did I spell that right? Cool name! Ramblings are always cool (and I am guilty of being a rambler myself). I love reviews that ramble!
deranged black kitten of doom - Hehe it may be I don't get too many reviews becuse the story is crap...or 'cause the summary is crap. Maybe I should put "HARPER DIES, HARPER DIES!" in big letters. But I get more than enough lovely reviews to keep me happy. Lol, love your Gerentex the Ping Pong Ball idea!
childofGod - :salutes: Update is here! Glad you find the story interesting!
Awohali - I shall, look I think I see an update already! It's just down there! Look! V
Chapter 7
"You might say shes caught between a rock and a hard place
You might say she just cant win
Some just cant recover from a slap in the face
Some just get right up and start all over again."
From The Harder They Fall by John Denver
Andromeda crashed through the last barrier by sheer will, not bothering to decode it. It had taken her approximately five minutes and seven seconds to locate the intrusion and get in. She was late.
Andromeda's hologram flickered into view, and she looked around, immediately catching sight of the entity that had been manipulating the gravity and temperature levels. He was crouched down, one hand effortlessly fiddling around with the controls; the other lifted to his mouth to smother uncontrollable mirth. She stared at him, unable to register what she was seeing, because the intruder was Harper. Not even one of the programs that he had installed designed in his own image, but actually Harper.
'Andromeda?' Dylan's disembodied voice broke in. 'Have you found it yet?'
His voice broke her cover. Harper's arm snapped back and he stood up to look at her. He was just the same, no missing head, no blood, and no fire. He was dressed in the clothes that he had been wearing the last time she had seen him. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He could only mouth the words at her. From what she could tell, it looked like, hi Rom-doll. Then his image flashed and sparked and was gone, and she was left alone, with her mouth hanging open. She shook herself. If she were human, it could have been a figment of her imagination, but she wasn't. Things like this didn't happen to her. After some thought she decided that it must have been a hologram that Harper had left in her system that she had missed when clearing his things out. After all Harper was dead. He couldn't have been deader if he tried; he had been decapitated, then his remains had been turned to ashes. There was no chance of him surviving that.
Some people shuffled loose the mortal coil. Harper had shot off it at a million light-years an hour.
'Damnit!' Harper screamed in frustration as he found himself back in the conduit. He had been so close! He could have literally reached out and touched her electronic arm, but he had instead been dragged away. Perhaps he had fallen victim to his own firewalls; maybe the Andromeda had kicked him out. It didn't matter now, he had had his chance and now it was gone. He would have kicked something if he had had real flesh and bone. As it was, he muttered incoherently for a few minutes. He wasn't ready to have another shot at possessing the Andromeda; if he were alive then he would have been completely exhausted. As it was, his spiritual energy seemed to have been drained away to almost nothing.
After a while, he got back to his feet. Maybe he couldn't get through to the Andromeda, but at least he'd had his fun. He remembered the look on Gerentex's face when he had seen the engineer's little message, and his face split into an evil grin.
He decided that he had come too far to stop now. If he couldn't talk to Andromeda then he'd just have to redouble his efforts. He closed his eyes and thought.
Beka was not smiling.
She tossed and turned in her sleep, a light sheen of sweat slicked across her face. She moaned softly, pawing at her face as though it was covered in cobwebs. Beka was having a nightmare.
she walked down the corridors of the andromeda but they had changed somehow so that they were covered in red dust and then she realised that she wasnt on the andromeda at all it was the cave where harper had died and she was trying to turn back but her feet wouldn't let her and there was a dark shadow behind her and she saw that it was rommie looking at her with accusing eyes go on rommie said and beka didnt want to go on because she knew what she would find but rommie said go on or youll regret it so beka had to go on then beka turned a corner and there was a body slumped against the wall and she recognised it because it was harper she could tell by his clothes but his clothes were covered in blood and she couldn't see his face but she knew he was dead because he wasnt talking to her or trying to comfort her or telling her he loved her
she didnt want to go near didnt want to touch that body but she was being pushed forward against her will and she was sitting next to him and she couldnt stop herself she reached out and grabbed his shoulders and pulled him towards her and his head lolled back so that she could see his face and his eyesockets were empty with blood pouring out of them like they had been pecked out by birds and she screamed and screamed but it didn't stop his mouth opened and blood spat out onto her face from between his teeth and there was blood and gore everywhere pouring from every single pore in his body and then there was a swishing sound that reminded her of the sound she heard in her ears when her daddy pushed her on a swing and she was laughing giddily because she liked being pushed on the swing but her daddy wasnt there it was just harper and then blood spurted from his throat and his head fell forward into her lap and then his body exploded outwards like someone had put a bomb inside his ribcage and his guts were dripping from her face and her clothes and bits of his heart and lungs were in her hair and lumps of charred flesh splattered into her eyes and blinded her and all that was left was red
Beka woke up screaming, bolt upright with the sheets on the floor and her hair in her eyes. She was sobbing helplessly in fear and disgust; she had never had a dream as bad as that before. She could actually feel Harper's still-warm blood and intestines dripping from her skin. Beka couldn't take much more of this. She needed Harper back, and the impossibility of her wish broke her heart into pieces all over again. She couldn't think of anything else. This was more than mourning, this was an obsession. She couldn't let him go, she could only think of his death over and over again and beg to be able to go back and change it. She dropped her head into her hands and cried quietly. Years of trying to be tough, of trying to appear invincible, had taken their toll on her. She didn't make any sound when she was sobbing.
Harper looked at her, equally helpless. He was sitting on the bed, his weightless body making no impression on the sheets, yet he kept one foot on the floor and the sole of his other upturned out of habit, as if worried he might soil the clean, white sheets. He cupped one of his hands around hers, not quite touching it; he didn't need to be reminded of his ectoplasmic state, not right now. He placed the other hand just over her leg, not out of sexual desire but for the need to just be close to her, to offer whatever comfort he could.
He leaned his head close to hers, so that it was almost resting against her temple. They would never be able to touch again, but when he was this close he could at least imagine he could feel the heat of her skin next to his. He closed his eyes and tried to remember everything about her that he had felt when he was alive. He conjured up the feel of her skin, warm and smooth. She had a tiny scar near her hairline where she had stood up too fast and hit her head on the top of her bunk. He felt that too, the tiny flaw making the experience more real for him. It seemed to be having an effect on Beka as well; her breathing had calmed a little and her heart wasn't pumping blood round her overworked body as fast. She was still doing that silent crying, but she had stopped hyperventilating.
He tried to think of something that would have comforted him at a time like this. He went back through time until he was a small child, and remembered his mother singing songs to him at night, when he had nightmares and couldn't get back to sleep. One song had stuck in his head. He had no idea what it was about, because all the songs had been in Irish Gaelic, which was now considered to be a dead language. The young Seamus had spoken only Common, having lived in Boston all his life, but he could recall the sounds, the soft, slightly husky sound of his mother's voice when she was singing. It had made him feel safe, like the monsters in the outside world would never be able to touch him. Now he found the strange words flowing easily from his tongue as he started to sing to Beka.
'Ochoin a ri, 'si mo rhibhinn donn,
Dh 'fhag mi fo mhi-ghean 'us m'inntinn trom!
Gur e a boichead a rinn mo leonadh,
'S cha bhi bed gun mo rhibhin donn.'
Amazingly, he seemed to be getting through to her on a subconscious level. Gradually, her sobs faded away and her tears dried, leaving salty trails down her face.
'Is truagh an drasda nach robh mi 'm bhard
A ghleusadh clarsach 's a sheinneadh dan
'S gu 'n innsinn buadhan
Na maighdinn nasail,
Mu' bheil mo smuaintean gach oidhche 's la.'
She lay her head back on the pillow. Harper pulled away before his hands could pass through her flesh. She eyelids began to droop as though weighed down with lead weights. Harper looked at her sadly, but didn't stop singing.
'Gur boidheach, dualach an cuailean min
A th'air a'ghruagaich a bhuair mo chridh',
Gur binne comhradh
Na guth na smeoraich;
'S tha mise bronach o'n dh'thag i mi.'
Her breathing had slowed down now, so that it was normal again. She was asleep, her eyelids fluttering occasionally but not thrashing about like she had before, with the whites of her eyes showing through. Perhaps she had done it by herself, or perhaps Harper had helped her. It didn't really matter to him as much as he thought it would, as long as she was at peace. He stood up, and then after a moment's thought leaned over and kissed her lightly on the forehead.
'No more bad dreams, babe,' he whispered.
