CHAPTER 5

Lili clung to Raz's arm as they trekked further through the GPC. A light snowfall had begun, and the white flakes had already formed a fine dust over the ground. The trees' once leafy branches were cold, brittle, and utterly dead, rattling as the winds pasted between them.

"I'm running out of ideas," Raz sighed. "It seems like anywhere we go, it can go. It can follow our scent if we turn invisible. It knows how to use the underground transit system. It has psychic powers, which it will undoubtedly use next time it sees us. Maybe we should stop running. For all we know it's dragging this conflict out. Maybe if we fight it, we can figure out a way to kill it…"

Lili didn't respond. She new he was thinking aloud to himself rather than actually talking to her. The temperature was dropping with the dwindling day, and the snowfall was increasing significantly.

Suddenly, from behind them, a dreaded sound filled their ears. Something—and they both knew very well what—was only a short distance behind them. The creature was stalking them, but obviously very clumsily; it wasn't approaching them silently as usual, but actually making a great deal of noise, as if it were stepping on every dried twig possible.

As if it wanted them to know their death was only seconds away.

"Looks like we don't have to run anymore," Lili said, already beginning to concentrate.

"Let's end this," Raz responded grimly.

A blur of movement surged towards them, launching itself from a pocket of shadows between two massive black trees. Raz and Lili both jumped to each side to avoid the attack and sprung up to launch their own assault…

…but the creature was gone again, concealed in the shadows, making even more noise. Suddenly, Raz felt four clawed hands slam into his chest, although he couldn't see his attacker. The impact sent him sliding backwards through the snow, watching the creature slowly appear.

"Invisibility," Raz mused. "It was using invisibility."

Lili fired aggression blasts at it, blowing huge clumps of scales off its massive upper chest. The creature swiveled its head on its serpentine neck, and switched its attack to her. It planted two of its four arms on her shoulders, using its other two to smack into her neck, sending her deep into unconsciousness.

Finally gaining a purchase in the slippery snow, Raz sprung up and fired off a powerful aggression blast. The creature looked at Raz, then to the powder drifting up from its shattered scales, then back to Raz. Something seemed to click in its mind.

With a screech that sounded oddly triumphant, it tore scales off its chest with its only arm that wasn't holding Lili captive and flung them at Raz. They impacted with his body and shattered, spraying their contents all over him.

Raz felt an overpowering dizziness and staggered heavily, his limbs turning unbearably heavy. He went down on one knee, his entire body starting to go rigid. His senses were muddling, swirling into a blackness unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

Suddenly, he wasn't in the wilderness anymore. He was lying on his back in wet grass in front of a series of caravans. Lighting cracked brightly overhead, and huge torrents of rain were splashing down. Sitting up, he looked at his hands and realized that he seemed to be back in his ten year old body.

A voice was calling out to him. It was strangely distorted, but slowly became coherent. More voices joined it, laughing and jeering.

"Hey, look," laughed a very deep, malice-ridden voice, "It's the circus freak."

Raz scrambled backwards furiously, trying to get away from those people. "No, no, no," he whispered to himself. "Not back here. Not now."

A second voice chimed in, this one strangely high-pitched and equally annoying. "Yer daddy says psychics are good for nothing. Suppose he won't mind if we take one problem off his hands?"

The group moved closer, and Raz studied them, hoping desperately that something wouldn't match up. But it did. His past was somehow repeating itself, one of his most painful memories was about to be relived. The mob approaching was pulling out cruel weapons, most of them clubs, a rare few dotted with bent nails or spikes.

Raz stood up to run, but they were bigger, and sadly, faster. As soon as he stood up, they surrounded him, one of them shoving him back to the ground and raising his weapon above his head. Raz held up his hands, as if it would somehow block off the attack…

Horrible sounds of impacts punctuated the downpour of the rain, drowned out occasionally by a huge blast of thunder. Lighting strikes lit up the scene ominously, the most basic silhouettes viewable, swinging their weapons over and over again.

The rain-soaked grass around the mob's feet began to become stained red. Suddenly, they all stopped their vicious attack and stepped back, as if admiring their handiwork.

"That'll do, boys," the deep-voiced man grunted. "Leave him to rot."

The group laughed quietly amongst themselves, dispersing into the night. They revealed Raz, lying on his back, his body a mass of cuts, bruises, and blood. It trickled steadily from his mouth, pooled around his body. His goggles were cracked, his black jacket torn and stained a dark crimson. He wasn't breathing so much as panting; each ragged breath horribly pain-filled. His breaths slowly began to subside, as it was obvious his body was slowly losing the fight for survival.

Circus freak…

The creature rested on its haunches again, once again showing its rare, intellectual side. It watched the human in front of it, watched as its breathing became rapid and it broke out into a sweat. It would have smiled maliciously if it had lips.

Gave me quite a bit of trouble, these two did, it thought. But I can take care of the girl easily once she has served her purpose. And him… he will succumb to his memories before the day is new.

The creature stood up, and the connection it had with Raz was severed, leaving him to his own nightmares. It had enjoyed seeing the thing the human feared most actually occur, but it had another agenda.

Such a pity, it thought. To come from a resentful family, and to be the victim of such abuse. Maybe seeing his son half-dead is what caused the father to be more considerate, to help him undo The Untanglement. Still, I wonder why he ever put up with it in the first… I only wish I could see how he survived.

The creature stood up and unfurled its great wings, leaping off into the sky. It was certain that it would have accomplished its goal before the night had ended.

The snow fell heavily, the winds howling so loud that it masked the approaching footsteps. A strange shape approached the near-frozen body of Razputin and lifted it effortlessly.

"This is not to be your resting place," a strange, obviously inhuman voice said, its voice carrying a great, untamed power to it. "But you are welcome to stay… anyways."