Chapter 9
Libra

Indecision

Inquisition

Release me from this hell's reside

Proposition

Opposition

Love and hate, a world's divide

WindWalker

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Sirius awoke from his slumber with a groan, his head feeling full of weight and confusion. The last he could recall was the blinding light after his curious gaze had tried to ascertain what strange transformation had begun within the form of the cat. The images came to him in fits and starts as he arose on tottering feet. Sirius could feel the loss of energy in him, as though a great burst of it had expelled in that moment of brightness and had yet to return. Also within him was something new. What made him beyond the ken of normalcy appeared to have gained a new note, something of which his conscious thoughts still refused to acknowledge to him. His soul in its very deepest reaches held it as a well kept secret among the other facets of himself not ready to be released. An extra burden to his already heavy soul. Sirius wondered at its purpose and whatever he had just done to cause that sense of addition. He felt like a math equation, new symbols and information being added and subtracted to his inner psyche until the final solution was forthcoming.

Sirius groaned again as the headache he now sported pronged the tenuous membrane of his brain. However it also loosened his sense into more coherency and Sirius instead of reaching towards his inner thoughts was brought back to reality. With his optic nerves painfully contracting from the temporary blindness his squinted around. It was the same hallway he had passed out in, the same one the cat had confronted him. Slight difference could be seen though as his eyes gradually adjusted themselves back to their former clearance. The walls sported new additions to the blood and rust, now they held the marks of a great burning, blackened scorch marks spread up to the roof in the immediate surroundings of Sirius. The erratic placed gurney's with the vicinity were also out of place. No longer were they dotted all along the hallway but rather they were in collapsed piles at either ends. It must of taken a incredible force to push them far on either side and Sirius knew without a doubt that what had occurred was ultimately responsible fro the strangeness. What concerned him more though was the lack of any sign of the abysmal creature that had started this. If something had happened to it Sirius was sure he would see residue signs of its corpse. At least a trail or puddle of blood that was of a greater magnitude then the miniscule blotches that were part and parcel of the decor. Sirius assumed it was possible the cat could be alive but somehow he didn't think so. He was alive after all, the cat would have returned to destroy him if it lived, and whatever had happened at the very last had scared the beast beyond imagining.

Sirius tested his aching wings which felt more like they were made of lead then the thin feathering he was used to. They creaked with alarming loudness and Sirius winced from that rather then the expectancy of any pain, which was minimal. Sirius rotated them as best he could, more twinges and creaking accompanying every move. After awhile they felt limber enough for him to attempt to rise above the ground. At first the effort was too much and Sirius resorted to hopping on either foot to gain altitude. It was strange too for he had barely used his wings in the encounter. Eventually after trial and error he managed to ascend high enough that his wings remembered how to work. Looking down from his precarious spot Sirius caught sight of something that gave him pause. An out of place curio was lying on the floor which he had missed from his scan from the floor. In a thankful sigh he landed once more, the relief of pressure from his strained wings a gratifying moment.

Sirius approached with caution, the curio was taking on a lumpy quality from his new position and this inspired memories of the lumps forming on the backs of the walking former employees. Closer now Sirius was able to distinguish the lump as some sort of charred remains. The cat was the first and only thing to spring to mind at that. As he neared it became more and more apparent that it was. A horrifying conclusion arose in his thoughts, that Sirius himself was the cause for the burnt reminders. The now positively identified charred remains of the cat only added to this fearful insight.

Sirius though able to perform feats of the impossible felt slightly sickened that he could have done this. He was not a very social creature in fact he was anything but, yet the possibility that he was able to burn a room, burn a life into a blackened mass turned his stomach. Never despite his short fuse of human nature had he wished to be the cause of such grotesque act of evil. Sirius no longer felt comfortable with the part that refused to show itself before him. It was as though he was made of two people, the one of himself and the other buried in his body. In fact he was not sure of what resided in him was actually him. For all his great age and knowledge and awareness it seemed improbable that he could be, possessed. But that was were his thoughts were leading. The more he tried to deny it the more he appeared to be certain of it. If Sirius was drunk it would be a sobering thought indeed.

A scream echoing in the long hallway, startling Sirius from his internal endeavours. His eyes with their unnatural light flicked down both directions trying to decipher the location of the agonizing call. No one was there so the sound must have occurred nearby. Yet he was not comforted by that for something else took away his attention immediately, almost pausing his heart in its beating. The walls were squirming with life they had not exhibited before, the rust spots were changing shape and sliding beyond their original positions and the blood was weeping down the sides in heavy clotted rivulets. Sirius held his breath in disbelief, knowing full well under that, that in this place is was all too possible. A warning cry developed deep within him but the fear of what it could truly be now stopped him from taking immediate notice.

The walls meanwhile increased their speed of movement and the blood was now pouring out in great gushes. Beneath even the floor was altering, creaking without footstep to cause it to, and swaying like the sea then the stable ground it was meant to be. The warning came again, louder now. Sirius could just about ignore it, and he would have done too with immense will but the tired, weary reflection in it dragged his total attention. The floor shook with superior strength as he considered taking the warning. A feeling of melancholy consumed his entire body then and Sirius with no reason whatsoever wanted to ignore the warning badly, to let whatever was coming to take his life and let that voice slide with him unto death but it would not let him. It shouted now with urgency and Sirius felt the twinges of control sliding from his grasp.

NO! That one word filled out everything and it was by far the most wondrous and scary word that his brain had ever uttered. He would not allow the other to control him, to do what ever it had done to the cat. He had no choice but to heed it or it would take over completely and he did not want that to happen under any circumstances. Sirius arose in a rush of feathers and sped down the long corridor in the opposite direction of where he could sense a dark force. Behind him the scream rose again but with the howls of a siren rather then the pitiful calls of the desperate. Sirius no longer felt the melancholy over him, it had vanished just as suddenly as it occurred, nor did he feel the fear of that other part of him taking control. All he felt now was the fear of what was behind him. Approaching in a relentless pursuit.

The scream now ceased only to arise in a more sinister form, heavy breathing. It struck the back of Sirius's neck in hot flush breathes. Sirius was sure that what trailed behind him was now at his very back. All other worries were void from his mind completely at its presence. All reason had departed too, all that remained was the erroneous fear, in which for his past had never been much more then a minor irritant.

The door finally took a larger role in his sight and what trailed became less in his other senses. Sirius invoked a prayer as the point of safety came to his grasp. Behind the breathing elicited a great roar of anger as its obvious prey came closer to escape. Sirius took that as a signal to increase speed and dove at the door in a last desperate attempt, hoping his lifeline was nearer then the 'thing' that so wanted him.

Something scraped his back with sharp claws and Sirius for that moment thought his life was defunct, his earlier idea of suicide not even a memory then. His burning survival extinct was raging full. Blood marred his vision, oozing across his cornea. Sirius' remembered life flashed before his eyes, then the less frightful sight of wood replaced it.

Sirius crashed into the wall much in the same way he had done in his first trial of phasing. He felt only a little of the impact though as his gaze swivelled around in expectancy of a monstrous creature bearing down on him. All he saw was a closed door and the usual rotting decor. No blood topping floor to ceiling and most definitely no odious beast's jaws widening to consume him.

Sirius sunk to the floor in relief and allowed his spent energy to catch up to him. Further inwards the feeling of smugness tugged at his heart and soul. Sirius growled much like a dog in warning only to hiccup and ruin the point totally. He chose then to ignore it. It still made him feel uneasy even in the aftermath of near death but for all his discomfort and angst it was still a part of him, at least until he found a way to make it not so.

Shadows flickered across the walls catching his avian gaze. Sirius became suddenly apparent of the expired time since last spotting Harry. Sirius barely glanced at his surroundings as he sped through corridor after corridor, an all mighty roar of urgency filling his being. The minutes aged at a slow rate and Sirius began to worry that Harry was no longer within the bounds of the hospital. He searched everywhere he could except the hallway where he had his recent scare and change of perspective. If Harry was there he was more then likely dead, again. The creature or whatever abomination it was, may very well still be there, the if not was not something he wished to delve in deeper to.

Hope faded as he failed to spot the man in any of the places he searched for, desperation gained a foothold in him and that despicable but welcoming sense of melancholy was beginning to rear its ugly head. Life before was ponderous but acceptable, but now it was as though his life held no meaning without the presence and joint experiences of Harry. Contentment of his existence had all but gone since he first alighted in the cursed town. Even the town residents had realized something was amiss, and during the dream time when he had come and when the darkness had wrought itself here, they had left in droves, a mass exodus. Even humanity had baser instincts that they listened too or maybe they knew something which he did not. Spoken in the corners of the bars and held in secrecy at home.

Sirius passed through another door, this time leading into a basement room. It was here with the utmost gratitude and relief that he found the previously elusive Harry, staring quizzically into an open doorway. The man looked apprehensive as he peered into the adjoining room.

Sirius alighted to the nearest surface to catch his breath from the increasing agitation he suffered in his search. It had been looking most likely he would never find the missing man on his travels. He was surprised though as Harry had yet to budged from his position from the open door. The man was clearly looking upon something that disturbed him into stillness.

Sirius watched on with a coveted eye while remaining to be well aware of what lay behind his back. That creature that had almost held his small body in its grasp was forever etched in his thoughts. An eternal forbearance Sirius considered morosely, yet some how more appealing despite its deep inhospitable presence then to the fate Harry had fallen into too and was still living in. Harry slipped into the black with a quiet assurance that almost caught Sirius off guard.

The sparseness of the room Sirius entered brought immediately to mind the journey into and out of the clock tower at the school. A walled up crypt into which he was voluntarily entombing himself in, again.

Harry was set on his goal. Undoubtedly trying to prove the un existence of his earlier hesitancy, Sirius thought. Sirius was not ungrateful though, the wooden room gave him chills that he was allowing himself to fall into death's slumber but then he also thought, almost assuredly knew, that he was trailing into the real town, in which case he wanted to travel no farther. Yet bound by purpose and hidden destiny he was going just the same.

Through the limbo like room Sirius and the man Harry found a long darkened corridor leading deeply to unknown areas. Unlike the upper hallways this one was closed in, no windows, no light, only an indistinct path. Harry's footsteps clanked down upon the grating floor and Sirius noticed movement in response to it. Out from ahead a nurse came into view, quickly to became another fallen corpse at Harry's feet. A second one appeared a little further down and that too was disposed of with the same haste and efficiency.

Only a short distance up the room was completed with a locked gate that encompassed the entire end wall. leaning at its corner was yet another wheelchair bereft of any burden. Harry glided one hand along an armrest, creases of emotion marking his sombre features. Sirius glanced at the offending object, considered the locale and promptly disregarded it's association there. Its reminder of the missing child, where its discovery at the point of the girls vanishing act did not go unnoticed by the bird though. It explained the almost wistful emotion on his prey and left a sour taste in his mouth but nothing more.

The only door in that otherwise cold room lead to another very similar, zombie nurses included. Harry hacked away with even greater proficiency and removed the creatures presence from mind. Doors lined this particular route and Harry on his mission took to exploring them.

Due to luck or something else the first room explored contained a valuable item by Sirius's standards. Held in a hand no longer or if ever innocent of violence of Harry's, was a video. Sirius would not have been impressed if Harry clasped another tablet but this, this was a medium that held far more answers then some inanimate object. Sirius though never having used it still understood how a video worked. What lay upon the reel of tape was bound to have some clue as to what was really going on. Or Sirius hoped so.

Harry pocketed it with little thought and moved on. Sirius caught in the excitement was also disappointed that Harry did not hold it with such high regards.

Out of the room and into another. Only two other doors in the miserable place was unlocked. The first opposite the video room was nothing but a funhouse equivalent. It was devoid of everything but the sound of smashing glass.

The second room was another matter altogether. Harry stood in the doorway and looked upon the contents in a similar fashion in which he had perused the doorway that lead down here. Sirius feeling bold hovered just behind Harry's shoulder, sure he was close enough that his tepid breath warmed the mans shoulder enough to be noticeable, and looked in. A large bed was right in the middle, sheets covered with dots of blood but no blanket. Beside it was a side table and piece of equipment Sirius guessed as an IV something or other. He was a worldly bird but not entirely knowledgeable on more technical things.

Harry stepped in and mumbled words fell from his lips. Sirius did not bother to hear them. Instead he looked at the bedside where Harry was heading to. On it was a key and a picture. It was the picture that held his riveted attention. There under the glass frame was none other then the girl that had been travelling about the town and in which he and Harry had kept coming across. Harry read the namesake in the corner of the picture.

"Alessa..."

No bright spark of understanding came Sirius' way but merely the confused half thoughts of curiosity. Yet again a name was added to the seemingly last members of this ghostly town. They were all misfits in a misfit burg.