Chapter Thirty Two
Stacy could only watch helplessly as Tiffany descended into madness. Tiffany had nearly attacked Linda, but she had been scared away by the creature that Quinn had become. What had Sandi called it? A wendigo? Stacy's new senses had shied away from the massive creature. It had reeked of lust, decay, and an ancient hunger. It had been tied to this place for a long time, hundreds of years. She had seen the cloud of phantoms tied to the creature, in much the same way the Snow Woman's victims were tied to her. She had heard of the creatures called Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, but what little she knew about them didn't compare at all to the fiend that had stolen Quinn's body.
Flesh-eating giants. Stacy's mind fumbled with scraps of fairy tales heard as a child, or read. What was that rhyme? "Fie fi fo fum?" Giants that ate children. Monsters that whispered from outside windows, or from dark forests. Even with all that had happened to her, Stacy had a problem with the picture she saw. How much of what was called fairy tales were real? The monster wanted children that was one reason it had picked Quinn, wasn't it? The creature pawing, like a dog picking up a scent, through Quinn's mind shook Stacy. All those children!
Stacy fumbled with her new state, fumbling to use powers she didn't really understand. Still, the Snow Lady was powerful, and she was still a slave to the beast. Why? Tiffany's mention of the Snow Woman's husband came to her. The Snow Woman was cursed, a ghost that killed people lost in snow or storms. But she seemed to have a special hatred for men, luring them away, to die lost and alone. But she could still fall in love, have children, live as a human woman with a husband. Until he broke an unspoken rule, named her as what she was, a ghost, the temptress of the snows.
The mountain where Tiffany said she had met her last mortal husband, Mt. Fuji-yama. Mountain of the Goddess of Fire. Once again, the towering peak rose in her mind. Goddess of Fire? Why would the Snow Woman have ever even gone near a place like that? Wouldn't fire be the worse threat? A soft whisper arose unbidden, wrapped itself around Stacy's motionless body.
To melt her frozen tears, for even the dead must cry.
The quiet words gently, sadly filled Stacy's soul.
Who said that?
Nothing now, nobody that might help you.
Are you the one Tiffany talked to?
Yes, I spoke with your friend. She was very afraid, and I pitied her. She was so young, to have met such a fate. It felt good, to ease her sorrows.
Stacy tried to focus on Sandi, but the strange twisting haze shrouding her last remaining friend was worse than ever. Sandi's bones glowed with dark power, almost like neon black light bulbs. The small flame of Sandi's life was so faint, barely seen. The grey haze twisted, almost like a living thing, hiding Sandi at times from sight. The whirling vortex deep inside her had grown enormously, looking like a gigantic whirlpool. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop looking at it. She could feel the pull, the hypnotic command to throw herself inside it, into the dark . . . door? A door to where? Or was it, from where?
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Jane continued her crawling climb, still feeling the high she had gotten from her encounter with her unknown benefactor. He had called her a "sword."That meant he was using her. Still, at least, it had helped her, was helping her save Daria. Yes, like Prince Charming saving Sleeping Beauty! She wryly pictured Daria's indignation of being the damsel in distress, while Jane came to her rescue. A painting of Daria as Sleeping Beauty, surrounded by Lawndale High faculty as the Seven Dwarves, while Jane rode to the rescue on her white horse.
"I just hope I can tell her that, sometime," Jane thought, "Just focus on that, up the stairs, crawl down the hall to Quinn's room, find Daria, grab her, drag her down the stairs, where the city mayor is waiting to drive us to the hospital. Will I have to see her Dad's body? I really liked Jake. Helen should have been there too. Will I see her? No! Don't think about that! He said, I could still save Daria, "the little wise one." I have to save her, if only to see the expression on her face when she finds out something called her that."
"Am I really crawling in the Milky Way? How? That's an entire freaking galaxy! He called it a river of stars. I've got to remember those colors, those patterns. If I could only paint something holding at least a little bit of what I saw there! If he hadn't told me to close my eyes, I think I would have just crouched there forever."
Then, the crawling Jane abruptly bumped into a wall. The sudden change confused her for a moment, but by felling around with her gloved hands, she discovered she was facing a partially open door, inside of which was a tiled floor. She sighed with relief. She was at the bathroom the sisters used at the head of the stairs. All she had to do was turn to the right, down the hall toward Quinn's and Daria's rooms. Somehow, she was sure she would find Daria at the source of the trouble, at whatever was happening in Quinn's room.
Jane crawled carefully up the wide hall, pushing against the cold, almost liquid pressure which grew stronger and stronger The carpet crunched under her gloved hands, the noise faintly chiming in the hall. Then her hands bumped into something unexpected. Feeling carefully, Jane discovered it was the broken pieces of a door, in a doorway on the right hand side of the hall. She had arrived at Quinn's room. The end of what had ben for her an endless journey startled her, and she hesitated, looking down at the carpet, and slowly, painfully, forced her eyes open again.
A glowing, crystal studded mist blew past her, flowly like water around her arms and legs. Quinn's formerly pink bedroom carpet was a mass of snow so hard it felt like rock. Jane slowly raised her eyes, taking in Quinn's room. The mist dazzled her eyes, shrouding everything, the flashing lights almost blinding her. But she did see two thing. A dimming pillar of snow was fading away, over by the front window that overlooked the street. There was also a tangled huddle of bodies at the foot of Quinn's canopied bed. Jane stared at the pile in dread. Jane knew for sure it was them. She had no doubt it was Daria and her parents. They would have stood together. She had found the Morgendorffers.
Jake laid facing her, a look of pleading on his face, his hand outstretched. His eyes were frozen open, and blood had run down his square chin, contrasting sharply with his white skin. Helen laid across him. Fear and a savage desperation etched her features, her teeth were bared, eyes wide. The frost glinted on their hair and eyelashes.
Daria lay just beyond her parents. Her large black rimmed glass's had fallen to the floor next to her. She was face down, and the shattered piece's of a golf club were on the carpet next to her hand. Her brown hair looked frozen solid, and her face was turned away from Jane. Jane stared at her for what seemed like an eternity. She slowly reached out her trembling hand, then pulled it back, and slowly crawled over to the side Daria was facing.
Daria's face was a pale white, with a fine network of cracks visible. Bright red blood slowly seeped out of them, as well as from her cracked lips. Her eyes, mercifully, were closed. Jane just stared at her. She had been so sure she would get here in time. The warmth in her body suddenly blazed higher, like a well stoke furnace. She felt it twisting inside her, like a serpent of flame, coiling sensuously around her spine. What had that strange voice given her?
She slipped off her glove, and gently touched Daria's cheek. Daria's skin felt brittle, and blood started to seep out there. Daria trembled violently for a moment, let out a small gasp, her eyes fluttered, and then opened, looking directly at Jane. She struggled to speak. Jane put her hand under Daria's head, helping her, but she sank back down again, still staring at Jane's face. Finally, she whispered, "Why? Just tell me, why?" Her eyes closed, and her head rolled limply to the side. Jane felt her cold body grow limp. Jane just held on, staring at her small boned face, before she started crying, hunched over the body of her only friend.
"Jane."
It was the faintest of whispers, so barely heard Jane almost didn't catch it. Daria seemed to grow colder in her arms.
"Jane."
"Who is it! Show yourself!"
Daria's cold body stirred in Jane's hands. As she stared without understanding, Daria's eyes open, and she looked steadily at her friend. But the voice than came from her bleeding lips wasn't Daria's.
"Jane."
It was Helen, her mothers.
"Helen! What the ...!"
"Jane, please be quiet, there isn't much time! Daria's been blasted out of her body, she's wandering, terrified, in the abyss. It's a horrible place! You've got to let go, follow her, and bring her back. I understand a little of what's going on, now, but I can't do much, and I have to find Jake and Quinn, too."
Helen's vibrant voice, dimmed, faded.
"Please, Jane, you're our friend, Jake and I always loved you, for what you gave to Daria that we never could, please, save my daughter. It's all up to you."
"Helen, I don't understand! How do I let go? A trance or something? What do I have to do!"
Daria's lifeless body slumped in Jane's hands, and Jane knew for sure she was dead.
"Daria!"
The scream echoed through the empty house. The bright red blood on Daria's face glowed eerily, almost like a light. The fire in Jane blazed once again, fiercely.
No, it couldn't be that, could it?
What would she do for Daria? How far would she go?
My little amiga, my one true friend.
Please, if anybody is listening, give me strength, give me power! I'll do anything it takes! I'll be your sword, I'll fight your battle, just save my friend. Gaia, Jesus, Buddha, anybody! Please help me save her!
And then a name she didn't know appeared to her, along with a face, a vibrant face of power and glory, far, far more than human. And ironically, far less.
Susa-no-o, also called, "The Impetuous Male. " The rival to his sister, Ama-terasu, the Sun Goddess. His wild nature blazed into the room, his black hair and beard writhing like snakes, hero and villain both to his fellow spirits of the Shinto pantheon. He was the unfettered, uncontrolled male principal of creation itself, balanced only by his sisters feminine power, a power that balanced his wildness.
Jane stared at him.
"I'm your sword: she finally said.
His wildness blazed at her, the vibrant power shaking her.
"My sword, yes, to solve my sins, my mistakes!" His voice shook her slim body like a reed in the wind.
"What do I do, then? How do I save Daria?"
"Taste her life, then ask me for death!"
A life for a life, then, from this most untrustworthy of deities, this shaker of the status quo. Jane sighed, finally understanding Helen's cryptic message. She sighed.
"Alright, let's do it!"
Jane locked her lips to Daria's, her tongue flickering into Daria's mouth, tasting the coldness in it, the blood weeping from Daria's every pore. She heard the quiet rasping as Susa-no-o drew his long sword, and felt the sharp pain as it plunged through her body and Daria's, locking them together in death.
And then she heard, and felt, nothing at all.