A Brief Intermission: No Place Like Home…
She awoke from her troubled dreams with a cry and a shuddering gasp that jolted her off the edge of her bed, causing her to hit the floor with a resounding thump!
"Oh, hell," she murmured, looking around at the mess she had made of her sheets, "Not again…"
She disentangled herself from her sheets and dragged herself to the bathroom. She hadn't had one of these nightmares in four days; she had thought the tranquilizers her father had all but forced the doctor to prescribe to her were working.
And yet here she was, staggering to the toilet as the last remnant of said drugs dissipated from her system… several hours too early.
She just made it to the toilet before she lost everything that had been in her stomach. The dream always left her with such a feeling of revulsion that she couldn't keep anything down for at least an hour afterwards, not even water, and she knew she wouldn't be sleeping for the rest of the night.
It's back… and it's gotten worse…
"Light…" she mumbled. A plastic container filled with cotton balls that was sitting near the sink started glowing a pure white. With a sigh, she dragged herself to her feet.
Her long, wavy hair was disheveled, and her nightgown was an absolute mess. Her eyes were wide and glassy.
"I look like the human version of a deer in headlights," she muttered with a wry grin that quickly faded into a worried frown. The dream…
Before she had been forced to seek help, the dreams had been horrifying, yes, but they had always faded almost completely from her memory moments after waking, leaving only vague impressions of hands clawing at her or walking for forever in a black void. However, this dream had been so vivid…
A girl stands facing away from her. Her black hair hangs limply at her waist, and she is wearing nothing but a simple white robe that barely reaches her knees. She reaches out blindly and her hands claw the air, trying to touch something, anything at all.
A large black bird flies up. It is an odd bird, with piercing blue eyes and one wing made out of metal, not flesh. "Come, I will lead you," says the bird. The girl reaches out, and the bird lands on her outstretched arm. As it lands, chains made of pink blossoms tie her to the bird, but the girl does not notice.
The girl follows the directions of the bird, until they reach an old, decrepit looking mansion of some sort.
"Go inside," says the bird.
"Must I?" asks the girl in white. "It has a bad feel to it. I'd rather not."
"You have trusted me this far, as you have promised to do. Why doubt now?"
"Very well… I will do as you say." And they enter.
The ancient doors slam shut behind the pair.
"I have been expecting you," says the skeleton standing at the top of the balcony. "Come closer, we have much do discuss."
As she speaks, threads of black energy spread from her fingers and attach themselves to both the girl and the bird, trapping them. The girl starts to walk up the stairs. She turns back to the door, as if unaware of all the chains she has been ensnared in, for her expression isn't terrified or angry, but merely wistful.
She then proceeds forward again. A door at the top of the stairs swings open and darkness pours out of it. The girl looks back one more time with that same wistful expression and a tinge of sorrow in her eyes.
"Come in! Time grows short!"
The girl walks in, and the door slams shut behind her. She knows that the girl and the bird will never come out again, and she wails…
For the girl in white is her elder sister, Vera…
She shuddered again. She then dragged herself to her feet and went back into her room. As she leaves the bathroom, the cotton ball lantern goes out.
"Fire," she mumbled, and the red scented candles that sit on the windowsill lit. Much as she would have loved to turn on the lights and banish every single shadow in the room, she knew that she must not. If her parents were to see it…
"There is nothing wrong with me," she whispered to the night as the shadows in her bedroom flickered and danced. "And there is nothing wrong with Vera. She'll come out of her coma any day now; all the doctors say so…"
Her words rang hollow in her own ears, she knew she was just trying to make herself feel better.
Her eyes lingered on the digital clock that sat on her nightstand.
12:07
It is going to be a very long night indeed.
Abel walked out of his medical class with a grin. It had been the first day working with real cadavers, and two guys and a girl had become sick enough that they had to leave. They were the pansies. Maybe next time we need a sacrifice, we can use one of them…
"Abel."
He whirled, and there was his girlfriend, Mariel, leaning against the wall next to the door. She looked absolutely exhausted, which wasn't surprising. The cops had gone over every inch of her home, trying to find proof of foul play in Vera's… accident. They had found none, so Mariel had been allowed back into her home sometime yesterday.
However, yesterday she had been tired but absolutely confident. They had destroyed all evidence of any crimes committed in the house, and had gotten away with it. Mariel had been on top of the world.
Now she looked like Lucifer was leaning on her shoulder, discussing what he was going to do with her soul once she got to Hell.
"Mariel, baby, what's wrong? You look like Vera's ghost popped up and tried to kill you," Abel said, half joking.
"Don't even kid about that…" Mariel muttered, running a hand through her messy auburn hair. "I need you to come with me to my place. There's something you have to see."
"Mariel…. I have another class in thirty minutes."
"So skip it," she insisted. There was a frantic light in her gray eyes that told Abel that Mariel wanted him to come over for a serious reason, not just to fool around with magic or have sex.
"Can't you just tell me what's going on?" he asked softly, putting a comforting arm on her shoulder.
"No, there are too many people here…" she said, her eyes darting to the small but growing crowd of people who were looking at them with some interest, trying to eavesdrop without being too obvious about it.
"Okay, we can go to your place and then you can tell me what's got you so upset." He put a protective arm around her and walked her out to her car.
And people whispered and the gossips gossiped, and they all wondered why the girl with the red-gold hair had been so upset. People who knew who she was figured that the police had found something after all, that she had done something to the cripple girl that she had been friends with.
The real reason was far less mundane and a great deal more dangerous.
Mariel led Abel into her basement. There was nothing out of the ordinary that he could see, although the room did have a heavy feel of magic to it, more so than usual. However, considering the fact that they had performed an incredibly powerful banishing spell there just two weeks earlier, perhaps that was to be expect.
"Mariel, all I see is the basement, which I see every Saturday. Why am I missing Psychology II… which I am having problems with, as you know… to see your basement?"
"Use the Sight," Mariel said simply. Abel looked at her like she was daft. Using the Sight would allow him to see the remnants of spells (and the circles used to cast them), but they used Mariel's basement to perform magic so often that the possibility of seeing anything specific was next to nil. "Just do it!" she hissed at him.
"Alright, alright, if it will put your doubts to rest…" he sighed, and mumbled the words required to activate it.
And he gasped.
On the floor, the circle they had used to banish Vera was quite clearly outlined, and it flickered many colors, usually red and white for the most part, but also turquoise, green, blue, and black. Spells that had run their course always… always!... faded into gold, gray, or pale pink, and stayed one color. They did not flicker like that.
Nor did they emit a steady column of light that rose up to heaven (as far as he could tell) that could only be seen with the Sight
This wasn't what bothered him the most though. What bothered him was a single rune that pulsed between red and black that lay in the heart of the hexagram… a rune that had most certainly NOT been included in the original design.
The double-fishhook. Yr.
The rune symbol for death.
"We need to get out of here," Abel said, his throat constricting. "I need to call… Daphne and Raven and Riven and… no one else. Everyone else can be the scapegoats. God only knows who'll show up to investigate this…"
"You don't mean that. You know what's going to happen. The portal is still open, Abel! Look at the godforsaken rune! Yr! Goddess protect us!"
"That's impossible," he said flatly. "A portal can't stay open for more then a day at most. It would collapse in on itself without a powersourse."
"What if Vera's the powersource?"
"Then we'd all be dead by now," he said coldly. "Gather your things. I'll make the phone calls. I want the two of us to be in Canada by Friday at the latest. I don't give a shit about what everyone else decides to do."
Mariel nodded and rushed upstairs. Abel collapsed and fell to his knees. Only then did he notice the spell components that had been kicked haphazardly beneath the altar, along with a spellbook.
Abel got to his feet and walked over to it, picking it up and opening it to the marked page…
Dispelling of Harmful or Uncontrollable Magicks… the title of the spell read.
A grimace marred his handsome features. The spell was simple enough, more than simple enough for Mariel to have cast on her own.
Clearly it didn't work…
He put the book back where he found it and sighed. A portal that refused to be closed. Yr on the ground where no one had traced it. Unless…
Unless one of the people investigating Vera is able to use magic…
Abel tried to shove that unpleasant thought out of his head. It was going to be a long day, and he had nothing to look forward to but three rather unpleasant phone calls to make and a long car trip with a terrified woman. Joy.
Okay, don't kill me. This sort of just popped into my head. I know these little snippets seem like they have nothing to do with the story, but don't just gloss over them, they will be important later on. And I sort of have writer's block on the 'real' chapter two... don't expect it for a while...
Reveiwer Responses
Wolf from the Hidden Flames: Heh, nice penname. I am glad that you like this story so far.
Katrina Ice Angel of Darkness: Eheh, I was kinda worried about what people would think of the last chapter, I'm glad you found Kalas to be believable. He'll be more like he is in the game in the next chapter
Luna-Starr: Yes, it IS rather depressing. You were all warned…
205780: Actually, considering that English seems to be your second language, you're not too bad. At least you have an EXCUSE, unlike SOME of the people on this sight. (takes a moment to shudder at the people who are allergic to things like grammar rules and spell-check) I'm American, and I find the language to be difficult from time to time. Much tough it galls me to admit it, if my mom weren't an English major, I doubt my writing would be this good. She got me into books at an early age, so I just got used to seeing things written on a page spelled right and grammatically correct.
Wow, look at me ramble. I think my original point was that if you just keep practicing, you'll get better.
(blinks. Looks at page.) Pointless rambling… I am starting to sound like… MY MOTHER! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo… (breath) OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo (breath) oooooooooooooooooooooo! (dies)
(bursts into flame and rises from own ashes)
Well, I'm done. Please review…