Sorry for the wait and thanks to all reviewers, i'll be replying in the next chapter, which will hopefully be up sooner then this one, and you may find some formatting errors here.
Chapter 8: Stumbling in darkness
"There's something I want to show you" – Frank
Donnie watched the scene unfolding before him whilst perched on a nearby streetlight. Logic dictated that he should have fallen to the hard concrete pavement below due to the unbalanced mass, however logic also dictated that he shouldn't be wandering around after his death, and that a misplaced plane engine couldn't destroy all of creation.
Logic was deceptive.
Below him, the commotion caused by the new living receiver almost being run down by a passing BMW was dying out. People were concluding their judgemental gazes and returning to their daily business. Her friend still held her arms as if they would fall off if he let go. She herself just looked exhausted, like she wanted to fall asleep on the pavement and let the world move away from her. Donnie could relate.
He threw himself off the streetlight and onto the pavement, landing in a graceless heap. He didn't feel any pain, and since no one could see him, no one turned to gaze at what would have been yet another seemingly fortuitous defying of death, although this one would have been slightly harder to accept then a girl almost getting run over.
Donnie pushed himself to his feet and moved closer so that he could listen in to whatever would be said. Frank had told him to 'watch and learn' before depositing him here. Donnie guessed that he could probably have made himself hear see or hear what he needed from the streetlight, but it just seemed easier this way.
"Are you alright?" He heard the guy ask, his voice sounded as if he couldn't think of anything more suitable to ask, despite his best efforts.
Kelly, or whatever Frank had said her name was, didn't respond. She just stared blankly at his face as if trying to find something hidden there.
Eventually she shook herself and pushed out a long breath. This was different to what Donnie remembered, during his stint as the living receiver, he had found himself as nothing more then an observer in his own body during the initial stages when Frank decided to intervene. When he had been made to flood the school or burn down Jim Cunningham's house, (an act that still gave him a strange feeling of pride), he had felt like he was dreaming, or watching through someone else's weary eyes.
This girl was, basically, someone who had seen a monster in their bedroom and freaked out. She had been, and would be again, paralysed with fear.
Frank had to know that that would be the result, so why did he need her like this?
"Kelly?" It seemed that the guy, Donnie had long since forgotten his name, had finally removed his hands from Kelly's arms. She seemed to be having trouble standing on her own.
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Kelly could barely stand up, it was all she could do to stare up into Seachnall's face and hope that would be enough to get him to stop asking questions.
It was too much, less then a week ago she'd been a normal, reasonably happy person with friends, family and a healthy loathing for any and all things related to school. Now she was surrounded by unexplainable happenings. A phantom registration plate and a ghost had appeared before her and shot to Hell everything she had come to accept about how the universe worked. (Next to all that, the thought of almost being run over seemed largely unimportant), Her terror had made her three steps beyond exhausted, all she wanted to do was sleep and she couldn't do that here.
Her body had other ideas however. The last traces of energy seemed to vanish from Kelly, her legs gave way and she began to fall backwards.
Seachnall noticed and lunged forward. He managed to get one hand behind her head and one on her back before she hit the concrete. She ended up hanging at an almost 45 degree angle in Seachnall's steadily weakening grip.
He pulled her back to her feet, trying to jerk her into consciousness and strengthen his grip at the same time. Distantly he wondered why she had come out here considering the state she was in.
People were beginning to stare now, no one stopped however, to passers-by this was nothing more then a diversion on their way to wherever. One person asked whether Kelly was all right, Seachnall ignored them, and they carried on as if nothing had happened.
Noticing a number of benches that were clustered around a tree that was sticking out of a small square of soil in the pavement, Seachnall half carried, half ragged Kelly's sleeping form over to an empty one that looked cleaner then most. She mumbled a series of incomprehensible words, the tone of which seemed to show weary protest.
Ignoring further glares from onlookers, Seachnall deposited Kelly's sleeping form on the bench. Her head sloped forward and for a moment it looked as if the rest of her would follow it and collapse on the floor. Seachnall extended his hand towards her once more and pushed her upper body back into the seat by the shoulder.
This was thoroughly uncharacteristic of Kelly, she was far from being an idiot, and normally she wouldn't consider going somewhere if she didn't feel up to it. Why then had she dragged her exhausted self here? Why was she so exhausted in the first place? What had happened to her?
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Gretchen walked up beside Donnie, she watched Seachnall and Kelly with a nonchalant facial expression that concealed her true feelings perfectly, she had always had the enviable ability to hide what she was feeling behind a facade of calm detachment.
"Poor kids." She muttered distantly, as much to herself as to Donnie.
Kids Donnie thought, it was a strange choice of word, technically those two were, more or less, the same age as he and Gretchen. Then again, in their plain of existence almost 20 years had passed. Donnie felt a mild surprise towards the lack of surprise he now felt for these seemingly impossible happenings, he guessed that he was finally getting used to them.
"She'll be fine" Donnie replied finally, trying to conceal his amusement at Seachnall's struggle to wake her.
"Fine?" Gretchen turned to face Donnie; there was no calm impassiveness in her face now, she looked at Donnie with what could only be described as confused anger, "Haven't you seen what happens to them?"
"No, why?" Donnie looked confused, this conformation helped Gretchen lose some of her anger, she turned back towards Kelly and Seachnall.
Almost on cue, what looked like a portal began to rip through the surroundings, no one apart from Donnie and Gretchen seemed to notice it, people were passing effortlessly through it, on the other side was an almost blinding white light, it didn't seem to lead anywhere.
"Watch closely." Donnie barely shuddered at the sound of Frank's voice in his head. It had happened too frequently.
Darkness seemed to creep into the rectangular quasi-portal from the edges; it began to swirl about the centre before suddenly spreading out and taking shape.
There was what looked like an area of grass next to a building, Donnie didn't recognise it, nor did he recognise the man with a crowbar in his hand, it seemed to be dripping blood onto the floor. He also recognised Seachnall, who also had blood dripping down his face.
The man swung the crowbar again, this time it collided with Seachnall's stomach. He uttered a pained, breathless groan and collapsed onto his knees, bending forward and cradling his battered insides as he did so.
Somewhere in the distance, a place that was not shown by the makeshift screen, screaming could be heard. Kelly's screaming.
The man with the crowbar dropped it to the floor, reaching into his coat; he pulled out another weapon, a knife.
He gripped Seachnall's hair and pulled his head back, he then buried the knife deep into Seachnall's throat. His face looked vacant now, as if the pain or maybe a previous blow to the head had numbed his senses.
The man pushed Seachnall to the floor and hastily moved off screen, towards the direction of the screaming.
To be continued.