They Wouldn't Believe You
Disclaimer: "I do not own Legacy of Kain or anything related to it - Stop poking me! Yes I know! - nor do I own any other reference to any movie, song, TV show, game or any other reference to any copyrighted items, concepts, art and so on. - Can I have it back now? Fine, fine, - I am making no profit from this nor do I have any intent to make a profit from this. - What about indirectly? OUCH! Ok, ok I can take a hint! - This Chapter is sponsored by CASWIP, Characters Against Stories With Implausible Plot, defending you from two dimensional characters and shallow plot lines. Give it gore or give it doves but give it character! - That's it, I have done what you asked now give it back! ... you wouldn't dare... But that's evil!... No!... Mr Stripy Bear! Noooo!"
Thank you sooo much for reading and reviewing, it means a lot that you are keeping up with this.
Chapter 6: The dead of night
The tiny light from the torch darted over door after door as Annabel guided them through the ruined bowels of her home, counting under her breath. After fleeing from the cave the two women had latched on to each other and had yet to let go, not that either of them had really noticed. Brianne was utterly lost, the path her elderly guide led her along had taken them through rooms like the ones she had seen before, decaying mockeries of the main house, other were simple (and often very small) stone, box like places, with no adornments what so ever. Their wanderings had even taken them through another unworked cave like the one... like the one before. Every so often they would splash through puddles where the water had leaked from above after the last rains. Brianne was still floored by what had happened as was Annabel who had not stopped shaking since they had escaped.
What had happened back there? As far as Brianne could tell Raziel had been about to... to devour that shadow, Sesdoras, after its dark power had affected him somehow... He had started to, but he had pulled back as soon as he had begun, as soon as he had absorbed the first part of its dark energy in fact. And then what? What had he been talking about?
..."I couldn't feel it before but that darkness, that power must have unlocked it." ...
Unlocked what! The darkness bit was easy, that was about Sesdoras and her power but the rest?
... "like two bodies of water, brought together in one vessel then split in two again. The containers may be different but they can never truly be separate again, it's too late. I- I absorbed part of it..."...
Two bodies of water made one then split in halftwo containers... it was all a load of mumble jumble to her. The part about absorbing something, part of what she did not know, that bit had chilled her, why she had no idea.
"I want you to tell me about those games. The Legends of Kain." Annabel said next to her, interrupting her train of thought.
"Huh? Why? And its Legacy of Kain."
"Either way, I want you to tell me everything about them, if I know at least some of their history I might have a better idea of what do."
"To be honest I don't think there is much we can do." Powerless, that was how she had felt watching the events in that cave unfold.
"We will see about that, in the meantime I want to do everything I can to be prepared. You love those games, or you did, you could tell me the entire story backwards if you wanted to, now talk."
Further and further they walked, they had left what may once have been the more hospitable rooms behind, now it was all twisted, narrow corridors and small cubbyhole like rooms. More than once Annabel stopped and turned back to take another corridor still muttering and counting under her breath while Brianne talked. Every so often Annabel would interrupt Brianne's monolog to ask a question or to press her for more detail or more background, only some of which Brianne was able to provide.
Eventually, just as Annabel had managed to squeeze every last bit of information regarding Legacy of Kain out of Brianne they reached a set of sharply ascending stairs, only wide enough for one person and too low for anyone over five and a half foot to stand up properly. Easing their way up the two women practically had to crawl up with Annabel in the lead incase she slipped. That was all well and good for Annabel but for Brianne it meant that if her elderly friend did fall then she would be the one to cushion it and Brianne was feeling battered enough already. Eventually the stairs gave way to a very small landing that was so low Brianne kept one hand on the ceiling to make sure she didn't knock her head.
"Brianne, help me with this."
Annabel shone the small light on an old mettle bar blocking what looked like more stone. A second look showed that it was a door, and a tiny one at that, but how on earth they would ever move it was beyond her.
"Pull you sleeves over your hands, the rust on that will shred them to ribbons."
Obeying, Brianne grasped hold on the bar as best as she could through her sleeves, it took several false starts to figure out how to hold it. It took a few more attempts to work out how to lift the bar as well, the rust had adhered it to the metal hooks that it rested in but it did shake loose on the seventh attempt. The bar clattered to the ground and Brianne jumped back to avoid it crushing her feet, only Annabel's hand on her back stopped her falling back down the stone stairs. Shaking her sleeves Brianne watched orange flakes and dust float to the floor.
"Don't bother with that yet, we still have to open the door. It opens out, the bar was just to stop people from levering it open from the outside. It was an old escape rout from when the house was first made, it comes out by the stream, you know the rocks where it goes down that bank?"
Brianne nodded, she had been down there a few times in the summer. She was a little shocked that all that time she had been sitting on those rocks she had been so close to a hidden door and not known it. It was a small comfort that it obviously hadn't been used in a long time but still...
Annabel was scanning the small landing with her mini torch. Reaching down she picked up a long peace of wood that had obviously been worked on with rusted metal supports running its entire length and encircling it regularly. She examined it closely, frowning before she hefted it by it stouter end, probably its handle, and slammed it against the wall, not too hard but non too gently either. It shattered, rotten to the core, only the metal supports stopped it from falling apart. She discarded it immediately, tossing it back into the corner that it had been lying in before. Pointing at the fallen bar with the torch she said,
"We will have to use that, it's a bit shorter than I would have liked but we have no other choice."
"What do we need that for?"
"We need it to open the door. What did you think we were going to do? Push it? Say 'open sesame'? Look, you see that notch at the side of the door there? Put one end of the bar in there then push the other end towards the door and leaver it open, it's the only way."
Nodding shakily, Brianne rearranged her sleeves again and crouched down to lift the bar. It was almost like when she had done workout in high school; this was not some fancy light weight steel, this was old fashioned, very solid, very strong and rather heavy iron. Balancing it carefully she maneuvered it into the notch Annabel had pointed out.
"Hmm, it's a little wide for this." Annabel muttered next to her, doing nothing for Briannes nerves. Easing herself between the bar and the wall Brianne braced herself then started to push.
Nothing.
She tried again. Still nothing. Again and again till she was panting for breath and felt like screaming with frustration but still the damn door refused to move!
"GGRRRAAAHHHAA!" An all mighty roar resounded back the way they had come, full of rage and frustration, making both women jump and Brianne yelp with fright and almost let go of the bar.
"W-what the hell was that!" Annabel stuttered, unusually for her.
"It was Raziel! I know it was! He sounded close!"
"He sounded angry. Come on, we have to get this door open!" She pulled her own sleeves down over her hands and took hold of the other side of the bar. "On the count of three. One, two, three!" Both woman grunted with effort, Brianne pushing while Annabel pulled.
Still nothing!
"Damn it!"
"Again, and save your breath! One, two, three!" Eyes scrunched up with effort, her entire face contorted, Brianne pushed for all she was worth.
Finally it moved, just an inch, a sprinkling of dust falling to the floor as the stone shuddered but at least it had moved! Down the corridor, frighteningly close now, there was the horrible sounds of falling rubble that echoed back and forth in the winding tunnels and rumbled in the stone beneath their feet.
"Come on! We nearly have it! One, two, three!" Again they fought to pry the door open enough for them to slip through but it seemed that their luck was out because it would not move again.
"Again! One, Two- Ahh!" Annabel cut off with a skreak as Kain came charging up from the corridor below, the steep and confining stairs barely slowing him down. He was covered with cuts from where he had fought Raziel, most of them were small and he probably barely noticed them but there were a couple of deep ones too... most noticeably straight down his left thigh, almost running from knee to hip, although how Raziel had managed that Brianne had no idea. None of them were healing as well as the first one in the cave had, he must have lost too much blood... or not had enough to begin with. Coming to a stop right next to Brianne and Annabel he pulled the bar from their now uncaring grasp and sent it clanging down the stairs. He rased his hand to the door, the air shimmering around his claws and the door slammed open, the huge rock that had fallen in front of it was thrown clear and landed with an huge splash in the stream.
"Run!" He made to go back down the stairs.
"Wait!" Brianne called back to him. He stopped on the first few stairs, his hand bracing against the floor of the landing as he was far too tall to stand up strait in the small space. He looked back at her, agitated, impatient and almost angry looking at the interruption. Brianne recoiled slightly but after everything that had happened her curiosity would not be reigned in so easily. "What- at the cave back there, what happened?" His eyes narrowed slightly as he regarded her. "The things Raziel said, the way he acted, what was that?"
"You mean to tell me you don't know?" He sounded almost incredulous, his voice laced with scorn.
"I-"
"And here I was under the impression that you already knew so much about us and our past, you and your games." He climbed back up the stares, his entire body taut with the power, the rush of battle, stooping low in the confined space as Brianne shrank away from him, her back to the wall. He pressed close to her his face mere inches from hers, the stench of blood nauseating, her tattered courage falling to pieces under his scrutiny.
He pulled back a bit, Brianne slowly releasing the breath she had been holding, his gaze was harsh and cruel and his voice when he spoke was tight with dark emotion, with power as he explained,
"When you called us here we were drawn from the last point in our time line that those games had shown you, on top of the ruined city after I had fought that creature in its depths." He studded her carefully, taking in her reactions to his words with a bitter sneer. "You took us both from the same point in time Brianne, regardless of our current state of being. You brought Raziel here after he was drawn into the Reaver. Not before, not during, after."
He cant be serious, he cant... oh no...
..."Please, no more, don't, the hunger, I- it's not me, I can think, I can talk, not just the hunger, not just a force, I am me, I am Raziel, I am Raziel, I am Raziel!"...
..."I remember, the pain, distortion, then nothing, just nothing. No sensation, just me, me and my thoughts, over and over. And the hunger, tearing, consuming - but maybe it wasn't, maybe that was just me, all that I am."...
...the way he had said it, how he had looked... for something to affect someone so deeply, to leave such a scar as to give them that haunted look... Raziel, I'm sorry...
Kain watched her closely, he seemed to find some satisfaction in the sickening realization that had overcome her, but it was bitter. Distant and cruel he continued, "What ever magic it was that pulled us through space and time did not allow for the presence of the Reaver in any form, thus returning Raziel, part of him, to the form he had previously occupied, the form that you are also most familiar with, coincidently." He almost hissed the last word, filling it with as much distaste as she had ever heard him use.
"P-part?" She almost chocked on the word, she felt sick.
"Part. Half. The other half remains where it has and always shall be, trapped in an unending cycle within the Reaver. Think, Brianne, think about what he said- while he fought his way through Nosgoth and yet was the instrument that cleared the way, he meant that literally. He remembers, that is what happened in that cave, that is why he is acting the way he is now."
Back down the tunnel there was a rumble of displaced masonry. Kain twisted round in the cramped space, eyes narrowed, intense. Sparing her one last glance he said, "I don't know how this will play out, when or if he will ever be able to recover but for now I suggest you run, far and fast."
He darted back down the stairs, the air around him humming with power as he prepared for battle once again. Belatedly, Brianne realized he was favoring his injured leg.
Annabel grabbed hold of Brianne's hand where she stood staring after him in shock and began pulling her outside. Brianne stumbled after her, numb with the revelation of what she had learned. Ducking through the tiny doorway and out into the freezing night air, brilliant stars blazing above them, she could hear the sounds of combat emanating from the tunnel behind them. Gasping in the cold the two were running away from the stream as fast as they were able without losing their footing or leaving Annabel behind in the dark.
Above them the stars shone brightly, the small sliver of the moon just visible, the air was completely clear and cold. Squinting in the night, Brianne could not make out the light from the house through the trees. She couldn't even tell if Annabel was even leading them back to the house, not that she was particularly concerned with anything other than getting as far away from Raziel as possible at the moment. Clinging to Annabel, the old woman's thick woolen jumper comforting against her arm as she attempted to guided them around or over the various plants and fallen wood that littered the way. Ducking under tree branches and around sprawling hedges, the stress and exertion was showing on Annabel, they were slowing down and the old woman was panting with effort, her face contorted. Brianne strained to hear anything in the night but aside from them there was nothing. Fearing for the health of her elderly friend, Brianne slowed to a walk. Annabel protested but not much. Even that was not enough as she soon she was finally forced to stop.
Leaning against a tree Annabel said, haltingly, "You'd best - go on with out me - keep going till you get to the road - the village has a boarding house, here," She reached into her pocket and pulled out a fifty pound note and a small, one use chemical light, like the ones found in fanfares and amusement parks. She smiled, "For emergencies- you never know never know- when one will pop up. Take them." Brianne did so hesitantly.
"But what about you?" As she talked her breath formed clouds in the air that drifted away into nothing in the gentle breeze, the cold biting at her skin through her clothes.
"Oh I'll catch up- once I have caught my breath- haven't done any running in a long time." She tried to laugh but it came out as more of a wheeze. "Or failing that- I'll go back to the house, tell them some story- about seeing someone in the yard or hearing something- and panicking. I'll figure something out. Now get going or-"
There was a thunderous crash behind them, full of the sound of splintering wood.
"Or we could go now." Brianne said as she pulled Annabel along. She still had no idea where she was going, only that anywhere that lead them away from that crash was good with her. She tried to jog but gave up when Annabel stumbled. Nothing was said about leaving Annabel behind again, they both knew that Brianne wouldn't listen now.
"Any idea where we should go?" Brianne whispered.
"Just keep going forward." Annabel didn't whisper, she didn't have the breath for it.
Another crash, to their right now.
"You sure about that?"
"Not anymore."
Brianne steered them left - bugger the road, there were plenty of roads in this part of England, they would find one sooner or later. Moving at a fairly steady pace they wove their way around trees and brambles that snagged on their clothes slowing them even more. Just when Brianne's trousers had caught on the thorns of very nasty and particularly wild looking bramble a shout sounded right behind her.
Turning as best she could she ducked on some previously hidden instinct when Raziel came sailing out of the black, most likely thrown by Kain who emerged like a ghost behind him. He probably wouldn't have hit her if she hadn't ducked but now she had gotten herself tangles in even more of the wild bramble. Raziel hit a tree close to her, his hip catching a branch as he fell making him land at an odd angle. He didn't even stand up before he blasted Kain off his feet to return the favor. Still cloaked in darkness he moved with unnatural speed and Brianne, who had been frantically trying to untangle herself, could hardly see him. He made to go after Kain but stopped as he was about to go round her and Brianne froze like a rabbit in the headlights. Shadowed, his wide eyes looked empty.
He stepped up to her, within touching distance, reaching up to take a loose stand of her hair in his claws, then down to where a bramble had caught on to her sleeve when she ducked. A sharp tug had it free and Brianne flinched.
Snarling, his hand moved in front of her and before she knew what had happened or why, a sharp blast of his telekinesis sent her tumbling the short distance to the ground, thankfully away from most of the brambles. Before she had even fully registered that he had knocked her down he was above her, his thighs straddling her hips and his hands braced either side of her head, his face frighteningly close to hers. She heard Annabel gasp and Kain approach again but her mind was not particularly focused on that, things like the possibility of her to suddenly melding into the earth were running around her head instead.
Slowly he sat up, sitting on her thighs and regarding her like he had never seen anything like her before, his head tilted to one side quizzically. Now she had some breathing room she let her eyes flicker around to try and see what Annabel, and more importantly, Kain, was doing. She didn't dare move her head.
Kain, even more battered looking than before, was stood next to Annabel, has hand on her shoulder to keep her still, a very intense look on his face. She could almost see his mind working a mile a minute. Of course, he isn't going to share his great scheme, that would be too easy for the rest of us, bastard.
To Brianne's utter horror he began to leadAnnabel away, his hand over her mouth to silence any protests. Brianne wanted to call out to him but she was just too frightened of Raziel as he loomed over herto make any sound. All too soon Kain vanished from sight leaving Brianne alone in the darkwith Raziel, the soft glow of the light Annabel had given her lay a short distance away from when Raziel had knocked her to the floor. He was almost completely invisible now, even his eyes were barely showed up in the dark.
Just when she was starting to panic he said, softly, "Can you hear me?"
"What?"
"Can you hear me?"
"Yes." Somehow she had the feeling that witty responses would not go down well.
"Can you see me?"
Eh? What is he talking about? "Not- not really, you're still all, all shadowy."
"Oh." He brought his hands up, trance like, examining them, running his claws over one then the other. "How do I stop it?"
"I, er, I don't know." The look he sent her wasn't very encouraging so she tried again. "Well er, um," Don't mention the Reaver, don't mention the Reaver... "I- I suppose you could, er... does- does this feel any different to how you normally feel, this shadow?"
He paused, looking at her calmly before his gaze drifted to some point in the distance past Brianne's head. Eventually he said, in almost a whisper, "Yes."
"Well, um, perhaps if you, if you tried to think how it was before and then try to go back to that it might go away?"
He nodded slowly and shut his eyes, leaving Brianne with little more than his outline against the stars above to see him by. He seemed quite relaxed, a complete contrast to Brianne. She was just glad there was very little weight to him. He leaned back a little his face tilting up to the sky and as she watched the shadows surrounding him slowly, oh so slowly, began to ripple and swirl over his body leaving a comforting glow in its wake. She almost smiled in relief when he opened his eyes and they burned with their old fierce glow. The relief quickly left as he looked back down at her and it was apparent by the look on his face that something was still not right with him at all.
"Can you see me?" He said just as softly as before, repeating his earlier question.
"Yes." He smiled then, it was just something about his eyes, you don't need a mouth to smile she supposed.
He reached back down then, resting his hands either side of her head, easing himself down so he was lying on top of her fully. One arm snaked round her head in what almost seemed a possessive gesture. "I can see you."
Brianne was getting extremely uncomfortable now, because of his proximity, the way his hip and ribs were digging into her, the cold hard ground beneath her, the damn brambles still clinging to her clothes. She was shivering with the cold while Raziel seemed utterly oblivious. Why the hell did Kain have to leave me alone with the mad wraith!
"Your hair is not black." He observed, almost sounding surprised by this. Brianne kept her mouth shut, partly because she was terrified of saying something wrong and angering him and partly because it was non too pleasant being so close to him like this.
He rested his head gently on her shoulder then, his forehead just brushing the side of her jaw. "Can you feel me?"
"Y-yes."
His claws began making patterns in the ground next to her head while he watched. Suddenly, his hand clenched into a fist in the dirt, his whole body going rigid. It passed as quickly as it came, he relaxed, letting the dirt fall from his grasp. "Why?"
Now it was Briannes turn to tense up, more so than she already was. Why what? Oh please, please don't expect me to answer that.
"Why?" he repeated, even softer now. She didn't reply, couldn't reply.
For a minute they just lay there, Brianne still shivering with the cold.
"Say something to me."
"What w-would you have me s-say?"
"I just want to hear your voice."
"Err," Damn it, why did this have to be so difficult? Bugger it, in for a penny, in for a pound... She voiced the first thing that came to her head, "H-hickory dickory doc, the m-mouse ran up t-the clock. The c-clock s-struck one, the mouse r-ran down. Hickory d-dickory doc." She stumbled over the lyrics, too cold and uncomfortable to hit the notes right. Raziel lifted himself up so he could see her properly, looking like she was the mad one and not he. "R-ring a ring of r-roses, a p-pocket full of p-poses, ah tissue, ah tissue, w-we all fall d-down." She felt it more than she saw it, a slight shaking than ran the length of his form and back again. "A-ashes in t-the water, a-ashes in the s-sea, we all j-jump up with a-a one t-two three."
"What is that?" He interrupted her. She heard it in his voice that time; he was laughing at her!
"H-hay! I'm not that b-bad!"
"Did I say you were?"
"You're laughing at m-me." He actually did laugh aloud then. "Alright, alright n-no m-more nursery rhymes."
"Oh don't stop, please." He was still laughing. Rotten git. She back peddled on that thought and shuddered.
"I er..." Raziel had turned his attention back to his hands again, sitting up, stretching his arm out, examining the whole limb. He stopped laughing.
Just when Brianne was about to pick up where she left off he said.
"Why doesn't it hurt?" His hand passed over his face then down his chest to pass through the void between his ribs and hips, never touching.
"Er, w-what?"
"Me. Why don't I hurt? This- this should- shouldn't it?" He was shaking again. Brianne was getting frantic, she had hoped that the laughter meant that he was recovering but no such luck. Besides, if he changed his mood any faster she felt like she would get whiplash trying to keep up.
"I- I don't k-know."
"Why not?"
"Er.."
He was up and away before she could think of anything else, striding off into the night. Aside from not wanting to be left alone in the middle of nowhere in the dark, Brianne didn't think it would be a good idea for him to wonder off like this, never mind that he was over one thousand years old. Stiffly, she scrambled up after him but was pulled up short by the brambles still clinging to her clothes. Something tore and the wicked thorns made it past her clothes to scratch her skin. She cried out.
The sound had barely died before he was at her side, unhooking the brambles quickly and efficiently. Brianne could feel that whiplash coming on any second now. His hands settled on her waist, guiding her away from the bramble patch, him walked backward, facing her.
He stopped, just looking at her again. Now that she was more exposed in the open air, the cold bit into her more fiercely than ever, she had already lost the feeling in her hands and feet, her ears and nose were ablaze.
"I- I'm c-cold."
"Cold?" He made it sound completely absurd.
"C-c-cold." She repeated, her teeth chattering uncontrollably now.
"Why are you cold?" He still sounded unconvinced.
"I-its n-night, late a-a-autumn, its c-c-cold."
"You're shaking." His hand came up to cup her face and she tried to pull away; he was just as cold as everything else out here. His other hand caught the back of her head, holding her still while he traced the line of her jaw then down her throat.
"S-stop it." She could hardly talk, her words coming out as little more than a whisper.
He didn't head her, didn't hear her. His hand continued its quest down her chest and down the valley between her breasts, coming to rest over her heart.
"I can feel you."
She was frozen, physically, mentally, emotionally... she didn't have enough energy for anything else. His hand drifted down again, no longer touching her, and across to take her hand, bringing it up, examining it like he had with his own. Gently he traced the back of his three claws over her five, delicate fingers.
"You are human." A simple statement. He looked up at her face again, reaching up to trace her mouth. "Your lips are blue."
She just stood there, didn't say anything and couldn't move while he still held her. He was frowning now, his hand cupped the side of her face then round to pull her hair loose from the ponytail that she slept in. His claws ran gently through the errant strands, releasing his grip on the back of her head as he smoothed it down over her neck, her ears, the sides of her face. His hands left her face to alight on her shoulders, down her arms and back up again. His eyes studded her closely, actually seeing her now, a new energy behind every movement.
"Come." He began to back away leaving her feeling more exposed, still facing her, eyes following her intently now. Slowly she took one halting step towards him, then another. "That's it, come to me." Slowly, painfully she followed him, but she was so cold, she just wanted to rest now, to curl up and be warm. She stumbled. Instantly he was at her side again his hand under her arm, supporting her. "Keep moving." He wouldn't let her stop, as soon as her feet were under her again they were walking, him urging her along with words and gestures. Every time she stumbled he would pull her back up, not giving her time to stop for breath.
He was still watching her, even as he guided her through the wild, the barest glance ahead and he knew the path, never faltering, never stumbling.
"Brianne listen to me, you must keep up, you must keep moving." He was urging them faster, her feet could barely keep up, they felt like they were made of lead.
She fell, her foot catching on a root. As always he caught her but when he tried to make her walk again she fell against him, it hurt to move.
"T-tired." She breathed.
"No!" The force in his voice shocked her out of her stupor for a moment, was he angry? About what? "You are not tired, Brianne, you can not sleep here. You will keep moving and I will take you to where it is warm, understand?" She nodded where she leaned against his cold chest... everything was cold.
He straitened her up again and she tried to help, tried to make her legs work but it hurt so. He guided her forward again, keeping her close, almost carrying her. It didn't last. When her feet gave way again, she just couldn't get them to work, like invisible chains were tying them down so she couldn't lift them.
Raziel let out a low curse as her world spun for a second as he lifted he into his arms and took off the way they were headed at a full run.
Shadowy trees flashed by in a heart beat, ducking under branches, jumping over bushes, hedges, logs, ditches. All of it whipped by before she could fully recognize what they were.
Faster and faster, it didn't seem possible that something on only two legs could move like this.
The trees grew dense now and he held her close, ducking and weaving between gnarled wood, whip like twigs snapped at them as they flew past. For a moment she felt like he could fly again as he leapt high into the canopy when the undergrowth became too thick for even him to navigate. From branch to branch in split second decisions that unerringly led him to the strongest foot holds or, if non presented itself, he would cling to the tree trunks themselves holding her one handed just long enough to move to the next perch. All the while he watched the ground below, waiting for it to clear. Lose bark pulled free under his talons pattered on the ground beneath them but she never heard it, for they were already gone.
She lurched against him slightly as he hit the ground again, fast as ever, the trees thinning out ahead. She looked up at him, at what little of his face that she could see from this angle, his eyes were narrowed, determined and she wondered why. Suddenly the world opened up around them as he exploded from the forest and on to open ground. They were in the paddock now, to the south, she remembered, lights visible ahead, faint and flickering behind the gardens. It was all blurred to her, everything was bleeding into everything else, so dark, so cold, so tired. The lights, the yellow lights, steady, warm and the blue lights, flickering and flashing, dark, bright, dark, bright. Like the stars, she thought, and the spaces between them. They were still above them, the stars, bright, shining and distant. She thought they were beautiful. The trees darkened her view of them again, bare branches and their old leaves moving over head so fast she could still count the stars between them but it was not the same. She was numb now, pleasantly so. It was still cold she knew, but she didn't care, she just wanted to sleep and be warm. Ahead the lights grew brighter, the sounds of people and life were able to reach them now, but she didn't notice, the darkness surrounding her, a cocoon to sleep in.
Her eyes drifted shut and all she knew was darkness. Darkness and cold...
TBC
...You know, I think this is my favorite chapter yet, typical that the one I would like the most is the one where my main character would find herself in trouble like this... As for the hypothermia bit, to be honest I don't know how long it would take for it to get that serious, my reasoning is that 1.She hasn't had her full quota of sleep over the last 48 hours 2.She is stressed out with everything that is going on 3.It would have been cold in the basement too but because the air would have been still down there she wouldn't have been noticing it as much 4.She is basically wearing her pajamas and a tracksuit, for someone who doesn't like to go out too much when it is chilly outside (which is most people) that is not very good defense against the cold. Hope it works and doesn't seem too out of place.
The next update or two is going to be late, possibly very late because I have some collage work that will be taking up a lot of my time. Sorry 'bout that but look on the bright side, once that is out the wayI will be able to devote even more time to this.
Till next time...