A/N: Thanks to everyone who told me about LiveJournal, especially Pilgrim Soul who helped clarify things for me. I've decided to go with LJ since my story is a heck of a lot easier to read on there than on where I had it before. If you would like to check my story out, the address is in my bio – not really linked though since I don't know how to make it link on Fanfic. Does anyone know? Anyways, check it out if you want. I'd also appreciate feedback for it.
I also apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors. I know there may be some present, so no need to point them out. As I have mentioned in previous chapters, I've been feeling under the weather (only now starting to get over it) and it's been cutting my computer time short, so I haven't been able to both write the remaining chapters plus go over them how I usually do (thus the reason I ended up catching up with myself.) So there's bound to be a few mispelled words that neither me nor the spellchecker caught.
Ch. 22
It's Coming
John was quite amazed to realize that he was more pissed than scared. Or perhaps it was equal given the circumstances. Jorsek was a monumental piece of crap with a fetish for stringing guys up by their wrists. He was also going to get his whole village screwed over, John was certain of it. Jorsek wouldn't get the villagers to take precautions; he would convince them to form a larger posse and go after the wraith hound, and that right there was a horror movie classic in the making.
John twisted and squirmed his wrists trying to loosen the bindings, but had to stop when he felt the first heated line of blood trace down his arm. So he went for a different tactic by gripping the rope then lifting his legs so that he was hanging. The branch moaned, and his shoulders burned causing him to grit his teeth. He remained like this far past his endurance, even jerking a little trying to pull the branch down. The branch was a hell of a lot more stubborn than John, and he eventually gave up when his shoulders couldn't take it anymore.
The sun crawled its way toward the other side of the horizon, and the chilled winds were already starting to pick up. On top of that, John was hungry, thirsty, and aching from head to foot, pin-pointed in his shoulders and one side of his ribcage. John moved his tongue trying to work up some saliva, and instead coated the inside of his mouth with something like sticky slime that made it even harder to swallow. He tried again to use his weight to bring the branch down, except his previous attempt had abused his shoulders to the point where they refused to do it again. The moment he started putting pressure on them, pain flared and he yelped, straightening.
" Traitors," John grumbled.
Now would be a nice time for one of those miraculous escapes... or rescues... maybe both? Fear switched places with pissed. The forest was going gray with stretching shadows, making it hard for John to see anything. Somewhere, close by or far off, he couldn't tell, a twig snapped, and it made his skin flinch and his heart jump. He turned his head and even his body as far as his neck and the ropes would let him. Branches swayed, moaned, and clacked whenever the wind picked up. That same wind soaked into his sweat-drenched clothes, making him shiver.
The only setback to being rescued was if the wraith was nearby, and got to that rescuer first. The thought of Maj or Gidel – or both – being jumped and sucked dry made John's stomach try to coil into itself. He didn't ponder why Maj, Gidel, or the rest of the town's folk hadn't shown up yet because he preferred they didn't. Though it would have been a nice twist to his predicament if at least one person popped in and cut him down.
John tugged at the ropes without squirming his wrists, and it still hurt. John sucked in a breath and let it out sharply in a stream of foggy air. He heard another snap, and jerked his head in the direction of the sound.
" If you're out there," John called. " Why not just prove it and get this over with? My arms are getting tired."
No one replied, but another twig snapped from another direction. " Taking the whole playing with your food thing too far, aren't you? That wraith hound was having a lot of fun up until I attacked it. You could probably learn a thing or two from that."
Nothing, not even another twig snap. " Hello?"
A sharp wind tugged at his hair and clothes, and he shuddered. He heard flapping that seemed to come from all around him, then a soft thunk that made his branch creak and vibrate. John looked up, and his heart skipped several beats.
" Ris!"
The mini-iaret stared down at him in curious adoration, twitching his head from side to side.
" Ris. How about you pull a Lassie and go get Maj for me. Or better yet Gidel. Go on, go get 'em!"
Ris kept twitching his head, and chirped. Then he turned his attention to the rope, regarding it like a chicken regarding a worm. It pawed at the knot, then bit and tugged. John shook with breathy, frantic laughter.
" That's it Ris. Chew through it."
Ris tugged, jerked his head, and tried gnawing from the side of his mouth. He then switched off, climbing partway down the rope with his back legs clinging to the branch. Ris bit, tugged, and jerked at the ropes around John's wrists. John watched, both relieved and amazed that Ris would get it through his head that a tied up John was a bad thing. Although it made a little sense considering the iaret's intelligence and Ris' former experience with a tied up John involving blood and injury. Ris wasn't going to stand by and let anything else happen to his favorite human pet.
Ris moved back and forth between the knot on the branch and the rope around John's wrist. His constant, frantic gnawing and tugging resulted in the rope starting to fray. John tugged as well testing the strength of both ties.
" Keep it up Ris. Little more..."
John could hear the iaret's little teeth scraping the ropes. Ris switched to the knots around John's wrists, and froze. His head darted up, darted around, then his back arched and he hissed.
John's breathing increased with his heart rate. " Oh gosh no, not now. Why now?"
Ris slowly backed up onto the branch, then turned and scurried up the tree to an even higher branch. John looked up briefly to scowl at the iaret.
" You're not winning any bravery points doing that!"
" It is an animal," an inhuman voice rasped from behind. " Courage is not a trait of animals. Only survival of the self."
John stiffened. " Same could be said about any species."
The wraith stepped around John into his sights and stood before him. John tried to back away, even curl into himself in an automatic response to protect his chest. The wraith smiled baring its teeth. The wraith reached out, and John pulled back struggling against the ropes until more blood ran down his arms. The wraith's freshly healed feeding hand veered up to wipe some of the blood onto it's claw. It brought the claw in close, studying the blood, and John half expected the wraith to lick its claw clean.
" Humans have shown themselves to go either way," the wraith said. " Some have let others die to save themselves, but many more die trying to save others."
The wraiths hand shot out and ripped open both of John's shirts to just a little past his sternum. It shoved both halves of the shirts aside, and John tensed for the coming, crushing impact of a feeding hand into his chest. Instead, The wraith just stared at his chest and though studying it, which disturbed John beyond his present level of disturbed.
He'd never considered the possibility of a mentally unstable wraith. But how could this wraith not be? Alone for centuries, hunting while being hunted. That super wraith that had kill Abrams and Gaul hadn't seemed too stable, especially after it confessed to feeding off its own kind – Silence of the Lambs gone wraith.
As though proving Sheppard's point, rather than commencing to the feeding, the wraith began to stroke Sheppard's chest with its knuckles, starting just below the throat and going all the way to the tip of the breast bone. John's stomach bucked in revulsion, and his body shook with a mix of disgust, anger, and terror. He'd never quite come to terms with any sort of physical contact with his chest, especially by hands. Simply having his heart checked made him tense as a guitar string. Having a hand touching him now – a wraith hand of all things – was attempting to trigger a panic attack that had his heart pounding painfully. John tried to pull away but had already pulled as far as he could. He stared at the wraith, oozing only defiance as best he could, as the wraith stared at his chest as though savoring the moment right before the kill.
" You," The wraith said. " You have courage. Great courage. I can feel the blood rushing through your veins, and the beat of your heart. I can hear it. It beats fast, strong. Not just out of terror. You may die screaming, or you may not. But you will die facing me by your own choice. You will be defiant to the last, and I will savor it."
The wraith pulled his arm back and spread the fingers of its feeding hand, ready to plunge. The wraith was right about one thing; John was going to be defiant. Ignoring the scream of pain in his shoulders, he lifted his legs and kicked out with both feet sending the wraith staggering back. The wraith righted himself and grinned, then advanced. John squirmed and tugged on the frayed ropes that he finally felt begin to loosen. The wraith reared its hand back aiming for John's vulnerable chest.
Ris shot out of the trees like a diving hawk, and in a shriek and powerful flutter of wings, attacked the wraith at the face. The wraith stumbled back swatting at Ris who dodged by veering or flapping back. Ris drove the wraith back, and John stepped up the writhing, pulling, and twisting until all of a sudden his blood-slicked hands slipped free of the loosened ropes. John crumpled to the ground, and immediately rolled back onto his feet. He swiped the blood off his palms onto his pants then jumped up to grab the remaining rope and pull himself up to the branch. He grabbed the branch, then swung his feet forward until they hit the trunk. He moved his feet up the trunk until he was able to get his legs to wrap around the branch. Next, he twisted and jerked until his entire body was on top of the branch. He eased himself upright, first sitting, then onto his feet by grabbing the branch above him for support.
By the time Ris realized that Sheppard was no longer in danger and flew back to the tree, John was standing on the branch staring down at the wraith, safely beyond reach.
The wraith snorted out a mixture of blood and snot. The cuts on its face were already starting to heal rapidly. John squinted.
" Something tells me you already ate. Which would explain why the calvary hasn't come." Of course he'd already assumed that the wraith had snacked on the men spread out in wait. No wraith could ignore such pickings.
That was three less of Jorsek's posse.
John kept one hand on the branch above him for balance, and with the other closed the ripped portions of his shirts. The pre-dinner fondling was still making John's stomach squirm, and had left him feeling violated. He rubbed the area that ached with phantom pains making him shudder with nauseating remembrance.
The wraith circled where John had been standing. " You cannot stay up there forever, human."
" And you can't stay down there forever. Not if you don't want that hell hound finding you."
The wraith smirked. " The beast is trapped within the ruins. It cannot escape..." and then the wraith's smile was gone as it gradually processed until realization slapped him with ugly reality.
John nodded rigidly. " Yeah, how do you think we got in there? Through those holes?"
The wraith snarled. " Fools! It took seasons to chase the creature into the ruins and trap it! You have doomed your own kind!"
John narrowed his eyes. " I didn't do squat. The whole dooming thing is someone else's fault. You've got two choices here. Run for your life or stand there like bait for that thing to find you."
The wraith narrowed his eyes in return, suspiciously. " You are lying, human. You are just trying to get me to flee so that you may escape. But it will not work. I can out-wait you, human. As you have said, I have already taken my fill."
" Which makes me dessert, which you must really love since you're risking your ass for it. If I toss you cookie will you go away?"
Darkness was spreading fast in the forest, making the wraith difficult to see, but not difficult enough for John to notice it tensing back on its legs. John released his shirts to grip the top branch and pull upward just as the wraith jumped and clawed where John's feet had been seconds ago. Ris dove out of his branch and attacked the wraith until it was driven back, then flew upward and away.
John just kept both his hands on the above branch. He wanted to climb higher, except he couldn't. He needed to be close enough to the ground to jump. He needed to be ready. Cold air brushed his exposed chest and he shivered.
" I will feed on you, human," the wraith badgered. " I will tear into your flesh, and pull the life from you one year at a time."
John adjusted his hold on the top branch. " Promises promises. Maybe you should stop talking. You never know what might be listening."
The wraith resumed pacing circles beneath John, kind of like a game of Duck Duck Goose. There was no knowing when the wraith would jump and tag.
John never did like geese. They were vicious, and more relentless than pit bulls. Once they bit, they fought to never let go. He gripped the branch tighter.
" No one will come for you, human," the wraith taunted.
" I don't expect them to."
" Then why do you delay the inevitable?"
John shrugged. " Because I can. Hey, you said I'd be defiant. Just being defiant for ya."
The wraith chuckled nastily. " You are amusing, human. Perhaps the wait is worth it."
John chanced a glance into the thickening darkness. " Somehow I doubt that."
Her kitty, kitty. Let's haul some fur-less ass you mutant Cujo. Chance had full reign of the situation now. John tried to stay positive about it – that creature was smart, so it would know where to come – but he couldn't help feeling as though he were caught up in a little Russian roulette using three bullets. The wraith grabs him, he dies. The beast grabs him, he dies. The beast gets the wraith, then him, he dies. Or lady luck gives him a wink and a smirk, and he lives.
John catches the wraith's second jump and pulls up in time to avoid it. Ris dove down and swooped circles around the wraith until it was driven back. The wraith snarled and nearly batted Ris right out of the sky.
" Delay will bring you nothing!" The wraith barked.
John chanced another glance, and thought he saw a mound of shadow slip in behind a copse of trees.
" Actually..."
A bulky horse-sized body slammed into the back of the wraith with a snarl, and brought him down to be buried under the bald, blue pile of flesh and muscle that was the wraith beast. John jumped from his branch to the ground with knees buckling under him. He rolled and scrambled to his feet that slid under him on the carpeting of needles and dead leaves. He was momentarily caught up in a running nightmare – moving while staying put as though the ground had become a treadmill. When his tread finally found solid dirt, he pushed off into a tearing run through the woods, dodging shadowy trees and leaping over fallen logs.
Pain spiked from John's leg, and radiated out from his burning lungs. One side of his ribcage cramped on each heaving inhale, and yet fear numbed it all for him, like white noise with the volume turned down. The darkness was blue-black around him with obstacles betrayed by their darker shapes. But there was always that one log half buried in the ground, or a deep pothole in the earth hidden by dry loam and dead leaves, that snagged him and sent him sprawling to the ground. He banged one knee and skinned both, then scraped both arms only to scurry back to his feet without altering his speed. And he never looked back.
John's awareness was all about the running and maintaining the run. The protests of his body were quiet like a timid request for him to stop and rest, but not daring to voice it any louder. John almost didn't care if he ended up running forever, just as long as that wraith beast never caught up to him. Running was safety, was freedom, and as long as he kept running then he couldn't be touched.
Yet the moment the square lights of a house flitted into sight through the trees, John stumbled, and choked out a cry of relief. And still he kept running, into the backyard of the house, then beyond the house into the street. He veered to cut through back yards moving in the direction of Maj's house. He was closer than he realized, and would have run right past the house if Ris hadn't glided in to land before the front door and began hopping up and down, chirping frantically.
John staggered toward a stop and still collided with the door. He rattled the knob that wouldn't turn, then pounded on the door with both fists.
" Maj! Maj open the door! Oh, crap please be home. Maj, please! Open the door!"
John paused when he heard a click, and his heart thudded. He didn't wait for Maj to open the door but opened it himself and stumbled in with Ris nearly tripping him. John would have fallen to his face if Maj hadn't grabbed him. She eased John down to sit on the second step of the stairs, where John slumped against the wall, gasping for breath that seared his throat and lungs, and closing his eyes. He heard the door slam shut and various locks click into place. The sound of those locks sent a torrent of wonderful numb spreading through John's body. It attempted to pull him into empty oblivion, away from the running and the terror. He was ready to give in, wanted to so bad that even now his head began to swim in the murk of incoherent thought.
He wanted to stop existing, just for a moment.
" John?"
A hand on his shoulder ripped him from oblivion. He jumped, and snapped his eyes open with a gasp, shivering and coughing. It hurt just to breathe.
One hand remained on his shoulder, an arm slid across his back for that hand to grip his other shoulder. " It's all right, John. You're all right." The hand on his other shoulder moved to his neck, then to his face, and he heard a small gasp. " John, you're freezing. Come on..."
The hands shifted position again, one around his arm to drape it over Maj's shoulders, the other around his chest. Maj pulled, and John tried to comply, but he just couldn't. His legs had taken on the consistency of Jello and refused to put up with his weight. Maj had to pretty much drag him from the stairs into the living room and dump him on the couch. She lifted up his legs, and he heard another small gasp escape her.
" John, your leg..."
John barely heard. His brain and body were attempting to go two different directions. Again, he was happy to let them, except that he couldn't, not right now. He was exhausted for a reason, and that reason was still out there. He blinked away the sleep-haze obscuring his mind in time to see Maj rising to go fetch healing herbs and other items. John snagged her wrist, but his grip was too weak and Maj easily dislodged it, setting John's hand on his stomach.
" Just rest there, John. I'll be back in a minute."
And she was, or perhaps John had drifted off, since it wasn't long afterwards that he felt Maj's hand on his forehead and feeling along his face.
" You're as cold as ice," she said tremulously. John forced his eyelids to peel apart to the now brightened living room. John tried to sit up, but Maj pushed him back down with a hand on his shoulder.
" Maj," John said, panting with the effort of attempting to sit up. " Maj, listen to me. We've got a problem, and I mean cataclysmic, apocalypse type problem."
Maj had removed John's boot and was cleaning the gash on his leg with a wet cloth. She looked at John nervously, then back at the gash. " Tarl told us that it had been Jorsek who'd gone to the ruins. I wanted to fetch you, John, but he wouldn't let anyone else go up. I tried to slip away but was caught and put under house arrest."
John hissed when Maj hit a tender spot on the gash. " Good."
Maj lifted both eyebrows. " Good?"
" Yes, good. Maj, Jorsek's basically screwed your whole village. Gidel was right. That temple wasn't sealed to keep others out, it was to keep something in, and Jorsek released it when he unsealed the place."
Maj dipped the rag into the bowl of water on the floor and wrung it out.
" A wraith?"
John shook his head. " Way worse. But a wraith is... was... the one making off with all your people. Just one. It's dead now."
Maj wiped more blood and dirt from the wound. " You killed it?"
John shook his tired head. " No. The thing formerly trapped in the temple did." A surge of fear gave John the strength to bolt upright. " Crap! It's coming Maj. We need to warn people."
Maj tried to push him back down, but John was rigid as a tree and not about to budge.
" John, please, you need to calm down. You're exhausted. Just let me bind this wound and then you can get up."
John glanced out the window into the thick darkness that was less blue and more black. He nodded, complying since he'd rather not have to deal with the hindrance of an injured leg, but he didn't lay back down.
" What is this creature you speak of?" Maj asked, working both quickly yet carefully. John didn't take his gaze from the window.
" The reason the wraith won't touch your world. It's some sort of a... I don't know, wraith monster, like a cross between an animal and a wraith. Four legged, but sucks living creatures dry, and its huge. It's smart too. Freaky smart, and a glutton. And chances are good it's coming here, right now."
Maj spread on some poultice but didn't wait for it to dry before wrapping on a clean bandage. When finished, she handed John his boot, and he maneuvered into a sitting position to pull it back on. Maj then handed him a cup of cold water that John downed greedily in a single breath. The feel of his parched throat easing in the onslaught of moisture was indescribable and left him breathless. Maj checked him over for other injuries, lifting up both shirts to probe his ribs, then looking closely at his face. John let her as an excuse for himself as to why he wasn't moving. He needed a moment, just a moment, to catch all the breath he'd lost running with a literal hell hound on his heels.
Finally, he couldn't take it any more. As much as he longed for the relief, as much as he needed a quiet moment just to breathe, such luxuries couldn't happen until the turmoil was over and done with.
If anything, it was probably just beginning. John pushed himself to his feet and had to be steadied by Maj when he lurched drunkenly. He was a little troubled by the exhaustion. Then again, he hadn't exactly clocked how long he'd been running.
" John..."
John looked at Maj. She wanted to protest and get him to sit back down. He could see the struggle in her eyes to form the right words that would hold Sheppard back, fighting with the knowledge that John would not – could not – listen. Not yet, not now. This situation wasn't even close to over, and that made John even more weary; not just bone deep but soul deep, and all he wanted to do right then and there was sleep.
Instead, he settled for letting Maj guide him to the kitchen and sit at the table.
" Turn off the lights," John said. " All of them."
Maj complied, and plunged the house into darkness one room at a time. She pulled shut the curtains of the kitchen, and lit a small, red-wax candle in a copper-colored stand and set it in the middle of the table. The dark curtains were thick enough, and the candle small enough, for the light not to betray their presence to anything outside.
John felt a slight increase of weight around his shoulders, and the gradual pooling of warmth around his body. He reached up with a trembling hand to run it along the hem of a blanket.
" Maj," he tried to argue, but Maj placed her hands on John's shoulders to keep him from dislodging the blanket.
" Keep it on, just for a moment. Just until you stop shivering."
John smiled wearily. " That's not entirely because I'm cold. Maj, does your town have some kind of warning system? Like for when the brigands attack or something?"
Maj began rubbing John's right arm, then the left to produce more warmth through friction. " Yes, we do actually. An electronic one. But it's located at the meeting hall. I'd have to contact Larum."
" Do it. Unless it means the people'll be running outside armed to the teeth, then forget it. Everyone needs to stay inside and out of sight. This thing knows how to hunt without making a sound, so there's no way of knowing if it's sneaking up on you or not."
Maj gave John a stiff nod then hurried up the stairs to her bedroom. John wrapped the blanket tighter around himself. He really wasn't sure if staying indoors would actually do any good. This thing wasn't stupid, and would more than likely be real quick about figuring out that glass breaks without much effort, and wooden doors are a lot more giving than rocks. Still, inside was better than outside any day. Perhaps if they could wait it out until morning where daylight would afford the humans the advantage, the right sized hunting party could probably kill it.
After it killed half the hunting party.
A knock at the door mad John startle. He pushed his aching body from the seat with one hand clutching the blanket and moved to the door. He peered through the small round window at the top to see the massive frame of Gidel standing on the front porch bouncing on his heels to stay warm. John's nerves jolted with alarm and he quickly, with shaking hands that kept fumbling, clicked the various locks and swung the door open. Gidel opened his mouth about to speak, then reared his head back.
" John?"
John grabbed Gidel's arm and pulled him inside. He shut the door and clicked the locks back into place.
" I heard Jorsek say you were still up at the ruins keeping watch. Knew the dung heap was lying but Tarl's got it so we can't leave the village," Gidel said
John took another glance out the small window. " Tarl has the right idea."
Footsteps thumped heavily down the stairs. " That idiot Larum wouldn't listen to me," Maj huffed. " Looks like Jorsek got to him first and told him everything was fine."
Gidel nodded. " Yeah, he even convinced Larum to double the watch. I've been freezing my end off out there thanks to him."
John whirled around in shock. " You mean there's people out there?"
Gidel nodded looking a little stupefied. " Yeah, about the majority of the men of the village. A handful were on their way back to the ruins when Jorsek brought them back saying not to bother. Wouldn't go into the details, just that things have changed and everyone needed to stay put. Then he and Tarl got into an argument which I'm pretty sure they're still at. Why? What's going on."
John slumped against the door, feeling yet another extra weight of weariness try to shove him down. " Crap!" He shook his head, and heaved out a heavy sigh. " Maj, I'm going to need to borrow a coat, scarf and hat. Gidel, you need to stay here and keep an eye on your aunt." John pushed off of the wall to go snag the needed items from the closet, with Maj and Gidel following.
" John, no! You can't go out there," Maj said.
John pulled a coat, scarf, and black-knit cap from the closet and threw them on. " Just to the meeting house and back to switch on that alarm. People need to be inside or that monster's going to pick them off one by one."
" Monster?" Gidel said. " What monster."
" I'll explain later, Gidel," Maj replied, and followed John to the door. " John, you can't because you're near exhaustion. You're going to collapse."
John clicked the locks, opened the door, and stepped out. " No time. And stay inside." He partially turned to look at Maj and gave her a reassuring grin. " Trust me. I've been through this crap before."
He left, and shut the door behind him before Maj could say anything more.
SGA
A/N: Well, Ris kind of pulled a Lassie. Sweet whumping in next chapter. Not so sweet for John, though.
