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 Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 3:21 pm
Lenore gave a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, Rabid believed her!
"It's in the woods next to the playground - it was in this little meadow-thing, but it's a bad, bad place. Julian an' his stupid talking fire made it bad," she said, her loathing for the Brother rising even more with the knowledge of his profaning the woods with his stupid Fire of Evil.
Hugging Sadako close, she shifted anxiously and started to sniffle, eyes growing teary.
"Mama gonna get hurt if we don't do something," she said.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 3:29 pm
Rabid's heart stopped beating for a moment.
"Oh God," she murmured and shot a worried glance at her son. Her thoughts quickly returned to Crow, though. She was the best friend Charlotte had made in Gaia. She had to be helped.
"Lenore. Bring us to where the fire was, okay? We have to be quick."
She patted her back and unlocked her door.
Malachi was beginning to get nervous. Mummy had never sounded that serious before. Following her command, he leaped onto her back and clung tightly, wrapping his arms around her neck and his legs around her hips.
"We in trouble, isn't we?"
Rabid didn't answer.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 3:39 pm
Lenore gave a brisk nod and roughly wiped her eyes with her skirt, briefly exhibiting her underwear for the whole room to see. Venturing carefully out into the hallway, she gave a sharp, birdlike whistle.
"C'mere, Cole!"
A familiar blob of shadow crawled across the floor towards her, rearing up and assuming Cole's form. Ember eyes strayed over Rabid and Bah appraisingly before resting on Lenore again.
"Take us to the bad place," she whispered. Cole gave a bark-like growl and started walking off, looking back at Rabid and Bah as though beckoning them to follow him. Lenore turned to them too, starting to wring Sadako's oft-abused hair again.
"Well, come on, then," she said, following Cole solemnly.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 3:45 pm
Rabid began following after them quietly, nervously pulling on a curl. She had to know more.
"What did Julian look like?" she questioned, "Did he look dead? Was he...normal-crazy or...err...scary-crazy?" This wasn't making any sense, but the best she could do was follow along...
Malachi glanced around nervously, his ears folded back. Everything was so tense...he could feel it. His furry tail fell limp, almost to the ground. Crazy people and fires weren't his idea of fun, but he wasn't going to let Mummy go herself.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 4:06 pm
Lenore glanced 'round at Rabid, answering in a hushed voice.
"He was talking to hisself and rocking back and forth and scratching pictures in the dirt before the fire came. After it left, he got all normal again and walked away like nothin' even happened. So, I think it was sorta scary-crazy, I guess..."
The walk through HQ and to the front door was very tense - Lenore's nerves were on edge, and she had to restrain herself from slashing wildly at anything that moved with some effort. She gave a sigh of relief when the front door was finally in sight, patting Cole's flank lovingly.
"Good boy, Cole, good- oh my GOD!"
Lenore sprang back and ran back to Rabid, trying to decide whether to protect her or hide behind her.
Through the door that had been left ajar, two people could be seen entering the woods - the smaller of the two with some resistance.
"But it's still daytime!" she roared, sprinting towards the open door in a rage.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 4:18 pm
Rabid gave a cry of frustration as she ran after Lenore. As far as she could tell, Julian sounded possesed, and that was definitely not good. She paced herself, trying to stay by Lenore's side, but also trying to urge her forward. This was so not good...
Ike had dropped off of Mummy's back and was now loping awkwardly on all fours, seeing as to how this was the quickest way he knew of to run. This all was definitely no fun. Len and Mummy seemed so scared, and he was beginning to get nervous. He vaguely remembered Mummy telling him and Len to not go in these woods...
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 4:38 pm
Crow followed Julian with sincere discomfort, looking around as though expecting Jabir or Maggie to swoop down at any time and deliver a world of pain on her for violating the rules.
"Julian, we're reeeeeally not supposed to be in here," she said, biting at a claw worriedly.
Julian held his hand out, shaking his head and laughing easily.
"Aw, c'mon, Sarah. Since when do you follow rules? We'll just go a little way - there's this awesome little meadow like, ten minutes away from here. We'll be there and back before anyone even misses us."
Crow bit into her finger instead of her claw, wincing as her sharp teeth dug into the flesh. She leaned against a birch tree and crossed her arms, looking at Julian with suspicion.
"And since when d'you call me Sarah? Sarah's dead, thank you very much."
Julian simply smiled at his sister, gentle eyes blinking innocently at her. Crow relented and followed Julian, who had begun to take the path again gaily.
"You'll love it. I promise."
Lenore dropped Sadako and ran as fast as her awkward legs would let her, flapping her arms frantically in a cross between getting Crow's attention and trying to gain flight.
"Mama, NO!" she screamed. But Crow was too deep in the woods now to hear her...
Cole picked up Sadako carefully with his jaws and cantered back to Rabid, snuffling and blowing ash. Growling at her frantically, he butted at her legs with his head, urging her to hurry up. Sadako twitched in the dragon's jaws, eyes rolling angrily as she squeaked.
"Beware," she rasped at Rabid.
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 4:44 pm
Rabid gave a small cry as she looked down to the doll. That was damned creepy, right there.
"Ike! Back!" she yelled.
Malachi obediently leaped onto his mother's back, clinging for dear life.
"Sorry, Lenore!" she shouted again and lifted the little girl off the ground, holding her protectively and ignoring the gashes her wings were creating as she ran quickly. Her mind quickly switched back and forth between leaving the kids behind and going in ehrself, but then she would be running blindly.
Malachi saw the red stuff begin running from Mummy's arm and squinched his eyes closed, burying his face between her shoulderblades. This just kept getting worse...
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 5:00 pm
Lenore immediately stopped thrashing, looking at the bloody cuts guiltily.
"Sorry," she mumbled, trying to wipe off the blood staining her razor feathers. Pointing into the brush, she urged Rabid on.
"Quick! Quick! Mama gonna get eaten by freakin' talking fire!"
Cole galloped beside Malachi, Sadako still writhing in his jaws. The child wasn't going fast enough for his liking - with a fluid motion, the dragon melted into shadow and rematerialized under the boy, running as though his stride hadn't been interrupted. Sadako beat at the dragon's muzzle with her little hands, rasping in backwards whispers to go faster.
-----
Julian spread his arms wide and twirled through the clearing, laughing.
"So, what d'you think?"
Crow looked around uneasily. There was evidence of a campfire in the middle of the clearing, surrounded by weird swirling gouges in the soil.
"It's....mildly interesting."
Julian's laugh took on a slightly steely note as a breeze rustled through the trees.
"It's interesting, alright."
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 5:08 pm
Malachi almost fell for a moment before clinging to the vaguely frightening dragon. Good, good...this was much better. He wrapped him limps 'round the large animal and bent his head forward, ears back. It was for...airplanedienamlicks or something like that...
Rabid took a deep breath and leaned forward, squinting her eyes against the wind she was creating. She dodged trees, made easier by her Vampiric agility. Not far ahead, she saw a break in the trees. Were those people...?
She looked down to Lenore questioningly.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 6:49 am
Lenore nodded.
"We're here."
She started to struggle and writhe, trying to free herself from Rabid's arms.
"Lemme go! I'm gonna kill him!"
---
Taking Crow's hand in his, Julian lead her to the fire-pit. The breeze had grown stronger, stirring the ashes and making the swirling markings shift and move. Crow tugged at her brother's arm, trying to free her hand.
"Okay, great. Nice clearing. Leaving now, right?"
Julian merely looked at her and tightened his grip.
"No."
Crow gave an uneasy laugh and tried to tug her hand away again.
"Yeah, I think we should."
Julian wrenched Crow's arm close to him and bent her wrist back sharply, making her wince.
"Shut up, you filthy whore."
Crow stopped struggling and stared at him in stunned hurt that shifted to unthinking rage. With her free hand, she slashed at Julian's arm, feeling fleeting satisfaction as her claws tore the flesh. Julian looked at the wound silently, and without hesitation shoved her onto the fire pit.
The breeze turned to howling winds that made the trees seem to writhe, and deadly silence fell upon the clearing as Crow tried to untangle herself from the mess of half-burned logs and sticks. Glaring at Julian in anger, she was about to start yelling at him when a white fire began to flicker to life.
Crow stared in horror as the white flames started licking upwards, the inexplicable spark catching on the dry wood and her body. Julian gave a wild, desperate laugh and kicked Crow down again, his laughter reaching maddened volume as Crow screamed, the white fire enveloping her body.
---
Lenore gave a rattling sob and tried to cover her ears to block out the screaming. Whistling at Cole, she pointed at Julian.
"SIC 'IM!"
Cole complied with a vicious roar, spreading his rotted wings and taking flight, forgetting Malachi was on his back. Sadako tumbled onto the leaf-littered ground, letting loose an unearthly shriek as she landed.
The dragon burst into the clearing, making a beeline for Julian, claws outstretched and jagged teeth ready to savage whatever the could get a hold of.
The white fire grew taller still, its roaring drowning out Crow's screams. Twisted faces contorted in agony swirled in it and in the billowing smoke it emitted. Julian watched it in reverent awe, dropping to his knees in supplication.
As Cole drew closer, the white fire loosed a shaft of flame that struck him squarely in the face, surprising him and sending him tumbling back into the woods. He landed like a cat and melted into shadow, leaving Malachi behind as he ventured out again.
Julian turned away from the fire to look at Rabid, Lenore, and Cole, laughing uproariusly as Crow screamed again within the fire.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 12:08 pm
"No!" Rabid told Lenore and set her down, she bolted toward Julian and Crow. The screams were heart-wrenching...horribly painful. Her pupils shrunk drastically...her nails lengthened...and she felt her fangs beginning to stretch and cut into her lower lip. It'd been such a long time since she'd felt the thrill of a full-fledged Vampiric "attack mode". For a moment, she was ready to lunge at Julian, but another one of Crow's horrendous shrieks reminded her of her true purpose, and she instead lunged for the girl within the fire...
Malachi dropped to the ground, covering his ears and screaming...screaming...it felt like he'd never stop screaming...
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 6:41 am
Julian ran and tackled Rabid, heedless of his own safety.
"You will not help her! The deal will be finished!" he screamed in a steel-edged voice entirely not his own. The fire roared behind him, Crow's screams suddenly and unsettlingly cut off. He turned to watch the fire burn, face blank as the smoke dissapated and the blaze began to collapse within itself.
Lenore scrabbled up the nearest tree and launched herself into an unsteady glide, wanting nothing more than to push Julian into the blaze in trade for her mother. Landing gracelessly on her knees and wincing as she felt both knees scraped and skinned, she made as though to leap into the fire when it spoke again. A tendril of flame snaked out from the bottom of the pit and circled 'round Lenore. She winced and shuddered - the fire was cold as ice.
"Enough. The compact is complete. Be free of it, slave."
Another shaft of fire erupted from the white, roaring mass, striking Julian square in the heart. His blank face contorted in pain and shock as it ran him through, knocking him off his feet and sending him sprawling.
The bolt burned away at his shirt, revealing the ring of hideous symbols cut into the flesh above his heart. A jagged burn broke the center rune, an evil-looking symbol of an eye. Julian gave a shuddering gasp and clutched at his heart, giving the fire an incredulous look of total confusion before passing into a dead faint.
Lenore sawed away at the icy tendril of fire, razor feathers chipping and ringing tonelessly as they sought to cut through the evil blaze. The fire had almost completely collapsed in on itself, presumably with Crow inside it - after all, no fire-blackened bones lay in the fire pit. Squirming loose as the tendril began to flicker away, she sprang into the pit and slashed at the small fire.
"Be still, Unseelie-Brat."
The voice held only a hint of a sneer as she gave a shriek of indignity, flailing in alarm as a face in the fire opened its maw wide and swallowed her, heedless to the slashing razor feathers. The face faded as Lenore disappeared into the mass of white, and with a shuddering scream the fire extinguished itself.
As the last lick of smoke dissapated, Julian stirred and rose with a groan of pain. Looking around dully and giving Rabid a surprised glance, he scratched at his burn ruefully.
"Huh. What'd I miss?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 1:30 pm
"You!" Rabid growled menacingly, "You b*****d!" She lunged toward him and wrapped a strong hand around his neck, pinning him to the ground and holding tight. Not enough to strangle him, sadly. She still needed him to talk...for now.
"What's going on?! WHERE'S CROW?!"
Malachi realized the lull in noise, and scrambled over to Mummy. He saw her hurting the Bad Man, and began to stalk toward them, ready to join her. When he realized the lack of others, though, he gasped.
"LEN?!" he then remembered hearing her scream, "LENORE?!?!?!" He scrambled toward fire pit and began digging through it. Where were they?! His searched ceased soon, though, and he ran to the Bad Man.
"WHAT DID BAD MAN DO?!" he shrieked angrily as everything went sharp...
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:44 pm
Julian spluttered and stared at the woman partially strangling him.
"Lady, ya took the words right outta my mouth -gack!-tootightcan'tbreathe!"
He clawed fruitlessly at Rabid's hand, trying to suck in all the air he could as his throat was slowly crushed. He glanced over when he heard the second, piping voice, and let out a loud yell of surprised horror.
"What the hell is that?! Since when do squirrels talk? WHERE THE HELL AM I?!"
Twisting his neck so that the pressure lessened a tiny bit, he gulped like a fish and looked at the fire pit. A shudder ran through him and he touched the burn over his heart instinctively, wincing and trying to shake his head to clear it. Looking at the slashed flesh of his arm in confusion, his eyes briefly rolled back into his head as another tremor shook his body.
"It was them....they made me do it..."
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