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 Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 4:28 pm
Rabid shrieked once more and rushed to Julian, shaking him hard.
"Get up!" she demanded, "Get up get up get up!"
"What was that?"
"Christ, I dunno..."
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 4:40 pm
Julian didn't get up, his eyes remaining unfocused. Blood splattered under his head, a good deal beginning to pool on the landing. He had killed himself.
The winds over the desert silenced themselves, going unnaturally still before beginning to blow in full force outwards. The cold was beginning to lessen, to blow outwards with the sudden breeze. And suddenly the air was beginning to thin. The winds were blowing away from the motel, and it was taking all the air with it. The winds screamed as the vacuum intensified, blowing up a dust storm in the desert, and suddenly all sounds were silenced. The sands whipped high into the air, and rippled outwards like rings on a pond. The wall of sand redoubled and blew back towards the motel and the air returned clogged with dust.
---
Ethan, suddenly gasping for air, felt an ice-cold pain in his chest and screamed out soundlessly. He fell to the ground, back arching up and fingers clawing at the ground as unbearable, horrible cold coursed through him, spreading up and down his spine and worming into his head. He gave another silent scream, and suddenly his body buckled and he went still as the winds returned.
---
Out in the desert, it stumbled over a rock and reared up, startled.
"There you are," it murmured, facing north. It began to run.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 4:43 pm
"NO!" Rabid yelped, suddenly dropping to Julian's chest and sobbed, chest heaving horribly.
Liam suddenly coughed, stumbled backward, and gave a strange convulsion, a river of blood cascading from between his lips.
"Hey, hey, hey. Faar, you alright?"
Liam shook his head, stumbling to one side as if drunk.
"Woah. WOAH!"
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 4:50 pm
Gagging as she inhaled a good deal of dust, Lenore called out to Ethan.
"What was that?" she screeched. When Ethan didn't answer her she leaned over expectantly. She froze when she saw him on the ground, and an instant later leaped out of the bed and grabbed him. "Ethan. ETHAN. Wake up, wake up please,"
Ethan's head lolled, then slowly rolled on his shoulders. Before Lenore could react he grabbed her head, fingernails cutting into her skin.
"The thief," he said, voice a deathrattle and his smile a rictus. "You will tell me where he is."
---
It was running as fast as it could. Master needed it, and here it was out in the middle of no where, not where it needed to be again.
"Wake up," it rasped, going onto all fours and running so fast it seemed to fly. "No time to sleep, they're coming, time to get up now-"
---
Julian's eyes, already beginning to film over, snapped wide open. He bolted upright with a strangled gasp, clawing at the back of his head and fingers catching on something sharp. He twisted and shuddered, screaming curses at the pain, and yanked a long shard of glass out of his head. The wound closed with a wet slurping kind of sound, and he coughed, gasping for breath and completely disoriented.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 4:53 pm
Rabid gave a cry of relief and clung to Julian, her sobbing getting worse if anything.
"YOU WERE DEAD AND I COME ON WE'VE GOTTA GO THERE'S THINGS AND I DUNNO AND--"
Liam spat a gob of blood to the ground.
"Why'd you do that? Why did you do that."
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 5:00 pm
Julian stared at Rabid without recognition, then something seemed to snap back into place in his head. He realized he was still holding the glass shard and threw it aside, breathing hard.
"I don't- what- where," he said, looking around. What the flying ********. He coughed again, hugging Rabid awkwardly with one arm as he got up. The world tilted violently to the right and he stumbled. "Hnnn..."
Everything hurt. He was hot, too hot. The cold was gone. His thoughts were clear...
"Too easy," he said, shaking his head. "It's too easy. I was almost there."
He blinked, then looked around.
"Crow?" he called, looking expectant.
---
"Ethan, stop, please-" Len choked, scrabbling at his hands, unwilling to try and fight him off.
Ethan shook her, his expression so purely insane it was unnatural.
"Where-" he said, punctuating his words with each shake, "-is -he. Tell me, little Unseelie whore. Tell us and we'll let go."
Lenore gave a strangled cry and slashed a hand across Ethan's face. Her nails were every bit as sharp as Crow's claws, and she left a livid wound behind.
Ethan screeched and mashed Lenore's head against the side of the truck, the impact knocking her out. He pressed a hand to his face, jaw slack and spittle dripping off in a rope as the cuts healed over.
"Little b***h," he said, kicking her. He looked at the dead body in the truck bed with those too-wide eyes, head cracking to one side as he turned on his heel and ventured into the motel.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 5:04 pm
"Julian, she died," Rabid said as calmly as she could, "She's pretty banged up. That's why we came for you."
"What was that?"
"...what was what?"
"I heard something."
"I didn't."
"Sounded like Ethan, kinda."
"I didn't hear anything."
"Shhhh..." Björn most assuredly heard someone else moving about. Perhaps it was a sleazy motel-dweller, perhaps not. No matter. He'd heard someone scream, and it just didn't sound right.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 5:12 pm
Julian half-laughed, shaking his head.
"What," he said, looking stricken but trying to make it incredulous. "She can't. That's... how can you even..."
He looked around, trying to see where Crow was hiding. The landing was empty. A hard knot formed in his throat and he shook his head again. No. It wasn't true.
"When we get out of here she's gonna tell me why she copped out of coming," he said harshly. "And you're gonna have to fill me in on...why..."
He trailed off into silence and listening, though not to what Björn had heard. It was a sound like rats skittering, and it was coming from all directions. He looked out into the shadowed desert, turning pale.
"Too easy," he repeated, voice breaking. "...hide. HIDE."
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 5:14 pm
Instead of hiding, Rabid clung harder to Julian. Liam gravitated back toward the wall, trying to hide beside if not behind the broken television. Björn, however, stood where he was, listening and trying to ignore the pain in his chest.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 5:56 pm
Dragging Rabid into the room with him and pressing himself against the shadowed wall, Julian tried to ignore how fast his heart was beating as the skittering sounds grew louder.
Don't find us don't find us don't find us don't find us, his thought desperately, flinching as something gave a harsh guttural call and a chorus of voices called back.
"We need to get out," he breathed, bumping his head against the wall in frustrated anger. "They're coming."
---
It could sense the dreadful presence of the war party, that mass of cold. It stumbled again and shuddered, shrinking back.
"Well, that complicates things," it muttered, pushing its mask back up and claws testing the metal thoughtfully. It reached out, looking for Master again, and allowed itself a breath of relief to sense him up and around. It gurgled in discomfort as it sensed the smaller little splinter of cold. Too small for Mistress. It reached out and found she was still sleeping, and sighed.
"Wake up."
---
Crow had been dead four days, her body beginning to decay. It was not a pleasant feeling to wake up to. And neither was the sound of breaking eggshells as her skull knit back together.
"Hnnaaaaangh!" she shrieked, struggling against the sheet that was wrapped around her.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 5:59 pm
Björn flinched.
"I'm hearing things. I agree with Julian. We...really need to go."
And the the howling.
"
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 6:08 pm
Julian, who'd jolted at the sound of screaming, shook his head.
"They must have caught someone," he said, sounding sick. "They're called Zheh Hakin. They're like...soldiers. Kind of. Things we don't want to meet up with. Come on, we have to get out of here."
Grabbing Liam and dragging him and Rabid outside, he jerked his head to Björn and started down the landing.
"They're fast, but if we can get to a car we can outrun them," he continued, pausing as the guttural language drew closer. He didn't dare to breathe, to move, until the unit had passed by. He gave Liam a sidelong look, letting him go with a murmured apology.
"They're really pissed off at you," he said. "They're discussing what they're going to do to you when they catch you."
He looked around, making sure the way was clear, and then beckoned the others to follow.
---
Ripping free of the sheet, Crow gulped in air. Her skull was still destroyed on one side, and she could only see out of one eye.
"Hnnn! Hnnaaah!"
Struggling, falling out of the truck bed, she forced herself up, looking at her gray skin. She was breathing but her heart wasn't beating. She was still dead. With a cry, scared of the skittering and rough-voiced mutterings all around, she ran into the complex to hide. She didn't even realize Lenore was still on the ground.
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 4:37 pm
The group followed obediently, each looking significantly more skittish than the last. Poor Liam was twitching.
"Why? What'd I do? Why does everything want to eat me?"
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 4:47 pm
"Hell if I know," Julian said, peering around a corner. "But they're furious. And keeping you away from them would be a really fantastic idea."
He froze as a series of throaty growls sounded below, and had to clap a hand to his mouth as the sound of a door being kicked in and very human screams resulted.
"No," he breathed, rushing to the railing on the landing. "No, no!"
The screams were suddenly cut off, and Julian stumbled back.
"They're killing everyone they find..."
---
Crow stumbled out into something that might once have been a patio. The pool was clogged with sand and stagnant water sat at the deep end. She sank onto one of the aged lounge chairs, looking at her fingers where the skin had started to rot off. The dead skin peeled off like it had been sunburned, revealing living tissue beneath.
She was aware of the absence of her pulse with every breath, and sucked in gulps of air to try and see if it would jump start her heart. It didn't work, but she felt like it had skipped a beat anyway as she heard screaming. She bolted off the chair and ran blindly, ducking into another corridor.
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 4:50 pm
"All my fault," Liam twitched, "Good God, what's going on?"
Just go down there. You can take whatever it is.
Björn raised a hand to his temple and cringed. No schizophrenic disembodied voice was going to tell him what to do.
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