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 Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:41 pm
[Nobody Loves You When You're Gone]Quote: Coughing up feeling just for you To find something real to hold on to But there is a hole inside my heart Where all of my love comes pouring out You know you'll always be my man But grab yourself sweetness where you can Cause sooner or later we're gonna die Left to the dogs under the sky
Chandra opened her eyes, looking up at Kiran from where her head rested on his shoulder. It was so comfortable sitting in his lap like this. She only wished he wouldn't keep pushing for more.
"You are also cold." She said, pretending he was speaking only of body temperature. "I cannot change that."
Kiran sighed, wrapping a chunk of hair around his hand and tugging sharply. "You know that isn't what I meant."
Chandra ignored the pain, but her eyes teared slightly. "I do, but I disagree." She gasped as he tugged on her hair again and tightened the arm around her shoulders, effectively trapping her in his lap. "I am a child Kiran. I am not the Chandra you knew."
Kiran released the chunk of hair, but kept a tight hold on his love, his little pet. "It's ok," he soothed, stroking one alabaster cheek. "You're right. I understand. Don't be mad at me?"
Chandra closed her eyes and relaxed, sure the conversation was over again. "Of course not," she murmured. She started to say something else, but was cut off when Kiran leaned down to brush his lips against hers lightly.
Clenching her jaw, Chandra opened her eyes again to stare up at Kiran in confusion.
"I thought we had just settled this." She said, clipping her words.
Kiran smiled condescendingly and placed a cold finger over Chandra's lips. "You'll never remember what we were if you keep dwelling on what we are." He leaned to brush her lips with his again, but this time Chandra put up on of her hands to block him.
"Stop it Kiran." She closed her eyes and leaned back, trying to relax. She didn't want to make him angry again.
"Very well," he sighed, brushing his cold lips against her forehead instead.
Chandra waited a few moments until his hold on her loosened slightly to try and sit up. Kiran growled and tightened his hold, wrapping his second arm around her waist to match the one across her shoulders.
"I want to go out Kiran. You know I will return." Chandra said, trying not sound irritated. Love was not all she had been led to believe by watching TV. "Let me up."
"No." Kiran said, pulling her in closer and burying his head in her hair. "I don't ever want to let you go again."
"Kiran." Chandra said, a slight edge creeping into her voice.
"Fine!" Kiran exploded, pushing Chandra away from him roughly and sending her head first into the floor. A couple inches to the left and she would have split her head on the chair there.
Chandra resisted the urge to mention this, almost positive Kiran had aimed her fall carefully. Instead, she picked herself up and turned to say good night. By the time she looked, however, Kiran had already left - no doubt in a snit. Her next encounter with him would likely be unpleasant.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:42 pm
I saw one of the split children again. The one called Demare. He is still split between light and dark. Demon and angel. He claims not to know how this happened, which I believe. If there is any parallel to my own condition, it would make sense that he does not know the origin of his present situation.
I have to wonder if Mictecacihuatl and Xochiquetzal know anything about him. I would ask, but it would be another admission of ignorance. I do not need to know about this child's past, so I will not waste a favor on it.
I do have to wonder what he knows about the land beyond the final Mountain. The Book says I or any necromancer who passes through will never be allowed to return. That the mysteries beyond the final Mountain are not for any living soul to posess.
The stones in the charm I gave the child have done nothing, but he seemed to think they might. That such artifiacts should not be given to demons. I have started to wonder myself if giving those stones as gifts was a poor idea. However, if that is the case, I will deal with it when it comes.
I would like to speak further with Demare.
According to my mother, the stones may bring us together. I would fear that prophecy except for the addition of that single word of uncertainty.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:43 pm
There are new Legends arriving everyday. Who would have thought their were so many unfulfilled souls wishing to return to Life? I can only hope none of them end up being victims from my own past.
I saw one of these new Legends and their guardian this evening. The child was crying, desolate. It did not appear to be abused in any way, so I offered to make music assuming the child would calm. It did not end up working that way, implying either that my music was not soothing or that the child was crying for something else.
I do hope to encounter the child again.
It looks like I will need to venture to the HQ more often.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:44 pm
kamtrouble Black Pearl's Journal [Diary Entry]
This book will be dedicated to my observations about the shadow fiend which stalks my every step. Since I found her in that lonely alley, she has rarely ventured out of my shadow for more than a moment or two - even in the darkness of the night. In fact, she even haunts my dreams, but I will get to that later.
The first time I encountered Athan was when I had first found the pearl. In that darkened alleyway where I killed the rat he confronted me and explained about the shadow fiends. The second time I encountered him was when I made my way to the main "shop" of the fiends.
The first time he struck me as one of the figures in my life whom I have come to hate. One of the figures who tells me only what they feel I need to know and limit my access to the type of information that allow survival to be more than just the act of barely holding on. Someday I hope to break through these people, to find myself in the possession of knowledge they do not have - but want.
The second time I saw Athan he struck me as more like myself. One who has only enough information to know they need more. He asked me about a shadow. One that was no my own. I told him the truth - that I had seen no such thing and asked what I should do if I did. He told me to immediately alert him if such a thing should come to pass.
I do not know what it is that he fears. I almost hope to see it for myself, so that I might know what would spook a man like him.
The fiend itself puzzles me enough to keep my mind occupied until I have a better chance to unravel the mystery of Athan. Most of the time it is dormant, but every so often it seems to awaken. At these times it cripples with me with its emotions, projecting abject sorrow and despair into my mind.
The reason for this sadness is unclear to me. The fiend appears to be unable to communicate in words, just emotions. Except perhaps in sleep.
On several occasions I have had dreams which I believe may be related to the fiend. I do not often remember my dreams when I have awoken, so my recollections are fragmented at best. I will record what I remember here.
Water. Filling my mouth, my lungs. Preventing any though but panic, preventing my screams for assistance. Resisting my frantic clawing. A current pulling me down, farther into the unknown. The darkness waiting below. Waiting to swallow me. To silence me forever. I have fallen from someplace greater. To crash into this liquid which fills my lungs. Seeping into every pore. Bloating me. Blinding me. I am dead, but I can see. In fact, I could not close my eyes if I wished. I see everything as a silent observer. No matter how I wish to warn, to scream and yell for release from this half life - I am mute. It is as if I am behind a wall of glass. I can beat on it with my fists and scream until I am hoarse, but no one can see me, hear me, or help me. The dream ends with me beating myself senseless against this wall of glass. Battering my soul until I am nothing and still getting no result. I die again, alone and forgotten. This time slipping into the silent darkness which awaits below me.
Gasping for air. Buried alive by a group of faceless strangers who ignore my pleas to halt. They ignore my assertions that I am alive, turning their faces from me as I claw at the wood surrounding me. My nails snap off leaving my fingers bleeding and bent. Then I am out. Free to breathe the air again. But then I am grabbed, shoved down by an army of hands. Something is forced into my mouth and something else laid over my eyes. I am blind and mute again. All I can do is hear. Which is nothing at all because silence descends immediately, cutting me off from everything. All I have left is feeling. Pain. Nothing but extreme pain. I can think of nothing but the pain. My brain is in agony . Panic. What is happening? What can I do? The dreams ends when my thoughts shut down, trail off. The pain is too much and I give in. I allow myself to succumb. I give up.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:45 pm
Zayne's Tome Spite and Malice
"Would you like to play cards with me?" Zayne asked, standing politely outside of Chandra's room with a deck of cards clasped in one small fist.
Chandra looked up from where she was performing some sort of maintenance on the swarm of sprockets that lived in her room and nodded seriously, setting down her tools where she sat.
"Very well. What and where shall we play?"
Zayne felt a small trill of triumph at Chandra's assent, but her eyes betrayed nothing.
"Kam just taught me a new game yesterday. We will need a big playing surface, so I suggest the living room coffee table."
Chandra nodded again and stodd slowly, stretching as she reached her full height. Even her small white wings twitched slightly, sending a few fluffy feathers drifting to the floor.
"Lead on."
Zayne bobbed quickly, aborting the curtesy she seemed driven to by Chandra's quiet imperious air, before turning to go down the stairs to the living room.
Chandra trailed behind the younger girl, wondering quietly why she was suddenly being so friendly after a week or so of frozen silence. There was something very wrong with Zayne in Chandra's opinion, but she wasn't sure what exactly. Only time would tell what sort of schemes lurked behind her rather innocent exterior.
Several minutes later, Zayne and Chandra were seated across from each other at the living room table. Zayne had arranged a series of cards on the table, while rapidly spitting out rules. Chandra absorbed this all with a calm she knew would be unsettling to her opponent. In card games her unnatural stillness served her well.
"What is the name for this game?" Chandra asked quietly, picking up a handful of cards and fanning them out in front of her.
"Spite and malice." Zayne answered, mirroring Chandra's motions with her own. "Or it is alternately known as mischief."
She looked up at her older "sister" over the top of her own cards. She couldn't read Chandra, she doubted seriously that anyone could, but it didn't matter. The point of the game was not whether she won or lost, but how she played the game. If she won it would simply be a bonus, a little added sweetness to savor on the long road to her ultimate goal.
"You start," she said, rather unnecessarily she saw as Chandra placed her first card down.
zayne's tricky nature wasn't really any match for Chandra's sharp intelligence. Five games later, none of them close, Zayne sat back with a sigh. She just didn't have the patience to plan far enough ahead. Always in the beginning it seemed she was winning, but at some point the balance would suddenly shift in Chandra's favor - and at that point the game was swiftly won. There was a lesson there, she mused, but it was beyond her at the moment.
"Thank you for playing cards with me." Zayne began picking up the cards, getting them lined and piled up so she could slide them back into their box.
"Anytime." Chandra said, standing.
Anytime. Zayne rolled the word over in her mind while she looked down at what she was doing. Excellent. This was exactly as she had hoped.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:46 pm
[A Stroke of Luck]Quote: Hanging by threads of palest silver I could have stayed that way forever Bad blood and ghosts wrapped tight around me Nothing could ever seem to touch me
"Where did you go?" Chandra questioned, assuming Chetana would know to what time period she referred.
"Death," Chetana whirred, laying flat on the carpet.
Ever since her return and subsequent evolution, she had been a little less rambunctious.
"When you did not return, I assumed you had been trapped. It was the most probable location to search for clues. I do not know why I was gone longer here than I was in Death. Some sort of chronistic anomaly possibly triggered by my inexperience navigating that realm alone."
Chandra considered this information carefully, sitting back against the side of her bed. She blinked occasionally and as she decided on her course of questioning, she leaned forward and placed her chin on one pale palm as she rested the elbow against her now pulled in legs.
"Where in Death did you go?"
She was careful not to sound too excited. Even if that didn't spook Chetana into becoming too excited to talk, it would probably draw Mictecacihuatl from her room down the hall. If possible, Chandra wanted to keep Chetana's ability to go in and out of Death on her own a secret from her 'mentor'.
"First, The Forest. The one known as Angerona had been destroyed there, burned by a fire which did not touch the nearby shrubbery."
Chetana paused, giving her mistress time to absorb this. Perhaps she would even have more questions about Chetana's conclusions after surveying the scene.
Chandra sighed slightly, letting the air flow out her parted lips in a steady stream. The she picked up her free arm and made a small wave, signalling Chetana to continue.
"That is old information. I killed Angerona using the key."
"The key!" Chetana suddenly seemed agitated, popping up to balance on her edge. "The key."
Raising her eyebrows questioningly, Chandra waited several minutes for Chetana to stop whirring and continue or explain. When she did not, the pale child reached out and poked Chetana.
"Continue with your story. I dislike when you end up chasing yourself down random rabbit holes." Chandra's voice was slightly condescending and a little scornful.
"Yes, mistress." Chetana replied, letting the odd rabbit comment go.
She didn't chase rabbits. Perhaps Chandra had her mixed up with one of the sprockets? They were always chasing things. Shadows across the floor, eachother, balloons, clouds, bugs - if it moved, they chased it.
"After sweeping the murder scene, I discovered and followed a path in the underbrush which led to the edge of The Forest. I was unaware that there was an edge before this point, but the trees stopped and a large, dry, windy desert began. The conditions were harsh, very inhospitable to machines and humans alike, but eventually I discovered a partially underground temple in which I sought shelter."
Chetana paused, almost as if pausing for breath. Chandra knew better though. Chetana didn't need to breathe, so this pause was her spot to comment and question the information that had already been shared. Chetana seemed to store information in particular sized chunks and then dump them one at a time when asked a question.
Chandra leaned back again and crossed her arms over her chest, tapping on her upper arm with her fingers.
"I have also been to The Desert. I probably crossed over the border for the first time not long before you did if the trail in the Forest was still freshly trampled. Did you encounter Xochiquetzal in the temple?"
"No." Chetana said decisively after a delay. "I didn't meet anyone until the very end when I dug out the chest. I did not stay to ask that entities name. Would you like me to skip to the end or continue from where I was?"
Chetana wrinkled her brow slightly. Was there another temple in the Desert? Another woman like Xochi and Mictec? She sincerly hoped that was not the case.
"From where you were," she answered finally, hoping the story wasn't too much longer. "I did not mean to derail your engrossing narrative."
"We went through several levels of the temple. I believe you might be interested to visit them someday although getting to them would be difficult for someone of your size."
Chandra nodded seriously, although her curiousity was seriously piqued by the revelation that Xochi (or someone else)'s temple had multiple levels.
"At some point in our exploration we must have crossed over another border. I ended up in a small rocky ocean cave. I found the chest I retrieved for you half buried in the sand. I knew I was nearing my limit, so when a woman appeared at the mouth of the cave I pulled myself and the sprockets back."
Chandra gave Chetana a small, but smug smile and stood. She stretched slowly, leaning to her right and then left.
"That explains the time lag then. The Book says that the farther one progresses in Death, the slower time passes until at the end - it stops. It is why no one can venture past the final Mountain and return."
Chetana processed this information with a quick series of clicks. Chandra had tried showing The Book to Chetana, but it had failed. The Book stil stubbornly refused to let anyone but Chandra read it.
And Dare, that one time as children...
"The story behind the chest intrigues me, as well as the fact you can pass into the Ocean through what I have to assume is Xochi's temple. I will have to think about this. In the meantime I want you to hide the chest. Do not tell Mictec about it, nor where you have put it. Do not tell me. I will find somewhere we can study it in secret later."
Chandra made her way over to the closet and threw open one of the doors with a loud clatter. The swarm of sprockets contained within, suddenly exposed to light, swarmed quickly out and around her ankles.
"If any of you heard any of that, I suggest you forget it. If I find out that you have been leaking your knowledge to anyone in this household - I will personally destroy every single one of you." Chandra gave the group a stern look of disapproval and a hint of cruelty.
"What if I heard some of it?"
Chandra turned slowly, one hand going involuntarily to the site on her leg of Kiran's latest diversion. A peppering of burns on the front of her upper thigh bore witness to the cruelty Kiran could inflict all while whispering words of love and longing in Chandra's ear.
"Did you?" She asked him breathlessly, her wings folding in close to her back.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:47 pm
[Lost]Quote: I am lost So I am cruel But I'd be love and sweetness If I had you I'm waiting I'm waiting for you I'm waiting I'm waiting for you
"You're playing a dangerous game," he whispered into her ear. "Why don't you let me hide the chest?" He pulled back, placing his hands in a vice-like grip on her shoulders. "Don't you trust me?"
Chandra blinked a couple times, trying to keep her face neutral as she considered what to say. In all honestly she had a feeling there was no correct answer, but that Kiran was simply setting her up.
"No, I do not." Chandra admitted, bracing herself for his reaction. Her eyes narrowed and she turned her head slightly away, clenching her jaw.
But Kiran simply loosened his grip and stepped away from her, walking over to look out the window.
"I'm hurt," he said softly. "I have done nothing to betray your confidence. It hurts me that you don't trust me. How can you love me if you can't even trust me?"
He looked back over one shoulder, pouting slightly. He obviously expected this to produce some osrt of reaction, but Chandra just shrugged. She did not trust him and the only emotion of his she cared about was when he was angry. Otherwise his emotional state was as opaque to her as anyone else.
"I don't love you," she said, turning to grab her cloak and leave. She was bolder than she might usually have been, counting on this odd mood of his.
"But I love you," Kiran said desperately, crossing the room to grab her arm and stop her. "I can't help but love you. Why do you tease me like this?" He grabbed her face and forced her to look at him, his fingers pressing into the side of her face uncomfortably. "You have this incredible power over me and you just dismiss it like I'm unworthy of you."
He scowled and let go of her face, almost immediately slapping her in the face. His heart wasn't in it though and Chandra's head snapped to the side, but she didn't move.
"I expect better the next time we meet, love." Kiran ran a hand softly down the side of her face and then released her and faded out of the room.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:48 pm
[Sleep]Quote: In the middle of the night You don't know what I'm thinking But still the stars do sparkle and shine Seems like all of the time Our boat was slowly sinking You didn't even seem to mind Now all I want to do is sleep
"Ugh!" She tried to quickly get to her feet, confused and fighting her way out of the fog of sleep that surrounded her, but nothing felt right and she stumbled against the side of the bed. Eventually, having finally woken completely, she relaxed and re-evaluated the situation. It appeared that she was alone, but drenched in sweat (a new experience) and entangled in her sheets. Additionally, her legs appeared to be much longer than usual and were sticking out of the bottom of the sheets wrapped around her. Most surprising of all, as she felt behind her she realized that her wings were missing.
"This has to be a dream," she breathed into the brightening darkness of her familiar room.
But she knew it wasn't. She had changed in the night, her body morphing into something less familiar and totally unexpected. After a few moments spent in front of the mirror, which was now at totally the wrong angle to see anything above her toso, she had to conclude that she had grown. And grown enough so that none of her current clothing would fit acceptably.
"Very nice," came the whisper from behind her as Kiran slipped an arm around her waist. "You look very attractive love. Older, which has always been my desire."
He leaned in to kiss her ear lobe, pulling her against him and Chandra experienced a moment of panicked despair as one hand slowly ran up from where it had rested on her stomach.
"I have waited long enough," Kiran said as he kissed her neck. "There is no reason for me to wait any longer."
He spun her around roughly and backed her up against the dresser, holding her arms immobile beside her. As Chandra closed her eyes, rather than deal with whatever it was that was going on, she opened them again. The door to her bedroom had been thrown open and the lights flipped by an intruder.
Kirin disappeared almost instantaneously, melting away in the direct light. As Chandra blinked through where he had been, she had a startled moment of recognition for the woman at the door. Someone from her past? She felt a feeling of peace and the overwhelming urge to lay down and just let go, before she snapped out of it and blinking owlishly recognized the woman at the door as her mother.
"Chandra!" Kam said desperately, almost as a plea for help. "Don't forget."
Not the usual Kam, the one who baked cookies and nagged about laundry, but the strange Kam, the dangerous Kam that Chandra had come to associate with strange looks and uncomfortable silence. However, even that Kam seemed familiar compared to this one. In the grips of what had to be the most powerful spell yet, Kam's hair was completely bleached to a pale grey and her eyes almost shone with amber light.
If she hadn't already been backed against the dresser, Chandra would have backed away.
"Do not forget." The woman repeated before slumping against the doorway with an exhaled breath. As her hair darkened back to brown (although now peppered with grey) and her eyes returned to their normal green and drooped, Chandra took a step forward. She still wasn't in time to catch Kam in her arms before the woman sunk the floor and passed out.
Chandra couldn't help but think this wasn't a very auspicious beginning to the next phase in her life.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:48 pm
I went to the HQ today and saw Prana for the first time in a long time. She has grown into a beautiful child. I did not speak with her for long, but we did end up exchanging the stone Raven gave each of us for Christmas. Somehow the ones we had did not feel as right as the others.
I wonder, now that I have a new stone whether it will do anything. Demare's stone transformed into a weapon. On which seems to be an extension of his self.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:49 pm
[Push It]Quote: I'm sorry that I hurt you Please don't ask me why I want to see you happy I want to see you shine
"Good morning," she said cruelly, glaring at them. "Are we having a meeting? It must have slipped my mind."
Mictecacihuatl just smirked, leaning back in her chair and letting her arms dangling bonily at her sides. She said nothing, but nodded at Xochiquetzal, giving her the lead.
Xochiquetzal smiled broadly at Chandra, her plump cheeks dimpling appealingly, and draped her arms on top of the counter.
"I believe an associate of yours stole something that ... belongs... to me. I would like to have it returned." Her voice was smooth and inviting, but something lay beneath it - a dagger below the silk.
Chandra, in the worst mood she had probably ever been in, and pissed because she didn't understand why, put a hand on her hip and sneered at the two women.
"I am sorry to disappoint, but I do not know what you are speaking of." She said it with an expression that quite clearly conveyed the fact that she knew exactly what they were talking about, but wasn't going to play nice.
Mictecacihuatl scowled and sat forward, folding her arms over her emaciated chest but remained silent. Xochiquetzal laughed, a high tinkling sound, and stood. She sashayed her way over to place one fleshy hand on the small of Chandra's back so she could subtly steer her towards a free chair.
"Problems, dear?" She said, leaning in much too close and pressing herself up against Chandra's arm. "Do tell. I love a good piece of gossip."
"Blackmail," Chandra muttered darkly, accepting the offered seat. "I do not have any problems except that I came home to sleep and instead I have been ambushed by two of the people I would least like to see right now."
Mictecacihuatl sighed heavily and rolled her dull sunken eyes.
"This is what comes of associating too much with the Living. Too much intensity of emotion. This is inefficient and beneath you, Chandra."
Xochiquetzal nodded, wriggling her wide hips back into her former chair.
"Talking about it will help. Spill girlfriend." Xochiquetzal giggled again, causing Mictecacihuatl to wince noticibly. Chandra had to wonder why the chest was so important that it had brought the two of them into such close contact with each other.
"I saw someone I once considered a friend tonight and the meeting went as well as might be expected given the way we last parted."
Chandra crossed her arms protectively over her chest and looked down at the surface of the island, uncrossing one arm to trail a pale finger along the pattern in the marble countertop contemplatively.
"If you knew not to expect much, why are you upset?" Xochiquetzal said knowingly.
Mictecacihuatl slapped one bony hand down on the table hard enough to break a normal person's hand and stood.
"We are wasting time. She obviously has a thing for this boy. This is you fault," she accused, pointing at Xochiquetzal. "She makes a poor vessel because of your influence."
Xochiquetzal opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by Chandra's outraged exclamation of, "I do not have a THING for anyone!"
Both women blinked at Chandra as the chair she had been sitting on toppled backwards onto the floor.
"Sit down," Xochiquetzal said suddenly, not smiling anymore. "We are not done speaking."
Chandra turned around and stood the seat back up so she could sit back down. She didn't want to sit back down, she wanted to march out of the kitchen and the house and walk off somewhere were she could be alone with the mass of feeling swirling unwanted in her mind. However, she not only had nowhere to go, but she knew that it was more than likely Mictecacihutal and Xochiquetzal could find her wherever she went.
"What exactly are we speaking about?" She said peevishly once she had seated herself.
Looking only slightly less annoyed, Mictecacihuatl once again deferred to Xochiquetzal. The rosy cheeked woman, once again smiling deceptively, folded her arms carefully in front of her.
"I am willing to let you keep the chest," she started, putting up a hand to stem any explanation of comments Chandra might have to that statement. "But I reccomend you do not open it."
"Also," she continued, now putting up a hand to halt the tide of words threatening to spill out of Mictecacihuatl. "We both believe you should realize that as I come into prominance and Mictecacihuatl's reign draws to a close, you will find yourself more and more under my influence."
"These feelings." Chandra said angrily. "Your fault?"
"Possibly," Xochiquetzal admitted easily. "They're going to be worse when Mictecaichuatl's reign officially draws to a close."
"What you have to keep in mind," Mictecacihuatl warned, causing a look of displeasure to cross Xochiquetzal's face. "is that while you may long for love and companionship, you do not deserve either one. You are an abomination who bridges a wall that was not meant to be bridged and one who used those abilities for cruel and selfish ends. No matter what you think you are in this life, you will always be paying for the one that preceeded it."
In the shocked silence that followed, Xochiquetzal sighed petulantly and leaned back in her chair.
"You ruin all my fun," she complained looking at Mictecacihuatl with an amusement that belied the content of her statement.
Mictecaichuatl ignored her, presumably one of the perks of being in ascendance, and made her way over to glare down at Chandra from beside her chair.
"For this reason and I imagine others, Kiran has been destroyed."
Chandra just gaped, feeling awake for the first time that evening.
"What?" She said, disbelieving.
Mictecacihuatl and Xochiquetzal shared a glance and then Mictecacihuatl answered.
"We don't know, but his body was found earlier this evening."
"Just his current body then," Chandra asked. "They didn't destroy him completely?"
Xochiquetzal answered this time, giving Chandra a strange look.
"No, he is gone. Mictecacihuatl and I both confirmed that he has been destroyed. Although not in the same manner as Angerona."
Chandra blanched slightly and avoided looking at Mictecacihuatl, remembering that Angerona had in some way been her servant. Neither of the odd women seemed inclined to pursue that topic further, however, and Chandra made her way out of the kitchen unchallenged.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:50 pm
Chandra Trouble [Connections]
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:51 pm
Port Gino: The Faerie Slipper [Blood on My Hands]I woke, retching, to the overwhelming metallic smell of blood.
My movements slow and clumsy, as if I was someone else, I moved my head so that my hands swam into my blurry field of vision. I knew, like I often knew things I shouldn't, that they would be coated in the crimson substance that meant death.
When I woke for the second time, I was back in my attic bedroom staring at the tapestry that hung on the ceiling over my bed. Elephants marching around in a circle in alternation with peacocks. All of it rendered in a red that made the pit of my stomach sink uncomfortably.
As details flooded in as flashes, single frames frozen in time, it was difficult to tell whether it had been a dream or a vision. It felt so real, so impossibly vivid. It almost seemed too real to be anything but an actual event.
Rough concrete walls, echoing with cruel laughter. Blurry rays of light pushing into a dark space through a grimey window. Isolated pieces of furniture, bent or broken, and throwing shadows that seemed to crawl in the dim light. A shadow in the corner.
It was tough to tell at times, what was real and what was vision. Like the visions were beginning to bleed into my sense of self. It wasn't always like this.
In the beginning it was easy to tell reality from the visions of what might be. The visions felt like movies, overlayed on the reality that is my life. Lately, however, they've been getting worse. Not only are the visions hard to seperate from reality, they've begin to hijack my body. While in the grips of a strong vision, I regularly black out and find myself somewhere different at the end than at the beginning.
I feel like I'm constantly asleep, passing from dream to dream. At this point, nothing honestly seems real.
Which is why, when I finally looked down from the tapestry on the ceiling to my hands - I wasn't surprised to find them still coated in blood.
I was suprised later when the blood washed off in the sink, staining the white porcelain a sick pink color. Visions can't be washed off with water.
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Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2005 7:52 am
Port Gino: The Faerie Slipper [Dreaming of You]The dreams have started again, but I have to admit I'm no longer sure of whether they're dreams or not.
They come in sets of three, a number I have come to fear. I see it everywhere now. Three dandelions in the back yard, three cars parked on my block. I'm starting to wonder if I've lost my tenuous grip on reality. The night in between repetitions is my only sign I haven't completely lapsed into insanity.
I believe the bracelet is behind this. It has set down roots in my soul and it is taking over, like some sort of poisonous parisitic vine. I can see it, the specks of amber floating in my veins - poisoning me. I wonder daily how long it will take for it to consume me, body and soul. And will I have any inkling that its conquest is imminent?
I tried to remove it, but it looks like I would have to give up my hand to have any chance of getting rid of the abomination. When I tried to slide it off, it just got smaller and smaller until it pinched painfully into my skin.
Another question that puzzles me - who is this woman who appears before my window? Why does she stare at me so intently, but speak not a word?
And above all, why does she feel so familiar? If I could move while she was there, I feel as if I could run into her arms and everything would suddenly be ok. Like she could block out the world for me.
Her eyes are a blinding amber, so I can't look directly at them. Her hair is long, the gentle waves reaching down to her ankles. I can make out no other details with the moonlight streaming in at her back.
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Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2005 7:53 am
Port Gino: The Faerie Slipper [As I Slowly Unravel]I spotted some blood on the wall near the door to Chandra's bedroom.
A handprint.
I tried to rub it out with my sleeve, but the fresh blood just smeared over the light colored wall making a more noticable mess.
Why? Why does the blood haunt me so?
I eventually went and got a sponge to remove the stain I had left on the wall, but not before Chandra and Zayne woke up. I had to tell them that the blood was my own from where I had cut myself. I'm not sure they believed me.
I am paranoid that they will find me out. That I will be exposed for whatever it is I have become. I have changed so much on the inside, become so warped from my original self, that I feel they must be able to see it on the outside.
Maybe they have, but haven't said anything.
Perhaps they are conspiring behind my back.
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Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:52 am
[They: Who Did It?]Quote: And I'm sorry so sorry I'm sorry it's like this I'm sorry so sorry I'm sorry we do this
Days passed in a sort of half-sleep and nights were spent staring at the ceiling, succumbing slowly to the depressive aura the black pearl emitted.
In a particularly insightful moment, Chandra thought that perhaps things would continue that way indefinately or at least until she collapsed in on herself like some sort of burnt out stellar body.
But, as she often was, Chandra was wrong. In the morning that undeniably changed the course of her mother and sister's lives, Chandra's life was also altered.
Chandra wasn't out in the hall when the handprint appeared, nor was she present to see her mother attempting to smear it away before Zayne's stunned eyes. But she didn't have to be. The handprint was merely the tip of the iceberg.
Chandra awoke just before the first light of dawn to the smell of fresh blood in her room. Confused, she blinked at the ceiling and wondered when she had managed to doze off. Stiff from sleeping curled up around The Book, she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Peering down to where her pale feet peeked out from under the edge of the slip she wore to bed, Chandra was surprised to see bloody footprints superimposed on her midnight blue carpet.
"Those shouldn't show." she said wonderingly. "The carpet is too dark for the red to show so brilliantly."
Were they not real? Chandra stretched out a single toes to nudge the heel of the nearest print and it smudged, staining her toenail crimson.
"It is real blood." Chetana confirmed, startling Chandra into drawing her foot back abruptly. "No one is sure of the origin, however. It appears everyone in the immediate area was... unconcious when these prints appeared."
Chandra glanced at the clock and was surprised to see she couldn't actually read off the number. If she tried to focus on the individual numbers, they simply blurred. Shaking her head, Chandra turned back to study the pair of footprints leading away form the edge of her bed.
"Where do they go?" She asked, following them step-by-step with her eyes.
"The door in the wall." Chetana said matter-of-factly. "The door with the bloody handprints."
Chandra made some noise of assent even though until that moment in time she hadn't noticed the large black door which had appeared where her bedroom window should have been.
"I wonder what lies beyond the door." Chandra asked, pushing herself to her feet.
Leaving The Book on the bed, Chandra drifted across her room to stand before the door. Each step she took stained her feet darker as she placed her feet unconciously in the center of every footprint. Behind her, they disappeared, becoming as fuzzy and faded as the rest of her room.
When she finally stood before the door, Chetana at her side, Chandra placed her hands calmly in the center of the handprints which clung to its surface. It was as if time had frozen them there, keeping them from being absorbed by the surface or pulled groundward by gravity.
For a moment Chandra felt as if something might happen, but moments passed and nothing did. Even a rough push failed to budge the door. She looked for a knob of some sort, but nothing presented itself. Finally sighing in frustration, she removed her hands, which now matched the color of her feet.
"What do I do next?" She said, not expecting Chetana to have an answer, but asking anyway.
"I do not know." Chetana whirred, sounding discouraged - if a machine could even be discouraged.
Chandra blinked and then, in a moment of clarity, shucked her body for the nearness of Death. As the familiar cold consumed her, inside and out, she allowed a smile to transform her normally serious expression.
For in front of her, totally out of place in the forest clearing she had come to know so well, was the door. It appeared exactly as it did in Life, except that exactly in the center of the handprints was a keyhole.
A keyhole that would match the mysterious key at her side exactly.
Rustling forward in the ridiculous crimson dress that often made up her garb in Death, Chandra pulled the key from her side and placed it into the keyhole. The turned it all the way around three times before it clicked and then she again placed her palms over the handprints.
This time she did not have to wait long. The door swung inward almost immediately, sweeping her and Chetana inside.
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