|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 1:35 pm
__Part 30
The door to the room was gone. No matter how hard Crow looked, she couldn't find it again. There were walls surrounding her. No windows. No door into the outside world. She'd shouted in victory when she'd found the first door, but it only went into the bathroom, an even smaller space that made her feel further trapped.
"No use," the creak-voiced thing had said. "No way out."
"There is," Crow had retorted, running her hands over the wall in front of her. "I'm leaving."
"I am bringing you home," the thing had argued.
"I am home," she'd whispered back.
That had been days ago. Or maybe hours. She didn't know anymore. Time was no longer important. Whether it passed in this prison or not was not her business. She just wanted to get out.
And the creak-voiced thing hurt her for it.
"UNGH!"
Sliding down the wall, clutching her injured arm, Crow looked up at the thing. It was shadow, nothing but shadow, and it sank back into the dark.
"Not leaving," it said. "Stay down."
Crow stood, and kept looking for the door. The thing rose from the dark behind her and struck her again, one whip-like limb slashing into her back.
"AHHN!"
"Stay down."
Crow cried until she started laughing, pushing herself up and pounding at the wall. The lash fell again and pulled her away from the door, throwing her across the floor.
"Stay down."
Crow laughed again.
"Why? No one's coming, gone, all gone," she said, curling up into a ball as the creak-voiced thing loomed over her. "No one's coming..."
"Need you alive," it said. "Not whole. Wounds heal. Death doesn't."
Crow started laughing wildly, and the creak-voiced thing emerged from the shadows. Her laughter turned into a strangled shriek.
"You remember me," the withered thing said, lidless cat-like eyes following her every move. "You know me."
Crow gave a low moan.
"I burned you," she said, voice protesting. "I burned you to the ground, all ashes."
The fleshless face crinkled like old leather into a sharp smile.
"And where did you get the fire from, my sweet," it said, dragging itself towards her. Crow edged away, a breathy sob catching in her throat.
"Go away Johnny," she keened. "Go 'way go 'way you're not here."
The creak-voiced thing pushed itself up on limbs no more than bones covered with thin skin.
"Didn't you miss me?" it asked. "After I made you so very pretty. You hide it with that marque but I can still see how pretty I made you..."
Crow made a longer keening sound, pushing herself against the bathroom door and crying.
"You're not here," she said, a rare moment of lucidity bleeding through. "You're not here. You're dead. I killed you, John-in-Iron."
The thing laughed.
"Pretty and clever," it said, raising a hand with fingers of bone as though to strike her. Crow screamed and scrambled up, feinting to the left and trying to hide. There was no one to help her. No one at all. Everyone had left her alone to die.
"Alone all lonesome gonna die alone again," she muttered, the moment of clarity fading. "Hide hide hide,"
She needed to protect herself. Needed a weapon. Anything.
Closet. Box. Closet.
She scrambled for the door she'd found, the one that went into that space too tiny and dark for her to bear. The thing that looked like John-in-Iron followed, and she screamed as she slammed the door and locked it. She could hear him hissing sweet words to her through the thin wood, hear his fingers tapping and scratching trying to cut through.
She was in the bathroom, trapped.
"All alone again," she muttered, trying to find the light switch. It flicked to life and the shock of brightness half-blinded her.
"Closet, box, closet," she parroted to herself, wrenching the linen closet door open. The big door beside her shuddered as John-in-Iron kicked it, his voice losing that dreadful familiarity and becoming something cold and screeching.
"Box, box, box," she hissed, throwing things out of the closet and searching, searching....
....and stopping, panting for breath as a small locked wooden box tumbled from the top-most shelf. Crow took hold of it and smashed it against the floor, trying to get it open. Something she needed was in here, something that would save her.
"Open, please, open," she said, scrabbling at the lock. At last she ripped it free, and the contents clattered to the floor. She picked it up slowly, head tipping to one side in curiosity as the fogged memory flashed through her mind.
"I hate them," Ethan said, giving the gun to Crow. "But we might need it, one day."
"I'll keep it hidden," Crow muttered. "Emergencies only."
The door gave an ugly crunch, and Crow trained the gun on the growing crack, face blank.
"Kept it hidden," she said, firing as a lidless orange eye appeared in the hole, staring at her. The bang and the ugly squishing sound were lost under the scream of the thing outside the door.
"Little b***h! Whore's child!" it screamed, no longer sounding at all like John-in-Iron. It was different.
"Playing pretend," Crow said, giggling as she backed up and against the bathroom wall, flinching as the monster outside the door threw itself into the splintering wood, reaching for her. She fired again, and again, until there was only one shot left.
"Do you know what I'm going to do to you?" the one-eyed creature said, slithering in through the hole and rearing up, the top of its head scraping the ceiling. "I'm going to flay you alive, I'll rend you, tear you-"
"Needed me alive," Crow said, laughing and crying louder as she craned her head up to look at the thing. It was half-changed, as though unsure what shape it should take. Half-shapeless, clutching at the pulpy wound where its eye had been, it reached towards her shrieking.
Crow sighed, and put the gun to her temple.
"All alone again," she said, pulling the trigger.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 2:46 pm
__Part 31
"NNGH!"
Julian felt as though someone had just stabbed through his head with a blade of ice, and slid to the floor. He spit out blood and moaned, curling into a ball.
"Wh-what," he said, panting for breath and trying to ease the pain, one hand pressed over his eye. "Hurts...hurts."
He rolled over, choking and tears burning down his face. It hurt so much. What had caused it? Had someone hit him?
"H-hello?" he called. "Some...someone?"
He didn't remember where he was. He struggled to sit up, looking around. The pain in his head eased suddenly, and he blinked slowly.
"Where the hell..." he began, looking around again. It took a minute to remember the journey to the motel. He sighed. "Great, lucid for a minute due to icepick-in-the-eye..."
He got up, swaying a bit and going to sit on the bed. The room was dark, curtains drawn. A dagger of faint sunlight slanted through a rip in one of the curtains, illuminating motes of dust floating lazily by. He watched, laying down on the bed and shivering badly with sudden cold.
A minute later it was dark, and he was climbing up the stairs back to his room. He gave a startled cry, stumbling and lurching against the railing.
"Hnn! Hhnn...no," he muttered, looking around. "I was just...I was just inside..."
His hands were wet and slick against the metal railing, and Julian looked down with a cold knot of dread forming in his throat. His hands were coated in red.
"AHN!"
Stumbling up the stairs, running back to his room, Julian threw himself in and screamed. He'd blacked out, and he'd hurt someone else.
"NO NO NO!" he shouted, beating his fists against the wall, feeling tears spill down his cheeks again. "DAMMIT, NO!"
His hands uncurled and left long red streaks down the cheap whitewash of the walls, and he staggered back with a tormented laugh.
"How pretty. Did you paint that for me?"
Julian froze.
"Who's there," he said, not daring to turn around. He heard shuffling footsteps close behind him, and a rattling breath.
"Did you tear out another pretty young heart for me?"
Julian shuddered, and slowly turned. He backed up against the door, bile rising in his throat.
"Kaego," he said, shivering violently. Kaego, her paper white skin hanging from her bones, grinned widely. Too wide. The flesh in her cheeks split, skin revealing leathery muscle beneath.
"Did you miss me?" she asked, hobbling closer. Her matted hair dragged across the floor.
"You're dead," Julian said, shaking his head hard. "You're dead."
"I came to bring you home," Kaego said, blinking slowly. Julian suddenly realized the black of her eyes was different - the empty sockets of her skull stared out at him.
"There's no home left for me," he said, feeling the treacherous cold worming its way through him. His knees felt weak and he leaned against the door for support.
"There is always home," Kaego said, smiling as she reached one bony hand out towards him. Julian gave a cry and kicked the door open, trying to run. He was immediately pushed back in, falling hard and cracking his head against the floor. He looked up blearily, then sudden shock gave him energy enough to scramble back.
People, little white fires burning from their eye sockets, stood still as statues on the landing. They were all mutilated, bleeding, looked down at him. A woman holding her heart in her hands. A man, his chest concave. Another man, the sides of his neck torn open. All looked down at him silently.
"Who are they?" Julian hissed, trying to stand up but finding himself pinned by Kaego's bony hands.
"All the people you sent to us," she said, leaning over Julian. "You killed them and sent them to us. For him."
Julian wrenched free of Kaego's grip, her fingers leaving gouges in his shoulders, and tried to force his way through the silent crowd, but they caught him. Behind him Julian could hear Kaego laughing.
"Going so soon?" she asked. "But Nahalthes...your grandfather so badly wants to see you..."
Julian gave an enraged roar, trying to fight free as the dead pushed him back into his room, and Kaego grabbed him by the throat. The door slammed shut and all sound was suddenly silenced.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 4:31 pm
__Part 32
"It was only going to be for a few days," Ethan said, fishing for his house key as they walked down the hall towards his room. Nen shrugged, her mouth twisting.
"And what happens when it's just as crappy in there now as it was before?" she asked coolly. Ethan sighed.
"I don't know," he muttered, looking away. Nen snorted derisively. "What?"
"Nothing," she said. "This is?"
"Yeah. I'll let you in, hold on."
The hallway had suddenly grown noticeably cooler. Nen wrinkled her nose and pulled her jacket closer to her body.
"Cold?"
"Yeah. Aren't you?"
Ethan shrugged, inserting the key and jiggling the knob. The metal was so cold his skin stuck to it.
"Ow! OW!"
The sudden shock had made him jerk his hand back, and a good bit of the skin had stayed behind. Ethan winced, muttering and poking at the raw injury. Nen arched a brow slowly.
"Well," she said, protecting her hand with her sleeve and opening the door. "Isn't that a good sign."
Ethan muttered darkly, going inside. He stared for a moment. The room was in shambles, and more than one dark streak of crusty red marred the carpet.
"Ethan..." Nen said as she knelt down to examine a stain. Ethan nodded slowly, looking around.
"I know what it is," he said, voice hushed. Nen stood slowly, looking around.
"Whose is it?" she asked, not expecting an answer.
"Crow?" Ethan called, going into the kitchen. "Julian?"
"They're not here."
Ethan's heart jolted and he whirled towards the door. Lenore, looking tired and her clothing rumpled as though she'd been sleeping in them, opened the door wider and slipped inside.
"I wasn't gonna leave," she said, shaking her head. "I was just so mad, and I needed to get away for a couple hours..."
Nen gave Lenore an appraising look that was coldly returned. Ethan looked around the shambled kitchen, looking around in every corner for some sign of the siblings.
"It's a small room," he said, chafing his arms for warmth. "We'll give it a quick search and then head over to Rabid's house, they might have gone there. Nen, why don't you- Nen?"
Nen was looking over her shoulder and into the bathroom.
"The light's on," she said. "And the door's smashed."
Ethan hadn't noticed it before and cursed himself in three languages for being so stupid to miss it. The light was on, and the large hole in the door let it spill half-hearted into the room.
Lenore, creeping towards the door, recoiled.
"I smell blood," she said in a tiny voice. "Ethan, Ethan..."
Nen pushed past Lenore and went into the bathroom, pushing the door aside with difficulty with all the junk that littered the floor. She stepped over a destroyed wooden box and her foot suddenly slid under something slick, and she fell hard to her knees.
"Ow! Damn it all...what...oh."
Ethan entered, hearing Nen fall.
"What is...it...."
Nen had landed on a prone body. She pushed herself up and away from it, expression speculative.
"I think I found someone," she said, looking at it. Ethan felt dizzy and very, very sick.
Crow's body, skin gray and the smell of decay hanging around it despite the refrigerator-like cold, lay on the floor. A good deal of her skull was missing.
"Ethan?" Nen said. Ethan, choking and feeling extremely nauseous, looked down at her. "Ethan, are you going to get sick?"
"Yes."
"Alright, alright, toilet, c'mon," Nen said hurriedly, guiding him to it before he coughed once and then began to vomit.
"Ethan! Ethan, what's-"
"Stay out there!" Ethan roared, wiping his mouth and trembling badly, flushing the toilet. "Lenore, you STAY out there!"
"Nen," Ethan said. Nen jumped up and pushed Lenore back harshly.
"Stay out there," she said. "Don't come in."
"Mum! MUM!
He had to get her covered. Ethan scrabbled for a sheet that lay half unfolded on the floor, staggering over to Crow. He could smell rot. Gasping for breath, he covered her and lifted her up. Something heavy fell from her hand and clattered to the floor, scaring him.
The gun. The gun he'd given Crow, in case of emergencies. A hysterical laugh nearly escaped him, but it turned into a gasping sob. He was responsible for this. He bent down awkwardly and picked it up, the metal icy in his hand.
"Ethan," Nen called. He looked up.
"What?"
"We're...not alone."
Ethan felt his heart slowly make its way into his throat as he carried Crow's body towards the doorway blocked by Lenore and Nen. He looked over Nen's shoulder and his heart seemed to stop.
It was tall. Very tall. Shrouded in a cloak that seemed to be part of the shadows it stood in. It was bent so that its head just barely scraped the ceiling, and its arms hung down to the floor.
"Nen," Ethan said, voice a thread. "Take Lenore and run."
"I can take him," Lenore said, her voice a sob and a look of murder on her face.
"Lenore, don't argue, just go," Ethan said urgently, wishing instantly he'd kept his voice to a whisper as the looming thing's head snapped in his direction. "Nen, take her and- Nen! NEN!"
Nen had charged the thing, a mad laugh escaping. The thing swooped down on her with a metallic shriek.
"Ethan, just GO!" she said, and suddenly Lenore was blocking his vision and pushing Ethan to the door, forcing him out.
"She'll follow, Ethan go, go, g-NAAAANGH!"
Ethan stumbled into the hall, and Lenore fell heavily against him, holding onto him as a tentacle-like arm ripped free of Lenore's back and a spray of black blood followed.
"Hai," she gasped, struggling onward. "Ethan, run, RUN!"
"But Nen-"
"Ethan, GO," Nen shouted, still in the room. The thing gave another metallic shriek, and Ethan barely had time to turn around before he felt a white hot pain shoot through his shoulder. The cloaked thing had run his shoulder through with one of its arms, the other scrabbling for hold on Crow's body. Ethan gave a shout and stumbled backwards, feeling the icy spear-like limb slide against his flesh as he freed himself and ran.
"The door, Len, get the door!" he shouted, running towards Rabid's room.
"It's following you," Len shrieked, forcing the door open and jumping through, grabbing hold of Ethan's arm.
"I'm aware of that!" Ethan shouted, jumping through the threshold. "Nen, come on! NEN!"
He turned, and saw a shadow soaring towards him. Crow's body was torn from his arms by Lenore, and the gun clattered to the ground as he cried out and slammed the door behind him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 3:23 pm
__Part 33
"I left her behind," Ethan panted, pressing his hand against the hole in his shoulder. "Len, I left Nen behind!"
Heaving Crow's sheet-covered body up the porch, Lenore shook her head and pounded at the door frantically.
"She bought us time," she said. "It followed us, remember? She probably got away."
Or it killed her, she added silently.
Ethan staggered back, tripping over the steps onto the porch and wincing at the ice-cold pain shooting through his shoulder. It was creeping down his arms, making his eyes tear. He reached for the knob and froze as the long, metallic shrieking came again somewhere behind them, and his breath stopped.
"It followed us," he echoed. He pounded harder on the door, rattling the knob. "SOMEONE PLEASE! LET US IN!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 3:26 pm
Hellis was the fastest to the door, as could be expected. The sounds alone frightened him enough, but the sight of the sheets and blood when he threw the door open make him shriek.
Björn was second to the door, followed by Liam and Rabid. All had similar reactions within the split second before Björn reached out and dragged Ethan in by the arm.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 3:33 pm
Lenore scrambled in, falling hard and clutching at her back. The wound wasn't as serious as she'd thought - the armor-like plating of feathers had taken the brunt of the damage, though there was plenty of bleeding.
"Get away from the door," she hissed, forcing herself up and locking it before flinging herself away from it. The long, lonely howling came again, and then it faded. The silence outside was almost as frightening as the sound.
Trying to catch a breath, pressing his hand against the hole again, Ethan slid down the wall and crumpled on the floor.
"It was in the room waiting," he said, shaking his head. "We... we found her in the bathroom, and...."
He crushed his free hand against his eyes, forcing the tears back.
"That thing laid a trap," he continued. "It was waiting for someone to come in and find her."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 3:41 pm
"What? What thing?" Björn asked as calmly as possible, attempting to soothe a clinging, flustered Hellis and the poor teens at the same time.
Liam, as always, was damnably curious. He ignored the gnawing in his gut and approached the sheet-covered whatever it was carefully. He assumed it was the 'she' they were speaking of. His hand wriggled at the hem of the fabric for a moment before he threw the edge back and simoltaneously leaped away, a hand to his mouth and looking slightly green.
Hellis immediately burst into tears.
Björn, as calmly and easily as possible with a hysterical young man clinging to him, pulled the sheet back over Crow's...the corpse's...face.
"Oh, God...oh my God..." Liam murmured, looking like he was going to be sick.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 3:47 pm
Able to see the real amount of damage in the light, Lenore made a keening kind of sound and buried her face in her hands. Black blood smeared over her cheeks.
Ethan, trying to keep himself collected, nonetheless let a sob escape. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to look away, trying not to notice that Crow's remaining eye was still open.
"It was like it was made from shadow," he said, shuddering and looking at the hole in his shoulder. "It...it didn't say anything. Nen charged it, gave us time to get out, and...it followed."
He looked at the door and shuddered, sliding across the floor to put more distance between it and himself.
"It was cold as ice," he said.
"Its eyes were burning. I could see them," Len choked, face still covered with her hands. "White fire."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 3:52 pm
"Shhhh," Rabid cooed, eyes averted as she took Len into her arms, embracing the poor girl.
Various connections started forming in Björn's head. He really didn't like any of them.
...and he figured he shouldn't ask about this 'Nen' character.
"Jesus," he breathed, "...what do we do?"
Liam ran off into the nearby bathroom, emptying his stomach of all its contents.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 3:58 pm
Len buried her head against Rabid's shoulder, forcing herself not to cry.
"I'll kill it," she hissed, teeth gritted. "I'll kill it!"
"I don't know," Ethan said, leaning forward and giving a sudden cry of pain. "But...if it's not to much to ask, my shoulder..."
The blood had frozen slick around the wound, and it took a bit of effort to remove his hand. He looked at the ice, head shaking slightly.
"It was just waiting there," he said. "It was watching us. Like it wanted us to notice it first."
He was about to say more when the lights gave a collective flicker. He felt his heart jolt, looking upwards with wide eyes. The light dimmed, grew faint, and then snapped back on again. Ethan stood, leaning against the wall for support.
"We need to...can we please. We can't leave her on the floor," he said thinly as he cast a wary eye on the lights.
"I'll do it," Len said, voice hard. She recovered Crow's face with shaking hands and gathered the body up, barely noticing the weight of it as she stood.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 4:07 pm
Björn pulled a healing phial from intangibility and held it out to Ethan as Liam slowly returned.
"Len, give her to me. You'll hurt yourself worse."
"I hate this."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 4:17 pm
Taking the vial and downing the contents, Ethan sucked in a breath as the flesh thawed and healed over. He staggered a step or two, then straightened, fully healed.
"So Julian isn't here, then," he said slowly. "I'd hoped he was here... that thing..."
If anything Lenore clung tighter, feeling bile rise at the scent of rot.
"She's still so cold," she muttered. "How could she rot if she's cold."
The injury on her back was screaming in protest by now, and Lenore relented.
"If she's de-hnn. If she's like this, why hasn't her marque broken?" she asked Ethan.
"I don't know," Ethan said. "Maybe Julian is still alive. The last time this happened it was like she got reset. The breaking brought her back."
The lights flickered again, and Ethan looked up longer.
"Kitchen," he said, pointing towards the room, watching as the lights browned and then came back again. "Kitchen would be nice please."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 4:19 pm
The troupe, now only pawns in some kind of violent game of chess, traveled in a confused stupor to the kitchen, hugging themselves, each other, various objects.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 4:25 pm
Going to the sink to wash the blood from her face, Lenore cranked the hot water until it scalded. The smell of decay was hard to wash off.
Sitting heavily, testing his shoulder and trying hard not to look at the corpse, Ethan tried to think of a plan. Something to do, some course of action. Find Julian, yes, but how? He had no idea where the man had gone. For all he knew Julian was dead as well. Taking off his glasses, rubbing his eyes tiredly, Ethan berated himself for leaving. Maybe if he hadn't left. If he'd tried to find out more about what was wrong. If if if.
Shutting off the water at last, Len brushed her hands against her wet face.
"Where's Ike?" she asked, not turning around.
"Len...maybe it's-"
"Don't. I want Ike," Len said, voice cracking. She was scared, and terribly, terribly lonely. She was certain she could still hear the thing outside, howling and waiting to get in.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 4:28 pm
"Honey, he's--"
"I'm not. Not any more."
"But you were--"
"I came home."
"Why?"
"Does it matter?" Ike had been wandering in self-pity for hours, but now he was back. Alas, just in time to see poor, poor Len. He moved to her wordlessly, hugging her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
