Here we go, one more chapter after this!
Chapter Twenty-One
"We have scotch'd the snake, not killed it." - Macbeth, Act II, Scene III
If I, in describing the events of my life at this time, were to follow the laws of drama, this would be the moment that a prophetic dream of revelation would come to me. As I lay unconscious in that forgotten area of a dark graveyard, the rules of storytelling would bring me the answers. Hell, I was supposed to be prophetic anyway, so it would hardly have been out of the question. It would have been downright convenient. So, naturally, the only thing that I dreamed of was bouncing pancakes dancing and singing to an unfathomably and completely illogically popular song that was big while I was in elementary school. Unless effeminate blond boy bands are the next great evil, there was nothing important about my dancing pancakes no matter how much they mmm'd or bopp'd.
I was being poked and nudged back out of the black unconsciousness that I had fallen into. My lips moved and I mumbled something. I must have still been half in that dream state, because the voice that had been trying to wake me up groaned. "Not that damn song." Then I felt a harder jab in my side. "Get up, stupid girl."
Raising my head while flinching from the jab, I blinked just before Often's old sort of friend in the wheelchair shoved the stick he held down into my side again. "Oww." I informed him before pushing myself up. "Uggn, where..." I trailed off, looking to the spot where Often had been, and then to where I had last seen my brother. My mouth was dry. Both spots were empty. "Where are they? Where's my brother? Where's Often? Are they okay?"
Keiran visibly rolled his eyes. "Yes, they're absolutely fine. They just got up and went to get some ice cream and reminisce about classic Full House episodes." He looked like he might poke me with his stick again, but eventually dropped it. "Typhoeus's mate sent her thugs to take them both." At my blank stare, he sighed. "The Mother Of Monsters. Echidna. Narrow it down enough for you? She had her little gargoyle freakshow army show up and take both of them away." I saw the pain in his eyes briefly before he hardened his glare. "If you hadn't slept through the whole thing, maybe you could have done something about it."
Literally pushing my headache away, willing it to heal and give me some respite, I retorted just as sharply while standing. "So what did you do while this was happening then? At least you were conscious."
His hand shot out to catch my wrist. "I can't fight Echidna or her hoard. You can." He squeezed painfully before releasing me. "You're the only one."
"Yeah?" Rubbing my wrist, I stepped over to where the grass lay flat and matted with blood in the spot that my brother had lain in. I was confused, tired, and afraid. "Well I haven't exactly seen anything to make me believe that." Reaching down to rub my hand over the dark stain on the ground, I flinched. My brother was gone, Often was gone, and the only help I had was this guy. If I was going to find either of them, I had to start working with him. "I'll take your comments, I probably deserve them and I've given worse. But if you're going to help me, do it. If not, I have to find another way."
After a moment in which he seemed to stare into me with those startlingly blue eyes, Keiran put his finger on the wheelchair control and turned himself around. He began to roll back down the grassy incline in silence. Finally, he yelled back. "If you don't move your ass, I'm gonna pick up that stick and beat it for you."
Casting one last glance back to the bare spot of ground and broken headstone where Often had been, I followed my cantankerous companion back to the same gate that I'd come through to enter this cemetary. The man's chair moved surprisingly well, even over unstable ground.
Once we left the graveyard, Keiran spun his chair to look at me. "First." He reached up and smacked the side of my arm hard enough to make it go numb after the initial stab of pain. "Never enter your elder sibling's domain without adequate preparation and protection." Pointing into the cemetary, he went on. "The lands of the dead belong to Atropos, and now, to Echidna. If you enter them, she will know where you are. That's how she found you."
"Right." I said, trying not to sound too impatient. "So why am I still here? Why did they take Often and Craig, but leave me laying there?"
"Because I saved your ass, that's why." The man reponded bluntly. "As soon as I found out your piece of **** sister was involved, I tried to get over here to tell you both not to be stupid enough to go onto the cemetary grounds. Got here just in time to make your body get itself lost while they picked up the other two. Before you ask another stupid question, no I couldn't have done the same thing to the others. It was all I could do to hide you. If the **** herself had shown up, I couldn't have even done that. You're just damn lucky that she stayed far enough away to let me block your scrawny ass from her sense." He leaned back in his chair. "That's why I wanted you to get off the damn dead land, because shielding you from her was taking too much out of me."
I wanted to ask what he meant by he made my body 'lost', and what exactly that entailed. Actually, I didn't really want to ask, but my masochistic curiosity was trying to act up against my better judgement. Thankfully, all I had to do to make it shut up was focus on what was more important. "Often, can you tell me where she is?"
"No." Keiran's answer was flat. "I don't have anything she owns. Besides," He raised his hand and jabbed a finger in my stomach. "You can find her yourself. That is, if you give a ****."
My hands clenched. "Of course I care. But I don't know what you expect me to do. I can't just point my finger and guess where they took them."
Keairan sighed in obvious annoyance. "Haven't you learned anything at all? Do you just enjoy blundering blindly through life, or do you occassionally open your eyes and pay attention just for the innovation?" He looked around like he might want another stick. "Do me a favor. If you do stop and think once in a while, try it now before your brother and Often are killed because you're too busy complaining about what you can't do instead of focusing on what you can."
My frustration, my anger, my fear, all of it rose up and I very nearly strangled the wheelchair bound man. Which, I'm certain, would neither have helped nor endeared me to the Society for the Handicapped. And with my luck, at some point the fate of the world will depend on just that. Stranger, as well as less helpful, things have happened. Speaking of less helpful, I looked at Keairan for a moment, collecting myself. I pushed my annoyance down and thought of Craig, and of Often. Then I asked through gritted teeth, as calmly as I could manage. "Please, if you know something I should do right now, if you know how I can find them, just tell me. I'm sorry that I don't know everything you know. But if you want me to save them, you have to give me a little nudge." My voice broke slightly at the end. I was scared, afraid of losing my brother and my new best friend in the same stroke, terrified that I'd lose both of them the way I'd lost Carter.
Finally, thank every god in existance, Keairan nodded. His voice was still annoyed, but at least he was talking. "Fine, I'll spell it out for you. If you want to know where they are, just give yourself a vision of them."
That made me stare at him. "Give myself a vision? What, you mean just make it happen?"
Rolling his eyes, the man nodded. "Right, you were still using just the training wheels. Look, if you care about them at all, if you've made any kind of connection with either of them, a real connection, then you should be able to see their current fate any time that you want to. You aren't a prophetess, little girl, you are the Moirai of Life. Stop acting like you have to wait for the vision to come to you on its own and just take it."
For just a moment, I started to shake my head. Then I stopped, realizing that saying it was impossible would accomplish nothing. After everything I'd seen, after all the ways that I'd seen myself grow in this short time, would this really be the most unbelievable? I don't think it even rated the top five. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and thought about Craig. I thought about all the ways that he was an enigma. I know he cared about me, even if he had odd and vague ways of showing it most of the time, and tended to let money get ahead of him. He wasn't the best person on Earth, but he was my brother. Right or wrong, I loved him. And I thought of Often, the girl that I had known just over a day, who had already become my best friend. I thought of them both, and I focused on where they were and what was happening to them.
Briefly, I felt the threads of destiny as they spun around me, seeming to trail over my face. I could feel it trying to pull away, but, with effort, I hauled it back to me. And then I saw, through closed eyes, exactly where Often and Craig were.
My eyes opened with a gasp as I released the vision. "The pizza shop." I said even as I started to turn. "They're taking them to the pizza shop. ****! How did she find out where Nine was? How could she know?!" My fear for the other two had suddenly magnified to include Nine.
Keiran's voice was as dark as his skin. "Echidna has many ways to extract answers from her prisoners, particularly from an unconscious mind. Though it wouldn't have been pleasant." He pressed his control and rolled through the gate. "Come with me, unless you're planning on sprinting all the way back."
Suddenly paling at the thought of Often being hurt, I followed him. "Please tell me you have a van out here or something."
"No," He responded sarcastically. "I just rolled out here all by myself in this little chair." Then he stopped next to a large boulder that sat surrounded by weeds. I still didn't see a van or any other kind of vehicle. "Come here."
"Huh?" I stepped that way. "I-we have to go. Keairan, please, it's Often and my brother and my sister. Please, no more games."
The man shot me a look of annoyance. "Driving there would take too long, you stupid girl." His hand shot out to grab my arm. "You're going to take a much faster trip." He paused before adding with what sounded like genuine worry only partly masked by his constant anger. "Save them."
Then he give me a hard shove directly into the boulder. I barely had time to cry out in anticipation of a concussion before the world swirled around me. In the next instant, I fell backwards onto my rear, landing on the dirty ground. There was no boulder here. In fact, there was no cemetary anywhere nearby either. When I lifted my head, I could see the stonework of the building next to me, and a dumpster to my left. Ahead of me, there were cars passing by the end of this alley that I had ended up in. I was right behind the pizza shop.
Upon realizing where I was, I scrambled to my feet. I had no plan, no way of stopping Echidna. But almost everyone I cared about was inside that building. I would think of something. Jogging to the back door, I pulled the handle and found it unlocked. Before entering, I looked around and then reached down to pick up a couple of very important things. Then I was as ready as I was going to be. Carefully, as quietly as I could, I pulled the door open and stepped inside.
I was standing at the back of the pizza shop. Ahead of me, past assorted tables and near the counter, I could see what was happening. Laderbie stood with a massive meat cleaver that might as well have been an axe, with Nine huddled behind him. Often and Craig were both gagged with tape and being held by the arms by Echidna's monsters. Keiran had been right in describing them as gargoyles, because that was exactly what they looked like. Each stood at least six and a half feet tall, with a hard stone body, slightly curved beak-like nose, and bright glowing red eyes. Their wings were folded close to their bodies.
At least Craig looked better than he had when I had last seen him. His face was still pale and I could see dried blood on his shirt, but he wasn't dead. I didn't know what Echidna had done to save him or why, but at least he was alive.
Sounding amused rather than worried about the large man with the enormous cleaver, Echidna stepped forward. "I've not come for you yet, silly man. But I will have the girl. I will take her from you. Whether you're alive to see it or not is your choice."
Lifting his chin, Laderbie held the knife up. "I swore the girl would be safe, creature. I keep my promises. You'll get no surrender from me!" His teeth glinted as he smiled dangerously. "Do your worst."
Even as the woman sighed and raised her hand, I knew that I couldn't let this happen. Stepping forward past the chairs, I yelled out. "Echidna!" My shout filled the shop and everyone stopped what they were doing to look at me. I trailed my fingers over the tables as I passed them, trying not to let my hands shake too much as I focused on one of the most evil creatures in existance, she who had spawned enough evil to be named mother of monsters. "I hope you weren't planning on doing this without me. We still have unfinished business."
Staring through me with Emily's eyes, the creature laughed. "Oh no, I wouldn't dream of it." Her smile broadened. "In fact, I'm glad you're here, Lachesis. I was afraid that I'd have to keep waiting to take my true body back. I was ever so excited to get it, like on a child at a Christmas. But, I made myself wait for you. It's a very special time, after all."
That made me stop in confusion. "True body? What are you talking about?" I suddenly had an even more uneasy feeling about this. And considering I had just been walking closer to one of the primary sources of evil on the planet, that was saying something.
"Oh, you didn't know." Echidna used Emily's voice to laugh and then raised her hand, pointing back toward my brother, to Craig. "My true body, Lachesis. You might have noticed that dear Craig has certain compulsions. He has certain desires and urges that make you worry about him. He wants money and fame, and other things. He is your brother, but you were still afraid of what he might be capable of. Yet he never really got that far. Because of you." She jabbed a finger toward me. "Because you in all your infinitely stupid wisdom separated my soul from my flesh as we descended into that timeless void. My soul, my true self, was attached to Atropos, but you took my flesh and kept it close to you. You've had it close to you all this time." Her smile returned. "But now, it's come back to me. My true flesh."
"He's not your flesh!" I shouted. "He's my brother! He's a person!"
The woman's evil laugh echoed through the room. "He is nothing! He is only my impulses tempered by the conscience you spent a millenia trying to force on him before our birth! He is my flesh! I will have my body!" She spun back toward Craig.
"No!" I screamed and leapt that way. Whatever happened, I had to stop her.
Immediately, Emily's elbow came back and impacted my face. The woman turned as my vision spun and her hand was at my throat. I knew in that instant that she could have absorbed me, could have taken me right then. But she just lifted me off the floor by the throat, choking me. "Stupid, pathetic, worthless girl! I will take my true body back, and you will see it! And then you will watch as I kill everyone you care for. Then, and only then, as your despair fills your soul, I will take you from your misery!" She hurled me backwards against the wall, where I lay stunned briefly, my vision clouding.
Pushing through the haze, I lifted my head and reached up, trying to pull myself to my feet. I could see Craig struggling against the gargoyles that held him firmly, even as Echidna reached out to him with Emily's hand. His scream of anger was muffled by the tape. I matched his scream with my own, even as Echidna made contact. Instantly, the room shook and every bit of glass from the windows to the cups to the mirrors all shattered. A deep, harsh laugh filled the room, coming from some source that I do not dare contemplate.
Then it was over. Even as I made it to my feet, I could see Emily's body fall limply to the ground while Craig shoved the gargoyles away from him. He reached up to take the tape off his mouth, and smiled. "Oh, it's good to be home." Cracking his knuckles while I stood in shock and disbelief, he reached out toward the still helpless Often. "Now, let's start with the first friend."
I would not let this happen. I couldn't. Screaming her name, I held up both of my hands so that Often could see what I had picked up before stepping inside here. Two wildflowers, carefully dug out of the ground so that I had their roots and all, with dirty still clinging to them. In the same moment that her eyes widened in recognition, I threw them. One landed right at Often's feet, the other on the counter next to Laderbie. "Get them out of here!"
While the two gargoyles holding her stared dumbly down at the plant, and Echidna screamed with my brother's familiar voice for them to stop her, Often immediately stomped down toward the plant. Her body shimmered in their grasp and, with a brief flash of green light, disappeared. She reappeared next to the other flower and put both hands out, catching Laderbie's shoulder with one and the top of Nine's head with the other. Then all three of them vanished with one more green flash.
With a bellow of rage, Echidna spun my brother's body toward me. She raised his hand and started to come at me, fury at being denied her victims pulsating from her. Him? I'm not sure exactly what to refer to the creature as. But in my mind, my brother is my brother, and Echidna is the evil. So, when referring to the mother of monsters regardless of what form she is in, I will use the term her.
Before Echidna could reach me, I held up my own hand. "You want to take me, Echidna!? Let's see who's faster. You can absorb me while I banish you out of this world the way I did Icon. Hell, maybe we'll tie and you'll take me just as I destroy you. Then the world can live without either of us!"
Even as she stopped, Echidna's eyes narrowed as though she was trying to read whether I was bluffing or not. Hell, even I didn't know. Which might have been what convinced her. Stepping back, she lowered my brother's arm and spoke. "We seem to be at a stalemate, Lachesis." Her gargoyles hung around by the door, seemingly even less eager to confront me than their Mistress now was.
With a tight voice, I demanded. "Give me my brother back."
Chuckling, Echidna shrugged. "I don't think so. Right now..." She paused and then turned to the door. "I think I'm going to go wake up a few monsters."
"Wake up a few--" I didn't know what she meant, but I also couldn't let her leave. Whether it destroyed me or not, I had to stop her. My feet moved under me, as I tried to catch the vile creature by my brother's arm. However, my hand caught only air. Echidna, and her gargoyles, had simply disappeared. I was left alone in the store with only Emily's unconscious body. Staring at the spot where they had been, I slowly slumped down to my knees next to the other girl. All I could do was watch her, while my thoughts spun.
I have no idea how long I sat there before the bell over the door dinged. Raising my head, I saw Often coming back in, her hand holding Nine's. The pink haired dryad looked shaken as she stepped over to me. "I'm sorry, Macbeth. I'm so sorry. She just knew. When I woke up, she already took the information about Nine from me."
Standing up, I put my arms around the other girl and hugged her tightly. "It's okay, Often. It's not your fault. It's not your fault." I repeated before shuddering. "I'm just glad you're okay."
Then I heard my sister. "Broken." I looked to see her kneeling next to Emily. "She's broken inside." Her voice had taken on a somewhat dreamy, almost mystical tone. Wincing, I reached down to put my hand on her shoulder. I started to try to find a way to explain what had happened to the other girl, how her soul had been carved away by Icon's inhabiting her, and how her morals and her very conscience were what had been shattered. Before I could, Nine reached up to touch the unconscious woman's cheek. "I'll fix it."
Even as I started to question what she meant, I felt a rush of power enter the room. This was the energy of life itself. It felt warm, like the pleasing rays of the sun. The undistilled power of life filled the area and I almost wept from the strength of it.
It lasted only a moment, but afterward, when Emily opened her eyes, I already knew what had happened. The other girl blinked around once, and then her eyes filled with tears. She didn't cry from fear, or from loss, or any kind of sadness. Instead, the tears that she wept were those of joy, the tears of one who had been halved and was suddenly whole. "My soul." Her voice was filled with overwhelming exultation. "It's back. My soul is back."
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Scramble was drleiaaeenemyfidsle h, which translates to: Emily is free and healed
For the last chapter, there will be no scramble, sorry. Coming soon!
