Chapter Thirteen: Bridges, the Crossing
Alex
couldn’t believe that it was Carolyne whom she was looking at. They locked eyes, and Alex didn’t see the
eyes of the woman she had given herself to.
At some point, a bloodied monster with a soul as black as hell had
crawled into Carlyne’s skin and emptied her out. Now, looking into Carolyne’s eyes, all Alex
saw was murder.
Using the
railing to brace herself, Alex stayed up.
Her legs were weak; her head rang.
Breathes came in wheezing pants.
From time-to-time her vision blurred, but she wasn’t sure what caused
that. Movement hurt, and she coughed
hard until she found blood in her palms, but she stood still, and she glared
across at Carolyne, who returned her gaze with the hungry look of a rabid
lioness. Carolyne stepped over Goliath now, waving her blade in front of her in
play.
“He was
listening,” Alex said, her voice rough and raw.
She tried to stand on her own but couldn’t and immediately returned to
the railing for support.
Carolyne
shrugged. “I’m sure he was, but I don’t
care. I wanted to kill him, so I did.”
“Wanted
to?” Alex shouted and then fell into a
coughing fit. She held her chest and
swallowed something thick.
“Yes,”
Carolyne said, coming to a stop a few feet away. “And he is only the first on a long
list.” She trained her Voice on Alex
again. “You. Are. Next.”
“Why?” Alex asked, but she could see the demon in
Carolyne’s eyes. It was in need of blood
and had sacrifices in mind. Alex would
have to fight Carolyne again, and this time she would have to win. She swallowed her pain and stood on her own.
Carolyne
saw Alex’s resolve and laughed. Pacing a
small circle, she waved her blade around her like a child at play. She was small and fast, but Alex had size on
her. Alex knew this, and she watched
Carolyne carefully, looking for an opening.
Even with size as an advantage, Alex wasn’t sure she could win. Carolyne had two other important
advantages—Alex was exhausted, and Alex also wasn’t a murderer. The fight with Goliath was a fight to live
and to bring her friends home. To beat
Carolyne, Alex would have to kill.
Alex’s legs
quaked, but she held. She stared across
at Carolyne, ignoring her small encroaching form and the threat of her
blade. “I asked you a question,
Carolyne. Why? Why do you want to kill
me?”
Carolyne
stopped. She stared Alex in the eyes and
looked dead, hollow, entirely without human compassion or empathy. Behind her hate, behind the monster inside of
her, there was nothing at all. “You’re
holding me back,” she said. “Restraining
me, keeping me from my true potential, and I can’t stand it anymore. I am meant to be something, to grow and
blossom into something powerful, beautiful, something so much more than what I
was stuck in Sadieville. Something so
much more than what I am now, but you’ve been keeping me from it. Memories of you…” A scowl distorted her face and sharpened her
features. She looked hideous, wicked,
and violent. The beast bared its
fangs. “I won’t allow it! I won’t let anyone hold me back anymore! I don’t care if it’s a traitorous fuck like
him!” She stabbed absently at the corpse
behind her. “Or if it’s you. I will remove all obstacles.”
Alex’s
voice caught. She whispered Carolyne’s
name.
“Enough! I refuse to waste any more time talking to a
cadaver.”
They
met. Carolyne closed distance with a
single, graceful lunge, floating across the bridge with her blade leading. Alex’s reaction was clumsy. She brought her arm up just in time to parry,
sparks flying as their Voices collide.
Carolyne’s rapier slid across the surface of Alex’s blade and severed
the railing beside them.
Carolyne
spun and thrust behind her. Alex blocked
but hadn’t the footing to hold. She was
knocked backward and had to seize the railing to keep herself standing. Another thrust followed, this one made from
the front and meant for Alex’s head.
Alex sidestepped but could hear the air whistle as the rapier clipped
her dark hair.
Alex landed
face first on the ground, her legs giving for a few crucial seconds. She gathered her breath and got to her knees,
pushing up from there and using the momentum to take a wide, aimless swing for
Carolyne’s torso. Carolyne ducked under
and lunged, using her legs to put all the force of her tiny frame behind the
attack. A cold prick of steel teased
Alex’s side and released a flood of pain through her. Blood followed, spilling down her waist.
She
screamed and, feeling weak, staggered away.
A thin, red trail of ribbon followed her movements and gathered at her
feet. She sweated and slipped, catching
herself just before hitting the ground.
Whatever was hurt, it made it hard for her breathe.
Carolyne
laughed while following Alex closely.
Her movements were slow and coy; her eyes were full of hate. She was small, much smaller than Alex, but in
that moment, she seemed far more
dangerous. She was a vision of feral,
wolf-like hunger made real. Smirking,
she brought her blade up and lunged.
They met, Alex was barely able to block and was left reeling. She clung tightly to the railing beside her
to remain standing and followed Carolyne’s movements with her eyes.
“You’re
weak, Alexandra, too weak!” Carolyne
swung, quick and precise, and barely missed the fleeing Alex. The pillar where Alex had been clinging was
sliced clean in two. It slid out of
place and fell into the infinite darkness below.
Alex’s legs
gave out. She caught herself by her arm
as she came to a halt on the cold tiles of the bridge. She felt heavy, and it was hard to
breathe. Each exhale was a rasp, and
every inhale burned. She thought about
Abraham, and she thought about Shana, but none of it could bring her back to
her feet.
She
imagined Shana in front of her, a pool of blood surrounding her, shaped like a
star beneath her pale body. Organs
gleaming, exposed from her stomach, her face soft, white, and tranquil, and she
saw Abraham beside her, bloodless, headless.
A short distance away she saw a skull wrapped in black hair and rotting
pale flesh. It stared at her with
glossy, black marbles. Alex had lost.
Carolyne
stopped, smiling, her features darker with each passing moment. Her rapier gleamed in her hand, fresh blood
gathered at its edge. Alex knew the
difference between them, and it was their intent. Carolyne was a killer. Maybe she always had been, maybe Goliath was
just a way to get her feet wet.
Shana
stirred in the distance, waking slowly and sitting up. Carolyne saw her, and her smile
sharpened. Her Voice began to glow.
Pricking acanthi, strike from shadows and
poison the soul.
“Move” Alex
whispered to herself, watching what Carolyne watched, willing her body into
action. “Move!”
It was
adrenaline that finally moved her. Her
body ached and it fought her all the way, but Alex fought harder. She was up and in front of Shana in the space
of a breath. There, she planted her feet
and turned. Her Voice changed in a flash
of gleaming, liquid steel. A shield
formed, the maiden’s gem taking the dragon’s place at the fore. Alex lifted it high enough to cover her
torso, and then she felt each needle that entered her body.
Every nerve
in Alex’s body flared to life with pulsing pain. Shining spiritual needles were spread across
her lower torso and imbedded across her legs and thighs. There were too many to count, like she was
overstuffed. A few were fixed into her
arms as well and scattered across her left shoulder, but the bulk of her upper
torso was safe. The shield was fine.
Alex’s
vision blurred, and her Voice blurred with it.
She wheezed, and the air continued to feel like fire in her lungs. She felt the blood leaving her in what felt
like gushing gallons, and Carolyne allowed no time for recovery. Her little feet carried her swiftly across
the battlefield. She lunged, and Alex
braced for impact. The air grew tight,
like a river passing through the eye of a needle.
Pushed to the edge of existence and sinking
into the void!
Time
froze. Alex didn’t see it happen. She hardly even felt it. Her vision blurred again, and then it
blacked. She took a strained breath and
looked down, and as she came to, she found Carolyne’s blade had passed through
her shield, through her arm, and pierced her chest. At that moment, she exhaled, and all of the
heat left her body.
Three Gods
exploded into particles of light.
Carolyne’s Voice slid free, wet and thin. Alex looked up, her right arm now limp at her
side, and she looked upon Carolyne standing in rapturous glory, and she, Alex,
felt nothing at all. There were no
regrets, nothing to resolve, not even any pain.
All she felt was a growing numbness that started in her digits and
worked inward.
She thought
of Alicia, and then she collapsed.
: Bridges :
Shana
watched Alex collapse, her body a limp mass of pale limbs. The needles that covered half her body
vanished into wisps of smoky light.
Shana’s body moved of its own accord, her mind being too shocked to send
orders. With one hand she caught Alex’s
bloody body. With the other, she summoned
her Voice and swung wide. Carolyne leapt
away wearing a vicious smile.
After that,
Shana screamed. She intended to cry but
couldn’t produce tears. It wasn’t pain
that she felt. It was horror. Losing Alex was like losing her heart. Alex had always been there, and now she was
gone. The change was sudden, too sudden
for her to process. She held Alex tight
in her arms, refusing to let her go, and she glared at Carolyne.
“What,”
Carolyne asked silkily, pinching her finger and thumb against the flat of her
thin blade and wiping the blood off. “Do
you want to join her?”
Shana took
a shuddering breath and laid Alex to rest on the bridge. Crossing her arms over her chest and closing
the empty eyes, Shana stood, lifting Heart Song as she did. She stared at Caorlyne again, and this time
she didn’t see the girl with whom she constantly vied for Alex’s
attention. She didn’t even see an
animal. As far as Shana concerned,
Carolyne was a walking corpse.
She
charged, hammer in hand, and gave a high, wild swing meant to take off
Carolyne’s head. The attack was
surprisingly swift and hit with meteoric force.
Carolyne lifted her blade just in time to block but couldn’t hold her
ground. She was staggered, her stance
broken. Shana spun, using the momentum
to swing again. Carolyne avoided the
attack, which crashed into the bridge and crumbled the floor, dropping small
chunks of stone into the gaping abyss below.
Carolyne
staggered to a stop and ducked low. She
meant to lunge at Shana but hadn’t the time to respond. Shana was an elemental force driven by rage
and loss, and Carolyne before she could attack, Shana was already pressing
her. Shana stepped in with her hammer
level and lunged first, driving the head of the hammer into Carolyne’s
side. Carolyne blocked the attack by
angling her blade to catch the hammers crown with its flat edge. She reinforced it with her palm but didn’t
have the strength to hold. Her tiny body
was sent flying backward into the railing at the edge of the bridge. Blood oozed from the shallow gash across her
palm.
Shana
allowed no time think. She swung again,
meaning to remove Carolyne’s head. The
blow missed by a few inches and sent a nearby pillar spiraling off into the distant
wall. Carolyne dropped low and, instead
of taking her opening, ran. She moved as
fast as her unsteady legs to would allow and put distance between herself and
her enemy.
Finally,
Shana stopped. She bowed her head and
drew a deep breath. Her mind cleared,
opened to the angry, mournful whale song of her Voice. It washed over her, words spreading through
her and forming on her lips. She leaped
into the air as she repeated them.
All stars in heaven, hear my call, and fall
upon this world in a storm of light!
A brilliant
surrounded her as she spun in the air.
Her Voice carried her higher and a whale’s crooning filled the empty
air. At apex, she swung her hammer in a
flourish and then brought the light down.
A sphere descended and, from within that sphere, a series of small,
translucent daggers appeared. They
spread away from her like ships at sea leaving port, leaving a fluorescent
trail in their wake and, each spiraling and drifting gracefully through the
air, they all rained down on Carolyne.
Carolyne
had stopped to watch but now resumed her movement. She didn’t run, and she kept no formal
pattern. Instead, she danced between
them, hopping from point to point and avoiding the gleaming shards where they
settled like the snow. She blocked one
with her blade and it erupted with enough force to throw her to the ground and
send her sliding.
She sat up
just in time to find Shana closing distance again, and she was to her feet just
in time to receive the next attack.
Again, she braced herself for it, stabbing her rapier into the ground
and putting her shoulder against the flat of it for support. She was determined to hold this time, but the
hammer hit too hard. Carolyne went
tumbling into the nearby railing, which gave this time under her momentum. A smear of blood followed along the ground
after her.
Switching
hands, Carolyne stabbed the stonework again just as she was halfway off the
bridge. She held with one foot and one
hand, the rest of her body hanging over the darkness. Blood ran down her left arm, which felt both
numb and somehow poorly fitted to her body.
It appeared mangled to her, the muscle and bone at an odd angle with her
shoulder, and it made her sick to even see it.
She pulled
herself back onto the bridge and found Shana waiting breathless but
unrelenting. Carolyne found the look of
the other woman to be frightening and, in truth, more like herself than like
the Shana she knew and hated. Carolyne
was a killer, it was true, but she feared that Shana would soon steal the title
from her.
Carolyne
lifted her left hand and pressed it, open palm, into a nearby pillar. Once steadied, she leaned into it hard and
felt a sharp pain go through her spine and settle, cold and sick, in her
stomach. With a crack and a curse, she
felt her arm slide back into place, and then she stood and lifted her blade
once more.
She stared across the bridge to
Shana, and she smiled. “Now, where were
we?”
: Bridges :
On a far wall, standing atop a long
forgotten, stone crafted idol, two figures watched the battle unfold. One with dark skin and long grey hair, the
other small and stout and pale with dark hair and dark eyes. The tall one stood straight with his
shoulders squared and his hands folded behind his back. He watched with intense interest and
unwavering focus. The other, a woman,
was crouched beside him and hugging herself tightly. She did not care for what she saw.
“This is horrible,” the woman,
Carla, said. “They’re going to kill each
other.”
“Yes.” Crest smiled. “They
will. It is the only way that this can
end.”
Carla looked up at him. “Are you telling me that one of them has to
die?”
“Obviously. Do you really think that girl will let her
friend’s death pass so easily?” He
shrugged. “As it stands now, she is
going to rampage until she destroys Carolyne utterly. It doesn’t matter, though, Carolyne never
meant much to the master.”
Carla frowned and returned her
focus to the bridge. She watched them
trade blows. Carolyne struggled. “But she’s one of us.”
“She doesn’t matter. Master is in meditation. The plan has come along too far to stop
now.” Crest cast a sideways glance at
her and let his smile fade. “Unless,” he
said as if in contemplation, “Unless they somehow find a way to free the lady.”
Carla balled her fists until her
knuckles went wide. Her frown
deepened. “But we’ve worked so hard,”
she said. “We’ve sacrificed so much.”
Crest gave another shrug and wore a
mask of indifference. “Then the best way
to stop them is to stop them now, it seems.”
“How?”
“Help Carolyne.”
“Crest, I can’t—I won’t do
that. If I augment her now, with how
unstable her emotions are,” her hands began to shake, she gripped herself so
tightly, “If I did that, then she might lose control of herself and become lost
to the power.”
“And if you don’t, she will
die.” Crest turned her back on it. “Either way, I don’t care much. If Carolyne dies, then I kill the girl. Carolyne
lives, then she kills the girl. Either
way, that girl will have to die for the plan.
I just assumed you would want to save one life if you could.”
Carla scowled as she watched
Carolyne duck and falter, a lost soul in desperate need of saving. “Fine,” she said, her breath hard and showing
her disapproval. “I get what you’re
saying, and I’ll do it, but I’ll need silence.”
Crest touched her shoulder. Even through his gloves, his fingers were
cold and made the hair on neck stand on end.
He leaned down and whispered to her, “You do what you must.” Then, he disappeared into the shadows.
Alone, Carla pushed him out of her
thoughts. She cleared her mind first and
created a place for Carolyne to be. Eyes
closed, she sat with her legs crossed and back straight. Three long breaths followed, and she opened
her eyes to watch Carolyne again, watch Carolyne attack, watch her retreat,
watch her brace against the railing and twist.
Carolyne screamed, and Carla began to speak.
“Strength.”
: Bridges :
Strength.
Carolyne stood stiff, her blade at
her side. It was hard to breathe, and it
was even harder to move. Shana’s attacks
were ruthless and relentless, and Carolyne just didn’t have the strength to
stand up against them.
Power.
She widened her stance and raised
her rapier, training the sharpened tip on Shana’s chest. Running was no longer an option, not after
Alex died, and surrender wouldn’t work either.
Shana wanted blood. She wanted
death, and Carolyne was no different.
Goliath died by her hand. So did
Alex. She wanted Shana, too.
Might.
Shana stopped. A change came over Carolyne, one so prominent
that it cleaved through Shana’s rage and struck her in the gut. She watched Carolyne’s muscles tighten, watched
her eyes narrow, watched her focus shift.
She watched the bloodstained rapier drift slightly before finding its
mark and moving toward it. When Carolyne
moved, she moved like lightning. Shana
could barely raise her weapon to meet the thrust, and she only just barely
managed to deflect the second strike that followed.
Force.
Shana shouted. A third attack had clipped her side and cut
clean through. She stumbled away with a
large trail of blood following. As she
retreated, she gave a wild swing backward, one that Carolyne danced around
before pricking Shana again. It was a
shallow thrust that landed just above her left breast. A ribbon of blood was left across the
railing.
Shana retreated slowly, struggling
to keep stable footing. Carolyne moved
with her, striking with increasing alacrity and precision. Shana was still stronger, but she couldn’t
land a hit. She gritted her teeth and
strained to follow Carolyne’s movements, but she always swung where Carolyne
was, not where she would be.
Conversely, Carolyne kept low to
the ground. She ducked under blows or
simply went around them, and she put her weight behind each thrust. She threw herself into combat, showing
reckless abandon as she thrust, over and over again, for Shana’s heart.
Shana swung for the legs and
planned her next move before it hit.
Once she had Carolyne grounded, she would bring her hammer down on the
other woman’s head. Then, she would
attend to Alex’s wounds however she could.
Potency.
Carolyne stopped and stabbed her
blade into the ground. Shana’s hammer hit
and did nothing. Using her continuing
momentum, Carolyne flipped over her weapon and landed on the other side, pulling
it from the ground after her and driving the hilt into Shana’s breastbone. Shana fell, landing beside Alex’s corpse, and
when she looked up, she found Carolyne standing over her.
A savage smile parted Carolyne’s
lips. Her teeth her fang-like, her eyes that
of a rabid wolf. “Look at you,” she said
in her growing mania. “Look at you
two! Even in death, you refuse to be
apart.” She scowled. “Pathetic.”
“Shut up.”
Ferocity.
“Worms. You’re worms.
You’re just a bunch of worms beneath my fucking feet! You’re not fit to
be in the Emotion. You’re not even fit
for the fucking Earth. You’re scum. You’re just fucking scum, and so was she!”
“I told you to shut up!”
“And now, now I’m going to cleanse
the earth of you. Wipe away all trace of
you!” She threw her head back and
laughed a high, wild laugh. She wasn’t
Carolyne anymore. Now, she was power,
wild and unrestrained, and it wore Carolyne’s face. “I’m going to show you what true potential
is. I’m going to give you a good fucking
example of perfection!” Her eyes went
wide while her body convulsed. “Watch
closely!”
The wind rose. The air grew tense and warm. Sparks danced across Carolyne’s arm. Brilliant flashes of light appeared in the
darkness and faded just as suddenly.
Carolyne glowed. Suspended by a
phantom force, her small body was lifted into the air. Energy, raw energy, flowed from her in great
crashing waves that washed over Shana.
Carolyne released her Voice and let
it float freely before her. She kept her
arms extended, holding them at her side, her fingers spread like wings. Blurred green lights appeared, mingling with
the darkness, sizzling as they faded.
Shana covered her eyes and held her
stomach. She felt weak, and she felt
nauseous, and she knew also that death was near. Fear hit her like a punch to the throat. She shook and crawled over Alex’s lifeless
body, holding her close. She wasn’t
ready to die and had her whole life in front of her, but she felt some comfort
in knowing that they would be together.
Briefly, she wondered what heaven would be like.
O’
Morning Star! Be our Guide into the pits
of Hell. Sear our flesh! Melt our bone!
Burn away our souls!
: Bridges :
It was just a pinch, and then it
was nothing. The world went white, and
then it went black, and then it was nothing at all. Void followed, a vast emptiness beyond sunshine
and shadows. There she felt nothing, and
there she wanted for nothing. Oblivion
greeted her, and even that was fleeting.
Her senses died one by one. There was buzzing, then silence, and then the
absence of sound. Touch faded next, and
then taste, and smell. Soon, she wasn’t
even a body. She became a soul, her mind
hazy and uncertain.
She asked herself, her empty,
incorporeal self, where she should go.
She wondered if there were promises to keep. She was tired, though, too tired to go any
further, too tired for the struggles that would be waiting to test her, too
tired for the promises that she would inevitably make. There were shadows where she died, deep
shadows with a bottomless hunger. She
fell into them. She embraced them.
Then, she heard a call. It was like a shout but softer, but it
persisted inside of her. Like an itch at
the back of her throat, except she had no throat. It wasn’t a promise, and it wasn’t a sound,
but it echoed inside of her all the same, over and over again. It became an anthem, repeating eternally like
a stone skipping across water and the ripples that followed.
Shana was in danger, and Alex was
needed.
: Bridges :
Light spilled off of Carolyne’s
suspended body. Every wall, every
crevice in the room was illuminated by her power. Even the bottomless pit below revealed its
secrets to the world to the world, though Carolyne shown so bright that it
distracted anyone who would notice.
Carla, horrified by what she had done, watched in silent, awed terror
from her idol perch.
Shana, kneeled on the bridge,
shielded her eyes from the light. She
was crouched over Alex’s lifeless body, protecting her with her own life. The tables had turned, and now there was
nothing left that Shana could do but pray and wait for death. From where she was, Shana thought that her
death seemed tragic but also beautiful.
Alex remained cold and pale. The blood beneath her had pooled and
darkened. Small incisions were left
across her body. One thin, deep puncture
wound was pressed into her chest. Her
lips were stained and cracked, her face bruised. She already had the appearance of a corpse
and a decaying one at that.
Then, Alex moved.
Her left index finger twitched,
curling ever so slightly. Then, it went
flat. She pushed herself to standing,
ripping her body from Shana’s grasp.
From Carolyne’s perspective, so high in the air, Alex was an ant
resurrected, waiting to be squashed after surviving the magnifying glass. From Shana’s perspective, Alex was the dead
risen. She sat back and watched in
stomach-twisting rapture as her best friend came back to life.
Alex moved sluggishly, a puppet on
loose wires. Her eyes remained dark and
glossy. Shana didn’t know if she should
be relieved or horrified and decided to wait and find out. Alex’s arms flashed. Liquid steel appeared in the air and took the
form of a shield, a blue gem held by a maiden at its center.
She fixed her glass-like eyes on
Carolyne, floating above. Then,
crouching slightly, she leapt with all her might and took off into the air with
a loud grunt. She sailed on the wind, a
dark figure cutting through the light.
Her body cast a long shadow that swelled along the walls, growing larger
the closer she got to Carolyne.
Carolyne adjusted her aim,
directing her Voice toward a familiar target—Alex. Light flowed and shifted around her,
cascading like a river and gather at the tip of her blade, dew on a leaf. There it bloomed and swelled in a searing
flash.
-Alex lifted her shield and entered
the downpour of light. It parted around
her, barreling into the bridge and into the wall beyond her. Shana watched as the light ate away at the
stonework, eroding it as sure as time.
She sat stiff, dust and smoke filling the room, afraid to move, afraid
to be caught up in the growing chaos.
The light grew brighter than the
sun. It speared the shield and spilled
off harmlessly around Alex, who kept climbing through the air, her momentum
growing against the friction. Carolyne
took hold of her rapier and the anger swelled inside of her tiny little
chest. She had thought Alex dead, and
she was resolved now to make it true.
When the light faded Alex had
passed through unarmed. Carolyne trained
her weapon on her enemy’s throat and prepared to kill her for a second
time. She smiled, knowing from
experience that she shield would not hold.
She saw the scratches across the surface of the shield, saw where the
light had eaten away at the shining gemstone, saw the shimmering fragments of
light still imbedded in the spiritual steel.
Alex extended her arm on the way
and directed her balled fist toward Carolyne’s blade point. The shield shifted like liquid, the steel
surging forward into a flattened, blade-like form. The red and blue jeweled turned, circling
each other, and came to rest in union, sharing their place upon Alex’s
forearm. They shined like twin stars,
their lights competing against each other and merging where they met.
They met, blade first, and their
souls collided. The air around them
hardened. It was the briefest of moments,
followed immediately by a resolution, but to them it stretched on for a
lifetime. Carolyne’s Voice, so loud but
so hollow, splintered and collapsed.
Alex was carried through, the momentum sending her blade first into
Carolyne’s tiny chest and then upward through the ceiling. They passed through the brickwork like a
cannon blast and disappeared from Shana’s view.
They erupted into another room,
reached apex, and then landed hard a short distance from their entry
point. They came apart on impact, tumbling
across the floor. Alex rolled into a
wall and came to a hard stop. Carolyne
slid, face-down, to a halt.
Light filled Alex, who wondered if
she was finally dead. She opened her
eyes and found herself at rest on her back beside a lake. She was lying in knee-high grass that swayed
with the breeze, appearing to her almost like endless rows of wheat. The air was clear, and so was the sky. When she sat up, she saw a forest of pines,
oaks, and ashes on the far shore. Turning,
she saw more behind her.
She stood. A cabin was nearby, rustic and made with
loving care from logs and effort. She
could tell from the fine details, the frayed wood, the small imperfections,
that it was built by amateur hands. It
was rough but deeply loved, and it stood, stalwart against the silence,
complete and alone.
Alex climbed to the cabin’s deck
and stopped at the front door. It had a
screen door inside, unlocked and open.
She peeked inside and found a polished interior. A small, old couch was tucked against a wall
to her left, a tiny homemade coffee table at rest before it, a miniscule
fireplace was cut into the far wall. The
room was warm, welcoming, but empty.
Prolonged exposure drained the warmth from it.
Carolyne was at rest on the couch,
and she looked bored. She sat with her
legs crossed and leaning back, staring at the far wall.
“Carolyne?” Alex spoke in a whisper. Carolyne looked at her and nodded, and Alex
entered the cabin.
“Alexandra.” Her tone was not unfriendly.
Alex closed the door behind her and
took in the room. It felt larger
inside. Windows were set into the walls
and showed her outside. There were two
doorways leading out of the room, one into a kitchen which Alex could see, one
which Alex could not see. “What’s going
on? I thought you killed me.”
“So did I,” said Carolyne. “Apparently, we were wrong.”
Alex nodded. She walked the room and settled beside
Carolyne on the couch. She tucked her
hair back before making eye contact with the other woman. “Apparently,” she said. “So, no more fighting?”
“I guess not.” Carolyne sighed. “What’s the point of fighting when you’re
already dead?”
“Dead?” Alex stared at Carolyne and realized she was
talking to a dead person, and she felt silly for being so surprised. Death didn’t seem to hold too much meaning in
the Emotion. Alex had died a few times
already.
They sat together in silence,
staring at the wall. The warm light that
filled the room was offset by the empty cold that permeated the wood. Carolyne crossed her arms and held
herself. She seemed contemplative and,
as usual, irritated.
Alex leaned forward to peek into
the other room and found a small bed inside.
The bed was made up with a thick quilt tucked in around the mattress and
sunlight framing it. A closet was built
into the wall that she could see, and a hand-wrought bench was at rest at the
foot of the bed. The house interior was
larger than she thought, but it felt somehow small and suffocating to her. She felt unwelcome. Sitting back, Alex hugged one of her legs to
her chest. Carolyne broke the silence.
“My grandfather,” she said, “He
spent the last ten years of his life working on this place. Week after week, year after year, he’d come
up to the lake and bleed over this damn thing.
Then, as soon as he finished, he bought the farm.” She let out a half-chuckle, an empty breath
meant to punctuate the sentence. “So
much work, so much effort, and all for nothing.
I decided,” and her voice wavered.
She took a deep breath. “I
decided that I wouldn’t live like that, and that I sure as hell wouldn’t die
like that. I wouldn’t waste my life on
something without purpose.” She turned
to Alex and looked her in the eyes, and Alex saw that she was crying. “I won’t let it end this way. I won’t be forgotten. I won’t just die and fade away like him. I refuse.
I deserve more.”
Alex sighed and leaned forward to
stare at the ground. She saw her
reflection in the glossy finish. “Maybe,
just maybe, Carolyne, this is actually what’s best for you.”
“No!” Carolyne, and she stomped her feet, and she
waved her arms at the air, beating at the empty space and swinging at the
inconvenience of it all. “No,” she said
again, calming. Hate still seized her
voice, but it made her sound flat and faraway.
“No. I am meant for something
more, for something greater. I had the
potential, you know, the potential to be something, to be anything.”
She turned away from Alex and
walked to the center of the room. Then,
she lifted her gaze and fixed it on the open doorway leading out of the
cabin. “It’s time for me to go.” She walked to the doorway and stopped at its
threshold. The warm exterior light
spilled in and cast a glowing, golden blanket over her body. It did nothing to warm her features. She looked back at Alex. “There’s still so much to be done. Goodbye, Alex.”
When she stepped through the
doorway, she was gone.
Alex blinked back tears and soon
lost herself in a flash of light. The
room faded. She found herself somewhere
else, lost in another memory. The
horizon was on fire just over the hills and the trees. She stood in a field of wheat as tall as her
ribs. A slender woman stood beside her,
a slender woman with long tawny hair and eyes like the sky. “It will be okay,” said a voice on the wind,
warm and reassuring. Alex’s chest became
weightless and so did the rest of her.
“Alicia? Is
that you?”
“You’ve got
to keep on living.” The voice was faint
in Alex’s ear, and it was sad. “I love
you, Alex, and I always will, but I’m not ready to see you yet. You have to keep going for me, okay?”
“I
will.” Alex leaned forward, arms open to
embrace the other woman, but it was too late.
The woman faded in her arms. Alex
whined. “No. No, please, no, come back!”
“I can’t go
with you.”
Alex
sprinted through the field, trampling the wheat as she moved. She led with her open arms as a child
might. It was warm for autumn, she
remembered. “Sometimes,” she said, “I
feel so weak, like I can barely breathe, like I don’t deserve to. Alicia, I’ve fallen so many times, I’m
beginning to think…”
She heard a
sigh on the wind, warm and familiar, and it brought a sardonic smile to her
face. “Now, now, don’t you go saying
that. You’re a sweet girl, and you can
be strong if you need to be. And you
will need to be. Sometimes you
fall. Everyone does. So, if you ever feel too weak, just remember
that you’re not alone. You have
friends. You have Shana. Rely on her when your legs give out. Do whatever you have to, just don’t quit
standing up, okay?”
Alex was
quiet.
“Alex, tell
me you understand. Tell me that you
believe me.”
“I
understand,” Alex said after a great and heavy sigh. “I believe you.”
“Now mean
it.”
Alex
allowed a smile, even through her tears.
“I understand,” she said. “I
believe.”
“Good
girl.” The voice had grown proud but
distant. “Now, I really do have to go.”
“Now?”
“I’m
sorry.”
“I know,”
Alex said, and she wiped her eyes. “Goodbye.”
: Bridges :
Ellen
walked endlessly. She climbed infinite
steps, passing empty corridors that led only to shadows and, sometimes, when
she followed them, nothing. Isaac was
gone and, without him, she was lost and half-expecting to find Carolyne hiding
somewhere among the ruins.
After what
felt like hours, she saw a small spike of sunlight stabbing deep into the
darkened heart of the ruin interior. She
followed it through a short, dusty entryway and up another set of narrow
stairs, rounded and cracked with age, where she came out at another set of
stairs, one leading up toward the light and the other down into the darkness.
She chose
the light and made a short climb to a large, rectangular room with a high
ceiling. The roof was open and midday
light brightened illuminated the floor.
A clear, blue sky smiled down at her.
Pillars lined the wall, forming a smaller rectangle within the
room. Huge murals were engraved in the
walls. They showed great and terrible
battle, and many bore deep, long gashes that obscured their features to her.
She walked
the room until she saw a hole in the floor and Carolyne lying a few feet away from
it. To her, Carolyne looked very much
the same, only pale and, upon closer inspection, dead. A large, red wound was opened upon her
chest. She was curled up like an infant
at rest. Alex was a few feet away, her
back to a wall, her body pale, bruised, and bloody, but she was breathing. For a moment, Ellen thought she saw someone
beside her, a woman wrapped in a cloak of yellow sunlight, with long beautiful
hair that hung nearly to her waist, but when Ellen blinked the figure was gone.
Ellen went
to Alex’s side and kneeled beside her.
She touched her shoulder gently and shook her awake, whispering her name
as she did. There were tears in Ellen’s
eyes. Alex stirred and, blinking, eyes
glossy and distant, she whispered, “Alicia?”
Ellen
tilted her head to the side. “No, Alex,
no. It’s me, Ellen. Are you okay?”
Alex looked
Ellen over and sighed. Her body seemed
to sag, but only for a moment, and then she surprised Ellen with an
embrace. Ellen held her after gathering
herself. “I’m fine,” Alex said. “It’s good to see you.”
“You,
too.” They parted, and Ellen looked away
from Alex and toward Carolyne. “What
happened to,” and her words died when she found nothing. Carolyne was gone without even a droplet of
blood to remember her by. Ellen searched
the room and, finding them alone, went silent.
“A lot has
happened.” Alex stood. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”
Footsteps echoed up a set of nearby stairs.
Ellen put herself behind Alex and peeked over her shoulder. Alex positioned herself purposefully between
Ellen and the stairway. “Stay behind
me,” she said. “I’ll protect you.” Ellen pinned her back to the wall.
Shana
appeared, limping out of the stairwell and dragging herself toward them. Like Alex, her injuries drew Ellen’s
attention, but none of them were bad enough to garner lingering concern. She and Alex met and held each other. “Alex,” she said, her voice choked and soft. “Alex, are you okay?”
Alex moved
Shana, repositioning her body so that she could support her. “I’m fine,” she said, and she looked Shana
over. Her eyes lingered on the small
lacerations that were evenly spread across Shana’s torso and limbs, once minute
puncture marks and now dried blood.
“What about you? What happened?”
“After
Carolyne stabbed you…”
“Don’t talk
about that,” Alex said. She stared into
the distance. “I don’t really want to
think about it.”
Shana
stared into Alex’s eyes for a moment. A
few seconds passed before Alex returned her attention on Shana who, seeing her
like that, merely said, “Okay,” and followed Alex to Ellen’s side. With Ellen’s aid, Shana was put against the
wall and slid into a seated position.
She smiled weakly at them as they moved her. “Where did she go?”
“I’m not
sure,” Alex said. “Here, let me help
you.” She closed her eyes and summoned
her Voice. Spiritual steel formed from
the air, appearing as a shield, and Alex put her hand to Shana’s wounds. Shine
bright as the moon. O’halo, do protect.
Shana
winced and then relaxed. A warm breath
passed over her and, when Alex removed her hands, Shana’s wound was gone. Alex repeated the process, passing her hand
over different wounds and knitting them together with a touch. Shana lifted her eyebrows and smiled. “And when did you learn to do that?”
Alex shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “I just can now. You know how these things work. The soul tells us how to do it, and then we
do it.” Shana nodded, and Alex helped
her to standing. Her Voice faded then,
disappearing into the light. “I think
Abraham is nearby. I felt her when we
first arrived. We’ve got Ellen, and now
we’ve got you, so we just need to get her, and then we can go home.”
“Do you
think we’ll find her,” Ellen asked. She
was still against the wall, and she was still scared, but having Alex and Shana
close by made things better. She thought
of Isaac and decided that wherever he was, he would be okay on his own.
Alex
nodded. “Yeah,” she said, and she smiled
at them both. Color was returning to her
skin. She turned toward the doorway set
into the far wall. “Come on, you two,
let’s go finish this.” She took Shana by
the hand while Ellen stood and the three of them set out together.
: Bridges :
Isaac woke
on a bridge, his body awash with sunlight.
He heard life all around him. Water
trickled. The wind stirred trees. People passed him, speaking in a tongue he
didn’t understand. Cars honked and
rolled by, spilling exhaust that stifled the air. He opened his eyes slowly and found himself
at rest on a white stone bridge, on his back, watching the clouds drift
by. Ellen was nowhere to be seen.
