Indigo: Abraham, Emotion Vol. 3: Bridges, Chapter Twelve: "Bridges, Bringing Down the Bone Grinder"

 

Chapter Twelve: Bridges, Bringing Down the

                                           O

                                        GriNder

                                              E

 

            The city disappeared into a vast, icy wasteland.  Cold winds cut deep, and they dropped their heads against them as the snow piled up around them.  Isaac gave his jacket to Ellen like a gentleman, and she hugged it tight to her torso as she kept one arm up and did her best to ignore the frosty bite of the cold.

            Isaac grew pale but didn’t seem to mind.  Periodically he stopped to breathe into his cupped palms, but the rigidity with which he moved showed Ellen who futile it all was.  These breaks never lasted long, and he wouldn’t allow her to stop, either.

            Ellen tripped and feel knee deep into the snow, and he was at her side to help her to standing.  She shouted into the wind as it tossed her hair about, “Isaac, I don’t know how much longer I can go on!”

            “Don’t think about it.  Just focus on moving.  As long as you do that, you’ll be able to move forward.”  His words were puffs of blue-white steam, but his smile after was the sun.  She didn’t believe him, but she trusted him enough to keep going anyway.

            As they moved forward, they stepped together for warmth.  He held her at the back, pushing her forward, and each step was synchronized.  Both kept their heads down, and whenever she felt too weak to keep going, he held her up.

            The blizzard died and the sun appeared beyond the clouds.  When they looked back the storm was gone altogether, and the snow glittered in the sunlight.  The air was cool and still, and it hurt to breathe, but it was better than the lashing winds.  They kept together still, requiring the shared warmth, and then parted as they kept moving.

            Ellen smiled at him.  It was all strange, too strange for her, but Isaac made her feel safe.  He was strong and clever, and he always seemed to put her first.  Looking at him, she sometimes believed they would make it home.

            They crested a hill that looked out on endless mountains and canyons.  Everything was snow-caped and dark blue beneath.  The air was cleaner here than any she had ever breathed before.  Ellen shook the frost from her hair.  “How long until the storm starts again, you think?”

            “I’m not sure.  It could be that we’re in the eye of the storm, but—It’s impossible to know anything about this damn place. If my father were here, I could ask him, but...He wouldn’t tell me.  He never tells me anything.”

            “Your father?”  Ellen swept her hair back and watched him.  He had gone rigid again, colder than the mountains.  Isaac was like that sometimes.  He was the sun and then, within a breath, he was a winter night.  At those times, she worried.  “Isaac?”

            She had blinked, and he was gone.  The mountains were gone, too, and the snow and the cold.  She was inside of a tomb made of golden stone stacked high on slanted walls.  She stood on a bridge, with another bridge above her and another below.  Shadows filled the spaces below and above her.  Dust dulled what light cast by lanterns bolted to the walls.

            She turned, as she always did, and hugged Isaac jacket tight.  It smelled like him, which was a comfort, but wasn’t enough to keep her safe.  There were entrances on either side of the bridge she stood on.  The air was musty and harsh on her lungs.  She looked over the railing and sighed.

            “Okay,” she said to the emptiness.  “Well,” she looked back where the mountains and been, or at least where she imagined them to have been, “I’m not going that way, so...”  She turned again.  “Maybe ahead?  Or maybe I should wait.”  She thought of Carolyne and started walking.  “At the very least I should find somewhere I can hide if I need to.”

 

: Bridges :

 

            Alex and Shana walked hand-in-hand and ever forward.  They left the island behind them, venturing out onto a thin arm of dirt that stretched infinitely into the sea.  The sun was high and warm, but a breeze teased their hair and kept them cool.  The air smelled wet and salty.  Shana tired first, but Alex kept her head up and never stopped moving.

            The world shifted in an instant.  One minute they were enjoying the fresh sea air.  The next they choked in a musty temple.  The walls were wide but old, fashioned from a porous yellow stone and cut with ancient sigils of times long forgotten.  There was no breeze, hardly any air to breath at all, and the air was stagnant and flat.

            Their footsteps echoed.  The way before them a long, flat bridge, unevenly tiled and thick with dirt.  Everything was faded in color and somewhat dehydrated.  There was a darkened tunnel before them, a squared mouth opened to swallow them.  Behind them was a slanted wall.  Below them were bottomless shadows.  Alex leaned over the railing to stare and felt it shift slightly.  Part of the bannister crumbled in her hand.

            The bridge was sturdy enough they found.  They kept walking and eyed the draconic statues that lined the walls and the maidens between them, hands folded into cups and outstretched in offering.  They passed through one archway and into another room, another bridge, this one forking partway.

            Shana watched Alex as they moved.  She was different, changed by her experience.  On the surface, she was very much the same, except she wore her hair back.  When they spoke, she met Shana’s eyes now, and her shoulders were back and head up.  She looked ready to meet the world for the first time since Shana knew her.  It was strange to see, good, but a change, and Shana wondered where she would fit in the new Alex’s life.

            However she worried, Shana smiled.  Since childhood this was the Alex she had wanted to see, the one she had wanted to meet.  It was a good thing, different though it might be, Shana was sure of that.  Everyone changed as they entered adulthood, and Shana was still determined to love Alex and support her whatever happened.

            An uneven tile caught Shana’s foot and tripped her forward, and Alex was there to catch her.  They shared a smile.  “Sorry about that.”

            “It’s fine.  You okay?”

            “Yeah.” Shana kicked at the tile.  “Don’t worry, just clumsy.”

            Alex laughed.  “Sometimes.”  They stood straight and started walking again.  “Looks like we still have a long way to go.”

            “Yeah, but we’re together now, and that’s what’s important.”

            They walked until they reached the crossroads.  Another bridge stretched off, in a T formation, toward a nearer entrance.  They could see light and smell fresh air from there.  Standing in the entry way, chest bare and scarred, and stinking, always, of sweat, was Goliath.  He smiled when they saw him and flexed his hand.  A heavy golden rod appeared in the air and fell into his hands.  It was nearly twice the height of Alex.  “There you are.”

            Alex pulled Shana behind her and stepped forward.  A flash of light appeared around her right forearm and hardened into her bracer, which took the shape of her blade.  She glared.

            “And, as I expected, you’re still determined to fight me.”

            “I told Abraham that I would protect her, so I will protect her.  End of discussion.”

            A frown creased his face.  He looked older than she remembered and angrier, too.  “You can’t protect anyone if you’re dead.”

“You’re going to kill me either way, right?  So, I may as well fight.”

            Goliath took a deep breath and then shrugged.  He twisted his hands around his staff and fell into a wide stance.  To Alex, he appeared to a crouching beast of mythic origins.  His body was tight but fluid.  He rested the staff on his enormous shoulders.

            Alex looked back a Shana.  “You wait here while I take care of this guy.”

            “No,” Shana said, stepping forward.  Her Voice appeared in her hands forming, seemingly, from the air and from sound itself.  She mimicked Goliath’s stance as best she could.  It didn’t leave her looking so imposing, but she felt solid.

            “Shana!”

            “Alex, I’m here with you.  After everything we’ve been through, I’m finally here with you.  So, please, let me protect you.”

            Alex stared at Alex, in her eyes, and she laughed.  “Fine,” she said, shaking her head and looking at Goliath, and she was still smiling.  “We’re both idiots, huh?”

            “Maybe a little.”  Shana sized up Goliath.  She remembered him being taller than she and Alex standing on each other’s shoulders.  Looking at him face-to-face, she wasn’t sure that was wrong.   Alex took Shana’s hand and gave it a squeeze. Shana squeezed back.  “All for one?”

            “You protect me; I’ll protect you.”

            Alex led the charge.  With her blade ready she sprinted forward.  She knew, deep down, that it would end poorly but knew no other way to go.  Goliath was violence incarnate, and no matter what she did, he would win.  So, the only choice she had was the most obvious one: swing blindly and hope for the best.

            She lunged at his chest, blade straight and shining, but he knocked her aside with a flourish of his staff.  Using the momentum, Alex spun around on her heel and brought her blade around toward his neck.  He held firm in response, driving his staff vertically into the bridgework beneath him and stopped her.

            Withdrawing his staff, he stepped in and jabbed her in the stomach with the end of his staff.  The blow knocked the wind from her and sent her reeling.  She tumbled into the guard rail and fell into a fit of coughs, holding her stomach and doubled over.  He stopped beside her, staff up, and brought it down, only to be interrupted by Shana.

            Leaping through the air and wailing, Shana brought her hammer down on where Goliath was.  He heard he, though, and stepped away.  The tiles where he stood shattered into a hundred shards and scattered.  As she recovered, Goliath stepped back in, took her by the neck, and tossed her aside.

            Shana flew off the bridge, over the rail.  Before falling she grabbed hold of one of the bannisters, but her fingers were loosened by the inertia.  She slipped, slowly, and stared down into the waiting darkness.

            Alex sucked in a breath and pushed away.  She ducked under Goliath’s next swing and thrust at his ribs. He side-stepped again, took her by the arm, and held her in place while driving his bulky knee forward into her sternum.  Her chest exploded with pain and her knees turned to jelly.  Adrenaline was all that kept her moving.

            She staggered away, where she hoped to be out of reach, but was caught by the end of his staff.  Her right solar plexus throbbed as she swayed.  Another blow caught her in the left side and left her breathless again.  The world spun as she gasped.

            Another step, another strike, this one meant to force his staff through her chest and finish her.  Alex saw the movement in fine detail, his muscles flexing, the sweat beading across his flash.  She saw the fury in his eyes, and the reluctance, and she saw Shana slowly slipping away.  She was desperate, and she was overwhelmed, and she lifted her Voice to block him and felt it shift.

            The red and blue jewels on the front shifted place, the former pulling back toward her elbow, the latter moving into the fore.  The blade receded and fanned, forming into a shield with a maiden’s face and hands and a blue jewel sparkling at its center, which stopped the staff.

            Alex went tumbling and landed on her back.  She felt heavy, lungs burning, bones aching, and the battle had only just started.  Then there was Shana to consider.

            She sat up and watched Goliath’s approach.  He was sauntering now, a scowl on his face, and it gave her time to gather her breath and bring herself to standing.

            “A shield?”  He growled the world.

            “I have things to protect.”

            He grunted and leapt, and his strong legs carried him high and far.  At apex, Goliath had his staff overhead, and he brought it down on top of her.  Alex planted her feet and brought her new shield up to meet it, angling it slightly to the left.  Sparks flew as the staff slid away, imbedding itself in the floor while Alex winced from the impact.

            She didn’t have time to recover before Goliath attacked again.  He was graceless, lifting the staff one more time and bringing it down harder.  Again, Alex held her ground and let the staff slide off of her shield, but the blow was hard enough to leave her arms numb.  On his third attack, she rolled to the side, stopping on her shield face and kicking off of the railing so that she could slide across the bridge.

            The tile flooring before him turned to dust, Goliath turned.  He followed her, approaching as she stood and hit her hard in the gut with the end of his staff.  She was forced back into the railing, which she held to for dear life while the world spun around her.  The wind left her and brought up bile with it.  She vomited down her blouse as she fell to one knee.

            A horizontal swing meant for her head came in, wind whistling around it, and Alex ducked under.  She pushed back just as Goliath brought his staff back at her, and she had just enough time to heft up her shield before being hit hard.  Contact sounded like a gunshot and vibrated through her arm.  She flew back and tumbled nearly ten feet before coming to a stop on her back, lying limp and struggling for breath.

            Shana fell over the railing, onto her face.  She pulled herself back up in time to find Goliath stalking toward Alex and charged.  Leaping, like he did before her, she brought her Voice with her.  It spoke to her whispers from her soul, and she echoed them aloud.  Light poured from her hammer head and the air hummed.

            Thus He spoke, ‘The weight of the world shall crush you!’

            Heart Song grew heavy in her hands and hardened, too.  She could feel it change and put all of herself into the blow, swinging with thunderous force at Goliath’s skull.  He remembered her just in time to stop the blow, blocking with his staff, which folded on impact.  Shana landed, heavily in front of him and stumbled to a stop.  She admired her work before a tickle ran up her spine.

            Ignore my title, she said, the words warping reality around her, Dismiss my image; hear only my song!  Her Voice grew lighter now but remained hardened, the outer surface of it glossy and catching reflecting the light.  Spinning on her heel, brought it around toward his ribs.

            Goliath stepped and watched her hammer glide by.  He hooked the crown with his bent staff about her waist and turned his back on her, using the leverage to uproot her and toss her overhead.  She landed hard and came to a stop beside Alex momentarily breathless.

            When she stood, she found Goliath regarding his staff with a grimace.  He looked at her, tossed the weapon aside, and produced a whip from the air.  With one swift movement it unraveled, and with a twist of his wrist the tiles at his feet were sundered.

            He pulled back, the whip receding, and then snapped.  The whip lunged like a snake, slithering forward and slicing a stray hair inches from her face as she dodged to the side.  It fell slowly as it unraveled, not even touching the ground before he made another strike that narrowly missed.

            Shana sidestepped and watched a shadow beside her explode into a cloud of dust.  She staggered as the railing was cleaved apart.  Her legs felt weak and her body sluggish.  Years of academics had not readied her for a fight for her life.  Another snap and the whip looked like a tide of woven leather.  It slowed, and she watched the wrinkles form and stretch as it surged toward her.

            Blood splashed across the tile and a scream echoed in the void.

            Alex opened her eyes and pushed through the pain.  Goliath had caught Shana on the left leg, tearing her pants and her flesh in one move.  She was left kneeling and holding her wound as he flicked his wrist.  The whip retreated and returned, and she watched its approach with fatalistic fascination.  This one would catch her across the face, possibly even part her head in two.

            Never stray from your path.  Never lose hope.

            Alex blocked Shana, her shield gleaming.  The whip made contact and came apart.  Light washed over them both as Alex turned to Shana and touched her shoulder, and warmth spread through them.  Their wounds mended and, as Shana stood, Alex smiled.

            The whip frayed, tearing at the center and lashing back at Goliath.  A shallow gash formed across Goliath’s arm, leaving a trail of blood across his hairy forearms and dribbling from his knuckles.  Before him, Alex stood, worn and fierce, Shana at her side.  From how it looked to him, Alex was not only resolved to finish the battle, but she seemed resolved to win it.

            Goliath roared, stomping a foot in his rage as he tossed the whip aside.  His eyes bulged; his face grew red.  He screamed, “Why? Every time I knock you down, you get back up again.  Why do you insist on fighting so damn hard?”

            “Because I have promises to keep.”

            Alex charged now, leading with her shield.  He bled, and that made him human, but it didn’t make him weak.  If she wanted to win, then she would have to close distance fast and land a killing blow before he could respond.  She got within his reach but couldn’t strike before being struck.  He brought his fist down from above, knocking her shield aside with his first blow and then striking her across the face with his other palm.

            She folded, collapsing under his brutal force.  Blood splattered across the floor and across her torso.  He positioned himself above her, punching again, and this time knock her into the tile.  She swayed, wheezing, as he kicked her in the side.  She rolled into the nearby railing, which fractured on impact.  There, he pinned her in place with his foot.

            “Damn you!  You’re too weak even to fight.  Too weak to keep these empty promises you are going on about!”

            Appearing from his side, Shana stepped in and took a blind swing at Goliath’s head.  He caught her hammer just under the weighted head and used it to lift her in the air and flipped her, slamming her down hard against the tilework of the bridge.  Contact knocked the air from her lungs, and his big foot came stomping down to keep the air out of her.  He applied pressure to hold her there, and she clawed weakly at his ankle while she wheezed.

            “Look here, Alexandra!  This is what happens when you’re weak!”  Goliath ground his foot into Shana’s chest as he shouted.  “She tried to save you, and she couldn’t.  She fought as hard as she could and achieved nothing but being stopped.  Look at what happens when weak little things try so hard to keep their promises, when the strongest thing about them are the promises themselves.

            “You have nothing, and you can protect nothing.  You can’t help anyone because you can’t even help yourself.  Your promises are soft in the face of solid opposition.”  Goliath forced a whine from Shana’s throat as her arms went limp against him.  For a moment, he regarded her with pity, and then he bared his teeth in a violent grimace.  “This was a mistake.  It was all a mistake.  You never should have come here.”

            Alex was up.  Driven by Shana’s cries, she lunged forward, her broken body by carried by little more than adrenaline.  The air was charged around her, whistling in her ear.  Goliath caught her with his foot and sent her flying back with a harsh step.  The railing caught her, but only just barely, cracking under her weight.  There she slouched, and Goliath stepped over Shana’s body to reach her.

            Again, Alex met him with a thrust.  Her movements were sluggish and wide.  He let the attack slide past him and met her with a knee to the stomach.  Alex stumbled back, giving a wide, clumsy swing, which he stopped with one hand.  Catching her by the forearm, he grabbed her by the back of the head with his free hand and spun her about, bringing her face-first through the railing.  She hung over the edge, blood oozing out of her mouth and gathering in her hair.

            The world blurred.  Staring over the edge of the bridge, Alex watched droplets of her own blood fall into the infinite abyss below.  To her, it looked like the jaws of death waiting, gaping and hungry.  It didn’t matter.  None of it mattered.  Life was meaningless, born dying from the start, it was just another broken promise she was never meant to keep.

            Goliath flipped her with his foot and stared down into her bloodshot, empty eyes.  She was bloody and bruised, her hair matted to her forehead, her skin bruised and broken.  Blood and saliva oozed from her open mouth and every strained breath made her shudder.  He lifted his foot and hovered it just above her head, poised to crush her skull, and then he dropped it to the ground somberly beside her. 

He kneeled. “Do your promises mean this much to you?  Are they worth dying for?  Worth suffering and fighting for, even in the face of inevitable and crushing defeat?”

            Alex wheezed.  With one last burst of energy she lunged at him.  Goliath deflected easily, slapping her hand away without even breaking eye contact.  He hit her in the chest in the same movement and knocked her back down.  She slid backward, to the edge of the broken railing, and felt the stonework give slightly before she coughed up more blood onto her shirt.

            His eyes narrowed.  “Just answer me before I kill you.”

            “Yes,” Alex said.  Words were hard for her to find and even harder to form, but she struggled through each one.  “Yes.  My promises mean that much to me.  They mean the world.  They’re all I’ve got left.”  She coughed again, a deep wet cough that left her chin red, and then she forced herself up onto her elbows.  Her arms were like lead, heavy and dull, but she was driven by a dire resolve.  “They’re why I keep getting up.  They’re why I’ll always get up.  Power is nothing but a tool, and if you don’t have a reason to use it, then what’s the point?  Sometimes, a promise is all you need.”

            Goliath eyed her in quiet reverie.  The air was still, silent save for the labored breaths of both Alex and Shana.  His expression had softened to stoic interest.  “And so even if you did somehow, by some miracle, kill me and went on to Abel, a man many times my superior, you would still fight?  You would die?”

            Alex winced.  She supported her weight with one arm while using the other to nurse her tender side.  “Yes,” she said, “I would.  I would fight harder and harder, harder than I am fighting now, harder than you could ever know.  I would fight and fight, and I would die, but as long as I am breathing, then I will keep moving.  I may not know where I am going, and I definitely don’t know how I am going to get there, but I am not ready to quit yet.  I won’t.

            “Now, it’s my turn for a question.  Is power all that really matters to you?  Is that why you really follow him, because he is stronger than you?  You don’t value him, his goals, his ambitions? You just want his power?”

            “I don’t want his power.”  Goliath’s heavy brow knitted.  “He is stronger than me.  He defeated me and so I followed him.  The weak follow the strong, and the strong dictate the weak.  That is the way of the world.  That is nature.”

            “That’s what you say, but you’re stronger than me, and I don’t follow you.”  Alex looked past Goliath, to Shana at rest on her back.  “I may not be strong, but I have people around me, people who need me, and they keep me going.”

            Goliath shook his head.  “Ridiculous,” he said, but he watched Alex struggle to her feet.  She used the railing for balance but fell when it gave out.  Half of her body tumbled over the side.  She caught herself with one hand and slowly worked her way to her knees.  Then, grunting, brought herself up to one foot.  “You are ridiculous.”

            “Call me whatever you want,” Alex said, and she stared him in the eyes.  It was hard to see her eyes through the curtain of dark hair swept over her face, but it was easy to see her resolve.  She shifted her weight to crouch and then stood with a grunt.  “But you can’t keep me down.”

            He frowned, watching her, as she raised her hand.  Her Voice had lost substance, seemed nearly transparent, but as she drew a deep breath it solidified.  Like an illusion made real, he blinked, and it was there, tangible and solid.  “It’s strange,” he said, standing now, towering over her.  “I could kill you.  I could crush your head with a single flex of my fingers, but I stay my hand.”

            Alex stared back at him in sullen silence.  She had her Voice in front of her but held her side still.  She wasn’t steady on her feet.

            Goliath laughed.  “It is impossible to think, but maybe you are right.  Maybe there is more to life than the pursuit of power or submission to those who already have it.”  His smile faded.  He looked solemn as he scratched his beard thoughtfully.  “Rather, maybe there is more to strength than power.  Maybe there is something to be said about fighting, even when you’re weak.”

            “What are you saying?  Are we done then?”

            Goliath opened his mouth to speak but couldn’t find the words.  Long, infinite seconds passed as he contemplated.  When he spoke, he did so with great care.  “I don’t know where I come from or why I am here.  When I woke up, I was lost in the Emotion.  Time isn’t right here—I don’t know how long I’ve been here or how long I waited—I forgot myself.  When I met Abel, all I knew how to do was be strong, and when he proved himself stronger…

            “You woke something inside of me, something I had lost before I had ever met that man.  I need to think on that.  I need to remember.”

            “And what about your mission to kill me?”

            Goliath shrugged.  “When I’m done thinking, if I’ve reached the same conclusion, then I will hunt you down and kill you, and hopefully that will be enough to see me forgiven.  But, I can’t in good consciousness kill you now with all of these doubts eating at me.”

            “What if he doesn’t forgive you?”

            “Then I will die for my mistakes.”  Goliath smirked and then laughed again.  “I thought you were so stubborn, you know, but you were right to a degree.  The fact that you fought me even when I overpowered you, that I couldn’t keep you down despite all of my strength.”  He sighed.  “Life and the meaning of it.  I haven’t thought about that for…It feels like a lifetime.  This place, it steals things away from you, cuts and cuts at you until you’re nothing but the one thing, and then you fixate on that, afraid that it will go away, too.  It becomes you, and when I met him, I was blind to everything else.  You’ve opened my eyes.”  He smiled down at her again.  “Good luck, Alex.  I sincerely hope that we never meet again.”

            Alex nodded and held her breath.  Slowly, she released it, breathing through the pain.  Her head felt light.  She saw brief spots before him as she gathered herself.  Eying his big back retreating, she called to him, and he turned back to her.  “I have one more question before you go: you said you don’t remember how you got here, but do you have any idea how to get home?”

            Goliath scratched the back of his head.  He opened his mouth to answer but the words never came.  A figure dropped from the shadows behind him, and then a thin blade appeared from his chest, accompanied by a flat fan of blood.  Goliath looked down in shock and when the blade retreated fell to his knees.  He swayed, gurgled, and fell forward, revealing Carolyne behind him.

            A monstrous smile was painted on her boyish face.  Her eyes were wide and teeth bared like a wild animal.  Pinching her fingers along the flat of the blade, she gathered the blood and shook it off as she crooned in her madness.  “Finally,” she said, her aura hard and sharp.  She looked an incarnate of the hungry abyss below as she lifted her blade and angled the fine tip at Alex’s heart.  A single droplet of blood leapt from the tip as Carolyne rested one foot atop Goliath’s massive, lifeless frame.  “Your turn.”