Indigo: Abraham, Emotion Vol. 3: Bridges, Chapter Fifteen: "Inside of the Iron HEaRt"

 

Chapter Fifteen: Inside of the Iron HEaRt

 

            The bridge stretched out behind them, long and black.  They stood before the cathedral at the far end of the bridge, black stones laid around them in rows.  Age showed in the smooth, roundness of the stones.  Grooves were worn in by time.  Gothic railing ran the length of the bridge.  Large arches held the bridge aloft in the eroded canyon.

            Pointed rooftops speared the horizon.  A set of enormous doors frown at them from ahead.  They were noticeably thick and stood slightly ajar.  The sky was dull and grey, and the light filtered through it.  It was Deidra’s shell blocking out the sunlight and draining the color from everything within it.  Things that were black were made deeper black.  Everything else was muted.

            The air was thick and suffocating, possessing a somberness that permeated even the stonework.  Alex felt it acutely, while Ellen had only a tickle of it in her spine.  Beneath it all, Alex could feel something else.  In the dense air, buried beneath the decades of hopeless oppression, she could feel Abraham.  It was a faint spark but specific, and it felt to her like the Emotion itself.  Alex realized then the truth in Deidra and Cornelius’ words.

            Alex took a step forward to prove that she could.  Then she looked back at Ellen.  “I can feel her inside,” she said.  “Come on, let’s go.”

            “She’s in there?”

            Alex nodded.  “She is, I’m sure of it.”  She turned back to the cathedral and smiled.  “And she’s waiting for us.”  Looking back at Ellen, she found her staring.  It was a strange reversal for them, Alex smiling and leading the way while Ellen trailed behind.  “Let’s not keep her waiting.”

            Ellen nodded and followed.  They walked together in silence, the sound of their footsteps their only company.  Alex was distracted, focused on other things, her mind fixed on the empty grey atmosphere.  Deidra was everywhere and overwhelming her senses.  Even when she felt Abraham, she only just barely felt her. Walking there made her feel blind.

            She dug through the cathedral interior with her soul and filtered out other distinctive presences.  There were others there with Abraham, but she couldn’t place them.  They had no faces for her, only intentions.  Abraham she knew, though she felt her only very faintly, and what she felt was bound by some invisible force.  There was also the force that bound her, quiet and gentle, but possessive a power in certainty and conviction.  Stronger than that, and struggling against Deidra’s overriding oppression, was a last presence composed entirely of hunger and hatred and completely empty underneath.  The emptiness is what frightened her most.

            Ellen stopped to look over the edge of the bridge and found canyon floor barren and dusty.  She gripped the railing so as not to fall over, and swallowed, and then she looked ahead.  The cathedral stared back at her, its towering spires looking almost like teeth.  She couldn’t feel what Alex could feel, nor could she understand the circumstances that brought her here.  Alex said that they had started this journey together, and while it had made Ellen feel good for a time, the more she thought on it, the less accurate it felt.

            Alex stopped to look back at her.  They stood together in silence, Ellen staring now at her feet while Alex watched her.  “Hey, Ellen, what’s wrong? We’re almost there.”

            “I,” Ellen shifted her feet as fresh tears rolled down her cheeks.  “I’m sorry that I got you involved in all of this, Alex.  If I weren’t so stupid, I never would have brought Abraham back with me, and then none of this would have happened.  You wouldn’t be here.  Shana wouldn’t be here, and Carolyne…”

            “Ellen? No.  No, what are you talking about? None of this is your fault.”

            “It’s all my fault!  I was acting like a damn child, finding a puppy and dragging it home for someone else to take care of.”

            “Ellen,” Alex sighed.  “Listen, Abraham wouldn’t have been safer anywhere else, and as for Carolyne, well, she made her bed.  I chose to protect Abraham myself, just like I chose to come here.  No one else made those decisions for me, and though it’s been tough—really tough—I think I’m better for it.  I think I’ve grown a bit, and I’ve needed to grow for some time.  We’re almost at the end now, so don’t give up on me just yet.”

            Ellen choked and leaned into the rail for support.  Her sobs were hard enough to leave her shaking.  She kept at it until Alex joined her, and then she tensed.  Standing tall, a few inches above Alex, she fell into the smaller woman’s embrace.  Alex rubbed Ellen’s back and soothed her while she sobbed.  It was the last thing either of them expected to happen, but Ellen was grateful for it all the same.

            They stayed together under that gray sky until Ellen settled.  When they had first met, Ellen didn’t understand why Alex seemed so sad all the time, and she never really believed that they could be real friends.  It was, to her, a struggle to even try, but like Alex, she was better for the struggle.  Alex made her better and now supported her in this dark moment, and for that, she was glad for the struggle.

            Alex patted Ellen on the head and looked her in the eyes.  “You okay now?”

            Ellen, sniffling and rubbing her nose, nodded.  “I think so.  I can go, at least.”

            “Then come on.  We’ve kept her waiting long enough.”

            Another nod, and Ellen said, “Okay,” and she followed Alex forward.

            They stopped, side-by-side, before the double-doors.  From where they stood, the cathedral towered over them, an imposing form of dark stone that shrouded them in shadow.  A large stained-glass window hung over head.  Alex saw in it the image of an avenging angel bound by brambles.  Ellen thought she saw someone through it.

            The doors were parted slightly, and Alex peeked in through the crack.  Pews lined the ground floor with large stone pillars between them.  A winding staircase led up on one side, where a second floor hung over the first.  Red light spilled out from above, obscured by the railing.  Inside, Alex could feel Abraham’s presence more acutely, like it was only just barely contained.

            Ellen, at Alex’s side, said, “She’s in there.”

            Alex nodded, distracted.  She could see something out of the corner of her eye, but whenever she looked toward it, it disappeared.  Something teased her ear, like a whisper only softer.  She thought it might be the wind, but it was persistent.  She stood straight.  “Uh, yeah, she is, I think.”

            Ellen tried to smile, but she didn’t wear it well.  She still felt out of place there.  “Then let’s go!”  She stepped forward, through the door, and felt a tingle in her spine.  Turning, she found Alex backed against the door and staring out, back across the bridge.  Looking past Alex, Ellen saw nothing.

            “Get away.  Go!”  Alex swung at the air.  She had tears in her eyes.

            “Alex? Alex! What’s wrong?”

            “I said go!”  Alex gave a wide swing that only just narrowly missed Ellen, who stumbled away.

            Ellen fell backward and landed inside of the cathedral, dust kicking up around her.  She watched Alex staggering toward her, eyes wide in a frenzy.  Pushing up, Ellen used a pillar for support as she got to her feet and scrambled deeper inside to escape Alex’s sudden pursuit.

            The door groaned and collapsed inward with a sudden flash, and Alex stood then at the threshold.  Her Voice was there, its blade gleaming in the dim light that chased her.  She glared into the cathedral, into the dust that rose around her, and fixed her gaze upon Ellen hiding among the pews.

            “Alex?”  Ellen peeked over the pews.  She had her hands up but knew that they would do nothing to stop her rampaging friend.  “Alex, what’s wrong with you? What is going on with you all of the sudden?”

            Alex growled and swung.  The air roared and, in a flash of light, the pew behind Ellen exploded into pieces.  Ellen ducked down to avoid the splinters and landed face-down on the cold stones of the floor.  Looking under the pews, she found Alex approaching, gasping and crying in her fury.  It reminded Ellen of Carolyne stalking toward her with the power of death held tightly in her hand.

            Alex stared at her opponent, his large body at rest on the ground, soaked in blood.  She had left him with a gash across his broad, hairy chest.  It should have been the end of it, but he sneered as he rose to meet her.

            Behind her was Shana, bloodied and bruised, limping at her.  She held one arm which had nearly been ripped from her body.  Blood dribbled from her fractured nose.  She shuffled swiftly in an attempt to keep pace with Alex.  They were walking together when Goliath had appeared.  Shana made a charge, but he dismissed her with a single blow.

            This time, Alex took the lead.  She charged him and lunged, but Goliath side-stepped the attack.  He taunted her as he moved, goaded her as he danced around her.  She spun around and called on her Voice.  In a blaze of light one of the pillars was sliced in two.

            Goliath fell but stared up at her, confident, as she put her foot to his chest.  She poised her blade for his throat.  He had died once, but it didn’t stick.  Staring into his eyes, she saw the malevolence in them.  This time, he wouldn’t listen.  Despite this, she still hesitated.

 

: Bridges :

 

            Alex stood over Ellen, her blade inches from Ellen’s throat.  They both panted from exertion, Ellen crying, pleading, begging for sanctuary against Alex’s uncompromising, empty stare.  Ellen stared up the gleaming silver length of Alex’s Voice and knew that she could die, that she would die, if Alex wasn’t stop.  Her gaze darted from corner to corner, searching even the shadows for answer, but there was nothing.  The walls watched stoically, and here she would die without meaning and without anyone to remember him.  She fixed her gaze on Alex’s dark, hollow eyes and didn’t see her friend inside.

            They stayed like this for a few long moments, Alex shaking, her blade a hair’s length from Ellen’s flesh.  Then, she winced and grimaced, a curse sounding under her breath.  Lifting her blade, she swiped the air and stormed away screaming.  “Damn it! Why can’t I? Why can’t I do this?”  She sliced a nearby pew in half and let the pieces collapse onto the dusty floor while Ellen shuffled away on her hands and knees.

            Ellen took refuge behind a nearby pillar and watched Alex flail aimlessly at the air.

            “Why wouldn’t you listen?” Alex turned, her eyes fixed once more on Ellen kneeling behind the pillar.  “Why do you have to keep coming at me? Why do you have to keep fighting us? Why?”

            Ellen stood slowly on weak knees.  “Alex, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

            “Just stay way!  Stay away from us! If you insist on fighting, then I won’t hold back anymore.”

            Ellen stumbled away, retreating back into the shadow of the overhang.  There, she turned and ran, tripping on the way before she reached the winding staircase and hitting her knee.  Blood seeped from the fresh wound, and she had to sit back and yell before scrambling back to her feet.

            Looking over her shoulder, she saw Alex standing in the silence and staring at the ground.  Ellen let out a shallow breath and stumbled toward the stairs.  Pain shot up her spine with every step.  Seizing the handrail, she pulled herself up the stairs in a hurry and hoped that Alex couldn’t follow.

 

: Bridges :

 

            Alex stood at the cathedral’s center, fractured pews scattered around her, some still baring fresh, smoldering wounds from her spiritual power expressed.  Her Voice was at her side, gleaming faintly with waning heat.  The brace about her wrist caught the dim light cast by the torches and reflected it back.

            Goliath laid bloodied before her, his body cradled between the broken husk of a pew.  She didn’t remember killing him but saw no one else around who could have.  There was a large gash cut across his body.  Blood pooled around his enormous form, seeping into the stonework and making a long, circuitous pattern around him.  It beaded in the hair of his chest.  His eyes were open, pale and blank, his empty gaze fixed on her.

            She cried but didn’t understand why.  He was the one who had died, not her, nor someone close to her.  She wiped her eyes and released her Voice, allowing it to disappear in a dazzling display of light, and she stared at the body, her shoulders sagging, her hair in her eyes.  Once, he had been alive, but she had changed that, turned him to a pale imitation of life, the warmth faded and the skin grown waxy.

            It was hard to breathe.  She braced against a nearby pillar and vomited.  Her throat burned.  She stayed bent, panting and sobbing, wiping her mouth free of saliva and mucus, and she spit out her remaining bile.  The taste stuck on her tongue.  She looked at Goliath again, shuddered, and then turned away.

            She walked until she tripped, stumbled over another body.  Looking down, she found Carolyne at her feet, or what remained of her.  The body was similar to that of her friend’s, the hair similar in color, but she was ripped down the center, her entrails cold and dark between the two severed halves.  They pumped lethargically, the life ebbing from them.  Alex’s feet felt wet and cold.

            Staggering away, she caught herself against the pillar and held tight to it as her body was wracked with shivers.  She stammered, staring at Carolyne’s sundered corpse, blood splattered like a halo around it.  Using the pillar for support, Alex sunk down to her knees.  She wanted to look away, but she could not.  She whispered to herself, soothing as best she could, as she reached forward with a pale, shaking hand.  Blood ran now from her fingertips, from her knees.  She stopped to regard her hands, bloody and warm.  Alex scrubbed at her palms, rubbed them against the stonework and against her pants, but it just smeared the blood around.  She gave a renewed sob.  “Oh no.  Oh God.  What have I done? No, no, no, no, no.”

            She stood and ran for the door.  The air stunk now of old blood and rotted flesh.  She stopped at the door, now held shut by a more terrifying image still.  Three bodies were suspended along the door by long, thin metal spikes.  To the left was a pale body with slender limbs and long, long tawny hair.  The spikes were run through the throat, shoulders, and guts.  Two more were worked in through the wrists.  The waves of the hair were parted and clumped by dried blood.

            From the right door hung the unmistakable form of Shana.  Wearing the tattered pajamas, stained by blood and violence, that carried her through the Emotion, she was suspended by a large metal rod rammed through the core of her, between her partially exposed breasts and right through the breastbone.  Two more spikes supported her at the shoulders, and two more were worked into her waist, through the hip bone.

            Between them, suspended slightly lower and almost within reach, was a small body still dripping blood.  It had dark hair and pale skin, eyes like enormous marbles, black and empty as they watched Alex without judgment, without life.  There were too many spears worked into this body to count at a glance.  It looked to Alex like a human pin cushion, and she recognized it only on instinct.

            Alex fell to her knees, sobbing and gasping, screaming when she got the air.  Her screams were the wounded wail of a lonely animal, of a lost child, of a survivor resenting their own survival.  When oxygen ran thin, she fell into writhing gasps that forced convulsions on her body before collapsing onto her back and staring at the ceiling, alone.

            The sky opened.  Shadows parted long enough for a flash to fill the room.  Glass shattered, the stained shards landing around her, bouncing and shimmering like chromatic diamonds.  A shadow passed over her and landed hard beside her.  Alex leapt to her feet on instinct and rolled to the side.  She fell hard into a pew but hardly felt it as the body came into view.  It was long-legged and very pretty.  Blood and glass had gathered in its blond hair, and as its head lulled toward her, she could see bruising across the pale, dead face.  Its teeth were knocked in.  Its skull was split open.

            Alex wheezed.  Looking around at her failure, she found all the bodies watching her.  Her voice evaporated inside of her as she sunk down and stared ahead, gaze fixed on the far wall, the rest of her world dissolving into periphery.  She sat there, surrounded by the bodies of friends and enemies whom she had been unable to save.

 

: Bridges :

 

            Ellen wheezed as she stumbled up the stairs.  They seemed to be never ending, and her injuries only made the climb worse.  Adrenaline carried her, though, as did the fear of being caught by Alex in this manic state her friend was in.  From where she was, Ellen could see the cathedral’s second floor and swore it was no closer than when she had started climbing.  She gripped the handrailing and stared up at the ceiling, however, refusing to look back down.

            Alex was on the first floor, screaming and crying in a corner that Ellen couldn’t see.  She sounded awful, so awful that Ellen hesitated.  This hesitation died in the memory of Alex’s uncompromising dark eyes and the violence she was capable of.  She remembered the way Alex’s blade gleamed.

            Ellen sighed.  She was near the top.  A red light spilled out and onto the stairs.  Alex had said that Abraham was there with them, but Ellen had yet to see her.  The first floor was too dangerous for a real search, and while the second floor offered sanctuary, Ellen doubted that Abraham would be waiting up there.  She wondered what state they would find Abraham in, if Abraham could be found at all.

            Her bones ached and her lungs burned, but Ellen ignored the ache and the burn and pulled herself higher, toward light and away from the sad, lonely wails of her friend below.

 

: Bridges :

 

            Alex crawled her way to the door, nose crinkled, the smell of iron and rot thick in her nostrils.  Alicia hung, suspended above her.  Blood caked the jagged steel imbedded in her body and pooled at the tip.  Tiny red pearls had splattered across the floor.  A few hit Alex on the head, cold and slick.

            Next, Alex stood and swallowed a sob.  Another droplet hit her forehead and made a slow crawl down her skin.  At standing, Alex’s head was at level with Alicia’s ruptured chest.  She reached up and grabbed at a spike with both hands.  The sharp form of the steel dug into her palms and left a shallow laceration as she tightened her grip.  Dried blood flaked off underneath her fingers.

            Bracing against the door with one foot and planting the other against the floor, Alex gave a tug.  The steel rod broke smoothly, and she fell to the floor, half a rusted spike clattering across the stonework at her side.  The rest remained firmly imbedded in the door, the very edge of it visible inside of Alicia’s pale, waxy flesh.

            Alicia’s corpse clicked its cold, dry tongue.  Bright, foggy eyes rolled around in gaunt sockets and stared down at Alex through clumped tawny hair.  “Poor, little Alex, just can’t let things lie buried where they belong.  Always pulling open the closets to find the skeletons inside.”

            “Alicia?”

            “Your entire life you sat wallowing in your own pity, keeping to the dark corners of the room, never leaving, never living, and the moment you go out and make the effort, you go and get yourself killed,” Shana’s corpse said crustily from the other door.  “How many people have died for you now?”

            “She didn’t kill me,” Alicia’s corpse said, “But she sure as hell couldn’t save me, either.”

            Alex held back tears.  Her stomach ached she had cried so hard that she was about to wretch again.  It took solid, slow breaths to calm her, and those were hard to come by.  She held her hand to her mouth and swallowed bile.  “I didn’t.”

            Shana’s corpse cackled.  “Oh, poor thing, we’re making her cry.  That’s what you do when you lose someone, isn’t it, Alex?  You curl up and you cry and you worry about how sad you are and how alone you are, and you never give one single thought to the dead.  All of your thoughts belong to you and yourself.”

            “She always was selfish,” Alicia’s corpse said.  It stared emptily at Alex’s quivering body.  “I was sick, Alex, sick, and still you depended on me, used me, hung on me like the parasite you are.  Come to think of it, maybe you did kill me after all.”

            “I didn’t!”

            “You killed me,” called a high, hoarse voice from behind her.  Turning, Alex shuffled away into the solid form of a pew.  Slowly, and with stiffness belonging to the dead, Ellen’s corpse turned its head about and cast its pearly eyes on Alex.  It had a large smile that showed all of its bloody, broken teeth.  “I wouldn’t be here if I had never met you, and I wouldn’t be dead if you had been there to protect me.”

            “If only you had the strength to stop Carolyne in the first place,” said Shana’s corpse from the doorway, “Then none of us would be here.”

            “If only,” Ellen’s corpse added with a rasping laugh.

            Alex pushed up from the pew and ran around Ellen’s body, ducking between pews and coming to a halt as two more corpses turned their dead eyes on her.  “You spent so much time trying to fight me,” Goliath’s corpse called from ahead, its head bouncing as it tried lift-up to look at her.

            “Shut up!”  Alex fell to her knees before Carolyne’s blank, empty eyes.  This corpse didn’t say anything at all, and at the back of her mind, Alex felt deep down that was so much worse.  Curling up, she hugged her knees and continued to cry.

            A cold hand came to rest on Alex’s shoulder.  Slowly, with effort, the fingers curled gently, and Alex turned to look up into Alicia’s corpse’s face.  “It’s okay, though, we never expected you to survive without us, anyway.  You aren’t a survivor, Alex.  You’re a coward, and a weakling, and even among us, you’re the deadest body in the room.”

            Another hand, cold and rigid, alighted on the other shoulder, and something with Shana’s voice whispered into Alex’s ear, “You’re already dead with us, Alex, in spirit, so why not go all the way? Cross that final line and really commit.  You can’t live with one foot in the grave forever, and you said not so long ago that life is all about making decisions and sticking to them, didn’t you?”

            Alex fixed her vision on Carolyne’s corpse.  It didn’t stare back.  It sat limp, motionless, empty eyes without judgment.  A shadow fell over her like an omen and, when she looked up, she saw something wearing Abraham’s tiny frame.  Cheeks sunken, neck twisted at an odd angle, it said, “You promise you would protect me, and you couldn’t.  You’re not strong enough to protect me, Alex, you’re not strong enough to protect anyone.  But it’s okay, because we’re here to protect you, now.  We’re here to help.”

            “No,” Alex whined when she finally found her voice, and she hugged her knees more tightly to her chest.  “No.  No!”  She hid her face between her legs and kept repeating the word as her mantra.  She repeated it until the voices died in the dead air, and she kept repeating it as the hands retreated. 

Once alone, she lifted her head, she found Carolyne’s corpse now eying her.  It sat up and shuffled toward Alex, stopping with their foreheads together, their lips nearly touching.  Alex couldn’t feel its breath, and she thought for a moment how strange that was, but then she remembered that it was dead, and she could smell the death on it and, beneath that, cigarette smoke.  Carolyne’s corpse grabbed Alex by the head and screamed, “You should have died back there, not me!"

 

: Bridges :

 

Ellen ran as much from the screams as from Alex’s vengeful strikes.  She hobbled to the top of the stairs and there came to a stop, breathing hard and hanging from the rail.  The second floor was a long, wide platform with four torches lit to show the surface.  Gargoyle’s watched from the walls, their gemstone eyes catching the light and shining.  A large red stone was set into the center of the platform, its surface producing a light of its own.

There was a short, stocky woman with close-cut hair and a boyish face at rest beside the large, liquid-like gemstone at the platform’s center.  She sat with her legs crossed and her eyes closed.  Ellen though her quite beautiful, in a non-traditional way.  The woman was at ease, her repose in meditation as she whispered to herself in a quiet voice tinged with remorse.

Ellen sat watching her while gathering her breath.  She thought to go back down until she heard Alex’s continued screaming.  Using the railing for support, she pushed herself to standing and limped across the platform, toward the shining gemstone and the woman.  As she approached, she slowed and winced so that her eyes could adjust to the light.

            Suffer.  Guilt.

            She stopped a few feet shy of the woman and strained to hear the woman’s whispers.  Leaning forward, she gazed into the gemstone and found a body inside.  It was a small body, with dark hair fanned out around it in a black halo.  The bright red light bled into the white of its body.  It was difficult to see at first, but Ellen recognized the body to be Abraham at rest, curled up into a fetal position and caught in the gemstone like a bug might be caught in amber.

            Doubt and death.

            That caught Ellen’s attention, and she looked to the woman now while Alex cried below.  Alex’s words, though muffled, were those of someone begging, and it slowly fell into place as Ellen made the connection.  She didn’t understand everything, but she knew enough to realize that this woman was in no way normal, and also this woman was somehow hurting her friend.

            Standing in the red below of the gem’s light, Ellen watched the woman and listened to her whisper, repeating the same words like a mantra.  From what Ellen could tell, the woman didn’t possess the raw, destructive force of someone like Carolyne, but Ellen didn’t know what this woman could be like with her eyes open.

            Gathering herself, Ellen took a deep breath and lifted her chin to look confident.  “I can do this,” she whispered to herself, and then more loudly, and also more confidently—she hoped—she said, “You!  You’re the one hurting Alex, aren’t you?”

            The woman didn’t respond.  She simply continued her chanting.

            Ellen frowned at the woman’s lack of response and reached out timidly to shove her.  “Hey, I’m talking to you.”

            The woman jerked into wakefulness and looked on Ellen in mixed horror and surprise.  Falling backward, she shuffled away from Ellen and toward the platform’s railing.  “You!  How are you here?”

            Ellen’s stomach did a flipflop.  She felt like running but didn’t have the energy to do it, so she stood her ground.  “You’re hurting Alex, aren’t you?  Stop it!”

            “I wasn’t hurting her, but I was…” The woman stood and rounded the gem, putting it between herself and Ellen.  The red-light made a mask of shadows that distorting her boyish features into something demonic.  “I can’t let you take her.”

            Ellen looked down at Abraham’s sleeping form, unmoving in the gemstone.  “Why not? What do you need her for?  Because that Abel guy wants to become a god?”

            “She will save mankind,” said the woman.  “Not directly, but she is vital to our progress.  With her, Abel will ascend, and he will bring the world with him after.  This is just the first step, but it is the most important.  With him as our example, not only will he be a god, but we will all become gods.”

            Ellen put her hands on her hips and stared at the woman overtop the gemstone.  “Gods? You’re doing all of this for that? Doesn’t that seem a bit silly to you?”

            “Silly?  It’s necessary, and it is inevitable.  We will all become gods in our own right, someday, and have been moving toward it since Eve first tasted of the fruit.  We’re just giving humanity the push it needs.”

            “Okay, but why? I mean, what right do we have to become gods? And assuming we even can, how does hurting us, killing us, or kidnapping her help anyone at all? Wouldn’t that just, I don’t know, make us worse?  Wouldn’t that take us in the opposite direction?”  Ellen pointed down at Abraham and shouted, “You tell me how in the hell this is supposed to be helping Abraham!”

            The woman went quiet.  She stared at Ellen for a long moment. “Abraham?”

            “You don’t even know her name?”

            The woman’s gaze followed Ellen’s finger.  “I didn’t even know that she had a name.”

            “Really?”  Ellen frowned. “Well, she does.  She’s just like you.  She’s alive and breathing, and she bleeds, and she feels, and she came to me, lost and scared and alone, and she was running.  From you people!”

            “I thought she was just a catalyst.”  The woman said it without certainty or conviction.

            “Catalyst, gods, and all of this nonsense!  Look at this, look at where you are, and look at what you’re doing, and think, really think about all of this, and tell me it’s right.”

            “I was just trying to…”  The woman looks up into Ellen’s eyes.  Her tears catch the light.  “I was just trying to help us, to fix us.”

            “People aren’t broken.  You can’t just fix us, and you definitely can’t do it like this.  You want to make the world better, the only way to do it is by being better.”

            “You,” the woman’s voice died in her throat.  She leaned back and held her temples, staring into the hazy red light of the gem.  Abraham slept inside soundly, a child tucked into bed, a god at rest.  “You’re right,” she said, “We’ve gone too far.”

            Ellen smiled.  “I am, so come and help me to get her out of there.”

            The woman, surprised by Ellen’s candor, laughed.  “Alright, I guess I can do that much.”

            The shadows on her face spread and merged with the shadows behind her, forming into a solid mass.  Her head jerked back and, from the ground below, the shadows lurched.  They speared her through the chest.  Blood sprayed from her in a fountain from her neck and rained down across the red gemstone, obscuring the light.  It ran down her torso and thighs.  She gurgled, hovering a few inches from the ground, and then fell.

            Crest appeared from the shadows.  They slid off him like oil and formed into a cape.  He examined Carla with his cold, dark eyes and smiled mirthlessly.  “You always had a big heart, Carla, and now it’s all over the floor.”

            Ellen stood, shaking, and stared, while Carla clawed at the stonework and struggled for breath.  She mouthed for Ellen to run but it was pointless.  Her air had run out.  All she could muster was a desperate wheeze before she went still.  Ellen’s legs felt wet and warm as they gave out from under her.

            Crest turned his smile on her. “And there you go, just like a child.”  He laughed.  “But, then, fear is never flattering, is it? Well, no point in wasting an immobile target, is there?”  The shadows curled.  He lifts his hand and they swept forward, mimicking his movement.  From the darkness appeared a slender fin that flowered forward like water, the edge a fine blade.

            Ellen watched the shadows flow toward her, watched their gradual progress as they spread around the gemstone.  Her heartbeat lasted an eternity.  She saw her life stretched out before her, the entirety of it, the good, the bed, and everything else, and one thought preoccupied her mind: “I’m going to die.”  It played on repeat.

            The room grew dark as the torch to her right was snuffed.  Death grew closer, a sweeping form rushing at her.  There was a gleam and flash, and a purple disc landed at her feet.  It cast a solid light that repelled the shadows, which rushed against it like water crashing against the shore.  They met with tidal force, and the shadows fanned harmlessly around her.

            Strong arms encased her and lifted her.  Ellen landed a few feet away, nearer to the stairs, and then was deposited carefully to the floor.  Isaac kneeled beside her and held her by the shoulder.  Their gazes met, and she stared back with the uncertainty of a newborn.  He was breathless.  “Ellen! Are you okay?”

            Legs wet, heart racing, Ellen struggled for breath.  The words were lost in her.  She nodded.

            “Thank God.” He hugged her.  “I didn’t know if I would make it in time.”

            “I think you did.”  Ellen spoke absently as she hugged him back.  Her arms were weak.  She didn’t want to let go. “Isaac, you saved me!”

            “Actually, I think you saved me.”  Isaac stood and conjured his other chakram as he turned toward Crest.  “I’ll explain later.  First, I need to settle this.”

            Crest’s featured changed upon seeing Isaac.  His smile grew earnest and vicious as the shadows around him boiled.  “Van’s child!”

            “Ellen, things are dangerous here, and they are about to get worse.”  He extended his free hand and his first chakram dislodged itself from the ground and returned to him.  He caught it by the grip at its center.  “You go, and you take Abraham with you.  I’ll take care of him.”

            “Right.” Ellen stood and, once she was certain her legs would support her, added, “Thank you, Isaac.”  She walked hesitantly forward, eyes on Crest.  He passed Abraham absently, his gaze fixed wholly on Isaac.

            Ellen stopped beside the gemstone and looked inside.  It was built into the cathedral, or more accurately, the cathedral was built around it.  The surface was smooth and had no discernable openings.  It clearly wasn’t meant to be removed.  She ran her fingers along the surface, seeking a place to grip it that she feared wasn’t there.

Indigo: Abraham, Emotion Vol. 3: Chapter Thirteen: "Bridges, the Crossing"

 

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.