Alisaura
Blue Crack Supplier
Some swearing in this one.
Disclaimer: Not true.
Quote this time courtesy of William Blake.
end of chapter 40:
--------
Despite the sudden darkness, I could still see what was happening. Ed was stomping on all the coals, and Adam and Paul followed suit. Ed took particular care to sweep all the coals away from the area where the fire had been lit, the ground there steaming with residual heat in the rain.
"His bones are under there, right there!" he was telling Paul, pointing at the spot.
The scene faded again.
More time passed. It was so frustrating... Earth was stronger now, the twisted Fire in retreat, but something was stopping the victory being complete. Some last pocket of resistance. Ed, Paul and Adam had returned to their respective stones, and all now either sat or leaned against them, mentally caught somehow in the struggle for balance.
The drums were yet slower, almost funereal. Still I clung to them, even as more of my blood and will trickled from me.
"Fight, damn you," I thought. A blackness was hovering at the edges of my awareness, something that had nothing to do with embattled spirits, or the night that was ending overhead. Tension stretched the air inside the circle.
I didn't know how much longer I could last.
-----------
Chapter 41:
-----------
O Earth, O Earth return!
Arise from out the dewy grass...
I felt something coming through the ground, and in the outside world, a car roared up the hill, skidding to a halt twenty feet from the circle. Headlights bathed the hilltop, the pouring rain making twin lances of them, stabbing into the stormy night. Ed opened his eyes as the car door slammed.
"Lisa!" Glen cried, taking in the scene. "What the bloody fuck is going on here?!"
Distantly, my heart thudded stronger for a moment. Lawrence looked up, as did Adam and Paul, shaking themselves from the daze that had gripped them all.
"Wait!" Ed shouted, as Glen rushed forward. Either Ed's voice or something else stopped Glen in his tracks, and he stood on the edge of the stone circle, staring at me in barely contained panic.
"What is going on?" he demanded again. "Is that blood? What the hell are you doing to her?!"
"She did that herself," Paul said, and Glen's head jerked around, as if noticing he and Adam for the first time.
"Who are you people?" Glen peered through the rain and darkness.
"We're trying to restore the balance of the Earth, in this place," Adam explained calmly.
"It ain't working," Lawrence put in. "Somethin's still holding it back."
"It's this," Paul said, considering the Fire-stone. "All the resistance is coming from here."
"You're all fucking insane!" Glen shrieked. Distant as I was, I could feel the fear eating at him.
"Someone take a look at Lisa," Lawrence said. "She's white as a bleedin' sheet." And he winced at the choice of words.
Adam was suddenly standing over my body, sheltering it briefly from the rain. "There is an awful lot of blood," he said, worried. "I didn't realise she'd cut herself so deeply." He looked over at Glen, who was standing beside the Earth-stone. "Perhaps you should call an ambulance."
Glen gave a bitter laugh. "It took me bloody hours to find this place in this weather! It would take them longer."
"I doubt we could get a signal on the phones here anyway," Ed said absently, absorbed in contemplating the Fire-stone. He reached out, but then changed his mind and pulled his hand away again.
"We have to get her out of here!" Glen shouted. "Enough with the hippie spirit crap and help her!"
"She's... very preoccupied, just now," Ed said carefully. "I don't know what will happen to her, mentally, if we took her away from here in the middle of it..."
"I know what will happen if we don't! She's bleeding to death!"
Lawrence played on, grimly determined. The drum meant life.
In the back of my mind, I realised something. The faintest hint of grey light touched the eastern sky.
Ed realised it too. "We have to break it."
Everyone capable of doing so stared at him. He was nodding, his certainty increasing. "He's right, it's all coming from there."
"How are we supposed to break that thing?" Paul gestured at the ten-foot monolith. It loomed, dark and ominous in the rain. It was only a little smaller than the Earth-stone.
Glen had run to his car, and come back with a geology hammer. Without another word, he began whacking at the Fire-stone with all of his strength. Chips of dolerite flew.
Paul's eye's widened. "They don't like that."
Indeed they didn't. Fire's rage redoubled at this assault and I groaned, the first sound I'd made since my blood had touched the altar. All the ground the healthy spirits had gained was trembling, in doubt.
"It's not enough! Stop, please," Ed called, and Paul ran over to talk to Glen.
There were raised voices, arm-waving.
"What do you mean, you can't leave? This is ridiculous," Glen fumed. "You want it broken? Fine. I'll break it." He went back to his car, a solid four-wheel-drive like mine, and started the engine.
Adam called out to Ed and Paul. "Better get out of the way!"
They realised Glen's intentions a moment later, and scattered away from the Fire-stone. Glen revved the engine, the wheels spun briefly in the muddy ground, but then the car leapt forward. Glen rammed the Fire-stone with the bull-bar, which rang with the impact. The stone leaned, but remained intact.
The Fire spirits reeled, dismayed and furious. Ed clutched his head. "Again!"
Glen was already reversing, putting the whole hilltop between him and the stone. The car ploughed forward once more, and this time there was a great CRACK as it slammed into the stone. The car bounced back a few feet.
Slowly, so slowly, the top half of the stone toppled forward, a jagged break splitting open. It crashed inside the circle.
Glen staggered from the car, holding a hand to his nose.
In the headlights, blood glistened on the broken surface of the Fire-stone, impossibly fresh.
"Moryn," Ed breathed.
Rain poured down, washing away the first blood that had been spilled in the circle. Washing away the wrong that had been done, then and since.
Elation filled my spirit as I felt another join the fray, and whatever of Mag was alive in me rejoiced in recognition. The corrupted spirits were defeated, fleeing, dissolving away. A smile returned to my face, aching with cold. I was chilled to the bone. There seemed to be no warmth left in me.
The circle was cleansed, but still not wholly restored. There was a dead feeling to the area around the broken Fire-stone. That nagged at me, but I had no more strength to fight, no more energy to figure it out. Inside and out, the world was going grey.
My body slid from the altar stone, collapsing onto the ground in a pale, sodden heap. Glen was at my side in seconds. Blood dripped from his nose onto my face, and he wiped it away. Those drops had shouted to me, his desperate fear, and his love. My awareness was contracting again, but consciousness was slipping away, as well. My body felt so cold and heavy, my mind foggy and sluggish. I tried to talk.
"Glen," I croaked. He started to cry. My heart, beating shallow and rapid now, ached for him. "'S'okay... we did it..."
Lawrence had stopped his drumming, seeing that I'd come back to myself. He stood behind Glen, stretching his muscles and grimacing. Ed hovered over Glen's shoulder, and Adam looked on with worried eyes.
"We've got to get her to a hospital," Glen said, gathering me up.
Paul was standing before the broken Fire-stone, frowning. He reached out to touch the jagged edge, then pulled his fingers back, sucking on them. The sharp stone had cut him, and his blood had finally gone into the stone, like the others' had.
I felt more than heard his words, spoken softly after a moment's surprised hesitation.
"Into the half-light, and through the flame..."
A sense of completeness resonated through the stones of the circle. I smiled against Glen's chest. "Now it's done," I murmured, relieved. Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. They were all necessary. The spirits of Fire had been whole and healthy once, and now, with Paul's blood, they remembered it.
There was more shouting as I was bundled into the back of Glen's car. Finally, Adam climbed in next to me, and Glen tore off down the hill. The other three followed in their car. Adam wrapped bandages around my arms, and tried to get me to drink some water as we rattled towards the nearest hospital. I faded in and out, my own recent memories hopelessly jumbled with Mag's. I don't know what I said, or to whom. Glen pleaded with me all the way to stay with him, and his voice anchored me, just as the drum had throughout the night. Adam gripped my cold hand, surreptitiously taking my pulse.
-------------------------------------------
"You're not drivin', and you're in no fit state either. Now gimme the keys, get in and buckle up."
"Fine, here... What were we thinking, letting her bleed like that... She has to be okay, she has to!"
"That was... extraordinary."
"Extraordinarily stupid! She could have died! She still might... did you SEE all the blood?"
"She'll be fine. She has strength, that one."
"This was your idea, remember?"
"I know! Don't remind me..."
"Shite, he's tearin' around here like it's a blee... feckin' motorway..."
"Just keep up with him!"
"And try not to get us killed, Mr. aren't-we-formal 'Lawrence'."
"So stop talking to me, Mr. 'my-name-is-Paul'!"
"Hey, is that blood on your finger?"
"Why, yes, Mr. 'Ed'. It's the latest craze."
-------------------------------------------
Cool white walls, ceilings. Bustling, jostling; voices, professional and personal. Words like "haemorrhage" and "mushrooms" and "transfusion" and "private room".
"What's her blood type?" came through clearly for a moment.
"Earth," I tried to say, but my voice wasn't working, and it came out as an indistinct mumble.
"O negative," Glen was saying. A frustrated sigh.
Oblivion finally descended.
-----------------
Disclaimer: Not true.
Quote this time courtesy of William Blake.
end of chapter 40:
--------
Despite the sudden darkness, I could still see what was happening. Ed was stomping on all the coals, and Adam and Paul followed suit. Ed took particular care to sweep all the coals away from the area where the fire had been lit, the ground there steaming with residual heat in the rain.
"His bones are under there, right there!" he was telling Paul, pointing at the spot.
The scene faded again.
More time passed. It was so frustrating... Earth was stronger now, the twisted Fire in retreat, but something was stopping the victory being complete. Some last pocket of resistance. Ed, Paul and Adam had returned to their respective stones, and all now either sat or leaned against them, mentally caught somehow in the struggle for balance.
The drums were yet slower, almost funereal. Still I clung to them, even as more of my blood and will trickled from me.
"Fight, damn you," I thought. A blackness was hovering at the edges of my awareness, something that had nothing to do with embattled spirits, or the night that was ending overhead. Tension stretched the air inside the circle.
I didn't know how much longer I could last.
-----------
Chapter 41:
-----------
O Earth, O Earth return!
Arise from out the dewy grass...
I felt something coming through the ground, and in the outside world, a car roared up the hill, skidding to a halt twenty feet from the circle. Headlights bathed the hilltop, the pouring rain making twin lances of them, stabbing into the stormy night. Ed opened his eyes as the car door slammed.
"Lisa!" Glen cried, taking in the scene. "What the bloody fuck is going on here?!"
Distantly, my heart thudded stronger for a moment. Lawrence looked up, as did Adam and Paul, shaking themselves from the daze that had gripped them all.
"Wait!" Ed shouted, as Glen rushed forward. Either Ed's voice or something else stopped Glen in his tracks, and he stood on the edge of the stone circle, staring at me in barely contained panic.
"What is going on?" he demanded again. "Is that blood? What the hell are you doing to her?!"
"She did that herself," Paul said, and Glen's head jerked around, as if noticing he and Adam for the first time.
"Who are you people?" Glen peered through the rain and darkness.
"We're trying to restore the balance of the Earth, in this place," Adam explained calmly.
"It ain't working," Lawrence put in. "Somethin's still holding it back."
"It's this," Paul said, considering the Fire-stone. "All the resistance is coming from here."
"You're all fucking insane!" Glen shrieked. Distant as I was, I could feel the fear eating at him.
"Someone take a look at Lisa," Lawrence said. "She's white as a bleedin' sheet." And he winced at the choice of words.
Adam was suddenly standing over my body, sheltering it briefly from the rain. "There is an awful lot of blood," he said, worried. "I didn't realise she'd cut herself so deeply." He looked over at Glen, who was standing beside the Earth-stone. "Perhaps you should call an ambulance."
Glen gave a bitter laugh. "It took me bloody hours to find this place in this weather! It would take them longer."
"I doubt we could get a signal on the phones here anyway," Ed said absently, absorbed in contemplating the Fire-stone. He reached out, but then changed his mind and pulled his hand away again.
"We have to get her out of here!" Glen shouted. "Enough with the hippie spirit crap and help her!"
"She's... very preoccupied, just now," Ed said carefully. "I don't know what will happen to her, mentally, if we took her away from here in the middle of it..."
"I know what will happen if we don't! She's bleeding to death!"
Lawrence played on, grimly determined. The drum meant life.
In the back of my mind, I realised something. The faintest hint of grey light touched the eastern sky.
Ed realised it too. "We have to break it."
Everyone capable of doing so stared at him. He was nodding, his certainty increasing. "He's right, it's all coming from there."
"How are we supposed to break that thing?" Paul gestured at the ten-foot monolith. It loomed, dark and ominous in the rain. It was only a little smaller than the Earth-stone.
Glen had run to his car, and come back with a geology hammer. Without another word, he began whacking at the Fire-stone with all of his strength. Chips of dolerite flew.
Paul's eye's widened. "They don't like that."
Indeed they didn't. Fire's rage redoubled at this assault and I groaned, the first sound I'd made since my blood had touched the altar. All the ground the healthy spirits had gained was trembling, in doubt.
"It's not enough! Stop, please," Ed called, and Paul ran over to talk to Glen.
There were raised voices, arm-waving.
"What do you mean, you can't leave? This is ridiculous," Glen fumed. "You want it broken? Fine. I'll break it." He went back to his car, a solid four-wheel-drive like mine, and started the engine.
Adam called out to Ed and Paul. "Better get out of the way!"
They realised Glen's intentions a moment later, and scattered away from the Fire-stone. Glen revved the engine, the wheels spun briefly in the muddy ground, but then the car leapt forward. Glen rammed the Fire-stone with the bull-bar, which rang with the impact. The stone leaned, but remained intact.
The Fire spirits reeled, dismayed and furious. Ed clutched his head. "Again!"
Glen was already reversing, putting the whole hilltop between him and the stone. The car ploughed forward once more, and this time there was a great CRACK as it slammed into the stone. The car bounced back a few feet.
Slowly, so slowly, the top half of the stone toppled forward, a jagged break splitting open. It crashed inside the circle.
Glen staggered from the car, holding a hand to his nose.
In the headlights, blood glistened on the broken surface of the Fire-stone, impossibly fresh.
"Moryn," Ed breathed.
Rain poured down, washing away the first blood that had been spilled in the circle. Washing away the wrong that had been done, then and since.
Elation filled my spirit as I felt another join the fray, and whatever of Mag was alive in me rejoiced in recognition. The corrupted spirits were defeated, fleeing, dissolving away. A smile returned to my face, aching with cold. I was chilled to the bone. There seemed to be no warmth left in me.
The circle was cleansed, but still not wholly restored. There was a dead feeling to the area around the broken Fire-stone. That nagged at me, but I had no more strength to fight, no more energy to figure it out. Inside and out, the world was going grey.
My body slid from the altar stone, collapsing onto the ground in a pale, sodden heap. Glen was at my side in seconds. Blood dripped from his nose onto my face, and he wiped it away. Those drops had shouted to me, his desperate fear, and his love. My awareness was contracting again, but consciousness was slipping away, as well. My body felt so cold and heavy, my mind foggy and sluggish. I tried to talk.
"Glen," I croaked. He started to cry. My heart, beating shallow and rapid now, ached for him. "'S'okay... we did it..."
Lawrence had stopped his drumming, seeing that I'd come back to myself. He stood behind Glen, stretching his muscles and grimacing. Ed hovered over Glen's shoulder, and Adam looked on with worried eyes.
"We've got to get her to a hospital," Glen said, gathering me up.
Paul was standing before the broken Fire-stone, frowning. He reached out to touch the jagged edge, then pulled his fingers back, sucking on them. The sharp stone had cut him, and his blood had finally gone into the stone, like the others' had.
I felt more than heard his words, spoken softly after a moment's surprised hesitation.
"Into the half-light, and through the flame..."
A sense of completeness resonated through the stones of the circle. I smiled against Glen's chest. "Now it's done," I murmured, relieved. Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. They were all necessary. The spirits of Fire had been whole and healthy once, and now, with Paul's blood, they remembered it.
There was more shouting as I was bundled into the back of Glen's car. Finally, Adam climbed in next to me, and Glen tore off down the hill. The other three followed in their car. Adam wrapped bandages around my arms, and tried to get me to drink some water as we rattled towards the nearest hospital. I faded in and out, my own recent memories hopelessly jumbled with Mag's. I don't know what I said, or to whom. Glen pleaded with me all the way to stay with him, and his voice anchored me, just as the drum had throughout the night. Adam gripped my cold hand, surreptitiously taking my pulse.
-------------------------------------------
"You're not drivin', and you're in no fit state either. Now gimme the keys, get in and buckle up."
"Fine, here... What were we thinking, letting her bleed like that... She has to be okay, she has to!"
"That was... extraordinary."
"Extraordinarily stupid! She could have died! She still might... did you SEE all the blood?"
"She'll be fine. She has strength, that one."
"This was your idea, remember?"
"I know! Don't remind me..."
"Shite, he's tearin' around here like it's a blee... feckin' motorway..."
"Just keep up with him!"
"And try not to get us killed, Mr. aren't-we-formal 'Lawrence'."
"So stop talking to me, Mr. 'my-name-is-Paul'!"
"Hey, is that blood on your finger?"
"Why, yes, Mr. 'Ed'. It's the latest craze."
-------------------------------------------
Cool white walls, ceilings. Bustling, jostling; voices, professional and personal. Words like "haemorrhage" and "mushrooms" and "transfusion" and "private room".
"What's her blood type?" came through clearly for a moment.
"Earth," I tried to say, but my voice wasn't working, and it came out as an indistinct mumble.
"O negative," Glen was saying. A frustrated sigh.
Oblivion finally descended.
-----------------
WOW!
i like it.
OMG thank god I've taken my pills. 
