tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9783178389343569002024-03-13T22:26:31.390-06:00Father of LightJust me and my life (and I guess my friend's too).Michenabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148267755889409115noreply@blogger.comBlogger84125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-74195845849470349692011-06-16T19:50:00.001-06:002011-07-13T18:38:39.226-06:00MigrationBut not in the physical sense. Not yet, anyhow. I suppose I should start with something of a summary of events. Last you all knew we were in Shreveport - now we're in Austin, Texas. We met up with Damien and Arkady (who was somewhat less than pleased at the presence of two children, something about them slowing him down) and we all decided that we may as well merge into one big happy family. It's been an interesting time, the last however many days - Arkady presents himself to be every ounce as pretentious in person as he is in his writing (for instance, he refuses to be called anything other than his pseudonym), but at least he has the intelligence to back it up. Damien is much more pleasant to be around, though I suppose it helps that he and Kal were already good friends.<br />
<br />
Anyhow. In an effort to simplify things, we've all decided to merge our blogs. The new one is called Operation Wintergreen. It sounds almost cool at first until you realize it doesn't quite. You can thank Kal for that.<br />
<br />
This will be the last you hear from us on this site.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://operationwintergreen.blogspot.com/">This is Operation Wintergreen.</a><br />
<br />
-Michenab<br />
<br />
<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/06/moments.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://vox93.blogspot.com/2011/06/operation-wintergreen.html">Next</a>Michenabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148267755889409115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-57290481516658503362011-06-09T15:44:00.002-06:002011-07-13T18:38:10.459-06:00Moments<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">It was JD’s agonizing screams that dragged me back to reality, the accompanying image of Thomas driven through again and again that cemented my resolve. There was probably some rage in the passenger’s seat as well when I started Henry’s car. I looked all around and saw Henry just standing there, unaware of the scene directly before of him, his face souring at the sound. JD had dropped to his knees unable to do anything but whimper and moan… all life must have left him with the wail he released for his brother’s crumbling form. And Thomas… poor Thomas, I watched him speared twice more before black arms returned to their vile owner and rose up for further strikes. Thomas was dead before turned; I choose not to watch the rest of the monster’s grisly display.</span></span><br />
<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"> I sprinted to the nearest car. It didn’t matter which, we’d taken to leaving the keys inside in case the occasion came to turn tail and flee once again. Henry’s was closest… something he’s still a mite unhappy about, fond memories I suppose. I don’t remember reaching the car or jumping into the driver’s seat. I can only recall the engine’s roar as I pressed pedal to steel and aimed the two ton bullet towards the lawn. It happened so slow… the shadow turned to look at me, it raised black limbs high… and then a burst of glass as the windshield shattered into my face. The car stopped suddenly, metal creaking as it folded around our target and then blackness descended over the wreckage. Little tails wormed their way in through the doors and the sunroof, crawling out for me…</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I kicked the mangled door open, a final act of adrenaline, and fell out to soft grass.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/06/on-run-again.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/06/migration.html">Next</a> </span></div>Kaliashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09596848778381570519noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-57837731611895573612011-06-06T19:52:00.002-06:002011-07-13T18:37:23.692-06:00On the Run Again<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The last few days have been nervous. With still no word or sign from Babs, all of us had been a little on edge at the lake house. Don't get me wrong, I still stand by what I've said about the break being a godsend, but we'd all become accustomed to being on the move for so long that sitting in one place for as long as we've been here in Georgia... Well, it was a little unnerving. Then everything just went horribly wrong and now we're on the move again. To add to that, I have no idea where Charlie and Alexis have gone to and Thomas... Fuck, Thomas...</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The first sign I had that something was wrong was when I saw Sara twitch. I've been spending most of my time caring for her and keeping her company for whatever that's worth. This was the first time I've seen her move on her own since getting to this place. I still didn't know if my idea about her connection to our Stalker was right but to be safe I went and found Kal and talked about it with him, asking if he thought we should get out of Dodge. He didn't have much of chance to answer before I heard JD shouting from the other side of the house, and that pretty much decided that. I ran to Sara and gathered her and our things (at this point, it all fits easily into two bags), then went back to where Kal had been. He wasn't there anymore, so I gathered Sara into my arms and made my way into the main room of the house. When my eyes fell on the Thief standing there, I felt Sara's head move to face it.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">My legs felt almost frozen like they did the first time I saw it, but at the moment it's attention was on JD, who was being dragged through the back door by Thomas against his will. I think JD meant to fight the damn thing and he was cussing up a storm. It wasn't until the Thief's arms began grow and it began to move toward the back door - not walk, mind you, but move in that same stuttering manner I saw that first time - that I felt the paralysis leave my legs but I still couldn't bring myself to actually move. Charlie had just dashed through it and Alexis was close behind him - then Kal's voice came to me from the front door and I snapped my head around to see Kal beckoning me outside. As I jogged to him, I felt the attention of that abomination fall on me and Sara. Even from over ten feet away I could feel something like rage - a cold, calculated feeling. I hurried through the door, behind Kal as he ran around the side of the house to find the others, and the feel of its gaze left me. Looking through a window as I followed Kal, I saw that it had disappeared. And then the rain started.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Kal and I met up with the other four behind the house, where our cars were and where the dock began. The van was on and open and Alexis was speaking rapidly to Charlie and Thomas, who was still restraining JD to an extent, and looked as if she were about to say something to Kal when the back door suddenly exploded outward. The door itself remained intact and caught Thomas full in the back, sending both he and JD to the ground. About a foot out from the door in each direction, the wood and other materials were just... gone. No splinters, just gone. But the Thief was there in full rage. From his back came four or maybe six fluid-seeming appendages (I hesitate to say tentacles) and the cold anger I had felt just moments ago was back in full force. As Kal struggled to get the solid wood door away from Thomas and JD, Charlie grabbed Alexis by the arm and led her down to dock to where a fishing boat was parked. Unwilling to<span style="line-height: 16px;"> let</span> Sara out of my grasp and have her stolen from me too, I used my feet to help Kal move the door and then motioned toward dock. <span style="line-height: 16px;">I could hear Alexis shouting for us to hurry up.</span> Thomas was limping, but he was still concious and JD seemed angry more than anything else. As we turned toward the dock, the Thief appeared in front of us, blocking our way. <span style="line-height: 16px;">Charlie said something that could have been "fuck" but</span> the boat roared to life<span style="line-height: 16px;">anyway</span> as he shook his head at Alexis. <span style="line-height: 16px;">I heard her shouting about the rest of us and pointing in our direction. I could just make out Charlie's lips moving and that stopped her in her tracks</span>. She <span style="line-height: 16px;">turned and</span> gave us one last, mournful look, mouthing "Sorry" before Charlie steered the boat away into the darkness of the night and the storm.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I felt as though I were targetted, though I have no doubt Sara's presence in my arms had much to do with that, so I backed up toward the house. I felt Kal tug at my arm to get me moving faster when I saw one of the tentacles lash out in my direction. Flinching, I closed my eyes, waiting for the blackness to come, dreading the blank nothing that I had watched fall over Ronnie's face and that I had witnessed in Sara's face everyday... But nothing happened. I opened my eyes when I heard JD screaming. Not in rage, as I was used to <span style="line-height: 16px;">when the Thief was involved</span>, but pure loss. Thomas had jumped or moved in front of me and now there was a black tentacle through where one of his kidney's would be. After a moment of stillness, though I could hear Kal moving behind me, more holes were punched in Thomas. One where a lung should be, now through his thigh, now through an arm... And then blackness swallowed him <span style="line-height: 16px;">completely</span> - there was a sickening crunch and then the blackness fell away, leaving only the blood that had dripped down Thomas's body as he was stabbed by the Thief. But his body was gone. Just one more object stolen. JD had fallen to his knees, but now I could see him begin to rise. <span style="line-height: 16px;">Behind me I heard a car door open and slam shut - then the familiar sound of my car's engine came to me and I turned to see Kal behind the steering wheel, a wild look on his face. Urged on by Kal, the engine roared as the car charged forward toward the Thief. </span>The son of a bitch was going to hit the thing with my car. That got me moving <span style="line-height: 16px;">as I could only see that tactic ending in disaster.</span> I ran to the van as quick as I could and left Sara with the bags in the front seat. As I turned to get JD, I watched as my car slammed into the Thief at maybe 25 mph. I watched as the front of the car crumpled even through the engine block. <span style="line-height: 16px;">I watched as our Stalker didn't so much as flinch, watched as Kal was jostled around inside the pancaking car but that thing...</span> The wreck didn't even phaze it. It snaked its tentacles around the car as the driver door opened and Kal flopped out. He had blood streaming from his forehead and was trying to crawl toward me. I called to JD to help me and, given a purpose after having seen such a spectacle, he seemed to forget his grief and responded immediately. As my car was crushed in the embrace of the Thief, I saw JD and Kal safely into the back of the van. I got into the driver's seat and put it into gear. As the lake house faded out of sight down its long driveway, I heard a thundering boom - the same as when the door had exploded, but much, much louder.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">That was two nights ago. We're now in Shreveport, Louisianna, just outside of Texas. I wasn't sure where else to head for that night, so I set my phone to take me to Austin, Texas. Kal's cut was nothing serious, but it looks like it might scar. JD hasn't said much. None of us have said much. And always in the rear view is our Stalker, taking everything away from us.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-Michenab</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://tellthemisaidiwasgoingtoamerica.blogspot.com/2011/06/battle.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/06/moments.html">Next</a> </span></div>Michenabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148267755889409115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-59589224660146066742011-05-28T00:11:00.003-06:002011-07-13T18:36:58.230-06:00Where is Babs?<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Bab's still hasn't shown up. She said she'd be here on Tuesday (or May 24th) but we've still yet to see any sign of her. Or here from her. I've tried calling, Kal tried calling, but all calls just rang and rang and rang... No voicemail, no ending. I left my phone on speaker for half an hour the last time I called just listening to that ring, haunti<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;">ng and repetitive. Kal's conversation with Damien about it didn't last long. I think Damien hung up on him.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Damien, if she doesn't show up.. I'm sorry, man. At the very least, we're perfectly set to wait here longer for her to show up. The rest is a godsend, but I think the best part of it all here is the showers. That out of everything has helped the most to lift the fugue off of our group here. Some of it at any rate.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I still can't help but feel that everything is falling apart. There's a deep, hollow ache inside me, patiently waiting to devour everything I know.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It's Ronnie. Or rather, her absence. I haven't had time to really get through all that happened on the day she was taken from me. But now, with all this time, with nowhere to go, with no abomination in sight, she is always in my thoughts. And with Babs being gone now too...</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Our Stalker is a cruel thing. Loveless and cruel.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-Michenab</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://tellthemisaidiwasgoingtoamerica.blogspot.com/2011/05/what-is-it-with-buildings-and-fire.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://tellthemisaidiwasgoingtoamerica.blogspot.com/2011/06/battle.html">Next</a> </span></span></span></div>Michenabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148267755889409115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-66791435926230124942011-05-23T22:37:00.001-06:002011-07-13T18:36:19.955-06:00Breathing Room<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We made it to Georgia. You may have seen in Arkady's most recent post (as of now at any rate) that Setoth's Babs was headed there. After all the things that have been going on in Roanoke, especially our Stalker becoming a growing presence, Kal and I were able to persuade the others into coming with us. Even Charlie begrudgingly agreed to leave without too much coercion - and given the expression on his face as we packed up our things to set off, it seemed he was going to miss Virginia.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We're at a lake house that belongs to Babs's family, waiting for her to show up. When we talked on the phone yesterday, she said she'd be here sometime tomorrow and clued us in about where to find the spare key. It's nice here, if secluded. Thankfully whoever tends to the place keeps it well stocked. I guess people must drop by here out of the blue often enough for the family to pay for that kind of maintenance, but either way I'm certainly not going to question what little cause for celebration we may have thrown our way now and again.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Right now everyone is kind of just relaxing - though with what's hunting us everyone is still a little on edge. Even Charlie and Alexis seemed to share a moment of real intimacy for what must be the first time in months. I think we're all just glad to be out of our damned cars. We finally have room to stretch and lay down and just close our eyes. For now anyway. JD is looking better, which has let Thomas relax and open up more; he and Kal seem to be getting on well.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">But not everything is good news. I mentioned in an earlier post that I saw Sara move on her own. I don't feel so great about it now as I did then. With the frequent encounters of the Slender kind, I began to notice a trend. I don't know how long this has been going on or when it started (or if it was always there and I just didn't notice), but I think Sara reacts physically to the Thief's presence. As if his energy or what-have-you holds some kind of sway over and, despite being completely blanked mentally, she still has some instinct regarding him. It makes me nervous, but perhaps it can be used to some kind of advantage... Possibly as a way to forewarn ourselves. I don't want to rely too much on this theory though. I fear that just like everything else I've come to rely on over the course of being hunted, it too will disappear and break beneath me. I don't think I can take many more falls.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I do have one last piece of nervous news. Like I said, we're secluded out here. And if what little research I've begun to do and what the rest of our little group of survivor's has said is true, all these fucking trees are bad news.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-Michenab</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://vox93.blogspot.com/2011/05/tower-of-babylon-rises.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://tellthemisaidiwasgoingtoamerica.blogspot.com/2011/05/what-is-it-with-buildings-and-fire.html">Next</a> </span></div>Michenabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148267755889409115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-8644557971812358012011-05-10T23:21:00.001-06:002011-07-13T18:35:46.513-06:00<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I had a dream. I was beneath the waves, rolling gently, dark and blue. Above me, a storm was brewing, the clouds growing black and angry, aggressively striving against the last rays of a setting sun. The wind was picking up and howling, foreshadowing the terror the waves would become. But deep below, in my santcuary, in this water, I was serene. I <span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;">was calm. I was smiling. Nothing could touch me.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">When I woke up, it was there. Not close, but there. Watching. Waiting to steal again. But it didn't matter. The weight of the dream still sat on my shoulders and nothing mattered. A flutter of movement jerked my gaze away from the Thief, and I saw Sara's arm settling back into place. I went to look back at our stalker but then... Holy shit, Sara moved. She moved on her own. She's always needed someone to guide her: into walking, eating, drinking, changing... everything. I've never seen her twitch. I looked into her eyes, hoping to see something there. But her face was still blank, empty of everything, her eyes dull and lifeless. I turned back to where I'd seen the Thief but nothing was there any longer.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">JD is lucky. Charlie was able to get in touch with a friend of his - a doctor or a nurse or something - who was able to patch JD up well enough to keep him alive without us actually getting to a hospital. Beyond that though, Charlie has been showing even less warmth toward the group than usual. Ever since the attack, our follower has been with us, sometimes far off, sometimes close enough to throw a rock at. We've been on the move constantly. We're driving as I write this, Alexis and her crew leading the way simply because they've been in the area longer, but none of us really know where we're going. Kal is lost in his head, Thomas is worrying over JD who is growing angrier by the day and I've already talked about Charlie.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">But Sara moved. I don't why, but maybe it's a sign that we're doing something right.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-Michenab</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/05/god-damn-it-henry-how-did-you-get-me.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://vox93.blogspot.com/2011/05/babylon-falls.html">Next</a> </span></span></span></div>Michenabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148267755889409115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-18704811627503957982011-05-10T10:24:00.002-06:002011-07-13T18:34:56.776-06:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit; line-height: 16px;">God damn it Henry how did you get me typing this up? I don’t want to fucking talk about this, it’s the very reason I haven’t been. I don’t care if you think I need to get it off my chest, I don’t care if you think the world wants to hear it. News flash Henry, nobody gives a damn about us. Nobody in the world cares about what happens to you and me and all the others except us. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">I can guarantee that nobody out there wants to hear me mope and whine about ending a man’s life. I sure as hell don’t want to anymore.</span></span><br />
<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">They don’t want to hear me lament the loss of my innocence or cry about how I went from pacifist to killer in a matter of seconds. They don’t want to hear me go into gory detail about the way I felt the crack of his skull reverberate up that stick of wood or describe the way the tiny bit of life he still possessed drained from his eyes as looked up at me. Nobody out there wants to hear my fucking sob story. Nobody except you. I know you’re trying to help but just let it go, I didn’t pester you to deal with your loss over the internet’s open forum. Please just let go. I’m so fucking tired of all of this.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I’ll be fine. I don’t regret it; I did what was necessary to keep JD alive. I just wish that fucker hadn’t died, that he possessed the same ungodly endurance that our dear Arkady goes on and on and on about. But you know? Despite everything, the sick feeling I wake up to every morning and this warm sting of panic that keeps invading my chest, despite it all I don’t regret it. If it was needed I’d kill him all over.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I’ll do whatever I fucking have to do to keep everyone I care about alive. Even if that means suffering this again and again and again.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/04/assault.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/05/i-had-dream_10.html">Next</a> </span></div>Kaliashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09596848778381570519noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-82948918031535474612011-04-28T22:20:00.003-06:002011-07-13T18:34:17.471-06:00Assault<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It never stops. If I didn't think we were cursed already, I'd start thinking it now. I don't know how it all happened, I don't know how we were found, but we were and... I'd better start from the beginning on this one. The seven of us, Alexis and her group and then us, were just sitting in a parking structure, a different one than Kal talked about (we have to move about now and then to keep the police from ticketing or arresting us). I was finally starting to relax. I haven't seen that thing, the Thief, Slender Man, whatever you want call it, since we met up with Alexis. We've all been paranoid about it, that's another reason we're on the move so often, but none of us had seen him. Hell, even Charlie began to calm down; not that you'd notice if you'd never met him at all.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">All good things come to an end though. Charlie and Alexis were talking in whispers - I think Kal called it pretty well on their relationship - Kal was talking with Thomas, JD was staring off into the streets below us and I was watching everyone with Sara next to me. Then we heard the footsteps. Running. More than one person. I didn't think too much of it except maybe some people in a hurry until I saw<span style="line-height: 16px;">Alexis glance at Thomas and spring into action, inspiring Thomas to do so as well</span>, Thomas getting JD into the van and Alexis starting the engine. I must have looked confused as Hell because Charlie, <span style="line-height: 16px;">who was shaking his head at the whole affair while walking slowly to the car</span>, spoke up:</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"They're coming. I'd get in your car if I were you." The sneer on his face seemed to live in his very voice; his words dripped with contempt.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I looked at Kal who only shrugged, but headed for our car, so I got Sara in as well. With the engine started, we waited for Alexis to back out so we could follow her. <span style="line-height: 16px;">Right as her reverse lights came on, I saw JD run from around the van, an angry look on his face, as if his entire body was full of hate for whatever was coming toward us. He carried a crude makeshift spear in his hands and seemed to be trembling - with anger, yes, but I think there was some hint of fear, lonliness, desperation in his young eyes... Thomas appeared behind the boy and picked him up bodily, wrapping him up in his arms as one might a younger child, protectively, and carried him back to the van. When Alexis finally was able to get moving</span>, we heard the screech of tires. In the parking garage, it was impossible to tell what direction it was coming from through all the echoes. Soon enough though, the car appeared coming from the bottom floor - from the exit - moving quickly and blocking the road.. I saw the van swerve in front of us and heard the squeal of its brakes, soon joined by the screech of our tires as Kal slammed his foot down hard. The van slammed into the other car regardless though and landed on its side, falling back toward Kal and I. For a moment, everything was silent except for the purr of engines and the light creak of metal. Then the footsteps came back and a small group of people began to swarm the van. There must have only been five of them at most, but it seemed a whole crowd with as sudden and quick as they moved. While I was watching, I heard Kal taking off his seatbelt and opening his door. I only registered what he was doing when I saw him running out in front of the car with a wooden stick in hand.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">After a moment I decided to follow him, grabbing my knife from the glove compartment, before remembering Sara. I let Kal go to the van on his own while I stayed near the car - I couldn't leave her alone, no matter how the struggle sounded. I'd never been in a fight before and this thought flashed through my mind over and over as I looked nervously around the car until, suddenly, a fist caught me in the stomach and I went down, rolling a little away - we were on an incline. From the floor I watched Kal swing his stick at someone and I heard the flat sounds of fists and wood slamming into bodies, of shouts and grunts of pain and effort. I heard noise near me and saw one of the attackers, probably the one that punched me, clawing at the back door of my car. Sara.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I got to my feet quickly and charged. As I got close he turned toward me. He looked completely normal: brown hair, pale skin, jeans and a t-shirt except.. his eyes. They were sunken, haunted, as if he hadn't slept in far, far too long. And he was expressionless. Devoid of life. Just like Ronnie, the last time I saw her... An animal growl shocked me from my memories and he came toward me, recklessly. Not knowing quite what to do, I stabbed at him. I must have only nicked him as he howled but didn't seem incapacitated at all. He swung a punch and I caught it on my arm, near the shoulder - the arm went numb. Swearing and frightened, I threw myself into him. We went down together in a tangle of struggling limbs. I stabbed at him again and this time I felt the blade stick. I pushed it in to the hilt - six inches. In return, I caught an elbow to the face and he rolled away from me, taking the knife. I saw it, attached to his side like some failed extra limb - it must have been in an organ, a kidney or maybe the stomach. He didn't seem to mind and, leaking crimson, he came back at me. I scrambled to get to my feet, but he closed the gap between us too quickly and threw himself onto me, pinning me to the concrete. If we hadn't been on a slope like we were, he may have had me, but I was able to use the angle and gravity against him to push him off me, sending him rolling down to the van.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I got up and ran to the car - Sara was okay. <span style="line-height: 16px;">God how horrible is it to think that her vegetable state is even close to okay..</span> I looked back down to where everyone else was. The sounds of fighting were dying down and I could hear someone wailing. It was painful to listen to. I caught sight of my attacker get to his feet - how he had the strength to rise I don't know. I shouted in warning and saw Thomas come from behind the overturned van with what looked like a butcher knife. Taking the man by surprise, Thomas punched him his cheek and then chopped into his neck until he fell to the floor, twitching. He then looked up at me, nodded grimly and disappeared back behind the van. I hurried to find Kal and saw maybe three people run off into the darkness. The car that had wrecked the van was gone too. I'm not sure when they left. <span style="line-height: 16px;">Then I heard a shout, a quick scuffle followed by grunts and the clattering of wood on concrete. Finally Thomas, clearly: crying</span>.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">When I turned to look at him, he was bent over JD's shaking body. In one of the kid's hands was a crude spear, the tip covered in blood. About 10 feet away was a body, pooling blood, with Charlie rummaging through its clothing, muttering to himself. Alexis went to Thomas and pulled him to his feet, trying to calm him down while getting to him to move JD into the van. While they did, I saw a dark splotch on the front of JD's shirt. He wasn't dead, but... Kal's shirt was spattered with red, but he seemed fine, if winded. But the way he stared at the dead man, the one who'd attacked JD, it was like nothing else existed for him in that moment. Yet more blood dripped from one end of his stick. The bruises I'd gotten began to make themselves known as I heard Thomas's sobs begin to settle into a quiet rhythm of mourning over his bleeding brother, backed up by Alexis's gentle words.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">That was <span style="line-height: 16px;">earlier tonight</span>. Somehow we got the van back onto its tires and the bodies inside it. All of us are bruised. All of us are exhausted. J<span style="line-height: 16px;">D seems to have stabilized, for now. Charlie, angry as he is about breaking M's rules, at least let Alexis talk him into helping. The bleeding has stopped, but now Thomas and Charlie are having it out over whether or not to go to a hospital. </span>I can sense things falling apart here.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-Michenab</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://tellthemisaidiwasgoingtoamerica.blogspot.com/2011/04/5050.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/05/god-damn-it-henry-how-did-you-get-me.html">Next</a> </span></div>Michenabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148267755889409115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-25369196166095763072011-04-24T14:40:00.001-06:002011-07-13T18:33:45.912-06:00Running<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">There are four of them; Alexis, Charlie, and the Brothers. I don’t really know all that much about them besides the fact they’re what you’d call runners, and that now it seems we are too. We’ve only known them for a few days... we met Alexis first. Encountered her in the restaurant where we were celebrating, see we’d just finally arrived. We’d driven on out to Roanoke because, well if we do end up disappearing from the face of the Earth I figure Roanoke is a pretty fitting place for it. Anyhow, it was the end of our big long and basically pointless journey and we’d squandered a lot of cash on hotels and gasoline along the way, had to pick up a bunch of other random shit like extra changes of clothes too. I didn’t really think about what I was grabbing when we rushed from the apartment and as a result we didn’t have much besides a small pile of dirty clothes and various electronics that are all but useless when you’re on a cross country trip with no real concrete destination. Celebrating probably wasn’t our best idea, but it felt damn well deserved after so much driving.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: 16px;" /></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Between our tired and wore appearances, Henry’s jumpiness, and Sara’s peculiar state I’m not amazed we drew her attention. It’s actually pretty funny looking back; we were so surprised to have this cute blond girl make her way to our table from her nearby barstool. And then when she started to ask us questions and tell us about her own experience, when we saw an all too familiar symbol stitched into her sleeve… well what the hell were the chances of that?</span></div><br />
<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">We were cautious, skeptical even, but eventually decided to meet them. Henry and I just can’t do this alone… I mean he’s still not quite stable and taking care of a basically comatose 7 year old girl would be hard enough without having to protect her too. You know on our way down here I woke up one morning to long black vines trying to worm their way in through the car’s doors and windshield? Hell of a thing to wake up to, that. Threw the car in reverse and sped off as quick as I could. There have been other instances like that too, so yeah we went and met them.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: 16px;" /></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">She led us out of the restaurant and into a parking structure a few blocks away to meet the others. We found them two levels down and tucked into a corner, a pair of boys sitting in the back of a dirty minivan. They were the brothers, Thomas and JD. Thomas, the older brother sat with the tailgate open and his legs hanging over the side. From one ear dangled a pair of headphones which seemed to occupy him at least slightly, but you could tell from his posture that he was on guard for something. He noticed us quickly and stood up from the open lift gate making his way to greet us. In the vehicle still was his younger brother JD, staring intently at his PSP with an aluminum bat close by his side. JD looked much younger than his brother, and was much less interested in our intrusion into their little lair. Thomas was nice enough, he got up and introduced himself, but all the while something felt off. This wasn’t just a friendly meeting, he was definitely scoping us out… it was his eyes, they were suspicious even if his tone welcoming. But all the same we stood and talked while Alexis went up to find Charlie, the last member of their little gang.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: 16px;" /></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Charlie was… well the idea of adding more people to their group didn’t sit well with him. Charlie is easily not the most social individual I’ve ever met, nor is he the most understanding. He seems to have a concept of how things should go and when things don’t go that way he doesn’t respond well. And this, so far as I can tell, is why he tends to spend his time up on the third level and higher. Why his and to some degree Alexis’ clothes are adorned with operator signs, and why he was apparently already unhappy with the size of their group before the three us showed up. He idolizes M, takes his every word as fact and ignores any evidence contrary to what he’s read. The only person who can reason with him seems to be Alexis. Unlike the others I don’t know much of his story besides the fact that he knew Alexis before all this. The way they interact I’d have to guess they dated before or maybe still are, but whatever the extent of their relationship was, it’s now very obviously strained.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: 16px;" /></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Alexis herself is much more pleasant to be around, though a lot of the time she’ll be trying to get Charlie to socialize with everyone and so we don’t see that much of her. She’s always trying to bring him down from the 3rd level where he compulsively resides, doesn’t like him there all alone. She’s approachable and seems to enjoy talking, and is a nice girl if a little blunt. I talk with her about old tv shows on occasion but uhh… well when she’s not off dealing with Charlie she’ll be off finding a drink somewhere so our conversations are rather infrequent.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: 16px;" /></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">And then there are the brothers Thomas and JD who I mentioned before. Thomas is a nice kid, he’s only 17 despite all appearances, and his brother’s 12, but… but I can relate to him. He just wants to keep his brother safe. I’ve been talking with him a lot since Henry and I fell in with their little group, we generally talk about just how fucked up all this is, about how we all got involved in this, why we’re running, what we’ve seen done and experienced. They lost their mom to this shit, happened right in front of JD, left him pretty fucked up for a while. But now… well Thomas is just concerned for his brother and that’s something I can easily understand. He’s got fucking awful taste in music though.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: 16px;" /></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">As for JD, well he’s hard to approach. He doesn’t want to be around all these people, just plays his PSP and ignores you if you try to talk with him. I’ve tried engaging about games and books and television and just about anything else but no dice. Whatever, maybe he’ll be more communicative in time, or maybe not, either way he’s still less hostile then Charlie.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: 16px;" /></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Oh and more good news. As you’ve no doubt noticed Damien and Arkady are both alive and well. I can really honestly say that that’s one weight on my conscience I’m glad to be rid of.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: 16px;" /></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Hopefully distancing myself from them will help them stay safe.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">~Kal</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://vox93.blogspot.com/2011/04/resurrection-sixth-communion.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://vox93.blogspot.com/2011/04/well-laid-easter-plans.html">Next</a> </span></div>Kaliashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09596848778381570519noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-75851351565986165052011-04-15T21:15:00.004-06:002011-07-13T18:33:14.541-06:00Excrucior<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Excrucior</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The history won’t be erased</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">As long as I’m inside this place;</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It’s finally time for me to face</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span>The hole inside, that gaping space.</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It aches for filling, screams for substance –</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">But substance is something that I have lost</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Here in the frost of this forest</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In which I am tortured.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The snow is melting now,</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Though the rays of sun still refuse to show</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">And the drip-drop patters of lazy melt</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Soak into my clothing – so I’ve been dealt.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Bruised and cracked and cast aside,</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Content enough to keep awake</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">But hardly conscious of the constant</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Whip-smacks so acclimated have I been made,</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The humid heat of the dripping sunless night</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Intrudes upon my realization,</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">My renewed sensation in hands, in feet, in face, in toes.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Smearing sweat across my brow,</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I stand and stare into the sky,</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">See the stars run away to hide</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">From my self-righteous reawake’ning:</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I assure you, I’m not faking!</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I will leave the planet quaking!</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">And then, docile once again,</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I just sit back and think to then,</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Shaking in my sallow skin,</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Afraid to wake, afraid to move.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">She's gone. And I.. I didn't do anything. I just let her leave into the arms of that fucking thing and now she is gone. I killed her. I killed Ronnie. This last week or so has been one long roller coaster of ever-shifting emotion, now angry, now depressed, now scared. Angry at the abomination who stole Ronnie from me, angry at my own incompetence. Depressed, saddled with this emptiness, hopelessness. Scared of every shadow, every flap or flutter of darkness. My dreams are haunted by her face, dead and soulless, grey with the apathy of lifelessness. Her mouth opens, face still slack, body wrapped in the arms of that thief, and she forms the word "traitor" over and over until it becomes written across my vision in her crimson blood. A few times I thought I'd maybe crawled out of this delirium only to fall back into mindless haunting, consumed by paranoia, consumed by myself. I woke up today.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I'm not entirely sure where we are. I can't say that I mind that too much - the last place I want to be is back anywhere near that apartment... Kal is asleep on a bed not too far from me. The girl is lying on the other bed in the room. I guess a hotel room. From what Kal written, we've come far. I don't remember most of it. There are flashes of memory - Kal, angry at the absence of Damien; leaving Austin; the girl, Sara, staring into me with her vacant eyes - but the last thing I remember with any clarity is Ronnie, the moment she died. That image is carved into my eyelids. I cannot escape it.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">But Sara is still with us, vegetative as she is. Sara is our symbol of defiance against this bastard thing, this monster and accident of horror. If we can keep her safe... If I can keep her safe... Then maybe I can be forgiven.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I think it's my turn to drive next.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-Michenab</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/04/oh-places-ive-been.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://vox93.blogspot.com/2011/04/labyrinth.html">Next</a> </span></span></span></div>Michenabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148267755889409115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-21929390493663861142011-04-14T17:46:00.002-06:002011-07-13T18:32:38.656-06:00Oh the places I've been<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Ugg. I’m exhausted.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Driving long distances isn’t fun. Driving long distances in a strange car occupied by a newly paranoid friend and a nearly comatose kidnapped girl, avoiding an otherworldly monster that can appear wherever the fuck it wants and coping with the fact that you may well have killed your best friend is somewhat worse.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Jesus, what was that? Like a week ago?</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Damien and his buddy, that Arkady fellow, called us up during that whole… that whole Ars Goetia fiasco. They said something about a plan, that they were going to go and do Damien’s dumbfuck summoning bullshit again, that they were going to pull it away from us. Well, actually Damien said this while Arkady seemed to throw a goddam party in the background. I told him no, that he’d done enough helping me get Sara back, that we could get out of this ourselves, that Henry had enough in him for the one last push we needed. It seems though that they were already moving.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">It just vanished.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I fucking cursed him. He always had to go and do things his way, never listened. We took advantage of the opportunity of course, no sense not to. I ran into our rooms, threw some shit into a bag, grabbed Hank’s keys and pulled both him and Sara out the door. Raced down to the parking garage, got into the car, ignored Henry’s half hearted protests and just started driving.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">We didn’t have a destination besides as far away from the room as possible. I just drove furiously dialing Damien’s number over and over. I got a hold of him eventually; right cursed the bastard out too. I calmed down though, told him what all had happened, how it just sorta vanished from us, thanked him, and threatened to kill him myself if he ever tried to pull that shit again for me.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">And then we just kept driving. I looked over and Henry was passed out, he slept for like an entire day, by the time he woke up we were nearly out of Illinois. And I was fucking exhausted, Henry had no clue where we were or what was going on, and I was too damn tired to bother explaining. I pulled into a hotel and paid for a room. And then I just slept.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Henry just thought he saw something. He’s a fucking wreck. Jumping at shadows, at everything really, he’s imagining our shadow everywhere… he can feel its nonexistent eyes on him. Night, day, doesn’t matter, if something moves in his peripheral vision or there happens to be a figure some distance off I can guarantee to you he’s going to flip out one way or the other. Hell, it would be kinda funny if you know… if it wasn’t so fucking terribly unfunny.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Anyhow, back to what I was saying.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">We settled into the room, I took a well deserved sleep and woke up to Henry yelling about Arkady.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">You all know what’s going on with Arkady better than I do; hell even now I don’t know much about this Labyrinth or whatever the hell it is. But Henry, during my slumber, got the internet in our room set up and started looking at the blogs and so I was awoken by news of what had befallen my friend’s bloodthirsty associate. And then news that Damien hadn’t posted anything all.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Tried calling him, tried Facebook, Skype, no new comments on this blog or any of the others he follows, nothing on his or any of his friends’ walls. Nothing. He was just gone. Is gone.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I gathered up all our stuff, threw it back in the car, and then we set off for Texas. If he was in trouble, in trouble for helping me… well I couldn’t just sit around. We stopped at a gas station to refuel and buy a US mapbook, and then… well then I started our journey to St. Edwards. It was a long trip, took a day and a half; we didn’t stay at a hotel again, instead we spent the night in the car. The trip was peaceful though thankfully, free from Slenderattacks and the meddling of masked strangers.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">We tried his apartment first of course; it is where he’s been living after all, went right up to his door and knocked, though maybe it wasn’t the best idea. No answer. Then we tried the offices where he works at the school; he hadn’t shown up for a couple weeks. I tried his parent’s house… nothing. He’d completely disappeared.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I went back to his place and threw a fucking brick through his window.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I climbed inside and looked around. Place was a goddamn mess. There were sigils tacked all over the walls, there were papers thrown everywhere, and now thanks to me there was glass strewn across the carpet. The papers, they were covered in scribblings; symbols, glyphs, research, random notes on behavior and analyses of what we all had experienced. In the corner was a stained mattress and bundle of sheets along with a laptop and busted up sword, almost certainly Arkady's accomadations. It was weird to see the place such a mess, though not nearly as weird as seeing Damien's alcohol just sitting out.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I leafed through the papers, looking for really anything that he may have left behind, a note, a plan, anything really. Grabbed their computers to look through them as well; Damien’s wasn’t protected, though Arkady’s was. I looked through his history, read all the most recent posts of the other blogs he follows, really just looking for anything that might tell me where he vanished to. I looked through Word documents, really just anything that had recently been written, read, or used. I looked at his blog one last time as precaution, just to make sure you know? Nothing. I pushed his computer to the side and grabbed Arkady’s. If I knew anything about Russian literature I probably would have actually made an attempt or two at cracking his password, but sadly I don’t. Instead I booted it up in safe mode… luckily, just like everyone else on the planet; Arkady didn’t bother to password his Administrator account. I looked through his history too, and his documents and everything else. He didn’t have anything of interest either, though it seems that his most recent post wasn’t written from his laptop unless he went and deleted his history for some reason.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Then I realized that between busting up the window and asking around about Damien that the police would probably show up around here at some point. I’ve killed so many people already; I wasn’t going be responsible for getting anyone else involved in this shit.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I mean what am I at now? That one kid’s dead, so is Ronnie and probably Damien, Henry is infected along with god know who else. I wasn’t going to let my actions maybe lead so poor unfortunate police officer and his friends and family into this shit too. I don’t know when Arkady’s coming back if he or if he ever is, and even if he does… well I doubt he gives a damn about what happens to anyone but himself. So yeah.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I pulled out the laptops again, deleted their histories, unbookmarked anything I saw that was related to this whole mess, gathered up all the stray papers and headed back to the car. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Anyhow that was a few days ago. I’m sorta just driving at random now, we’re in Georgia at the moment but I think I’m gonna head up towards Virginia. I was born there so it should be at least somewhat nostalgic, on top of that I don’t know a damn soul for close to 600 miles from it so it should be a decent place to hide out while keeping family and friends save.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">If we can get there it’s one less thing to worry about. I’ll only have to concern myself with helping Henry adjust, figuring out what to do with Sara, managing our small supply of money, and of course dodging our constant shadow.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Oh yes. This is going to be fucking fun times isn’t it?<br />
~Kal</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://tellthemisaidiwasgoingtoamerica.blogspot.com/2011/04/stop-screwing-with-me-slendy.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/04/excrucior.html">Next</a> </span></span></div>Kaliashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09596848778381570519noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-26923732478290937492011-04-04T13:09:00.005-06:002011-07-13T18:31:51.307-06:00Breakdown<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; line-height: 16px;">Fuck. Fuck Fuck Fuck.</span><br />
<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Throughout the night its curiosity stopped… it’s slowly progressed from gently prodding to stabbing about in search for some weak point, and then when that didn’t work it switched again to slamming on the sliding glass doors trying outright to break them down. It wasn’t much at first, oh sure the sight of it pounding on the <span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;">windows was unsettling, but then everything involving this thing is. I closed the blinds and walked into the other room. But then… then I heard a small crack.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"></span></span></span> <br />
<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span> <br />
<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I went back to the window and threw open the blinds, and there beneath one of many, many, arms was a small hairline fracture. And of course it looked oh so pleased with itself. Stood there bent backwards at the torso, twisting around so its absent face was right there at the crack it had created. And it continued.</span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span><br />
<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">More force, faster, and with so many more arms it pounded on the window, slamming, slamming, slamming, until even more of the tiny cracks appeared, each one accented by a small shattering sound that may as well have been my sanity. I pulled back towards Henry, who was still sitting in the middle of the room keeping this thing up, sweat now drowning down his face and shivering harder still. I grabbed Sara who was just sitting at the kitchen table staring blankly into to space, and together the three of us huddled in the center of the room where the air was thickest and protection the strongest. And I watched, the only one of us truly conscious, as the window weakened more and more. As hairline fractures turned to tiny points of impact, as those little circular indentations broke into small craters. And finally as the craters started to grow larger and larger and larger until they obscured all vision of what lay beyond. The glass doors shattered, ten thousand tiny shards flying every direction and wailing against each other. It stepped inside and made towards us… and then it just stopped.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Henry must have pulled the barrier in or… or something. I honestly couldn’t tell you. But it’s inside the room now just standing with too many arms flung about the room grasping at the edge of our bubble, just waiting until Henry can’t keep this up any longer. I think we’re going to have to make a run for it… I mean we can’t just stay here.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I… I don’t know maybe Henry can shift our protection into a wall to buy us time to run away… I hope he can. I hope that that’s possible, that Henry has enough in him to manage it… that I can even get through to him without causing everything to collapse…</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">If you all never hear from me again… from either of us…</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I’m sorry.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">~Kal</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/04/three-bodies-in-search-of-exit.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://vox93.blogspot.com/2011/04/plan.html">Next</a> </span></span></span></div>Kaliashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09596848778381570519noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-75652241531716078892011-04-04T00:09:00.002-06:002011-07-13T18:31:17.065-06:00Three bodies in search of an exit<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">I'm not sure how much longer this is going to hold up. Henry's barely made it through last night with... well. Yeah he's barely holding on. I've got him covered with a few blankets because he's shivering, I honestly don't know what's going on but it isn't good.<br />
<br />
It's standing on the balcony prodding at the Ars Goetia, its head cocked and curious.<br />
We can't stay in here forever.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/04/ronnie.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/04/breakdown.html">Next</a> </span>Kaliashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09596848778381570519noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-74035104899506211402011-04-02T23:05:00.001-06:002011-07-13T18:30:47.936-06:00Ronnie<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I've been staring at this screen for... almost an hour now. Everything that happened tonight keeps replaying on the backdrop of this blank prompt. At first I was in shock. I didn't know what to do. But it's starting to hit home now. And I don't like the feeling.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I've been avoiding talking too much to Ronnie. I've been nice and sweet as much as I<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;">can, but I've needed to retain some amount of focus on keeping us all alive. I though about explaining that to her, but all I could see was a fight at the end of that tunnel. As it turns out, there was nothing I could do in the first place to stop that fight from coming. Finally fed up with the whole situation, with her distrust of Kal, her want to help the girl and my... unresponsiveness, she picked an argument. It doesn't matter anymore what it was about. I don't care and honestly, I don't remember it very well, except that as I became more and more involved in it, I could feel in the back of my mind a weakening in the presence that I brought around us. Something sharper than the gradual sapping of energy that has been going on since I put it up.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Kal noticed it too. He came into the room to get my attention and when I gave it to him... Well, that's what really set Ronnie off. She began walking around the room, gathering some of her things as she did so, voice raised. I could hear something about the balcony from Kal, but my main focus was on trying to calm Ronnie down. Trying to keep from leaving. To keep her with me. But that was another thing I couldn't stop. Another failure.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">At least Kal was able to keep the girl from her. Because when she walked out of the front door... there he was. And I think for the first time Ronnie actually saw him. Saw him and recognized him for the otherness that he is. The rest happened in silence. That dead silence that almost claimed me. I could see her mouth moving, but all I heard was the impossibly slow beat of my pulse in my ears. His presence seemed to dwarf Ronnie, though he didn't seem to actually shift in size - and then without any warning, she was pulled into him. It looked as though she had been pushed from behind, or had jumped. Wrapped in an embrace with far too many arms, she was turned to show her front perfectly to me. The fear etched on her face... the horrible fear that I couldn't keep her away from... It was nothing compared to the sudden emptiness that followed. Her lithe body, tense with so much stress, was not so hard to witness as the ragdoll limpness that came after. One second, there she was, my Ronnie, wrapped in his arms, struggling - and then the next, she was gone.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">She isn't mine anymore. She's his now. She was taken from me, and I will never have her back. I can feel it in the soul crushing void that screams for something to fill it and sucks everything into its empty nothingness, only to feel no more satiated than it was at its conception. I can feel it in the energy around me that weakens no matter what I do. I can feel it in my broken will. Thank god for Kal. If he hadn't been there, I may have just charged at him, holding her, and ended us all. Instead, I watched him fade away, the dead eyes of my love staring out at me, while I struggled against Kal's restraint.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I can't do this anymore.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-Michenab</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/04/deterioration.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/04/three-bodies-in-search-of-exit.html">Next</a> </span></span></span></div>Michenabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148267755889409115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-28570591022076548582011-04-02T15:43:00.003-06:002011-07-13T18:30:12.880-06:00Deterioration<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I still don’t like this. Veronica shouldn’t be here.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I went along because Damien thought it was a good idea, because I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere at all without him. Because Henry needed it, I know that I’d have kept a woman around if I’d had one when all this started for me. But now the wall, or barrier or whatever it is is breaking, it barely covers the building now. Hank just sits there concentrating calmly, though you can occasionally see a strain on his face presumably from keeping this going.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I saw our agressor out in the lot this morning, I haven’t said anything yet however. I haven’t got a chance to, I just can’t get Veronica away from Henry. I’m starting to get worried though. I don’t think we’re going to stay safe in here much longer.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I don’t know what Damien was thinking, how is she supposed to help if she knows nothing and we can’t tell her a thing? She’s not an extra adult, just another body to protect. She really needs to go. I think she feels it though. She’s been getting jumpy and complaining there's something claustrophobic about air in here. I assume she means Henry’s… energy I suppose is what you’d call it. I’ve tried convincing her again, nicer this time, that she should get out for a bit, get some fresh air or go to the store or something. She refuses to leave Henry or the girl though. I think she’s afraid for him; he’s barely spoken since their fight, he just sits there maintaining our shield. And of course she still doesn’t trust me.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Fuck. I shouldn’t have relented.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">This was a bad decision.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">~Kal </span></span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
<br />
<a href="http://tellthemisaidiwasgoingtoamerica.blogspot.com/2011/04/recap.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/04/ronnie.html">Next</a></div>Kaliashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09596848778381570519noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-37136459839776610902011-03-31T17:23:00.002-06:002011-07-13T18:29:35.216-06:00Ars Goetia<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The Art of Sorcery... It's beyond anything I've ever tried before, but Damien was right about its usefulness. Just the set up for it is time and resource intensive - and on such short notice, getting everything needed was some kind of hell. I even had to make use of a substitute in a few cases. However, as an extension of my own will and belief, the Goetia wasn't affected, at least that I could tell. I spent hours readin<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;">g through the book before coming to a decision about which spirit (or demon, whichever phrasing you prefer - the copy I worked with said spirit) to call upon. In the end, I settled on Sabnock, one of Damien's recommendation:</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><br />
</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"(43.) SABNOCK.—The Forty-third Spirit, as King Solomon commanded them into the Vessel of Brass, is called Sabnock, or Savnok. He is a Marquis, Mighty, Great and Strong, appearing in the Form of an Armed Soldier with a Lion’s Head, riding on a pale-coloured horse. His office is to build high Towers, Castles and Cities, and to furnish them with Armour, etc. Also he can afflict Men for many days with Wounds and with Sores rotten and full of Worms. He giveth Good Familiars at the request of the Exorcist. He commandeth 50 Legions of Spirits; and his Seal is this, etc."</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">As I began the actual ritual of invocation - making sure Ronnie, Sara and any other potential distractions were in some other room and having made the room as dark as possible - I could immediately feel a change in the air around me, as if a charge had entered it. As the ritual went on, the charge of energy grew in intensity slowly until it finally leveled out at a pressure that subtly itched at my nerves. Though that may have just been my nervousness in the experience - more than once through the process I almost lost my handle on the ritual. <span style="line-height: 16px;">A sudden spike in the pressure of the energy gave me a shock, and I felt as though it was almost a physical thing - but only almost. Then a half-heard voice, almost an illusory sound, forced my eyes shut - and when I opened them again there he... it... was: Sabnock, called before me, powerful. </span>True to the Goetia, he sat upon a pale horse, armed as a Roman legionnaire with a simple cape lined with a purple seam - and his head was at once awesome and frightening. After I moved past the shock of his arrival, I explained to him what I desired. Then commanded he do it. After a motion that I took for a sign of assent, h<span style="line-height: 16px;">e vanished from my sight and the energy in the room relaxed</span> - though I could feel a subtle change in the nature of the hum of energy that remained; as if it now had direction, focus, instead of merely presence.<span style="line-height: 16px;"> I must have made some pronounced reaction to his presence, because Kal asked after what had made me jump as I apparently did. I almost went off on him for missing what had just happened - but then I caught the genuine confusion in his eyes and I realized that he must not have seen Sabnock. </span></span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Even now, hours later, I can still feel his energy everywhere in the apartment. Kal, who can feel it too, explored its boundaries and found that the feeling extends about a football field's distance away in any direction from our apartment, with the fringes less saturated than the main room of our place - the epicenter, the site of the ritual. I don't know if Ronnie can feel it and Sara... I doubt she feels much of anything at all... It's odd - though I can feel a foreign nature to the energy, at the same time I can also feel something of myself in it. I feel as though, if I so chose, I could change the focus of Sabnock, of myself, and accomplish something far different, far greater in spectacle... But there is no time for that.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Kal and I have neither seen Slender Man nor felt his presence since the ritual. The energy no longer rubs my nerves raw. I think we are safe here now. Though I don't know for how long.</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-Michenab</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/she-devil.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://tellthemisaidiwasgoingtoamerica.blogspot.com/2011/04/happy-news.html">Next</a> </span></span></span></div>Michenabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148267755889409115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-79205427885245087232011-03-31T00:25:00.003-06:002011-07-13T18:27:14.231-06:00The She-Devil.I went back to Ronnie's, after... after whatever it was that happened at Burger King. She was still trying to get some kind of reaction out the girl. I guess her name is Sara. I tried to relax. I saw Kal's message to me - and ignored it. I tried to put that whole encounter out of my mind, tried to ignore the fact that Ronnie was fussing over an empty shell of a girl in the next room - but then a little flash of movement outside of a window of Ronnie's house (her parents do quite well) caught my eye. Closer inspection revealed a view of the street, lit in the eerie way only streetlamps can accomplish. And directly beneath one was him. It was copied terribly out of every bad horror flick, but it was pulled off artfully. Nothing should be that terrifying, nothing should be that... that <i>other. </i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
I began collecting all my things, everything I'd brought, into my bag, then went for the girl. Ronnie tried to stop me, asked me where I was going, but I didn't answer. I couldn't. Sara and I had to leave. We had to get away from Ronnie. Ronnie wasn't safe with us around. Even so, I heard her grabbing her car keys, and I felt, in some small way, reassured by that. I was heading back to the apartment. Where I am now. On the quickest way from Ronnie's place to mine is a street that is almost completely dark for a decent stretch of road. Only the moon and stars gave light to it. I thought nothing of it. Until, moving at the upper edge of the speed limit, I was forced to slam on the breaks because there he was again. Standing there, immovable. I heard Ronnie's breaks squealing as I began to curse and flash my highbeams on and off, not daring to move. Then I accidentally turned my lights off. The dead silence of the encounter at Burger King began to creep in on me. Ronnie honked her horn, snapping me out of the same paralysis I had felt earlier and I slammed the gas petal, no doubt leaving a trail of rubber on the road, before even considering to flip the lights back on.<br />
<br />
The rest of the drive was uneventful, but the paranoia - the thought that I might run into that thing again - soaked through me. When we finally got to the complex, I heard Ronnie begin to protest about coming where Kal might be, but I didn't respond then either. I had to keep moving. I'm sorry for ignoring her but... I just had to keep moving. Holding the girl in my arms, bag slung over my shoulder, I began running once I got inside. Behind me I heard the slap-slap slap-slap of Ronnie trying to keep up in her flip-flops. I only had to make it to the third floor. I tried the elevator first - but as it opened, I caught a flash of red - horrible red - in what seemed the shape of a tie and bolted for the stairs. Only two flights. I only had to make it up two flights, to the third floor.<br />
<br />
Somehow I did it. Somehow, Ronnie and I and the girl... we all made up there and to the apartment. Somehow we<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Sorry folks, Henry had to go off and deal with his girlfriend’s temper tantrum, I decided to post this up in case she kills him in there, she is not a happy girl. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">She doesn’t like me much… not that I can really blame her; last time we met I tried to shove her back into the hallway. Funny thing there, that was my exact same response when I saw Henry lead her in this time. But between the look of terror on his face and her damned persistence I eventually had to cave. She doesn’t trust me, she hasn’t seen it yet and that’s why she needs to leave.<br />
<br />
Henry wants what’s best for her, I can tell, but he’s also in a somewhat fragile state now. His world is falling apart and he thinks he needs her as some sort of comfort. I’ve tried convincing him to send her home, or… encouraging her that she’d be happier anywhere but here. It’s not going well. Like I said she’s fucking persistent; and now she, Henry, along with little Sara (it is her, though Veronica hasn’t allowed me to give her a decent look over) are holed up in Henry’s room yelling at each other.<br />
<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">She doesn’t understand why they’re here, because you know I’m a childnapper/probable rapist and whatnot. The more she yells about it the less I want to kick her out. Maybe I should just let her stay and suffer whatever fate awaits us. No, that’s a cruel thought and not fair at all. Especially given what she “knows” it’s a perfectly valid assumption. Still the accusation hurts.<br />
<br />
Henry on the other hand is refusing to explain, he just keeps telling her to trust him, to ignore me, and that despite appearances this is all for the best. He doesn’t want to anger her further, doesn’t want to kick her out. Her wanting to be here probably seems like some big gesture to him. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">He’s wrong.<br />
<br />
She needs to go. It’s for her best interest.<br />
<br />
~Kal</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/were-all-crazy-on-inside.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/ars-goetia.html">Next</a> </span></div>Michenabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148267755889409115noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-75557431335997456822011-03-30T20:43:00.003-06:002011-07-13T18:26:39.167-06:00We're All Crazy On the Inside<div style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It took a while, but I finally was able to get a call through to Kal. I'm not sure why, but recently I seem to have been having trouble getting calls from people lately. Anyhow, we agreed on a place to meet. I left the girl with Ronnie and had my dagger hanging off my belt, hidden by my jacket. As I drove to the <span style="line-height: 16px;">rendevouz (a Burger King not too far from campus)</span>, I noticed the streets become foggy – though it wasn’t enough to hinder my vision to register much beyond simply being a little odd. When I finally got to the meeting place, there was no one there but me. At first I thought Kal had simply decided not show. Had decided that there was no way he could spin his situation in a way that would convince he to help him. But then I saw him in the distance. It was hard to make out with the fog and the setting sun, but there he was, coming my way. I felt a wash of relief until I noticed him stop. Then I realized how tall he looked. How quiet it was there. How impossibly dead everything was. I don’t remember grabbing it, but I know my knife made its way to my hand – I didn’t even try to hide the blade.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I shouted at him. Why was he playing this game? The two of us needed to talk – and then suddenly he was, instead of a hundred feet away, fifty. I got no response other than that. I took a step back only to be matched by him taking a step forward. Then I saw the tie. Bright and red, obnoxious and enthralling. Kal doesn’t wear ties. <span style="line-height: 16px;">He doesn't even own a tie.</span> There was no way this fairy tale could be true. It had to be Kal, a friend of his, something, fucking with me. I shouted again. The light fog cleared around it and I got a clear look at that... thing. It had no face, but I could feel a terrible wave of heaviness coming from its stare; something like anger. It began moving closer – but it wasn’t walking. I felt as though I were watching a low budget clay-mation: it moved in short jumps forward,<span style="line-height: 16px;">its absent eyes</span> tearing through me.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I took another step back and fell, the rush of fear that followed punctuated by a hard landing. After that, everything seemed to speed up. And the thing was moving normally now – or as normally as it can do anything being what it is. Consumed with horror as I was, every nerve stretched to breaking and every muscle screaming to move, I couldn’t take my eyes from it as it came ever closer. Being at a loss of anything else to do, I slipped into meditation. Deep breathing first – and I could close my eyes. With that thing out of sight, I could direct my thoughts toward working as good a simple cleansing as I could. At this point, I was glad I had the dagger in my hand as a focus for will. I aimed only to enclose the area immediately around me, but it was sufficient. <span style="line-height: 16px;">After moments that lasted agonizing eons</span>, I felt my body come back under my control. I sprang to my feet, turned and ran back to my car, refusing to look back. As I turned the ignition, the fog began to melt away in my peripheral. I risked a glance back at where I had been frozen and saw a wisp of that haunting red color roll away as if on a wind. The sound of the world came back to me then. Kal still wasn’t there. <span style="line-height: 16px;">We need to meet now more than ever. I know that really happened but... Fucking hell Kal, what <i style="line-height: 16px;">did</i> just happen?</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-Michenab</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/oneiros.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/she-devil.html">Next</a> </span></div>Michenabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148267755889409115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-57693215693112271812011-03-30T01:13:00.005-06:002011-07-13T18:26:02.632-06:00Oneiros<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">We went back, Damien and I, back to the strange section of forest. Meeting him took some time; I had to navigate back to a familiar location for both us and then lead him to the school. Considering my… newness to this process we had to return to his parent’s house several times before I successfully got him there.</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">When we finally arrived I realized something was different. While the trees still writhed and twisted, and the blackened landscape warped to impossible shapes there was a sort of heaviness it hadn’t possessed when I’d first been there. I didn’t think much of it though, the Astral Plane is a strange place filled with all manner of foreign sensations. Damien led me through the thorny walls that changed constantly until we appeared at the source of the oddness. Or at least what I assume was the source.</span> <br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Beyond our obstructions stood a sort of tear. It wasn’t physical or even explicitly visible, but on approach I felt something… it was sudden, a shifting downwards. The sensation was like that of an unexpected drop, and then an increase in the gravity that already affected this place. And moving closer I started to see another place overlaid onto the Astral world… a place of color over this shadowed land.</span> <br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Damien pushed me through the rift. It wasn’t a physical push but a mental one… spiritual maybe, I’m not sure, but I know that through the other side I was granted the view of a snow covered landscape and orchid splintered skies. Massive trees stood before me, charcoal and crystalline silver, their long branches billowed down to the ground like arms stretched complete with gaping hands. A path cut between these great monoliths, illuminated by floating spheres of grey light, and branching off into several others. I stood at the boundary for some time, both in wonder of this world and in wait of Damien’s arrival. Damien never came through though; something had gone wrong and he never appeared into this world with me.</span> <br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I pressed on without him. The main path through Oneiros lengthened with every my step forward forcing me onto one of the forest’s unlit backpaths. The forest grew malicious in darkness. Suddenly trees clustered, forcing me from the trail and roots sprang forth from the snow covered earth, grasping my ankles and bring me to the ground. But I continued through numerous falls and an ever increasing weight on my body. I pushed aside patches of nail-like thorns and climbed through icy brooks until I found the path’s grey light again.</span> <br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Through the wood I returned back to the main path, and I stared in awe of what I saw before me. One great giant monstrous tree that stood higher than I could even conceive… if not for the vast canopy of leaves and branches over head I’d have not thought it ever stopped. And springing forth from this… this Yggdrasil’s roots rose seven more towers of bark. Each of these spires could easily contain several of the smaller trees within their scorched walls.</span> <br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I ran towards these monumental structures, and as I approached it became clear that climbing round their trunks were scaffolds to scattered branches, each of which hung lighted bodies. The tiny figures swung in empty wind, suspended by black nooses. I stared up, sick with emotion: hatred, shock, and desperation. The grey orbs climbed the trees as well, and I raced up the uneven steps to the tree’s first gallow.</span> <br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The children didn’t hang from a noose, rather a slim and tendril vine. It wrapped all about their frame holding them to the tree. I traversed the branches pulling the small bodies up one by one, looking upon their tiny faces. They looked so sad. Their eyes stood open, but just barely with a sleepy stare, they seemed not to understand where they were or even my presence. I pulled them all up and continued to another branch, and another and another and another, halting every child’s hanging. I was searching for the boy of course and preparing the rest, far more than I knew I could handle, to be released on my way back down. Twelve branches high I found him, we were then high above the ground, I pulled him up like all the others and then pulled gently on the vine strung around him.</span> <br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Behind me something shone. I turned in surprise and was blinded by a great white light; my mind filled with a sense of panic and turned back to the boy’s enwrapped body now violently struggling to undo his bindings. With some luck I managed to pull the black vine from him and lifted him up, we started our run down the scaffolds, me leading his obedient shell. At the bottom branch it appeared. The Slenderman. It charged toward me, radiating… something, it wasn’t anger but something so much rawer, the first physical sensation I’d felt since entering this place. I fucking ran, dragged that boy with me and ran as fast as possible. It’s aura though, it brought the full wrath of gravity on me. Like trying to run in knee deep water I simply couldn’t move fast enough… and then I felt a jerk and heard noise for the first time.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">A scream. The boy’s scream. It pierced the whole world.</span> <br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The beautiful pink sky cracked at his shriek, and the color momentarily vanished leaving me in utter darkness lessened only by the distant orbs. I looked back… and through the boy poked an ebon lance. It parted into two black arms and ripped him into two. There was no gore, no blood, no body even; he just let out a final primal cry and evaporated into a flurry of snow. I jerked away and ran towards the lightened path… but then… no. I turned around and dashed to the closest tree. I came in here to save the boy and as a result caused his end but I refused to leave empty handed. I’d decided in that second that I’d save someone… or I wouldn’t leave.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Dashing up the stairway of my second tree I caught sight of the light that had blinded me before. On each trunk had spawned a thousand shining eyes, each silver and sideways, all of various size. I climbed the trunk to the first branch, chased by the Slenderman all the way. I pulled up the first body I found, stamping on her wrapping, and grabbed her in both arms. I turned and he blocked my escape. He left me only one choice.</span> <br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I leapt. I jumped from that high up branch, hoping… praying that we’d survive. We shouldn’t have, it was much too high, at least sixty feet above the ground… and maybe that’s why we did. In dreams people rarely die, usually the impact or shock will awaken them. Even still my last act in that world was to wrap my body around hers for fear that I was wrong… to shield her sleeping body from the fall.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I woke up, eyes fuzzy but I felt the girl in my arms… and then, then somebody came over and dragged her away. I stood up and tried to tackle them but they moved out of my path, so I ran to the door bolting it and blocking their escape. They ran into Henry’s room and locked the door. I slammed into it trying to knock it down, screaming bloody fucking murder and threatening to kill whoever the fuck it was in there. And then I heard the window open. I heard the clanging of bodies out on the fire escape. I ran out to balcony armed with a vase… the closest thing of any weight I could find. By then though my eyes had cleared and I realized it was Henry escaping with the girl… that he was trying to save her from me…</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I dropped the vase letting it shatter on the hardwood and just fell to the floor. I won’t lie; I spent about ten minutes there on the floor weeping. Crying that my friend felt a need to save the girl from me, that she was out there now where he could get her again despite all my efforts, that despite everything I’d still failed, that the boy got ripped to shreds and now I couldn’t even properly protect the one I’d saved in his place.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">And then. Then realization struck. Henry was out there with that girl and it wasn’t going to stand for what I’d done. That Henry was in danger now as well. I tried to call him but got no response so I put up that other post of mine, the one pleading him to stay off the streets and to let me explain. I can only hope now that he listens.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/just-what-hell.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/were-all-crazy-on-inside.html">Next</a> </span>Kaliashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09596848778381570519noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-53664140251142881602011-03-30T00:38:00.002-06:002011-07-13T18:25:24.275-06:00Just What the Hell?<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">What the hell happened to coming home from a night out with friends to find a mess of groceries or your roommate hiding from myths? Today I found Kal passed out on the floor in the dark with the girl he’s been wracked with guilt over sitting next to him. What the fuck? Why the hell would Kal take her? Where has he been keeping her? I didn’t wake him to ask. I just grabbed my laptop from my room and went for the girl to get her out of there. And then Kal woke up.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I froze a moment before trying to get the girl out the front door. Kal came to his senses faster as he saw me and the girl. He immediately dashed toward the door, blocking me from there. I heard him growl and went back to my room, towing the girl along – there’s a fire escape outside of my window. I think Kal had forgotten about that because he didn’t move for just long enough for me to get the girl into the room. As soon as I shut the door though, I heard the pounding of his feet as he ran. I turned the lock, hands shaking and sweating so much that I could barely do it. As Kal began to rattle the doorknob, I shoved my laptop into a backpack along with my dagger and chargers for my computer and phone. After zipping it up, I hurried to the window and fumbled with the locks as Kal turned to ramming the door with what sounded like his body. The girl just stood there the whole time, looking at her feet.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I finally got the window open <span style="line-height: 16px;">and called to the girl to come to me. No response. I went to her and raised her eyes to mine; they looked straight ahead, dilated and seeing nothing. Taking her hand, I led the girl through the window.</span> I shut it as best I could from the outside, and then began the tricky task of getting a nonresponsive child down a fire escape. Somehow it worked, and I got her to my car – then sped all the way to Ronnie’s. <span style="line-height: 16px;">On the way, I noticed an odd mark on her hand: an X superimposed on top of an O. I've seen it before I think, but I have no idea what it is. I’ve convinced Ronnie not to call the cops. For now.</span> I want to talk to Kal myself first. He can’t have done this. But then what else could it be?</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">-Michenab</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/henry-please-things-arent-how-they-look.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/oneiros.html">Next</a> </span></div>Michenabhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148267755889409115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-72241336322083357792011-03-30T00:27:00.001-06:002011-07-13T18:24:54.213-06:00Henry. Please. Things aren't how they look.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Henry. Please listen, I've called you a dozen times and I just keep getting an out of service message. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
I need you to read this. I can guess what you're thinking right now but you're wrong. I really need to talk to you but more than that I need you to keep that girl safe. You have to go somewhere away from people, everybody. </span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">If anyone you don't know approaches you I need you to run. If you see a tall man... well then you definitely have to run. </span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Please Henry, get in contact with me, this is important. After we talk if you want to call the police or whoever else that's fine, but for the time being you need to keep that girl safe.<br />
<br />
Be careful, and please listen me. We've lived together for two years. Please give me the benefit of the doubt.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
Just this once. It's important.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">~Kal</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><a href="http://vox93.blogspot.com/2011/03/oneiric-plane-experience.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/just-what-hell.html">Next</a> </span>Kaliashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09596848778381570519noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-27371812145593792452011-03-29T05:31:00.008-06:002011-07-13T18:24:21.919-06:00The Astral Plane<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><a href="http://www.vox93.blogspot.com/">That's what Damien came up with.</a> The fucking Astral Plane. Yeah the place of Spirit Projection and Out of body Experiences. He said that it's how the Slenderman moves about, that he cuts through... or maybe exists in this normally inaccessible place. But he said that if I get in I may be able to rescue that kid, that if I should find it's lair or whatever, that I can pull the boy back into reality. He gave me various instructional papers, and some mp3 that's supposed to help unlock the required mental states or something. Really my focus was more on making it work than understanding how it works, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">I'm not going to pretend to understand the metaphysics or whatever of it.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">..</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><br />
Well, I got in… surprisingly. From the stuff Damien had me read I didn’t expect to. It said that people generally needed to regularly attempt astral projection to reliably do it. That it required concentration and relaxation and just various other states of mind I no longer possess…</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Sorry. This is story time, not time for me to lament the loss of my peace of mind.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I’ve probably been grieving for it for too long now anyhow.</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Leaving your body is a very very strange experience, you’ve got to… got to just let everything go. It’s sort of like letting yourself slip into sleep but… but remaining conscious throughout the process. There are these strange sensations that try to distract you, um the vibrations are probably clearest of them. The whole world starts to kind of shake slightly and it feels like this shaking is coming from inside you. Your limbs fall asleep and you get that pins and needles feeling, except there’s no pain from putting pressure on or moving them. And then you just pull out and everything’s dark. I mean completely devoid of light. If it weren’t for all the other strange things I’ve seen today I’d probably have fled back inside. But after that glamour dropped earlier… blackness or blindness or whatever it was… well it was welcome.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Instead of moving back within which felt so safe I forced myself away from my origin, and doing so cleared my vision somewhat. I still couldn’t see well or… or maybe the world just lacked detail, I don’t know. I didn’t really know what to expect; I don’t know what on my trip was normal. But everything was hazy… sort of like when you first wake up and your eyes refuse to focus but at the same time it wasn’t like that at all. I’m sorry I’m doing a downright shitty job describing this… it’s, it’s just really really not an easy place to describe. I’m trying to tell you how a world feels when you lack the facilities needed for feeling you know?</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Anyhow. I didn’t know what I was looking for. Slenderman I suppose, or maybe just a place that felt different from everything else. Some place ominous maybe or just more peculiar than anything else here. Thing is though that everything in this place felt different. There were areas where color flushed out and others supersaturated with it and really I couldn’t even figure out where I was. Geometry was weird in there, warped… I could float down Colfax for a block and end up 4 miles in the other direction. Damien had said this was normal, that space and time don’t work the same way there, that they don’t seemingly work consistently there and that movement is more will based than physically based.</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">So… I gave that a try. I figured I’d try to head back to the school where I first met it. That maybe its lair or whatever would be back behind the school… I mean just because that’s where Sara had seen him, and that’s where I’d met him and well I didn’t have any better a place to look. I zoomed, flying with focus and appeared high above Forest Ridge. There were shadows below, bounding and hopping in curious ways… they were people but they seemed displaced from my perception, bouncing and evaporating from my sight. And past it all, inside those trees the world turned all black. I floated over and was pulled down, gravity slowly reasserted itself regardless of my will. The trees twisted and bent, wrapping among each other and blocking my path. Briars sprang from nothing forming great walls and shapes that shouldn’t be possible. And the colors… I said that things went monochrome and that’s true, but beneath the black there was still color shining simultaneously to nothing at all. Deep greens and purple and burgundy, sky blue, random lines and highlights of these colors touched every unfathomable object, it was so unlike everything I’d seen.</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">And then... then I was yanked back. Out from the bizarre forest behind the school, back into my apartment. Henry had come back and was shaking me out of it and there was nothing I could do to stop him. I fell back into reality and looked up to him, my eyes still fogged from the Astral world. I fucking screamed at him. I pushed him off and tried to go back into it but for whatever reason he wouldn't relent; maybe he's just grown tired of my shit or maybe he's still mad about the other night. I don't know... but he right pissed me off, he fucked things up, he pulled me out when I'd found... something. Whatever. I'm gonna see if Damien is still up. I need to find out what the fuck was up with that forest.</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">~Kal.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/its-time-for-change_28.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://vox93.blogspot.com/2011/03/oneiros.html">Next</a> </span>Kaliashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09596848778381570519noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-34799478931859640072011-03-28T23:49:00.004-06:002011-07-13T18:23:47.733-06:00It's time for a change.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I’ve got <a href="http://www.vox93.blogspot.com/">Damien working on something for me</a>, a way to get that boy back. It involves shit that I don’t understand or even explicitly believe in, but… but I cannot let things end this way.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I failed him. With every fucking blink of my eyes I see him… I see his desperation and fear and submission. And I know that if I… if I hadn’t submitted myself I could have done something, anything. I’m haunted by thought that that suited fuck took him… that he took him just to show off to me… for no reason other than my obedience to his fucking call, that that child might still be sleeping safely in his bed if it weren’t for my existance.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I’m not one foreign to failure; in fact it’s been a constant companion to me. I’m a shitty student, I’m crap in social situations, I put things off until their too late and I’ve always given up when things get tough… but this… I have <i>never</i> fucked up like this. There’s no fucking forgiving it. None.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I have Damien finding me information on entering the Astral Plane, when he read about the kid, and all that other shit, some light bulb popped on in his head and he made this connection. He’s finding me sources and instructions and all this other bulls… all these other things that I’m not familiar with. And I’m going to fix this. I am going to rescue that kid. <i>Nothing</i> else is fucking acceptable.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/it-happened-right-in-front-of-me.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/astral-plane.html">Next</a> </span>Kaliashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09596848778381570519noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-2722978360540113282011-03-28T23:09:00.001-06:002011-07-13T18:23:06.339-06:00It happened right in front of me<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"> My memories of the day are all but gone.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">After that thing with <span style="line-height: 16px;">the disturbing dream this morning</span> I went and dug through my dresser for uh… other clothes. I took another shower just because they’re soothing and then watched old sitcoms until I went to the school.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">Well… well I assume I went to the school. I don’t really remember much of the day, I’m pretty sure I got there though. It feels like I did… <span style="line-height: 16px;">I'm not totally certain </span>though, that may just be bits of another dream. I do remember some things though. I…I remember waiting for a bus. I was sitting on one of those bus stop benches and it was… it was really foggy. Like really foggy, I remember being concerned that the bus wouldn’t stop because the fog was too dense and the driver wouldn’t see me. But then from the fog he came, it sorta parted for him and he came up to me…something he’s never done before. For whatever reason he never approaches me on the street, just watches from afar. But that’s not important right now. He came up to and this… this wave of comfort washed over me. It was like… like this was where I supposed to be. Strangest feeling I’ve ever felt.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">He pointed. Stretched his long arm out and pointed into the haze across the street. And I looked up over there and then back to him in curiosity, but when I looked back he was gone. <span style="line-height: 16px;">So I just continued to sit there for what felt like a couple hours. The bus never came though, and so eventually I stood up and walked over and found a backstreet among the fog he’d pointed to.</span> And with each step down the alley that belonging feeling grew stronger until I could see a long silhouette. Approaching he pointed again down another alley and vanished when I looked away. In a daze I followed his instructions again and again and again until eventually he didn’t even need to point for me to know where he wanted me. He’d just vanish and… and I’d start walking in the direction of that feeling.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">It must have continued for just hours because when we finally stopped it was dark out… like really very dark… it must have been at least 8PM then. <span style="line-height: 16px;">When we did stop though he vanished once more and this time I felt no pull in any direction, so I stood there and</span>… and searched blindly through his miasma that seemed to envelope the whole of the city. I couldn’t find anything in that final alley so I did the next seemingly reasonable thing; I started looking in ground level windows. And… and I found him, he was inside this building, in a dimly lit room… just sort of hovering, and for a moment I just couldn’t even begin to conceive what he was doing.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I stared in that window completely puzzled until I realized just what sort of room he was in. <span style="line-height: 16px;">The walls were painted light blue and inside I could see posters of various sports stars, though in my daze I failed to see any importance in their names not that I'm a fan anyhow</span>. There was a toy chest and a night light which was the source of the room’s dim light. It was a child’s bedroom. Craning my neck it became clear that the object he was hovering over was a low set bed, and in it was a little boy. The nightlight flickered and then, yet again, he had disappeared. And he had taken the child with him. But I could still his presence, and that intoxicatingly strange feeling. I turned and saw the two of them standing before me. <span style="line-height: 16px;">The little boy was dressed in blue plaid pajamas and dug into Slenderman’s body, still sleeping in his grasp</span>. <span style="line-height: 16px;">Slenderman wrapped that child in his long arms in a way that I can only describe as lovingly.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">And then he unwrapped one arm from the little boy and extended it out to me. His hand was as black as the rest of him… it extended from his arm without hem or seem, just an outcropping of his long sleeves. <span style="line-height: 16px;">I felt my arm rise instinctively and reach out for him, but before our hands touched the illusion fell. I looked up from his twisted claws and back to the little boy. The monster's hold over him was no longer that of protection but something much more sinister, his other arm down by his side, the child was wrapped in black tendrils. They covered a great majority of his tiny body, holding closed his mouth and pulling him tight against the larger phantom which he stood infront of. That poor boys eyes blinked open for just the tiniest moment, they held terror that even through all this I had never known, a quiet hopeless pleading and the knowledge it would never be answered. I'd seen this look before... it was the same one that Sara had stared upon me with in those early nightmares, and the feeling from them was so much rawer in life. I yanked my arm back. Back from Slenderman and his grasp, back from the broken child and... and I reeled. I inched away and moved backwards… or maybe he did it starts to get fuzzy again here. The… the whole world started to lose color, the Slenderfog engulfed me again and broke my vision of them both. Something in me welled, I... I felt anger, just terrible anger... it's... it's not an emotion I'm all that familiar with, and I... I just charged into that fog completely blind. But</span> then all the feelings, all the fog, they vanished… and the color slowly washed back into existence. <span style="line-height: 16px;">I stood there stunned and I couldn’t help but think that… that I had just witnessed something that human beings weren’t ever supposed to. I had to sit for a moment and catch my breath, not sure if any of what I just saw, any of what I just experienced was even real.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">It was. I got up from the stained alley after a moment or two and made back toward the window. The boy was still missing and this realization led me to a state of panic. I immediately thought, though I don’t know why, that I’d be blamed and so I fled. I... I ran about eighteen blocks before the feeling subsided, and it was at that point that I truly realized what just happened. I had been there. I experienced that monster steal a child from its very home, right from under the noses of the kid’s poor parents. <span style="line-height: 16px;">And I let it fucking… fucking infect my mind… I had felt envy for that child in the monster’s embrace. And then, then when I should have done something to inform the parents I fled.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I turned back and tried to find the building I’d followed him to. In my head the whole way I struggled with the words I’d say to the parents when I got there, but in the end it didn’t matter. I couldn’t find the place… I’d only run so far, and I’m sure I'd ran a straight line, but attempting to retrace my steps left me completely lost. Nothing was familiar at all; it was almost as if I’d been in an entirely different city for the kidnapping. But I kept searching, I searched for at least two hours but in all that time I found nothing at all to lead me back to the boy’s dimly lit room. I eventually gave up and caught a bus… turns out that somehow in all my efforts to get back I ended up no more than four blocks from my own apartment.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">~Kal</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/ive-had-another-dream-not-one-like-any.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/its-time-for-change_28.html">Next</a> </span></div>Kaliashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09596848778381570519noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-978317838934356900.post-79875098703654512882011-03-28T05:18:00.001-06:002011-07-13T18:22:15.276-06:00<div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I’ve had another dream, not one like any of the others… this one, while jarring couldn’t be called a nightmare, neither did it have the same serene feeling I’ve grown so accustomed to in these most recent days. It was so entirely different from anything else I’ve experienced since all this started, and it left my bed soaked with sweat.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">While it felt so incredibly real at the time, the apartment in my dream was just a skeleton of itself; I can recall its images strongly… much more so then I regularly am able. The hallway to the bathroom was a sheer blackness broken only by the thin white beams that gave it shape… it existed as contrast and wove twisted and shoddy past the horizon of my vision. I followed that hall fully deceived, believing that I was awake and as such went about my way preparing for my first journey back to school after the break. I walked this pathway on to the bathroom and climbed into the shower, itself a mass of shining tangled pipes standing free against the emptiness of my subconscious world. When finished I pulled back the curtain and walked clothed out from the room where I found the geography had changed. Out the missing doorway and across the hall stood another bathroom, and striding from it another man, a mirror of myself. </span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">The two of us walked curiously toward each other until it became apparent who we each were… the answer to that very simply being me. We wore the same set of clothes and over them my favorite coat, had the same unruly hair, stood of equal height and stance, but there were differences. Most prominently the mask.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">On his face a small purple mask sat, the kind people wear for Mardi Gras or other festive occasions. Just a little cheap plastic mask, other things too. He bore a slight beard opposed to my clean shaven face, and his clothing, though matching mine, was caked with dried mud and all manner of stains… and most finally he bore a smile I have never worn. This smile was the kind one get’s from another’s suffering, sharp and harsh and mad. He straightened, no longer playing my shadow and shot me that terrible smile of broken lips and yellowed teeth.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I stepped backwards frightened by this reflection, but it moved my way too, getting inches from my face and piercing through me with my own eyes colored cruel. And then he laughed, what a terrible laugh… it echoed all across that false existence. It sounded of such devilish glee, like he was so delighted to experience me cowering before him… like there was nothing in the world that I could ever do. And then… then with me reeling from his laughter, from my own laughter bouncing through the void, he turned his face downwards and pulled from it the tiny purple mask. When our faces meet again his was blank. Gone were my piercing eyes and crooked smile, gone was the unshaved hair from my chin. All that remained was an all too familiar lack of face sitting on my shoulders and still echoing that cruel laugh deep into my soul.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I woke up screaming and damp from the sweat that soaked my bed. I climbed into the shower and rinsed it off, went back to my room to get dressed and deal with my sheets. On the clothes I’d laid out for today was a mask. My mask. I’d gotten it over a year ago when my dad had taken me skiing at the Paralympics which his company helped sponsor. The mask, just as is was in the dream, was small and purple… a cheap Mardi Gras mask bought for $20 as a fundraiser that nearly won me a season’s pass to Vail.</span></div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;">I’d thrown it in a closet and forgotten about it long ago. Beneath it lay the same clothes I’d worn in the dream… </span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/i-cant-believe-this_27.html">Previous</a>/<a href="http://michenab-fatheroflight.blogspot.com/2011/03/it-happened-right-in-front-of-me.html">Next</a> </span></div>Kaliashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09596848778381570519noreply@blogger.com0