Star-Crossed

Chapter 19

     At first, a familiar blackness is all that I can sense, but soon, as if from nothing, a scene begins to take place. An empty field of tall gray-green grass, sways and rustles in the grass. The  sky is a hazy blue, but black clouds are beginning to gather, swirling in the whipping wind.

     I stand, from my crouched position, and step warily out from my place. Thunder crashes, and without knowing why, I begin to run. Whatever I'm running from, I know it means death to face it.

     As I run deeper into the grass, the sharp blades begin to slice thin scarlet lines on my skin, and I whirl around. My body tells me to run, but I make my self calm, and face the fear.

     I scream, and freeze. Behind me part of the field is gone. Crumbled earth and broken grass stems litter the air, suspended by some unknown force. The clouds are closer, and a horrific red mist rises from where the grass once waved.

     As I dumbly watch, the mist darkens, and takes a shape. It becomes a flock of ravens, glimmering silver talons extending from their feet. As they shriek as one, i regain motion and run.

     On and on I run, but bird after bird dives for me,tearing chunks of skin from my back and shoulders. The flock circles me, and I fall to the ground, giving in to the feathered harbingers of my demise. As I close my eyes, accepting my fate, nothing happens.

     I open my eyes, to discover the ravens have landed. Still in a circle around me, they stare, with rubies for eyes, and the largest hops over to me.

     He croaks and preens, and I cringe as he nears. Again he croaks, but this time he speaks as well. "Give in. Submit."

     I raise my head from the ground. "What? I don't understand!"

     Quoth the raven, "Give in. Submit." And the flock vanishes, but from the mist, my friends emerge. All of them, smiling, though with grief hardened faces.

     I run to them, and move to embrace my twin, but suddenly Ava grabs my hair and throws me down. "Who are you to touch us?" She puls her arm back and strikes my face, sending me sideways. "You think you're something?"

     I stammer "Guys, whats going on? Why?" I barely get anything out before they all leap at me, eyes now shining golden and razor teeth bared. As my friends tear at me, I thrash and kick, sending the twins flying and grounding Orion. Sage hasn't moved.

     I look up at him during a lull in the fight, and his face is stoic. "This has to happen Cassi. It always has." His voice trails off, and his face goes slack.

     But it wasn't going slack. His flesh is liquefying, melting off the bone. It drips and in rivlets runs down his body. then the blood flows next, and coats his body. I scream, and all the other dissapate. Sage whimpers, and around his molten lips he whispers.

     "Cassi, it hurts. Make it stop! Make it stop...." It trails off as he writhes,all flesh in gelatinous pools that quiver as he twitches and stills. His skin resolifies,but in uneven clumps, and his mouth has stretched over, a pale expanse of skin.

     "No! Sage, come back...Come Back!!!" I fall to my knees, blood stil streaming down my legs, and pound on his chest. "You can't die like this!" The landscape distorts, and Sage vanishes. I again welcome the blackness, however brief it is.

     A pale cream colored room is the next abode i find, and I'm facing the corner. Whn I hear a faint whimper, i turn, and I see Ivan. His back is to me, so I call to him gently. "Ivan? Are you.."

     I never finish my sentence, for he turns and i freeze, my face contorted in horror. He hold his stomach, his navel ripped with a bloody gash and his intestines held in his hands. Blood dyes his white shirt, and stains his hands crimson. He mouths my name, and as if in slow motion, he collapses.

     I run over, and move his hands. I place my own there, sickened by the slick, fleshy feel of his innards, but desperate to help him. "You're gonna be ok, You're gonna be ok." I chant this, more for my own good then his.

     His beautiful, dark and gentle eyes are glazed with shock and pain and look up at me as he uses his blood soaked hand to brush back my hair. "Cassi, you"ll be fine. I know..." His eyes darken even more, and fade.

He reaches up, and strokes my lip with his bloody finger. "Love you Cassi. Remember."

He coughs, and blood sprays from his mouth. His hand falls back to the flood with a dull thud, and I sceam. "Noo! Ivan, come back. Come back...I love you..."

I brush his scarf off his chest, and place a hand over his heart. I lay beside him, and feel his still warm blood soak my skin. My hand on his chest is warm, and I cry into his shoulder.

I look up, and I see a faint light glimmer from under my palm. Fascinated, i watch as a small ball forms, and floats from my palm to Ivans stomach.

It grows, and covers his wound. A blinding flash, and then it dissapates. The wound was gone, and Ivan's eyes snap open as he leans forward and heaves breath again. He gasps,"How..."

As soon as that is said, he fades. The room shatters, and I come screaming to consiousness, a feeling I never did get used to. Jan is in front of me shining a flashlight in my eyes. The skin on the back of my neck is tight, i know its is due to the stitches lacing my skin together.

I whisper,"What is this?" right before I collapse to the floor, not in halucination, but to unconsiousness, a welcome laspe of thought after all that occured.