The Empty World | The Empty World Sequence [complete | rewriting]

Chapters 8.5 - 9.5 (was old chapter 7 of draft 2.5)

Surrounding these were a close group of friends then all reaching their mid and late twenties, who favored black clothing and liked protesting by forcing their way into restaurants all made up with strangely colored skin and hair. Someone usually brought Joy along. If Morpheus didn't go fetch her for his insubstantial mother, then John would bring her, or even Pam.

Seraph would sit and try to make her eat food, dip whole wheat bread in pig's blood just so she could make Joy eat something. This was the same sad girl Morpheus had once met in Washington Square Park.

No one was sure when they first suspected Joy was pregnant, but it was John who carried her bodily, and Helen who made the appointment and went into the doctor's office with her. The doctor was recommended by Gail, who was another of the Abdals, a doctor, and becoming an expert on Halfangel physiology. No one suggested an abortion, but they all thought the same thing: she'll never have the baby, one of them will die.

She carried it for several months, nursed by Steven, she even ate food. She would lay on the couch with Opium and Morpheus in the house and babble. River twitched less while Joy was pregnant, she was less desperate. "If he's a boy I'll name him Daniel," she said.

And then Morpheus was certain the baby would never be born. "I'm sure he'll be a boy," he said. And the River started twitching again.

The lizard had an uncanny ability to discover illicit substances. River was always throwing these out of drawers or off shelves, sometimes even into kitchen sinks, after which he would turn on the water and then run the disposal. River was a talented lizard.

Joy miscarried. Steven heard her screaming and found her in her bathroom crying. For a long time, Joy said nothing, but would every so often just start screaming.

After that, the only people who saw Joy were Steven and Opium. Both had to let themselves into her house to see her.

And after a while, Opium stopped going. Morpheus knew what would happen. He knew that when Steven summoned Opium, he and mother would be there. She was already failing, but on that day when the world became concerned with planes and terrorists, Joy would die.

Morpheus didn't worry about Joy, he worried about Mother, she wasn't looking well. "My father has said to me that when we leave here we will go to New Orleans."

"But something is wrong?" Morpheus asked his mother. She seemed confused, uncertain and hesitant to speak.

"I am to know when to go...but I just can't tell if the time is right."

"What do you want to do?" Morpheus asked, "You want to stay around?"

"The Humans aren't really learning much more in general, they have their other political concerns now, but what if, the laws they pass to aid that cause have side-effects?"

"Do you want me to tell you?" Morpheus asked. He could look across time and see the potential futures. He did not know which would become cemented as real and which pass into a Might Have Been, but he saw them, and the probability for individual events among them.

"I won't really grasp it like you can. Still, it worries me, this group led by Jonathan Zion. Already they capture and hold many like us. Their doctors perform...experiments."

"Can we free them? I mean if we went, could we get the others out of wherever they are?"

Mother shook her head sadly. "I can't. The Abdals have tried, in the beginning they made a couple of rescues, but the attacks only taught the Redjacks. They've recruited more Humans that have the talent, witches. But, Morpheus, I think you should be answering that question for yourself."