Chapter Forty-Four: Bickering Siblings
"Weather Witch," Seth spat the words like bile as he discards his top layer of clothes on the ground like they were filled with snakes and spiders that were about to jump out at him. Leaving him sitting there shivering in only a pair of pants and a sleeveless shirt. "A fucking Queen has more than usual intelligence and has conveniently taken over a host who can play with the weather and detected us."
"No shit, Sherlock," Oz muttered.
"Hey, it's partly your fault."
"How was I supposed to know that the Queen had taken a Tower without going over there to check?" His tone changes. "Get something else on, you idiot."
"I'm getting there."
"No you ain't. You're sitting there and going to sleep. Get a blanket or something before we have more issues."
"Yeah, yeah..." but he didn't show any sign of moving. Instead Fenir goes to a storage locker above Seth's seat and chucks down two thick blankets at him. Seth manages to get them over himself, his eyes beginning to shut.
"Don't you dare go to sleep just yet." Oz growls at him. "I'm cranking up the heat. On your feet, get your blood moving again. X, how we doing?"
"It...cannot focus this high up. Its reach isn't strong in the air. But it learnt momentum could help but it was not enough." He let go of my ears, standing as his fingers brush through my hair, leaving a tingling feeling through my scalp. "It almost saw Kae..."
And I'm guessing that would be bad.
"And he could probably take it down like the others." Fenir voiced.
Both Seth and X shakes their heads but X responded first. "This is an old Queen. It is smart and has had time to establish many colonies...the corruption may overwhelm Kae. Too many voices...too many will drown."
"Five, mate. That's just being mean and unnecessary," Seth shivers. "There was nothing in Elysia to start with. Why risk it now?"
Fenir frowns, discarding the conversation entirely.
Nice to know my opinion matters.
'Darkness would consume Dreamer quickly,' Lady interjects. 'Dreamer saw only a little of what was in the deep.' The middle of the blizzard. Just thinking about it made me feel the cold choking me again. 'Dreamer needs to remain Dreamer for a little longer. Dreamer not ready...'
Thanks Mother. I wasn't going to say I was going to stay put and face it head on.
She whips me with her tail, 'Cheeky.'
"Do you have the SD?" Seth voices out at Oz. That reminded me that the note was still in my hand and I had crumpled it again. Looking down at it, I try to smooth out the paper as best I could as the words try to consume me, my eyes sting as I try to stop myself from falling in.
"Right here," he pats a chest pocket. "The minute we get back to something a bit more powerful, I'll whip it through the systems."
Seth nods, leaning back. "My heart rate is back in the normal range now...I'm going to sleep for a while."
"Oi, oi. Drink something hot first dumb-fuck."
"It's fine doofus, I'm not in critical hypothermia," Seth mutters sleepily.
"You missed that by the skin of your teeth on that one."
"How was I supposed to know..." he didn't finish his sentence as I could hear his breathing become regulated.
"Is he going to be ok?" I ask, tearing myself away from the page.
X sits down on a chair in front of me "...He should be. His heart rate is normal and metabolic demand on his body is...decreasing. His blood flow isn't as constricted.... nothing too bad." He then saw my confusion. "...He is a bit weaker to temperature than the average person."
"And the fool ignores it," Oz mutters.
I look back over at Seth's sleeping form. He didn't have to come on this goose chase...no one did. "Thank you for taking me here..."
"No need for it, mate. I've been where you are." Oz grins back at me.
I glance at Seth, sort of understanding. Leaning back, I hold the crumbled paper close to me and shut my eyes. It felt like I was closing my eyelids over sandpaper. And I breathe in deeply.
Finally. I'm finally making progress.
But will it be enough? Or am I too late?
My eyes open to those unanswered questions and I leave them like that.
I spent most of the journey staring out the window at the sky, watching the stars disappear and dawn breaking on the horizon.
Bolin's dusky orb slowly ate up the pale grey and blue skyline and I feel the harsh air looming within the snow globe of a city from here. My body tenses as we come to hover over it.
Fenir presses a button. "This is Hollow Kite returning from a mission. Permission to enter?"
That same automatic voice comes over the airwave, "Permission granted. Welcome back."
I dig my nails into my palms as we lower down, the air suffocating me once again.
It wasn't as painful as what that blizzard was doing back in Switzerland but it was damn near close. I stare at the Tower as we pass it. What is that thing, I mean really?
The Kite hovers down over my familiar prison, touching down quietly before Oz leaps from his seat to check on Seth. As he tends to him, Fenir gives me a 'move it' look with his eyes and a jut of his chin before walking off himself.
Ok, I get it, you wanna be rid of me as soon as possible....no need to be blatantly obvious about it. I follow after him, Lady hot on my heels. As I get off the airship, I feel queasy with the hot sticky air and wanted nothing more than to disappear into whatever dark hole I could find but... I stop and turn back and wonder when Oz would get the chance to look through that SD card. I was still holding tightly onto the piece of paper...there was nothing I could do right now. Seth came first. Maybe I could disappear for a while, I still don't want to run into anyone if I could help it. I almost turn back to ask X if it was still ok for me to be in that unground lair of his when I go through the door but I freeze mid-stride as I felt something intensifying in the air, crackling like a bare wire snapping out electricity.
I look through the empty hallway, my feet carrying me forward. I could sense that Siem wasn't on this floor. In fact no one was here. I look back to X who was also on high alert and walks passed me.
"What's going on?" Fenir asks after us and I realise that I had over taken him.
"I...don't..." I frown.
Lady steps along with me, 'Corruption.'
I can't feel it.
"...need to go down," I state, almost in a trance while pressing the button for the elevator. It immediately opens and I hop on, pressing for a medic floor. I glare at the contraption...can't waste time and almost by their own will, the doors shut immediately in front of me, earning the look of shock from both X and Fenir as the doors crash into each other, shutting them off on the other side. I stare at the closed doors, my eyes never leaving the cold steel. I realise that Lady had gotten onto the elevator with me and could feel her tensing and not because of the elevator...but I somehow managed to mentally shut off from her. I could sense...irritation. I had left Fenir up on the top floor. X as well. He went looking for the stairwell. ...He's strangely agitated.
But it all felt too distant from me.
The doors open and I'm hit with a wall of...cold...no heat. No. The air was cold, the air conditioning kept it at the low temperature. The usual clinical smell twisted with something frighteningly dark, it felt like I was gagging on it in the back of my throat. It was swirling and putrid...trying to consume and smother. Destroy and bleed. I hadn't felt this since...Zoe. Ah for fuck's sake...
I could hear someone groaning in pain before seeing a crowd nestled together in front of a room just some distance away. Hana's voice was loud, screaming out orders to find things. Machines were beeping widely in all directions. It was dizzying but I ignored it.
I see Mist look over in my direction and immediately ran towards me. She looked tired and her eyes raw red, were overwhelmed with tears. She ran into me, no fear as she hugs me tight, stopping from taking a step further but I could see it in everyone's eyes. Beyond their anger and downright rejection and hatred of existence. Beyond that...they were scared.
I blink and look at the window. I see Rain. His body on that stupid contraption, wreathing as he screams out in pain. Froth spills from his mouth as Hanna struggles to put a ventilator mask over his face.
"He was bitten!" Mist screams into my chest between sobs. "He-he didn't see it. Rain stopped it before it could attack anyone else...but now -I can't lose him."
I could see from here where he was bitten...or rather I can sense it.
Blood had pooled onto the station...and I could pinpoint it to his back. He was taken from behind. By surprised, I imagine. Idiot. I gently push on Mist's shoulders with my hands and look down at her. My mouth formed words I didn't even know I was saying them. "It's going to be ok."
I leave her there and enter the room, the crowd parts away from the door pretty easily. I have expected I had to push and shove but...apparently not. For once.
I walk passed Siem who was busily in an argument with Hanna. Some of her white-clothed helpers were beginning to shout at me, telling me to get out. But it was all background noise. They were too afraid to come near me. Everyone was.
I see Rain lying there. His eyes rolled back as his body spasms, fighting desperately against the Hexer infesting his body. He was losing. Fast. He didn't have any more time.
Hanna looked like she had just noticed me, I could see her lips forming words but it was too far away from me.
Lady was also desperately ramming into my head but it felt like she was stuck in a curtain, too difficult for her to find the opening. Her cries were too far away.
My sight instead focuses back on Rain.
Ah, fuck.
I'm really gonna have to do this, aren't I?
Can't catch a break, can I? If it's not one thing, it's something else.
I raise my hand over Rain and could feel the pull into the void.
The last thing I can feel is X. So desperate...so horrified as he knew he was too late to stop me.
"Stop!"
Sorry, X.