eleven
“Do you want to do this?” Siobhan’s voice greeted Prairie as she joined the group outside.
“Do I want to?” Prairie’s smile was sad. “No. Do I have to?” She stared off into nothing for a moment then sniffed. “Yes.”
“What can we do to help?” Ivan asked, pushing away from the wall of the house where he’d been leaning with his arms crossed.
“I don’t know,” Prairie responded, her gaze shifting to the ground. “I’ve never actually tried anything like this with anyone else. Maybe, I don’t know,” she blinked fast, like tears were impending, “hold my hand? Maybe?”
Ivan made a ‘piff’ noise and stepped over to put his hand on her shoulder. At his touch her shoulders dropped, like she’d been holding them up by force of will. Which, she may have been.
“Was it really bad?” Siobhan asked beneath her breath to Dan.
Dan didn’t respond immediately. Then he swallowed hard and nodded. “It was…” he trailed off and shook his head.
“Okay.” There was a weight of commitment in the single word. Siobhan took a deep breath through her nose then gave Prairie a soft smile. “Prairie, you don’t have to do this.”
“But I do.” Conviction rang in Prairie’s tone as she fingered the bones in her necklace. “I really do.”
Ivan squeezed her shoulder. “Do you need to sit?”
“Probably that’s best.”
“Where?”
“Against the foundation. Maybe in the back. It feels like that’s where the…” she trailed off, her lips tightening, “It feels like that’s the right place.”
“Do you need to eat something first to get up your energy?”
“I…” Prairie shook her head and pressed her hand to her stomach. “Nothing is going to sit there right now. Plus, I topped up by the stream.” She shrugged. “It should be okay.”
“Fine,” Gwen squared her shoulders. “But I’m feeding you a huge chocolate cake later. An entire cake. With sprinkles.”
“Pink sprinkles?”
“Uh, duh. Is there another color?”
Prairie gave a tentative smile then turned to walk behind the house. As she went to sit down Dan whipped off his jacket and put it right next to the base of the house. Ben took her hand and helped her lower herself to sit on the jacket then stepped back.
As if by silent agreement they fell in a loose circle with Prairie at the apex and Dan to one side and Ivan to the other, each facing out in case anything came up at them. Kim stayed facing in, her gaze assessing Prairie’s features for any stress but there was none there. Instead Prairie’s face softened and her eye lids drifted to half mast as she clenched the bones of her necklace in her fist.
And then she started screaming. And screaming. And screaming. Screams to wake the dead. To raise the hairs on your neck. To set off your fight or flight with a heavy lean towards flight. Kim had to clench to not pee herself. It was like the end of everything reverberated in that scream. Prairie’s voice, grew hoarse, and still she screamed. On and on and…
That’s when the blood started flowing. It was ghostly, there and not there, and it was pouring from tiny cuts all over. Like plasma, clear but tinged with the slightest pink. It seeped from Prairie’s clothes, forming ghost stains across her torso. And then it sprayed from her eyes.
She raised her hands and cuts formed around her wrists. Then the skin of her hands looked to be ripped off and blood welled on dermis, pouring down her arms. She clawed at the air, her screams coming out choked. The reason became clear as thick blood burbled out of her mouth and poured down her throat. She choked and choked and screamed and choked and cried from eyes that were thick with translucent blood.
“No!” Gwen dived from her place beside Kim and dove on Prairie, hugging her close. And then Gwen started screaming. Eyes wide, unseeing, she screamed. Blood trickled from her nostril, trailing down her face to pool at the corner of her open mouth.
“Fuck!” Ivan yelled and turned to stare down at the two women with hands clenched at his side. Nothing he could do. Nothing he could do. The protective instinct rose in him, battering at the inside of his skin, vibrating his bones. Kim started crying. Just silent tears. Pressed her palms to her bent head . Tears fell to the ground.
Siobhan darted in and tried to yank Gwen’s arms from around Prairie. It was like Gwen had a death grip. There was no prying her lose.
And then just as suddenly as it started the screaming stopped. Gwen released Prairie, falling back with her head at an odd angle, and landed heavily on the ground with a thump that reverberated through the earth. Siobhan lifted her hand, pausing with it frozen pulled back ready to slap. It was instinctive, a response to the feeling of the Unnatural hanging in the air. She knew it was wrong. That’s what stayed her hand, relaxed her arm, had her gently brushing Gwen’s hair back from her sweaty forehead.
Prairie collapsed in a heap. The translucent plasma-like blood that had flooded her body disappeared, drawn back into the Magick it had erupted from.
Ivan stooped and picked up Prairie’s tiny frame in his arms, his rocking her as instinctive-driven as Siobhan’s slap had been. A broken doll would have had more life than she seemed to. Her head lolled back over his arm and her hands hung limp on the wrists draped over Ivan’s forearms.
Kim went over to Siobhan and Gwen and laid her hand on Gwen’s neck. Reading something there that seemed to satisfy her, she nodded and rose to approach Ivan and Prairie.
“Ivan,” Kim said, stepping up to him. When he didn’t respond, instead focused on Prairie’s slack features, she snapped, “Ivan!”
He looked up.
“She’s cold. She’s so cold.”
“Yeah, she got cold last night. Not,” Kim laid a gentle hand on Prairie’s neck near her pulse point, “not as bad as this but she got cold after doing her Magick. I think it either has something to do with the way her energy is consumed by it or maybe it has some kind of connection to the kind of Magick she wields. Gwen and I wrapped her in blankets and forced her to drink hot tea and it seemed to help.”
“We don’t have any blankets.”
“I have my jacket,” Ben offered, stripping his off.
“Mine too.” Dan said, doing the same.
Kim’s nod was slow and her expression sad. “I don’t think this is a jackets or blanket thing. I started wondering about this last night. I’d like to…” she bit her lip. “I’d like to try something. It’s… okay… its kind of scary and I’m kind of afraid to do it and if it looks like its going wrong you may have to knock me out.”
Her gaze shifted to Ivan. “I’m sure you’ve probably wanted to pop me at least once.”
Siobhan looked up from where she was now cradling Gwen’s unconscious form, her finger pressed to the pulse point on her wrist. There was understanding in her eyes. “You could kill her.”
“I could.”
“You could kill yourself.”
“Yep.”
“What?” Ivan snapped, grinding his teeth.
“I’m going to channel my fire, my Magick, into her. I think her Magick will eat mine.”
“Why yours? Why not one of us?” It was clear Ivan was prepared to offer.
“Fire isn’t my only Magick. I can do all the elements. I usually don’t because fire is the easiest for me. But I can. And fire is hot to balance out this coldness. So, I think it will eat my fire and the other elements will keep me from getting completely consumed. You guys all only have one, really, so… Yeah. It’s me.”
“Fuck!” Ben snapped and turned away to stare into the yard.
Kim stepped up to Ivan. “Let me.”
“You can’t hold her.”
“Then I’ll sit down and you can put her in my lap.”
Ben turned back around sharply. “You are determined to do this?’
Kim nodded. “Yeah.”
“You are an idiot.”
“Given.” She sunk to the ground and motioned to Dan with grabby hands. “Gimme.”
Ivan’s motions were slow with reluctance as he gently placed Prairie in Kim’s lap.
Kim joined her hands, flexed her fingers back, then placed her open palms to each side of Prairie’s upper chest just below the breast bone. Her “for science,” had a note of sorrow to it.
A nimbus of heat radiated off her, like the illusion of an oasis in the desert.
“Oh,” she said so quietly it almost couldn’t be heard, and then gold and orange and red pulsed under the skin on the back of her hands. Her eyes widened and she flexed her shoulders, shoving her hands hard against Prairie’s chest like they were paddles on a crash cart.
Prairie’s eyes jerked open. Her mouth parted on a silent scream as she drew in a hard, deep breath. And her back spasmed, thrusting her chest forward. Just as quickly her ribs contracted back and she sat back against Kim with a look of awe on her face.
“Shit. Best O ever.” The statement was so damned unexpected coming from the tiny woman that for a moment the entire group was silent, various looks of surprise pulling their faces into comical shapes.
Ben boggled then snickered. Kim looked around, her expression screaming “I swear I didn’t!”. And Prairie turned and nuzzled her head into Kim’s shoulder while her entire frame relaxed.
Ivan scrubbed his hands over his head. Once. Twice. “Damn, girl. Never do that to us again!”
“Uh huh,” Prairie nodded sleepily.
Ivan stooped down and gestured to Kim. “Can I?”
Kim nodded assent and Ivan scooped Prairie up.
“You don’ need to carry me,” she slurred.
“I do,” was Ivan’s adamant reply.
“M’kay,” she nuzzled her head against his chest and closed her eyes.
Gwen picked that moment to come awake. Or maybe providence did, figuring they needed a good distraction. Which she provided, coming to making choking noises and spitting like she’d swallowed a bug.
“Ugh! Blech!”
Kim went over and crouched to put herself at Gwen’s eye-level. “I know we talked about trying that but next time give a girl some warning. You scared the shit out of me. Like I actually pooped a little. I need to change my pants.”
Gwen blinked slowly and met Kim’s eyes. “Me too.”
Kim quirked a smile. “Poop twins.”
“Poop twins,” Gwen returned in a tired tone.
Kim rose to her feet and offered Gwen her arm. Gwen grabbed it and let Kim yank her up. When Gwen swayed on her feet, Kim locked their wrists.
“Both of you are menaces.” There wasn’t much heat in Siobhan’s statement but there was a wealth of spent fear as she rose to stand with them.
“Guilty.” Gwen’s smile dripped with exhaustion but at least she tried.
Siobhan slid a glance to Kim who was caught in the act of locking her knees to keep herself upright. “You need a cookie?”
Kim stretched on a huge yawn. “I need a full turkey dinner with all the sides. And some time in a hot pool. And maybe to just hook my brain up to a gennie.”
The group headed back, making quiet small talk because anything more seemed like it would require energy many of them didn’t have to spare. Dan and Ivan fell to the back of the group.
“Its good we have some strong females in our group.”
“I swear they have bigger balls than we do sometimes.”
“Balls are overrated,” Prairie said in a sleepy voice against Ivan’s chest.
Enter The Woods 