7:14
“No!” the word burst out of both Prairie and Patti.
Siobhan rolled her lips over her teeth and nodded hard. “Yes.” She looked down at her feet, then out into the darkness in various directions, her head moving like a bobble head with a broken mechanism. “We can’t get use Magick. She seems to be eating it.”
“I am,” came from Kim.
“How is she hearing us?” Prairie whispered.
“Magick,” Dan said, shifting his gaze around the darkness. “The House.”
“You’re right.” Dan turned to Abe who nodded. “Don’t apply standard logic to what happens here.”
“We need a way out of here,” Siobhan said quietly.
“Maybe the House will just let us out when we’ve done what it wants?” Dempsey suggested.
“What? Kill my friend?” Prairie snapped, her fingers flying over the bones in her necklace. Dempsey shut down completely in the face of the rage pouring from the least likely of sources, turning his face forward to look at Kim over his shield.
Prairie hunched her shoulders and turned to stare into the darkness to her right. She continued to play with the bones in her necklace, lifting them and dropping them so they clacked quietly against each other.
Patti turned and offered a return on the support Prairie had been giving her, laying a soft hand on her shoulder and giving it a squeeze. “She won’t really die.”
Prairie turned suddenly, her gaze stark on Patti’s face. “Can you be sure?”
Patti firmed her chin, projecting an air of confidence that maybe she wasn’t exactly feeling. “You won’t let her.”
“What?” Prairie whispered, her gaze trained on Patti like she held the secrets of the universe. Patti shrugged and picked Sass off her shoulder to cradle the mouse against her chest. “That’s what you do, right?’
“What?”
“You do the death thing right?”
“Yes,” Prairie drew out the word, her uncertainty in the long syllable she turned it into.
“So, you just won’t let her die.”
“You make it sound easy.”
“Not easy,” Patti projected a scoff into her tone, “Magick.”
“Not to dismiss you, but she’s eating Magick.”
“I am!” came the hoarse call from Kim’s direction. Neither Patti nor Prairie turned to acknowledge it.
“Well, its you do your thing and she doesn’t die or she does.”
“That’s a lot of pressure.”
“You can’t handle it?” Kim might have stolen Patti’s Magick but she hadn’t stolen her glib tongue. Patti blew an internal raspberry at whatever or whoever it was dicking with them, then crossed her mental fingers that she wasn’t really, really off base.
Prairie looked into Patti’s eyes another moment then nodded and lowered her gaze to her fingers moving over her necklace. “Okay.”
Siobhan drew a deep breath then squared her shoulders and focused on Kim. “So, its settled. We kill her.”
“Fina-fucking-lee.” Kim’s voice carried despite it being low and strained and deep with fatigue.
“I don’t have a weapon,” Abe said, looking like maybe they were seriously second guessing their decision to join the group.
Dempsey looked down at Abe. “You don’t have to do this.” He turned to look at the others. “None of you do. I can do it.”
“No,” Siobhan shook her head, never taking her eyes from Kim. “We all bear this burden equally. But,” she turned to look at Abe, “Dempsey is right. You don’t have to do it. We need a way out of here if the House doesn’t let us out. You seem to have some kind of understanding of it. Maybe you and Dan,” she cast her gaze over to Dan, “can do something about that while the rest of us fix this.”
Dan’s jaw locked on a mulish expression. He looked about ready to protest when Kim called, “Whatever you are going to do, do it quick, I feel another pang coming.” She pressed her right hand to her stomach and panted.
Abe nodded at Dan. “It won’t work with just me. I can see the potential but I can’t shape it like you do.”
Dan’s jaw tightened more then he gritted out, “Fine.”
“Yeah,” Patti said, tucking Sass into her cleavage then brushing her eye with her palm. She shook herself and focused forward, then lifted her cudgel. “Let’s do this thing.”
Prairie pulled out her daggers and shook herself shoulders to heels. Siobhan lifted her fists, holding them up in something resembling a pugilist hold. Dempsey reached back for his sword, then shook his head and removed his hand. He focused on his shield, muttering a word that made the light around the edges pull back until it was just a metal object. A heavy metal object. It would do.
Dempsey looked at Siobhan and nodded, then turned back to face Kim. “On your call.”
Siobhan looked down, then back up, determination hardening her features. “Go!”
With that she, Dempsey, Patti, and Prairie surged forward. They closed the distance between them and Kim quickly. Kim turned her head, looking over Ben and Gwen’s bodies into the dark. Her shoulders tensed but htat was the only indication that she gave to her approaching death.
Dempsey brought his shield up and around in a hard hit to the side of Kim’s head. Her head snapped around on her neck, her body following to jerk sideways. The threads above her stretched but kept her upright. Prairie slid in from the right and stabbed a dagger into Kim’s right thigh, right into the femoral which was conveniently revealed by the fall of the leg. With her other arm she swung the second dagger high and in, slashing across Kim’s neck.
The dagger, charmed by Ivan to hit the most advantageous spot, slashed Kim’s carotid from the side, the hit hard enough to reveal bone as Kim’s head lolled further to the side. Blood sprayed into the air, splashing Prairie and Patti. Now it was only the threads stabbing through Kim’s face and skull, a twisted eeg array, keeping her head close to upright.
Tears pouring down her face, Patti brought her cudgel down hard on the top of Kim’s head, smashing her chin into her collarbone. Then Siobhan fell in with a heartfelt cry, kicking and punching and beating any part of Kim she could reach.
Kim teetered sideways, hanging at an angle almost parallel to the floor by the threads. Siobhan immediately switched direction, throwing herself at the threads. She wrapped her fingers in the things, ignoring the barbs digging into her skin, and yanked, pulling them from Kim’s skin. Dempsey, seeing this, dropped his shield, and started ripping at more of the threads.
“Now, Prairie!” Patti dropped her cudgel, her hands unable to hold it, and turned to grab Prairie by the shoulders, turning the smaller woman towards Kim.
Prairie dropped to her knees, then threw her head back and opened her eyes wide, staring into the world beyond with her Magick. When her body slumped, Patti stepped into her and braced Prairie against her thighs, holding tight to her shoulders. Eyes wide on Kim’s slumped body falling to the ground as the strings gave way to Dempsey’s and Siobhan’s snatching hands, Patti threw a wish out into the universe. Call it a prayer if that made more sense. Whatever it was she threw it out there, “Let this work.”
Because she was watching so intently Patti was the first to see Kim twitch. A whole body twitch. Not something anyone could really miss. Dempsey stood up, stepped back, his expression settling into something like calm. Siobhan dropped to her knees, pressing a finger to the worst wound in Kim’s throat.
“Dempsey. There’s a packet in my bag. It’s cloth, wrapped with a green ribbon. Find it.”
“Okay.”
Dempsey came over and twisted Siobhan’s bag to the side so he could rout around in it. He ended up pulling about seven bottles, maybe an equal amount of jars, and several paper packets out. He placed these to the side with impatient hands and continued to dig. He yanked out several packets wrapped in paper, shoving them aside as soon as he saw they weren’t cloth or wrapped in ribbon. Finally he yanked a cloth bundle out, cursing quietly under his breath when he saw the dark brownish, maybe red, ribbon around it. Once more he dove his hand into the bag, his arm disappearing almost to the elbow. When he drew the next parcel of fabric out he gave a grunt as his eyes registered the ribbon that was clearly green, even in the weird light of the alchemy torch.
“Got it.”
Siobhan didn’t look up from Kim’s throat. “Okay. Unwrap it. Be careful not to touch the salve on the inside. Hand it to me salve side up.”
Dempsey did as instructed, passing the cloth to Siobhan who immediately pressed it to the wound on Kim’s throat. It instantly adhered, the plaster she’d created to seal wounds doing just that. She breathed a small sigh and sent thanks out in to the world that it worked as intended.
“I need Prairie’s dagger,” she shot under her arm at Dempsey.
A second later he came over and squatted next to her. “Got it.”
“I need you to cut the excess off this.” Siobhan indicated the cloth with a jerk of her chin. “Don’t touch the salve.”
“Okay.”
Dempsey reached under Siobhan and carefully cut away the length of cloth, leaving a piece about four inches long adhered to Kim’s throat. Siobhan smoothed it down, making sure the edges were flush with the skin, then sat back on her heels and held out her hand. “Give me the bandage. Then cut the leg off those pants.”
After putting the bandage in Siobhan’s hands, Dempsey moved to cut the leg away as instructed.
“You make a good nurse.” Prairie’s voice was quiet, strained, drawing Siobhan’s gaze. Prairie nodded and gave Siobhan a soft smile, then looked at Dempsey cutting away the cloth. “I need to worry about my job?”
“No,” Dempsey said as he slid then cloth down to pool at Kim’s ankle, making room for Siobhan to rush in to slap the salve-coated bandage against the seeping hole in Kim’s thigh.
“When she comes to she’s going to be so pissed off.” Prairie said to which Siobhan looked up with a measure of confusion. “Those are her favorite pants.”
Patti snorted a laugh from where she still stood bracing Prairie’s back, then stifled it behind her hand. “At least she’s going to come to.” She squeezed Prairie’s shoulder. “You done good, kid.”
Prairie rested back against Patti, half closing her eyes. “It was a near thing. I’ve never done anything like that before. Helped that Kim was really pissed and refusing to join the Spiritus when I got there.”
Patti turned her head to look down into Prairie’s face. “No way!”
Prairie smiled real wide. “So pissed!” She sighed and relaxed her shoulders, her smile deepening into a warm glow of contentment that took her whole face. “It was a near thing but…”
Patti gave her shoulder another squeeze. “You did it. Now,” she released her grip to clap her hands together. “We need to check on Gwen and Ben. And find Ivan.”
Dempsey straightened. “I’ve got Ivan. You handle,” he waved his hand towards Ben and Gwen still slumped on the floor. “Them.”
After brushing Kim’s hair away from her drawn face, Siobhan rose to her feet. She pressed her hands to her hips and rolled her shoulders forward to stretch her back as she eyed Kim, Ben, and Gwen. “We’ve got more down than up.”
Patti meandered over to stand next to her. “Par for the course.”
“Yes, it is. I think I’ve wished for a single adventure where more than half of us aren’t disabled at some point.”
Patti cocked her head and gave a tired smile. “Well, that wish is still out there in the universe.” She eyed the pile of things Dempsey had pulled out of Siobhan’s bag. “Anything in there that might help here?”
Siobhan shifted her gaze between their downed companions and the pile. “I think we need to leave Kim down. I’m afraid if we rose her the effect will start again. But maybe I have something that will help Ben and Gwen. I’m out of energy potions but I have a few Cure Alls. Not sure if they’ll help but its the best I’ve got.”
Patti shoved the top of her hair back from her cheek, shoving it over her scalp with a rough hand. “I’d offer to help, but even if my Magick was good for this, like maybe I could figure out a Pick Up Your Pep Song or something but my well is completely dry,” she gulped and pressed her hand to the region of her diaphragm.
Siobhan’s grimace said she understood what Patti wasn’t saying. “It will come back.”
Patti looked down at Sass until the rush of fear passed, then looked up and nodded to Siobhan. “I’m sure it will.”
The look that passed between them spoke volumes, questions like ‘what am I if I don’t have Magick?’ and ‘what am I going to do if it really is gone?’ and what might or might not have been false platitudes about ‘everything will be fine’ and ‘we’ve got this’. Siobhan broke the look first, nodding and moving to dig through the pile of her supplies. She pulled out two jars with corks, then shuffled the rest of the contents back into the bag banging her ribs.
She shifted around to look at Prairie who still sat slumped on the floor next to Kim’s slack body. “You okay?”
“Just a little tired.” It was clear by her drawn expression it was a lot more than a little tired but at least she was upright and that was more than could be said Gwen, Ben, and potentially Ivan. So, Siobhan slipped her concern for Prairie into one of the compartments in her mind and set to ministering to Gwen and Ben. When she got to them, after establishing they were both breathing, though shallowly, she debated which to try the potion on first. Ben had been down longer. But Gwen, if it worked, could help heal Ben potentially. That made the decision a little easier. Siobhan carefully rolled Gwen so her face was up, then placed her hand under Gwen’s neck and tipped her head so Siobhan could pour the potion into Gwen’s mouth. She really needed to work on salves for this kind of thing but salves, for reasons she couldn’t quite figure out, just didn’t hold the Alchemy of healing well. The plaster she’d used on Kim’s wounds was different. It didn’t heal. It just sealed. And it was perfect for Kim’s needs.
Whoa, her mind was going off track again. Siobhan focused on Gwen, watching the rise and fall of her friend’s chest. In, out. A little more regular with each inhale and exhale. Siobhan watched as color returned to Gwen’s bleached skin and then breathed a sigh of relief as Gwen lifted her eyelids and blearily looked around.
“What-” she stopped, gulped, wet her lips, “hit me.”
“Kim.”
“Well, we’ll have to talk about that then.” Gwen closed her eyes and drew a deep breath then made like she was going to roll up to sit only to slump back down right quick. “Whoa!”
“Whoa is right,” Siobhan said in a prim tone. “You’re probably feeling pretty drained. Do you have anything in you if we need some of your healing.”
Gwen went silent. Her brows creased. She scrunched up her face. Rolled the back of her head against the ground. Frowned again. Then opened her eyes to Siobhan. “I’m completely-” she tapered off on another frown.
“Empty?”
Gwen focused on Siobhan. “Yeah. What’s with that?”
Siobhan waved off the question. “Something we’ll deal with. I need to get a potion into Ben. Are you okay for now?”
Gwen closed her eyes and rolled her head to the side. “Sure.”
Damn it, Siobhan thought as she rose and moved to pour a potion into Ben after shifting him to his back with a few grunts and some strained muscles that were going to really be talking to her later about her choices. It was getting harder to push the questions of for Future Siobhan to deal with. That was two of their group down Magick and she’d lay odds Ben would report the same when he came around. Who knew what condition Ivan was in.
That thought drew her eyes in the direction Dempsey had gone in search of Ivan. She drew a breath of relief to see him coming from the darkness, Ivan’s arm over his shoulder while Ivan did his best to stumble step beside him.
Turning she looked to where Dan and Abe were staring into the darkness. Abe pointed towards what Siobhan was calling the back of the space, that was the direction they’d moved to get to Kim. Siobhan wandered over to them, close enough to hear Abe say, “I see a weakness there. Not a tear but, maybe that’s the way whoever took Kim left?”
Dan squinted in that direction. “Not seeing it.”
“Here,” Abe laid a tentative hand on Dan’s arm and scrunched their face into an expression reminiscent of someone working hard at a poo.
Dan looked down at Abe. “What are you doing?”
Abe gave a little pout and shrugged up at Dan. “Trying to do that Wonder Twins thing?”
“Oh!” Dan gave a rich laugh. Siobhan stopped for a moment to absorb the sound of Dan’s mirth. That sounded darned nice. She shook herself and moved to join them.
“What’s happening?”
Dan looked over. “Abe says they think they see how to get out. They were helping me see it.”
Siobhan turned in the direction they were facing and frowned. “I don’t see anything.”
“Me either.”
“It’s right there!” Abe stated, quite adamant, pointing in the direction Dan and Siobhan stared.
“Yeah. Not seeing it.”
“Ugh!” Abe threw their hand up, then brought it back down on Dan’s arm and pulled him forward. “Come on.”
“Okay.” The corner of his mouth quirked up as he let the energetic youth yank him forward. As he let Abe drag him forward he shot a comment at Siobhan who trailed just behind him. “Been thinking.”
“About?”
Dan jerked his head to where Kim lay as they moved quickly passed her. “She’s draining Magick.”
“Yes,” Siobhan drew the word out.
“Electricity.”
Siobhan tilted her head and frowned. “While I often appreciate your sparsity of commentary, I could use some expansion?”
“Hook her up to a Genny. Recharge her.”
“Will that work?”
“Not sure. Have to ask Ivan. He might know.”
“Ivan might know what?”
Siobhan turned to see that Dempey and Ivan had hobble walked over to follow Abe, Dan, and Siobhan.
“Dan thinks Kim might be fixed with an influx of energy. Possibly from an electrical generator. Would that work?”
“Hmm,” Ivan started to lift his hand to rub his goatee but his arm was too weak so he just dropped it to dangle at his side. Dempsey pulled Ivan’s arm higher on his shoulders, bearing the burden of his weight without comment. “It might. Do you still feel the pull from her?”
Siobhan frowned and held her hand against her abdomen. “Now that you mention it.”
“Yeah, so before Patti sang me to sleep.” He raised his voice to holler to Patti who was sitting next to Gwen and Ben and helping them sit up. “Thanks for that!”
“Welcome!” she called back, her voice missing the usual resonance. Siobhan frowned and rubbed harder at her stomach.
“So,” Ivan picked up the thought again, “before I was knocked out I was kind of forming an idea. And crawling. I was crawling a lot. Whatever that thing is Kim was doing is strong,” he shook her head and frowned. “Back on point. I think she was draining our Magick.”
Siobhan nodded. “We came to that conclusion ourselves. When Patti did the lullaby that put you to sleep Kim took her Magick from it.”
“That sucks. She okay?”
“She says she is.”
“Yeah,” Ivan turned his head slowly to look at Patti over his shoulder, then returned his attention to where they were going. “She was draining our Magick and I think she still is, but not as much. How did you do that.”
“We killed her.”
Ivan stopped dead. Dempsey didn’t realize it at first and managed to walk two steps forward before Ivan’s weight dragged him to a stop.
“Come again?”
“We killed her,” Siobhan gulped around the knot that formed in her throat. “She’s okay now. Unconscious. But alive.”
“Shit.” Ivan started up his slow shuffle again. “You made that call?”
Tears pricked the back of Siobhan’s eyes, the weight of it all threatening to break her down. She took a deep breath and shoved it down. Later. She’d deal later. “Yes.”
Ivan just nodded. Dempsey’s gaze bored into her, the weight of their shared actions heavy in his silence. Siobhan quirked him a half smile then continued. “So, you think she’s still drawing Magick.”
“Yes. I can definitely feel it. Not as bad as before but its still there. Kind of like static in the back of my head. Only not static. Maybe anti-static. Like the absence…” Ivan trailed off to roll his eyes. “Explanation unnecessary.”
“I understand. I definitely feel something.” Another press to her stomach.
“I do too,” Abe spoke up quietly from Dan’s side. Then the shifted their attention forward, narrowing their eyes on a singular point in the darkness. “We’re here.”
“Huh.” Dan braced his legs, taking up a steady stance, and looked intently at the darkness. “I don’t-”
“Here,” Abe said, reaching their hand out to Dan, “Let’s try this again. If I could have your hand.”
“Sure.” Dan held his hand out. Abe took his wrist and directed it forward. “It’s right here.”
Dan let out a kind of grunt slash gasp as his fingers slid into nothing. “Shit.”
Abe grinned. “See?”
“I do now.” Dan pulled his hand back a little and waggled his fingers along the edge of something only he and Abe saw. “How do we-”
“Make it bigger?” Abe finished for him, their excitement clear in the subtle wriggle of their shoulders, still free of the cassock that had previously hidden the negative and positive image of their left and right arms respectively. They furled the fingers of their naked left hand on the air, the one not grasping Dan’s wrist. “I don’t know. Isn’t this exciting?”
Siobhan expected Dan to give his usual droll one word response. Instead Dan grinned, his teeth a white slash in the darkness. “Yep.”
Okay, well at least the one word response was still there. Siobhan could deal with a grinning Dan as long as he kept something normal.
“What do you see?” Abe asked Dan.
Dan frowned. Cocked his head. Traced his fingers in the nothing. “Broken words. Cut. Edited?” He turned his head to look at Abe, drawing out the last word to end on a ‘Huh.”.
“Someone changed this. Cut it and pasted it together.”
“Can you do something to it?”
“Not sure.”
“Try. Here,” Abe curved their fingers, the ones with the black tattoo all the way down to the second knuckle, around Dan’s arm then slid up their index finger until it was tapping at the edge of the word Hope on Dan’s knuckles. “Maybe you need to Hope.”
Dan shot Abe a glance from the side of his eye, another grin curving his lips, then he pulled his fingers back and flattened them out on the darkness. His fingers flowed straight up, throwing the ink on his knuckles into relief against the backdrop of the darkness. The ink on Abe’s fingers creeped up, flowing over the tips of their fingers and along the very edges of the word Hope.
And then the darkness parted, revealing a streetscape. Siobhan craned her head, recognizing the street on which the majority of them lived above the conjunction of ley lines along the swamp.
She turned, calling out, “Patti? Can you get Ben and Gwen on their feet?”
“Maybe?” Patti called back.
“Do it if you can!” With that, Siobhan turned to Dempsey and Ivan. “Ivan? Can you stand on your own.”
“Not sure.”
“Okay,” she moved over to Ivan’s open side and slipped her arm around his waist. “I’ve got you. Dempsey?”
“Yeah?”
“Could you go and pick up Kim? We’re going home.”
So saying she focused her attention on the street beyond the opening Dan and Abe were holding open in the darkness. Tears pricked at the back of her eyes. Again she forced them back. Just a little while longer and she could collapse but right now, “We’re going home.”
Enter The Woods 