10:29
“Shit!” Ben lunged forward, his hands out and shadows uncoiling from them. The shadows met the thrust of a half-dozen silver-white strands of Magick, engulfing them. The light strands squirmed against the dark emitting from him then fell apart. He felt the snap of their parting as they receded back into the darkness they’d come from.
Next to him Abe took a splayed-legged stance and threw a wave of ink out from their hand to meet more strands. The darkness of their ink wound around the Magick, wet satin ribbons that spiraled up the encroaching strands until they were more dark than light. The attacking Magick flared brighter against the touch of Abe’s Magick, searing striped strands into Ben’s corneas, then they dimmed and fell back from Abe’s ink.
To Ben’s other side Ivan took up a wide-legged stance, straddling Grace’s lax form on the ground. Dan fell in behind Ivan, back to their friend, protecting Grace’s other side. He rapidly flicked through a book, then started reading something. The strands of Magick flying towards him went limp then slithered back into the darkness.
Ivan unfurled the accordion shield from his wrist, blocking jabs from the strands shooting towards him. He snapped a quick glance at Prairie. She brandished her dual daggers, lashing out at the strands coming at her. They didn’t sever but she was able to block their blows before they hit her or Ivan’s vulnerable side.
“Get the pea!” Ivan yelled as he swung his shield to block a strand heading for her.
Prairie gave him a quick look then turned to run for the mattress pile. “We need to get these mattresses down!”
Dempsey ran over and smashed his shield out to block a half dozen strands of Magick shooting for either Prairie or the mattresses. As Ben watched more strands shot from the dark. These definitely were going for the mattresses.
“Faster!” he yelled while flicking shadows out to engulf and eat as many of the attacking strands as he could. “They’re heading for the mattresses!”
“I’ve got you!” Dempsey grunted and stepped in to cover Prairie’s side. “Just get the item.”
Patti ran over to stand behind Prairie with her punch shield out to block strands from hitting Prairie.
“Siobhan? Kim?”
“Yeah?” Siobhan and Kim’s response came from either side of the mattress pile.
“We need to move the mattresses.”
Siobhan, Gwen, and Kim moved to stand next to Prairie. They started shoving at the mattress pile. Their position at the bottom made this less than ideal. It swayed but nothing fell.
Siobhan looked at Prairie. “We can’t apply enough force to topple it!”
“Will it burn?”
Prairie snapped a look to Kim at the question. Kim furled her wrist, making fire dance in her palm.
“It’s mattresses? Yes?”
“No.” Kim clarified. “The pea.”
Dempsey blocked with his shield then shot a look over his shoulder. “Magick items can’t be destroyed. Only contained.”
“So, that’s a no?” The flame pooling in Kim’s hand grew larger, the light of it dancing over her features.
“That’s a no.”
“Okay.” Kim looked over at Siobhan, Gwen, and Prairie. “Step back.”
They did but it didn’t seem to be far enough in Kim’s estimation becasue she added, “Way back.”
She turned to holler over her shoulder. “Everyone move.”
Ben didn’t question. He just lunged outwards. The others did the same so their circle of defense expanded out by at least ten feet.
“Is this enough?” Ivan yelled.
“No!”
Ben raised his brows then moved out another ten feet or so.
There was an intense flash of light and a whoosh of sound from behind him and heat washed over his back, hot enough he was damned glad to be wearing a leather jacket which wasn’t going to melt or go up in flames immediately. The wave of heat hit the Magick strands jabbing from the dark. They flew backwards, flapping on the hot wind. It gave him a mikro or two to breathe and look back at the mattress pile. Or what had been the mattress pile but was now just… ash?
What the Magick temperature did a fire have to hit that it reduced anything to ash? The calculation boggled his brain. In a distant part of his mind he realized Kim had to have done something to direct the heat from them because no damned way that fire hadn’t created a torrent of heat that should have knocked them all on their faces.
He turned back to search the dark for the next wave of shiny strands of Magick. He had no illusions they wouldn’t come. They were here for something and he was pretty sure that something was sitting in that cushion of ash.
Another whoosh sounded behind him but there was no accompanying heat. Then he heard Kim yell, “I think that’s the pea?”
“Is it too hot to go in there?” Siobhan asked.
“Probably,” Kim replied. “Hold on!”
Ben dared another look back to see a swirling tornado lift the ash pile up towards the ceiling or sky or whatever up was in here. A slightly transparent female figure flowed out of the center of the swirling column, something small and glowing held out at the end of the long ribbon of an arm. The air lady dropped the object into Kim’s outstretched palm then retreated into the tornado which slowly wound down and disappeared, leaving the area scoured clean.
Kim turned to Prairie and held out the object. Prairie snatched it from her hand and ran over to crouch next to Grace, shielded still between Dan and Ivan’s spread legs. She pressed it to Grace’s chest. A mikro later Grace sat up with a gasp and looked around in confusion.
Ben turned back to the darkness, bracing for another assault only to find none. Instead the shiny strands of Magick froze on the air then disappeared back into the dark. He kept his vigilance for several more mikros but when no more attacks came he spun to look at where Prairie murmured quietly to Grace.
Abe relaxed at Ben’s side, then walked over to stand next to Dan who had turned to look at Grace and Prairie. Gwen walked over with tentative steps then nudged Ivan with her hip so she could sit down next to Grace and Prairie. She held a hand out to Grace, said something Ben couldn’t hear, then lay her hand on Grace’s shoulder.
Her eyes closed and she took a deep breath. Ben could almost see her Magick. For sure he could see the effect of it as Grace’s panicked expression slackened and her eyes drifted shut as her ribs rose and fell in tempo with the pulse of Gwen’s Magick.
Prairie looked up from Grace and called Dempsey to her. When he walked over she raised with shaking fingers and pressed something into his hand. He looked down for a mikro, then nodded and pushed the object into his messenger bag. Ben’s eyes followed the motion, but his brain was too tired to do more than speculate.
Someday, someday he was going to figure out what Dempsey did with Magick items but that day wasn’t today. He was just too damned tired to give it any thought. The length of time they’d put in and the energy they’d expended to find Grace was enough to sap even his curiosity.
Never thought that would happen.
Patti walked over, her head on swivel. “We’re done, right?”
“Feels like,” Ben mumbled.
“Then shouldn’t we be getting out of here?”
“Yeah?”
“So why is it still dark?”
“I don’t. What?”
Ben looked over at the sound of Grace’s voice and blinked. Blinked hard at where her hand pressed to her chest. Pulses of light flashed under her splayed fingers, bright enough he could see the bone beneath her skin. The pulse was slow but sped up as he watched, the rhythm shifting so swiftly he didn’t have time to avert or close his eyes.
He watched with morbid fascination as the glow spread until her entire frame was glowing and pulsing. In the time it would have taken to blink, the light dimmed then flared so bright he was blinded.
Instinctively he threw out his hands, not to cover his eyes but to release shadows towards Grace. Their hunger echoed back at him, an adamant need to consume the light, and for once he released his iron will over them.
Go. Feed. There was so much energy pouring from her he knew the shadows would be unable to fully devour it before satiation hit.
What a feast, the shadows whispered as they fought the flow of light to reach Grace. Ben felt their efforts like fighting an inexorable tide.
The shadows wanted and the shadows tried but the pulses of light grew stronger, their flow pushing the shadows back. They surged, doubling and tripling and quadrupling their efforts to reach her.
Releasing the last little bit of his control over them, Ben melded with the shadows, feeling their silken pull as they flowed from his palms. It was like when you took off gloves and held a rope. You could feel every fiber of the rope like an understanding on your skin. He knew their hunger. He became their hunger.
He fed his own will to reach Grace into their flow. His vision grew dark around the edges, ebon lights dancing and spinning and threatening to overtake his sight. And still the shadows poured from him, surged towards her. He felt the essence of him, woven into the shadows, tugging at the edges of him.
Between the pulsating flare of light from Grace and the enveloping shadow pulling him out of himself and towards her, Ben’s vision went entirely dark. He wavered on his feet. Back. Forth. Back. Forth. The shadows pulled, yanking him forward into the swirling cacophony of light and shadow.
Ben was picked up from his feet, flying through the burning miasma pulsating off of Grace. Adrift.
His eyes widened, taking in the nothing. Burned, whether from evaporated tears or perhaps they were being melted by the eruption of light. Shadow was not meant to be driven back in such a way. Bent. Shredded. Evaporated. As his shadows unraveled so too did he. He was too much a part of them. Desperately he sought to yank his essence free of them.
He heard Grace exclaim, “But I don’t have Magick,” then there was a harsher flare, energy expanding to batter his senses. His brain when fizzle-fuck and he fell. The last thing he heard was Grace repeating “But I don’t have Magick,” accompanied by the percussion of bodies hitting the floor.
And then he knew nothing.
Enter The Woods 