11:11
The surface of the stone stairs didn’t seem that much of a problem for the first twenty or thirty steps. By the next twenty Kim started feeling it in the knees. Another thirty – no, really, another thirty and looking upwards it seemed there was a lot more where those came from – and her feet hurt too.
She didn’t seem to be the only one feeling it if the grumbles and dramatic leaning on the railing hugging the wall were indicators.
Patti started humming under her breath. It was the song Patti, Prairie, and Gwen were singing in the ballroom. Dead Man’s Party by Oingo Boingo. That wasn’t auspicious at all. No. Not at all.
Kim paused her stepping, turned, and craned to give Patti a pointed look. Patti gave her a wide-eyed ‘what?’ look in return to which Kim pointed at her lips then made a zipping gesture. Patti’s expression melted into one of chagrin. “Oops. Sorry. It’s just so damned quiet.”
“Quiet isn’t always bad,” Abe offered. It was their turn to get the pointed look and to look bashful.
“It is too quiet,” Prairie said in a breathy tone. She frowned, then added, “I can’t sense anyone, alive or dead, besides us. It feels like this stairway is cut off, muffled. It just feels wrong.”
“Because so much in The House or ARFA or whatever feels right?” Patti asked with a lift of her brows. “Maybe my ‘quiet’ is your cut off?”
Prairie nodded. “Maybe.” Then she looked back up the stair. “We should keep going or we’ll stiffen up.”
“More,” Kim pressed her hand into her thigh. “Stiffen up more.”
Patti nodded. “True dat.”
That said they all started back up the stairs. The sound of puffing breaths came but were swallowed by the stone surrounding them. Both Patti and Prairie were right. It did not feel right. Kim ran a hand along the stone wall, reaching in with her Magick.
The wall had a tacit feel of Earth but it also didn’t. She wasn’t sure that made sense. Maybe it felt like composite? Something stone and other materials mixed together.
Made sense considering none of this might be real. Which was a really messed up thought as they climbed what had to be hundreds of feet. If the stone of the steps was not stone or nothing at all they could plummet to their deaths at the whim of ARFA should it choose to change their reality.
Air would probably catch her. No, Air would totally catch her. And she’d try to catch the others. But that was a lot of catching. And a lot of chances to fail with catastrophic results.
“Hey,” she whispered to the wall, keeping her voice low enough hopefully no one else heard, “thanks for being here for us ARFA.”
The stone under her hand warmed for a mikro. She darted a look to the side and down then nodded another thanks before hurrying her feet, best as she could with her waning energy, to continue to scale the stairs.
“Uh,” Gwen lifted her voice, “it would be really great if there were less stairs. Like way less stairs. Like maybe two more stairs.”
Oh, smart Gwen! It worked for Prairie earlier. Maybe it would help if more of them joined in?
Patti, Siobhan, and Dempsey seemed to have similar thoughts as they all raised their voices, with various variations of “stairs, bad; getting where they were going while they still had muscles that weren’t noodles, good”.
Again the stone of the wall warmed under Kim’s hand and the stair beneath her feet did a little buck. She bent her knees to compensate for the movement, then pulled her hand away from the wall as it started to shimmy.
She barely had time to snap, “Hands off the rails and walls!” before they were zipping along at enough speed to make Kim’s bangs fly around.
“Woo hoo!” Patti hollered.
“Eep!” Siobhan eeped.
“I’ve got you!” Dempsey called.
Kim didn’t look back, but she assumed Dempsey did, in fact, have Siobhan. Dan reached a hand out and grabbed hers and she gladly wrapped her fingers around his. In front of them Patti leaned into Ivan, their shields overlapping. Kim figured or hoped Abe and Gwen were anchoring each other too and either Siobhan or Dempsey had Prairie.
They traveled at enough speed that the light of the torches interspersed along the walls flickered fast enough it felt like Kim was blinking. Light. Dark. Light. Dark. Changing with near dizzying speed.
An Air Lady popped into view next to Kim’s face. It reached over and poked her cheek then pushed her bangs back from her eyes. ‘Thanks,’ she projected at the Lady who then booped her on the nose before wrapping herself around Kim’s neck like a very long scarf.
In this way the group made it to the top of the stairs a whole lot faster than they would have if they’d continued under the power of their own legs. A whole lot faster.
Their forward movement stopped abruptly with their feet coming to rest on a wide stone landing. Abruptly enough that without Dan’s hold on her hand Kim may have stumbled into Patti’s back. She shot him a quick look and mouthed “Thanks”. Then for good measure she turned to pat the wall with her free hand. “Thanks ARFA.”
“Yeah,” Gwen said, “Thanks ARFA!”
There was a chorus of similar sentiment before the focus changed to the closed door centered in the facing wall of the landing. It matched the one at the bottom of the stairs being heavy, made of dark wood, banded with metal, and with a black iron latch.
Patti blew out a breath as she stared at the door. “I really hope we don’t have to climb back down all those stairs when we are done.”
“Same,” Kim replied.
Ivan reached out and opened the door, pushing it inwards. It stopped within an inch of the door frame. “Uh.” Pushing his palm flat against the wood Ivan pushed again. The door seemed to move forward a little but then rebounded into Ivan’s hand. This time Ivan put his weight behind the push. Again the door moved in a short distance. It was enough for Ivan to peer through the crack and that’s what he did.
A mikro later he pulled back and looked around the landing before his gaze settled on Siobhan. “Siobhan. You’re up.”
“I’m up?”
“You have to see.”
Siobhan settled her shoulder strap then stepped forward to push up beside Ivan who moved to the side to give her access to the door. She pressed her palm to the door and shoved inwards. Again it gave about the same amount it had for Ivan and left enough of a crack for Siobhan to look through.
Keeping pressure on the door, she turned her head to look at him. “I see.”
“Yes.”
Patti craned her neck to look around Ivan and over Siobhan’s head, a feat with little chance of success since they were comparable heights so all she could really get a look at was the flowers in Siobhan’s crown. “What is it?”
“Plants. More plants. Many plants.”
“So many plants,” Ivan spread his hands about a bread loaf of length apart.
Kim felt compelled to suggest, “I could burn it all.”
Instantly a chorus of ‘no’ sounded.
Siobhan shoved her shoulder into the door, managing to move it a bit more than before. Then she stuck her hand into the opening and her arm went up and down. Her expression went slack and her gaze distant. After a few mikros she planted her knee against the door and shoved. It moved enough that she could wedge herself into the opening. She went to do so then turned her head to look at Ivan. “Can you hold it open. I need to go in to assess.”
Ivan nodded and applied his shoulder to the door, effectively holding it open so Siobhan could shimmy into the crack. Her skirt stuck on the doorframe and she gathered it in one hand before yanking to free it. Once that was done she wriggled through the opening and went about three steps before she stopped with one of her shoulders still in the doorway. Then her shoulder disappeared from view and her voice came out from the other side.
“There’s more than I expected. Hold on!”
Kim shifted on her feet. She contemplated the partially opened door. She could offer to burn their way in but probably Siobhan would be bothered by the destruction. Still, it was an option. One she’d offer if Siobhan threw up her hands.
From behind the door Siobhan’s muffled voice called. “Okay. Uh. I think everyone should fit.”
Fit seemed an odd word. But, okay?
Ivan cast his gaze around. “Abe first. You’re small. Then, Prairie.”
Prairie nodded and stepped up behind Abe as they approached the small opening. “Because I’m small too.”
“Yes.”
“Gwen. Kim. Patti. Then Dan and Dempsey. I’ll hold the door and enter last.”
Dempsey nodded. “Works.”
Abe slid into the crack sideways, disappearing from view. Then Prairie entered with no obvious resistance. Then it was Gwen and Kim’s turn to approach. Gwen turned sideways. Eyed the opening. Turned a bit more. Then shuffled in sideways. A mikro later her muffled tone came. “Still room!”
Kim nodded and turned sideway to make herself as narrow as possible. Then she slid her shoulder in. It met no resistance so she pushed the rest of the way in.
It was dark. Like fucking dark. Really, fucking dark.
She called a small flame to her hand, shielding it with her other palm. In its dim light she looked over and found Siobhan. “Am I going to cause mayhem if I unshield this?”
Siobhan bit her lip, looked out into the dark, then shook her head in the affirmative. “Just keep it close.”
“Still time for me to burn it all,” Kim offered half-heartedly. She knew the answer already so smiled at Siobhan’s dry, “No.”
“Okay.” Kim lifted her free hand and the glow of the small flame expanded so she could see Gwen and Abe’s faces clearly while Prairie and Siobhan’s were in shadow where they stood a bit further to the right. Beyond that was still nothing but dark. She lifted her hand so the glow spread a little and squinted to try to make out details.
“How can you tell its plants?”
Siobhan lifted her hand next to her face and wiggled her fingers. “Magick,” which startled a giggle from Prairie who then echoed, “Magick.”
“Can’t you feel the earth they are growing out of?”
Kim looked down. Moved her flame lower so she could see what they stood on. Siobhan was right. They were standing on earth. It took the barest of expenditure of energy for her Magick to determine it felt like earth. Deep down. Which made sense if roses were growing in it. They had deep roots with a central taproot. If they were regular roses. Who knew aobu t
Kim rolled her eyes up hard enough they hurt then shook her head and squinted into the dark again. “You said there’s room for everyone?”
Siobhan nodded. “Yes. I was able to ask the plants to move back enough for that.”
Even as they spoke Patti came shoving in through the doorway. Kim sidled to the right a little closer to Siobhan and Prairie so Patti didn’t get singed by her flame. Patti’s eyes darted around then she settled her gaze on Siobhan. “That’s a lot of plants.”
“It is.”
Before they could further this scintillating discourse, Dan pushed in and Patti had to move forward to make room for him. Abe and Gwen stepped closer to Siobhan and Prairie while avoiding the flame in Kim’s hands. And Siobhan and Prairie moved more to the right, proving Siobhan’s assertion there was still room.
Soon enough Dempsey and then Ivan entered. The door closed with a thud as Ivan released his hold on it upon entering. And then they were truly in the dark except for the small circle of light cast by the flame in Kim’s hand. That was until Siobhan fished several glass globes from her bag and activated them with a shake.
A bright green light flared up in the globes, casting a decent circle of light around her while also casting she and Prairie’s features in a sickly green glow. She held one of the globes out to Prairie who shuffled it across to Abe.
Abe held the globe aloft, lighting enough overhead to show a ceiling of green that was close enough it brushed the tops of Ivan and Dempsey’s heads. Dempsey had to stoop to avoid getting stabbed in the face with one particularly adventurous vine complete with rose that showed almost black in the green light.
“Dan?” Dan looked over at Siobhan’s call and shook his head when she gestured at him with the globe. He pulled a book from his vest and stepped closer to Abe so the light from their globe cast on the book. “Give it to Ivan. I have something that will work.”
He fished a pen out of his pocket and held it in front of him. Then he read a short line from the book, a quote about enlightenment. A mikro later the pen began to glow a nearly phosphorescent light. Enough so that Patti shied her gaze away and focused on the wall of greenery a few steps from her face.
Sass chittered something that sounded suspiciously like “ooooh,” or as close as a mouse mouth could manage such and they stared at the pen. They clapped their front paws together and danced on Patti’s shoulder until she laid a hand on their back.
“Siobhan?”
“Yes, Patti?”
“Can you move the plants?”
Siobhan made a point of looking around the small clearing they stood in. “This is about the most I can do before they come back in.”
“So, we’re stuck?”
“I wouldn’t say stuck. Watch.” Siobhan stepped forward with a hand out, fingers open. The light from the globe Patti held made her skin stand out stark against the dark background of vines and flowers. Another step. Just as it looked like she’d jam up against the foliage it pulled back.
Ivan yelped and jumped a step forward, drawing Kim’s attention. He ducked his head, his expression sheepish in the light of Dan’s pen, then turned to look at the space behind them. “Stabbed me in the butt.”
Kim moved the flame in her hand to illuminate the space Ivan had stood before his leap. Where before there was the door they’d entered through now was nothing but greenery. She slanted a quick glance to Siobhan.
“That’s what happens. I can move forward but I seem to only be able to hold a certain circumference of cleared space.”
“So,” Dempsey ventured. “We can continue to move forward, we just won’t have a quick exit strategy.”
“To what purpose?” Gwen asked.
Dempsey turned his gaze on her. “What purpose for what?”
“Moving forward.”
“Well.” Dempsey drew a deep breath then made a point of sweeping his gaze over the walls and ceiling of living green. “It’s either that or standing still or turning around and abandoning Bria. I’m guessing we’re going with moving forward.”
“Yeah.” Gwen twisted a look. “Yeah. I guess. Makes sense.” She turned her head to look at Siobhan. “Lead on.”
Siobhan pulled a face. “I’m not really sure which way to go. I hate to just wander in here shoving plants out of the way indefinitely.”
Prairie raised her hand. “I can try something.” When they turned to look at her she continued. “I’ve been in contact with Bria’s soul. I think I can pinpoint it. If she’s what we are aiming for I think I can give us a direction to head.”
When everyone stared at her expectantly, she gave a small smile then shook out her hands. She looked in front of her at the wall of vines. Then pivoted slightly so she was facing Patti. Then another small turn to face Ivan to the left. She turned again, wider now as she swept over the area the door had been. Made sense. They knew they’d come from that direction. Then she turned and faced the far right. Another adjustment and she was facing Siobhan. Then back to center.
She stopped, a frown forming between her brows. Then she looked at Gwen. “Can you–”
Gwen nodded and placed a hand on her chest then another on Prairie’s. “Think you can move with me attached?”
“We can try.”
Moving in tandem they followed the same circuit Prairie had etched. When they got to the point slightly to the right of Siobhan they stopped. Prairie frowned. The bones of her face stood out in the light of the globe Patti held, her expression going tight then relaxing. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them.
“That way. She’s that way.”
Siobhan turned in the direction Prairie indicated and a moment later the plants in front of her receded in a wide arc. Dempsey and Ivan took two giant steps in and to the right to avoid being engulfed by the plants moving in behind them.
In this way they moved slowly forward. Kim wasn’t sure how much time passed. Some. A lot. Many steps through the disorienting dark that smelled of roses with such potency her head spun if she breathed in too deeply. The Air Lady around her neck uncoiled enough to send a gentle gust of air across her face, clearing her nose and head.
‘Thanks,’ she sent to the Lady who caressed her cheek with a soft touch before wrapping herself back around Kim’s neck.
Once upon a yesterday she’d liked the scent of roses. Even had rose-scented hand soap. Now she wasn’t so sure.
The scent of the roses was strong enough she could taste it. All the way to the back of her throat. But at least the breeze was helping her. Hated to think of how it was affecting the others. Probably Siobhan was fine with it but the others? Not so much, probably.
It was kind of ridiculous – and awesome – where the mind wandered when there was nothing around them but darkness and an overwhelming theoretically good scent, the press of their companions as they sometimes jostled each other while mostly carving out a space for themselves, and the sounds of their breathing artificially loud in the tight space.
It was like the elements of isolation made the thoughts in your head louder. More prevalent? Something. Kim found herself getting lost in the parsing of the scent of roses. Then the significance of roses. Why roses? Why were there roses in so many fairy tales?
She was so wrapped up in her thoughts and the silence, her feet on autopilot while her mind wandered its own halls, she didn’t realize Siobhan had stopped until she plowed into Prairie who fell forward and almost went head first into the roses. Gwen managed to catch the back of her hoodie and keep her upright but it was a near thing made less dangerous because of Prairie’s petite frame and general lack of heft. If Kim had been the one snatched up by the back of her jacket, she’d have caught a face full of thorns.
Prairie whipped a look at Kim over her shoulder and Kim gave her a cringe-slash-sorry face to which Prairie sighed and then turned to look at Siobhan who stood staring at the ground.
“Siobhan?” Gwen ventured to which Siobhan lifted her gaze before tapping a toe on the ground. Her boot made a thunk which a boot should not make on earth.
Kim lowered her flame to light the space near their feet, revealing a wooden floor stretching out under Siobhan’s feet while the rest of the group still stood on earth. “Guessing we’re close?”
Siobhan nodded then looked forward at the wall of plants. Her mouth moved on quiet words then the sound of “please?” carried to Kim’s ears. She shifted. Frowned. Waved her hand in front of herself. Then waved both hands. The greenery didn’t shift. At all.
A thought occurred to Kim. “Plants shouldn’t be growing in a wood floor.”
Siobhan didn’t shift her attention from the wall of plants. “They shouldn’t.”
“Not to say that things couldn’t be really fucked up in here but usually ARFA seems to try to stick to the rules of nature.” Kim turned her gaze to Abe. “Can you and Dan do that thing?”
“Thing?”
“Thing.”
Abe grinned, like they couldn’t maintain a straight face while poking at Kim. “Yes.” They looked to Dan. “We need to do that thing.”
Dan started to say something but stopped when Kim leveled him with a look that promised retribution if he repeated the word ‘thing’. His lifted brows indicated just how much he feared the implied threat. Which was to say not at all. He stepped in closer to Abe then pulled a book from his vest and paged through it before coming to a stop with his fingertip pressed to the paper.
Abe shook out their right arm then cast it forward. Ink spooled from their fingers, flowing across the air and coming to a stop against the wall of roses. Another moment and they flexed their wrist, a look of concentration on their face. They looked over to Dan. “Help?”
Dan turned and handed his glowing pen to Patti, then stepped up beside Abe and paged through his book. He stopped on a page and held the book open between thumb and little finger, freeing up his second hand to place on Abe’s shoulder. Patti walked over and held the pen out so it lit the words on the page.
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. Albert Einstein.”
His words must have done something because the ink flowing from Abe’s arm took on a bit of a glitter, picked up by the light of the pen. And then the wall of roses just disappeared, revealing a room lit by a large chandelier.
It had wooden floors, curved stone walls suggesting they were in a tower, and in the very center a bed with a figure lying in it. Next to the bed stood a spinning wheel, the light cast by the chandelier causing a shadow to fall from it that draped over the head of the bed and partially obscured the features of the still woman.
Kim looked around the space, gaze darting over everything. This felt too easy. Where was the catch?
As if drawn by her thoughts, a voice came from somewhere. Nowhere. Everywhere. A female voice. With the kind of sickening artificial sweetener-tone she associated with women who made their way through life manipulating people by being ‘so feminine’.
“Now, ARFA.”
The woman giggled. Giggled. Puke. Absolute vom. If Kim’s hackles hadn’t been rising prior to that, they definitely did when the tinkling, puke-y giggle echoed through the room.
From every corner of the room and from the ceiling and even the floor dark strands flew. So fast that reaction was impossible. Some banged against Ivan, Patti, and Dempsey’s shields.
If they’d only been coming from one direction that may have given them a moment to respond but instead the strands from the floor wrapped their legs, the strands from above spun around their heads and shoulders, and more flew in to engulf their arms and torsos.
Prairie, Abe, Dan, Kim, Siobhan, and Gwen didn’t even have the momentary respite. They were instantly enshrouded in strands, yanked off their feet, and suspended in what appeared to be a gigantic spider web.
Within one breath and another Kim found herself held immobile, facing the curving wall. She tried to wriggle, tried to shift to see where the others were. The more she struggled the tighter the hold of the web grew until it became hard to pull in a breath.
From the cries and slowing movements of the others it seemed like they were suffering similarly. She tried to turn her head but the strands wrapped around her throat, choking out what little breath she could draw.
A wave of calm flowed through her, giving her a moment’s respite from panic.
“Gwen?” she croaked out through constricted throat.
From somewhere close enough for her to hear, Gwen whispered. “Fight!”
Gwen’s words changed to a rasping choke and the calm just disappeared. Without conscious thought Kim’s Magick flared, sending out a pulse of distress that drew Air and Fire elementals.
The Air Ladies swirled around, faster and faster, mostly slipping through the strands binding her and barely causing the mass to ripple. A fire dog loped in from the side, leaping to snatch strands in its crackling maw. The strands cut through the substance of the dog. Its coherent form exploded, smoke and sparks littering the air. The fire was just gone. Not lost coherence. Gone.
Kim’s eyes focused on the destruction for a mikro then she pushed her Magick out, silently screaming for the elementals to stop their charge. Three dogs skidded to a stop and padded backwards before dropping to a sit just shy of the edge of the web. Air continued to swirl. The strands didn’t seem to affect it, but it also wasn’t affecting the web.
Before Kim could consider the merits of trying Water or Earth a figure shimmered into shape near the wall she could see from her bound position. At first it was vaguely blob like, featureless and of an indeterminate height. Then as she watched it shrunk down, its features settling into those of the Grandmother from Roanne’s adventure.
“ARFA?” Prairie’s voice called out from somewhere to Kim’s left.
There was movement from the right of the Grandmother and then another person joined her. Or entity? Because it was the figure of the harp they had encountered when rescuing Mal.
As Kim watched its features shifted, male to female. Its height elongated one mikro, shrunk the next. And its bulk shifted from thin to fat to thin to somewhere in between. Its form did not retain any solidity for more than a few mikros before flowing to the next.
Its movements were fluid, a compliment to the shifting form. There was something organic while also feeling far removed from nature about the way it moved. It came to a halt beside the grandmother and its head tipped as it ran a gaze that shifted from mikro to mikro over Kim and the others suspended in the web.
Despite the shifting there was one commonality to the features – the utter detachment of the expression as the being observed them like the bugs they appeared to be trapped in the web.
Movement to the right and a woman sauntered up next to the grandmother. She had waist-length hair. The chandelier’s light picked out blonde strands. Brown. Red. Pink. Turquoise. Purple. It took Kim a moment to connect the hair to the woman who had danced with Ivan when they were looking for Grace.
She tipped her head, the movement eerily similar to the way the Harp’s head moved. Not, not eerily similar. Absolutely the same. As Kim watched the Grandmother echoed the movement. That sinuous slide that denied the existence of a backbone. All three heads tipped in exactly the same way. At the same time. Synchronized. Or like they were one entity with three forms.
“ARFA!” the sick-sweet voice from before called out.
The three figures tipped their heads back until their gazes were on the ceiling. They twitched and then a shudder went down each of their forms from head to toe. Once that passed they all redirected their gaze to the web and those trapped within it.
And then the web constricted. Not slow and steady. Hard. Strands going tight around Kim’s neck, choking her. A band around her chest, making it impossible to draw a breath. And all the strands wrapping her limps went taut, yanking her arms and her legs out until the joints in her wrists and ankles screamed.
Her Magick burst from her, out of her control. Elementals flew through the strands around her. Air with no effect. Fire exploding as it came into contact with the web. Water flowed, vicious and strong. It avoided her head but by the sounds of choking to either side of her it was drowning her friends.
No! She called out in her head. No! She fought to regain control but her vision was dimming and her grasp on anything, most especially something that required the iron control of her Magick, fled her. Black rushed in, her vision going blurry and then blank. She took one last strangled breath and then she flopped into blackness.
#
Water surged across Abe’s head, yanking and tearing at their hair. Instinctively they understood they were lucky the web held them face towards the floor or they were sure the water would be in their mouth and nose as based on the sounds of choking around them it was doing to the others of their group.
Then the current stopped. Abruptly. Or rather the water current stopped. The other current, one of ink swimming with words upon words upon words tumbling over each other, Abe had been watching swirl across the air inches from their face where they hung in the web kept moving.
Abe felt as if they could just focus enough it would make sense. They squinted and then tightened the muscle that wasn’t a muscle they used in their head to work with their Magick and the flow separated enough that it started to take on coherent form. First the floor formed. To an extent. The current still flowed but it flowed in the shape of boards and nails and below that joists and…
Whoa. Abe drew back from the deep dive into the floor before it seized their brain and they dug deeper and deeper until they found the core of the world. They unfocused their eyes and let go a little on the tight grip on their Magick, letting it move out so they could get more of a grasp of the reality the ink defined. The strands forming the web came into shape, each strand made up of ink that flowed in words. Or words that flowed in ink. It was hard to separate it. They weren’t sure they could.
And there they went losing the flow again. Concentrate, Abe! It felt important. It felt consequential and important and right. Like the ink was demanding their focus on it.
“Momma! Momma!” The sound of Sass’ screaming song drew their mind away from the ink for a moment.
Face down they couldn’t tell what was going on. Frustration mounted in their chest and they twitched their limbs. Before they could adjust even slightly the strands holding them tightened to the point of pain. As it had every other time they tried moving. Just as then they forced themselves to relax. The strands relaxed with them, becoming a cocoon rather than a tourniquet.
“Momma!” Again Sass screamed. And suddenly from their left Abe felt or saw something happen to the web. Several strands snapped, the sound more a feeling Abe felt in their core. The ink in the strands crossing Abe’s face shifted, the words moved, and in that movement there was a truth that spoke to Abe’s soul. Or their Magick.
Or maybe there was no difference. Not that such mattered in this moment.
They let the distraction go and focused hard on a single strand of the words that were strands that were web that were ink and more. Oh. Were they code? Abe didn’t know a whole lot about how machines worked, but they’d read about the computers that Nulls used to do their work. Those devices used words within logic sequences called code to do their computation.
Abe suspected that ARFA was very, very distant from those machines but it had been implied it was a computation device. So, did it use code? To define reality? Was that what the words, the ink, were?
Yes. Somehow Abe knew they were right. ARFA used code to define reality. And Abe saw that code as ink that was words upon words.
Could they change it? Was that how their Magick worked?
The certainty of this supposition settled in their mind. Yes. They could change it. They could pull the words in the ink into themselves and they could make this stop. There was no doubt in their mind of that.
Now they just had to. Tentatively they released their Magick, focusing it on the strand of web that was code crossing their cheekbones just below their eyes. It was the easiest to zoom in on with their Magick as their Magick was tied to their vision and it was the strand they could see the best.
Before they could fully focus a wave of ink smashed into their face. They blinked to clear their vision and the word Hope surged across their eyes. It tangled in their lashes, causing them to blink. And then it was gone, rushing back across their face and in the direction it had come.
Abe flung their Magick as hard as they could after it. They felt ink surge down their right arm and off that way but it was already gone.
Their heart sank as the realization that Hope had separated from Dan’s skin. They hoped with all their might – Hoped – it found its way back there. That it hadn’t abandoned Dan. That they could figure this puzzle out before it was too late.
Urgency battered inside their chest as they focused again on the strand of code resting on their cheeks. They widened their gaze, letting it go hazy, and willed their Magick to grasp the words making up the strand. Slowly, slowly, particles pulled away from it.
Ink danced on the air before Abe’s eyes then dropped and soaked into the skin of their cheeks. They wet their lips, feeling another strand crossing there. And they flowed their Magick over it, told it there was a place for it within them and it just had to come home.
Come Home!
Abe opened their heart to the ink and it responded, drops lifting up in a cloud that hovered for a moment and then flew upwards. Instinctively Abe drew in a breath and the ink flowed over their tongue and then traveled beyond.
Somewhere along the web Abe heard Siobhan cry out.
From another direction Kirby spoke in the somber voice of the head called ‘One’, “My one. I do not want to take you.”
“It’s okay, One.” Prairie’s words came out on panting breaths. “It’s a journey.” She slowed with each word until the last were slurred. “Not a destination.”
And then there was silence.
Too slow! They were going too slow! They needed to do more. Faster.
Now.
Urgency was its own heartbeat in Abe’s chest. They closed their eyes and imagined all the strands of the web holding them and the others. They opened themselves to the structure of the strands, called to the words that were the logic that defined them, and invited them all in.
Come home. I will shelter you.
The message left them, carried by their Magick, and then they felt the reverse flow as words lost coherence, became droplets of ink undefined, rose in a clouds of black that hovered on the air.
Abe relaxed all their muscles, softening into the strands that still held them, and released every measure of control they had. They lost all sense of the edges of their body. It was like they were limitless. They were beyond definition.
Clouds of ink engulfed them. Their skin opened, their pores drank in the words. Euphoria hazed their thoughts as all coherency abandoned them. They became as much code as Abe or maybe they expanded the code that defined Abe.
A laugh burst from them and then they were breathing deep as the ink poured in. So much ink there was no room for air. But they didn’t need air because code didn’t need air. Unless code wanted it. And the Abe Code did not want or need air. They just needed more ink. All the ink. Every last drop of ink.
‘No!’ A voice that sounded like all voices, like all music overlapping, like the trip of hundreds of thousands of heartbeats in syncopation blasted through Abe. Through every word of the loose code that was Abe. And it demanded cohesion. It demanded the gaps in the code tighten.
‘Enough! You have done enough, child of our heart.’
Bright light filled Abe’s vision and then they were in a room. They were free of webs. They were sitting in a chair before a drawing board and they had a pen in their hand. It was their happy place, with a pen and paper and nothing to do but create.
Into that space footsteps came. Abe looked over in the direction of them and saw a figure approach. It was tall. No it was short. No it was both and neither at the same time. Its features were exquisite. The perfect representation of non-binary beauty.
In that moment Abe understood the truth that they embraced came from this. From their connection to something so much more than the definitions others insisted were necessary to accept.
This was Faith. Tears prickled Abe’s eyes and they had to blink hard to keep them from flowing.
“Cry,” the beautiful being smiled and that smile opened something in Abe they’d locked away so very long ago. “Feel. Be.”
The voice of the being encompassed multiple harmonies. Abe was sure Patti could explain the phenomenon in ways that made sense but for Abe it was enough to just listen to that voice that they realized, in that moment, they had heard as an echo of their heartbeat for so long.
The being opened their arms. Abe surged from their chair, tripping over their own feet as they closed the distance between them and threw themselves into the being’s arms. They relaxed into the being’s chest, into the embrace of what felt more right than anything had ever felt. In that moment they were accepted and loved and it was enough.
They were enough.
“You have to go back now,” the multilayered voice whispered against the top of Abe’s head.
Abe shook their head in denial, rubbing their forehead against the being’s collarbone. “No.”
The chest below them rose on a chuckle. “Yes. And thank you.”
Abe reared back to look into the beautiful face. “For what?”
“For clearing the chaos. If only for a moment. It feels so good to be free.”
Before Abe could get out their “what?” the safe space dissolved around them. They were once more in webs but those webs were a cloud of ink and that ink could not hold them. A startled yelp burst from them as they fell with a thump, knees and then chest, and then face bouncing on the wood floor.
Around them were more sounds of impacting bodies. They pushed up on shaky hands and looked around, quickly cataloguing where the others lay. Ivan was the first to rise to hands and knees and he began hacking and gasping for breath. Dempsey rolled to his side and drew his knees to his chest, linking his arms around his legs as his big body heaved with spasms. Dan lay on his back, his dazed gaze locked on the ceiling.
Farther along Gwen reached out a hand to Prairie who lay on her side unmoving. At Gwen’s touch Prairie’s limbs twitched and her eyes opened to stare around the space like she wasn’t seeing it.
Patti lay on her back. She reached out a hand, groping at the floor. “Sass?” she rasped. She lifted her other hand and pressed it to her throat then raised her voice to rasp louder, “Sass!”
From by the wall the sound of mice claws sounded on the floor and then Sass was rocketing towards Patti’s grasping hand. Tears poured down Patti’s face as Sass scrambled up her arm and nestled in the crook of her neck making pathetic peeping sounds.
As Abe searched for Kim and Siobhan a voice called out, “ARFA!”
The same voice that had called out before. And three figures shimmered into view against the curved wall. One was an older woman with rounded features and upswept hair. Next to her was a woman with hair below her knees in every color Abe could imagine and some they weren’t sure existed in reality. To the other side of the older woman was The Figure. The beautiful figure who had spoken with Abe in their Safe Space.
All three turned in a single motion, gazes locking on Abe. And as one they mouthed, “Run!”
How did Abe know they mouthed run when it could have been so many other words. Because the word smashed into them and screamed in their being, locking their limbs for a mikro before they were able to shake loose of the effect.
Abe shoved up to their knees, cast their gaze around their friends, and voiced the word echoing in them. “Run!”
“Abe?” Ivan lifted his head to squint at Abe.
Abe reached inside of themselves for their well of Magick. They demanded their eyes see ink, not the space around them or the shape of the things and people within it. Once their vision was nothing but black they sank their fingers into the ink and pulled their hands apart, tearing a hole in the darkness.
Bright light exploded from the divide, bright enough Abe had to shy their eyes to not be blinded. They turned, blinking away hot tears.
“Run!” Abe repeated, putting every ounce of their spirit into it. “Get Bria! Run!”
With that Abe stumbled to their feet and threw themselves across the space separating them from the three figures. They held their arms wide and they opened their Magick, releasing it in a wave that rocked the three. Their feet left the ground as their Magick drew them towards the figures.
With a burst of strength, they sent a wave of ink out, wrapping it around the forms of their friends, and shoved them towards the gap they’d torn in this reality. They sent their Magick out, seeking the figure in the bed, then wrapped it up too and shoved it gap bound.
After that they curled their shoulders forward, leaning into their forward momentum, ensuring the greatest impact when they reached their goal. They had a moment to question their actions but no more as they crashed into the three.
One moment they were airborne. The next they were flying into the three figures, the force of their movement carrying them and the three across the floor and into the wall. Their last thought before impact was for their friends and the woman they’d come to rescue.
“Run,” they whispered as they sank into darkness.
Enter The Woods 