NaNoWriMo 2003
National Novel Writing Month Challenge.
Please excuse grammatical errors ^o^;;
Word count: 52,116/50,000!!
Bloody Cereal Boxes
11.24.03 ~Update: FINISHED! ^____^
Chapters 1-10
Chapters 11-20
Chapter 21
Ancient Rome
Diant had seethed the whole way back, not a word to either Bremitus or Selene, so they chose to stay silent. Selene could have used her divine influence with the moon and sleep to get him to open up, but she had been refraining from trying to affect this set of mortals with her power. It was interesting to see how they worked things out manually when they weren't constantly praying to the gods. Actually, these Romans seemed more independent than she was used to with the Greeks. Those Greeks would flee to the temples and shrines for almost anything that struck their fancy, it got a little annoying, but at least it kept the ichor running strong through the immortal veins.
As soon as they got to his home, Diant Matyre blocked off the archway to his personal chamber, or chambers, she wasn't sure. Bremitus sighed and took a seat on one of the very few plushy lounge chairs that decorated the entrance hall. Selene plopped down on the other one, the one across from him with a slightly confused and curious expression on her face.
"Do you have any idea what that man said to him?" Her head tilted to the side in a pretty picture of curiosity with a couple strands of dark hair falling across her face before she knocked them away.
"I think I might have and idea what it was about, but I cannot be sure until I ask him myself. I wouldn't dare right now. My friend is plagued by a silent anger until a question or a statement makes him snap into a fully blown-out rage. I've been on the other end of that rage a couple of times, and it wasn't pretty. No way am I going to do exactly what would set him off," he shook his head, glancing in the general direction that Diant went. Selene sighed. "Why do you care, mysterious little Athelinda?" She blinked, a bit taken aback by the somewhat accusatory tone in his voice.
"He seemed really upset, and he has allowed me to stay here, lent me clothing, and not to mention the invitation to the dinner," she replied after thinking on it for a second. Why exactly did she care so much? Oh, dammit. Selene clenched her eyes closed. The last time she fell in love with a mortal, she got knocked up with fifty constantly drowsy daughters. What a horror that was. Selene opened her eyes again to find Bremitus with an unusual expression on his face as he looked at her.
"What?" she inquired, blinking, but the expression didn't quite leave his face.
"I don't think you are who you pretend to be."
"I'm not pretending to be anyone, I never even told you or Diant a thing about me, so how could I pretend?" she protested in slight annoyance, emotion apparent in her tone. Bremitus laughed, his eyes sparkling.
"Don't worry. I won't tell," he replied enigmatically, "But you will have to some day." This left Selene very puzzled. There was no way in the entire Abyss that he knew who she was. Most of her fellow gods wouldn't recognize her if it wasn't for her outfit. Then they'd most likely think it to be sheer coincidence. "Anyway. I think that Marcus might have said something rude about Diant's deceased fiancé." Selene's eyes widened before she blinked again. The man had been planning on marrying before?
"How'd she die?" Selene leaned back against the cushions, a bit stunned about the prospect of the man coming that close to being married. It's not like that would have changed anything for her but it just seemed odd.
"We aren't quite sure, but we know it was poison. Whether she did it herself or it was a fellow politician's doing, we can't figure out. I've always had a suspicion that somehow it was Marcus's fault. She had betrayed Diant, and had an affair with Marcus and it was only a few weeks later when we found her poisoned. Diant mourned her for near a year, even though she had played him like a fool, and she's a sore subject still." Bremitus sighed a bit. Ah. The intrigues of quasi-intelligent mortals. She'd have been extremely confused if she wasn't one that always kept up on the divine gossip and going ons. It didn't interest her half as much as these insane mortals, but it gave her some preparation.
"I could see why it would be." Selene nodded at the same time as he did, both in a thoughtful manner. "Though, I do hope he'll come out again tonight."
"I sincerely doubt it, my lady. When he takes a stand like this, he'll be in there until at least midday tomorrow, trying to curb his rage. He doesn't want to take it out on anyone he is friends with." She made a slightly disappointed hmph and he quirked an eyebrow. "I'm sure that you're tired by now, Athelinda."
"Oh...well. Not really, I got a late start today," she replied quickly. Selene really didn't feel like sleeping or resting right now. Instead, she wanted to have a long conversation about the complexities of mortal life or at least about specific mortals. She wanted to hear all about their politics and societies, what they were going to do worldwide, how their religious beliefs worked. Greece fell, what would stop the Romans? But to have a conversation like that, it would have to be known that she wasn't like them. That she wasn't a Roman or even a mortal, and if they knew that, who knows what would happen.
"I see," he replied, nodding his head like he really did understand, "I also wouldn't be able to fall asleep right now even if I wanted to."
"Why's that?"
"If I knew, I'd have told you," he smiled an amused little smile and stretched back, looking around the place. Selene did the same, trying to identify sources of entertainment but only managing to confuse herself.
"So... what do you do for fun around here?" she asked, still looking around with an arched eyebrow.
"Nothing really. I never really spend too much time here except for a convenient location for a meeting, to visit Diant, you know. We never really do anything here. Diant, as far as I know, just reads, writes, and entertains here. I've never seen anything to suggest he had other hobbies or games lurking about."
"I see..." she sighed a bit in boredom. Bremitus chuckled and stood up, gesturing for her to join him.
"Well if we are going to sit around, we might as well do it with some of Diant's wine stores. That's what he gets from hiding in the solitude of his room." He winked at her and she laughed, liking the idea.
"Sounds like a plan. We could always claim that we were so depressed by his absence that the only option was to drink ourselves to oblivion," she replied with a grin, winking back. Of course, it was near impossible for her to get drunk on the mortal excuses for a good vintage, but it was still wine. Sort of. It was more for the company than for the drink. Perhaps if they had anything stronger than their wine, she could watch and laugh as she drank Bremitus under the table.
"Is red fine?" He lifted a bottle, displaying the label to her for an appraising eye.
"Anything's fine." He laughed
"I agree." Bremitus uncorked the bottle, pulling down two glasses and filling them reasonably. He gestured for her to sit in one of the chairs placed around the small table and even cushioned slightly on the seat. Selene did just that, putting her feet up and accepting one of the glasses before he sat down himself.
"So... how do you know Diant?" She took a sip of the wine, mentally shrugging at the sub-standard taste and level of intoxicants. Bremitus smiled and leaned back in the chair in that stance that most people took when recalling something pleasant or just starting to tell a story.
"Diant and I met each other at one of my parent's parties. Both of our parents were of the wealthy, though mine were a little more endowed than his, so this led them to be extreme snobs always picking at any flaw in our decisions or choices. I was about 13 years old at the time and greatly annoyed at my parents for dragging me to this party, which was free of most any girls around my age. Exactly what I didn't want," he paused for a second to chuckle before continuing, "Well, I wanted to escape the clustered room and too heavily spiced food, so I went outside and found a pathetic-looking Diant. He was about two years younger than me, but at that moment, he looked at least five less. He was a late bloomer, or so they call it," he explained smirking a bit. "We talked for a bit and I found out that his parents had pulled him along to this too, which didn't really inspire much sympathy from me when I thought he was just a child.
"The next time I saw Diant, maybe a year I want to say, he was taller than me and much more fit. Of course, I didn't recognize him until he hit almost the same pathetic and bored expression he had the first time. We talked for longer this time, finding that we were pretty similar in tastes and hobbies, finding each other interesting and funny. Though, I think that Diant has been slowly losing some of his humor and cunning in this harsh world of politics. We started meeting up with each other to cause havoc, get women, and drink. We continued that as mooching bums until the gateway to the influential world opened up at the death of his parents. (Mine didn't die until later, after 'helping' to fund us for a while)
"Diant's father and mother didn't leave anything of the family to him, only to his older brother and his wife, who were quite happy to receive the entire estate and not give Diant an ounce of his parent's money. He set out on the street and I didn't hear from him for a couple of months until I found him in a bar, in a dirty drunken daze. I pulled him to my home, cleaned him up and he barricaded himself in the guest room I gave him, only coming out to thank me for helping him out.
"The third time he left the room, I caught him and kept him out, getting him to tell me what was up. An enemy of theirs poisoned his parents and it was perfectly allowed because of the corrupt laws and regulations that undermined the just. The real laws were full of loopholes or just not enforced because the emperor didn't really care. Diant didn't care much for his parents' death, but upon realization of the government problems, he wanted to speak his mind. This life is really a pointless one because of the ultimate power of the emperor, but we can at least influence some of the people who don't know any better than just accept anything people try to force them into." Bremitus finally finished, leaning back from the semi-hunch storytelling position he had fallen into. Selene quirked an eyebrow, a bemused smile nestled on her lips. The man had told her how he had met Diant, what happened to his parents, and even how they had gotten into politics. A little more than she asked for, but that was all right. She kind of wanted to know as much as she could about the pair of them.
"That was in-depth..." she grinned slightly while he chuckled.
"The summarized version, my lady. You should hear the abridged." He downed the rest of his second-- or third, she couldn't remember-- glass of wine, refilling it. She shook her head in quiet laughter.
"Well that's a bit of my history, what of yours? You don't seem... used to our lifestyle." Bremitus had to think for a couple of seconds before putting the words together, giving her a look.
"My family wasn't from the city. I was born just about as far from here as you can get and still be considered part of here, so we had much different, but rural traditions. I only moved here about a year ago and haven't really been formally introduced to exactly how things work over here." The words spilled from her lips as she laughed inwardly at the pitiful lie that made sense in a twisted way. At least it seemed to click in his mind as a sound of understanding was muttered.
"But you seem so... sure of yourself and educated for one of that background..."
"All of my relatives considered me too cocky and too smart-mouthed to keep around, why else would they get rid of me?" she grinned at him as she struggled not to burst out laughing and fixed the top of her outfit to keep from falling out. He chuckled, sounding a bit tipsy.
The conversation continued into the night until he fell asleep after too much wine and she just allowed her body to sleep because there was no other reason to stay awake. Though she was aware of Diant's presence in the morning, or afternoon, when he came in to toss a woven blanket across her, not daring to wake her. Bremitus was already awake and probably gone, but Selene was still 'sleeping'.
When she finally awoke, she found that she was half naked underneath the blanket and laughed. Maybe that is why he covered her up, didn't want a topless woman left exposed and sleeping in the lounge-dining hall with a couple of bottles of wine lying empty around her just in case he had company. She pulled off the rest of the 'dress' and tossed it on the floor, standing up with the blanket partially wrapped around her as he came in.
Selene didn't try to cover herself in embarrassment, she was comfortably in nudity as most goddesses, and Diant didn't blush or even advert his eyes right away. She arched an eyebrow at him, finishing wrapping the blanket around her, and chuckled. Blinking a bit, he looked up from the floor and back at her.
"Good morning, Athelinda."
"Is it really morning?"
"Of course not." He grinned and she smirked. To get even, she'd half to see him naked. That time would come, she knew it would.
<
Chapter 22: Funeral Party
Finding a black outfit for the funeral was far from difficult for Silane and board was just as easy because the funeral was being held pretty close to where she used to live and her friend Alex was going to let her stay there for a couple of nights. She also couldn't say that she was mourning the death of Thomas Kildarre because of how she viewed life and death, but Sil did mourn the loss of his opinions in her life. It was more of a selfish thing, like most people who sob and cry over the body of a dead man or woman.
The place was overflowing with people coming to witness the funeral ceremony. Family was near the front of course, but only some of them looked distraught while the others were just sighing at the loss of their brother, uncle, nephew, cousin, whatever relation he was to them. Sil tilted her head to the side, trying to figure out whether they were British or not because she always heard Thomas speaking with a faint accent that she just assumed was British, but never had any proof to back it up.
Silane walked up to sit with a couple people she recognized from her college course and listened to the man, whether he was religious or not she couldn't tell, start the ceremony. People walked up to the podium one by one and gave their speeches on the man that laid in the casket behind them, many with a longing sorrow potent in their voices. She didn't really pay attention to their words, mainly their tones until a youthful looking man stood up and took his place.
One of Sil's eyebrows arched as she took note of his lack of formal clothing, an untucked black button-up shirt and a pair of black slacks and her interest was sparked from the cool and easy way he walked up the couple of stairs and took raised the mic at the podium.
"My Uncle Thomas was a... good man. Interesting as he may be. He wasn't around for too much of my life, but I've heard many, many stories about things he has done and I can somewhat remember certain occasions." His voice faltered as he thought up more things to say. Of course, he didn't prepare anything. "There was this one time, his going-away party..." A sigh of shame from one person who knew where this was going and a snicker from another. The man seemed encouraged by the response. "The one time at his party for when he left for here, New York, he hired twenty strippers to come to my father's house while inviting almost all of the family, male or female." There were a few muffled giggles.
"My father was outraged at the turn of the party because he wasn't expecting anything of the sort from his brother, despite the fact that the rest of the family figured it would turn out as something like that. I remember that I was there, vaguely because I was only five, but man, they had some great cake. That was the most fabulous cake I have ever had in my life." It was silent except for Silane's giggles and the snickers of another female timbre near the immediate relatives section. She figured the everyone else didn't understand, and sure enough there were a couple other chuckles throughout the place while a couple of the family members grinned or rolled their eyes in annoyance at the delivery of the story.
"In short, Thomas Kildarre was a lively and interesting man who knew exactly what he wanted and how to get it, but have fun at the same time." With that, he smothered a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth and stepped down the stairs, taking his seat again. Silane followed him with her eyes the whole time. Now that was an outrageous and gifted speaker. She smiled a bit smugly to herself, determined to meet him and talk to him for a bit, though socializing with random guys was far from her expertise.
No one else dared go to the podium after that little bit and reflection, so the leader-- some relative she has figured by now-- returned to it and informed everyone that they were now transporting the late Thomas Kildarre to the cemetery and anyone that wished to attend the burial was welcome to join. They were only across the street from the cemetery, so the casket bearers stood on all sides of the coffin, the charismatic speaker holding the back end, and walked through the door, procession following in line. Silane wondered what was on the tombstone.
The burial went fine, people feigning solemnity after the ceremony and once it was over and everyone scattered, Sil sifted through the moving crowds to locate the speaker. There he was. She spotted the man talking to a woman dressed spiffily as they both laughed quietly. She started forwards, but the man walked away just as she neared to talk to someone else. Starting to follow him, her chunky boots lost hold in the muddy ground and her feet slid out from under her.
The woman he was talking to helped Silane up as the man turned himself, most likely because of the sound of surprise she had made when she slipped.
"Are you all right?" he asked, helping to steady her. Sil nodded a bit, trying to brush away some of the filth, but only spreading the mud more. The other woman shook her head a bit as the man nodded a bit to himself and walked away, seeing she was fine. The woman lingered.
"Sorry to see a skirt like that covered in mud. I'm Mari," she said, holding out her hand. Sil took it and shook it lightly, barely noticing the Irish hint in her accent, though she looked more Asian than anything else. "So, you knew Mr. Kildarre?" Sil just nodded again, but Mari's critical glance made her spill more.
"Yeah... I was a student of his... but also a friend. He was a nice man with an interesting perspective on things so sometimes I kinda used him to tell him about things going on my life and get my opinions. I think he knew me a lot better than I knew him..." she stuttered a bit. The woman, Mari, let up a bit, smiling softly.
"There were a lot of his students here, a lot more than I expected." Sil didn't really have much to say to that, just nodding and looking around a bit. Almost shiftily. Mari moved to leave, but realization struck that she probably knew the man, and Sil burst out,
"How did you know him? Related?" This went against almost all of the social protocol she had set up for herself so long ago.
"Almost. I'm a really good friend of the family, so they all knew me very well." She looked around, very conspicuously. "I didn't really know him myself, but I figured it'd be a good place to catch up with the rest of Teran's family. I haven't seen them in a year or two." Teran? Maybe she meant the man. Oh Sil hoped that she meant the man.
"Teran?" Might as well ask, just to be sure.
"Yeah, he's just over..." Mari picked through the clusters of people, but heard her voice being called. "Well, I have to go, but he was the one that talked about the strippers. He can be funny when he tries." She waved a bit and was gone like mist in the morning. So it was him. Teran. Something about the name appealed to her. Oh and his accent. That was just beautiful. Wait. What was this? An infatuation with someone she had never said a word to? Typical. Just typical. Silane sighed a bit, rubbing at the mud a bit more, picking some drying bits out of the black lace that hung down from the edge of the black skirt.
She walked through the cemetery in a bit of a daze, puzzling out the different people she had seen there, but mostly thinking about Teran and his little friend, Mari. Were they a couple? It kind of seemed like it to her. They were so familiar towards each other in just the few minutes Sil had seen them together. And Mari's parting comment made her suspicions grow. Well... they could just be friends. Their atmosphere could just be from a long companionship. In fact, they seemed a little too conspiratory to be a couple, just old, trouble-causing friends. The comment must have just been a shot at him. You know, the way old friends always make vague insults at each other, not really meaning it. But then again, couples did that too sometimes.
Now she was confused. Silane sat down on a headstone and sighed a bit, leaning forward to read the inscription upside-down.
"Jonathan Moore: 1934-1998
Loud mouth of New York.
Angered many, amused few
At least death is mute."
Haiku. Nice. Sil wondered if he had thought it up himself or one of his friend thought it would be a funny thing to have on a gravestone. She stood up, barely noticing the moisture on her ass because of the stone, and walked through the cemetery as she had done numerous times before when she was younger. A couple had white lilies or rotting flowers at upon the marked places of earth where their deceased deteriorated unnoticed until someone remembered that they once existed.
Finally leaving the place, she walked the five city blocks to Alex's, opening the door with her spare keys and immediately changing out of the now uncomfortable, mud-splattered skirt she was dressed in. Not knowing exactly what to do with it, she left it on the floor and yawned, looking around. Sil had met one of Alex's roommates, all three were guys, and he seemed a little too happy about a female body sleeping at their place, but it was unlikely that he would try to rape her in her sleep. Alex, she knew was happy in his relationship, and what she had picked up about the third roommate was that he was a bit of a smooth player and didn't do the whole take-advantage thing.
Paranoia settled, Sil changed into a pair of loose shorts and a tank top, curling up on the couch with a couple blankets and falling asleep quickly.
Sitting in the dark crimson abyss where the obsidian box resided, a beautiful, but dark woman sat. The tormented smile of the masochistic rested on her lips as she stroked across the box, which in turn was slowly loosing luster. She recognized it as the box that cried tears when the twisted black creatures moved, surrounding the woman and lapping at the blood around her and along the sides of the box. The dark beauty raised her head and looked straight at her.
"I thank you for releasing opening the power. I may not have won it yet, but it will be mine, no matter what you attempt. I know where two of you are and the third is within my grasp, I just need to locate her. You think you know so much, don't you?" The smirk grew on the woman's lips, as crimson as the blood around her. "No matter what you think, there is no way you can take this from me. No way you can take what took me so long to get another chance at." Her breath caught.
A man walked in, carrying the same orb from before, relit. The creatures fled behind the tattered skirts of the dark woman as she continued stroking a crack in the box. He looked misplaced and confused himself, but held the orb surely.
"So, she thinks, she can take protect one of you? The foolish woman never learned through these eons?" For some reason, it seemed like the dark woman was talking to her, like before, but she didn't understand a word she said. The dark creature shook her head again, watching the man who had been listening in confusion. She slipped in a pool of what was most likely blood and her thoughts returned to the darkness.
Chapter 23: Run-ins, Oh My!
Teran woke up in a warp of confusion. That, by far, was the strangest dream he had ever had since that one time he had downed milk, Tabasco sauce, and sugar for five pounds and went to bed right after collecting his money. He looked down at his hands and tried to figure out where the residual feeling of a cool fire was coming from. Besides the fact that they were shaking, they looked perfectly normal.
Mari woke up in the bed that was an ocean of plush carpet away, about two or three feet. She looked and the clock and grumbled profanities, squinting at him in the faint light of dawn that glowed through the thick curtains,
"Wha' are ya up for? Too bloomin' early for this..." Mari's voice always was crazily accented and slow as soon as she woke up, and for a maximum of two hours after that, depending on exactly whether or not she woke up at a disagreeable time. Though, anytime to wake up as disagreeable for her.
Teran sighed, confused and replayed his dream through his head, able to remember it quite vividly. He retold it out loud to her, asking for a bit of help. Mari looked at the mocking face of the digital clock, to him, back at the clock and pulled her covers over her head in an unspoken sign of protest.
"But the strangest part was that the woman looked like Rose-Claire from the pool match," he concluded. The name caused a snicker from under her covers. At least Mari was still awake, no matter for the lack of movement or key response. "But she had a completely different attitude. I mean, I've never seen the pool girl dressed in tattered and scanty black clothing in a puddle of blood, but I doubt she is capable of such a sinister tone that flowed from those crimson lips. That woman was up to no good."
"And the blood and little dark gremlin creatures of lost souls didn't warn you about that right away?" A verbal response from under layers of excessive blankets. Teran blinked and rolled his eyes. Damned disagreeable woman she was in the morning. And 24 hours a day.
"You think it means something though? You think it could be real?" Teran looked around a bit, cautious to even be asking the question, but it wasn't unlike powerful creatures to run rampant through dreams, trying to get points across or even the helpful ones were out to warn and protect.
"It could have been maybe a malevolent faerie-type or some form of a... returned essence." Mari mused, finally emerging from under the covers. She spent most of her early childhood in Ireland, where she was born, so she was well adjusted to the ideas of a 'supernatural' creature of sorts doing as they pleased with mortals. Teran frowned more and sighed. "I dun think ya should worry, Terrakins. It usually doesn't mean anything unless the dream is reoccurring or progressive. So, I think you are alright if you don't have any similar dreams soon."
"If you think so, Mari," Teran plopped back down against the pillows and shut his eyes. Mari gurgled some and repositioned herself in the mound of pillows and blankets she was nesting in, most of which she stole from his bed. As soon as he shut his eyes, what he had seen in his dream played over and over again across his eyelids, and each time he analyzed it, trying to make sense of it.
After the other woman had left, the dark creature had hissed and turned on him, but was unable to do anything expect puff up like a disturbed swan in annoyance and anger. A couple of the gremlin things had tried attacking them, but floundered in the bloody pools that were scattered across the floor. The female-formed thing had spat more words of arrogance, anger, and banishment until the orb in his hands engulfed his digits with its refreshing light and fire, letting them tingle in the coolness he could barely feel. He had faded from the scene and woke up confused. Teran felt like he was missing something in the dream, like there was someone, or something else there. Or at least a theme that he didn't understand, maybe dialogue he missed by only a couple of seconds.
Once a couple of hours had passed, he gave up and walked out into the hallway, taking the elevator down to the main floor and the free breakfast that supposedly awaited him there. It was 6:30 on a business day, so of course the place was open and he had the fresh pick of the buffet items as well as an alert, caffeine-hyped staff that would hopefully be able to cook things up exactly how they should be cooked instead of any other, obscure way. He got some cereal and milk; ordering a veggie and sausage omelet from the kitchen as he plopped down at a table, bag of tea brewing in some near-boiling water in front of him.
Just as he was pulling the teabag out of the mug and setting it to the side, mixing in the customary sugar, a woman sat down across from him. Teran blinked a couple of times when his quasi-active brain put her face together with an identity.
"Mila? What are you doing here?" She took a sip of her own caffeinated liquid, tea or coffee he wasn't sure, and shrugged.
"Wedding. You?"
"Funeral." He smiled a bit at the polar occasions they had come for.
"Oh yes, that's right. I should have remembered. Your... uncle, right?" He nodded and she took another sip from her mug. "I wasn't sure whether or not it was you, but it seems that I guessed right. So, how are you liking New York?"
"It's just another big city, besides, I've been here before." She made a tsking sound, shaking her head a bit.
"Aren't we being curt this morning?"
"Why are you so bloody cheerful?" Teran winced. Mila was rarely ever like this, especially when she wanted him to do something for her. She raised her mug.
"Fourth one. I've been up since 5:00." Now that was something he could understand. "Besides, who wouldn't be cheerful to see their favorite little underling completely unexpected at the same hotel?" Rhetorical. He yawned, maybe if he was more awake he would have answered or at least defended himself, but it was still too early, no matter how alert his mind had been earlier.
"Expedia." He explained it all in one word. It was a pretty nice hotel actually, but he got his room nice and cheap buy attempting to use those online coupons and having Mari bitch the manager out until they accepted the faulty coupons and still gave them the discount.
"Ah." Mila glanced around a bit at the suits walking in to plug into the open DSL cable and complete whatever pricey business transactions they had to complete.
"My friend and I are planning on going around town later tonight, if you have nothing better to do, you could always join us?" Teran yawned again, creating the completely relaxed and casual with the slick skills he rarely possessed. Mila seemed to considerate for a while and nodded, downing the rest of her coffee.
"Sounds good." She scribbled down her cell phone number on a napkin and slid it across the table, keeping the casual feeling to the whole conversation and transaction. "Here. Call me when you guys decide on a place, time, and all that good stuff." Leaving her coffee cup on the table, she sauntered off, a bit smugly to do whatever she was originally planning to do. 735-3630 written clearly on the napkin she allowed him. Teran picked it up, folded it and set it in his pocket smugly.
He was a lot more awake now than he was before and eagerly at his omelet when it arrived, devouring the eggy goodness that it was made of. Once he was finished, he took the elevator back to his room and dumped a bucket of ice and the freezing, semi-melted water on top of the mound that rested on one of the beds. A hiss of an indrawn breath and a shiver responded immediately.
Teran dropped the bucket and stood back as Mari sat up slowly, shrugging off the soaked blanket and turned her head towards him, eye twitching. He smothered his laughter as she looked at the clock flashing 8:00 and back at him, the clock, then him
"That better be pm..." she growled menacingly. He winced, still with a quasi-innocent smile glued too his face as he shook his head. Her head twitched to the side. "It's 8:00 am...?" Teran nodded. She scowled, reaching down to chuck the ice bucket at his head. Bullseye. And Teran was down for the count.
Chapter 24
Ancient Rome
Hecate grinned, "Come here my little Maerg." She stepped forward, seething about the sullied name that the witch had forced upon her. The original Maerg was a mortal in Hecate's temple, a companion of Medea until she murdered her kin. That Maerg had begun sacrificing human and animal flesh to Hecate, drinking from their blood first and relishing in the scent of fresh or decayed meat. She was a disgusting specimen that had to be swatted down by Zeus and Hera. It was one of the first things they had agreed upon in a really long time so it had marked a monumental event, at least until they started fighting again.
"Yes, mistress?" She bit her overly sharp canine teeth into her lower lip to keep from starting forward and attacking the goddess. Maerg was almost positive that Hecate was perfectly aware of how much the mocking and tainted name hurt. She held Maerg's chin in between her cold, old fingers and grinned sadistically.
"You are an angry one aren't you?" She didn't answer. She wasn't supposed to. "Power-hungry too." Hecate smirked, shoving her away roughly. Maerg drew ichor inside her mouth and narrowed her eyes, regaining balance. She could easily take this woman, this bitch. But she held her peace, waiting for the right time. Hopefully, Hecate realized what she was culturing within this young goddess. The other gods certainly did.
Ever since they had heard about the young one, she was a hot topic among the high and mighty as well as the minor gods that roamed still. Though they were weakening from lack of devotion and faith from the Romans who were growing tired of them slowly, there was still enough life in them to kindle an interest in whatever was going on every where else. The Fates had a lot to say about the goddess as well.
They proclaimed that she was a twisted soul, with an urge to find control by any means she could find. They warned to keep the Celestian Box under tighter guard because it would be sought out soon by someone who wanted to use that extreme power with their own hands. That's where Cerberus went off to. With many other creatures and minor, but powerful gods, that three-headed dog was off guarding the sister box to Pandora's which inside held the essence and power of the divine. If harvested by the right person, that one would receive ultimate power and control over everyone else while weakening any other divine characters. The Fates saw Maerg attempting to reach it, but not the outcome.
She sucked on the liquid permeating from the slices inside her mouth, running through a series of images depicting Hecate's mutilated body. It comforted her slightly and allowed her to let the hag ramble on about whatever she was talking about. Maerg didn't know why she was still being kept as the sorceress's property when she was just about a full-fledged and fully developed goddess herself.
Maerg was eavesdropping the other day when Hecate and Persephone (She was never referred to as her mother) brought her up to the surface world to deliver Persephone back to her mother. It was that time of the year again. Maerg was cursed to Hecate for a while longer, but it had its advantages in this circumstance. They were talking about how the subject of the offspring Hades and Persephone had become so popular among the courts. On the words of the Fates, Maerg was already dubbed as a goddess of vengeance and sadism. Thus that became her title, though she couldn't see how her actions had enforced that. She had done nothing...yet.
That is when she heard the whispered voices mention the Box. Immediately her interest was sparked and she paid no attention to the rest of what they said, so she didn't know what the Celestian Box would be able to do for her, but she knew. Oh yes, she knew that she needed to find it. A conjured image formed in her mind as she grinned, imagining what the box held within and what she could do with it.
Hecate gave her a concerned look that she barely took notice off before Hecate snapped in front of Maerg's face. Maerg's immediate response was snapping out and biting the hag’s ridiculously bony fingers, much like a feral dog would chew on a meaty scrap of bone. The witch shrieked piercingly and Maerg let go after one last snap with her sharp teeth and powerful jaws. That would teach the bitch to try and exert dominance over her anymore.
Hecate brought her own hand back to her and cradled it, healing it easy after a couple of moments with an ambrosia nectar, but by that time Maerg had sprinted away as quick as she could through the labyrinth of caverns. She slipped though a passage that led out of the Underworld and was one of the places once guarded by the now-absent Cerberus. The other goddess wasn't following. Thankfully. Maerg found herself on the surface, sun beating down on her unusually pale skin with the dark curly hair of her father, tinted straw golden from her mother.
The warmth of this area struck her as odd. She was mainly familiar with the icy depths of the Underworld, but she had been on the surface a couple of times before. Of course, it didn't occur to Maerg that she had only been up in early, early spring and late, late autumn. Without blinking, she looked up at the sun, identifying the chariot and its horses from there with her amazingly keen eyesight. After that, she glanced around a bit more, not being able to find very much civilization, though it was very green.
She sprinted across a couple of fields, through vineyards (Though she didn't know what they were) until homes and a village finally came into sight. A man was loading a cart to take to the market in the city and caught sight of her with a shiver. Now Maerg wasn't an ugly woman, in fact, like most goddesses, she had a quite an appealing physical form. There was just something about her that made most mortals quake in fear at the sight of her or the mention of her name.
Licking her lips with ichor still seeping into her mouth before the cuts slowly clotted, Maerg squinted and caught sight of a much larger establishment farther off, in the direction that the man was going. She lurched forward and sprinted again, passing up the cart and farmer with ease and entering the market place of the city and slam! Right into a woman walking down the street and talking to a man. The woman was knocked off balance but not much more than that when she should have toppled over and maybe even died. She turned and narrowed her eyes at Maerg who was picking herself up off of the dusty road. Now this was another divine.
"Are you okay?" Maerg looked up at the sound of a male voice and noticed it was directed towards the other woman instead of her. The woman nodded, still looking down at her. "Oh, and are you alright? It looked like you hit the ground hard." Maerg shook her head and attempted to smile, sending a shiver of instinctive fear down the man's back.
"No, I'm fine, thank you." She brushed herself off and continued her sprint, wanting to get away from the moon-silver eyes that were boring into the back of her head. Maerg didn't know who the goddess was and didn't think that she had ever met her before. Shaking her head, she knocked the thoughts of the random woman out of her head and focused on trying to find the box.
It would have been a lot easier if she actually knew what the box was, but she didn't, so she kept running. Maerg climbed into the foothills of the minor gods and paused. Maybe one of them, possibly one of them that was mad at the other gods, would be willing to help her with the best, though false, offer of shared power. She snarled a bit in annoyance and set fire to the hill, running down the slope into the dark woods that grew below, there had to be someone there.
Within that immortal wood, Eris lived in bitter annoyance. The goddess of strife had been dismissed by Ares in a bitter argument they had. He didn't want her around anymore because she expected too much of him. Ares wanted it to go back like the old days, he slaying and participating in wars, mortal and immortal, and her causing any mischief and trouble she could. Eris was getting annoyed with both his arrogant bastardry and Aphrodite always throwing herself at him. Eris was angry and filled with a thirst for revenge on the cocky god of war, but she wouldn't cease her mischief just for that.
When Eris sensed young Maerg entering her woods, she grinned and made sure a trail allowed for the goddess to find her. They could be quite a little vengeful couple, wreaking havoc. Maerg wasn't the only one for plans to take the Celestian box, though they had different motivations. Eris wanted to open it and watch as Ares squirmed and suffered as his power was drained slowly and painfully away from him. He and the other powerful gods would be at her mercy, while the remaining minor gods, not killed immediately, would provide easy targets for mischief. That was no one could stop her from amusement.
Maerg on the other hand, didn't know what the Box would do, but she had this idea that it would let her exert a corrupt and twisted dominance over the rest of the mortal and immortal worlds so she could extract whatever revenge she wanted on her mother, Hecate, and any other god that pissed her off. She'd want a mate as well. A pet perhaps. It was the thing she had been dreaming about ever since she had been able to think coherent thoughts.
She walked along the place, relishing in the darkness that reminded her of home with warped living things instead of cold icy rock and dead spirits floating around all over the place, moaning about something until they realized who they were moaning by and shut up, running away as fast as possible. There was a crack above her, but Maerg didn't really feel like looking up and kept walking until she came to a pool of water with a dark surface that absorbed any light that touched it. She took a seat on a rock, leaning back against a tree and just lazing about instead of searching.
"Hello?" She questioned the feeling of a creature around her.
"So, you've come to see me, little goddess of vengeance." The water shook and Eris appeared out of nowhere, sitting on the mirror-like surface of the water that probably went down into oblivion. "I can tell you about the Celestian Box, but only if you agree to help me."
"Who are you?" Maerg said, grinning conspicuously.
"Your new best friend." Eris's grin matched almost exactly.
Chapter 25: The Great Escape
Silane yawned lazily, entering the password on the keypad of Alex's phone. The answering machine at the other end of the phone line bleeped and she tried again. Ding. A monotonous voice told her that she had four new messages. She listened through them, nothing important: a pissed-off boss asking where she was, some guy asking Cynthia about a second date, and a complaint about the dog-walker. The last one made her smile, but that faded quickly. The last message caught her by surprise. It was a call from Maddie, sounding panicked.
"Sil, I need your help... something bad is up... you've got to get me out of here... I'll be working on escape too... just come quickly...please." She knew it was desperate when her old friend said 'please.' But why did Maddie have to be mysterious like that? It sounded like she had been watching too many movies, but that didn't make much sense for an institution, now did it? Putting that aside, Sil couldn't figure out exactly what she was supposed to do. How do you bust someone out of an asylum? They had...Silane shuddered... syringes.
No matter, she'd think about it when she got there. This was one of those problems that justified 'borrowing' a car. Silane sifted around Alex's kitchen and living room until she found the keys to his car and grinned, jogging out the door and finding the Ford Explorer. Her lip curled in distaste at the car choice, but she unlocked the door and plopped down in the driver's seat. It wasn't until she started the ignition that she tried to remember how to get there from around Alex's.
Driving along a side street to avoid the traffic on the expressway, she knew she was close to the beyond suburbly located institution. There was a dirty thing moving along side of the road wrapped in a white smock. It waved her down and she blinked repeatedly as the now recognizably human form opened the door and hopped inside the car.
"Turn around and go!" Sil blinked, turning towards the girl. It was Maddie. She must have escaped somehow. "GO!" Sil started and pulled a sharp U-turn at the sign of people running towards her. Her foot slammed on the accelerator and they shot off in the 'borrowed' Explorer.
Once they were far enough away and Madison was breathing regularly again, Sil turned towards her, still keeping her eyes on the road.
"How did you get out of there on your own?" She was curious, though she was glad that she didn't have to deal with all of those needles and their drugs & sedatives. Maddie shuddered a bit with an intake of breath and shook her head, going back to leaning deep in the passenger seat.
"Not now Maddie." There was a long and awkward silence that the two friends didn't usually experience when in each other's company. "So how have you been?"
"Confused. I've been having these crazy dreams and I can never figure them out, no matter how often they repeat themselves." Madison looked up at Sil, blinking a bit.
"Tell me about your dreams." Silane raised an eyebrow, but continued. There was no reason not to tell her best friend about her dreams, even if the woman's mind might have deteriorated over the time that she was kept imprisoned in that sick, sick place.
"Okay...Well there is this woman always dressed in somewhat tattered black clothing. There is also a box made of some shiny black material, some type of rock I think, not sure though. The first dream that repeated itself had this orb of cold fire moonlight that floated above it, but I reached for it and it fled, the box flying open like that could happen, but I think that part was really only a view of what could happen. The second time, more recent, the woman had the box in her arms and it was cracked, bleeding. Little creatures jumped around in the blood and around her as she talked to me." Maddie was paralyzed, eyes stuck wide open, but she managed to get her mouth moving.
"What did she say?"
"I don't remember exactly, but something about finding all three and how I knew nothing and could never defeat her," Sil struggled to remember what came past in that crazy dream. "Oh, and something about protection." Her face was scrunched up in confusion, but Maddie burst out laughing. "Maddie?" Silane blinked a couple of times, looking at her in confusion before she realized that she was still driving and focused on the road. Madison continued in her unbridled, rich laughter as Sil tried to figure out what she said that was so funny. "Maddie?"
"Poor, poor confused Maerg." If that was supposed to clear things up, it achieved doing quite the opposite, Silane was more lost than before until the name clicked.
"Maerg? You know what maerg is?" She had been looking ever since the word popped up in her head and nothing turned up. Not one thing.
"Yeah. I know WHO Maerg is. Do you?" Maddie recovered slightly from her fits of laughter and arched an eyebrow at Silane.
"No, but I somehow knew the name. It was crazy, I just saw it pop up in my head and that was it. I thought it was something important..." she trailed off, not remembering the rest of what she was going to say now that she had the chance to ask someone who really knew. "Who is... who are they?" Sil had to sum it up pathetically in a way that emphasized how little she really knew.
"Maerg is the disgruntled ex-Goddess of Vengeance and Sadism, or at least, that is how the myth goes. My grandfather used to tell me things about Greek mythology that I had never heard before and it reminded me a bit of a really bad soap opera. He also said that I was a descendent of Helios just like him and that I'd have to take over after him." Silane didn't really know how to take something as strange as someone claiming that they were descended from gods that people believed in over two millennia ago. "It explained my eyes at least. I couldn't figure out why my brother and father didn't have the same though, so I used that as an argument against my grandfather, but he countered, explaining that our line was so weakened that it could skip many generations at a time before it manifested again. He told me that it had to do with something called the Celestian Box."
This was crazy. Maybe her mind really did rot in the couple years that she was trapped in the institution. The expression on Sil's face must have reflected exactly what she thought of what her friend was ranting on about and Maddie saw it.
"I know, I know it sounds crazy but try connecting it to your dreams. That box, it was made of what looked like Obsidian right? The Celestian Box is sometimes known as the Obsidian Box. The woman holding it was Maerg, she has dark hair and a pale complexion because of her life in the Underworld instead of hanging about on the mountains like the majority of the other gods. She wants the box for an unfulfilled revenge and the power it holds. There are three people left that can get rid of here and the herds have slowly been culled all of these years to get them all in the same place. I have figured out that I'm one of them, although, I know you aren't. Maerg just mistook you for me probably because of how often we used to hang out."
Maddie was laughing again, leaving Sil a little injured. Okay, so she wasn't 'gifted' like her friend, there wasn't any reason to rub it in and laugh. Wait, Silane wasn't going to believe her. When she remembered that, the pain disappeared and she snickered.
"So all I have to do is find the other two and explain if they don't already know what is going on. I'm sure Maerg is in such a weak state that we could take her easily." Maddie went on, sounding like she was coming out of one of the crazy fantasy novels that Silane despised. The horror. "As long as she's been herding them towards New York, we'll be okay. I'll leave it to her to get us all together, so we can defeat and destroy her finally." Silane snickered again, rolling her eyes at how ridiculous her friend sounded, driving along, back towards the city at extreme speeds.
Chapter 26: Attack on Insomnia
"You invited your coworker?" Mari had finally started talking to him again after the whole good morning thing that happened earlier. If anything Teran should have been the one not talking to her, but that's not how she saw things, so that's not how things went. Teran shrugged at the question, popping another handful of caramel corn into his mouth.
"Why not?" There was no reason not to invite her. Neither of them had an argument against it.
"Nothing, it just seems a little out of the ordinary." Mari shrugged a bit and Teran quirked an eyebrow.
"What about having an ice container chucked at your head for waking up your roommate?" He rubbed the lump on his head, wincing a bit at the pain from the contact. Mari grinned smugly, quite proud at herself at her aim even drowsy and angry. Teran scowled slightly and stopped touching the tender lump, it wasn't smart to let her gloat.
"But how are we gunna contact her?" Teran pulled the napkin with Mila's number on it and waved it around a couple of times. Mari nodded a bit and shrugged, "Sounds good."
The club was packed with people, but that was expected for a Saturday night. The place didn't look out of date either, sending out a definite and satisfying vibe that declared itself alive. Teran yawned a bit, waiting at the bar for Mila to show up while Mari had already started on her margarita binging because the only way she really liked dancing was when she was tipsy or even wobbly drunk. Even when drunk, her snappy temper never subsided. Many a man would have left missing limbs or other things if they pursuit Mari for too long with the wannabe smooth pick-up lines and immediate suggestive contact. Bastards like that barely have a chance to survive a confrontation with Teran's friend.
"Club Insomnia?" Mila walked over with her usual expression, one thin eyebrow raised ever so gently above her eyes. She was decked out in some club-wear and wore it well, Teran noticed as she took the barstool next to him. She looked almost divine.
"Yeah, I thought that it sounded promising... doesn't look too bad from here anyway." He glanced around the place to emphasize his statement and she did the same, getting a peek at what the place really looked like and catching, maybe, on the aura. "Besides, what isn't too like about the word "insomnia"?" Mila shook her head at that, slightly amused at the comment, but then again, she was slightly amused by almost anything.
"Where's your friend?"
"Oh, Mari?" Mila nodded a bit, not sure if she was supposed to recognize the name and place it as his friend or not, but he soon continued. "She's around somewhere. I think she's decided that she's boozed it up enough and has gone off dancing and being a menace to society, as usual." Teran shook his head, catching glimpse of her out working the crowd for all it was worth and chuckled quietly. Mila ordered a Midori Croctail and Teran gave her a look that said 'you really drink those company specialty drinks?" in amusement. She just rolled her eyes and shrugged in reply, 'a drink is a drink'. Now ya can't argue with that.
"Did you tell Dave about this funeral expedition?" Mila sought out something that they might have in conversation at least. Teran shook his head blinking.
"I knew I forgot to do something..." Teran muttered, though it was still very understandable. Mila laughed quietly and reassured him,
"Don't worry about it, I'm sure he'll just laugh at whatever death in the family. He doesn't really care where his employees go off to as long as he likes him." Mila nodded in thanks at the bartender and took a sip of her drink. Teran wanted a drink himself, but he still was reluctant to order one for some reason that he couldn't even figure out himself.
Mila looked up, eyes widened a bit and looked in the general direction of the door, staring intently. It was odd and sudden. She just completely froze, glass held out in front of her as she watched the crowd between them and the door. Teran looked over as well, blinking as a woman he swore that he had seen before pushed through the group with a glint of insanity in her eye. She made her way to a platform and shoved the dancer off, scowling in her direction. People didn't seem to pay any attention to her, just went back to their dancing except Mari emerged from the crowd as well.
"What do you think that was all about?" Mari nodded towards the woman in all black and blood-crimson taking the seat to the other side of Teran. He shrugged and glanced over towards Mila, who had just started moving again. She was muttering under her breath and had finished off her 'croctail' in a gulp, hand reaching her in her bag and rubbing something inside. It was one of the most paranoid reactions he'd seen in a long time.
"Mila? Are you alright?" he asked, confused look on his face. She flashed a smile in his direction and pulled her hand out of her bag, hand filtering away most of the milky light that shed from the orb within. Teran was taken aback. That was the orb from his dream! What was she doing with it? He was even more confused than he was before, if that was possible. He turned from her and stared at the woman on the platform, trying to place her body and her face. He knew that he'd seen her before, but he just couldn't place her. His eyes suddenly widened in recognition. It was Rose-Claire, the pool girl!
"Mari..."
"Hmm?" She glanced at him, waiting for a response.
"Look over at the woman in the black and red..." She did and he continued, "That's her."
"That's who?" Her forehead wrinkled in confusion.
"That's Rose-Claire... that's the pool girl." She blinked a couple of times and stared more intently at the woman who was now dancing around in some obscene pattern and rough motions that didn't even quite look like a dance but a ritual.
"Are you sure?" Mari sounded disbelieving, that confused expression still glued to her face as she tried to put it all together and make sense out of it. Teran nodded and she blinked again. "That's crazy." He nodded again, still shocked that she was here too. Mila AND Rose-Claire both in the same city, same day, same club as he and Mari. There had to be something going on, this was far from just being coincidental.
Since his attention was on the pool girl again, he was only somewhat aware of Mila next to him getting up and walking away from the bar, trying to get through the crowds, clutching her orb. Both Teran and Mari's jaws dropped as the pool girl started glowing with a dark crimson light that reminded Teran of his dreamscape just the night before. Everyone in the entire club stopped to stare at her as she moved faster and less defined, blurring into just a form of blood-black darkness.
She spontaneously combusted right then and there. Teran turned his head from the red flash, wincing as it felt like a hot wind almost blew him over. When he turned back, just about everyone in the club was knocked over and bleeding profusely before it slowed to almost nothing but a weak trickle. He blinked and shook his head, figuring that when he opened his eyes again, it'd go back to being the regular bar scene. As most people would have realized, it didn't. The bodies were still lying there on the floor and he shuddered a bit.
One woman was left on the floor and she walked over to him and Mari, who was knocked unconscious next to him. Mari was still breathing and not bleeding, she was alive. Mila held the orb out in front of her and closed her eyes, hair growing slightly and falling in dark waves past her shoulders. She was now dressed in a silvery ensemble that somehow defied gravity to stay up around her.
"I know you are in there Diant, you just have to accept the new times and manifest." Who he once knew as Mila looked deeply into his eyes, like she was trying to look past Teran to somebody else. "I'm sorry that your rebirth when askew, but you just need to remember the old life. You need to remember me."
"Who are you?" Teran blinked, cutting her off from whatever, or whoever, she was trying to reach inside of his head. There wasn't anybody there but himself.
"Selene. Try to remember... please. I called myself Athelinda, remember?" Wait. Was this woman trying to pass off that she was the ancient Greek goddess of the moon? This was utterly ridiculous. What did she expect him to do about it?
"I don't know what you are trying to do, lady, but it's pointless. What happened to Mila?"
"Don't you see little one? I am Mila. Mila is I." Now she was trying to say that Mila was a goddess. Teran smirked, he always thought she was, but not so literally.
"Okay. So you're the goddess of the moon?"
"Exactly. Or at least I was, a long, long time ago."
"And you expect me to just accept that?" Selene sighed and nodded, opening her mouth to speak, but a voice from around the entrance of the club sounded out instead.
"You might as well, it could be the only way you survive." What was going on here?
Chapter 27: Choices in Oblivion
"You're a what?" Diant laughed and Bremitus looked away from him, an apologizing glance at Selene. He had known from almost the beginning what she was. Maybe he was some descendant of Zeus or even her brother Helios, just some type of divine ancestry. Either that or he was just extremely observant.
"A goddess." She said again, growing a bit tired of his reaction. It showed exactly how the Romans were reacting and loosing faith in the powers of old. Now they wouldn't even believe one of the divine would travel in their midst. "Do you need proof, you damned thick-headed Roman?" He chuckled and she just got more annoyed.
"Anything you wish, oh great goddess of the moon, I am humble in your power. I grovel at your feet." He said without too much dramatic flare, just underlying sarcasm and a twinkle in his eye. Bremitus shook his head at his friend, not wanted anything to do with him right now.
"Fine. I'll give you your proof." She stretched, reaching above her head and they both looked up at the sky. The moon shone up from the horizon and moved quickly, heading over the sun to eclipse it. Selene's horses knew what they were doing as did Helios's. The chariot of the moon crossed over the sun, plunging everything into darkness, not even the cornea of sunlight managing to peek around it.
"An eclipse? But there wasn't a solar eclipse for today..." Selene gave him a look of exasperation. "Okay, okay. You can stop it now." With barely a motion, she sent her chariot back to the other side of the world where it should be resting. Her poor milky white horses; oh well, someone would take care of them for her. Hopefully one of her daughters had enough initiative to actually do something instead of sit around sleeping and being lazy, but beautiful. The people all around were shaking with fear at what the sudden loss of the sun could mean and murmured to each other in awe of the universe. The so-called 'psychics' were going to have a field day today, so many business possibilities oozing just from one simple display of power.
"Where do you think that outfit I have came from? Your old domestic?" Selene arched an eyebrow at him.
"Fine. You win, Athel-- Wait. What should I call you?" He was confused in that cute way again, so she laughed quietly at him.
"Either Athelinda or Selene is fine." She smiled a bit, looking at Diant smugly. "But I think the real question is how will you feel now that you know the woman you sleep next to at night is a goddess."
"A little suspicious that someone of her stature would be sleeping next to a mortal of a lowly place like myself, but besides that, all the better that she's a goddess. What is possibly better than having the divine in your bed?" Bremitus blinked and laughed, shaking his head at the tongue on his friend. What trouble that thing could get him into. At least he was just as talented at getting himself out of trouble as he was at getting himself in it. Selene smirked when he said it and leaned against him, looking like the woman they knew instead of some immortal creature of power and beauty.
"Good." At this somewhat sappy moment in their lives, another divine creature came hurdling down the road on the three-headed dog that guarded the gates of the Underworld. Now this was getting a bit out of hand. She screamed and yelled in victory as Selene felt momentarily weak and almost collapsed.
There was something wrong with her power. She leaned heavily against Diant and tried to focus on the container that kept all of them powerful for so long. The box that helped generate ambrosia itself and the creations. It held the last blood of the great goddess Gaia from which they all had sprung through the line of descendants. It had been tampered with. And this dark creature must have had something to do with it.
The immortal world shuddered and many died right there and then. This was the start of the divine collapse.
Selene stood up, waving away a concerned Diant and Bremitus and sprinted forward to stop the goddess atop the giant black dog. What did she think she as doing? This city was no place for the monsters of what was turning to myth. She peered into the face of the young goddess, and stopped them in their tracks. It was the one that had smashed into her those weeks ago. From the bits of gossip she had heard from the last trip to visit her brother, this was Maerg. Now infamous for her escape from Hecate and near disappearance off the immortal radar.
"What do you think you are doing here, Maerg?" Selene put emphasis on the name and she winced very obviously, but soon recovered and grinned sinisterly, standing up on the base of Cerberus's necks.
"The end has started! I managed to get through the ranks of minor gods and creatures and reach the Box with the help of my little doggie here and a good friend of mine, maybe you know her as Eris?" Selene snickered a bit. So the girl had got the goddess of strife to help her. Well she knew about Eris's motivations and almost felt sorry for her. Ares could be a real pain, so it was only naturally that his once companion turned on him when he thought that he disposed of her. Pushing the barely relevant topic out of her head, she focused on the problem at hand.
"You did what?"
"I cracked the Box!" Dark chuckles sprinkled with peals of sadistically insane laughter echoed out from the goddess's throat and anyone on the street ran for cover from the madwoman and the hell dog. Cerberus was snapping at anyone within his reach and growling quite menacingly, though anything a giant three-headed dog does is menacing. "Almost all of the minors have ceased to exist and the great gods have fallen! They writhe in pain as we speak, though such a victory is not without it's losses. Only you, a few others and I remain sturdy while everyone else is gone. Eris disappeared just as she witnessed Ares suffering."
Selene made a show of yawning arrogantly.
"Pretty speech. I don't see why I should believe it though." Maerg squawked in an absolute rage.
"You felt it yourself! Don't deny what is happening because it won't save us! The Celestian Box is cracked and the mother's blood is flowing! THE IMMORTAL RACE IS FALLING!" she exclaimed gleefully, as if screaming it would make it more apparent to the world and Selene. Diant and Bremitus, the two humans that remained out, glanced at each other and tried to keep from laughing. It wasn't supposed to be a comical situation, but they couldn't help themselves. Cerberus heard them and snapped out with two head, crushing the men in his powerful jaws and swallowing.
That is when the world fell down around Selene. Her physical form just faded, the Box had lost too much blood to sustain her or Maerg anymore. Cerberus, in the middle of chewing up Selene's mortal friends, froze and faded as well. There was just about nothing on the other side. Selene drifted, doing nothing really and lazing back. Her solid form was gone so she became this ethereal creature around oblivion, waiting for a chance to return.
The dark oblivion was where all of those ancient gods were sent to, though very far from one another. It was a rare occasion if any of them ran into each other, so they were starved of all social contact. The floated around, waiting for the chances to be reborn. If some were lucky, they knew the right words and rituals to ensure this, but many did not. The ones who didn't were soon engulfed by the dark creatures that lurked in this oblivion, gone forever and never to return. A painful way to leave existence of course, but it could be preferred to the slow and agonizingly silent place they were trapped in.
Sometimes, mortals were able to join this waiting room for rebirth and renewal. Mainly they were only accepted for having a close, and real, relationship with an immortal. There were some humans that had had an affair or two with a god, but it wasn't a true relationship, so they were just sent to the Underworld, or whatever version of the afterlife they believed in. Selene drifted, performing the needed rituals and waiting. Her Diant should have been admitted to her darkness, so she included him in her rebirth ceremony.
Three times before, Selene had returned in a reborn body. All of those times, she had found other souls from her era, but the numbers were steadily declining as they tried to patch up the problems caused by the Celestian Box. It had become a corrupt thing that spawned many evils of power and darkly influenced the easily impressionable human societies. The Box still carried its power, but in a tainted and skewed form. If the right hands found it, it could be reversed, but constantly cruelties were seeking it out and trying to take it. The last time Maerg had been able to grab it and take it with her into her next trip in oblivion. She could do no harm with it there and she couldn't be fully reborn if she kept it with her.
But the everlasting Box conflict was not why Selene continued to return and that was not the reason she sought out Teran in her latest and final rebirth as the woman Mila. She wanted her Diant back like she had promised herself. Each time she was disappointed that she missed him or that he didn't come out with her. Somehow, she remained confident that her lover was going to be reborn with her again. This time she was confident that she found him, in the form of Teran Kildarre.
Born to Desiree and Montgomery Harrison, Mila always retained the conscious fact that she was the immortal goddess Selene. She was able to warp her form to reflect herself more and retain a few of the powers that she had in her prime. During the era of her first rebirth, she had stored the majority of her remaining power in an orb of unflawed and pure white marble, hiding it in a place where only she would be able to find it.
This final time, she was the only one left to be reborn in the era, but the same time, Maerg had been working on getting out of the deep oblivion. She managed to and with the Box, but in the form she landed in there was no way that she could do anything about the Box. Maerg needed to be in a body that was a direct descendant of one of the gods in order to reactivate the Celestian Box; she wasn't. There were only three untainted specimens left in the world anyway, so it was unlikely that she was going get one. Because of this, she needed the three of them so that she could activate the power. Throughout time, both she and the people against her had been working to herd the descendants together because all of them were needed to either destroy or empower the Box.
Selene harbored a great hate against Maerg for what her mutt did to her Diant, even though she would have been out of time before anything else could happen, it was too emotionally taxing to see him and Bremitus being killed over and over again in her head. It was one of the only things that occupied her thoughts in the whole first round in the darkness. All she wanted now was payback.
Chapter 28: Preparation
Madison stepped forward out of the doorway while Silane reached after her in annoyance. She shook her head and rolled her eyes at her friend’s words, but stopped suddenly as she saw the scene inside the club. Dead bodies piled across the floor and taking up the whole space. No matter what she thought of the afterlife, the sight of the literal pools of blood and corpses still caught her by surprise. Maddie took almost no notice of them, kicking them to the side so that she could reach the people left alive and standing by the bar.
Sil followed her friend like a subdued puppy and blinked, recognizing the man and the woman passed out next to him as the people from Mr. Kildarre's funeral. Once her reaction might be something different, but from all of Maddie's ramblings she had come to expect something like this to happen. Teran stood shaking his head with a look of utter confusion and disbelief on his face. It made no sense to either him or Silane, but at least Selene and Madison sounded like they were on the same brainwave.
She followed the path through the blood that her friend had made, glad that she had chosen to wear one of her pairs of knee-high, chunky-soled leather boots because they made her feel like nothing could get through them to her actual feet, leaving her a lot more confident stomping in the deep ruby red liquid.
"She will be realizing that we are all together soon and should arrive within the hour, I suggest we get ready," Maddie nodded definitely after saying this and Selene looked a bit taken aback that the woman had an idea of what was happening on a higher level than what was just in her pathetic moral world. But the moon-goddess was still hurt. She had finally tracked down her man and managed to get a hold on him, but he wasn't responding, he wasn't remembering like he should be by now. Maybe something had gone terribly wrong in the rebirth process. Maybe it was because he was mortal. She didn't know, but she knew that she didn't like what was happening.
"Get ready for what? Who's coming? What is going on here?" Teran was starting to get pissed that no one was telling him anything, quite and impatient one he was. Neither Maddie nor Selene paid attention to him as they were taking the body count and Selene explained the situation with the dancer that Teran claimed he had met before.
"That must have been how she was keeping tabs on him," Maddie mused thoughtfully, glancing at the place where Selene had told her the woman had been standing before she, well... exploded. The moon goddess nodded, agreeing with her hypothesis.
"It was probably one of her creations that she could work through until she managed to round up a body without a host to haunt. Or at least find a weak-minded creature to infest while she had enough power to. The Box was really slowing her down, thankfully." Selene had knocked herself out of the little spiraling pity that she had for herself and her love and was able to think as clearly as the once divine like herself could. Because of her not paying attention to him anymore, Teran get even more frustrated.
"WHO?!" He finally belted out in a voice that vibrated through the club, bouncing off the walls with a nice echo. Selene and Maddie stopped talking and looked at him with eyebrows raised, both slightly amused at the outburst. They were definitely still thinking on the same wavelength.
"Maerg, you silly billy," Selene replied in an overly sweet and patronizing tone like she was talking to kindergartener and Madison's smile grew a bit as she watched the exchange. Teran clenched his jaw and loosened it slowly, forcing a sweet grin on his face as well.
"Thank you for finally telling me something, your great bitchiness." He made a mocking, exaggerated fall to his knees, bowing in submission in front of her. "I hope you grace me with your wisdom again soon." Selene shook her head, rolling her eyes in that very human expression, turning away from him and laughing at the amused expression on Maddie's face. They both looked out on the carnage that was once a very active bar scene.
"You know, he isn't who you think he is," Maddie said, eyes still skimming over the scene, making a tally in her head. Selene looked at her a bit startled, blinking, before her eyes narrowed.
"What would you know of it?"
"A lot of things that you would doubt a mortal like myself knew." Selene snorted and glanced back at Teran who was plopping down on one of the barstools again and raiding the empty bar, watching his friend knocked out next to him. Maddie knew that the goddess wasn't going believe her; she'd tried too many times to lose it all now. Silane was sitting at the end of the bar, being naturally inconspicuous and trailing her finger through the little puddle of blood that decorated the bar top. Maybe there should be more people worried about that girl than there should be about the rest of them.
"How can you be so calm about all of this? You were never even an immortal, just a descendant," Selene finally said in disbelief at the woman's composure. Maddie finally turned to look at her and sighed a little sigh before looking back out at the pools. Looking at them, but not seeing them.
"I've been in almost absolute seclusion for six years. Six years to think about things my grandfather had told me. Six years to get in tune with what was happening at the world, but at the same time tune out what went on around me. This is all so surreal for me and I've managed to convince myself that it's just a dream. That is my immortality, that gives me no fear." Selene stared at her for a moment longer and shook her head herself.
"This is my last time trying to live again. A couple more centuries in that numb darkness would drive me crazy; it's about time that I go to my final resting," the moon goddess responded, watching Teran again. Maddie nodded a bit, thinking that her decision was probably for the best. She'd spent only six years alone while this godly creature next to her had gone through centuries with only the company of her own mind. It made her wonder what Selene's mind might have been like before the onslaught of the madness. Finding Diant must have been the only thing that she could purely focus on, focused on that love so much that it became an insatiable obsession. Maddie shook her head at the longing of the woman next to her. Diant had never made it to his first rebirth; he'd been devoured by the velvety darkness long before that.
Silane flicked some of the red liquid out of the tiny puddle to watch it fleck across the surface. Let them worry and discuss what was going on, she knew it was no business of hers so there was no reason to pay very much attention. She was put-down by her friend's reactions to her, Sil felt forgotten like a tossed-away teddy bear. Maddie's mind was so focused on other things; the fact that it was trying to save everyone from a malevolent ancient goddess was beside the point. There was no sign of happiness or excitement from Maddie that she was glad to see her old friend after so long, and Sil had the sneaking suspicion that she would have flagged down any car that passed by, not just her own. She was just so preoccupied with everything else that Sil had nothing to do with. So she stayed passively in her own little world, passively trailing streaks in blood along the countertop, quite unaware of what she was playing with.
Teran downed another shot of tequila and poked at the unconscious Mari that was slumped over the bar next to him. His thoughts were racing through his head, but the alcohol was helping to slow that, like they were trying to drag through extremely thick pudding instead of running along like the Energizer Bunny on crack-cocaine. He couldn't figure out why Mari hadn't gotten killed with the rest of the people, but she was still affected. He'd say that she was one of the chosen that the Madison girl had been ranting about, but that made no sense, she'd still be awake. He mulled over this a bit, not paying too much attention to the actual state of the bar and unaware of whatever crazy final things the Selene had been talking about with Maddie. Selene. Now that was something else, he thought he liked her for being the individual soul that she had been as "Mila." But she was misleading the whole time, how was he supposed to feel that the woman he was excited about coming with he and Mari to the club was really some crazy bitch that was sure she was a goddess and had something from one of his dreams. How was he supposed to feel? Because, he wasn't feeling anything right then, nothing at all.
Maddie had stood watching all three of with a quirked eyebrow. Well it seemed that everyone was trapped a bit in their own worlds and wanted nothing to do with each other right now. She had even started to feel it herself, but pulled out, just barely.
"This won't do," she said in a voice loud enough to catch everyone's attention and bring the focus to her. "Look at us, just moping about, not doing a thing to prepare for Maerg's entrance, and I know she's coming. I can feel it. Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves or just getting lost in our thoughts, why not focus the energy we have against that woman? There is something that she has probably done to all of us by now. Me, for example, that bitch killed my boyfriend and the authorities were positive that I did it, so I got sent to an institution on the plead of insanity." Teran and Selene looked at her with blinking eyes and Sil perked up a bit that her friend was addressing something that included her and not just everyone else. "We can't be apart and alone when she comes or she'll catch us all before you can say 'Shit.' Stand up."
"Now this woman, this abomination, has the remains of Gaia's blood, the blood that fueled the ancient power of the Greek and Roman gods. Their essence is left in what fills the Celestian Box. She has the Box and if she gets us, she has the means to open it and harness it's power. We have the power to destroy the Box for good and that's what we shall..." Madison trailed off and looked to the platform that the woman supposedly had disappeared on, where something was reforming.
Returning to his usual wiseass demeanor Teran muttered loud enough for the rest of them to hear,
"Oh shit."
Chapter 29: Confrontation and the End
This was just too convenient for her. Maerg stood up on the platform, shaking off of the remaining sensations of being just an ethereal creation to being in such a physical from again. One of the bodies that were on the floor now hosted her conscious and was officially claimed as hers. Having a recently deceased form made things a lot easier for this once powerful goddess of vengeance and her Box because limbs could be lost and she could still go on easily. She had had the lurking suspicion that this could be a trap, but that left as soon as she surveyed the scene.
"Well, well, Selene. It seems I have to deal with you again, I hope you aren't still sore from the little problem involving your mortal lover. I am dreadfully sorry, I really had no control over Cerberus," with that, howls from every dog in the area rang out, startling Sil and her hate of the canine species, making her growl.
It was a surprisingly well-spoken piece from the insanity that tinted her tone every other time Selene had heard her speak, making her suspicious. She filtered out the words, just listening the tone, determined not to get provoked by the corpse-wearing woman. Maerg scowled and moved on to a second target when her original wasn't paying any attention to her.
"I see you still have her guarding you. Not man enough to take me on yourself? You need a group of women to protect your from the big bad goddess that's out to get you?" It was the second patronizing tone used on him within the hour and the tone was one of the only things that set him off. Maerg stepped down from the platform and sat down in one of the higher chairs, a mound of bodies for a footrest as she idly slit another rent in one of the bodies with her sharp nails. She still awaited a response from any of them, but soon the mad side of her showed its ugly face and the Box appeared on the table in front of her.
Maddie hissed out a long breath, staring at the Box and dreaming of all of the power the resided inside, what it might have been like in its prime, but what it could do just with it's diminished for that was the only thing available to any of them. Maerg screwed it up for the world. Sil glanced at her with a raised eyebrow and looked back to Maerg, paying no attention to the Box. She saw it in her dreams so many times already so there was no reason to look at it anymore.
"You think to play them and flaunt your power, Maerg?" The sickle-moon on Selene's circlet glowed faintly as she clenched her fist around the glowing orb behind her back, shattering it, but sending shards into her hand. Power flowed up from the orb through her body and caused the moon to glow further. Light from the moon outside intensified and shown in through the few windows of the club. She stood full in the glory that was left of her regurgitated power. Maerg started laughing. The same crazy laughter from that day so long ago.
"Oh, Selene. You never too powerful of a goddess, why do you think Zeus let his daughter override your command, allowing Artemis to be the new goddess of moonlight. And the hunt, if I remember correctly. All of the powerful gods and goddesses got multiple aspects under their control, what else did you take care of, Selene?"
"Look where the multiple aspects got them, Maerg," she emphasized the name again, rewarded with still a wince. "Not even to a chance of renewal, just to the final resting." Maerg smirked again, madness temporarily put at bay by the verbal exchange.
Maddie looked from goddess to goddess, watching with a keen eye for emotions and weaknesses, especially in Maerg. All she had found so far was that Maerg had a bad temper that was biting at the bit to get free and just take over. Silane actually found herself bored with the shows of power and the attempts at a tongue-lashing and started stepping down in the little pool of bodily fluids she was standing in, pretending it was rain puddle.
Maerg looked up at the sounds of quiet splashings and gestured, jerking Silane, Madison, and Teran over towards her. The insanity partially spawned by childhood trauma shone bright in her eyes, as she looked the three over, sadistic giggles popping out from her mouth every so often when she lost control of herself. From behind her, dark creatures appeared, goblin like and cackling.
"When did you gain control over the remaining Furies, Maerg?" Selene tried to keep the panic out of her voice, but this was something big. Maerg had found some way to revive the Furies and harness their powers, linking them to her own insanity and having them at her beck and call to harass whomever she wished them to.
"What does it matter to you?" Another malicious giggle rang out throughout the place as she dug her nails into the body beside her and twisted, betraying her excitement at what she was causing and how close she was to reaching her goal. She was still very childish in some of her mannerisms, like how she was easily amused and easily angered. It was similar with most people that had been insane since their childhood, in Maerg's case, since almost always.
Teran winced as one of the guilt-ridden creatures forced its way into his head and planted sorrows. So many things he had done that would make him feel guilty now popped up in his head and wormed their way inside his head; through the booze that he had drank just to numb it. They told him that the club massacre was his fault for continuing to talk to Rose-Claire, they told him that Mari was going to die because of his curiosity, and that many more lives were going to rest on his shoulders if he didn't help Maerg harness the power of the Celestian Box. He clawed at his head and protested that those things weren't true, that none of it could happen.
Silane's mind was a jumble of horrors and haunting of lost family members and even from her old professor Thomas Kildarre, lying their problems and deaths in her hands and blaming her for anything bad that had happened to them. The worse part was that they had sound reasoning for it too, at least sound in her mind. She held her head and slipped, falling over backwards. Her head landed cushioned in the gut of a dead man and there was a soft splash as she and her clothing hit the blood puddle from the same man that her head was lying upon.
Maddie remained untouched. There was nothing they could make her think that she already hadn't thought about and came to terms with within her days of isolation and medication. The infamous Furies of old were no match for the horrors her own mind could create. Maerg hissed in annoyance at the woman's firm resolution not to be affected by them and glanced down to Silane, who was in the process of clawing out her eyes if no one stopped her. Maddie looked down as well and Selene bent over and moved Sil's hands away from her eyes, resting a hand on her forehead and sending her to a gentle sleep.
Maerg squawked in dismay and lurched forward, attacking Selene right then and there, clawing tears in her fair skin and pulling her fair hair in a crazed anger. Selene fought back just as dirty, biting or scratching whenever she could, trying to pull Maerg into a beam of moonlight with her where she had the most power.
During the fight Maddie walked over to the Box and pulled it off of the table, having to exert a lot more force than she thought she would have to use. The thing was heavy. She lugged it over to Teran and slap him a couple of times, splashing some of the cold blood that seeped from the Celestian Box onto his face. His eye opened and the Furies were driven out by the old and powerful blood of the earth. Sanity regained.
"Help me get this over to Mari," she whispered urgently and he nodded, helping her carry it over to the bar while the goddess were still locked in battle, rolling and shoving, kicking and biting. It wasn't exactly how you would imagine two goddesses of once-great power fighting for the fate of the world.
"What are you doing?" Teran whispered back in confusion. It didn't make any sense to bring the box over to Mari. Wasn't Silane the final one of their trio?
"Trust me." Teran shrugged, he had nothing better to go on than her word, so he listened to her and did what she told him to do, every so often glancing at Silane, passed out in a pool of blood with a dead body as a pillow. That would be an embarrassing and dirty way to wake up the next morning. He hoped that they weren't just going to leave her to sleep there.
"We need to get her awake. Her breathing is slow and it feels like she's slipping into a coma. We have to do something... fast!" Teran blinked and looked back down at his good friend, panicked. She couldn't go into a coma; he couldn't function in America without her. He thought quickly and got an idea, sliding over the bar. There, an icebox! Teran grabbed the whole thing and opened it up, dumping it on her.
Maddie rolled her eyes at the stupidity of the attempt until she heard what sounded like a growling hiss coming from Mari. The woman opened her eyes and shook the ice off, opening her mouth to yell at Teran who looked so happy that he was going to cry. The idiocy! Maddie reached to put her hand in front of Mari's mouth but it was already too late.
"I'm going to KILL YOU!"
"Oh shit..." Maddie and Teran muttered at the same time, heads whipping over to watch the goddesses' reactions to the shout. Maerg looked towards them in confusion just as Selene shoved her into a beam of moonlight that was filtering down from one of the windows and laughed in triumph. Maerg screamed in pain as the light shone down on her, intensified to Selene's liking and freezing the goddess in place.
"Open it now and destroy the Box!" She shouted back to them, there was only so long that she could hold Maerg there with her diminished power and faded glory. They scrambled to do it even though Mari really had no clue what was going on, but she knew that it was something much, much bigger than her.
Maddie's Helian eyes flashed and they slammed a couple of forks into the pre-made cracks on the sides of the Box, jabbing at them as Selene strained to keep Maerg under her control. Teran made a real hole in the box and they tilted it over to the side, the brown-red blood sparkling and flowing out of the Box and onto the ground, hissing and disappearing just before it sat there for over a second.
In the moonlight, Maerg howled in anguish and loss. The trio threw the Box down against the floor, shattering the remains of the obsidian into nothing but shining ancient shards. They looked to the two goddesses near the moonlight, one who was screaming in pain and the other who was clenching her jaw and raising her arms in triumph. They faded from their line of vision slowly, the only essence that was keeping them there gone. They had nothing left to anchor them to this world, so off they went to the eternal numb bliss that all gods are subjected to when they cannot be reborn.
"Now that was fucking insane," Mari said, shaking her head and finally looking around the blood-splattered room and back to Teran and Maddie. "Will someone explain to me what the fuck just happened?"
Chapter 30: And After
"So you need a new roommate?" Madison raised an eyebrow at her friend who nodded solemnly.
"Apparently, that night last week, she was out working, dog walking that is, and all of the dogs went berserk. The mob of them killed her as they tried running towards New York City. It seems that dogs all over were trying to do the same thing," Sil replied in a completely serious tone, but anyone with half a brain could tell that she was very amused by the idea.
"All right then. I'll move in next week. You better have cable..." Maddie let the threat hand in the air, giving Sil a death glare.
"Heh..." She looked around shiftily and tried to think about how to break her the news.
Madison Rhone and Silane Paddok wound up eventually running from the authorities who were after Madison and living in Tokyo where they starred in their own sitcom. Silane found herself a sadomasochistic ex male stripper whom she kept as her own, getting married a couple years later. Madison had many boyfriends, but never kept one due to the mental trauma, but she did write a book about her experiences in a mental institution. It was published in English, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean.
"Dave, this is my friend Mari. Mari, this is Dave, my boss," Teran said, grinning to himself at all of the possibilities. He left the two alone to talk things over and get to introduce themselves better.
"Wut ever happen'd ta tha' hot bitch tha' usedta work wit ya?" Bull prodded him in the ribs, winking.
"Not sure. I think she might have moved."
"Wut a pity..." Bull said, looking down and Teran nodded with a bit of a sigh.
"A pity indeed."
Teran Kildarre moved to New York and paged over lots of old mythology and the old Greek and Roman lifestyles. He went through a course to get his certificate to teach an Ancient History and Philosophy course at various colleges. He wound up marrying a fellow teacher, but she died in childbirth, along with the baby. Teran lived peacefully as a widower until he died of natural causes. David Gallagher and Mari Dunnan hit it off and moved in together after a couple of years, but they never got married. David broke away from the corporate bookstores and Mari continued her work as a psychologist, sometimes attempting to psychoanalyze some of the paintings that Dave painted in his spare time. Ray "Bull" Wenter caught syphilis from one of "his girls" and soon went crazy as the disease got to his brain, eventually dying from a cold that infiltrated his weak immune system.
~^Copyright 2003 Julie Herlihy^~
