CHAPTER VI

 

Jessica screamed in horror as she saw the body hanging on the porch.
She covered her eyes and started to cry.

"Puck!" Shadow yelled, as she saw the male figure sitting on the porch near the body.

"Puck?" Jessica said, as she pulled her hand away from her eyes."PUCK!!"
She screamed.  She started to run to him, and then stopped. How could he be alive?
Had he been faking his death? She saw him die. "PUCK you ass!" She screamed.

Puck watched, as Dwayne, Shadow and a woman he didn't know, walk towards him.
He made no move to greet them, he only sat. He was freezing with no clothes on.

"Why are you naked?" Jessica asked, as she looked at him angrily.

Dwayne smiled at Puck. His and Rachel's experiment had worked. He couldn't wait
to get back to tell her.  Puck looked dazed though. Had Puck hung the man
before them?  "What happened to Chester?" Dwayne asked as he touched
the hanging body.

"I don't know. I found him this way." Puck said, as he shook Dwayne's hand.
"I don't remember how I got here. I woke up in a swamp, face down."

"Puck you idiot, you left me and the baby!"
Jessica yelled, and slapped him in the face.

"What was that for?? Who are you?" Puck asked, as he tried to
cover himself with one hand and rub his face with the other.

"Jess, it's not his child. Really, does he even resemble this man?" Shadow says
and steps into the house. "HELLO, IS ANYONE HOME?" Shadow yells into the hall.

"What?? What does she mean, Dwayne?" Jessica asks, as she stares at Puck. I had only
been with one person and that was his sorry ass!" She says, pointing a finger at  Puck.

"Look lady, I don't even know who you are." Puck says, forgetting modesty. He
turns to help Dwayne take down Chester's body.

"He's still warm." Dwayne says as they lay the body down on the porch.

"But you know them!" Jessica says, of Shadow and Dwayne.

"He only remembers who was here before. You were never in this "World" until now.
You aren't even a memory to him." Dwayne says to her. His eyes bore into her, and he
suddenly wished he had never brought her along.

"Oh, how fucking convenient." Jessica says and sits heavily on the steps.

Shadow walks back out onto the porch with a woman and older man behind her.

"Rachel is not safe." Anna says, as she stays just inside the door threshold.

"Come out here." Shadow said, and tried to take her hand.

Anna jerked back her hand and shook her head. 

"She'll be OK. , her brother is watching over her." Dwayne replied.

"No, you don't understand. Where her body lie, her spirit is not.  Her
spirit roams, just like Chester." Anna says and steps back further into the house.

"Where are you going?" Shadow asks, as she steps into the house after Anna.

"What is she talking about?" Dwayne asks Ferris, as he steps onto the porch.

"Master is not dead." Ferris replies and sits next to Chester on the porch.

Shadow walks back out of the house with clothes for Puck. "Where is
Sharlette, I couldn't get any information out of Anna." Shadow said as
she stood on the front porch steps.

Anna appeared back at the screen door and sighed. " At Sargatanis' side."

'That doesn't make any sense!" Shadow replied.

"Nothing ever makes sense here." Puck said, looking at Shadow.

"She didn't give me a reason for doing, she just did. You would think Sargatanis
would be dead, but when his neck was only broken....well...it set his soul free."
Anna said as she walked further into the house again.

Shadow followed her, as well as the others.

"His head should have been ripped off his body. That would have ended him. I
am so story, I tried, really I did." Puck said, as he tried to warm himself up by
the fireplace.

"Rachel?" Jessica asked, as she looked at Anna.

Anna stared at her for a moment and then replied. "We are related." She walked
to Jessica and took her hands. " You are the one that had devil's spawn. Only
now Sharlette's witchery has made him more.  He couldn't have been strong enough
to come back on his own."

"What the hell is she talking about?" Jessica yells as she pulls away from her.

Anna looks at her sadly and walks away.

"We really need to get the dead guy off the porch." Jessica
says as she leaves the room. "Bury him before he rots."

"Miss, no..his spirit roams free, he will be back Sharlette told me so."
Ferris says walking behind her.

"And you still trust her?" Dwayne asked, as he stepped out on the porch.
He picked up one half of Chester's dead weight body and Puck the other.

"She has her reasons Sir." Ferris said as he held the door open for the men.

"She tells me what she doesn't tell Anna. She sent him to watch over
Rachel. Chester was sent to your world.  But I fear Rachel's spirit roams free too."
Ferris' eyes sparkle from tears trying to break free.  "Sargatanis thinks Anna is
dead, by Sharlette's hand. She must never leave the porch, or even the house.
HE will smell her."

Puck and Dwayne lay Chester's body softly on a bed.

Anna starts to cry, as she plays with a doll that
looks like Chester. Her new toy, a reminder.

"Can I have that?" Dwayne asks her.

She hands him the doll, knowing it would probably be safer with him.

"If all you have to do is cut the bastards head off, let's go
do it." Jessica says as she follows Puck down the stairs.

"If you only knew what this man could do. He
could bend a sword with just his stare." Puck replied.

--------

Anna watched as Chester lie motionless on the bed. She touched
his warm lips with her own and started to weep harder than before.

 

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