Through a Lens Darkly
Chapter 2
@copyright 2009 Heather Amaral and Jean Hontz
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Alicia
groaned as the world came back into focus. The first thing she noticed was the
crinkle of dead leaves in her hair, the second was the lancing pain that
accompanied her attempt to get them out. She cried out and curled into herself,
wanting nothing more than for it to stop. Her eyes widened and started to dart
around the graveyard with fright when she remembered what had caused the pain.
"God, ya can't kill me like this."
She whispered harshly.
She sensed something and spun her
head around to see a bit of darkness seething in the air only a few feet away.
It seemed to coil and swirl. A narrow streak of moonlight hit it and it
sparkled and glowed in that tiny bit of luminescence. Then she felt something
inside her head. It was in her head and reaching into her brain.
"No, stop it!" She howled, picking
up a stone and throwing it at the specter. "Stop it!"
The darkness absorbed the stone as
if it were nothing, but even so the pain of the creature rummaging around in her
brain eased. Then it was as if she heard a voice. It was hard to understand
and the words were twisted somehow as if whatever it were saying it couldn't
pronounce or enunciate clearly. She concentrated trying to understand, hoping
that if she did it would let her go.
"Let go," was what she thought she
had made out through a mass of static and noise, and through her own fear.
Alicia blinked at the thing,
another stone already in her hand in case the pain returned. She'd managed to
get to her knees but didn't trust herself to stand just yet, not if that thing
just spoke. "What'd you say?" She asked carefully, watching the swirling mass.
She thought she saw eyes for just
a second and then nothing. The pain hit her brain again, although not so bad as
last time. "Let me go!" It was a mental shout that felt as if it would deafen
her.
Alicia dropped the rock, clasping
her hands over her ears to keep the voice out. "I ain't the one stopping you,
you're the one keeping me here!" She shouted back.
The swirling darkness remained
where it was, a sort of malevolent mushroom cloud of blackness shot through with
silver. It seemed as if it were watching her. She felt no hint of invasion in
her mind, or in any other part of her body. It seemed to be waiting.
She eyed the gate, no more then a
sprint away, if her body obeyed long enough to get in the church, this little
demon probably couldn't follow her. She'd risk going to jail.
Slowing getting to her feet,
Alicia watched the cloud, moved a little towards her exit.
The thing paced her each step
mirroring her movements. Eyes seemed to swirl out of the darkness, human eyes.
She glared at the thing, fear
making way for anger now. "What do you want?!"
She felt the anger building
again. Anger, frustration, rage, mindless fury. Her head exploded with the
words, "Free me!"
"I would if I fucking could!" She
shot back, taking the anger in this time, propelling hers towards the cloud. "I
had nothing to do with that back there, that was a mistake! Now go back to
whatever pit in hell you came from and leave me alone!"
It sat there, saying nothing. She
took a step and it mirrored her. Another, and it floated along with her as if it
were attached to her with a certain length string.
"Great!" She growled. "Now I got
me my own personal storm cloud with an attitude."
The cloud followed her as she
made her way out toward the street. When she turned around just before exiting
the cemetery she looked back at it. It was gone. But the sense of malevolent
presence was still with her.
It wasn't easy getting back to
her apartment, she kept glancing behind her for either cops or black smoke. She
wasn't sure which one was the more terrifying at the moment; the evil cloud of
doom seemed to be gaining on first place though.
The apartment was only one room
with a small closet that tried to live up to its excuse for a bathroom. Other
than that she had very little by way of furniture. A bed took up most of the
space, what was left over played host to a mini-fridge, a radio and a fan. She
had a better place downtown, but they knew how to find her there. This bolt hole
would have to do for now, at least the fridge was stocked and the fan still
worked. She wouldn't die of heat stroke at least and that was suddenly a big
comfort.
Alicia quickly shut the door and
locked it. Could smoke get past a locked door? For good measure she took an old
t-shirt and stuffed it in the crack between the door and floor boards.
She'd become pretty sure she was
safe. Then she looked up at the heating duct and realized the black cloud was
entering through the vents.
"Oh, no you don't!" She hissed.
Reaching under the bed she
grabbed a roll of ratty duct tape and balanced herself on a chair to cover the
vent to stop anymore of it from getting through.
The screws holding the vent in
place began to twist slowly at first then faster and faster. She barely got down
off the chair before the vent came loose and, with a clatter landed on the
floor. The black cloud wooshed in and hovered over her.
Alicia glared at the thing, blood
pumping in her ears made thinking difficult and the cloud was between her and
the door. "All right, I know you can speak so get on with it. I just hope ya
know something besides 'let go' or this conversations gonna be real short. So go
on, why'd you follow me home?"
She saw the eyes again inside the
swirling black of the cloud. Angry eyes. Confused eyes. Then she felt the
pressure on her brain again, and she whimpered as it reached inside and seemed
to rummage around looking for God only knew what. Then, as suddenly as it had
entered her, it withdrew. Words formed inside her brain. - Tied to you.-
Alicia looked at it owlishly.
"How?"
All she got back this time was
the sense of not knowing, not understanding and frustrated rage.
"Okay, okay, I get it." She said
appeasingly, stepping closer to the cloud. "Nice to know I'm not the only one
confused, though." Her eyes darted through the darkness to find those human
eyes, something to communicate with. "Anything you can tell me that might help?"
-Time.- It was a voice inside
her head this time. Hoarse, raspy sounding, as if it hadn't been used for so
long it had to relearn the use of vocal chords to make sound. But that made no
sense.It was inside her mind, no vocal chords were creating the sounds.
She shook her head to clear it,
pushing a palm to her forehead. "Time, all right. Time as in what, that you've
been in that cemetery for a long time? I can believe that. Or as in you don't
know what year it is?" She coaxed. There was gonna be some aspirin involved
pretty quickly if this kept going the way it was.
The blackness began to swirl
faster now, flowing and tumbling in on itself, as if the rage and frustration
she'd sensed were being manifested physically. Then the cloud began to advance
toward her.
She frantically scrambled
backwards, hand reaching out for the only thing to grab which was the fan and
stood behind it. "You cut that out right now, or I'll blow you halfway to
Kansas!" She snapped, touching the on switch in warning.
The cloud stopped. Painful words
sounded in her mind again. -Help me. Help you.-
Alicia frowned. "I would if you'd
just stop attacking me. Getting angry at me won't help anything."
-Not attack-, the thing in her
head rasped. -Tired.- The blackness sank to the ground and lay there.
Alicia slumped a little behind
her weapon. "Yeah, same here, darling."
Watching the smoke a moment, a
few ideas of what her guest was flashed through her mind but she was too wiped
out to focus on any of them. And no matter how much of a survival instinct she
had, sleeping in a bed was a much better prospect then sleeping slumped behind
her electric weapon. After making sure she wasn't going to get jumped again,
Alicia crawled over to her bed and passed out the moment her head touched the
pillow.