Evanescence 28

Chapter 28

*Before…

“Oh Molly…Molly, nobody has ever loved you!”

(Sob!) I can’t help it…the words hurt so much. Drake/Rapture’s blade hurts even worse…he’s so fast when he cuts my arm, my side. (Pain-scream.)

There’s something on the blade…the cuts burn like acid.

It’s hard to breath immediately.

The blade flashes at me and there’s a shing as Jill catches it on her blade and brings her gun up towards his head.

“Wrong meat sack I loved her!”

*And Now…

*Molly/Raine…………

Drake…Drake with the demon riding in him smiles and it’s his but not his smile and it’s the same smile as the sick thing that wanted those kids.

He moves or it moves him out of the way of Jill’s gunshots like he sort of blurs or something he’s so fast and then Shaun’s swinging his axe past me at him too.

There’s a swish as it goes past my hair as fast as anything and I fall to my butt from double shock going on and some hairs are falling down.

I’m sort of seeing blurred images as Drake and Rapture is fighting switchs on these bubbles of memories of me and him but not me and him and then there’s…my head is splitting!

There’s too many voices!

I’m me!

Dammit I’m me!

My arm hurts…hurts but a little hurt the kiss sting of a needle and the past…so close blurs into focus and he’s…he’s…and I’m dying…so high…but a high I didn’t want being pulled away to an oblivion I didn’t want.

Everything fades away….

…………………………..

…………………………..

Everything was cold…….

The world was all in black and white and all the colors had washed out of it.

I looked around it was my place but Drake was gone, our stuff was gone…and the place had actually been painted?

It looked fresh but I couldn’t tell what color it was, couldn’t smell the paint or the funk or anything.

I walked around the squat and my books were gone, my censers and bowls and stones and crystals everything was gone.

Even my sacred Athame was gone from there…everything I ever had was gone, taken, missing.

I walked outside with all of the grey people/

How did I get outside? I can’t remember the door or the stairs?

Then…all the grey people in a grey world, nothing there of color at all.

And no one saw me.

It was awhile…I don’t know how long before I knew…

No accepted that I was dead.

I was dead and my shade was wandering the earth…the goddess hadn’t carried me over.

No Heaven for Heaven.

The Jillian…Jill…

I remembered Jill.

I met Jill when she’d come to New York during Fleet Week.

I was working and I had always gotten good trade from the men but this was the first time that I had ever really come face to face with a navy woman in her uniform and instead of the usual pander from the guys it was.

“Do you want to dance?”

I looked at her and those grey eyes of hers like a stormy ocean and smiled and took a drink of my drink.

“You know what I am right?”

She nodded. “I’m lonely and honestly I don’t want the bullshit.”

There was something there, something that had been hurt from a past relationship and while she was my first woman like that it wasn’t the first person I had been with like that.

That’s one of the things that a whole lot of people don’t know about the sex trade…they see all the dirty sides but sometimes we’re just there…we’re the people that get the need for more than a conversation.

We do that too but sometimes we’re the option for those without options.

Two of my regulars are transwomen…were…I mean I was am…the past tense.

They were nice women even if we did use their stuff it was different and it wasn’t a money thing…it could’ve been but really they couldn’t afford it.

Alana made the best in the oven BBQ chicken and she made me take food home every time I was over.

Julie had the best pot, I mean really great amazing weed. She was part of some grow op or something and she knew a lot of the old hippies and stuff in the city.

There’s this warm feeling at these memories inside of me…this something…something else that’s there.

Should be?

Anyways…yeah Jill was actually like them…she just needed uncomplicated. Her last girlfriend was…well she wasn’t faithful and Jill had loved her and when they had broken up it had been while Jill was away…she hadn’t even known until she came home to an empty place and their accounts cleaned out and no sign of whoever anywhere.

It was really slow going but it was nice…Jill actually called ahead…sent me things from her trips just because…hell a lot of my books were things she had bought me because I was into it.

We were falling in love.
I think we were.

I was…I know I was… “Jill…” (Sob!)

And then I was there…in the rain and at a graveyard and Jill was there…no umbrella…just her in her black field jacket with her hands in her pockets and she’s crying.

Sad living tears are a sort of shimmery deep blue in the world of the dead.

It’s the first color I’ve seen here…

I walk to her and I try and hug her from behind.

It makes her cry harder…she kneels and hugs herself and she cries.

I touch her cheek or try too and she’s looking at the sky…at me…can she feel me?

I move around to get in front of her dropping to both of my knees and I see my Athame on top of my gravestone.

My gravestone that she had bought me…I wouldn’t have it any other way and the whole thing is beautiful really, even this spot too close to two maples…she knew I loved fall leaves…. (Sob!)

My Athame is shimmering…I can feel and see the mana in it…I had used it so much since I had gotten it…the lady at the flea market really had no clue.

~Yes I did Molly. ~

I look and the old granny that sold me it is there?

In Color.

It’s HER…

THE GODDESS… and she’s an old sixtyish black woman with freckles and no bra and a sweater and orthopedic shoes?

SHE smiles. ~Of course I am. ~

Of course SHE is.

~Why are you here?”~

~It’s time to go. ~
~Go where? ~

~To your future, to say goodbye to your Jill. ~

~I…I get to…I get to tell her goodbye? ~

SHE has this really, really sad look on her face and she’s nodding. ~Yes, I promise you that you will Molly yes. ~

~Okay…I’m ready…what do I do? ~

She extends her hand.

I reach to take it.

~Molly, take your Athame you’ll need it. ~

I reach out and it’s solid to me and I take it and then I take her hand.

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*Jill…………

I knew…

I knew that something, that something was out there, that there were things that I just couldn’t explain.

I reasoned with myself so much before it happened.

The last time I had seen Molly…the last time I’d been to her grave and I had set her dagger thing on the headstone…she had been into that stuff.

Then I swore I could feel her…it was like I could almost touch her that I could almost feel her touching me and then…

And then her dagger was gone.

There was no one around me, no one in eyeshot and it was gone.

*And now…Jill

And I just saw Raine…the strange as hell; magical transgirl that my brother has been seeing and sleeping with…saw her become my Molly…
And as much as I’ve seen, as much as I’ve hunted down and I’ve fought every part of me is screaming that this is real and that’s Molly…my Molly and he murdered her.

This thing…this witch boy guy warlock whatever he is with the sickly green glowing eyes.

Thing because I’m good, I’m damned good and I’m one of the damned few women to qualify for the teams that I was on.

And it’s keeping up with me and my snap blade and my gun….plus my brother and his axe.

Nothing human moves that fast…hits that hard…his knife is gouging into my blade and my gun.

And I’m a baseline, that’s to say that I’ve nothing with me that equalizes whatever these things and people have over me other than gear and experience.

These things are arrogant, especially things that are of this type.

Demons and devils and all these other predatory bugga-boos that feed off us in the dark.

Fear, good fear takes hold as I’m getting a handle on the feelings rushing through me and I break off before his magic does more damage to my gun and my blade. It’s good stuff all of it but when you’re up against that much raw power it can’t last unless it’s got some of it’s own juice to counter the power of the demon guy’s blade.

Shaun steps in as I break it off.

*Shaun…………

Clearing the vamps I do a boosted push to get at the demon thing, it’s the thing that was in the guy in the warehouse with the kids that Raine told me about.

And I come at him with the fire are and I’m boosting my strength and my speed pushing my lightning magic through my muscles and nerves. I’m swinging and spinning and trying to use speed and strength to keep up the momentum with this axe and the other attacks that I’m sending his way.

He blocks them all and my power just doesn’t match his and there’s big assed gouges being put into my axe from the knife he has and he’s older too…so much older and he just knows more so I get a couple of blows in like three axe swings and a punch that he dodges before he slips his own punches and jabs and knees into all the openings and I’m sent to my knees with an elbow I never seen coming and there’s a flash of green energy covered metal and another scream and Sloan’s in front of me his blade thrust shoved aside from a strike to my heart by her arm. There’s blood and she’s lost those spur things those blades that come out of her arm from her fae shift.

Grand dad’s going to hate eating crow because of this one, he’s like I said not a fan of the fae and here I am getting my ass save by one of them and a dark fae to boot.

Jill grabs me and she pulls me away from the demon and Sloan. “C’mon we’re out of our league and outgunned here!”

Then she grabs Raine/Molly too and pulls her back with us.

*Sloan…………

Never.

Never ever have I ever done something so stick brained ad taking a hit from a demon for a mortal and worse a mortal with power.

To us the fact that humans have power is an affront.

In the old times we of the fae were the leaders and the caretakers of the worlds, not just ours but all of them and humans had their places, they were part of the world as much as for frolic as for food.

Aye food.

Then came the days of when man met the gods, and the gods came from elsewhere drawn to the power inside of mankind…they assumed the likeness of man or elements and they fed of the faith in order to fight a war with things that we have long driven off from all the realms that we had touched.

The Old Ones.

We the fae were the first of races spawned from the dream of creation that live could rise and be like what made it.

And the Old Ones were the darkness that fought the coming of the light and they took all that was evil and beyond evil with them into the void.

And still we stayed apart from them until the great betrayal…a titan a being took what we elder being knew of magic and he taught it to humans.

And there has been bad blood over that and over humans being able to do that especially since along with those that carried our blood from frolic had strong magic within them.

There has been a back and forth between mankind and fae since those times…yes there’s other factors and parties but there you go…mankind with magic is to us like…well the danger is unrelenting.

And here I am defending a human mage and he’s the brother to my mortal lover and he’s sleeping with the human and gods made equivalent of a nuclear weapon.

And it’s actually alright because it’s a demon and its meat puppet.

Demons are…they are offshoots of the one true god pantheon…they are part the whole thing with the god with the big G and his minion the fallen Arch-Angel Lucifer…and they’re war with each other…big G made war through humans on the old gods and their followers and had pretty much won and then came the whole divide and there was this huge war that spilled over into all of the earths and Lucifer and the demons stole the darkest of lore and powers of things that should not have been resurrected and further and further damned themselves as they raised an army to retake creation by any means.

Any means and when then took the earth that became their hell billions died and there were fae in there too…and more in their invasions and it was in this realm that they were finally stopped.

So…fae, no matter how dark…we’re all immortal enemies with the hell spawned.

The wound burns me…like acid and the magic fades out against mine…it doesn’t affect me like it does the humans and his knife it’s no longer true steel or iron once he’s put that much power into it.

I waste no time…mana flows through me and I body mold and spit poisoned needles at him and boost my regen and my speed and power… the laws of mana containment do not apply here.

Yes, there are laws of cause and effect where we can only draw so much power here in this earth in relation to other mystical energy.

Leylines, old places of power, and other supernatural beings. I’m facing a creature with a lot of other realmly powers so much so the gloves are off for me…it’s like the sinkhole in his space time interacts with mine and it’s bigger so more power from my realm pours through.

I move as fast as I can using fist and claws and I close it up with him and his meat puppet and I have speed and strength and he can’t fight me like he did Shaun, I’m the Morrigan’s whip assassin and enforcer and that comes with a lot of fighting and fists and as he’s blocking those I burst in with knees and shin kicks and while he’s taking those or blocking those with his own kicks I’m using my claws…a closed fist going in means a released and clawed attempt to rake out and then there’s my spurs on my good arm and then my bladed elbow spike and venomed needle spit and I’m giving him no quarter and he’s still grinning like the demon that he is and I can see and feel his meat puppet is nearly gone…it’s no longer human at all at this point.

I’m chanting too…trying a spell to fill those lungs with water and he’s chanting as well and that’s where it gets dangerous…green flames from his master forming in his hand and I feel this power suck in the drowning spell that I have cast.

I am fast and I am strong and I’m landing blows I’m fracturing things and slicing him and cutting him and he’s drawing those motes of green hell made power into him and regening and more…more and more he’s becoming something else as the power is getting to his meat puppet, the intoxication of it and being unstoppable and the power of magic and the more his already damned soul gives over to the demon the more the regen is shifting him into being a cambion…a demon human hybrid.

A blow gets through…

That hand gets through and in an infecting flash of power it runs through me and I scream as I see in that power this gaunt thing with a rotten staff a mummy like this desiccated husk with eyes that burn so white they remind me of frostbite…the spell a link…to it lasting a human heartbeat and the water, the elemental energy of water within me is being ripped apart and eaten by this hell born spell…

Famine…Famine! He’s feeding me to Famine!

It’s all I can feel and he’s all I can see until everything white out.

*Athena/Andrea…………

It’s a nest and it’s a demon nest…cult but it’s blended with a vamp nest and I’ve never seen the like of this before…both demons and vampires dislike each other…The Beast…the thing that feeds in the dark does not like competition and it is old, it is one of the old darkest things that was driven back by gods and men during the battles against the old ones…demons taint their food…a true witch with a pact cannot be turned they cannot even truly be fed on as blood is the link to the power they feed on.

And those that are turned into vampires cannot be possessed they cannot be charmed nor beguiled or swayed and a vampire can smell the tainted blood.

That these two plagues are together does not bode well and the verdant sick green I’m seeing does not either.

I know this color, I know this power it’s that of Asmodeus…the arch angel of pain, the lord of thorns, Satan’s rose, the flame of spring…that color is called witchfire.

And in the war between heaven and hell when it was the angels and the earliest of man this color was everywhere for no other demon or fallen angel had as many witches sworn unto them…not even Satan.

I’m saving my goddess power for the undead and I’m trying to leave the demon touched for Shadira.

I am still a goddess though and while I have the faintest of worship I still have power and while I don’t have my armor or my spear or my axe or my other weapons I can still do somethings.

Like bless weapons…it’s an old Olympian spell in the olden days it was used on arrows and such to turn them into gold and bless them with the favor of the gods.

I agree it was a gaudy act and it was showy and that was a lot of what the old ways were like.

Another reason why I’ve stayed on earth or returned to it so much…learning, invention, and my faith.

I’ve been very persona-non-grata home on Olympus since I accepted baptism and became Christian.

But my gold gets called forth once again and The Star of David encircles the roundness of my hollow points and my gold slides to the side of each round underneath the jackets with crosses linked together by chains of words…

“Our Father in Heaven.”
“Hollow pointed be thy way.”
“Your Kingdom come.”
“Your will be done.”
“On this day as it was before.”
“When evil hath walked the earth.”
“Shield us once more from abomination.”
“And deliver us from evil.”
“Amen.”

The words are small and prayer is prayer…but I put some of my faith into it as well as some of my own mana into it and render these witch-vampires into ashes.

I can feel it though… feel it growing stronger down there underneath of us and I move to head inside flashing my FBI badge and ID and Shadira is following me.

*Shadira…………

We got here late and as we got closer and closer the voices started…true voices from home, from the other messengers and then we were there.

A hive of undead and the feelings…it was like.

Knowing there’s cancer then actually finding out you have it…it was this feeling of malignancy on my skin that was just…I wanted so much to wretch and then the second feeling hit me and that was feeling the demonic essence.

The only way that I can really describe a demon is…

Man is god’s children, his purest hope and love.

Demon’s possess and take and they corrupt and damage them in a way that I can only describe as being…it’s like seeing pedophilia happening right in front of you.

The voices get to becoming a choir and an angry song at that and I sing with them…I let the music fill myself up inside and I become…light…not…more and less and a little bit of everything.

The undead burn at my touch…we are antithetical to each other…the infected…Allah (pbuh) has granted me dominion over this evil and all that it has done and tainted and touched inside them…I pit his power against that of the creature from the pit…and it loses as I drive out the green fire and the poison of the drugs and that addiction and heal them of the curse of it…clean their hearts or the things that they did while under its power…well…not me but him…I am just the messenger.

What happens between them and god is between them…but all a touch are healed…and all are curled on the ground afterwards weeping.

And then…it’s clearer, my way is clearer and I call his wings given me back into myself and I shift my robes to a simple long coat of white with golden trimmings and I call his sword for me into my hand as I follow Agent DeMaggio into this place and down and toward the demon that I feel there…

The stronger it’s getting the bigger a cancerous hole it’s making in the world…

There are more eyes of red and green waiting for us in the lobby.

*Stevie…………

I look at Chris and I grab the arm that thumped into me and us it to hold him as I yank him away from a vamp swinging its claws for his head and spin us around all the way so he can shoot her in the face before I let go.

“Sunnydale’s in California this is Michigan.”

“Oh, well I don’t have a thing for that.”

“Well good as seeing as this is definitely not TV.”

“You’re right if this was TV then I’m be Xander Harris.”

“Well I’m not Willow or Anya I’m more like Tara.”

He looks at me. “Seriously?”

“Uhm yeah seriously.”

I duck a swing by a vamp and it goes to ashes as Andrea shoots it with some kind of special bullet or something and I charge up another flame spell and I hurl it into another vamp headed our way. “These damned things are coming out of the woodwork!”

He shoots two more and changes clips while I step in and start trading off blows with three that rush us and I shift from partial to full half wolf and hulk out and smash and bash and claw and rend while I snarl and throw the chunks and limbs I’m tearing off well and away from them to make regeneration a bitch.

He cocks his guns and steps up as I step back and close to him and shift back down to hybrid form. He starts shooting again and this time at some of these infected street kids, not to kill but legs and other cop or fed trained disabling areas.

“Wait…wolf and a mage…that’s not like allowed.”

“Sorry, I’m not a girl that plays by the rules.”

“No shit the other tribes will want you dead and the fae too.”

“Yeah, yeah no magery is to cross with pack mana. Well too fucking bad for all of them since I never signed those accords.”

“I thought that you were bound by blood magic to that stuff.”

“I’m not blood pack I’m the chosen mate and widow of the old alpha.”

“But that should have still bound you.”

“Bonds and oaths that are unwilling are curse magic and when it comes to being unwilling under curses there are ways out.”

“Ways out?”

“I made my saving throw.”

He bursts out laughing and we’re defending each other and then we’re moving as we’re suddenly backing up some of the other Fed looking types here or whatever these people are that aren’t fairing so well against these things the infected kids that don’t seem to think or feel pain…and the vampires.

“Just my luck I find a pretty girl that’s cool and stuff and she’s definitely not into me.”

“Sorry the only way we’d be going out for coffee and a burger Chris is if you were a girl.”

~yeah well sort of…~

I caught the stray thought…and the feelings and stuff with it are…?

Erica like.