She was back in the Treasury Room.
Midas was on his throne opening his mouth as one of his attendants fed him food by hand. He couldn't touch it. That's how he practically starved while still alive.
Tara touched her own head. She was developing a headache. What had just happened? How was she transported here without being conscious of it? Where was Miranda? What had her brother done with her? And, now what, exactly?
She didn't even get to have her fortune told which meant the war with the Judges would press on without one piece of assistance she was hoping for.
She looked to her hand and saw she was holding a metal detector. But she had never actually seen a metal detector or knew what its function was prior to this moment but was suddenly aware of it for some strange, inexplicable reason.
She strode to Midas and without warning, took his hand and drove his pointer finger right up into his chin.
His attendants, shocked by the sudden assault, fled as their master turned to gold.
She looked to the praying man from the ferry, still laying prostrate on the steps.
"This device detects metals, which the coin is made from. It will ignore the gold pieces an' in no time you will find that coin. Hurry though for Midas will soon melt an' when he does, he will exact a revenge so terrible not even I will be able to stop him, " she said and laid the metal detector down on the steps.
The praying man grabbed it and leapt to his feet.
She gave him a quick orientation as to how it worked which again, surprised her, given she had never seen nor used one before.
"Why did you do this? Why come back for me? Won't you get into trouble?"
"Yes, but that's rather the point. I don't like rules. I never did. Therefore following them tends to piss me off but I will anger Lucifer by doing this. He doesn't like when he is betrayed by those he claims to care for. You best start searching now. Remember what I showed you, back an' forth, it will beep louder the closer you get to the coin an' when it finds it, it will suck it towards the circular part down there an' the coin will stick to it. That's your ticket out of here."
"Where will I go?"
"I honestly don't know. I didn't think that far ahead, didn't really have a plan otherwise. A minute 'go I was talking to a friend of mine an' then I was back here. My brother says I never think things through, that this is my problem. Jus' run as fast an' as far away from here as you can. You'll spend eternity running but at least you won't be flowing in that river or sitting here, looking through coins. I'm sorry. It's not the best trade but it's the best I got."
"I'll take it. Thank you, Tara, was it?"
"Yes, that's one name for me."
"Will I ever see you again?"
"Maybe, I hope so. Good luck Seamus."
"How'd you know my name?"
"There's no time to explain. One day you might understand if we should ever meet an' you should get time enough to tell me. Do as I said an' be quick about it. I wish you well."
"Thank you! Good luck to you!"
"Yeah, well, that's if she gets whole 'gain I might."
"I'm sorry? I don't follow."
"Don't worry about it. Move!"
Letters to Matt Simon
In John Milton's "Paradise Lost" he describes the capital of Hell as a place called Pandemonium. When Lucifer had gotten his hands on the poem, he was so impressed with Milton's descriptions of him, his life, the war in heaven and everything else that he renamed the place he was imprisoned, the so called Ninth Circle according to another poet, that being Dante, to "Pandemonium." Whereas Tara, called her home, Dis, which was the capital in Dante's poem.
It was here, in the freezing pit, that a medieval castle was situated and where Lucifer fancied himself a feudal lord. Dante claimed that he was a gargantauan being that had three heads, which spent eternity eating Judas, Brutus and Cassius, in the middle of a freezing lake.
And, while that was certainly true if that was your perception, he preferred to think of himself as a medieval king that had an entire realm of loving subjects and peasants at his beck and call.
The only thing Dante got right was the temperature.
It was cold.
Other than that, he could shape it to whatever he liked in his mind. He was the boss, after all.
Tonight they were having pheasant, one of the cook's specialties.
The hourglass in front of his plate was nearly out of sand and he looked at it with clear irritation.
"Where is she? Did I not tell her that she was expected at a certain hour?! Why must I repeat myself to that girl a thousand times before it all makes sense in her convoluted little head?!" Lucifer screamed and pounded the table before him with his fist.
"A lady is supposed to be fashionably late, my liege," she said with a smirk as she descended the stairs into the feeding trough, as she called it.
Through her eyes, this place was a giant mouth that just ate everything in existence that wandered into it.
It was not made of stone.
It did not have knights all around with swords ready to dispatch any enemies that dared tread too close to their king.
It did not have men blowing trumpets when she or even Lucifer would appear.
There was no long table, filled with a banquet fit for a king.
And, she was not dressed in a vermillion gown that was fitted tightly under her breasts so that they were pushed up nearly to her chin but accentuated them in such a way as to drive him mad with desire.
The dress was out of place as was the rest of the environment.
She thought it was something the girls wore back in Renaissance times.
Not this timeframe Lucifer imagined they were in.
But she didn't point this out to him as she took her seat at the far end of the table across from him.
She looked to her plate and shook her head.
Someone had placed rose petals on it in the shape of a heart.
Since the chef hated her, it was unlikely that he was the culprit.
She looked to Lucifer as he was speaking now.
"But you are no lady," he grinned and lifted his glass of wine to her. "You're MY lady, but you're not really a..."
"What are we toasting to tonight, Jack?" she said with a roll of her eyes.
"To your quick thinking. It always amazes me that while everyone else here seems to lose their minds, you just seem to get smarter over the eons, my dear."
"Fine, then, to my quick thinking," she said, lifted the glass and drank the wine that was really some poor unfortunate soul's blood.
The chef came and served them the pheasant. She couldn't see past the illusion now to know what it was that they were REALLY eating but she knew it wasn't actually pheasant. There was no such thing here.
There were other guests at the banquet but damned if she knew their names or functions. None of them spoke and Lucifer hardly paid them any mind, so why should she?
She wanted to get this over with.
Her punishment for freeing the praying man at the ferry, the one she had called Seamus, and the other various crimes she had committed that Lucifer was upset about.
But he seemed insistent on dragging it out.
They did a waltz around the room, another out of place dance, and the cosmos swirled around them as the castle faded away.
Time and space shifted so violently here you could be in one place one moment and another the next.
When they were drunk enough, they ended up in his bed.
An empty wine bottle on the floor along with any remnants of any common sense she had left.
She had once loved him, this Satan everyone feared.
But she no longer did.
She loved another.
When sleep took her, what could arguably be called sleep in this infernal place, there was only one man on her mind.
Anubis.
Nothing else mattered.
It was here, in the freezing pit, that a medieval castle was situated and where Lucifer fancied himself a feudal lord. Dante claimed that he was a gargantauan being that had three heads, which spent eternity eating Judas, Brutus and Cassius, in the middle of a freezing lake.
And, while that was certainly true if that was your perception, he preferred to think of himself as a medieval king that had an entire realm of loving subjects and peasants at his beck and call.
The only thing Dante got right was the temperature.
It was cold.
Other than that, he could shape it to whatever he liked in his mind. He was the boss, after all.
Tonight they were having pheasant, one of the cook's specialties.
The hourglass in front of his plate was nearly out of sand and he looked at it with clear irritation.
"Where is she? Did I not tell her that she was expected at a certain hour?! Why must I repeat myself to that girl a thousand times before it all makes sense in her convoluted little head?!" Lucifer screamed and pounded the table before him with his fist.
"A lady is supposed to be fashionably late, my liege," she said with a smirk as she descended the stairs into the feeding trough, as she called it.
Through her eyes, this place was a giant mouth that just ate everything in existence that wandered into it.
It was not made of stone.
It did not have knights all around with swords ready to dispatch any enemies that dared tread too close to their king.
It did not have men blowing trumpets when she or even Lucifer would appear.
There was no long table, filled with a banquet fit for a king.
And, she was not dressed in a vermillion gown that was fitted tightly under her breasts so that they were pushed up nearly to her chin but accentuated them in such a way as to drive him mad with desire.
The dress was out of place as was the rest of the environment.
She thought it was something the girls wore back in Renaissance times.
Not this timeframe Lucifer imagined they were in.
But she didn't point this out to him as she took her seat at the far end of the table across from him.
She looked to her plate and shook her head.
Someone had placed rose petals on it in the shape of a heart.
Since the chef hated her, it was unlikely that he was the culprit.
She looked to Lucifer as he was speaking now.
"But you are no lady," he grinned and lifted his glass of wine to her. "You're MY lady, but you're not really a..."
"What are we toasting to tonight, Jack?" she said with a roll of her eyes.
"To your quick thinking. It always amazes me that while everyone else here seems to lose their minds, you just seem to get smarter over the eons, my dear."
"Fine, then, to my quick thinking," she said, lifted the glass and drank the wine that was really some poor unfortunate soul's blood.
The chef came and served them the pheasant. She couldn't see past the illusion now to know what it was that they were REALLY eating but she knew it wasn't actually pheasant. There was no such thing here.
There were other guests at the banquet but damned if she knew their names or functions. None of them spoke and Lucifer hardly paid them any mind, so why should she?
She wanted to get this over with.
Her punishment for freeing the praying man at the ferry, the one she had called Seamus, and the other various crimes she had committed that Lucifer was upset about.
But he seemed insistent on dragging it out.
They did a waltz around the room, another out of place dance, and the cosmos swirled around them as the castle faded away.
Time and space shifted so violently here you could be in one place one moment and another the next.
When they were drunk enough, they ended up in his bed.
An empty wine bottle on the floor along with any remnants of any common sense she had left.
She had once loved him, this Satan everyone feared.
But she no longer did.
She loved another.
When sleep took her, what could arguably be called sleep in this infernal place, there was only one man on her mind.
Anubis.
Nothing else mattered.
Her eyes snapped open and she saw the canopy of Lucifer's bed above her. It was a map of all the universe, its stars and constellations, clearly laid out in microscopic detail. No part of the fabric was untouched. In one way, it was beautiful if not a little sad. He obviously missed being a part of all that, with his celestial brethren, watching over a mankind that half of them feared and the other half, hated. There was a time where even she had felt sorry for him in that regard.
How could you not?
The room was decorated as any room you might expect to see in a typical medieval castle. It had a roaring fire, but not of flame, of ice. It was freezing too, as evidenced by the horripilation which raced across her naked skin now as she regained full consciousness. There were covers at the foot of the bed, kicked off in the night during one of her animalistic lovemaking sessions with her partner, Lucifer, beside her. But they would be of no use. Even if she could manage to draw them up over her body, with her feet, it would do nothing to shield her from the incredible cold here.
This was another reason she hated this place, the cold. At least where she was you didn't shiver.
Her arms were outstretched against the headboard, held firm with iron chains. She was bleeding from bite wounds all over her torso. Lucifer had gotten a little too enthusiastic with her again but she didn't care. They would heal, in time.
In the distance, she supposed, she heard a Stradavarius playing a haunting melody. Always the same one. She never saw the one who played it nor asked what the song was. It was something important to him, from his memory, not hers.
She was here, not by choice.
She looked now to him. The father of her son who had been the first to fall. His back was to her but she could still see the scars where his wings had been torn from his flesh. She supposed that was a painful punishment, aside from being locked away down here for all time.
She thought of Nareloth then. Their son who was situated in a room, not here, but in a fortress located in the Dark Wood that opened up into Dante's Foyer at the top of that mountain her dragon had assaulted not too long ago. It was an immense stone structure, guarded by Harpies. Phineas was imprisoned there. With his own banquet he could never eat.
They had taken his eyes, the poor thing.
Starving and blind, he spent his eternity hiding under the banquet table for fear the Harpies might get him.
She was only allowed to see her son on Sundays. One of Lucifer's many rules which were never explained to her nor did she ever argue with. It was best if she just let him think he was the one that was in control around here.
She sensed him waking and closed her eyes.
"You can stop pretending you are asleep now," he said and stretched beside her.
"I was hoping to avoid any conversations. Are you quite finished with me? Can I go now? I have work to do."
"In a little while. Tell me, will you go see him again, that man you are infatuated with?"
"You know, it's funny, he once accused me of being infatuated with him but then I convinced him that what I was feeling was real an' if he only voiced how he was feeling, told me what was truly in his heart all along, then him being married to another woman I despised, being apart from him all these long years, it would somehow make this struggle of ours to be together an' being prevented at every turn, worth it. Then he told me he loved me, he actually said the words to me an' it was then that I first saw him cry. Anubis is his name. Like you, he is responsibile for a great many suffering but he would never harm me an' I've done many things over the years to test his patience but THAT he would never do."
"In the right circumstances, being with you long enough? He might. Give him a chance to get to know you better as I have. You'll get him fired up one night."
"Nay, I won't. I've angered him, yes, but he's never gotten as angry as you have with me. He treats me as if I am a pane of glass, fragile. He does not abuse me as you do. He lives in another version of this place, I think, a better one. There I will not be tortured. I will not die each night an' be reborn in that throne where you keep me, in that hateful tower with all its puzzles. In his kingdom, I shall be truly Queen. As much as those who think they know him think him a monster, his people, where he comes from, they celebrate life, not death. The irony of his existence, though, is that he is a shepard of death. A guardian, if you will, an' yes, I will go back to him jus' as soon as I am able. I can think of no other pleasures but being with him."
"Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven, eh?" Lucifer said with a pained smile. "He will take you away then?"
"Yes, I will marry him an' give him a son like I gave you except when we embrace, when he holds me naked to him in his bed, I do not cry as I do with you. I do not feel repulsed by his touch but will do everything I can to be close to him. He will free me from this Hell. He may even harm you, if I know him an' I know him well. He will hunt you to the ends of the universe if I ask it of him, if I tell him all that you have done to me an' he will destroy you, utterly. Of that you can be assured."
"How do you know he will do all this? Has he told you?"
"Because it is precisely what I would do if anyone were to kidnap him against his will, do terrible things to him and force him to become something he was not supposed to be. But I would not give you a fast death, no. I would spend the rest of ever destroying you."
"Perhaps I was too harsh then in chastising you from freeing the praying man from his punishment if, as you say, there is one who could free me from mine? I cannot wait to meet him," he said with a laugh and climbed on top of her.
She turned her cheek as he was kissing her in the very place Anubis always placed his lips on her neck and tears began to fall on her cheeks. Were it not for the chains that held her wrists, she might have strangled Lucifer with them or at least tried to.
She was powerful but not as powerful as him and definitely not as strong as Anubis.
It would have been a waste of time.
She needed to conserve her strength.
Eventually, when she did leave this place, she'd need every last ounce of it just to get out intact.
For now, she could only escape this newest torture by looking at the pedestals around the bed that had glass display boxes on them. There were nine in total. The first eight displaying a body part belonging to Judas, Brutus and Cassius, respectively, and all of them looked chewed in some way.
The ninth, however, had a silver platter with thirty silver coins on it. Symbolic of Iscariot's betrayal of Jesus with the famous payment he received from the Sanhedrin priests.
She could not see the faces of those coins but she imagined they had something drawn on them. Another of Hell's various messages with a lesson attached to it.
Eventually, despite her reservations, her nature won her over and she joined her lover with eager, hungry kisses and caresses.
When it was over, without having ever remembered travelling here, she was back in her own throne.
In the Hall of Sorrow.
Screaming as the concertina wire tightened and bit into her naked flesh like it had been doing since the dawn of Time.
And, as new tears, of blood, fell to her cheeks, the monstrosities of her farcical court, the ones all vying for her attention and favor, closed in all around her.
How could you not?
The room was decorated as any room you might expect to see in a typical medieval castle. It had a roaring fire, but not of flame, of ice. It was freezing too, as evidenced by the horripilation which raced across her naked skin now as she regained full consciousness. There were covers at the foot of the bed, kicked off in the night during one of her animalistic lovemaking sessions with her partner, Lucifer, beside her. But they would be of no use. Even if she could manage to draw them up over her body, with her feet, it would do nothing to shield her from the incredible cold here.
This was another reason she hated this place, the cold. At least where she was you didn't shiver.
Her arms were outstretched against the headboard, held firm with iron chains. She was bleeding from bite wounds all over her torso. Lucifer had gotten a little too enthusiastic with her again but she didn't care. They would heal, in time.
In the distance, she supposed, she heard a Stradavarius playing a haunting melody. Always the same one. She never saw the one who played it nor asked what the song was. It was something important to him, from his memory, not hers.
She was here, not by choice.
She looked now to him. The father of her son who had been the first to fall. His back was to her but she could still see the scars where his wings had been torn from his flesh. She supposed that was a painful punishment, aside from being locked away down here for all time.
She thought of Nareloth then. Their son who was situated in a room, not here, but in a fortress located in the Dark Wood that opened up into Dante's Foyer at the top of that mountain her dragon had assaulted not too long ago. It was an immense stone structure, guarded by Harpies. Phineas was imprisoned there. With his own banquet he could never eat.
They had taken his eyes, the poor thing.
Starving and blind, he spent his eternity hiding under the banquet table for fear the Harpies might get him.
She was only allowed to see her son on Sundays. One of Lucifer's many rules which were never explained to her nor did she ever argue with. It was best if she just let him think he was the one that was in control around here.
She sensed him waking and closed her eyes.
"You can stop pretending you are asleep now," he said and stretched beside her.
"I was hoping to avoid any conversations. Are you quite finished with me? Can I go now? I have work to do."
"In a little while. Tell me, will you go see him again, that man you are infatuated with?"
"You know, it's funny, he once accused me of being infatuated with him but then I convinced him that what I was feeling was real an' if he only voiced how he was feeling, told me what was truly in his heart all along, then him being married to another woman I despised, being apart from him all these long years, it would somehow make this struggle of ours to be together an' being prevented at every turn, worth it. Then he told me he loved me, he actually said the words to me an' it was then that I first saw him cry. Anubis is his name. Like you, he is responsibile for a great many suffering but he would never harm me an' I've done many things over the years to test his patience but THAT he would never do."
"In the right circumstances, being with you long enough? He might. Give him a chance to get to know you better as I have. You'll get him fired up one night."
"Nay, I won't. I've angered him, yes, but he's never gotten as angry as you have with me. He treats me as if I am a pane of glass, fragile. He does not abuse me as you do. He lives in another version of this place, I think, a better one. There I will not be tortured. I will not die each night an' be reborn in that throne where you keep me, in that hateful tower with all its puzzles. In his kingdom, I shall be truly Queen. As much as those who think they know him think him a monster, his people, where he comes from, they celebrate life, not death. The irony of his existence, though, is that he is a shepard of death. A guardian, if you will, an' yes, I will go back to him jus' as soon as I am able. I can think of no other pleasures but being with him."
"Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven, eh?" Lucifer said with a pained smile. "He will take you away then?"
"Yes, I will marry him an' give him a son like I gave you except when we embrace, when he holds me naked to him in his bed, I do not cry as I do with you. I do not feel repulsed by his touch but will do everything I can to be close to him. He will free me from this Hell. He may even harm you, if I know him an' I know him well. He will hunt you to the ends of the universe if I ask it of him, if I tell him all that you have done to me an' he will destroy you, utterly. Of that you can be assured."
"How do you know he will do all this? Has he told you?"
"Because it is precisely what I would do if anyone were to kidnap him against his will, do terrible things to him and force him to become something he was not supposed to be. But I would not give you a fast death, no. I would spend the rest of ever destroying you."
"Perhaps I was too harsh then in chastising you from freeing the praying man from his punishment if, as you say, there is one who could free me from mine? I cannot wait to meet him," he said with a laugh and climbed on top of her.
She turned her cheek as he was kissing her in the very place Anubis always placed his lips on her neck and tears began to fall on her cheeks. Were it not for the chains that held her wrists, she might have strangled Lucifer with them or at least tried to.
She was powerful but not as powerful as him and definitely not as strong as Anubis.
It would have been a waste of time.
She needed to conserve her strength.
Eventually, when she did leave this place, she'd need every last ounce of it just to get out intact.
For now, she could only escape this newest torture by looking at the pedestals around the bed that had glass display boxes on them. There were nine in total. The first eight displaying a body part belonging to Judas, Brutus and Cassius, respectively, and all of them looked chewed in some way.
The ninth, however, had a silver platter with thirty silver coins on it. Symbolic of Iscariot's betrayal of Jesus with the famous payment he received from the Sanhedrin priests.
She could not see the faces of those coins but she imagined they had something drawn on them. Another of Hell's various messages with a lesson attached to it.
Eventually, despite her reservations, her nature won her over and she joined her lover with eager, hungry kisses and caresses.
When it was over, without having ever remembered travelling here, she was back in her own throne.
In the Hall of Sorrow.
Screaming as the concertina wire tightened and bit into her naked flesh like it had been doing since the dawn of Time.
And, as new tears, of blood, fell to her cheeks, the monstrosities of her farcical court, the ones all vying for her attention and favor, closed in all around her.
Famine was on his horse, furiously trying to get the mustard out of the packet again and having a hard time doing so.
"Would you jus' quit it?" she said, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"I don't understand. It worked in that Rhy'Din place, why not here?"
"How many more years do you have to live here until you realize that things elsewhere do not work the same, do not seem the same, here as they do in the places they originated?"
"Are you suggesting that I cannot have this seasoning here?"
"I am. Watch," she said and took a water bottle from her robe. She opened the cap and poured the liquid out only to have it freeze in mid air. She tipped the bottle up and looked to her brother. "See?"
Famine frowned. "It's hot here, though, that makes no sense."
"Indeed, now watch 'gain."
She tipped it a second time and the water fell to the ground, boiling a crab that had been sitting there.
There were no beaches here. They were in the middle of nowhere really but there was a crab there and now it was red, having been boiled.
She smirked. "Told you. Now look at what's left."
She brought the bottle to her mouth and drank the water, which was clear. Then spit it out in her hand and it was black.
"Things change here, like its residents. Why don't you know this?"
"I don't know. I don't visit the places I end up in like you do. I go there to do a job and come home. You're the explorer."
"I'd show you this cellphone I acquired from a dead man but it doesn't do what it's supposed to do, here. I've tried."
"What does it do?"
"Instead of making phone calls it plays whale calls."
"What?"
"You know the music whales make underwater?"
"I have heard of that, yes, why does it do that?"
"I have no idea. Yesterday I was talking to Tyche an' Death cut off her head an' she was still speaking."
"Wow, that is weird."
"Yer telling me. So, what's the plan?"
"War said he'd meet us up on a hill but I don't remember which one."
"I am looking at five hills, brother," she said with a sigh. "Neither of which have any identifying marks or features beyond the fact that they are, hilly."
"I know. I have a terrible memory. Yesterday I was sent to Mumbai but ended up in Portland, Oregon. An entire supermarket was laid to waste until I remember what I was supposed to be...hey, what's that?"
She looked up and saw Seamus running from a dragon and blinked.
"Umm."
"Is that Campe?"
"Yeees," she said, suddenly worried for the praying man.
"She looks like she's going to eat him."
"Indeed she does. Let's go help him," she said and rode off towards them.
It took some doing but she eventually convinced the dragon Campe not to eat Seamus.
Seamus, while the negotations were taking place, was trying to help Famine get at the mustard but it seemed to be stuck.
"And you say this seasoning is stored in this little pocket?" Seamus asked the personification of Hunger.
"Yes, my sister showed me. You squeeze it and out pops this yellow sauce that is very delicious. I would offer you some but it does not seem to want to be eaten, like you were not, a moment ago."
"No, I am not a fan of being eaten alive by dragons. Who is your sister?"
"Tara," Famine said and nodded to her as she was wagging her finger at the dragon and it was snorting puffs of smoke at her through its nostrils.
"She's wonderful your sister."
"Is she? We all seem to like her. How'd you two meet?"
"She gave me this device that acted like a magnet to find a coin I needed. But something's wrong with the device."
Famine took the packet of mustard and was stomping on it now in frustration. "What's wrong with it?"
"It doesn't seem to want to stay in one particular shape or another. It keeps changing. Right now it's playing music. I do not think it is supposed to do that like I do not think you are supposed to be doing what you're doing."
Famine nodded. "That's what Tara said. She froze water earlier. You should have seen it, it was cool. Plays music, huh?"
"Yes, I suppose. I really do not know what it does in its native form, if it has one."
"Ahh, here she comes. Maybe she will have an answer for us both," Famine grinned as Tara joined them.
"The dragon will trouble you no further, Seamus. Did you find the coin?"
"Yes, but that device of yours is very strange. It also did not make any sounds like you said it would. It is now, though."
Tara tilted her head. "What do you mean?"
"When I lifted it to find the coin like you showed me? All the gold in the room disappeared and the fake coin went right to it. I was very confused but by then Midas had melted and he set that dragon on me. It plays music now."
Tara blinked. "Campe is musically inclined? Since when?"
"No, not the dragon, the whatever you called it."
"The magnet, metal detector thing. I have no idea what it is, how it works, how it got in my hand, Seamus, much like I don't know how much of what goes on here, does. It's a real confusing place to live in. I could disappear in the next moment without even realizing it."
"I bet. So what now?"
"Now we wait."
"For?"
Famine chimed in. "War and Pestilence are coming."
Seamus choked.
He reminded her of Gren.
"What does that mean?!" he cried.
Yep.
Exactly what Gren would say.
Tara put her hand on him with a smile. "It means you best start running again."
She didn't have to tell him twice.
He took off and both she and Famine watched with amazement.
"Look at him go," Famine said with a chuckle. "It's only been five seconds and he's a mile away by now. Is that even possible?"
"I jus' made water freeze here, do you doubt it is? If he keeps that up, he might give Hermes a run for his money an' be able to deliver things faster on foot than he can in the air."
Famine's face fell.
"I just remembered something."
She braced herself. "What did you do now?"
"I might have had a conversation with Hermes about what we were doing."
She grimaced. "You didn't. He's the messenger! He's going to tell the Judges, Famine!"
"No! You don't know that!"
"It's his job! Of course he will! Anything he's told, he repeats! Oh no. Jus' when War an' I made up too," she said with a pout.
"What of it?" a voice said behind her and she turned round to see Ares in full war dress.
"I can explain," she said with a smile.
Famine brought the mustard packet over to their brother Pestilence and held it aloft like it was some great artifact.
"...and it is delicious!" he cried.
Pestilence took the packet and examined it closely.
But the packet instantly decayed and maggots started crawling out of it.
"Aww, man, what did you do that for?! I was just trying to figure out how to get it to work again too!" Famine dropped to his knees, nearly in tears.
War shook his head and stepped closer to her. "I said, what of it?"
"Let's go some place a little more comfortable," she said and gesturing, they all disappeared, which was another amazement in itself.
She could teleport in Rhy'Din wherever she wanted to go but in Hell she had to travel there normally.
Something very strange was going on, even more so than musical metal detectors that disappeared gold and cellphones that imitated whales.
"Would you jus' quit it?" she said, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"I don't understand. It worked in that Rhy'Din place, why not here?"
"How many more years do you have to live here until you realize that things elsewhere do not work the same, do not seem the same, here as they do in the places they originated?"
"Are you suggesting that I cannot have this seasoning here?"
"I am. Watch," she said and took a water bottle from her robe. She opened the cap and poured the liquid out only to have it freeze in mid air. She tipped the bottle up and looked to her brother. "See?"
Famine frowned. "It's hot here, though, that makes no sense."
"Indeed, now watch 'gain."
She tipped it a second time and the water fell to the ground, boiling a crab that had been sitting there.
There were no beaches here. They were in the middle of nowhere really but there was a crab there and now it was red, having been boiled.
She smirked. "Told you. Now look at what's left."
She brought the bottle to her mouth and drank the water, which was clear. Then spit it out in her hand and it was black.
"Things change here, like its residents. Why don't you know this?"
"I don't know. I don't visit the places I end up in like you do. I go there to do a job and come home. You're the explorer."
"I'd show you this cellphone I acquired from a dead man but it doesn't do what it's supposed to do, here. I've tried."
"What does it do?"
"Instead of making phone calls it plays whale calls."
"What?"
"You know the music whales make underwater?"
"I have heard of that, yes, why does it do that?"
"I have no idea. Yesterday I was talking to Tyche an' Death cut off her head an' she was still speaking."
"Wow, that is weird."
"Yer telling me. So, what's the plan?"
"War said he'd meet us up on a hill but I don't remember which one."
"I am looking at five hills, brother," she said with a sigh. "Neither of which have any identifying marks or features beyond the fact that they are, hilly."
"I know. I have a terrible memory. Yesterday I was sent to Mumbai but ended up in Portland, Oregon. An entire supermarket was laid to waste until I remember what I was supposed to be...hey, what's that?"
She looked up and saw Seamus running from a dragon and blinked.
"Umm."
"Is that Campe?"
"Yeees," she said, suddenly worried for the praying man.
"She looks like she's going to eat him."
"Indeed she does. Let's go help him," she said and rode off towards them.
It took some doing but she eventually convinced the dragon Campe not to eat Seamus.
Seamus, while the negotations were taking place, was trying to help Famine get at the mustard but it seemed to be stuck.
"And you say this seasoning is stored in this little pocket?" Seamus asked the personification of Hunger.
"Yes, my sister showed me. You squeeze it and out pops this yellow sauce that is very delicious. I would offer you some but it does not seem to want to be eaten, like you were not, a moment ago."
"No, I am not a fan of being eaten alive by dragons. Who is your sister?"
"Tara," Famine said and nodded to her as she was wagging her finger at the dragon and it was snorting puffs of smoke at her through its nostrils.
"She's wonderful your sister."
"Is she? We all seem to like her. How'd you two meet?"
"She gave me this device that acted like a magnet to find a coin I needed. But something's wrong with the device."
Famine took the packet of mustard and was stomping on it now in frustration. "What's wrong with it?"
"It doesn't seem to want to stay in one particular shape or another. It keeps changing. Right now it's playing music. I do not think it is supposed to do that like I do not think you are supposed to be doing what you're doing."
Famine nodded. "That's what Tara said. She froze water earlier. You should have seen it, it was cool. Plays music, huh?"
"Yes, I suppose. I really do not know what it does in its native form, if it has one."
"Ahh, here she comes. Maybe she will have an answer for us both," Famine grinned as Tara joined them.
"The dragon will trouble you no further, Seamus. Did you find the coin?"
"Yes, but that device of yours is very strange. It also did not make any sounds like you said it would. It is now, though."
Tara tilted her head. "What do you mean?"
"When I lifted it to find the coin like you showed me? All the gold in the room disappeared and the fake coin went right to it. I was very confused but by then Midas had melted and he set that dragon on me. It plays music now."
Tara blinked. "Campe is musically inclined? Since when?"
"No, not the dragon, the whatever you called it."
"The magnet, metal detector thing. I have no idea what it is, how it works, how it got in my hand, Seamus, much like I don't know how much of what goes on here, does. It's a real confusing place to live in. I could disappear in the next moment without even realizing it."
"I bet. So what now?"
"Now we wait."
"For?"
Famine chimed in. "War and Pestilence are coming."
Seamus choked.
He reminded her of Gren.
"What does that mean?!" he cried.
Yep.
Exactly what Gren would say.
Tara put her hand on him with a smile. "It means you best start running again."
She didn't have to tell him twice.
He took off and both she and Famine watched with amazement.
"Look at him go," Famine said with a chuckle. "It's only been five seconds and he's a mile away by now. Is that even possible?"
"I jus' made water freeze here, do you doubt it is? If he keeps that up, he might give Hermes a run for his money an' be able to deliver things faster on foot than he can in the air."
Famine's face fell.
"I just remembered something."
She braced herself. "What did you do now?"
"I might have had a conversation with Hermes about what we were doing."
She grimaced. "You didn't. He's the messenger! He's going to tell the Judges, Famine!"
"No! You don't know that!"
"It's his job! Of course he will! Anything he's told, he repeats! Oh no. Jus' when War an' I made up too," she said with a pout.
"What of it?" a voice said behind her and she turned round to see Ares in full war dress.
"I can explain," she said with a smile.
Famine brought the mustard packet over to their brother Pestilence and held it aloft like it was some great artifact.
"...and it is delicious!" he cried.
Pestilence took the packet and examined it closely.
But the packet instantly decayed and maggots started crawling out of it.
"Aww, man, what did you do that for?! I was just trying to figure out how to get it to work again too!" Famine dropped to his knees, nearly in tears.
War shook his head and stepped closer to her. "I said, what of it?"
"Let's go some place a little more comfortable," she said and gesturing, they all disappeared, which was another amazement in itself.
She could teleport in Rhy'Din wherever she wanted to go but in Hell she had to travel there normally.
Something very strange was going on, even more so than musical metal detectors that disappeared gold and cellphones that imitated whales.
"The forgotten brother," she said with a smirk as she kicked open the doors to the Chamber of Sleep where Hypnos, one of her many siblings resided. Lore had said he was brother to Thanatos but that wasn't exactly right. The family tree branched out a little further than that.
"The exalted sister, to what DO I owe the pleasure?" Hypnos said with a smile and opened his arms for her.
She stood there, growling. "I am not remembering things right. Certain things, yes, but not the whole, complete picture. I'm mixing things up, mixing people up in my brain. This is not my fault. It is being done to me to stop me from getting what I want."
"Oh? And you think I'm somehow the cause of it all? Would that explain why you're coming to visit me after an absence of three hundred years?"
"I'm positive that you are."
"I affect sleep, dear sister, not memories."
"Correct, but what I'm having aren't memories but dreams. That's how I'm getting from one place to the next without going there. That's why nothing is functioning the way it should. Things are strange here, yes, but a cellphone doesn't become a radio an' a metal detector doesn't disappear gold. Famine doesn't like mustard, he doesn't even know what that is! An' Rose didn't marry Nok! She married Azzy! Nok dressed up in the only tuxedo he had ever worn in order to take her to the Valentine's Day dance an' Ashe took me! We all laughed about it because he was always in a black trenchcoat an' combat boots! He never dressed up an' they never dated! But she DID date Azzy!"
"Perhaps you should sit down. You look stressed," he said softly and touched her shoulder.
"Oh don't touch me you insufferable fool! It's written down! In one of my journals, I even have the wedding invitation! I went with Kain to the wedding. It was strange, we had jus' broken up but he agreed. Three days before, Church found me at the Red Dragon an' he demanded I tell him where Rose and Azrael were marrying an' if I didn't....."
"If you didn't... what?"
"He'd give me back to Kain."
"But didn't he already have you?"
"What?"
"You said you you went with Kain to the wedding and that you had recently broken up? How could he give you to someone who already had you?"
"Not THAT Kain! Another one!"
"Which Kain? How many Kain's are there exactly? I'm confused."
"Kain Locke, he was a slaver. It doesn't matter. This will stop now, do you understand me? You're making me sleep an' I'm dreaming things which never happened, except for my memories of Anubis, everything that's been happening, everything I told Miranda had happened in the past, after I went to see the Judges, or what I thought was happening hasn't actually done so have they?! You're making me crazy with this! Where is Tyche?! I demand to see her!"
He smiled. "You can't leave here. You can spin that wheel from now til the end of Time, sister, you're stuck here with the rest of us."
"Even so, I want the opportunity to try an' you can tell Hades that if he thought the praying man was my being defiant, he's got another think coming. I WILL marry Anubis. I will get the hell out of here an' I will leave this place worse than how I found it if any of you try to stop me! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
"As you wish but you might come to regret asking me that," he said and placed his hand on her forehead.
She gasped as the scenery changed.
She wasn't in the Chamber of Sleep any longer but was in her room in the the tower at Dis.
The claw bed was there. She was laying in it. She threw back the covers and for the first time was relieved to see the nightcrawlers, scorpions and
cockroaches that served as a mattress all crawling there.
That was real.
That had...happened.
She then turned to look at the shelves where all her books were but the journals were now strangely missing. Which was an impossibility. No one could come here, not even Lucifer.
This was HER prison. Alone.
"Church Rhino existed," she whispered as she grabbed her head, starting to cry. "I did not imagine him. If Anubis were here, he'd reassure me that Church was real. He knew him. Everyone did. Oh God, I am losing my mind. What if I can never leave this place? What if Rhy'Din doesn't exist but is jus' a figment of my imagination an' has been all along?! What is.....real?"
There was a knock at the door.
She gasped again and stared at it in terror.
No one ever visited her.
No one could.
The tower was accessible only to one, her.
She drew the covers up over her and swallowed in fear. "Enter," she said, reluctantly.
A woman walked in with a bowl in her hands that she immediately dropped seeing Tara in her bed.
Tara pointed at her, "Anubis Karos is the ancient Egyptian God of the Dead an' his father is the God Set! I am the Whore of Babylon! I have a dragon that's going to swallow you all! We're to be married! If his father doesn't come back an' kill me first! He's real! You know him don't you?! He duels over at the Outback when he's not beyond the Veil! Tell him I'm here an' I'm scared! Tell him to come get me quick! I do not want to be here anymore!"
The woman then screamed causing Tara to scream in turn and the world, well, it just went dark.
"I don't know who she is or how she found her way into my bed. Now she's dead," the frightened woman said to the Watchmen standing in her hallway.
"She would appear to be sleeping," one of the men said, looking in on Tara in the room.
"How could she be that pale and still be alive?"
"I don't know, Ma'm but she is alive. I can see her chest moving up and down. She's just asleep."
"She wasn't sleeping a moment ago. She was screaming about how she was marrying that Anubis fellow. You know that slaver? She's just a young girl. What would that evil man want with a pretty young thing like that if he didn't enslave her? If you ask me, it's a crying shame they closed down Mad Max's asylum up the road because she'd be a good candidate for treatment there. Now get her out of my house before my husband comes home. He doesn't like anyone else sleeping in our bed! And especially dead women at that!"
"We'll take care of it, M'am. Will have her out of here in just a jiffy, okay? Would you mind going in the other room for a little bit while we handle this?"
She was being shaken.
Her eyes fluttered open and when her vision cleared she saw Frank, the chief medical examiner down at the morgue who was also her friend, looking back at her.
"Tara? Can you hear me?" Frank asked with a worried look.
"Frank, something's terribly wrong," she said and clutched at his white coat.
"I know, sweetie. Let's get you up and you can explain it to me on the way back to the office."
"Frank, am I real?"
"Yes, you are."
"Time's slipping from me. I'm not remembering the way things happened, correctly. I think I might be dying. I probably have hepatitis of the brain pan. Someone infected me with their germs. This is the only rational explanation I can come up with. Right now worms are crawling inside my skull. They're talking to each other in CODE!"
He laughed. "You can't die and you can't get hepatitis of the brain, Tara. We've been over this."
"Then it's cancer, I know it!"
"It's not cancer. Hey, at least you didn't say testicular cancer," he said with another laugh and helped her out of the bed.
She shrieked and looked down. "Do I have those now too?!"
"No!"
She grabbed him by the arm, eyes wide. "Level with me, Frank. Did I grow a penis?"
"No, you did not, Tara. You are one hundred percent, certifiably female, I assure you."
"If I did an' yer lying, I'll cut it off. I swear I will!"
"I will give you a mirror when we get back to the office. Now come on. You're scaring this poor woman," he said as he directed her down the hallway and out of the woman's house.
"What woman?! Is she the one that infected me?! That's not a poor woman! It's Eris, I mean, Discord, come to make me pay for yelling at our brother!"
The sergeant smiled at the woman and handed her a pen. "Could you sign this for us, please? We need a record of what happened here."
"I'll give you a record. That girl is CRAZY!"
"The exalted sister, to what DO I owe the pleasure?" Hypnos said with a smile and opened his arms for her.
She stood there, growling. "I am not remembering things right. Certain things, yes, but not the whole, complete picture. I'm mixing things up, mixing people up in my brain. This is not my fault. It is being done to me to stop me from getting what I want."
"Oh? And you think I'm somehow the cause of it all? Would that explain why you're coming to visit me after an absence of three hundred years?"
"I'm positive that you are."
"I affect sleep, dear sister, not memories."
"Correct, but what I'm having aren't memories but dreams. That's how I'm getting from one place to the next without going there. That's why nothing is functioning the way it should. Things are strange here, yes, but a cellphone doesn't become a radio an' a metal detector doesn't disappear gold. Famine doesn't like mustard, he doesn't even know what that is! An' Rose didn't marry Nok! She married Azzy! Nok dressed up in the only tuxedo he had ever worn in order to take her to the Valentine's Day dance an' Ashe took me! We all laughed about it because he was always in a black trenchcoat an' combat boots! He never dressed up an' they never dated! But she DID date Azzy!"
"Perhaps you should sit down. You look stressed," he said softly and touched her shoulder.
"Oh don't touch me you insufferable fool! It's written down! In one of my journals, I even have the wedding invitation! I went with Kain to the wedding. It was strange, we had jus' broken up but he agreed. Three days before, Church found me at the Red Dragon an' he demanded I tell him where Rose and Azrael were marrying an' if I didn't....."
"If you didn't... what?"
"He'd give me back to Kain."
"But didn't he already have you?"
"What?"
"You said you you went with Kain to the wedding and that you had recently broken up? How could he give you to someone who already had you?"
"Not THAT Kain! Another one!"
"Which Kain? How many Kain's are there exactly? I'm confused."
"Kain Locke, he was a slaver. It doesn't matter. This will stop now, do you understand me? You're making me sleep an' I'm dreaming things which never happened, except for my memories of Anubis, everything that's been happening, everything I told Miranda had happened in the past, after I went to see the Judges, or what I thought was happening hasn't actually done so have they?! You're making me crazy with this! Where is Tyche?! I demand to see her!"
He smiled. "You can't leave here. You can spin that wheel from now til the end of Time, sister, you're stuck here with the rest of us."
"Even so, I want the opportunity to try an' you can tell Hades that if he thought the praying man was my being defiant, he's got another think coming. I WILL marry Anubis. I will get the hell out of here an' I will leave this place worse than how I found it if any of you try to stop me! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
"As you wish but you might come to regret asking me that," he said and placed his hand on her forehead.
She gasped as the scenery changed.
She wasn't in the Chamber of Sleep any longer but was in her room in the the tower at Dis.
The claw bed was there. She was laying in it. She threw back the covers and for the first time was relieved to see the nightcrawlers, scorpions and
cockroaches that served as a mattress all crawling there.
That was real.
That had...happened.
She then turned to look at the shelves where all her books were but the journals were now strangely missing. Which was an impossibility. No one could come here, not even Lucifer.
This was HER prison. Alone.
"Church Rhino existed," she whispered as she grabbed her head, starting to cry. "I did not imagine him. If Anubis were here, he'd reassure me that Church was real. He knew him. Everyone did. Oh God, I am losing my mind. What if I can never leave this place? What if Rhy'Din doesn't exist but is jus' a figment of my imagination an' has been all along?! What is.....real?"
There was a knock at the door.
She gasped again and stared at it in terror.
No one ever visited her.
No one could.
The tower was accessible only to one, her.
She drew the covers up over her and swallowed in fear. "Enter," she said, reluctantly.
A woman walked in with a bowl in her hands that she immediately dropped seeing Tara in her bed.
Tara pointed at her, "Anubis Karos is the ancient Egyptian God of the Dead an' his father is the God Set! I am the Whore of Babylon! I have a dragon that's going to swallow you all! We're to be married! If his father doesn't come back an' kill me first! He's real! You know him don't you?! He duels over at the Outback when he's not beyond the Veil! Tell him I'm here an' I'm scared! Tell him to come get me quick! I do not want to be here anymore!"
The woman then screamed causing Tara to scream in turn and the world, well, it just went dark.
"I don't know who she is or how she found her way into my bed. Now she's dead," the frightened woman said to the Watchmen standing in her hallway.
"She would appear to be sleeping," one of the men said, looking in on Tara in the room.
"How could she be that pale and still be alive?"
"I don't know, Ma'm but she is alive. I can see her chest moving up and down. She's just asleep."
"She wasn't sleeping a moment ago. She was screaming about how she was marrying that Anubis fellow. You know that slaver? She's just a young girl. What would that evil man want with a pretty young thing like that if he didn't enslave her? If you ask me, it's a crying shame they closed down Mad Max's asylum up the road because she'd be a good candidate for treatment there. Now get her out of my house before my husband comes home. He doesn't like anyone else sleeping in our bed! And especially dead women at that!"
"We'll take care of it, M'am. Will have her out of here in just a jiffy, okay? Would you mind going in the other room for a little bit while we handle this?"
She was being shaken.
Her eyes fluttered open and when her vision cleared she saw Frank, the chief medical examiner down at the morgue who was also her friend, looking back at her.
"Tara? Can you hear me?" Frank asked with a worried look.
"Frank, something's terribly wrong," she said and clutched at his white coat.
"I know, sweetie. Let's get you up and you can explain it to me on the way back to the office."
"Frank, am I real?"
"Yes, you are."
"Time's slipping from me. I'm not remembering the way things happened, correctly. I think I might be dying. I probably have hepatitis of the brain pan. Someone infected me with their germs. This is the only rational explanation I can come up with. Right now worms are crawling inside my skull. They're talking to each other in CODE!"
He laughed. "You can't die and you can't get hepatitis of the brain, Tara. We've been over this."
"Then it's cancer, I know it!"
"It's not cancer. Hey, at least you didn't say testicular cancer," he said with another laugh and helped her out of the bed.
She shrieked and looked down. "Do I have those now too?!"
"No!"
She grabbed him by the arm, eyes wide. "Level with me, Frank. Did I grow a penis?"
"No, you did not, Tara. You are one hundred percent, certifiably female, I assure you."
"If I did an' yer lying, I'll cut it off. I swear I will!"
"I will give you a mirror when we get back to the office. Now come on. You're scaring this poor woman," he said as he directed her down the hallway and out of the woman's house.
"What woman?! Is she the one that infected me?! That's not a poor woman! It's Eris, I mean, Discord, come to make me pay for yelling at our brother!"
The sergeant smiled at the woman and handed her a pen. "Could you sign this for us, please? We need a record of what happened here."
"I'll give you a record. That girl is CRAZY!"
"Are you dead yet?" she whispered in her witchy way as she leaned down closer to the man who was laying on Frank's slab in the morgue.
The man didn't respond.
Her voice tended to affect a great many people in a variety of ways. When she was alive, she had learned that speaking softly, mainly to men but it did often work on women too, usually made them do whatever she wanted whether because her soft voice aroused in them a curiosity or a passion. Now, in death, in immortality, in whatever state of existence you chose to see her in, she used that soft voice to further her agenda as it now would echo like that of a ghost.
She even found that Anubis, in particular, was affected by her voice, which wasn't entirely expected given that he was just as, if not, immortal than she was. However, she would often catch his expression changing if she spoke to him in a certain way and over the years, learned to use this to her advantage when trying to gain his favor. She wasn't sure if it was his hormones or his upbringing that was the cause of this, though, and she never dared ask.
Born to the purple as they both were, she was trained to conduct herself like a lady. It was just she never liked to, hence her infamous atrocious behavior. The Egyptian, however, was never impressed with her tantrums so it was just best to appear to him in such a way that he found pleasing. So long as she was playing the perfect part of the fairer sex, her love was more than happy to give her whatever she desired, even if any requests she made were done while she was bludgeoning someone to death. If she did it while speaking like a lady, he was powerless against her.
She stared, unblinking, at the man and then pried his left eye open with her tiny fingers.
She thought him playing possum which meant the appropriate response here, to root him out and force him to acknowledge he was still alive, as it were, was to slowly extend her tongue and lick his eyeball.
Frank walked in on this scene, holding three bags of O Positive blood and nearly dropped them seeing Tara crouched over the dead man on the slab.
"What the hell are you doing?!" he yelled and hurried to lift her off the man.
She shrieked and pointed at the dead man. "He is alive! He is lying! Get the hot pokers, Frank!"
"Just sit here, okay! Stop molesting my cases," he said and handed her the bags.
She made a face. "I do not drink blood anymore, Frank."
"Why not?"
"I'm not a vampire anymore. Isn't it obvious?"
"Oh. Really?"
"Yes."
"How did that happen?"
"The Whore of Babylon happened, Frank."
"And, that means, what exactly?"
"It means we," she paused, gesturing, trying to think of the right word and grinned, "merged."
"Sounds wonderful. "
"I think so. I get to keep the best parts of me an' utilize the best parts of her. Why am I here?"
"Because you were in some woman's bed and she thought you were dead."
"I used to be. Dead. Now I'm dead...ish."
"Gotcha."
"Are you going to cut me open too?"
"No."
"Are you going to cut him open?"
"Yes."
"Can I get the first piece?"
"No! He's not a cake!"
"You missed my birthday."
"You're not eating the corpse, Tara."
"Well that sucks. I'm hungry!"
"Hey! Where are you going?! They released you into my care!"
"Well, then you best catch up, because aside from being hungry, I'm bored too!"
"You're always bored!"
The man didn't respond.
Her voice tended to affect a great many people in a variety of ways. When she was alive, she had learned that speaking softly, mainly to men but it did often work on women too, usually made them do whatever she wanted whether because her soft voice aroused in them a curiosity or a passion. Now, in death, in immortality, in whatever state of existence you chose to see her in, she used that soft voice to further her agenda as it now would echo like that of a ghost.
She even found that Anubis, in particular, was affected by her voice, which wasn't entirely expected given that he was just as, if not, immortal than she was. However, she would often catch his expression changing if she spoke to him in a certain way and over the years, learned to use this to her advantage when trying to gain his favor. She wasn't sure if it was his hormones or his upbringing that was the cause of this, though, and she never dared ask.
Born to the purple as they both were, she was trained to conduct herself like a lady. It was just she never liked to, hence her infamous atrocious behavior. The Egyptian, however, was never impressed with her tantrums so it was just best to appear to him in such a way that he found pleasing. So long as she was playing the perfect part of the fairer sex, her love was more than happy to give her whatever she desired, even if any requests she made were done while she was bludgeoning someone to death. If she did it while speaking like a lady, he was powerless against her.
She stared, unblinking, at the man and then pried his left eye open with her tiny fingers.
She thought him playing possum which meant the appropriate response here, to root him out and force him to acknowledge he was still alive, as it were, was to slowly extend her tongue and lick his eyeball.
Frank walked in on this scene, holding three bags of O Positive blood and nearly dropped them seeing Tara crouched over the dead man on the slab.
"What the hell are you doing?!" he yelled and hurried to lift her off the man.
She shrieked and pointed at the dead man. "He is alive! He is lying! Get the hot pokers, Frank!"
"Just sit here, okay! Stop molesting my cases," he said and handed her the bags.
She made a face. "I do not drink blood anymore, Frank."
"Why not?"
"I'm not a vampire anymore. Isn't it obvious?"
"Oh. Really?"
"Yes."
"How did that happen?"
"The Whore of Babylon happened, Frank."
"And, that means, what exactly?"
"It means we," she paused, gesturing, trying to think of the right word and grinned, "merged."
"Sounds wonderful. "
"I think so. I get to keep the best parts of me an' utilize the best parts of her. Why am I here?"
"Because you were in some woman's bed and she thought you were dead."
"I used to be. Dead. Now I'm dead...ish."
"Gotcha."
"Are you going to cut me open too?"
"No."
"Are you going to cut him open?"
"Yes."
"Can I get the first piece?"
"No! He's not a cake!"
"You missed my birthday."
"You're not eating the corpse, Tara."
"Well that sucks. I'm hungry!"
"Hey! Where are you going?! They released you into my care!"
"Well, then you best catch up, because aside from being hungry, I'm bored too!"
"You're always bored!"
She was wearing a pink, silk dress.
At least she was reasonably sure it had been pink but who knew nowadays with her crappy memory and her family playing tricks on her? All of her memories were out of whack it seemed.
It could have been rainbow-colored for all she cared. The color didn't matter but the material did.
It was definitely silk.
Because he had mistook her for a slave seeing her in it. It was because of this incident and the connotations surrounding a woman wearing silk that made Anubis hate seeing her in it.
She was standing in a hallway, in a building, where they both worked. The place, the surroundings, all of it didn't matter and it was not worth mentioning as it would minimize the importance of what happened next.
The moment she first was introduced to the slaver known as Anubis Karos.
Looking out the window, she heard footsteps approaching behind her and then a man had said with some degree of irritation in his voice, "Should you not be in your cage?"
At first she was outraged that anyone would think such a thing and when she turned around to face the idiot who had made such a comment, fully intending on tearing his head off for it and saw him, she couldn't believe her eyes.
There, a seven foot tall enormous man with black hair and painted eyes stood.
He was the most beautiful creature she had ever laid eyes on.
And, he was speaking to her!
"I am no slave," said she and she immediately smiled. "My name is Lady Tara."
He didn't apologize for the error but introduced himself instead by taking her smaller hand into his own and pressing his lips to it. "Anubis Karos."
They spent that evening walking through the gardens and discussing what any slaver and a secretary to a slaver might discuss.
The flesh trade.
They had a lot in common aside from their occupation. They were both reasonably good-looking (and knew it), as a result had enormous egos and weren't afraid to show it. He had more money than he could ever spend in his lifetime and so did she. Both were raised as most royal personages tend to be, in opulent surroundings, never wanting for a thing. And, they both had made a name for themselves. Most people had good reason to be afraid of them and they thought this amusing.
But, the one thing they both shared that was top of the list of similarities was the thrill of the hunt.
This pair of star-crossed lovers, destined to forever want to be together as man and wife but through a variety of heartbreaking circumstances were separated from each other just long enough as to be maddening, were natural born predators.
And, in those early years, before he married Dawn and she gave birth to his firstborn son, something Tara had desperately wanted to do (but, as was the usual case between them, was prevented from doing so by his father, no less) they did hunt together.
Then they would get drunk and fool around.
But he never....dishonored her.
That was the way he would put it.
That was a line not even the scandalous Anubis Karos would cross.
It confused her too.
Every man who laid eyes on her was itching to have a piece of her.
But never him.
The ONE man she wanted above all others.
While it was infuriating at the start and she thought herself lacking in perhaps the qualities he wanted in his woman, she began to understand as she observed him with all kinds of people that when he spoke to her, when he LOOKED at her, unlike when he spoke and looked at others, he did so with the utmost respect. Not only would his voice change but his body language would as well. He was a completely different person with her than with everyone else and she was not the only one to take notice of that.
Ultimately, he was not touching her not because he didn't think she was up to his standards but rather he didn't think he was good enough for her.
Which was absurd, if you asked her. He was intelligent, he was well-read, charming, he could even be funny when he wanted to be. He had seen so many things and she often said that when you looked in his eyes, really looked in them and saw past those piercing windows to a very old and corrupted soul, they told a story.
He was fascinating.
All the other males were the ones not up to par.
And, she had more of them than she knew what to do with.
Whenever they would meet though, at the end of every reunion between them as she liked to call them, he would kiss her on the hand as he walked her to whatever door she was sleeping behind that particular night. And, he would leave.
But, one night, all that changed.
It was the happiest night of her life.
And, also the night in which her entire world shattered in an instant.
At least she was reasonably sure it had been pink but who knew nowadays with her crappy memory and her family playing tricks on her? All of her memories were out of whack it seemed.
It could have been rainbow-colored for all she cared. The color didn't matter but the material did.
It was definitely silk.
Because he had mistook her for a slave seeing her in it. It was because of this incident and the connotations surrounding a woman wearing silk that made Anubis hate seeing her in it.
She was standing in a hallway, in a building, where they both worked. The place, the surroundings, all of it didn't matter and it was not worth mentioning as it would minimize the importance of what happened next.
The moment she first was introduced to the slaver known as Anubis Karos.
Looking out the window, she heard footsteps approaching behind her and then a man had said with some degree of irritation in his voice, "Should you not be in your cage?"
At first she was outraged that anyone would think such a thing and when she turned around to face the idiot who had made such a comment, fully intending on tearing his head off for it and saw him, she couldn't believe her eyes.
There, a seven foot tall enormous man with black hair and painted eyes stood.
He was the most beautiful creature she had ever laid eyes on.
And, he was speaking to her!
"I am no slave," said she and she immediately smiled. "My name is Lady Tara."
He didn't apologize for the error but introduced himself instead by taking her smaller hand into his own and pressing his lips to it. "Anubis Karos."
They spent that evening walking through the gardens and discussing what any slaver and a secretary to a slaver might discuss.
The flesh trade.
They had a lot in common aside from their occupation. They were both reasonably good-looking (and knew it), as a result had enormous egos and weren't afraid to show it. He had more money than he could ever spend in his lifetime and so did she. Both were raised as most royal personages tend to be, in opulent surroundings, never wanting for a thing. And, they both had made a name for themselves. Most people had good reason to be afraid of them and they thought this amusing.
But, the one thing they both shared that was top of the list of similarities was the thrill of the hunt.
This pair of star-crossed lovers, destined to forever want to be together as man and wife but through a variety of heartbreaking circumstances were separated from each other just long enough as to be maddening, were natural born predators.
And, in those early years, before he married Dawn and she gave birth to his firstborn son, something Tara had desperately wanted to do (but, as was the usual case between them, was prevented from doing so by his father, no less) they did hunt together.
Then they would get drunk and fool around.
But he never....dishonored her.
That was the way he would put it.
That was a line not even the scandalous Anubis Karos would cross.
It confused her too.
Every man who laid eyes on her was itching to have a piece of her.
But never him.
The ONE man she wanted above all others.
While it was infuriating at the start and she thought herself lacking in perhaps the qualities he wanted in his woman, she began to understand as she observed him with all kinds of people that when he spoke to her, when he LOOKED at her, unlike when he spoke and looked at others, he did so with the utmost respect. Not only would his voice change but his body language would as well. He was a completely different person with her than with everyone else and she was not the only one to take notice of that.
Ultimately, he was not touching her not because he didn't think she was up to his standards but rather he didn't think he was good enough for her.
Which was absurd, if you asked her. He was intelligent, he was well-read, charming, he could even be funny when he wanted to be. He had seen so many things and she often said that when you looked in his eyes, really looked in them and saw past those piercing windows to a very old and corrupted soul, they told a story.
He was fascinating.
All the other males were the ones not up to par.
And, she had more of them than she knew what to do with.
Whenever they would meet though, at the end of every reunion between them as she liked to call them, he would kiss her on the hand as he walked her to whatever door she was sleeping behind that particular night. And, he would leave.
But, one night, all that changed.
It was the happiest night of her life.
And, also the night in which her entire world shattered in an instant.
The tent was filled to capacity with slavers, slaves, and hangers-on, as she called them. These were the wannabe slavers that used to like to pal around with her and her friends, the ones who lived vicariously through whatever misdeeds she and her friends did on a regular basis, but shared none of the risk or reward. They tried to, though. And, then they'd get their hands chopped off if they even dared to make off with the loot.
The loot of the evening, in this case, was a skinny little thing that was twirling around naked in the tent and all one could hear were the howls and cheers of the men enjoying the dance.
She was drinking her wine, staring across the table at Anubis who appeared to be deep in thought despite his company.
A man whose name was never fully divulged to her but whom many referred to as "The Priest of Pain", one of his father's confidantes, was trying to coax the Egyptian into something. She only heard bits and pieces over the neanderthals in the background.
Over in some corner, his father was getting drunk while one of his slaves was gyrating in his lap, dancing in her own way to the music. Her sister Sethra was reading a book and how she could do this with all the noise was amazing, but she did.
And, then there was Sa Bast Sekhmet.
They had been lovers at one point. He, well, no, SHE was obsessed with her but relinquished control when Anubis quite literally beat her all over the sands around his father's temple one particular night that would have went down in history had most of the people who were around then to witness it, survived to tell the tale now.
Only she and Anubis could speak of it and she was forbidden from doing so. Any talk of the goddess Sekhmet now was out of the question. In human form, back then, she appeared as a male slaver named Sa Bast and he, she, THEY did not get along with Anubis. Because of her.
Sa Bast was in the corner, still sulking over his/her wounds. He was also getting a lapdance from one his many slaves.
Whereas a slave's hair was prized throughout all the flesh trade as being one of the most valuable aspects of her, the longer, the more expensive she was, Sa Bast chose to have his slaves be bald, like he was. The goddess didn't care what anyone else thought, she did what she liked even if everyone else thought it was strange. Which was what had attracted Tara to him because she had the same philosophy.
Be strange.
Be loud.
Get attention.
And, for heaven's sake, leave em with their tongues wagging.
She rolled her eyes as she motioned for a slave to refill her chalice and tried not to watch Sa Bast but it was impossible. He was trying to make her jealous and that was also impossible.
She only had eyes for one.
Anubis.
Twelve feet away and still out of reach.
Suddenly, though, he rose. The howls died down only briefly as everyone wondered where Set's son was off to, even Set (known as Talum Sa in his human form) himself inquired of his son where he was going but Anubis said nothing and exited the tent. At the exit, however, he paused for a fraction of a second and looked at her.
Her heart immediately jumped in her chest.
One look from him set her veins on fire.
Before she could begin to wonder why he had done that, why he had given her that specific look and seemed to make a show of it even if it was fleeting that could be considered him making a show of it, the Priest of Pain was coming towards her.
He wanted to talk business.
She wanted to get some air.
Honestly, she did. It was getting too close in the tent, what with all the debauchery going on and Sa Bast seeming to want to get her to notice him again.
She excused herself and went outside.
Took a deep breath.
And, was then thrust up against an obelisk nearby by some unseen force and then he was kissing her.
This unbelievably and otherwise silent man whose eyes could hypnotize you, had his arms around her, his tongue in her mouth and there was no more denying it, the cat was out of the bag.
He apparently now thought himself as worthy and she didn't let the moment go to waste.
Years from now, some young and hopeful explorers will do an excavation of that place, of that time, and in their digging they will find objects from the period, like chalices and tools, but one of them will come across various garments that had been worn by two frisky lovers one night, which had then been furiously discarded, in a long trail, one after the other, all the way to a tent, which was by now also buried.
And, it was in that tent that Anubis Karos finally crossed the line with Tara Rynieyn.
The loot of the evening, in this case, was a skinny little thing that was twirling around naked in the tent and all one could hear were the howls and cheers of the men enjoying the dance.
She was drinking her wine, staring across the table at Anubis who appeared to be deep in thought despite his company.
A man whose name was never fully divulged to her but whom many referred to as "The Priest of Pain", one of his father's confidantes, was trying to coax the Egyptian into something. She only heard bits and pieces over the neanderthals in the background.
Over in some corner, his father was getting drunk while one of his slaves was gyrating in his lap, dancing in her own way to the music. Her sister Sethra was reading a book and how she could do this with all the noise was amazing, but she did.
And, then there was Sa Bast Sekhmet.
They had been lovers at one point. He, well, no, SHE was obsessed with her but relinquished control when Anubis quite literally beat her all over the sands around his father's temple one particular night that would have went down in history had most of the people who were around then to witness it, survived to tell the tale now.
Only she and Anubis could speak of it and she was forbidden from doing so. Any talk of the goddess Sekhmet now was out of the question. In human form, back then, she appeared as a male slaver named Sa Bast and he, she, THEY did not get along with Anubis. Because of her.
Sa Bast was in the corner, still sulking over his/her wounds. He was also getting a lapdance from one his many slaves.
Whereas a slave's hair was prized throughout all the flesh trade as being one of the most valuable aspects of her, the longer, the more expensive she was, Sa Bast chose to have his slaves be bald, like he was. The goddess didn't care what anyone else thought, she did what she liked even if everyone else thought it was strange. Which was what had attracted Tara to him because she had the same philosophy.
Be strange.
Be loud.
Get attention.
And, for heaven's sake, leave em with their tongues wagging.
She rolled her eyes as she motioned for a slave to refill her chalice and tried not to watch Sa Bast but it was impossible. He was trying to make her jealous and that was also impossible.
She only had eyes for one.
Anubis.
Twelve feet away and still out of reach.
Suddenly, though, he rose. The howls died down only briefly as everyone wondered where Set's son was off to, even Set (known as Talum Sa in his human form) himself inquired of his son where he was going but Anubis said nothing and exited the tent. At the exit, however, he paused for a fraction of a second and looked at her.
Her heart immediately jumped in her chest.
One look from him set her veins on fire.
Before she could begin to wonder why he had done that, why he had given her that specific look and seemed to make a show of it even if it was fleeting that could be considered him making a show of it, the Priest of Pain was coming towards her.
He wanted to talk business.
She wanted to get some air.
Honestly, she did. It was getting too close in the tent, what with all the debauchery going on and Sa Bast seeming to want to get her to notice him again.
She excused herself and went outside.
Took a deep breath.
And, was then thrust up against an obelisk nearby by some unseen force and then he was kissing her.
This unbelievably and otherwise silent man whose eyes could hypnotize you, had his arms around her, his tongue in her mouth and there was no more denying it, the cat was out of the bag.
He apparently now thought himself as worthy and she didn't let the moment go to waste.
Years from now, some young and hopeful explorers will do an excavation of that place, of that time, and in their digging they will find objects from the period, like chalices and tools, but one of them will come across various garments that had been worn by two frisky lovers one night, which had then been furiously discarded, in a long trail, one after the other, all the way to a tent, which was by now also buried.
And, it was in that tent that Anubis Karos finally crossed the line with Tara Rynieyn.
Frank shook his head as he was handed the binoculars and looked through them.
"Remind me again why we're stalking your boyfriend?"
"We are NOT stalking Anpu, we are merely checking up on him to make sure he's okay."
"Do you have reason to believe he is not okay?"
"Yeeees."
"Care to tell me what that may be?"
"Keep your head down, Frank! Do you want to get killed?!"
"Yes, while we're on the subject, care to elaborate as to WHY there are what appears to be an army of wraiths and demons marching around your boyfriend's home?"
"I sent them for his protection."
"Didn't you say he was some God?"
"Yes, but no one's supposed to know that an' dun you tell him I told you. It's a secret an' he will be cross with me if he learns I told anyone."
"I can think of no reason why your boyfriend and I would be in the same room together, let alone have cause to have such a conversation, any conversation for that matter."
"You dun know my boyfriend."
"I do not, this is true."
"He is a mortician, jus' like you."
"A God and a mortician, you say?"
"Yes, you both have lots in common. You don't read about history do you?"
"Ahh, so your boyfriend is a historical figure then?"
"More or less."
"What is his place in history?"
She grinned carnivorously. "For one, when a soul dies, he helps his priests prepare yer body so that you can be conducted into the afterlife. They call him Imuet, Lord of the Place of Embalming."
"I wish I had a catchy name like that. Most people just call me Frank. How does he accomplish this task?"
"With tools, they remove yer internal organs an' place them in what are called canopic jars. Then they wrap you up and stick you in a box."
"I've heard of those, I think."
"Then he draws back the curtain of night, what we who have seen it call The Veil. Tis the thin barrier between the land of the living an' the dead."
"Great big curtain, okay. I'm following you. And, then?"
"Then he ushers you into the Duat, there is a hall there for justice to be served."
"Justice?"
"Yes, are you not paying attention?"
"I am. Please, go on."
"Seated there is a goddess, her name is Ma'at, an' on the floor is the goddess Ammut, whom the ancient Egyptians called The Devourer."
"She sounds lovely."
"She is three parts lion, hippopotamus an' crocodile."
"Even better."
"There are golden scales there. The scales of justice. Anpu then places two things on them. One is a golden ostrich feather, also called Ma'at, but they are not one in the same, the goddess an' the feather, the latter is her symbol. Next, he places yer heart on the other side. If yer heart is lighter than the feather, you get to go to paradise."
"And, if it is not lighter than the feather, let me guess, Ammut eats it?"
She giggled. "Yes! So you do read history!"
"No, it was just a guess. What happens to you after the animal trifecta creature eats your heart?"
"Her name is Ammut."
"Ammut, sorry. What happens then?"
"You go to the bad place."
"What the Egyptians thought of as Hell?"
"Yes. Where I am but different!"
"I'm beginning to get an idea as to how you and this guy met. You're obsessed with death, have caused LOTS of people to in fact, die, when you go off on one of your fits. He's probably a heavy metal band frontrunner who likes to glorify death in his songs and you met in a bar."
She made a face. "You could not possibly know how we met! You weren't even alive! I do not like yer tone, Frank."
"Tara, please understand that I like you, okay? I do. We've been friends a long time, and yeah, you're a little out there with your conspiracy theories about various things like how you insist that every year around Halloween pumpkins are slaughtered despite the fact that they are vegetation and not alive, and your interests but this is a bit much, even coming from you."
"You do not believe what it is I am saying?"
"I believe that YOU believe what it is you are saying but do I? No."
"You see the demons an' the wraiths an' obviously believe in them but you dun believe Anpu is a god?"
"If I were a god, I wouldn't be living here with everyone else. Isn't there a celestial place where he can live among the other gods?"
"You are seeing what he allows you to see, jus' like when you look at me you see a tiny, redheaded woman but if I appeared to you as I am SUPPOSED to, Frank, well, let's jus' say you'd start believing real quick."
"I've only ever seen you one way and that's the way you are. Demons and wraiths I can handle. Rhy'Din is filled with all sorts of creatures but ancient gods? That's just nuts."
"Anpu is immortal an' therefore, everywhere. I do not need YOU to believe that he is in order for him being immortal to be true. He is regardless of yer beliefs"
"So you say. I think you met this guy, he said some fancy things to impress you to get you into bed and you believed it because you are so in love with him, you cannot see past the fact that he told you a bunch of cool things about what he can supposedly do but in reality, he's just a guy that wanted to sleep with you."
"Indeed, I am in love with him but what I say is no lie an' he is nothing like what you jus' described! He is very sweet to me an' he loves me very much!"
"Then how come we're not on his doorstep but are instead, crawling around in his bushes at the edges of a property that is the size of a city? What does this guy do anyway? Why would anyone NEED a house that big to live in?"
"I told you what he does an' he likes his privacy."
"You didn't answer my question. If you are dating him why are we not on his doorstep?"
"Because he would immediately think you a threat, for starters."
"Then he'd feed me to his alligator monster?"
"Worse."
"What's worse than being eaten by that thing?"
"You know how chefs slice garlic really thin with a razorblade?"
"Yes, why are we changing the subject all of a sudden?"
"Do you or don't you?"
"I said yes. What about it?"
"Well, imagine then that my Anpu, upon seeing you with me, a man he does NOT know an' has no idea what our relationship is, on his doorstep, grabbing you by the neck, crushing yer windpipe an' then taking you back to his little dungeon where he uses a razorblade to thinly slice every single molecule in yer body."
Frank frowned. "I imagine that would be painful."
"THAT is one such definition of worse, Frank. You really do NOT want to piss my boyfriend off. He can poison you with just a glance and make it so that yer entire genetic line is horribly deformed from here on out. His imagination an' temper rival even my own."
"Sounds like a swell guy!"
"He is," she said with a dreamy sigh. "I love my Anpu!"
"Okay, fine, I get he's protective, most men are of their women but let's pretend I'm not here. Why aren't you WITH this guy if you're dating him?"
"I belong in one universe, him in another. I visit here, Frank, I do not live here which is why I cannot stay if I were to show up on his doorstep. I USED to live here. If you think his house is big, you should see some of my properties. They've all fallen into disrepair though because I'm never here long enough to care for them. I am a guest. He knows something is wrong but isn't sure why this is happening and he doesn't ask because I think he's afraid what the answer might be. The last time I disappeared for the longest time to date an' returned, he was very sad. He thought that I was angry with him an' he had wondered what he did to make me reject him in that way. If I tell him the truth now, he will think I am lying. He will think that he did something wrong an' that I do not want to be with him. This puts stress on our relationship because while he hasn't specifically asked me WHY I'm disappearing all the time, I know it's on his mind because of the way he looks at me an' some of the things he's said recently, specifically about my lamenting my immortality."
"Wow. And, I thought I had relationship issues when my girlfriend put her toothbrush next to mine in the cup on the sink. My whole world started to shrink, I felt like I was losing my independence."
"I would be with him if I could, is my point. I can't. You have no idea how badly my heart is breaking that I cannot be with him all the time."
"Don't you think you owe the man an explanation? IF, as you say, he loves you and really is as powerful as you're claiming him to be, why can't he rescue you?"
"It's not his job to rescue me. I want him to but it's not."
"Yeah it is! If my girlfriend was in trouble, I'd be rescuing her! Guys do that, Tara!"
"This is a little more complicated than protecting my honor an' saving me from temporary distress, Frank. It involves a lot of nuances too complex for yer simple, forgive me, mortal mind to comprehend. We may be powerful but our actions have consequences. I did this, I need to get myself out of it."
"Okay, but that makes sense only if you weren't installing demons and wraiths around his property to watch over him. If you did this, what does your doing it have to do with his safety? See that's where I'm not understanding all this. You don't think he's going to notice all of them and wonder why they are there?"
"He knows I am a bit out there too. He will think I am jus' being my typical self."
"If I were a God and my girlfriend sent undead minions to watch over me, I'd start to wonder what was up. I wouldn't think she was having one of her moments. I'd also wonder why she was watching me through binoculars instead of just coming to talk to me in person since we're in love and supposedly getting married one day."
"I cannot simply talk to him. It's not that easy."
"You're talking to me just fine."
"You are not Anubis."
"And, that makes sense to you?"
"He is not easy to talk to! He gets an idea in his head an' sticks with it. If I tell him something that makes him uncomfortable, he will have an adverse reaction to it. I do not want to fight with him unless absolutely necessary, unless there's no other option. Our fights tend to span out over long stretches of time and bad things happen. I cry a lot. He does not like for me to cry."
"Why can't you write him a letter, isn't that easier?"
"We've tried that."
"And?"
"We've found that my letters make him really sad."
"I have GOT to be invited to this wedding and meet this guy just so I can tell him that there are more fish in the sea and if he values his sanity, he best run FAR away from you. Holy god, Tara. I feel bad for this guy, god or no!"
"You ask too many questions. Come on."
"Where are we going now?! Uh oh! I think I just saw a demon knocking on his door! Maybe we should go check that out?! Tara? Tara!!!!"
"Remind me again why we're stalking your boyfriend?"
"We are NOT stalking Anpu, we are merely checking up on him to make sure he's okay."
"Do you have reason to believe he is not okay?"
"Yeeees."
"Care to tell me what that may be?"
"Keep your head down, Frank! Do you want to get killed?!"
"Yes, while we're on the subject, care to elaborate as to WHY there are what appears to be an army of wraiths and demons marching around your boyfriend's home?"
"I sent them for his protection."
"Didn't you say he was some God?"
"Yes, but no one's supposed to know that an' dun you tell him I told you. It's a secret an' he will be cross with me if he learns I told anyone."
"I can think of no reason why your boyfriend and I would be in the same room together, let alone have cause to have such a conversation, any conversation for that matter."
"You dun know my boyfriend."
"I do not, this is true."
"He is a mortician, jus' like you."
"A God and a mortician, you say?"
"Yes, you both have lots in common. You don't read about history do you?"
"Ahh, so your boyfriend is a historical figure then?"
"More or less."
"What is his place in history?"
She grinned carnivorously. "For one, when a soul dies, he helps his priests prepare yer body so that you can be conducted into the afterlife. They call him Imuet, Lord of the Place of Embalming."
"I wish I had a catchy name like that. Most people just call me Frank. How does he accomplish this task?"
"With tools, they remove yer internal organs an' place them in what are called canopic jars. Then they wrap you up and stick you in a box."
"I've heard of those, I think."
"Then he draws back the curtain of night, what we who have seen it call The Veil. Tis the thin barrier between the land of the living an' the dead."
"Great big curtain, okay. I'm following you. And, then?"
"Then he ushers you into the Duat, there is a hall there for justice to be served."
"Justice?"
"Yes, are you not paying attention?"
"I am. Please, go on."
"Seated there is a goddess, her name is Ma'at, an' on the floor is the goddess Ammut, whom the ancient Egyptians called The Devourer."
"She sounds lovely."
"She is three parts lion, hippopotamus an' crocodile."
"Even better."
"There are golden scales there. The scales of justice. Anpu then places two things on them. One is a golden ostrich feather, also called Ma'at, but they are not one in the same, the goddess an' the feather, the latter is her symbol. Next, he places yer heart on the other side. If yer heart is lighter than the feather, you get to go to paradise."
"And, if it is not lighter than the feather, let me guess, Ammut eats it?"
She giggled. "Yes! So you do read history!"
"No, it was just a guess. What happens to you after the animal trifecta creature eats your heart?"
"Her name is Ammut."
"Ammut, sorry. What happens then?"
"You go to the bad place."
"What the Egyptians thought of as Hell?"
"Yes. Where I am but different!"
"I'm beginning to get an idea as to how you and this guy met. You're obsessed with death, have caused LOTS of people to in fact, die, when you go off on one of your fits. He's probably a heavy metal band frontrunner who likes to glorify death in his songs and you met in a bar."
She made a face. "You could not possibly know how we met! You weren't even alive! I do not like yer tone, Frank."
"Tara, please understand that I like you, okay? I do. We've been friends a long time, and yeah, you're a little out there with your conspiracy theories about various things like how you insist that every year around Halloween pumpkins are slaughtered despite the fact that they are vegetation and not alive, and your interests but this is a bit much, even coming from you."
"You do not believe what it is I am saying?"
"I believe that YOU believe what it is you are saying but do I? No."
"You see the demons an' the wraiths an' obviously believe in them but you dun believe Anpu is a god?"
"If I were a god, I wouldn't be living here with everyone else. Isn't there a celestial place where he can live among the other gods?"
"You are seeing what he allows you to see, jus' like when you look at me you see a tiny, redheaded woman but if I appeared to you as I am SUPPOSED to, Frank, well, let's jus' say you'd start believing real quick."
"I've only ever seen you one way and that's the way you are. Demons and wraiths I can handle. Rhy'Din is filled with all sorts of creatures but ancient gods? That's just nuts."
"Anpu is immortal an' therefore, everywhere. I do not need YOU to believe that he is in order for him being immortal to be true. He is regardless of yer beliefs"
"So you say. I think you met this guy, he said some fancy things to impress you to get you into bed and you believed it because you are so in love with him, you cannot see past the fact that he told you a bunch of cool things about what he can supposedly do but in reality, he's just a guy that wanted to sleep with you."
"Indeed, I am in love with him but what I say is no lie an' he is nothing like what you jus' described! He is very sweet to me an' he loves me very much!"
"Then how come we're not on his doorstep but are instead, crawling around in his bushes at the edges of a property that is the size of a city? What does this guy do anyway? Why would anyone NEED a house that big to live in?"
"I told you what he does an' he likes his privacy."
"You didn't answer my question. If you are dating him why are we not on his doorstep?"
"Because he would immediately think you a threat, for starters."
"Then he'd feed me to his alligator monster?"
"Worse."
"What's worse than being eaten by that thing?"
"You know how chefs slice garlic really thin with a razorblade?"
"Yes, why are we changing the subject all of a sudden?"
"Do you or don't you?"
"I said yes. What about it?"
"Well, imagine then that my Anpu, upon seeing you with me, a man he does NOT know an' has no idea what our relationship is, on his doorstep, grabbing you by the neck, crushing yer windpipe an' then taking you back to his little dungeon where he uses a razorblade to thinly slice every single molecule in yer body."
Frank frowned. "I imagine that would be painful."
"THAT is one such definition of worse, Frank. You really do NOT want to piss my boyfriend off. He can poison you with just a glance and make it so that yer entire genetic line is horribly deformed from here on out. His imagination an' temper rival even my own."
"Sounds like a swell guy!"
"He is," she said with a dreamy sigh. "I love my Anpu!"
"Okay, fine, I get he's protective, most men are of their women but let's pretend I'm not here. Why aren't you WITH this guy if you're dating him?"
"I belong in one universe, him in another. I visit here, Frank, I do not live here which is why I cannot stay if I were to show up on his doorstep. I USED to live here. If you think his house is big, you should see some of my properties. They've all fallen into disrepair though because I'm never here long enough to care for them. I am a guest. He knows something is wrong but isn't sure why this is happening and he doesn't ask because I think he's afraid what the answer might be. The last time I disappeared for the longest time to date an' returned, he was very sad. He thought that I was angry with him an' he had wondered what he did to make me reject him in that way. If I tell him the truth now, he will think I am lying. He will think that he did something wrong an' that I do not want to be with him. This puts stress on our relationship because while he hasn't specifically asked me WHY I'm disappearing all the time, I know it's on his mind because of the way he looks at me an' some of the things he's said recently, specifically about my lamenting my immortality."
"Wow. And, I thought I had relationship issues when my girlfriend put her toothbrush next to mine in the cup on the sink. My whole world started to shrink, I felt like I was losing my independence."
"I would be with him if I could, is my point. I can't. You have no idea how badly my heart is breaking that I cannot be with him all the time."
"Don't you think you owe the man an explanation? IF, as you say, he loves you and really is as powerful as you're claiming him to be, why can't he rescue you?"
"It's not his job to rescue me. I want him to but it's not."
"Yeah it is! If my girlfriend was in trouble, I'd be rescuing her! Guys do that, Tara!"
"This is a little more complicated than protecting my honor an' saving me from temporary distress, Frank. It involves a lot of nuances too complex for yer simple, forgive me, mortal mind to comprehend. We may be powerful but our actions have consequences. I did this, I need to get myself out of it."
"Okay, but that makes sense only if you weren't installing demons and wraiths around his property to watch over him. If you did this, what does your doing it have to do with his safety? See that's where I'm not understanding all this. You don't think he's going to notice all of them and wonder why they are there?"
"He knows I am a bit out there too. He will think I am jus' being my typical self."
"If I were a God and my girlfriend sent undead minions to watch over me, I'd start to wonder what was up. I wouldn't think she was having one of her moments. I'd also wonder why she was watching me through binoculars instead of just coming to talk to me in person since we're in love and supposedly getting married one day."
"I cannot simply talk to him. It's not that easy."
"You're talking to me just fine."
"You are not Anubis."
"And, that makes sense to you?"
"He is not easy to talk to! He gets an idea in his head an' sticks with it. If I tell him something that makes him uncomfortable, he will have an adverse reaction to it. I do not want to fight with him unless absolutely necessary, unless there's no other option. Our fights tend to span out over long stretches of time and bad things happen. I cry a lot. He does not like for me to cry."
"Why can't you write him a letter, isn't that easier?"
"We've tried that."
"And?"
"We've found that my letters make him really sad."
"I have GOT to be invited to this wedding and meet this guy just so I can tell him that there are more fish in the sea and if he values his sanity, he best run FAR away from you. Holy god, Tara. I feel bad for this guy, god or no!"
"You ask too many questions. Come on."
"Where are we going now?! Uh oh! I think I just saw a demon knocking on his door! Maybe we should go check that out?! Tara? Tara!!!!"
They were asleep. He was holding her against him and his black hair was draped over her cheek and was tickling her. But that was not what woke her. She heard a noise outside the tent. The sand had shifted and she could hear every grain reshuffling into a new position in the earth. It was amazing what you could hear if you had supernatural hearing and chose to listen. She thought it perhaps a cobra that was slithering near them, curious and hungry, and she wanted very much to capture it. She loved snakes, had an affinity with them, even as a child when she was mortal. They never bit her and so she collected them. One more venomous than the last.
Carefully, she extricated herself from his embrace and leaned over to press her lips against his chin. She then spent a moment staring at him, smiling and stroking his hair and was amazed he didn't stir. But, he was tired. The little soiree his father had thrown the night before had ended late and Anubis had been working nonstop for as long as she could remember before that. In those days he was more hands-on than he seemed to be nowadays. He almost never took a night off so it was odd to see him at the party but she was glad for it as she was finally able to go home with him for a change instead of him leaving her at some nameless residence she chose to occupy.
She drew her robe around her shoulders and exited the tent into the twilight. When she looked in the sand she did not see the familiar "S" shaped lines that snakes made with their bodies but footprints leading away from the tent and up to the temple. Slowly she crept across the sands, past the tent where the party had been and looking inside she could see Sa Bast covered in naked women. She shook her head.
The man's lust knew no bounds.
Ascending the steps, she saw a figure move out of the shadow and into the torchlight.
It was Talum Sa and he did not look happy.
She slowed her ascent but eventually joined him at the temple entrance.
What was said between them she now knew to be prophecy and so its exact details she would never dare utter let alone remember in full again, lest they actually come true.
And, most of it had.
Word for word, exactly what the god Set had told her would happen, did, and she was absolutely terrified of it all.
She didn't want any more of what he said to her to play out. He would win then and she'd be right back where she started.
Sans Anubis.
But what she could remember, what she allowed herself to recall was that he said he had seen them together, her and his son. He knew they had been intimate and wasn't happy about it. He felt she was not good enough for his son and with her reputation, it would not be a good match. He wanted his son to succeed and he felt that if they were together, that would never happen.
That she would somehow be the ruin of Anubis, which she actually laughed at and remarked that if he truly felt that way, he didn't know his own son.
He then said that he granted her asylum when Anubis brought her to his lands to live because she had been exiled from her own. And, that this was not the way he wanted to see her repay him for his kindness.
He then demanded she leave.
She was not welcome back.
When she protested, he lifted his hand as if to strike her.
She braced for the assault, wincing, but he pointed toward the horizon.
He told her to leave and that if he ever saw her with his son again, he would kill her.
A gruesome murder which he described in incredible, terrifying detail to her.
So she got her things and she left.
Without saying goodbye to Anubis.
Without explaining to him why after finally consummating their feelings for one another, after the special night they had shared, she had just up and disappeared on him.
Eventually they saw each other again. Once a year, every year, even though he had moved on like she had and married Dawn and she had been trading in husbands for better ones like he did slaves, they met for dinner.
On the same night.
No matter what.
Its significance being the anniversay of the day they first met.
He was cool towards her but pulled out her chair for her to sit. He was a bastard to the entire world, but with her he was always a gentleman.
They ate in relative silence.
It didn't feel the same as it once did.
He wasn't a big talker so she was not expecting much, but he hadn't said one word throughout the whole meal. The slaves had said more to her than he had and this made her feel so much worse.
Now there was this awkwardness between them but he never once asked her why she had left and she never offered up the explanation until four years ago.
She had been seated in her throne at the Red Dragon, drinking with friends, when he had come through the door and immediately advanced towards her.
She had hissed at him, out of fear.
All these long years, he never once put his hands on her in anger. He was a gentleman, after all. But that changed when she had told Dawn that they had been having an affair and Dawn was less than understanding.
He pointed to a spot behind the booths over in a corner. "We need to have a talk," he had said. "Come."
"As you wish," she had said and walked over to the indicated spot, very afraid of what he might say to her. What he might DO to her.
She leaned up against the wall and was waiting to hear what he was so angry about although she sorta knew it might have had something to do with her chat with Dawn when he began to run his hands up along her midsection.
She blinked and looked down at what he was doing. Wondering why he was doing this if he was so angry.
But instead of kissing her as he had all those years ago against that obelisk, he was lifting her up by her breasts and pinning her, forcefully, against the wall.
This is the conversation, which followed, verbatim.
"The one who you affiliate yourself with...he calls himself 'The Father of Lies', am I right?" he asked, right in her face, and for a moment she thought he might bite her even though she was the one that had her fangs extended. He didn't quite have those but he did have teeth and they were clenched for the time being.
She sneered. "I am screwing him, yes," she nearly spat in his face. When they were like this, at their worst with one another, she delighted in hurting him by pointing out he was not the only man she had been with. Something she knew, deep down, infuriated him, although he never outwardly said.
"Then take a page from his book. Lie, and save us all from more heartache and pain than is needed," he said and tightened his grip.
She responded by wrapping her legs around him and pulling him closer to her. Her words flowed like venom. "You test my patience tonight, slaver. How unfortunate that you have me at such a great disadvantage in physical strength and mental acuity, else I'd be tempted to drop you where you stand for such an outrage. I told her the truth because I would expect the same were I in her shoes. An' like I told YOU, I will NEVER make any apologies for loving you."
She was angry but she couldn't be for very long. This was the man she loved. He was married to a woman who had once been her friend but was now someone she hated more than she hated herself. She remembered what he had asked her, two years earlier than this particular night, at the Outback, and now, repeated those exact words of his right back to him as he continued to hold her against that wall and threaten her.
"Do you love me or are you infatuated with me? Infatuation would draw you to want to hurt me for my attention. But love would make you abhor the idea," she said with a smug smile. Although, truth be told, when he had originally said those words to her two years earlier, he was not being smug. He was genuinely hurt by something she had done and wanted to know the truth.
Was she playing him like she had all the other men in life or was she really serious when she said those three little words?
That was the night he had shed a tear when he told her, in return, that he did love her, but he wasn't sure he could give her what she wanted and that hurt him.
She remembered that agonizing moment as she looked deep in his eyes and tried to see if her echoing his words was having any effect on him. If it wasn't and this escalated, she was not prepared for it.
It would mean months of recuperation and that was if he didn't kill her. But it would also mean the end of them.
She couldn't bear the thought. It was one thing to be his mistress, but another entirely to be completely cut off from him for the rest of eternity.
She would want him to kill her then. Beg him for it, even.
It was then he started to laugh, really laugh, so much that she thought he might never stop. "The mosquito would drain the farmer of all of his lifeblood like a vampire if it could. The fellahin would screw the queen if he could."
He released her, gently, despite holding her against the wall as he had in full view of EVERYONE she knew. Because whereas she delighted in using the fact that she wasn't completely his in at least body to torment him during their fights, he delighted in humiliating her whenever she got a little too big for her britches. He was exceedingly good at it, too.
He then took he gently by the shoulders and his voice turned soft. She saw the anger disappating from his eyes as he looked down on her as he often had, with affection. "You would be mine if it were mere infatuation. And to turn the table...sensible love conquers respect for the other woman, no?"
She turned her cheek as she started to feel like she might cry and she wasn't quite ready to show him he had won this battle.
"It does, which is why I told her the truth. I did not say it to hurt her as you have hurt me. You speak of respect like you practice it. Yer father saw this day. This is why he told me to go home, why he separated us. Not because he wanted to reunite Boss an' I, or keep you from killing Sa Bast when he beat the hell out of me for wanting to be with you, but because when he came upon you an' I making love in that tent, he saw what the consequences would be, years later, and he hoped to spare you this pain. I wonder why you and I did not? He looked so disturbed too. Now I know why."
He looked nauseous and remorseful at the same time. Now the truth came out. Why she had left all those years ago. Why he had woken up to find her not just gone from the tent, but gone from the temple, from his life, in an instant without so much as a goodbye.
She could see him weighing it all, his expressions rapidly changing and in the end, he frowned. "My father was not omniscient, nor was he perfect. I make my own decisions, Tara. I wish to speak to you again, in further privacy," he said and strode towards the door intending for her to follow.
But she couldn't. Not after all that. It meant they would go sneak off somewhere to be alone, hash out the rest of all their issues, make up and in the morning, he'd be the one gone.
Because he had a wife to go home to and she was not that wife.
Not yet.
If ever.
He had once said that they had the world as their oyster, an eternity to be together such as they were.
But she wasn't so sure she could bear their version of eternity.
The Inferno, her private hell, was a much more preferable place to be than this.
She watched him go and whispered in his wake, "An' that is why I didn't tell you, my love. Why I....couldn't...tell you, 'fore now."
A second later, after fading away, she was back in her throne in the Halls of Sorrow, screaming as the barbed wire crown was placed on her head for the billionth time.
Screaming as the monsters came in to feed.
Screaming that her life had taken this horrible turn and there was no escape from it.
Screaming until she couldn't scream no more.
Carefully, she extricated herself from his embrace and leaned over to press her lips against his chin. She then spent a moment staring at him, smiling and stroking his hair and was amazed he didn't stir. But, he was tired. The little soiree his father had thrown the night before had ended late and Anubis had been working nonstop for as long as she could remember before that. In those days he was more hands-on than he seemed to be nowadays. He almost never took a night off so it was odd to see him at the party but she was glad for it as she was finally able to go home with him for a change instead of him leaving her at some nameless residence she chose to occupy.
She drew her robe around her shoulders and exited the tent into the twilight. When she looked in the sand she did not see the familiar "S" shaped lines that snakes made with their bodies but footprints leading away from the tent and up to the temple. Slowly she crept across the sands, past the tent where the party had been and looking inside she could see Sa Bast covered in naked women. She shook her head.
The man's lust knew no bounds.
Ascending the steps, she saw a figure move out of the shadow and into the torchlight.
It was Talum Sa and he did not look happy.
She slowed her ascent but eventually joined him at the temple entrance.
What was said between them she now knew to be prophecy and so its exact details she would never dare utter let alone remember in full again, lest they actually come true.
And, most of it had.
Word for word, exactly what the god Set had told her would happen, did, and she was absolutely terrified of it all.
She didn't want any more of what he said to her to play out. He would win then and she'd be right back where she started.
Sans Anubis.
But what she could remember, what she allowed herself to recall was that he said he had seen them together, her and his son. He knew they had been intimate and wasn't happy about it. He felt she was not good enough for his son and with her reputation, it would not be a good match. He wanted his son to succeed and he felt that if they were together, that would never happen.
That she would somehow be the ruin of Anubis, which she actually laughed at and remarked that if he truly felt that way, he didn't know his own son.
He then said that he granted her asylum when Anubis brought her to his lands to live because she had been exiled from her own. And, that this was not the way he wanted to see her repay him for his kindness.
He then demanded she leave.
She was not welcome back.
When she protested, he lifted his hand as if to strike her.
She braced for the assault, wincing, but he pointed toward the horizon.
He told her to leave and that if he ever saw her with his son again, he would kill her.
A gruesome murder which he described in incredible, terrifying detail to her.
So she got her things and she left.
Without saying goodbye to Anubis.
Without explaining to him why after finally consummating their feelings for one another, after the special night they had shared, she had just up and disappeared on him.
Eventually they saw each other again. Once a year, every year, even though he had moved on like she had and married Dawn and she had been trading in husbands for better ones like he did slaves, they met for dinner.
On the same night.
No matter what.
Its significance being the anniversay of the day they first met.
He was cool towards her but pulled out her chair for her to sit. He was a bastard to the entire world, but with her he was always a gentleman.
They ate in relative silence.
It didn't feel the same as it once did.
He wasn't a big talker so she was not expecting much, but he hadn't said one word throughout the whole meal. The slaves had said more to her than he had and this made her feel so much worse.
Now there was this awkwardness between them but he never once asked her why she had left and she never offered up the explanation until four years ago.
She had been seated in her throne at the Red Dragon, drinking with friends, when he had come through the door and immediately advanced towards her.
She had hissed at him, out of fear.
All these long years, he never once put his hands on her in anger. He was a gentleman, after all. But that changed when she had told Dawn that they had been having an affair and Dawn was less than understanding.
He pointed to a spot behind the booths over in a corner. "We need to have a talk," he had said. "Come."
"As you wish," she had said and walked over to the indicated spot, very afraid of what he might say to her. What he might DO to her.
She leaned up against the wall and was waiting to hear what he was so angry about although she sorta knew it might have had something to do with her chat with Dawn when he began to run his hands up along her midsection.
She blinked and looked down at what he was doing. Wondering why he was doing this if he was so angry.
But instead of kissing her as he had all those years ago against that obelisk, he was lifting her up by her breasts and pinning her, forcefully, against the wall.
This is the conversation, which followed, verbatim.
"The one who you affiliate yourself with...he calls himself 'The Father of Lies', am I right?" he asked, right in her face, and for a moment she thought he might bite her even though she was the one that had her fangs extended. He didn't quite have those but he did have teeth and they were clenched for the time being.
She sneered. "I am screwing him, yes," she nearly spat in his face. When they were like this, at their worst with one another, she delighted in hurting him by pointing out he was not the only man she had been with. Something she knew, deep down, infuriated him, although he never outwardly said.
"Then take a page from his book. Lie, and save us all from more heartache and pain than is needed," he said and tightened his grip.
She responded by wrapping her legs around him and pulling him closer to her. Her words flowed like venom. "You test my patience tonight, slaver. How unfortunate that you have me at such a great disadvantage in physical strength and mental acuity, else I'd be tempted to drop you where you stand for such an outrage. I told her the truth because I would expect the same were I in her shoes. An' like I told YOU, I will NEVER make any apologies for loving you."
She was angry but she couldn't be for very long. This was the man she loved. He was married to a woman who had once been her friend but was now someone she hated more than she hated herself. She remembered what he had asked her, two years earlier than this particular night, at the Outback, and now, repeated those exact words of his right back to him as he continued to hold her against that wall and threaten her.
"Do you love me or are you infatuated with me? Infatuation would draw you to want to hurt me for my attention. But love would make you abhor the idea," she said with a smug smile. Although, truth be told, when he had originally said those words to her two years earlier, he was not being smug. He was genuinely hurt by something she had done and wanted to know the truth.
Was she playing him like she had all the other men in life or was she really serious when she said those three little words?
That was the night he had shed a tear when he told her, in return, that he did love her, but he wasn't sure he could give her what she wanted and that hurt him.
She remembered that agonizing moment as she looked deep in his eyes and tried to see if her echoing his words was having any effect on him. If it wasn't and this escalated, she was not prepared for it.
It would mean months of recuperation and that was if he didn't kill her. But it would also mean the end of them.
She couldn't bear the thought. It was one thing to be his mistress, but another entirely to be completely cut off from him for the rest of eternity.
She would want him to kill her then. Beg him for it, even.
It was then he started to laugh, really laugh, so much that she thought he might never stop. "The mosquito would drain the farmer of all of his lifeblood like a vampire if it could. The fellahin would screw the queen if he could."
He released her, gently, despite holding her against the wall as he had in full view of EVERYONE she knew. Because whereas she delighted in using the fact that she wasn't completely his in at least body to torment him during their fights, he delighted in humiliating her whenever she got a little too big for her britches. He was exceedingly good at it, too.
He then took he gently by the shoulders and his voice turned soft. She saw the anger disappating from his eyes as he looked down on her as he often had, with affection. "You would be mine if it were mere infatuation. And to turn the table...sensible love conquers respect for the other woman, no?"
She turned her cheek as she started to feel like she might cry and she wasn't quite ready to show him he had won this battle.
"It does, which is why I told her the truth. I did not say it to hurt her as you have hurt me. You speak of respect like you practice it. Yer father saw this day. This is why he told me to go home, why he separated us. Not because he wanted to reunite Boss an' I, or keep you from killing Sa Bast when he beat the hell out of me for wanting to be with you, but because when he came upon you an' I making love in that tent, he saw what the consequences would be, years later, and he hoped to spare you this pain. I wonder why you and I did not? He looked so disturbed too. Now I know why."
He looked nauseous and remorseful at the same time. Now the truth came out. Why she had left all those years ago. Why he had woken up to find her not just gone from the tent, but gone from the temple, from his life, in an instant without so much as a goodbye.
She could see him weighing it all, his expressions rapidly changing and in the end, he frowned. "My father was not omniscient, nor was he perfect. I make my own decisions, Tara. I wish to speak to you again, in further privacy," he said and strode towards the door intending for her to follow.
But she couldn't. Not after all that. It meant they would go sneak off somewhere to be alone, hash out the rest of all their issues, make up and in the morning, he'd be the one gone.
Because he had a wife to go home to and she was not that wife.
Not yet.
If ever.
He had once said that they had the world as their oyster, an eternity to be together such as they were.
But she wasn't so sure she could bear their version of eternity.
The Inferno, her private hell, was a much more preferable place to be than this.
She watched him go and whispered in his wake, "An' that is why I didn't tell you, my love. Why I....couldn't...tell you, 'fore now."
A second later, after fading away, she was back in her throne in the Halls of Sorrow, screaming as the barbed wire crown was placed on her head for the billionth time.
Screaming as the monsters came in to feed.
Screaming that her life had taken this horrible turn and there was no escape from it.
Screaming until she couldn't scream no more.
She sat forward in the booth and stared at Church Rhino like she had seen a ghost.
This wasn't a memory now.
It was happening in real time. She could feel it.
Also, she glanced at a boy out of the corner of her eye and saw him speaking on a cellphone.
When Church Rhino lived there was no such thing.
Yes, something was definitely wrong.
Time was nine kinds of wonky and she intended to find out, just as soon as she got herself out of this newest mess.
"Once more, Tara, because I know you have trouble paying attention, you will either tell me where Rose is marrying Azrael or I will tell Kain where his precious slut is. I will enjoy watching him beat you to within an inch of your life and then kill you. You know the punishment for escape is death. No one is more aware of that little fact than you, Tara, isn't that right?"
She forgot what she had originally said, the first time this had happened. Did she utter the location in fear of being caught once again by Kain or did she argue with Church?
He had died.
WHY WAS HE SITTING HERE NOW?
What had she done? It wasn't coming to mind! She could hear him tapping his boot under the table, growing more irritated by every second she was quiet.
The jukebox lit up and started to play Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper," another thing that was not around when he was alive.
The answer was there, somewhere in her mind but damned if she could remember what it was.
She did remember, however, how the situation with Kain had ended up. Not in her death, certainly. She had surprised everyone with how it had turned out.
Even Kain.
He had been in love with her too and she did love him as well. Not quite at the level of how she loved Anubis, but somewhere in the same realm.
What could she say?
She loved the bad boys.
Except Church.
She never ever ever loved that bastard.
Smiling, she leaned further towards him and nodded once. "Go an' get him, Rhino," she said and couldn't believe that out of ALL the responses she could possibly come back with, that THIS was the one she chose!
She didn't want to see Kain again!
Church didn't miss a beat. "Suit yourself," he replied and strode out the door.
She looked around the Red Dragon and behind the bar was someone she knew, for absolute fact, was also gone. Gone, but not forgotten.
There, smiling and wiping down the counter was Hunter.
"Huntah," she called out as her eyes filled with tears.
The bartender looked up at her.
Then he threw a tomahawk at her.
It landed and was now embedded in the wall behind her head.
This was a game they often played. He'd chase her and try to chop her head off. She'd get behind the bar and steal things. It was all in good fun.
It was just they never played this game when the boss, Panther, was around.
Because the longstanding rule of the Dragon was, absolutely NO weapons were allowed.
You could be decapitated outside, in the street, but not inside the tavern.
Panther sure did love his clean floors.
But that didn't mean that they couldn't be snuck in when Panther was out and about.
This was her and Hunter's little secret.
All part of that game.
Except now he looked like he was angry. He stormed over to yank his tomahawk out of the wall and chastised her for still having a head.
One she was tilting at him now.
Never, in all the years he had tended bar, had Hunter ever been so much as nasty to her. He always was kind. Just not now.
She heard the familiar sound of Kain Locke's boots hitting the floor even before she turned around in her seat to confirm it visually.
When she did, she felt whatever color she had left in her face, drain entirely.
Church was behind him, grinning. He made sure to wink at her too.
Before she could ask them if they knew they were dead and were being used by SOMEONE, she knew not who, as pawns here, in this memory malfunction, his fist was in her hair.
And, he was dragging her across the floor just as he had done all those years ago, for real.
This wasn't a memory now.
It was happening in real time. She could feel it.
Also, she glanced at a boy out of the corner of her eye and saw him speaking on a cellphone.
When Church Rhino lived there was no such thing.
Yes, something was definitely wrong.
Time was nine kinds of wonky and she intended to find out, just as soon as she got herself out of this newest mess.
"Once more, Tara, because I know you have trouble paying attention, you will either tell me where Rose is marrying Azrael or I will tell Kain where his precious slut is. I will enjoy watching him beat you to within an inch of your life and then kill you. You know the punishment for escape is death. No one is more aware of that little fact than you, Tara, isn't that right?"
She forgot what she had originally said, the first time this had happened. Did she utter the location in fear of being caught once again by Kain or did she argue with Church?
He had died.
WHY WAS HE SITTING HERE NOW?
What had she done? It wasn't coming to mind! She could hear him tapping his boot under the table, growing more irritated by every second she was quiet.
The jukebox lit up and started to play Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper," another thing that was not around when he was alive.
The answer was there, somewhere in her mind but damned if she could remember what it was.
She did remember, however, how the situation with Kain had ended up. Not in her death, certainly. She had surprised everyone with how it had turned out.
Even Kain.
He had been in love with her too and she did love him as well. Not quite at the level of how she loved Anubis, but somewhere in the same realm.
What could she say?
She loved the bad boys.
Except Church.
She never ever ever loved that bastard.
Smiling, she leaned further towards him and nodded once. "Go an' get him, Rhino," she said and couldn't believe that out of ALL the responses she could possibly come back with, that THIS was the one she chose!
She didn't want to see Kain again!
Church didn't miss a beat. "Suit yourself," he replied and strode out the door.
She looked around the Red Dragon and behind the bar was someone she knew, for absolute fact, was also gone. Gone, but not forgotten.
There, smiling and wiping down the counter was Hunter.
"Huntah," she called out as her eyes filled with tears.
The bartender looked up at her.
Then he threw a tomahawk at her.
It landed and was now embedded in the wall behind her head.
This was a game they often played. He'd chase her and try to chop her head off. She'd get behind the bar and steal things. It was all in good fun.
It was just they never played this game when the boss, Panther, was around.
Because the longstanding rule of the Dragon was, absolutely NO weapons were allowed.
You could be decapitated outside, in the street, but not inside the tavern.
Panther sure did love his clean floors.
But that didn't mean that they couldn't be snuck in when Panther was out and about.
This was her and Hunter's little secret.
All part of that game.
Except now he looked like he was angry. He stormed over to yank his tomahawk out of the wall and chastised her for still having a head.
One she was tilting at him now.
Never, in all the years he had tended bar, had Hunter ever been so much as nasty to her. He always was kind. Just not now.
She heard the familiar sound of Kain Locke's boots hitting the floor even before she turned around in her seat to confirm it visually.
When she did, she felt whatever color she had left in her face, drain entirely.
Church was behind him, grinning. He made sure to wink at her too.
Before she could ask them if they knew they were dead and were being used by SOMEONE, she knew not who, as pawns here, in this memory malfunction, his fist was in her hair.
And, he was dragging her across the floor just as he had done all those years ago, for real.
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