No. 21. Reunion...
May. 26th, 2003 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sparkindarknessAha, some plot... Y'know me updating this often bodes terrible things for my revision...
Ummm... revision, or my guys?
Gah, looks like I'm winging another exam.
Three coffees and I almost feel alive again... If this damn job didn't pay so well, there’s no way I'd be up so fucking early. It’s noon! And I’ve been up for three hours. I don’t know that the money is good enough for this!
Still, I’ve got nearly all of it done, actually, got it all done but I want to check in again before I go home. Some company had tech support that basically thought that if you played Quake for long enough the bugs would fix itself. Then some hacker wannabe with an anarchist complex screwed them over something awful. Their computers were pretty fucking fried as it was but the hacker pretty much pushed them over the edge. All estimates show that the whole network needs rebuilding from the ground up, and they lost nearly every bit of info they had - mega-ouch, right? Oh, and guess what brilliant tech support guy hasn't been making back ups for the past 6 months? It’s almost funny if you didn’t see the look on the poor boss man’s face, and his staff look like they’ve been killing themselves over this too.
So they pay my bill, and I get the spirits running data retrieval and first aid. Fucking hacker didn’t see that one lurking in the background, I also sent the bastard some nasty surprises; call it karma.
Anyway, I’m taking a break at this coffee shop, been here a few time's though it’s not the best. Still the guys know me and know to make coffee thick enough to float the fucking spoon if I come in before 3pm. Then I’ll go back to Darren at home, he’s been looking at setting up some kind of shop somewhere. Between him and that bastard Ahrimadan they know just about all you ever need to about the occult, could be one major earner. Anyway he’s been working on that for the past month or so since the fucking cat showed up. Well that and redecorating my flat, what is wrong with my flat anyway? Alright he’s got waaaay better style than me, I’ll give you that, what he’s done to the bathroom is just too amazing. All blue with murals and coral and shit. It’s way cool.
“One more Abby, then I gotta get back home.” Abby grins and pours me another massive mug of caffeine. I swear if Darren wakes me up tomorrow morning I’ll throw him AND his fucking cat out the fucking window.
I sit back and run through some of my favourite fantasies we haven’t played out yet when I blink and look up. There’s a woman sat opposite me... she seems oddly familiar. She’s got pale skin, dark blue eyes and shoulder length black hair. She’s short, about 5’5” and pretty in a perky kind of way, someone who smiles a lot, who’s really happy with life. I can tell, I see the same expression in the mirror every morning... and just recently, rarely, VERY rarely, I’m beginning to see it on Darren’s face. I’d guess she’s at most a year older than me. Hard to tell, she looks like a teenager, but she’s got more... weight behind her, y’know? Not that she’s fat or anything, nah, she’s slim, not rake thin, but definitely athletic and healthy.
She smiles. “Mind if I sit here?” Wow, she’s got a British accent, educated one to. All cultured and smooth, like Darren. I don’t remember her sitting down, and there’s still plenty of seats free, but hey, free country. Still if she’s flirting, she’s so going to be disappointed.
“’Course not! Hi, I’m Rick.” I grin at her, but try not to flirt. But if you give girls the cold shoulder when they’re flirting with you they get all angry and don't believe you when you say you’re gay, they think it’s some ploy to get rid of them or some shit, and you have to near molest another guy for them to believe it.
“Hi, I’m Katherine. Most people call me Kat.” She sips her coffee... she must have ordered while I was day dreaming about Darren. I’m sure she didn’t have that cup a few seconds ago. I told you it was too early for me to be up!
“So, is this your first time in the states?” Still looking for that big conversational gap that’ll let me say, ‘sorry, babe, I screw guys.’
“Yes, actually. I guess I just stand out as painfully foreign over here.” She grins, a little embarrassed and sips her hot chocolate.
I shake my head, a little confused. Mornings are so not for me. “So, business or pleasure? You don’t look like a tourist. I don’t normally ruin into English girls here.”
She blinks and her grin fades a tiny bit, like I surprised her. She looks at me thoughtfully as she takes a long swallow of coke. “Hey, that’s weird, most Americans call me ‘British.’ What makes you different?”
Aha! The long awaited opening. I wait a couple of seconds for her to have a nice big mouthful of spring water before dropping the bombshell... wait? Spring water? DEFINITELY not a morning person! “Nah, my boyfriend is English though, and he prefers ‘English’ to British. Don’t know why, but if it makes him happy.” I shrug. There, she should majorly get the hint now, and leave a guy to his desperately needed coffee.
“An English boyfriend? Cool! What’s his name, maybe I know him!” Ok, maybe she hasn’t got the hint. And I have to laugh at that. She frowns at me over her Dr. Pepper. I shake my head, I’ve seen that glare somewhere before...
“Sorry, no offence. But last time I said something like that to Darren he bit my head off. He yelled at me for thinking England’s this tiny place where everyone knows each other.”
She laughs too, pausing only to eat some more of her croissant. “I know, I can soooo sympathise with him.” She has to wipe ice-cream from the side of her mouth she’s been laughing so hard. “You have got to tell me where you guys live. I have absolutely no friends here yet! Where is the Arynn abode? I could do with some sanity in this place!”
Yeah, I can see that, something’s seriously off.... wait... “’Arynn?’ I never told you my second name... I’m sure of it. We only exchanged first names...” Ok, crazy stalker woman... hey, and when did she order ice-cream?
“Don’t be silly! What do you think I am? What, is there something in the coffee? That’s why I’m drinking fruit juice. Since you missed it first time, Rick Arynn, I’m Katherine Camaalis. Got it this time?” she tapped my head playfully...
But I wasn’t feeling playful... Camaalis. That was what Ahrimadan called Darren, the second name he would never say aloud so his family couldn't track him with scrying...
“Ok, cut the crap. What do you want ‘Kat’?”
She tries to go all wide eyed innocent on me. And her fucking drink has changed again! What was it Darren said about his family? Magick users, extremely powerful ones... so, she can summon food? That’s pretty lame...
“You can drop the fucking act, Kitty, I ain’t buying it. I know why your here.” I glare at her. Her innocent look slowly fades, until she looks a lot more serious.
“Fine. Cards on the table time. My little brother’s in this city. And from what my kin say, you’re connected to him. From what you say, you’re shacked up with him. I need to know where he is.”
“Why? You got some big fucking family reunion planned? Wanna set up some surprise party for him? Make up for fucking years of treating him like shit!”
Her fists clench, for a minute I think she’s going to attack me...
“We didn’t know what Alexei had done! We didn’t know what he was! We stopped him, he’ll never do anything like that again...”
What? Alexei was Darren’s uncle, I think. Darren still has nightmares about him. Yeah, he was a bastard, but from what I hear the rest of his family aren’t much better. I thought they were all terrified of the ‘evil’ sorcerer they’d produced.
“What? So it was just this Alex guy? What do you want with him? ‘Come back, all is forgiven’? Or some other stupid shit?”
She stares at me for like a minute or more, before taking a deep breath.
“No. I intend to kill him.”
I nearly fall off my chair... what the fuck?!
“You have to understand Rick,” her eyes are misty, her happy face sad now, “you have to know what he is. What he will do... Do you think I want to kill him? I hate it, but there is no other way!”
“Like fuck there isn’t! Do you seriously think I’m going to fucking tell you where he is when you say you’re going to fucking murder him?!” She winces slightly, but most of her face is like a mask. I’ve seen Darren do that before too.
“So you won’t help. He needs to be put down. You put your own selfish needs ahead of the good of the world. I can’t allow that. It’s a hard sacrifice Rick.” She reaches out gently and touches my hand. “But it’s one we have to make, no matter how much it hurts.”
Fuck that. “No. I’m not helping you. I’m warning him and keeping you the hell away from him. I don’t know how good you are bitch, but believe me, you hurt my Darren, there’s no way you’re good enough to survive after him! Got that? He dies, you die!” Fuck, I can’t believe how serious I sound... I can’t believe I actually mean what I’m saying.
Her face hardens. “So be it. Perhaps you can kill me. I can feel your power. But you don’t understand. I said I would sacrifice to save the world, that I would sacrifice my only brother. Know this, Rick Arynn, I will give his life and mine, to keep this world safe. You have no threat that could possibly be worse than Darren let loose upon this world.”
Shit, she sounds like she means it too... fucking psycho... I get up slowly, keeping my eye on her. She doesn’t move. Just looks at me with those cold eyes.
I walk slowly out of the cafe, out to my car. I can see her through the window. She isn’t even looking at me any more. She hasn’t moved.
I start up and drive. Most people would think it’s impossible to drive at 150mph in the middle of New York, and believe me without some serious fucking help from the spirits, it is. No police chase me, most of them have a hard time believing what happened. I cross the city about a thousand times and double back on myself. I drive down round New York every day, anyone trying to track me psychically is in for one hell of a headache. Anyone following in a car would so have been noticed by now. I turn up the radio to max, a heavy drum beat echoes through the car, so loud it hurts. I chant in rhythm to the throbbing beat, and call upon every pact I’ve ever made. I’ve lived in this city for 4 years now. I know this city. The spirit’s here know me. They answer to me, and feel my desperation. Spirit’s I’ve never dealt with answer my call, offer help gratis or for future favours. Helps to have a good rep. Something’s wrong though... the spirit’s don’t feel right... they aren’t acting right at all.... I can’t feel them. They’re all wrong
I pull up outside the flat and try to pin it. The spirits are here... but they’re not. I can sense some spirits, but they're in different places and they’re... confused. The rest of the spirits are like... artists impressions. Y’know drawn by someone whose never actually seen or spoken to a spirit, only had it described to them. This is too weird...
I reach out to the dormant spirits that occupy everything. Spirit of road and air, of glass and concrete. The innumerable critters that we share our world with... they aren’t there! What?! That’s impossible!!
The world wavers, like a heat haze. What the fuck?!
“Bugger!” she shakes her head angrily.
I’m in the cafe... I’m standing about a foot from my seat, what the fuck just happened?!
“Never had to do spirit’s before. Should’ve known better than to totally immerse a shaman, no matter how good an illusionist you are, you can never recreate the spirit world.” She looks frustrated, but only mildly, like it isn't a big issue.
“What the fuck did you just do bitch?!” She’s been messing with my fucking head and I didn't even know! Ok, now, I’m scared, waaay more than Darren’s ever scared me.
“Just an illusions Rick. Don‘t worry about it. Well at least I got your address from that, so not a total loss.” She picks up a napkin with writing on it and starts to leave.
“No fucking way am I letting you leave with that!” I jump round the table and grab her arm.
Try to grab her arm... my hand passes right through her. She smiles at me, like I just made a brilliant joke.
“Oh please, Rick, baby, do you think I’m really stood here? C’mon, credit me with more intelligence. Well, give my regards to Darren.”
She just fucking disappears in front of me... Just fucking vanishes.
Oh shit... Darren!
I run for home, and pray I’m in time.
Ummm... revision, or my guys?
Gah, looks like I'm winging another exam.
Three coffees and I almost feel alive again... If this damn job didn't pay so well, there’s no way I'd be up so fucking early. It’s noon! And I’ve been up for three hours. I don’t know that the money is good enough for this!
Still, I’ve got nearly all of it done, actually, got it all done but I want to check in again before I go home. Some company had tech support that basically thought that if you played Quake for long enough the bugs would fix itself. Then some hacker wannabe with an anarchist complex screwed them over something awful. Their computers were pretty fucking fried as it was but the hacker pretty much pushed them over the edge. All estimates show that the whole network needs rebuilding from the ground up, and they lost nearly every bit of info they had - mega-ouch, right? Oh, and guess what brilliant tech support guy hasn't been making back ups for the past 6 months? It’s almost funny if you didn’t see the look on the poor boss man’s face, and his staff look like they’ve been killing themselves over this too.
So they pay my bill, and I get the spirits running data retrieval and first aid. Fucking hacker didn’t see that one lurking in the background, I also sent the bastard some nasty surprises; call it karma.
Anyway, I’m taking a break at this coffee shop, been here a few time's though it’s not the best. Still the guys know me and know to make coffee thick enough to float the fucking spoon if I come in before 3pm. Then I’ll go back to Darren at home, he’s been looking at setting up some kind of shop somewhere. Between him and that bastard Ahrimadan they know just about all you ever need to about the occult, could be one major earner. Anyway he’s been working on that for the past month or so since the fucking cat showed up. Well that and redecorating my flat, what is wrong with my flat anyway? Alright he’s got waaaay better style than me, I’ll give you that, what he’s done to the bathroom is just too amazing. All blue with murals and coral and shit. It’s way cool.
“One more Abby, then I gotta get back home.” Abby grins and pours me another massive mug of caffeine. I swear if Darren wakes me up tomorrow morning I’ll throw him AND his fucking cat out the fucking window.
I sit back and run through some of my favourite fantasies we haven’t played out yet when I blink and look up. There’s a woman sat opposite me... she seems oddly familiar. She’s got pale skin, dark blue eyes and shoulder length black hair. She’s short, about 5’5” and pretty in a perky kind of way, someone who smiles a lot, who’s really happy with life. I can tell, I see the same expression in the mirror every morning... and just recently, rarely, VERY rarely, I’m beginning to see it on Darren’s face. I’d guess she’s at most a year older than me. Hard to tell, she looks like a teenager, but she’s got more... weight behind her, y’know? Not that she’s fat or anything, nah, she’s slim, not rake thin, but definitely athletic and healthy.
She smiles. “Mind if I sit here?” Wow, she’s got a British accent, educated one to. All cultured and smooth, like Darren. I don’t remember her sitting down, and there’s still plenty of seats free, but hey, free country. Still if she’s flirting, she’s so going to be disappointed.
“’Course not! Hi, I’m Rick.” I grin at her, but try not to flirt. But if you give girls the cold shoulder when they’re flirting with you they get all angry and don't believe you when you say you’re gay, they think it’s some ploy to get rid of them or some shit, and you have to near molest another guy for them to believe it.
“Hi, I’m Katherine. Most people call me Kat.” She sips her coffee... she must have ordered while I was day dreaming about Darren. I’m sure she didn’t have that cup a few seconds ago. I told you it was too early for me to be up!
“So, is this your first time in the states?” Still looking for that big conversational gap that’ll let me say, ‘sorry, babe, I screw guys.’
“Yes, actually. I guess I just stand out as painfully foreign over here.” She grins, a little embarrassed and sips her hot chocolate.
I shake my head, a little confused. Mornings are so not for me. “So, business or pleasure? You don’t look like a tourist. I don’t normally ruin into English girls here.”
She blinks and her grin fades a tiny bit, like I surprised her. She looks at me thoughtfully as she takes a long swallow of coke. “Hey, that’s weird, most Americans call me ‘British.’ What makes you different?”
Aha! The long awaited opening. I wait a couple of seconds for her to have a nice big mouthful of spring water before dropping the bombshell... wait? Spring water? DEFINITELY not a morning person! “Nah, my boyfriend is English though, and he prefers ‘English’ to British. Don’t know why, but if it makes him happy.” I shrug. There, she should majorly get the hint now, and leave a guy to his desperately needed coffee.
“An English boyfriend? Cool! What’s his name, maybe I know him!” Ok, maybe she hasn’t got the hint. And I have to laugh at that. She frowns at me over her Dr. Pepper. I shake my head, I’ve seen that glare somewhere before...
“Sorry, no offence. But last time I said something like that to Darren he bit my head off. He yelled at me for thinking England’s this tiny place where everyone knows each other.”
She laughs too, pausing only to eat some more of her croissant. “I know, I can soooo sympathise with him.” She has to wipe ice-cream from the side of her mouth she’s been laughing so hard. “You have got to tell me where you guys live. I have absolutely no friends here yet! Where is the Arynn abode? I could do with some sanity in this place!”
Yeah, I can see that, something’s seriously off.... wait... “’Arynn?’ I never told you my second name... I’m sure of it. We only exchanged first names...” Ok, crazy stalker woman... hey, and when did she order ice-cream?
“Don’t be silly! What do you think I am? What, is there something in the coffee? That’s why I’m drinking fruit juice. Since you missed it first time, Rick Arynn, I’m Katherine Camaalis. Got it this time?” she tapped my head playfully...
But I wasn’t feeling playful... Camaalis. That was what Ahrimadan called Darren, the second name he would never say aloud so his family couldn't track him with scrying...
“Ok, cut the crap. What do you want ‘Kat’?”
She tries to go all wide eyed innocent on me. And her fucking drink has changed again! What was it Darren said about his family? Magick users, extremely powerful ones... so, she can summon food? That’s pretty lame...
“You can drop the fucking act, Kitty, I ain’t buying it. I know why your here.” I glare at her. Her innocent look slowly fades, until she looks a lot more serious.
“Fine. Cards on the table time. My little brother’s in this city. And from what my kin say, you’re connected to him. From what you say, you’re shacked up with him. I need to know where he is.”
“Why? You got some big fucking family reunion planned? Wanna set up some surprise party for him? Make up for fucking years of treating him like shit!”
Her fists clench, for a minute I think she’s going to attack me...
“We didn’t know what Alexei had done! We didn’t know what he was! We stopped him, he’ll never do anything like that again...”
What? Alexei was Darren’s uncle, I think. Darren still has nightmares about him. Yeah, he was a bastard, but from what I hear the rest of his family aren’t much better. I thought they were all terrified of the ‘evil’ sorcerer they’d produced.
“What? So it was just this Alex guy? What do you want with him? ‘Come back, all is forgiven’? Or some other stupid shit?”
She stares at me for like a minute or more, before taking a deep breath.
“No. I intend to kill him.”
I nearly fall off my chair... what the fuck?!
“You have to understand Rick,” her eyes are misty, her happy face sad now, “you have to know what he is. What he will do... Do you think I want to kill him? I hate it, but there is no other way!”
“Like fuck there isn’t! Do you seriously think I’m going to fucking tell you where he is when you say you’re going to fucking murder him?!” She winces slightly, but most of her face is like a mask. I’ve seen Darren do that before too.
“So you won’t help. He needs to be put down. You put your own selfish needs ahead of the good of the world. I can’t allow that. It’s a hard sacrifice Rick.” She reaches out gently and touches my hand. “But it’s one we have to make, no matter how much it hurts.”
Fuck that. “No. I’m not helping you. I’m warning him and keeping you the hell away from him. I don’t know how good you are bitch, but believe me, you hurt my Darren, there’s no way you’re good enough to survive after him! Got that? He dies, you die!” Fuck, I can’t believe how serious I sound... I can’t believe I actually mean what I’m saying.
Her face hardens. “So be it. Perhaps you can kill me. I can feel your power. But you don’t understand. I said I would sacrifice to save the world, that I would sacrifice my only brother. Know this, Rick Arynn, I will give his life and mine, to keep this world safe. You have no threat that could possibly be worse than Darren let loose upon this world.”
Shit, she sounds like she means it too... fucking psycho... I get up slowly, keeping my eye on her. She doesn’t move. Just looks at me with those cold eyes.
I walk slowly out of the cafe, out to my car. I can see her through the window. She isn’t even looking at me any more. She hasn’t moved.
I start up and drive. Most people would think it’s impossible to drive at 150mph in the middle of New York, and believe me without some serious fucking help from the spirits, it is. No police chase me, most of them have a hard time believing what happened. I cross the city about a thousand times and double back on myself. I drive down round New York every day, anyone trying to track me psychically is in for one hell of a headache. Anyone following in a car would so have been noticed by now. I turn up the radio to max, a heavy drum beat echoes through the car, so loud it hurts. I chant in rhythm to the throbbing beat, and call upon every pact I’ve ever made. I’ve lived in this city for 4 years now. I know this city. The spirit’s here know me. They answer to me, and feel my desperation. Spirit’s I’ve never dealt with answer my call, offer help gratis or for future favours. Helps to have a good rep. Something’s wrong though... the spirit’s don’t feel right... they aren’t acting right at all.... I can’t feel them. They’re all wrong
I pull up outside the flat and try to pin it. The spirits are here... but they’re not. I can sense some spirits, but they're in different places and they’re... confused. The rest of the spirits are like... artists impressions. Y’know drawn by someone whose never actually seen or spoken to a spirit, only had it described to them. This is too weird...
I reach out to the dormant spirits that occupy everything. Spirit of road and air, of glass and concrete. The innumerable critters that we share our world with... they aren’t there! What?! That’s impossible!!
The world wavers, like a heat haze. What the fuck?!
“Bugger!” she shakes her head angrily.
I’m in the cafe... I’m standing about a foot from my seat, what the fuck just happened?!
“Never had to do spirit’s before. Should’ve known better than to totally immerse a shaman, no matter how good an illusionist you are, you can never recreate the spirit world.” She looks frustrated, but only mildly, like it isn't a big issue.
“What the fuck did you just do bitch?!” She’s been messing with my fucking head and I didn't even know! Ok, now, I’m scared, waaay more than Darren’s ever scared me.
“Just an illusions Rick. Don‘t worry about it. Well at least I got your address from that, so not a total loss.” She picks up a napkin with writing on it and starts to leave.
“No fucking way am I letting you leave with that!” I jump round the table and grab her arm.
Try to grab her arm... my hand passes right through her. She smiles at me, like I just made a brilliant joke.
“Oh please, Rick, baby, do you think I’m really stood here? C’mon, credit me with more intelligence. Well, give my regards to Darren.”
She just fucking disappears in front of me... Just fucking vanishes.
Oh shit... Darren!
I run for home, and pray I’m in time.
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Date: 2003-05-26 11:55 am (UTC)then the in-laws come round.