Reader beware this is extreme rough draft only saving online for access and backup
Dark Incarnate
Chapter 6 Book 2
By Mr. Black
A New World
Kelly stared at her
canvas dressed for an adventure. She had
been caught unprepared over the past weeks and it wouldn't happen again. Tall hiking boots were tucked into her newest
pair of jeans. None of those washed out
or sold with holes jeans, but good strong denim. The quartz knife bequeathed from Red Hawk
hung from a leather belt and a compact Rugar .22 caliber pistol was hidden in
her back pocket with an extra magazine in the other. She had twenty four rounds total and one in
the tube. All her life she had thought
vests of all kinds to be out of style and only used by fly fishing mannequins
but she made a mental note to find a leather one. For this trip her best button up would have
to do.
Right on cue the canvas
swirled to life. She pictured Red Hawks
cabin as she had entered it the day before.
Kelly wasn't sure if the picture would grab her as the hazy premonition
had, or if this one was a window she could crawl into. She hoped for the latter. Prepared for the worst she hoped for the best
and Billy would be along in a few hours if she did get stuck. Her eyes winced as she reached out a
confident hand to set the canvas on the floor.
If it grabbed her then so be it, she had to face that fear. Kelly's fingers grasped the edge of the
canvas but her thumb dipped in. With a
sigh of relief she carefully set it on the floor and went to hands and knees to
crawl in.
The air was cooler on
Weather Top where a constant breeze blew.
Unbeknownst to Kelly the scene she saw was quite different from the real
world. Kelly stood up from the small box
that contained her room. She was proud,
standing tall and very happy her plan had worked and strode forward and into
the cabin. It was quiet, she was pretty
sure she hadn't been noticed yet. What
reality was this, hers or an alternate off chute world where the only
difference was her presence here? If she
spoke to Red Hawk or his son then walked back up the next day would they
remember the conversation or only her? If
it was the same world was her room empty? Could she teleport back down the mountain through
the portal or had the one and only Kelly Evans vacated the world of her
understanding? The paradox was more than
she had time to consider, and beside she hoped she was about to get all those
answers. Looking around everything was
just as before, even the luscious smell of leather that she breathed in. The day outside was hot and the sun high in
the sky. The time of day was about right
but something felt amiss, rather too right.
The sense of de-ja-vu was overpowering.
She looked at the saddles just inside the door and chose to change
something. A leather bound hatchet was
snapped onto a strap and Kelly wondered about taking it. She had to know, and took it. There was an awkward moment while she undid
her belt to attach the thing, which she slid behind the knife, but all of this
seemed unnoticed. The wood handle sunk
almost to her knee and Kelly knew she would find the thing annoying as it
slapped against her with each step.
Just like the day before
she found Red-Hawk out on the front porch overlooking the mountains. He said nothing and hardly moved only rocked
back and forth in the rocking chair. A
computer waiting input from the user, a quick flick of the mouse and double
click to start the program.
"Red Hawk?"
Kelly asked timidly.
The old Indian looked at
the young girl quizzically, “You’ve come for answers but what is it you think I
know?”
“Do you know how I got
here?” Kelly thought of the extreme and snaking
trail up the mountain.
“Do you know where you
are?”
“Yesssss.” The confidence was stolen. Kelly understood that she thought she
knew. Carefully she tried to put the
pieces together. She didn’t want to make
any stupid mistakes when talking to him, he was obviously trying to lead
her. “I am at the place I drew and I
drew your cabin, so I’m somewhere in-between the place I drew and your real
cabin.
“Which do you know to be
true?”
“So it’s not real?”
“What is real to you?”
Kelly thought for a moment,
“Real enough to touch and smell. Real
enough to change.”
“Change what, this place
you came to or change yourself?”
Again Kelly thought, but
this time specifically of the hatchet on her side. This place was real, if she gripped the blade
it would hurt and then cut what was more real than that? “The other day I had… an experience.” She was thinking of the premonition event
where she merely touched the canvas and it sent her flying. “I don’t know how or what I did, but it was
like this but… different. It was real,
but not real at the same time. It was
something that could happen or would happen…”
“Why do you ask the
question when you know the answer?”
Kelly thought about this
for a
Limitations
Dangers, lasting effects
Weakness
Leaving the cabin Kelly
looked out at the forested back yard.
The peculiar box was still sitting near the driveway that held her
room. She remarked that its position had
been roughly where she had first gotten out of the truck. She had drawn the place to exacty memory but
this wasn’t the real cabin in the really real world. This tiny string reality created by her and
only for her. Her imagination held a
fantastic and incredible curiosity for what else was out there. Surely she could insert herself into a world
that wasn’t her making. The question of
whose world threatened. The darkness
would no doubt own many… maybe all? But
what was the flipside?
Her world, Kelly
struggled with the idea. It wasn’t just
earth it was Earth as she knew it, Kelly’s reality. Her home world… what should she call it,
suddenly she sounded like a space traveler and perhaps she was. Earth, alpha earth, home world, Earth A? Whatever it was to be called it had been
tampered with and overcome (at least in her eyes) by the Darkness, but what of
the light? What about the perfect world
she dreamed of was it out there and what of those places? Kelly rushed back to the little box that lead
into her room. Where would she go next?
Returning she ran into
her room and looked at a clock. The
tomahawk flopped against her leg as she ran.
What she saw was incredible, no impossible, the time hadn’t
changed. She had been gone for nearly an
hour she was sure of it. A part of her
even worried that she had lost track of time and Billy would be home. She had lost between one and three
hours. Time had defiantly passed, but
not in her Alpha world. Beta world is
what she chose to call her personal string reality. Red Hawk was there and she had no doubt of
his flesh and blood but something wasn’t quite right. His responses seemed to echo a deeper
subconscious level knowledge of her own understanding. She wouldn’t get any revelations or clear
answers from Beta. It was still a place
where she could reflect and most importantly a place where time didn’t
exist.
Rummaging through a
bedside drawer, where her pink alarm clock used to sit, she found a watch her
Dad bought. It kept great time. Back to the studio she grabbed the
composition book they had taken great care to record as much information about
these anomalies before and now wasn’t a time to stop. Kelly hated that she didn’t consider time a
variable to record before. Staring at
the canvas again she was vexed; where should she go? The idea of finding a weakness for the
darkness intrigued her but how to do that safely was the trouble.
Of the creations she had
encountered so far each was different with their own cocktail of strengths and
weaknesses. The strongest by far was the
spider. Kelly shuddered at the thought
of squaring off against it again. It was
only a matter of time before that happened again. These things had suddenly been tossed into
her world and she had to deal with it.
The Tomahawk was still on her hip so even she was bringing things into
the world of her childhood, the Alpha Earth.
The question of whether she had changed her world to some sort of Beta
Earth was irrelevant. It seemed to Kelly
Beta World happened the night of her parents wreck. It wouldn’t do to dwell on these
thoughts.
The canvas swirled to
life in front of her but only to the white sterile room. The giant spider slowly walked center.
Kelly studied it as she
controlled it. The thing was a nargle of
her creation; a copy of the original and this place a test room. She felt she could control it and had so far
but the idea of jumping in was another matter.
The spider walked off center stage and an ugly bloatfly bobbed into view
flying unsteadily. At the sight of the
creature Kelly’s stomach knotted up. It
ducked and weaved right off stage. A fat
grub slowly came into view inch by inch.
She rolled her eyes. What she
needed was an opponent not this blob.
The grub painstakingly scooted along making for the far side exit. “Fuckin thing was never that slow before,”
Kelly rolled her eyes and waved a hand and a hurricane wind blew it off the
canvas. She couldn’t help but giggle as
it rolled and tumbled out of existence.
The dumb things were deceptively cunning however. A much more sinister flying creature zapped
into view. The adult Bee from the
original grub larva they encountered. It
was black and sleek, fast and agile.
Some bees and wasps were natural enemies of spiders. Even though the spider came straight from a
nightmare this thing could be worse. The
one she had encountered seemed docile and content to stay quiet locked in the
dog cage. Kelly had only seen the last
of the attack when Billy, who was tree times its size, wrestled it from
Candace’s prone defeated body. Billy had
to outweigh it by a hundred and fifty pounds but it was almost a match for
him. Ants for example are supposed to
carry up to a hundred times their body weight.
From her conversation
with Red Hawk Kelly gathered that what happened while “inside” the canvas
actually happened. People, animals, and
things may differ, like the tomahawk, but she was a common thread coming and
going. She could come out, or maybe
not. Time seemed to stop so if she fell
in there or heaven help her, died, the universe ending purgatory was a sobering
thought. On the other hand, a
premonition where she simple touched the canvas was… less solid. She would have to have help out (Billy’s
touch) or find a way out on her own. The
shadow world was held so little useful information and last time it left her
with more questions than answers. If she
was to train and prepare for these things in the real world she couldn’t rely
on theory. The Devil hornet, Kelly liked
the name better, swopped and stabbed with its stinger. She took a deep breath and let it out
shakily. She hated bees and spiders, all
little creepy crawlies that were either too ugly or too fearsome to be
big. Any sane person would be scared of
that thing if it was the size of their thumb nail, and this one’s bigger than
the family pet!
Fear crippled her and it
wasn’t until she walked to the window that it hit her. The thing was a nargle, nothing more than a
big angry ballooned nargle. Kelly smiled
thinking of the first encounter and the little expression it made to her. This thing was no different. Even through the twisted nargles current
state Kelly could see what it really was and felt compassion. She wanted
to see its face look at her with that silly surprise but the creature only
seethed hatred.
Regardless, it was a
nargle and on her ground, her canvas and she had power here. The real
world might be different but this was Kelly's world and her mind sketched a
small rubber stopper over its stinger making the thing's most deadly weapon
harmless. Kelly couldn't help but burst
out with laughter as it dove and tried to sting the ground but only stubbed the
rubber into the plain white floor. Kelly burst into laughter as the
menacing insect was thrown to the ground from the rubber stopper. It would be the perfect opponent, even though
she had no idea how hard it might be to kill.
Quickly her mind sketched a bamboo cage while it was on the floor. The window lowered its view as Kelly placed
the canvas on the floor. She swallowed
her throbbing heart and crawled in. The
room held the same sanatised smell with a hint of the green bamboo cage and the
unique smell of the bug. With the
tomahawk in her right and knife blade in her left she approached the cage and
cut the rope tie with a swing of the ax.
The door fell and she stepped back.
The bee would make the first move, and she react. Kelly bounced on bent knees ready to lunge or
jump; the agile cat feeling was back but her boots felt clumsy. The tread gripped the floor sure but they
felt like blocks.
The evil bee lumbered
out like glad to feel free air. It was
reluctant to use its wings, not sensing a threat; it crawled on top of the cage
to conquer it. With the high ground its
eerie eyes locked onto the frail girl.
Kelly was ready for anything and planning for any attack. But none came. It starred at her from its perch. Kelly was stunned she didn’t know what to do,
they always attacked! Her grip on the
small hand ax tightened as she took a shuffling step forward. The Bee shifted and settled but didn’t
care. She rushed forward raising the
weapons trying to stir the opponent. It
just rose as if to fly but still did nothing.
Kelly was only a few steps away and feared she was too close to react.
“Why won’t you attack!”
She asked it, but it only looked at her with fear and wonder. Was it the room? If it did choose to retreat where would it
go? The Bee was exactly the same as the
bee that attacked Candace. What was
different here? It was a Nargle, but
this one was made by her. She was its
creator… Kelly focused on that thought.
She had looked deep into the other creature and nearly touched its
tortured mind; felt it’s twisted desire to both destroy and die. The Bee in front of her certainly wasn’t
tortured likewise it was a creation of its own.
Why would it want to die? The
strange suicidal intent of the evil nargle was missing; therefore, it had fear
and a desire to live.
“I made you for a
purpose!” Kelly commanded. She thought
of the kittens; she was taking it’s free will away and didn’t like it. The bee stirred nervously. They touched minds as she had almost done
long ago in the lab. Hours of
conversation flashed in her mind in an instant.
A conversation with an insect!
But the Nargle was so much more.
All she needed to do was ask for it to die, or just be willing to fight
to the death. Well, it’s death not
hers! Kelly outlined her boundaries,
obviously no death, no long term incapacitation, and no taking her physically…
internally. It was to behave and attack
as the enemies she had faced before, but with a clear STOP and freeze once she
was defeated. A real enemy would violate
her and maybe even kill her but this was training. The bloatflies had gone beyond violating her
and she still escaped to fight another day, but Kelly didn’t count that as a
success.
Her eyes blinked a few
times and she faltered a step back. The
mind meld was a rush! Kelly threw up her
guard and moved forward still ready to respond if the creature attacked but she
knew it wouldn’t, not yet. Placing the
knife back into the sheath she wanted to touch the giant insect. The Bee stood quiet and still like a statue,
so still she questioned if it was real.
Its legs were hard as black volcanic rock and the armor plated body was
incredible. Vividly clear yet only two
colors that melded into the armor which slid together like a glove. The perfect fitting plates of black and white
glass made it impenetrable. Kelly tapped
the metal ax against it. It would take
one heck of a hit to punch through, but like the spider she fought once inside
there would be no skeleton only soft organs.
The .22 in her back pocket might be of some use but the tiny holes
wouldn’t allow any more damage than passing though and it would probably take
more shots than she had time for to take it down. The wings were vulnerable and weak, but the
creature would still be deadly on the ground.
Its mandibles were worse than she imagined. Like a giant pair of plyers crossed with
hedge trimmers. One bite could take off
an arm or a leg. Range would be an
important factor in fighting them. Kelly
moved to the business end and placed her hand on the rubber stopper. It looked so silly now. Pulling it off she was surprised not to find
a stinger. A thin section of sliding
armor could pull back to reveal one, but she had never actually ever seen a
stinger on the original. Kelly tickled
the Bee’s tail and encouraged it to open.
A soft pink fleshy organ slowly poked out. At least it wasn’t a stinger! Kelly stepped back knowing full well what it
was and not wishing to grow any further.
The biggest threat this creature possessed was its scythe like pincers,
and the legs if they had enough strength to rip and tear. Somehow Kelly didn’t have to guess too hard
about its power.
Kelly took a few steps
back and pulled the knife out blade down in her right hand and held that
tomahawk in her left. Enough was enough
it was time to fight. The bee's wings
began to vibrate softly, warming. The
remnants of Red Hawks face paint still stained her face as she grimaced. It was no or never and her weight rose off
the soles of her feet onto the balls almost floating. Her focus became a metal tool like a
screwdriver, no and ice-pick focused on one thing waiting like a dancer for her
partner to move. In real fight she knew
her enemy would never hastate to attack.
The things she had seen had no fear, no hesitation, only the insatiable
desire of the Wendigo.
The Bee snapped to life
rising into the blank slate sky slowly bobbing a weaving looking to the best
avenue of attack. It's legs flowed after
it limp like hinged steamers being dragged though the air but suddenly they
went ridged and it dove after the small girl.
In the ocean of stars
that blanketed our surrounding dimension Kelly's shown bright. Another had joined her, she had created it
from the darkness. Now they danced and
circled as if fighting. Kelly's star far
brighter than the smaller but it was immobile vs. the much faster star. Kelly's star blinked for only a second, not
going out entirely before coming back bright as ever and the second disappeared.
Kelly blinked her eyes,
she was in her room again looking at the blank canvas. She has lost.
The last think she remembered were the Bee's pincers closing on her
neck. The moment was horrible she even
now she felt the paralyzing fear of certain death. She had to try again. And again and again.
--- End of Book 1 Chaper
14 takes place here. Billy and Candace
return to the apartment where Kelly has been alone all day. A brief confrontation between Candace and
Kelly as read in that chapter occurs and flows here.---
Kelly had lost count of
her losses but her wins were easy to remember, zero. She popped back into Alpha world and heard
the school bus pull up. The
responsiblity of this place would never end.
She thought of making on more jump back into the canvas but decided to
wait. Soon enough she heard Billy and
Candace come.
“Kelly!?!” Candace
yelled. Kelly waited patiently this
would be hard and she just wanted to get back to work. It didn't take long for Candace to come up. She gently knocked on the studio door and
turned the knob. An amazed sense of Kelly’s courage flashed when Candace
thought of the first time Kelly came to her house and did the same.
“Kelly?” She softly questioned as she pushed the door open.
Kelly was sitting on a
bar stool starring at an empty canvas. Kelly slowly looked over, awakened
from a trance and smiled to see her friend. She still didn’t say
anything. Kelly understood like the
confrontation with the Bee she couldn't take the first move. Candace
didn’t understand, if she was happy to see her why didn’t she come to
school?
“Hey, how’ve you
been?” Candace asked and walked over to stand beside her and look at the
empty canvas. “What’cha workin on?”
The questions were
juvenile and annoyed Kelly, but how could she expect them to understand.
The universe had been opened to her. She couldn’t explain it to Candace
anymore than she could paint it on this canvas. Darkness had
inadvertently showed her the light as well. The world became a waking
dream for her. Kelly felt she could move in and out of reality into an
invisible undercurrent. The intricate inner workings of the world, of
love and life were too marvelous and beautiful to express. Darkness was
out there, the incarnate of pure hatred and malice. She had to understand
how to alter the inner gears and working of this physical reality to stop
it. If she could pass beyond its grasp into the ethereal and become
invincible to it, it would fail.
Kelly took a deep breath
knowing some sort of response was required of her, “How to use the keys to the
universe…”
Candace raised a
surprised eyebrow, “Well that’s not what I expected. Why don’t we just
jump to a hard one. What’s the meaning of life?”
Her smile had lost some
of its wild innocence and brilliance but Kelly chuckled, “That’s easy.”
“Go on then, let’s hear
it.”
“To go, to explore, to
experience, to savor, to enjoy… to love.”
“You don’t seem to be
doing much of that in here.”
Kelly gave a quick look
of pity and turned back to her canvas, “I need a bigger one, this one’s too
small.” Kelly was tired of crawling into it, she wanted to walk in, or
maybe run if the need was great enough.
“Well Miss Universe, I
don’t know what to tell you. The real world over here needs you so why
don’t you GO outside for a walk?”
She snapped her head
back so fast it startled Candace, “It’s out there, and it’s not going for a
walk… I have to figure this out. You must understand it’s going to come
for us all soon.”
Candace took a frightened
step back. “I…I need you…” She had never felt so small before in her
life.
Kelly jumped up; she was
angry and frustrated though she knew she shouldn’t be. Candace started to
back up and Kelly followed her until she backed into the wall. Candace
was scared to death when Kelly pressed her arm and elbow into her stomach
pinning her to the wall. Her other hand reached under her skirt and
brushed her panties aside.
The tiny creature inside
her womb stirred feeling Kelly’s raw power, while it was powerless to
resist. Like a magnet Kelly pulled it out without even touching the
girl. She stepped back holding the small wriggling worm in her
palm. “This is from beyond the fabric of reality and it’s nothing but a
speck of dust.” She smashed it in her hand letting the blood drip onto
the carpet before throwing the carcass against the wall. Candace held her
breath in awe.
“You could take it,
examine it with the strongest microscope in the world and run a thousand tests
and still miss the picture. These floors and walls that make up this room
are nothing but atoms. The nucleuses of those atoms are like pennies on
the floor of a Roman Catholic Cathedral. Your reality, Candace only
exists up here,” Kelly tapped her head. “There’s something out there, something
very evil, the spirit of evil to be exact that transcends all this.” Her eyes
were wild and she waved her hands motioning to the whole room and world that
Candace knew.
“I-I don’t… I mean what
are you… we suppose to..”
“I’m gonna kill the
motha-fucker!” Kelly went back to her stool and looked at the canvas
again. “Now, if you would help me find a bigger canvas.”
Candace was
insufferable, "But what do you need a bigger one for? That one is still blank?"
Kelly grinned a real
genuine smile, "Let's try something."
Candace didn't like the evil in that grin and took her second scared
breath since she had entered the room.
Kelly closed her eyes and took Candace by the hand. "Here goes nothing!"
For the first time
someone else saw what Kelly saw. If the
connection and Kelly's concentration was strong enough she hoped to bring
Candace along with her to Beta world.
Candace watched as the blank canvas grew fuzzy like a bass speaker
vibrating. Too fast to see but too much
not to notice. Kelly opened her eyes and
laid the still blank canvas on the floor long ways.
Kelly looked over,
"Join me wont you?" The fake
british accent wasn't funny to Candace who thought she had finally lost her
mind. Kelly pulled her onto the floor by
the hand. It was awekward on all fours
and holding hand but Kelly began to lead into the fuzzy picture. M.C. Escher couldn't have imagined a better
mindfuck! Candace blinked as Kelly's head passed the threshold of the canvas. It should have been there! It was fuzzy but still something wasn't
right. Kelly yanked her friend
though. Once her own had passed the
barrier the rest of Candace's mind began to accept the impossible. And soon she was standing the sterile white
expanse that Kelly knew has her own personal Beta world.
Kelly pulled free of
Candaces scared grasp to fling her arms wide and spun free flailing her arms
like a whirlwind. "This is my new
home!" Kelly yelled, it felt so good
to cry out without fear of neighbors hearing or some judgmental peer. She whirled close to her friend again and
stopped to breath into her ear, "I can make anything I want in
here." Candace was too awestruck to
hear much less comprehend. "Come-on
let's get some lunch!" Kelly had
resumed spinning like a ballerina in a large circle and in the middle a few
thin lines took shape and sketched a table and a small greasy brown paper
bag. Candace soon found the smell of
cheeseburgers assaulting her nose. "Come,
sit with me!" Kelly stopped and
threw her arms up and began to lean back into a trust fall and like magic
Candace watched a chair sketch itself under her just in time. Kelly pulled a burger out of the paper
bag. The cheap wax paper didn't even
have a logo, if she had asked Kelly would have told her it was from the Country
Kitchen but she didn't. Suddenly the
question Kelly had mentioned didn't sound so far fetched.
Kelly spoke with her
mouth full totally relaxed and enjoying the burger, "I've only really
found this place today. I've been
"researching" all week. The
canvas seems to be my magic ball. There
are a few different things; like I think I can see the future. Well sort of, I mean I don't know but it
certainly helps me separate the good ideas from the bad ones. It's scary though looking forward." Kelly's eyes darkened and so did the white
expanse around them.
Candace finally unfroze
and moved to take a seat by her friend.
She didn't trust the chair at first but she needed to sit down. "So this place is..."
"My personal sand
box. I can created anything I like here
including lif!. Well kind of... I can bring nargles out of the dark and to
life. There 'technically' already alive
I just, ya know, give them a vehicle."
This was the first
Candace had heard of Nargles.
"Kelly... what are Nargles?"
This was already too
much for her. Kelly kicked her chair
back onto two legs, "OOOOhhh!!!"
Candace got an eye full of half chewed hamburger. "Yeah, right... Umm Nargles, well they
are everything. This chair, the burger
I'm eating. Here let me make a
kitten! Kelly finally put what was left
of lunch down and held both hands together over the table like a magician and
when the pulled back there sat a kitten.
"Meet... Mr. Nargle!"
Kelly was crazed with a power and understanding that Candace may never
grasp.
Mr. Nargle went for the
left over burger.
Like an actor Kelly
donned a curious expression mask,
"I don't know about people though.
Are we nargles?" Kelly
paused to give this some deep thought.
"I'm sorry, I should explain.
Nargles are spirits, like a mountian may be known as dangerous and only
for the most experienced climbers, or a road known for deadly car wrecks. Maybe we as people at our core spirit, before
it takes shape, are predisposed to certain attitudes. But it's not who we are, see?"
Candace was blown away
and reduced to the most basic of human questions, "Why?"
Kelly frowned, and
appeared to struggle to answer this apparently simple question. "Why what?
"Why are we here,
why are you doing any of this."
Kelly was at least glad
she didn't ask how, because that was a question she didn't understand. "We are here because I need your help,
and I'm doing this because..."
Kelly remember she hadn't told Candace anything. "These things that attack us are evil
Candace." Kelly rolled her eyes,
that was no surprise. "I mean
EVIL. Darkest of dark destroy the world
kind of evil." Kelly didn't want to
go into that park of the past week just yet.
"So why you?"
"I don't know. It came after me and I don't think it
expected a fight." Kelly took a
deep breath and thought of the Bloatflies, "I've seen what it's done to
other worlds." That was a little
white lie, she hadn't see directly what it had done, now she planned to, but
the flies were a clear result. "I
think we're next, I don't know why. I'm
pretty sure it has to do with me. Well
not ME, but maybe the Nargle I was created from. They are like a clay and I'm the sculpture that
was made from it. I'm different somehow,
even you know it, but even in this safe place I cant defeat the evil."
"So much has
changed so fast I don't think we're suppose to be able to keep up."
"I can't give
up." Her mind replayed the liquid
pop when the physical creature was born.
"Don't you see? We don't
matter anymore; our lives are nothing.
If we do nothing everything we love and enjoy is gone so what do we lose
by fighting?" Kelly understood what
it had taken from her, but she could see a view of Candace that the girl could
not see herself. Candace's father was
her demon and had drained the shine from her star long ago. Kelly had to believe there was still some
left in her friend. She knew there was,
because that's what she loved about her.
Kelly steadied herself she had to paint Candace a picture from start to
finish. If only she could use a brush, but
all she had were words. Wait a second...
this was her place of infinite possibilities there were no restrictions. "Watch this!"
The white room darkened
like a movie theater and Kelly's greasy burger bag became a projector. Candace saw herself in class from third
person; it was the first day she and Kelly crossed paths.
Kelly narrated. "I
know it all sounds so simple and crazy but you've see all this with your own
eyes. That first day something was
awakened." Kelly did a neat trick on
the projector which was her own minds eye.
Zooming in on her own slumped figure in class that day the camera gave a
dynamic shift to reveal a shadow creature hugging her back and pushing her
down. "It used me..." Kelly's drawings flashed and came to life one
by one. "At that time there really
was no way of knowing what we were doing. I hate to say it but Billy was
right. He had his role to play."
Candace couldn't stand
watching him in this slideshow from hell, she finally broke when she saw him on
the day of her Bee attack. "So if
all we've done is let it use us then what the hell are we doing now?"
Kelly smiled, but it was
only to hide a deeper pain. She wasn't
ready to show Candace what really happened.
She wasn't ready to fully face it herself. The pain and memories were like rocks in her
mind, she felt their weight and knew what they were but wasn't ready to
look. "Thing's have
changed." Kelly jumped to the
memory of her and Billy discovering the arrowheads behind the school. It would work just fine if Candace believed
that to be the moment of revelation and change.
"It's here but... it can't use me anymore. Candace watched as Kelly ventured into
Appalachian Naturals, then saw her face being painted by Red Hawk. "It's jealous and angry now. Maybe because we've figured it out and it
wants us dead." Candace gasped at
seeing the giant spider jump over Kelly's helpless fallen body. Watching this fight there was no doubt this
creature was to be a killing blow.
Candace staggered for
words, "I don't understand... why did you keep me out?"
Kelly sighed and chose
her words carefully, "I wasn't tring to keep you out, but..." Trying to keep such a huge piece of the
puzzle from Candace wasn't going to be easy but she couldn't tell her. Not yet.
"I didn't want you to get hurt."
Candace's face turned
sour and hurt, "I needed you."
"I know and I'm
sorry. I just didn't know how... Billy was ready to commit me, and I think he
still may." The whole idea of Billy
being on the inside while she was let alone at school with only questions
infuriated Candace. Could see the anger
rising. Kelly knew she needed to put
some water on that fire, "I don't know what to do with him. Billy's been, well, annoying. I wish I could show you how much I felt the
need to master this new power, and all he's dont is annoy and bother
me." This line of thought suddenely
made her realize Candace didn't know about the recent trouble on the Mason
farm. This coverup was going to get out
of hand and fast. "But he's been
the only one to bring me back to reality this week. I know you dont like him but we can't exactly
discard him either."
Candace didn't say it,
but that's just how she felt his past week.
Discarded. "So, what are you
working on now? I want to help." For the first time Candace was actually
afraid of being left out.
Kelly smiled. Her warm grin could melt the iciest of
conversations, "Funny you should ask, because I've hit a roadblock."
She stood and her mind
began to conjure a picture. She didn't
know how Candace would react to seeing her nemisis The Bee again but it was
make or break time. The Bee was sketched
out behind the bamboo cage. Kelly made
his one docil and not for fighting. So
far the bee always won and Kelly would wake up outside in the Alpha world, but
she didn't know how that would work with Candace in here.
Candace jumped back and
grabbed at her chest as if her hands could calm her raging heart.
"Calm down Candace,
it's one of mine. I can make them too
and bend their will to my desire. This
one's just for show." Kelly walked
over and reached in to touch it. I need
the skills to kill them. We know their
strenths but so far I've not found many weaknesess. That Giant spider attacked me in the real
world and I got lucky. Very lucky. Next time I want to be prepared.
Candace was horrified to
think of Kelling fighting these things over and over. What a nightmare!
Thier tough as nails,
and while they lack a stinger the jaws can take your arm off. It takes half a box of bullets just to put
them on the ground where its still deadly when close.
Candace finally spoke
up, "Has it got you? I mean like it
got me?"
Kelly laught at the
elementary question, "No, I can disable whatever part of its will I
want. Making it's penis a useless organ
was first!" Kelly covered her
mouth, the word just came out and she felt so dirty for using it. Candace giggled watching her cute reaction. "It's been alot of trail and error but
I've made incredible progress! Untill
now that is."
"Surely it's got
some kind of weakness?"
"None that I've
found. It's faster, stronger, and more
agile AND it flys!"
It took all the courage
she could muster to ask, "Can I watch?"
Kelly thought of the
losing paradox, but maybe she could programme the bee to simply stop fighting
before it inflicted any injuries.
"Why not!" Kelly
reached atop and grabbed her knife and tomahawk. The real ones were outside in Alpha but these
copies worked fine in here.
Candace was hiding
behind the sketched table thinking of how absurd her shelter was when Kelly
released the beast. It flew into the air
angryly shoving out of the cage with enough forced to knock it back. Kelly brought her weapons to bear as the bee
dove in for it's first attack. It would
have latched on to bear hug Kelly had she not side stepped at the last
moment. She spun with a beautiful grace
and brough the tomahawk down hard against its passing back. The metal hit hard enough to almost cause a
spark but glanced off tearing a wing to shreds.
The broken wing made a deafinging noise as the creature crashed to the
ground. It scrambled to it's feet as
Kelly brought her weapons back to ready.
The thing looked huge on the open ground and moved like a bear but
faster with and extra set of legs. Kelly
crouched to meet it but again spring into the air just in the nick of time to
miss it. She wanted to jump and land on
its back. Kelly had a theroy that maybe
stay safe and hack at it's head for her first win, but it didn't work. She landed odd and rolled off onto her hands
and knees.
Candace's heart jumped
with new fear. Even though she was fully
clothed she was vulnerable and it was coming for her and fast. Just before the Bee would have hit it froze
like a picture. It was wrapped around
Kelly's back and ready to bite into her neck.
Candace couldn't deny the resembelance to her own position when she was
attacked.
Kelly squirmed out, to
candace the embrace looked mildly sexual.
"And that's as far as I've gotten.
I can't get half a chance against that relentless attack." Candace stood in awe, could she have just
figured it out?
"Can it really be
that simple?"
"What? Have you got
something?"
Kelly was so pure and
painfully nieve it hurt sometimes.
"You took it's will away right?"
"Just a part, I
can't have it trying to sex me up-"
"But that's it's
weakness. It's predictiable!"
"The relentless
attack is predictable too but-"
"But one isn't
going to kill or maim you as soon as it gets in range. You can Black Widiow the bastard!"
Clearly not enthused Kelly
had to ask, "Black Widow?"
"Yeah the Black
Widow spider Kills her mate."
"I'm not going to
... mate..." the word dripped with disgust.
"I'm not saying
bend over and ask for it. No wait,
that's exactly what you do!"
"Candace, Candace,
No. OK, I'm trying to find real
solutions."
Candace was on fire,
"No, listen. You just invite it,
then while it's trying you're in position to stab it in the face!"
Kelly was
infuriated. While she was in
position? You mean while it was in
position! "No Candace. I appricate it, but I've got to get back to
work so please just go back downstairs and wait with Billy. I can be in here for hours and only seconds
pass in the real world so maybe I'll be out before you reach the bottom of the
stairs."
She wasn't used to
getting such harsh rejection, and to her it seemed like a good idea. It's what she would do. Candace slowly made her way out with downcast
eyes and ready to cry. Kelly didn't have
time to feel sorry anymore; it was time to get back to work.
Kelly watched as Candace
craweled through the canvas and back into the real world. Her skirt rode up and Kelly couldn't help but
stare at her panty clad privates.
Candace was so perverted. She had
actually asked for a drawing just to have sex with two weeks ago. Had it been that long, or longer?
Her face frowned to
become dark and serious. The serious
face was ironic because just at that moment Kelly was thougt maybe she was
being too serious. The giant white space
was feeling clostraphobic. She waved the
bee away. It descintergrated into
dust. Kelly shook her head annoyed and
everything was blown like sand to oblivion.
Closing her eyes she
concentrated and when she took the next breath it was filled with ocean
salt. The atmosphere was humid and warm,
but not too hot, just right. Kelly
opened her eyes and surprised herself.
The blank canvas reacted to her imagination but even she wasn't aware it
was this vivid.
Kelly stood on an ocean
Isle. A deep forest streached behind her
full of rich greens and topped with a picturesque volcano. Palm trees and huge ferns were closest. A coconut felt and landed with a heavy thud
in the beach sands. The water was clear
carribian blue. A thin pier reached and
impossible length into the ocean. In the
real world the weather would make such a thing impossible. In beta world the tides were perfect and the
weather sunny and partyly cloudy. Her
clothing felt out of place. It was the
only tie to who she really was. Holding
to that tie was an abomination. Kelly
nearly jumped out of her jeans and shirt.
The simple cotton panties were close enough to bikini bottoms but her
bra felt cumbersome. Kelly knew she had
no real need for the bra but wasn't quite ready to be nude even though she
already felt damp sweat in it.
Heavy cumulonimbus
clouds raced though the blue sky above.
The beach sands were warm as her toes dug in but the air wasn't too
hot. The sun had been baking the sands
but Kelly was shaded by the huge clouds.
The hot sun wouldn't be out unless Kelly was ready of course. She raced down to the pier glad to be running
to something and now away. The faded
grey wood reminded her of Red Hawks cabin, and why not it probably was the same
wood. The impossible pier shot out into
the vast ocean like a solitary pencil sketch line, thin, streight, impossibly
long, but lacking a mechanical perfection.
This place was
amazing. It was her own mind and it
could trap her if she wasn't careful.
The walk along the train tracks to the country kitchen was perilous and
felt like an unnessassary risk. But that
was the trap. How much time could she
spend in here before it became unhealthy?
With any magical world at her fingertips why would she ever want to go
back to Alpha. Her since of duty was at
it's weakest. Billy and Candace were
back at the apartment right now. Beta
world really messed with her since of time the most. Would Candace even be out of the studio yet
or frozen mid step. So many questions
that would never be answered. It seemed
there was always a more important piece of the puzzle at hand.
Candace and Billy... the
two of them filled her mind. Kelly sat
dangeling her feet in the clean waters as exotic fish darted around. She felt guilt formost. Maybe she should bring them here. They were stuck back in the grungy and burden
filled Alpha earth at a tiny map dot called Spincer where history would record
the apocalypse began. It all seemed so
far away from her tropical paradise.
Billy was on his own, he had chosen to be a tag along since the beginning,
but Kelly felt she owed Candace something.
She had been too hard on her and even though the idea was abhorant
Candad did make a valid point.
Evil had left an oily
toxic smudge on Kelly's soul and she had a painful understanding of it's intentions. It didn't matter what the spirit infected,
what it caused was always the same. It
was a spirt of destruction and pain yes, but moreover a spirt of starvation of
hunger. It fed from that pain and the
girls offered it a rare meal. Like
eating steak and potatoes every night the everyday fear of dying and pain of
loss wasn't enough. This is where Kelly
really feared for Candace and Billy. She
understood that she was Darkness's focus but didn't fully understand her
light. The brightness and purity of her
spirit was the rarest of delicacies. Her
two friends had lost or didn't hold a light to her flavor and that put them in
grave danger. Kelly couldn't put a
finger on it but she knew.
Still Candace's point
deserved a bit of thought. Even if she wasn't
going to entice them sexually she was taking part of their true being. When she fought one in Alpha it would be a
different creature entirly. These she
created were great for honing her battle skills but she would have to face the
true enemy sooner or later.
Gritting her teeth Kelly
waved away the ocean breeze and the ocean too.
She was left sitting on the dripping pier in her blank stage. Not even the rolling clouds or blue sky remained. The cage appeared and she redifined the new
battle rules into her enemy while strappin on the knife and tomahawk. Her clothes had been drawn back on
magically. The bee rose from the bamboo
cage and targeted her as usual. No
apparant change. The battle was short
and Kelly lost again. The stage reset
just after the bee froze. It had knocked
her down and was ready to pincor into her lower back.
Kelly was furious, deep
down she hoped it would work. She
thought of Candace, poor Candace how wrong she would have been if the fight had
been real. "Heh," Kelly
smirked. She was glad to be right. An unspoken rivelry seemed to be brewing
between the two girls. Candace probably
wasn't even a few steps away from the canvas yet but Kelly couldn't tell how
many hours had passed. She thought of
her freind already hurt from the weeks rejection and how she weakly walked away
and craweled back through the portal.
The girl aways wore skirts. Her
desire to be sexually appealing and faith she put in it was HER weakness.
An idea hit her. An Eurika moment. If you walked up on a bear in the woods and
wanted to survive you didn't challenge it, you quietly backed away. Maybe Candace was right, or at least
halfway. To stop the all out attack she
needed to be less aggressive. What if
she submitted to it? Kelly hated candace
right now. What if she did try to entice
it. Suddenly she was thinking on the
exact same lines as her friend hours ago.
Kelly redrew a skirt on
her legs just like the one Candace has been wearing. The carmine plad and pleats were a sharp
contrast to her bare legs. The open air
made Kelly feel almost naked, and she was.
She couldn't believe
what she was about to do as she got down on her hands and knees exposing her
bottom to the thing in the cage. The
clasp released and the bee rose into the air.
Her eyes were clenched as she feared something might go wrong but the
knife was securly hidden below her.
The bee hoverd for a
moment, much longer than usual as it apprased the scene. The pinky fleshy appendage squirmed out and
tasted the air. Slowly, much slower than
it's attack speed it approached the waiting girl. Kelly felt the strong winds from it's beating
wings buffet her waiting butt. The skirt
was thrown back. The thin ovipositor
brushed across her panties as it reached her.
The bee was still careful and Kelly knew it feared her but couldn't
resist.
Kelly cried out a short
fearful gasp as the pressed agaisnt her gusset more firmly but the bee was
still in flight and she needed it to land.
Her panties had been though alot that day and though the sweat and
rigeroius battles and streaching Kelly wished she had a fresh pair. Not that a tiny strip of cotton was any
protection anyway.
With it's abdomen bent
in an odd sexual display the Bee finally began to land focusing more and more
on probing Kellys gusset. it was a wild
thing, slimy and grose writhing like a hurt snake trying to find it's
mark. She hated the waiting every second
felt like a lifetime but finally it's wings stopped. With the bee ridged and bent to the breaking
point trying to enter her womanhood Kelly stiked. She rolled bringing the knife up against it's
hard exoskeleton. The square hit was
pushed by both her hands and didn't just break though but punched in a whole
section of armor. The internal organs of
the insect were a mystery. One she might
try to solve later, though she knew she could never anticipate the anatomy of
an enemy. She shoved deep where it's
heart should have been. The hesitation
was longer than expected but the bee leaped away flurrying it's wings and
kicking all six legs, but it didn't go far.
The injury was grevous. Insects
have a tendency to struggle on untill no life is left and the bee twitched and
kicked in a futile attack. Kelly watched
as her first victory neared. She calmly
walked to the pier to retrieve the tomahawk.
The bee was a formidable enemy but by far the weakest point was it's
neck. She have never been able to reach
it before. The tomahawk easily severed
it's head clean off. The pincors still
worked back and forth even after it skidded to a stop.
She was triumphant
again. Her next challenge weighed in her
mind. She would have to conqure the
spider again but this time with skill and planning rather than blind luck.
