10 March 2013
• Chapter II - Ghosts
Take us to a place where a fantasy can take shape, Write of frightening tales where we can't wait to escape.
~ Create And Inspire by @sjw
- Selvans:
I've been watching the young adolescent girl wander the dunes near the Descent for over an hour. Like most of the sheeva, she does nothing that would interest the average person. In fact, if she was seen, the poor girl would probably be taken to a psychiatric centre, or mental hospital, because all she seems to do is walk in large circles and mutter to herself. That is, however, what I am supposed to be protecting her from.
Although I usually do my job rather efficiently, though I say so myself, I am guilty to losing sight of her for a while when I got rather bored of watching the kid and took to polishing my speargun. During this time, there had been the sound of a crash, screaming, and me starting from my trance and rushing to the scene of the crime.
I could have kicked myself when I saw the 4x4 embedded on the goddamn sign that, as I had very clearly pointed out to Rhiannon two weeks ago: "Clearly gives away our position. It's not safe." However she had argued back that: "It's half sunk in a dune, no one's going to see it."
Well, someone has seen it.
After checking the vehicle for any survivors I may have needed to dispose of, I began to track the footprints of one which had followed the directions on the enormous slab of metal. It took me a while to get here; long enough for a mildly injured man to reach the Descent. His tracks eventually led me to a dune, to the crest of which I climbed.
The worst sight possible greeted me. The survivor, a man in his early thirties with a limp in his leg, was standing a few metres away from the girl I'd been following. I lay flat on the dune, almost seeing the horror that would occur if I did not intervene. In the bright moonlight, I saw the man's lips move. In response, Blair, the girl, turned to face him, and began to move forward.
So now I am not only observing the poor odd girl that walks in circles, but also a man who's misfortune has led him to being confronted with a sheeva.
Blair is rather docile, and I have never actually seen her try to consume anyone. On the other hand, Blair has never been confronted with a true human before, as far as I know, and so my impression of the girl could be about to change. The easy option would be to shoot the man in the head if I see her trying to take him. I would have shot him back at the crash if I'd been given the chance. That would've been best.
As Blair walks slowly towards the man, he continues to talk to her. Eventually she stops a few feet away from him, still silent. The man begins to get frustrated, his eyebrows knitting together, his face becoming stern, his voice rising so I can almost hear it from my perch. That's when I see Blair begin to raise her right hand.
Here I make my choice, whether to save this man through his death or risking my own life.
I whip my speargun of my shoulder and raise it up to my left eye, aiming at his head. His expression is still irate, not understanding that his future is grim whichever way you look at it. I am on the verge of pulling the trigger when I realise something I had not thought of. Rhiannon has seen him now, she knows he's here, and I can hear her now: "His life was ten times more valuable than yours. A mistake like this deserves an Excorcism."
Well there was no way in hell I am loosing this I have worked so hard to get.
I leap over dune's crest, holstering the speargun once more, sprinting down its crescent-shaped face, sand spraying around me with each thumping step to the ground. My vision bounces and jerks, but I can still make out the sheeva girl as she attempts to infest the man. As I reach the base of the dune, I see her hand touch his cheek gently. He recoils, naturally, from cold, yet electric touch of a sheeva. And then energy begins to flow.
My left hand darts to my pocket, reaching for my supressor. I fumble the safety off the small, taser-like gadget, pointing it in the general direction of Blair. I shouldn't fire until I'm closer, but I can already see the process starting: Blair beggining to flicker like a hologram, and the man's eyes clouding over. He's saying something, but I can't make out the words.
I pull the trigger.
The blast released from the supressor explodes like a bomb, shatterig the delicate silence of the desert. The recoil is strong, throwing me off balance and making me stumble. The man yells, but his voice is quickly drowned out by a shrill scream from Blair.
As I regain my balance, I can see her body shimmer and spasm, shifting in and out of reality, her wail fluctuating and changing from a cry to a mechanical screech. This grows to a crescendo, her body warping and swelling, until with a final blast of sound Blair is wiped from existence.
Quiet settles over the scene, the only sound our heavy breathing and the whistling of the wind.
'Wha... What was that?' The man asks, his voice unsteady. He lies on the ground, having fallen from the near-posession-experience.
'What's your name?' I ask him, ignoring his question. After a moments hesitation, he answers.
'James... Devereaux.'
'Well James Devereaux, it's very nice to meet you; welcome to our city. I hope you don't have to stay too long.'
~ Spirits Of Babylon - II ~ • Opuss № I