《The Pink Crystal》


 Chapter 1 Red Hot Moon

    There was once a city on the edge of a forest, Red Oak it was called. This city had a problem. For the past few years, children have been disappearing. There was one man who knew why, his name was Bolat O¡¯Brien, he was hiking around the forest in the early morning in the mist. He quite liked hiking but today it was not the way he was deep in the forest with little supplies but with a full, full-sized hiking backpack. He was three miles up the trail and 2 miles off the trail in the woods. This was a little more dangerous than what he was used to but there was little more room to bury the body in his garden anymore. The four-year-old in his backpack was not his latest victim, experiment, guest that¡¯s the word. But he had outlived his usefulness and had to go. He already had another guest to entertain. The young Thomas was tasty even though he could not barbecue him as he normally did for his ¡®guests¡¯. It made it easier to break down the bodies for fertilizer for his garden, one of the few things he truly cared about. It was truly a massive garden that covered every inch of his yard. And under that garden were the cooked remains of so many children that had been his ¡®Guests.¡¯ Thomas had been his ¡®guest¡¯ for the last four months. His soul was gone a week ago and the best-tasting parts had been eaten he just didn¡¯t have any more time or energy to deal with Thomas anymore. So he had to go. So out in the forest was his new resting spot, not that there was any soul anymore to be put to rest. Out here it was not likely for anyone to find the body. He was so close to proving his hypothesis. He felt so powerful. He just needed the help of his new guest so out with the old.


    The grove deep in the forest was perfect, he didn¡¯t have to disturb too many roots. It would be hard enough to dig the hole with the small inconspicuous shovel that he had. It was a good five hours digging the hole, he wanted the full 6 feet under, he didn¡¯t want a bear to show up and dig out all of his work. He was so deep in his focus that he didn¡¯t hear the hikers who were there to take pictures of wildlife. They were used to walking silently and unnoticed. Alex Anderson and Lisa Taylor were deep in the woods hoping to get some good pictures for the nature magazine competition. They had heard to grunting of the man and were curious, why was he digging such a big hole? They nodded at each other and were taking pictures as they thought it maybe was a poacher setting a pit trap. They knew that poachers had guns and were very dangerous so they stayed out of sight. They had to stop gasping in horror when the man put on some gloves and started to pull out the body parts of a young child, Parts! The first part was an almost untouched leg, the little foot of a young child, the dark hue of the child''s skin stood out in the mist. A foot that probably was played with by their mother, this little piggy went to market. That thought overcame Lisa, then the torso was pulled from the hiking pack. It was missing chunks, the chest she could see the ribs poking through what was left of the muscle and skin. She remembered that they needed to take pictures of this if they were to help the police to put this monster away. There were tears in both their eyes. Alex was having a hard time not sobbing, Imagining with horror if this had happened to his own kid, the poor child must have died in pain. Why was the body so mutilated? One by one the body parts came out and were put in the hole like it was nothing, the last thing to come out was the head, Alex hated that he got a perfect shot of the man kissing the mouth of the child¡¯s severed head. There was light picking through the mists and the shot was eerily and beautiful and made him want to vomit. The joy on the man''s face and the slack of the child''s face. There was no blood but the meaty slaps as the parts of the child hit each other as they fell into the hole. The head was tossed in the hole with no afterthought.


    Lisa had never liked horror movies, they stayed with her for days haunting her nightmares and this was so much worse. She wanted to scream, it was bubbling in her throat, making it hard to breathe, if she had not learned to keep calm Photographing large predator animals she would have no chill. She felt the bile in her throat keep seeping up. She worked hard to keep her hands steady. She needs to get a good clear picture of his face. She was sweating, if he could do that to a small child what could he do to her? You hear about psychopaths every once in a while in the news but she never thought she would encounter one herself. Even though she was just far enough for her Zoom to pick up his face. Inching closer to him had been one of the most unnerving things she''d ever done. She was more careful than she was when she approached a bear.


    The man had laid down all of the pieces of the child and was starting to bury them. If it wasn''t so horrible it would be comedic with his laughably small shovel the type of shovel that was used to dig little holes to relieve yourself in the woods. The man was huffing and puffing He seemed more and more affected by the labor than disposing the body. Over the time it took him to fully bury the body, they had seen about six animals come and go. Each time they held their breath hoping that the animals would not give away their positions. They''re Blood turning icy cold. There was no room for Alex to move and he desperately needed to pee. The feeling in his bladder was painful but he waited. He had nothing for a weapon and he knew that Lisa didn¡¯t have any ether.


    They waited as the man placed moss over the grave, grabbed his hiking backpack, and held still and silent as the man started to walk away. They waited till he was just out of sight. They marked the grave with a flag and on the GPS then started to follow the man, if they could get the license plate that would help to find him again. Their mental map of the forest was quite extensive so they could predict just a little bit where he was going likely he was just going back to the hiking trail which would be easier and harder to follow him. As they could pretend to be hikers on the trail they did not wanna catch him alone Who knew what kind of weapons he would have? Luckily it was only hilly giving them some room to hide and not mountainous leaving them with trails that were being impossible to follow. The map on their phones was so useful, they were very bone ached. Holding so still and then careful hiking in the woods was hard then adding in the stress and horror on their very soul. They were more Tired than they ever have been emotionally and physically they still wanted to vomit but they were worried that it would cause attention. It was six hours of walking as there was very far in the forest before they had sight of the parking lot. The Zoom feature was an old and reliable friend and they were just able to get the license plate as the car drove at an unusually relaxed pace. Alex thought the man would screech off with his car getting away from his crime but he seemed calm like he was used to it. Lisa was horrified by the implications of that.


    The second his car was out of the parking lot they pulled out their phones and called the police. The police were out in the forest not half an hour later and the two nature photographers headed back into the forest with the police to bring the poor child home.


    Ring Ring.


    Ring ring.


    Terra had a long day at work yesterday, it was Saturday and she just wanted to sleep, she didn¡¯t care that it was already noon. Sleep had been the only real comfort she had was in sleep, in her sleep, she still had her baby boy. Sometimes it was that he came home, sometimes it was that he never disappeared. Sometimes it was him disappearing that was the dream and she ¡®woke up¡¯ to him safe in her arms. Purdy had tried to help, but she was burying herself in work and boozes. More and bottles were piling up and Terra had no energy to pick up after her. She knew that if she drank with Purdy she may never pull herself out of the bottle again. She didn¡¯t want to be awake. Her


    Ring Ring


    Ring Ring


    Oh, that was right, the phone. She didn¡¯t want to answer but she didn¡¯t want it to fill up her voicemail either. It was annoying. This telemarketer was going to get it, she was not one to rise to anger easily but these last four months had left her hollow and there was a thin line of hope and an ocean of rage left in her. And she didn¡¯t want to be awake.


    Click


    ¡°How can I help you?¡± she said sarcastically. She didn¡¯t even look at the caller ID. She was still half asleep and wanted to get back to that dream.


    ¡°Can I talk to Terra Pritchard?¡± the voice was soft and clear, It didn''t seem like a telemarketer, they rarely did they know your name. Telemarketers usually talk faster to try and get to their point before you hang up on them. She was looking and her blue curtain so she sat in her bed. She didn''t care that she didn''t get the best reception in her room she wasn''t going to move.


    ¡°Speaking. What do you want?¡± It was ruder than she normally was but she was beyond caring.


    ¡°This is the Red Oak Police Station, there has been a breakthrough on the missing person case involving your son.¡± the voice was calm and smooth, a woman¡¯s voice she noticed now that she cared about the conversation. Her heart was beating through her chest and she could barely breathe. That thin sting of hope was pulled tight.


    ¡°Oh?¡± she said, she wanted to say more but nothing was coming out.


    ¡°We need you the Identify the body, we-----¡± That thin sting of hope snapped, her head was blank and she knew that words were coming out from the phone but she was breathing too heavily to hear her. Oh, she hoped she was still dreaming, that she would wake up in a cold sweat and her baby was still alive. She was gripping that broken string, all she could see were the ugly blue curtains, she was lost at sea. The blue haze that the curtains brought upon her room was not helping. A small hysterical part of her mind told her that she needed to change the curtains into something lively like yellow. She was halfway leaning to tear down the curtains when her name caught her attention ¡°Ms Pritchard, Ms Pritchard, can you hear me? I need you the breath!¡±


    ¡°ah... ah¡­¡± she breathed ¡°Yes, ah... I¡¯m here¡± It was hard to breathe but her sanity was returning. She knew that ripping the curtains off the wall would not help here. ¡°You said..¡± she gulped in the air and started again ¡°You said that I need to identify the body, yes?¡± she said as she was looking around her room, hoping to find something to focus on. What was it? 5,4,3,2,1.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡± she was not.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine now thank you¡± She was in fact lying through her teeth. ¡°where is the.. the.. body? I mean where do I have to go?¡± she said.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    The woman over the phone Gave her directions for 5th and K Ave. Along with the building number though her voice faded in the background even though she took she rushed to her bedside table to take notes.


    She didn¡¯t even remember the drive there, the sound of the GPS was unremembered. If you had asked her to Retrace her steps at gunpoint she would not be able to give you an answer. The parking lot was full and she ambled around it maybe five times before she found an opening but even that was foggy in her head. She ended up asking for directions twice to the lady at the front desk the second time to the security guard.


    They checked her ID and let her into the room. That is when the world came back into full color, the fog was gone. She could hear Everything; The buzz of electricity, the Rapid heart in her chest, A faucet that wasn''t fully closed drip, drip, drip. She could smell death, Smelled slightly different than the dust she was used to being a veterinary assistant you have a fair amount of dogs that don''t make it. It was cold in here, The flesh on her arm was up in goosebumps. She could feel that her shoes didn¡¯t fit and they hurt her feet, she must have grabbed Purdy shoes instead of her own, they were half a size different.


    And there was the table, there were many tables but only one had such a small body on it. The table and body had a cloth over it, but even looking at the cloth she could see there was something wrong. It was misshaped. She was slow and lethargic all day but in that moment, she snapped forward like a cobra and ripped the cloth off. Her screams of sorrow drowned out their gasps. The force of the moving cloth knocked the small head off of the table. Rolling to his mother''s feet was the four-year-old Thomas, She fell to her knees and held her son for the first time in four months and for the very last time.


    ¡°You''re home you''re home they can''t hurt you anymore I''m so sorry! My love you''re home you''re with me! I''m so sorry! I''m so sorry! I wish I could have saved you I''m so sorry please please forgive me I wish I could have saved you, my baby, oh my baby, why?! Why did they hurt you so? - ¡± She went on but she couldn''t barely understand what was coming out of her mouth anymore. She just held the cold head to her bosom. She wants to claw the eyes out of who did this to her son. Her tears dripped upon his face as she said sweet nothings to what was left of her boy.


    ¡°Ma¡¯am we can¡¯t have you touching the bodies, I understand that you are very upset but you need to put the head back on the table.¡± there was a tall Bulky man to her right he was bending his knees and his hands were on his thigh and he was trying to look at her with a sincere smile. ¡°I know the last thing you wanna do is let go we need to confirm some questions and for health and safety we cannot be touching the bodies.¡± The man said calmly and with a voice that seemed softer than his face.


    She stared at him with hollow eyes only for about 3 seconds before she sighed with tears still streaming down her face she got to her feet and put the head back on the table she tried not to look at the body that was on the table. But she couldn''t help but notice that every part was separated; the legs from the torso, the hands from the arms, it would almost look like a doll that was pulled apart but it was worse than that. Parts were missing some down to the bone. She never wanted to see his bones. She was happy that she had not eaten, she didn¡¯t want to throw up here.


    She washed in the sink that was in the room, she couldn¡¯t remember the name of, maybe it was the morgue. She didn¡¯t care enough to be right or wrong or to ask. She was going to take Purdy up on that drink.


    I was lost, the floor was swaying around me. I was in the kitchen. My thoughts would come and pop like bubbles. My nausea was great. I chugged a huge glass of water and immediately needed to vomit. I forgot that there was only so much room in my stomach, and I had been near capacity for many hours. The hours of drinking at Purdy¡¯s place had been a relief. Pulling all the tension out of my bones. We watch crass movies that I haven¡¯t seen in years, not wanting my son to accidentally watch something other than soft cartoons. I was fine till I looked at the bathroom mirror.


    I look so much like my son.


    I was breaking all over again, I didn¡¯t want to live. I slammed open the medical cabinet; there was a lot of medication that where in there. I didn¡¯t stop to read them, I just opened bottle after bottle, downing them like shots. The water was just a vessel to get the pills down. The cabinet was emptied the bottles were all on the floor. I was walking down the small hall to get to my bedroom when I fell. The pressure on my gut made me vomit again. I was laid down in my vomit waiting to die.


    There was a brief moment where I felt bad for the cleaning lady that was to come tomorrow. I should be dead by then. I am happy, I will see my baby again.


    She awoke with a hangover, her red hair messed up by sleeping on it with hairspray still in. Her mismatched eyes were bloodshot as they watered from the light of day. Her makeup was smeared on her face and pillow. She wanted more sleep but the turning in her gut would not allow it. Soon she was going to spill her guts, hopefully into the toilet, if she could make it that far. The bile in her mouth was a sign that she had vomited the night before but she could not remember when that had happened or where it happened.


    She rose from the bed slowly to not to slush her insides too fiercely, hoping that slow and steady was the way to go. She was nearly blinded by her headache and was barely opening her right green eye and squinting her left blue eye tightly. She lurched with every step, sloshing the bitter bile inside, the taste of it on her breath.


    She made it to the bathroom and once the smell of the toilet water hit her nose, the battle was over and she succumbed to her nausea. The torrent of vomit spilled from her; the smell just made her vomit again. It seemed like her lunch and dinner the night before were coming up. At least it felt that way. It burned on the way out as the Tequila and Bacardi made their exit. The tears in her eyes were hot and dripped into the toilet as well. The pain in her throat and her heart near unbearable. Soon she only had bile left, but her body heaved still as it wanted to vomit more. After her last spit in the bowl and a final flush, she turned her back to the toilet and sat on the bathroom floor. The floor felt cold and she was tempted to lay on it. The coolness called to her. It seemed like a good place to cry. She blew her nose with some toilet paper.


    RING RING RING


    She flinched at her phone ring tone. It was unexpected and didn¡¯t help her headache one bit. She let the phone ring as she rinsed out her mouth with water from the sink and then mouthwash. The phone was still ringing by the time she made it back to her bed. She grabbed the phone from her bed and answered without looking at the called ID. It beeped with a low battery. She had forgotten to charge it last night.


    Assuming she didn¡¯t know the caller she answered, ¡°Purdy Moon, how can I help you?¡± She tried for a chipper voice but it sounded groggy. Her customer service voice, she had inherited the gym from her mother. She never knew what the voice on the end of the line was. A customer? A friend? Business partner? Telemarketer? Ex Boyfriend with a new number, gross! Anyone not already in her phone deserved the customer service voice. Her voice was painful on her throat. Her head pounded hearing her own voice. She wished this phone call was over and it had just begun.


    A soft voice said ¡°Hello, Ms Moon, we were calling about Terra Pritchard. You¡¯re her emergency contact. My name is Wilma Shield.¡±


    That woke her up. Her best friend was in trouble. ¡°What happened?¡± Purdy cried, her voice hurting her head. Her fists were tight. This was not a good thing first thing in the morning. She was with her last night, Terra has not been in a good place. She regretted trusting Terra''s word that she would be fine.


    ¡°She was found unresponsive by a neighbor. Miss Pritchard is in critical condition and is unconscious. We contacted you as soon as she was stable.¡± Wilma said, not unkindly but with resignation, that this was not the first or last call of this nature that she was going to do today. It was her job as hard as that was.


    ¡°Critical condition? Is it that bad?¡± Purdy asked not fully believing what she had been told. She was hoping that she was wrong. A headache of a different kind was brewing. She wanted to vomit again but it was not the time. She walked into the kitchen and started to brew some coffee in hopes that it would help the nausea. (Was there anything still good to eat?) or (was there anything easy to make in the kitchen she needed something in her belly?) This seemed like a very tough day and she would need her strength. A bagel it was, there was nothing to put on the bagel, sigh. She had tried to keep pace with Terra. It had been shot for shot and beer for Beer. And she didn¡¯t know what way round the poem went, should about in the clear. Beer before liquor all the sicker? Liquor before beer all in the clear? Or was it the other way around? But what she really learned was that You should never try and keep pace with a person who has a death wish.


    ¡°Yes, this is very serious. We are worried about brain damage. We are not sure but we are concerned that it was self-inflicted.¡± Wilma had a worried tone. It infuriated Purdy, she didn¡¯t want to be mad but that didn¡¯t stop her. That Terra would harm herself but with the reckless abandonment she saw last night, it was a big possibility. Terra had always been the calmer of the two. Seeing her out of control was discomfiting. She thought that she had calmed her down she stumbled home barely functioning. The sun laid bare the bad choices of yesterday.


    ¡°Why do you think it was self-inflicted?¡± Purdy was tight-lipped in anger. She did have an idea why her friend would hurt herself. But it was hard to think about such sad things so early in the morning.


    ¡°The amount of drugs and alcohol in her system was staggering. And People generally don¡¯t take the whole bottle of pills when they were to be high.¡± Wilma sounded more callous this time. She wasn¡¯t a mean person but she didn¡¯t like the tone Purdy was using. ¡°Do you know why she may have acted this way?¡± Wilma was back to a calm voice.


    So she had to think about it, ¡°Her son was found dead yesterday, my godson! so yeah I think I know why!¡± Purdy snapped at the lady. She felt immediately guilty, what was the phrase? Don¡¯t shoot the messenger ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Wilma, was it? I¡¯m just not feeling well and this is really bad news¡± she said more calmly. The lower voice was better for her head as well.


    ¡°Oh my, that is horrible! I¡¯m so sorry for your loss¡± Wilma would have been lost for words if this wasn¡¯t her job. This job you hear a lot of really sad stories and the people feel less real to her ¡°We are going to need you to come in and sign some paperwork,¡± Purdy hated that the ¡®sorry¡¯ was so short. Just straight back to Business, not even giving her the chance to respond, not that any of her responses would have been truthful. Everyone knows that it is not fine when you have a tight lip well saying you are fine.


    After she was given the address and the doctor''s name, the call ended with Chipper sounding Wilma That she hated the sound of happiness in that Chipper voice. That was just another call to her. She has become numb to the pain of others.


    She looked at her freshly brewed coffee. Her stomach rolled, she didn¡¯t want to drink it. She sighed and chugged to the coffee with disgust. The heat was blinding and she liked it. She was a fan of the heat. She never really let her drinks cool down before drinking them.


    It was time to start the day.


    There was a fair amount to do today but it felt so empty with Thomas gone and Terra hanging on by a thread.

 chapter 2 A Day In The Life

    It was a sunny morning, shining on a house that was a cheery yellow, not much different than the other house except for the extensive garden, fruit trees and bushes were everywhere, and raised vegetable planters to the right. A herb garden to the left. There wasn¡¯t a lawn, it was more of a collection of potted plants. The backyard was a pool that was transformed into a vibrant pond. There were fish and frogs in the pond. Lily pads float and Moneywort, Java Moss, Echinodorus Amazonicus, and others on the water with other aquatic plants. It was a peaceful-looking house. Inside the house was very plain, it looked as if someone had just looked at a magazine and didn¡¯t care to look deeper. The one room that differed was the bedroom that had a huge amount of wine bottles. Some were Empty and had vines growing out of them. Many were just empty and on the floor. There was a wall hutch for wine; it would fit a hundred bottles. It was almost full. The bed was simple, with green sheets and pillowcase, just one pillow. The bed was small like there was never the intention to share. Here was just a place to drink and sleep. It wasn¡¯t lived in. There was no knickknacks. No pictures or photos. The kitchen was clean and full of devices for cooking. The pantry was full of fruit preservatives from his garden. If one was just visiting, which never happened, one would wonder what he did with all that food. He was not known for selling or handing out the jars.


    Then there was the BBQ that cooks the meat, it smells like pork but is not. The meat was not the point but it was a waste and made it easier to get rid of the small bodies that were starting to pile up. The first few bodies were buried in the yard till he had no space left. The leftovers were great fertilizer.


    He thought If he was eating their soul no point In wasting the meat, the meat lasted him a long time. There is some meat in the fridge now. There was a surprising lot of meat on the bone of a 5-year-old.


    After a lot of social pressure, He lets Bob his neighbor borrow the grill and has to get rid of a body. That would bite him in the ass. He slipped up when getting rid of the body of Tomas though he didn¡¯t know it yet. With an oversized backpack for hiking with bones inside to bury in the woods. It was not to be seen again But it was found, that someone had seen him.


    The radio waves in the city had one message that was the top priority


    ¡°All units keep an eye out for our main suspect, Doctor Bolat O¡¯Brien. The subject is on the move¡±


    This was unknown to him as he was busy in his basement.


    The basement air was stuffy and smelled like dried blood. His eyes were already adjusted to the extremely bright lights filling the room. He was Hunched over his desk, he scribbled notes madly into a notebook.


    ¡®The nature of the soul. The soul was just a small thing but in this universe, it can grow with no upper limit. The weight of a soul is a small thing, so small that we forget that it is there. There is so much more we can do with our time.


    In the souls of children, I found a way to change reality. In death, I found the soul. And the soul in its pure form was a sight to see. Children''s souls are smaller, wild, and easier to control. In this world, souls grow and do not whither. Souls grow at different rates. This makes this hard to control the nature of a soul.


    In this universe, there is an Unmatched upward movement of the soul, In studying the soul, There is a part missing went death occurs. A splitting of the soul. But with careful research, one can take the whole soul into one''s body. Therefore keeping the soul whole after death. There is a small weight lost after death, that can not be accounted for. This is not the loss of air as some may think, this has been accounted for in past experiments, therefore the weight lost must be the soul leaving the body. This weight has been accounted for in weight gain in the one receiving the soul. There is a small side effect that has been noticed, marking similar tattoos appear when a soul has been reassigned to a host. When adding to this tattoo Strange effects may occur. The transferred soul can be activated and can still grow. This adds to the host in unexpected ways.


    Another unexpected effect is discovered by consuming the body of the Originals'' souls host, There are differing effects from a alive host to a deceased host. Body parts that have been removed from a live host do not contain any part of the soul. The bodies that have been removed from the whole soul are different than the partial soul and have a different taste. The experiment has not been concluded.


    The rigor studies have shown that there is no difference in souls depending on race, sex, or orientation. The orientation has been hard to collect data on considering the subjects are young before showing interest in the opposite or same sex. Although those who have a preference There has been no difference noted.


    Author note: I feel the power of the poor souls humming in my veins and the veil between the universe Grows thinner by the day. I feel the echo of my own soul throughout the other universe. These are my feelings and cannot be verified at this moment.¡¯


    Rising from the desk, he slinks over to one of the cages lining the wall and abruptly claps his hands loudly startling the boy awake that was inside. ¡°It¡¯s time to make your mother proud. This will be the culmination of your life,¡± he jeered at the boy.


    The terrified boy pleaded ¡°What does that even mean?¡± The man slaps the cage and yells ¡°You¡¯re not gonna be around much longer, but you¡¯re going to help my greater goal. That¡¯s what it means. This is your last day. Enjoy your time in that cage because after I get back you will have no more time.¡± he found that the more stressed the children were the easier the soul came out and the taster the meat was. It was a game to him now, if he could terrify the child and break their wills. A broken soul was easier to harvest. The man banged on the cage three more times, laughing at the scared child, he had stopped caring what their names were. All that he cared about was whether were they healthy and happy before he took them. That made for the best souls and the juiciest meat.


    The Pleas for freedom were Ignore. The loud cries for mercy were soon to follow but he was deaf to it all. In the beginning, the very first one, A girl named Veronica Who was only three, had hurt him some much that he had gagged her. She had suffocated because her nose was full of snot that she couldn''t breathe with the gag. Where was his first experiment; the failure that it was. He had invested in soundproofing and then hardened his heart. The cries of a lost dog troubled him more, but not by much. Veronica was his first human guest but not the first soul that he had eaten. As many scientists have, he started with rats and just moved on up. At first, he said he had a snake and that was why he needed so many rats. Over the years they kept better track of where the animals were going and signed The paperwork and one can¡¯t just be disappearing with dogs week after week. By that time he was ready to move on, to humans, and children were easier to control.


    The man heads upstairs leaving the boy caged, hiding in the entrance to the basement. And throws his lab coat over his scrubs, grabs his car keys from the leaf-shaped bowl, and heads to work. The drive to work was slow in his yellow car, he didn¡¯t want people looking into him for a silly reason like a speeding ticket. He had the cover to keep up.


    Upon his arrival at the hospital, he puts on a fake smile and greets the nurses. The nurses all happily exclaim ¡°Good Morning Dr. O¡¯Brien.¡± as he walks into the Pediatrics wing at Saint Evelyn Hospital. The white walls had pictures on the walls that were to put young minds at ease personally he found them creepy and hated the night shift because of them.


    ¡°Oh, please you all can call me Bolat, Oh Nancy, did you do something with your hair? It¡¯s lovely¡± Bolat O¡¯Brien¡¯s smile was sweet but if you look closely it did not meet his eyes. He had a nice smile with good teeth, it was just hard the radiate kindness from your eyes. His job was to put people at ease just as much as treating their illnesses.


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    ¡°Oh you, it¡¯s just a small haircut, thank you for noticing¡± Nancy Brown blushed and waved her hand. She always had a small flame for the doctor. Her red hair was slightly shorter in a bob. Her brown eyes were hidden behind thick glasses. She admired O¡¯Brien, he never seemed to have a bad day. He was so good with the children she was surprised that he was single. One day she wanted to be Mrs O¡¯Brien but he was just not picking up on her hints.


    ¡°What''s on the schedule today?¡± O''Brien asked in a chipper voice. After years of work body after body, it all was going to be complete today. He was going to see him. It was invigorating, he hadn¡¯t seen Him in years. All of this work was not going to be for nothing.


    ¡°Ms Nack has called about Tilly again, the appointment is in 15 minutes, and the nose bleeds are getting worse,¡± Nurse Brown said looking at her clipboard. He didn¡¯t care but it was part of his cover and he needed to keep it up.


    Being a pediatrician helped him get victims. The work was challenging and he did a good job but what he wanted to access to the flies. The children of Saint Evelyn Pediatrics ward were in danger, he tried to be random in his selection of the patients of other doctors and some of his own to remove suspicion from himself. It would look weird if all were to hit everyone but him.


    There were starting rumors of a curse of Evelyn. People were starting to avoid the hospital. He would have to move on but his research was almost complete. So close he could taste it. It tasted like children.


    Dr. Bolat O''Brien didn¡¯t care who he hurt. They were just in his way, Of his main goal of what he thought was getting his soul back. In truth, his soul was right where it was supposed to be right in his chest. It was an ugly thing, twisted and infected like a diseased toe, hard to ignore but he did, he did believe that he should feel guilty. He did not care for the pain of others, they didn¡¯t matter to him. This was only the start, he was going to do great things. He was going to do what many never even dreamed was possible, it made him giddy.


    He was a very clean man, he did not like to be dirty. With plain Brown eyes and hair, he wasn¡¯t much to look at. He had a very mousy look to him, some would say that he would look better with glasses but he didn¡¯t need them. He was a tall and slim man, and under his clothing were tattoos that made no sense, they seemed to be math equations along with ancient languages not sticking to one language or another and his only scars were on his heart, metaphorically speaking. There Were bad things that had happened unfortunately they were of his own making.


    The death of his twin was ¡®his fault¡¯ not that he would tell it like that to anyone. A freak accident he would say, not that it was true. Childhood incompetence was more truthful. Children are stupid, that¡¯s why they trusted him so much. It was easy to be non-threatening and playful, even when his taste for meat was growing. He was stupid once but that was then and this was now.


    So his victims were 5 years old and younger; he knew they lived and would steal a child when he needed a new soul. His basement looked like a dog kennel for children. One would expect it to be dark and dingy but it wasn¡¯t. It wasn¡¯t kid-friendly either and it was bright and sterile. It looked like any other science lab but no lab rats, just children. He didn¡¯t care to share his finding which is why he didn¡¯t even try to make the experiments in a proper lab. He didn¡¯t care about the feelings of others. He didn¡¯t care if his findings could change the world. In many ways, it was going too.


    Stealing the children wasn¡¯t hard, young parents talked on and on about the new nursery and the like. It wasn¡¯t hard at all. A little medicine knocked them right out. He knew their weight and allergies so drugging them was easy and most of them trusted him already. It was harder to take candy from them.


    He did have one thing that he loved and that was his garden, but even his garden fruit tree, berry bushes, vegetables herbs, and the like, were used for his evil going on. It fed his captured children. It was cheaper than the store and had fewer questions.


    He went on like this for years, but it was only a matter of time before they put 2 and 2 together to find that he was the link to all of these children. The final nail in the coffin was little Bobby Johnson and Thomas Pritchard. Bobby Johnson well, His family was well off and had many cameras that O''Brien didn¡¯t see. And the bones in the woods, that the nature photographers saw him dump. At his home when he was a work. The officers were at his door, the bodies of the children buried in his yard feeding his plants. The books in his labs chilled all who read them to the bone. The grate on the floor was stained with blood. The only thing was that O''Brien wasn¡¯t home that day.


    Bolat O¡¯Brien was gloating it was almost done. Then he heard the nurses talking.


    ¡°Oh that poor woman, her son, and now this?¡± one voice said


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know if I would be any better!¡± the other said.


    ¡°I hope she pulls through, though I can see why she wouldn¡¯t want to,¡± she whispered and O¡¯Brien didn¡¯t hear, It would have warned him that the authorities were coming closer ¡°if my daughter was found like that!¡±


    ¡°Hello, ladies! What are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°Do you remember Ms. Pritchard?¡±


    ¡°That name does ring a bell. What about Ms. Pritchard?¡± he did remember her son, he had taken him just 4 months ago, but honesty was not the game he was playing.


    ¡°She in a coma, poor thing!¡± One nurse said he had forgotten her name.


    ¡°It has to be because of her son!¡± Nurse Brown said


    ¡°Oh, the poor dear, didn¡¯t the police ask around here about it?¡± O¡¯Brien said.


    ¡°Yeah, they were looking everywhere! There have been a lot of kids going missing in recent years.¡± Nurse Smith said.


    ¡°Did she have an accident?¡± O¡¯Brien was curious


    ¡°No, they say it was self-inflicted,¡± Nurse Brown said


    ¡°And you all shouldn¡¯t be gossiping about it!¡± said the Head Nurse, Rose Lewandowski, most called her Nurse Rose. ¡°Run along and do your jobs.¡± She was an older woman, close to retirement but was not one to slow down. She still ruled the Nurse''s station and was one of the few people that O¡¯Brien respected.


    When O¡¯Brien found out that the mother of the kid he took was in the hospital in critical condition. It was, weirdly satisfying, the ruin that he left behind him. The catastrophic effect that he had on the world, ¡®all of these sins are on my brother''s soul. If I can find now my soul all have a clean slate. It¡¯s a two-for-one, one he founds Skirfir. His only twin. Two he will have his soul back and Skirfir can have his soul back, It may be a little dingy up a bit, things had to get messy.¡¯ O''Brien was


    The day when on like normal, He saw patients he subscribed medicine he soothed bumps and bruises. He gave notes to children so they could skip class Because of a bad cold or the like. All he did that he thought about the child in his basement. he thought about the mother on life support Well She, she really a mother anymore she has no more children. That thought delighted him, Usually after he killed the patient. The parents don''t really talk to him If they do it was about their other children He did see the weight in their eyes. So he did wonder why she waited so long. Her son had been missing for four months, why was she breaking now?


    He was in the Cafeteria, Smiling at a red-headed woman who was obviously in distress, She was barely eating and was whispering and yelling into her phone. He was obviously unnerving her. Usually, he tried to avoid that. He was supposed to be the friendly pediatrician that everyone loved, That way they wouldn''t ever suspect him. But it was so much fun seeing how mad she was getting.


    Then he heard something that made his blood go cold, As he trained himself the smile didn''t leave his face But panic entered his eyes. She was somehow related to her mother¡­ And they had found the body. That didn''t mean That they had connected it to him though He thought with relief. It was just a coincidence, There was no way They could connect it to him. He wore gloves, he was very careful.


    But the thought remained¡­ was he alone out there? Were the woods as empty as he thought?


    The panic was starting to creep into his heart he needed to get out of there it wouldn''t be too much of a problem to take his break early he could drive his car and just relax. Nothing bad was gonna happen He had already planned for so many things. He just needed to stay the course! He was almost there, It would all be worth it in the end.

 Chapter 3 The Earth and The Moon

    At Saint Evelyn Hospital Purdy Moon was over to see Terra Pritchard. The clouds were hanging in the sky, just begging for rain. There was a cold wind that ripped through her jacket. It was a summer jacket but it was one of her favorite, a jean jacket with wings embroidered on the back. Her red hair was tamed and straight, in an up and down. She had no makeup but the little on her face from last night that she didn¡¯t fully wipe away. She had a simple Sleeveless turtleneck and jeans that had seen better days. She had Blue tennis shoes and a pair of yellow rain boots in her bag along with a matching rain jacket. She had walked to the hospital as she did not trust herself to drive with so many tears in her eyes. The hospital was less than a half-hour walk. It was not a very big town.


    Saint Evelyn Hospital was one of the biggest hospitals in town. Purdy had dropped Terra and her godson off at this hospital before. The white walls and antiseptic smell were something that she hated. All hospitals were the same way. At least the good ones are the bad ones smell of rot. She walked through the confusing halls, with her misspelled name tag that said ¡®Pretty Moon¡¯, It was a common mistake. She didn¡¯t find this funny but there was too much on her mind to care. She felt that she had failed her best friend. She should have not gotten drunk as well. Even though she was grieving as well. She knew that it was a bad road to go down. Couldn''t she have just gone one night without drinking? When did that become so hard?


    She had seen her mother drink herself to oblivion after her father had disappeared. Her mother was not a strong woman Emotionally so Purdy had always tried to be strong for her friends and what was left of her family even though they didn''t talk to her anymore. She didn¡¯t talk about her own drinking.


    And here she was with her closest friend who was doing the same thing out of grief. She had thought that one night would be okay but she was wrong. One night of drinking had ruined another life.


    Terra had been a good parent even though she was young. She had gotten pregnant in the last year of high school. She would have funked out if it hadn¡¯t been for Purdy being with her every step of the way. The father had skipped town to avoid responsibility, the bastard. That bastard and his family had skipped town and never paid a penny in child support but even though she was alone Terra had loved her son deeply. She was devastated when he had gone missing. It had been four months of fading hope that they would see him again. Those hopes were dashed on the rocks of reality.


    Thomas is dead.


    Thomas was only 4 years old.


    It was a tragedy and it was happening all over town.


    She walked into room 457, the white walls with art on the wall. The beeping of machines slowly drove one insane. In a plan room lay her friend, wires, and tubes were all over the place. She seemed smaller than she actually was. There is a terrible awning in her heart as if she is leaning over a cliff. Her heart caught in her throat and there were tears in her eyes. They had known each other since they were little girls. Terra never felt so small in her eyes before. She was her best friend and she had always loved her.


    With tears starting the well in her eyes she said ¡°I¡¯m so sorry I should have never left you alone last night.¡± Purdy balled her tears were two waterfalls. She sat in the uncomfortable chair, she was pulling at her hair. She bit her lip and tried to think of the words. The pressure in her heart stole her words. There was only a lump where her tongue should be. After a minute She got control of her mouth again her throat Relaxing.


    ¡°If I knew that it would get so out of hand, I would have never let you drink, you¡¯re always so responsible I would always follow your lead¡± the tears dripped down her face.


    ¡°But that is not what you needed last night. You needed me to lead. I should have just held you as you cried and not let you touch a lick of alcohol¡± She brushed a stray curl out of her face and behind her ear.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know that it was your last hurrah, I wonder if you had that plan, or was it just despair when you were alone?¡± her voice was wavering. The tightness in her chest threatened to remove her voice again.


    ¡°I thought that¡­ I would be enough¡­ that your family would be enough, I am here for you. I want¡­ I miss him too. He was a good kid, so sweet. He didn¡¯t deserve what happened to him. But just don¡¯t go into that light, I will miss you too much.¡± Her voice breaks and she sobs.


    After a minute of sobbing, she said ¡°Remember When we were so small, we didn¡¯t have a care in the world. It¡¯s so different now, we have grown up into women but I will always be remembered as the little child that I knew. Of course, I see the changes that you''ve made in your life. You are a wonderful woman I''m so sorry that this broke you. I should have supported you more¡­ I wish I could have done more! I wish I understood how to do what needed to be done¡­¡± there was hopelessness in her voice. She really didn¡¯t know what to do. Well the first thing first, she was going to have to call him.


    ¡°What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I just don''t know how to function without you. you were always the one that I came to listen to when I needed it you always know what to say.¡± She cried in till she could cry no more, Her eyes were nearly swollen shut, and she was empty, both emotionally and Physically, then the hunger Drove her to the hospital cafe, Terra wasn¡¯t waking up any time soon, she could afford to get some lunch. She still felt guilty.


    It was unmemorable with the cashier, she didn¡¯t even remember his face. She got coffee that she didn''t even want Along with a small pastry and she couldn''t pronounce the name of it.


    There was one other person in the cafe setting area. It was the mousy-est man she had ever seen. He had brown hair and brown eyes and she was surprised that he didn''t have glasses. His face seemed empty without it. He smiled at nothing but it didn''t seem to reach his eyes. She always had the habit of looking at the eyes when somebody smiled. She found it was a great Indicator she was talking too much.


    She sat a few tables away from him. She had no energy to Entertain other people. She is barely hanging on. Grief It was just around the corner. Her hand starts to shake subtly. There was so much to think of her father''s disappearance to her mother''s death, and the inheritance on the gym. Thomas''s birth and death. He had been a lovely boy. Oh, it hurts. Terra, Sean, and Tyler. Oh, Tyler! She needs to hear his voice.


    She unlocks her phone so that she can call Tyler. She hated to say it but he was her on-and-off boyfriend. But she had known him for a long time, Surely he would be there for her, even just this once.


    ¡°Hello.¡± The voice was ice on her burning soul but it wasn''t a friendly voice it lacked warmth it lacked what she needed right now. He knew it was her because Her number was in his phone but he treated her like a stranger.


    ¡°Hello love, I just need you right now¡± There were tears in her voice and it noticeably wavered. She was happy he picked up.


    ¡°I¡¯m at work, I don¡¯t have time for this.¡± Tyler''s voice was even colder. An Arctic chill. It made her hackles rise. He was one of in one of his moods, they usually only last of the day, but this was not the day that had them.


    ¡°I know but Terra is in the hospital. She is in horrible condition.¡± She was slowly losing control of her voice. Tyler was often hot and cold with her but this was a time that she really wished he was warm.


    ¡°That is horrible but I don¡¯t see how this is important to me.¡±It was set in such a flippant tone that it infuriated Purdy. Tyler knew Terra for as long as she had. It was crazy that he didn¡¯t seem to care.


    ¡°Terra is your friend too,¡± She said in a calm tone that was dangerous.


    ¡°Terra is your friend, not mine, I think she Is too serious,¡± he said As if she was talking about the weather not the life of her friend.


    ¡°She is important to me. Thomas was important to me, you should¡­ You should understand that this is important to me. It should be important to you.¡± She knew that he was an epenthetic but this was crossing a line.


    ¡°They aren¡¯t your Family.¡± He said like that mattered to her. Like he didn''t know her past.


    ¡°My family is gone, my mother, dead! Father, missing!, now Thomas Who was my godson, by the way, is dead. My brother lives in a different country, and my sister Tini isn¡¯t talking to me. My best friend is on death''s door and I am freaking out, I need you!¡± She was raising her voice. The breaking of her voice was obvious. The mousy man smiled deeper, the smile reached his eyes; it was not a good smile. She gave him a disgusted like. He made her more nauseous than she already was.


    ¡°You¡¯re just too much drama! Get over it!¡± Tyler was hissing the words at her, he didn¡¯t want to be heard and it was almost working.


    ¡°What the fuck! It is some really fucked up shit! The was a lot of meat missing from the body! He was just a little boy and they could barely recognize the body!¡± her face was hot with rage. There were rage tears in her eyes blinding for from the world but she could feel the mousy man''s smile on her skin.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to know that! That was so gross!¡± he did yell this time. But there was no sympathy in his voice.


    ¡°This is my life! Do you want to be part of my life? Or not?¡± She yelled finally tired of his behavior. This was the last straw that she was gonna put up with.


    ¡°You know what?!¡±He screamed back.


    ¡°What!¡± She said not even caring about her volume.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to be with you anymore!¡± Tyler was yelling, that was normal. Not good but normal. They have been off and on for a few years now but it''s still It took a second for what he said to hit her.


    ¡°What? What are you saying?¡± Purdy was stunned, this was not what she needed right now. This was what last thing she needed! It broke her heart. There was a stopping pain in her chest.


    ¡°You heard me! I want out of this Drama out of my life!¡± Tyler yelled not caring how he sounded.


    ¡°Oh my god!¡± Purdy was shrill ¡°I can¡¯t believe that you are such a coward!¡± Purdy knew that he had problems but she thought that he would be there for her.


    ¡°I don¡¯t need this. I¡¯m out! Get your stuff tomorrow!¡± Tyler yelled not caring anymore if his co-worker heard him.


    ¡°Fine, I will!¡± It¡¯s not like she had much at his place. He had more at her place. She was done. They had done this off and on for some time now but this was the end. She was not going to take him back.


    ¡°Bye,¡± Tyler said with no politeness in his voice.


    ¡°Good b-¡± the phone clicked ¡°ye¡± she was not taking this bastard back. It was her money that paid for his shit. She was done this was over this had been a long time coming but she had finally reached her point of no return. She couldn''t be with someone so callous.


    She looked at the mousy man, he looked look he was having the time of his life, and she hated him.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    She had another call to make. Terra¡¯s brother was not her biggest fan. He was always cold and distant to her. It did not help that he and Terra were not on speaking terms. Terra had never told her why but it happened when she was pregnant with Thomas. When the boy that she was with just up and disappeared. Terra was heartbroken for months. But she wanted Thomas so she gave birth and Purdy was there in the room with her. She was a good friend, she thought she was a good friend. ¡°But I failed this time.¡± she thought with a sob.


    She was not up to talking to anyone but it was for Terra. Anything for Terra. Terra was there for her when her father disappeared and her mother died in the car crash. Tini had never forgiven her. Like it was her fault that their mother was drunk when she called for a ride, they were coming to get her from a party that she wasn¡¯t supposed to be there. Her sister moved in with her uncle and never talked to her again. It broke her heart.


    So she called Sean, he should see her especially if Terra was to die.


    The phone rings and rings and she is hoping not to get a voicemail. She was always shit at voicemails she ended up mumbling and giving too much information.


    ¡°What do you want?¡± Sean''s deep voice answered the phone


    ¡®Great start, maybe the voicemail would have been better.¡± She thought then said ¡°Hello Sean, I have some bad news¡± Sean was a busy man, who was rough around the edges but was a good man it was too bad that he hated her guts.


    ¡°And you think I care why?¡± Sean was upset to be called during work.


    ¡°You should care, it is about your sister!¡± Purdy was on her last nerve


    ¡°Wait, what happened?¡± Sean''s voice changed from rough to soft.


    ¡°She is in a coma!¡± Purdy burst into tears, the stress of the day was getting to her and the mousy man was not even trying to look like he wasn''t staring at her. His hands were folded in front of him and he was staring with a creepy smile.


    ¡°Was she in a car accident?¡± Sean was sure that was it


    There was a long pause as Purdy thought of what to say ¡°...No¡­¡±


    ¡°Why the pause? What happened?¡± Sean was worried and confused way she was so hesitant to tell him what happened.


    She paused but then said ¡°...we were drinking last night, and when she went home she swallowed a bottle of pills¡± Purdy still felt guilty that she wasn¡¯t there to stop her. The guilty was killing her.


    ¡°She tried to kill herself? Why?!¡± Sean would never have guessed that was the reason.


    ¡°Why do you think you asshole, her son is dead!¡± Purdy yelled not caring that this was a hospital cafeteria. That mousy man was grinning, she hated him.


    ¡°¡­¡± Sean was shocked, he didn¡¯t know that Thomas had been found dead. His sister didn¡¯t tell him. If she woke up he was going to change things.


    ¡°Do you have nothing to say?¡± Purdy snapped. This whole day was getting on her nerves and the mousy man just made her feel under a microscope.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, you¡¯re right. It''s just that I never thought she was the type to¡­¡± Sean was telling the truth. Terra was a strong woman who never asked him for help even when they were young.


    Purdy sighed ¡°There is no type, despair hits everyone mostly when we¡¯re not expecting it.¡± she had known Despair when her mother had died and Tini had refused to forgive her. She wanted to end her life there and then but Terra had been there for her.


    ¡°When did Thomas die?¡± Sean was calm, as he knew how to be for work. Questions now crying later.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t know?¡± she almost wanted to laugh, this day was getting to her ¡°He has been missing for four months, they found the body Buried in the woods yesterday morning, with chunks missing. They think someone has eaten parts of him. Apparently some nature photographer saw what happened. ¡± Purdy wanted this day to be over.


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t she tell me?¡± Sean was near tears. She could hear it in his voice.


    ¡°You¡¯re still not speaking with her?¡± She said in a softer tone.


    ¡°we¡­ talk¡­ sometimes,¡± Sean said but thought ¡®Rarely.¡¯


    ¡°Maybe she was worried that you wouldn''t be supportive,¡± Purdy said knowing that it would be a blow to him.


    ¡°That¡¯s my failure. I want to be a good brother to her¡± Sean was gutted, he knew that their relationship was in the dumps but he didn¡¯t think it was this bad.


    ¡°Well, here and now you can be. If she wakes up she is going to need both of us.¡± Purdy was willing to reach out the hand of friendship, Terra would need everyone she could get. On a plus note, the mousy man looked like he sucked a lemon. ¡®Take That mousy man.¡¯


    ¡°Thank you for calling me, I know we don¡¯t talk much anymore but I want to be there for her. What hospital is she at?¡± Sean was much nicer at the end of the conversation than he was at the beginning.


    ¡°Saint Evelyn Hospital, I¡¯ll text you the room number¡± She didn¡¯t want the mousy man to know the number. He was not even trying to hide that he was eavesdropping she wanted to flip him off.


    ¡°Thank you, I¡¯ll have to call off from work, so I got to go,¡± Sean said


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome, she will appreciate you being here,¡± Purdy said


    They said their goodbyes, it was a much better conversation than with Tyler, ¡®You know what? Fuck him!¡¯ and she left the cafeteria to be away from the mousy man.


    Purdy was wandering around, she had no place to go. It was over with Tyler and she couldn''t go to Terra''s place. That would be a recipe for disaster. She was not in the right head space to go to work she had already called off. The place could run without her for a few days. She was lucky that she had inherited the staff as well. So she was wondering having no place to go and no one to call what she was going to do with her life. It didn''t take her long maybe 15 minutes before she ran into the store that would fit her needs. The generically named liquor store, She forgot the name when she looked away, it was what she wanted. Not to feel anything. This store and her Credit card. She got a text as she was at The store.


    2:45 pm


    Tyler ??:


    -?????? by the way Casey''s Pussy is better than yours!-


    She knew all he wanted was a reaction so she wasn''t gonna give him it. She had suspicions about Casey. This was just confirmation that she wasn''t paranoid.


    Inside the liquor smelled of Incense. Both burning and some to sell. It was a powerful potpourri smell. It had a row that was just wine, but she wanted something stronger. She passed the candy row, ah there it was. The hard liquor aisle. Old favorites like tequila and Bacardi were there but she didn''t wanna remember last night she wanted new memories of well she didn''t know what she wanted the memories of last night by the taste. She just didn''t want to remember this. During this entire situation, she doesn''t wanna remember the months of waiting to see if he was alive or dead to Confirmation of the death she doesn''t wanna remember the coma she doesn''t really wanna remember Tyl- the break-up.


    Rum always left her with a stomach ache. Vodka was a better choice oh and they have mango Vodka! And, with some Whiskey for the burn, she wanted to feel that heat. That wasn¡¯t all she bought a new travel mug that she thought was funny.


    It said


    ¡°fuck this


    fuck that


    fuck them


    fuck it


    fuck you


    fuck everything¡± The fucks were in rainbow colors the Laid on top in cursive in a black font¡­


    It had a handle and a sealable lid. She had every intention of drinking herself silly but if she could avoid it she would like to not have her outfit stained or soaking wet.


    She grabbed a Push Pop and Two Donuts from the little plastic box that they made their home. She was going to need something in her stomach. She grabs a blue electrolyte full drink.


    She paid with her credit card. Payday was not today. Future Purdy was paying for these drinks.


    Then She went to the parking lot. And sat on a parking stop. The Donuts went down quickly as she was still hungry from a light breakfast. She popped the lid of the fuck mug and poured in the mango vodka. She did it with intent and shut both lids she was earnest about not getting wet. The Plastic Bag straining by the weight of the two liquors. Then she slowly ate the push-pop, enjoying the Citrus flavor. She was ready to drink but she chose to enjoy that moment, it was just her and the ice cream, The tartness of lime the brightness of the orange, this was her favorite But they didn''t sell it most of the time only in summer. Push pops are made for much smaller children and therefore much smaller treats so it wouldn''t take long for the push pop to be over.


    The first shot was sharp on her tongue. The worst bit was before it hit and She could feel it. The taste was better than plain Vodka but it was bite was still there. When she had drunk about three shots she stopped for air, she was going to just make herself sick if she did not pace herself. It was a beautiful sunny day with clouds in the sky and big fluffy things, she was starting to feel it, so she took another drink, and it went down more smoothly. She was on her way to being back out drunk, it was about three more shots. Soon she was going to lose count. She did another sip. Two shots. The sun was great in her skin. She never just sat outside anymore. She was dizzy but that was okay, everything was okay. All she had to do was sit here and drink.


    ¡°Hey, ma''am! You can¡¯t drink here¡± The Store Owner was trying to be nice and wasn¡¯t paying attention. He let her stay too long and now it was going to be a pain.


    ¡°Of course, I can drink here, ''cause I¡¯m here drinking,¡± she said not understanding that it was a command not a statement of fact. She wasn¡¯t trying to be a smart ass, it just turned out that way.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want you drinking in front of my store! It is bad for business!¡± the owner of the store was a big man, who smelled of incense, and his bald head was shaved. He was not an uncaring man but he had seen where this had gone before.


    ¡°I have had the worst day, I need this!¡± Purdy cried, in her drunk state that would be a good enough answer.


    ¡°If I had to let someone stay outside my store every time they have the worst day I would never have a moment''s peace and it would be hard to navigate to the store. There would be so much vomit, I''ll let you have a few drinks no but now it''s time for you to move along.¡± he was not uncaring but it was true, bad days happen every day to someone, and those someone then came to his store.


    ¡°I¡¯m not bugging anyone,¡± She said in a whiny tone.


    ¡°You are bugging me! You need to leave people, can¡¯t park because you are sitting there¡± He said


    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll head out¡± She starts walking away with her many drinks, and then she runs into a man,


    ¡°Watch it bitch!¡± The thin man had brown hair like the mousy man and that pissed her off.


    ¡°Want to run that by me again mother fucker?¡± Purdy was ready for a fight. She wanted a fight. She was too drunk to remember that there was a reason that one doesn¡¯t just pick fights. She took a swig of her vodka.


    ¡°You heard me bitch!¡± The thin man was not having it today, he wanted a fight. He was laid off today and was never a really good man.


    ¡°Oh, you do not want to try me today! Trust me! You don¡¯t want anything I am bringing¡± Purdy yelled, all of her hurt coming out on the wrong person.


    ¡°I¡¯m calling the cops!¡± the shop owner said and both failed to back down.


    ¡°I''m not afraid of you! little girl!¡± The thin man was not going to let this slide.


    ¡°I can kick your ass!¡± and she could, she was a very fit woman. Her training in kickboxing from a very young age. She had kept it up and now was a trainer at her gym.


    ¡°Oh, I want to see you try!¡± The thin man was not strong for a man but felt that he was stronger than any woman.


    ¡°You''re not taking me seriously! Seriously I can kick your ass¡± Part of Purdy was wondering why she wasn¡¯t just attacking the thin man. Something was stopping her but she couldn''t remember why.


    ¡°Hello, 336? I had someone who won''t leave and she is picking fights with Customers¡± The owner was talking into the phone but Purdy was not listening.


    ¡°Is that all you can do? You talk big, I bet there is nothing under it¡± The thin man was angry but smart enough not to pull the first punch.


    ¡°Seriously go, you are not wanted here.¡± the Shop owner said


    The thin man and the woman stood and argued till the police came.


    She was put in the back seat and the thin man walked into the store to buy his liquor.


    ¡°your name is Pretty Moon? The hilarious!¡± the female cop said, and the other cop, the older man shushed her. She had forgotten to take off her name tag. Her mother had found it hilarious to name her children with moon puns. Maximus Moon, Tini Moon, and Purdy Moon. She''d never found it funny she never even found it amusing she found it was God darn annoying.


    ¡°The name is Purdy! With a U¡± she said not it was true that Purdy Moon did not find her name funny, didn¡¯t find it funny in school, and not now. She knew better but she was drunk and couldn¡¯t remember why it was a bad idea to yell at cops. She was just so angry, angry at the world for being so cruel.


    They were not driving long when a car drove past them at full speed, the cops were not going to let that disrespect go unchecked. The black and yellow car flashed its green and red lights were on and they were flying down the road.

 Chapter 4 Ripping Through The Sky

    O¡¯Brien


    There was a different weight of a soul, on average the younger the child the lighter the soul. There are exceptions to the rule. Sometimes there is a child that has a bigger soul, these souls seem to be bigger due to experience not just age. The soul is easier to extract after pain and hopelessness but it hardens and shrinks the soul. A soul that is from a fresh and happy source is bigger and more powerful but harder to remove from the host body. There is brightness that is lost in the eyes showing that the soul is ready for harvest.


    Author note: in my opinion, a happy body is not as tasty as one that has lost hope.


    From the notes of B. O¡¯Brien notebook 4 recovered by Red Oak Police Station


    It was a joy. Seeing that woman¡¯s pain. To see how her life was falling apart was wonderful. That he was the domino piece that cascaded to destroy this woman¡¯s life. He didn¡¯t often get to see the fruit of his labor. The two parts of his life were divided, the mask he wore, didn¡¯t work if he was thinking about one when he was doing the other. He couldn¡¯t be patching up boo-boos while thinking about eating flesh. There was not much room in his life, The life of a doctor was a busy one, and the care he had to put into his experimentation. He had to feed his guests and remove the bodies and the garden was large and hard to maintain and he couldn¡¯t have a gardener uncovering the bodies or recognizing bone shards. When he thought about it, he didn¡¯t have a social life, he hadn¡¯t had one in years. That would be a problem if IT didn¡¯t work. He would see his brother again. He would get his soul back. Maybe then¡­ no, then he wouldn¡¯t have the feeling of a hole in his chest. He would feel normal like he did before. It would be like before Skirfir died. It would be good, that Skirfir would have to feel the weight of what he did, but that is just what he gets for leaving him¡­ alone.


    The experimentation was important to his goal but to see the ruin that he caused was¡­ exhilarating¡­ this was burning in his skin, and the coffee that burned his tongue was nothing to the warm feeling he got watching the red-haired woman. He wanted to lick up her tears. To hear her breath full of agony. ¡®I never really felt like this before.¡¯ This heat that came when he thought of her. He thought her as strong and her to be brought low was fantastic. There was a gym not far from his house. He had seen her in the gym, she ran some classes but he had never been in one. The shame. He killed for his goal but her, her, he¡¯d kill just for the fun of it. He wondered if human flesh tasted different from young to old. Like Veal is to beef. He was not a very sexual man, he could do without and it was hazardous to be in a relationship with what he had in his house. It was so different to see someone that he thought was strong breaking, Being ripped apart at the seams. Maybe he wasn¡¯t always like this but the Desire was sudden and consuming he could not focus on his work. He wanted her, in ways that were new to him. Some have called him a late bloomer and they were right. He has had people that he liked but never some that he desired. To have her under him, him licking up her tears, it was a thought that wouldn¡¯t go away.


    He was worried but he was also overwhelmed.


    ¡°I want to just eat her up,¡± he said wondering if the blue eye tasted different than the green eye. He had a goal but she was distracting. He probably will never see her again, but the want was there. He hadn¡¯t wanted someone before. But he wanted her, in pain and at his mercy. How long could he let her live for? He had what he needed from the kids in a few weeks, but her, ¡®I could make her suffer for years. If I was careful about it. To watch her waste away would be the greatest thing¡¯ but he had his goals and he was close. If the world worked the way he thinks works, he had all that power he needed to rip right through.


    He wanted to go, go around town one more time before it happened, before he happened. The windows were down as the full blast of air hit him in the face. The roar of the engine under him. The radio is on full volume. He didn¡¯t care that he was being a nuisance he was on the top of the world. Years of being careful was out the window. He had won! He was right! And the world would fall into place. So what if he was speeding!? It didn¡¯t matter, he ignored the calls he was getting. He was free to do whatever he wanted!


    He didn¡¯t even notice that he ran the blue light. He didn¡¯t care that he was speeding. He almost didn¡¯t notice the siren but he did notice the green and red lights of the cop car. He was high on himself and even the siren and the calls on his phone couldn¡¯t put a damper on his mood.


    But he was pulled over by the police. He didn¡¯t know that they had found out about his basement.


    There was a yellow car that was racing in front of the cop car. The sounds of blasting music were heard. The Cop car roared into life The red and green light flashed racing after the yellow car. Not a color to be unnoticed. It was right up there with red cars that were easy to notice. The yellow car did stop, turning to the side of the road.


    Office Clay was running the plates was a man just shy of 50, his skin was tan in a way that it was hard to tell what race he was, and aged with deep wrinkles on his face. There were frown lines but his face was not unfriendly with his big bushy eyebrows. He is big and his muscles have yet to fail him. He is a calm man as the yelling from the back seat did not seem to bug him in the least. He was the first to train new copper as he knew the rules backward and forward and all the unsaid rules well he was at it. He knew when to bend the rules and when to hold on to them like iron. The drunk in the backseat for all her bluster did not seem to be a bad person, just someone who had lost themselves for a little bit. A little time in the drunk tank or maybe a drive home was enough. That name tag was from the nearby hospital, it was very likely that they just got some very bad news.


    ¡°You go and get his papers, I¡¯ll run the plates. Rookey keep an eye out for anything wired, I think it''s more than a lead foot.¡± Officer Clay said.


    ¡°Why do you think it¡¯s more than a bad driver?" Officer Murphy asked, she was honestly curious. Her Amber eyes looked at Officer Clay¡¯s brown eyes. He signed as his bushy blonde eyebrows covered his eyes once again.


    ¡°You have to trust your gut in this job. It could Literally, be the difference between life and death. And something about that car gives me a really bad feeling.¡± Officer Clay said and Officer Murphy raised her Auburn eyebrow in reply. The right one with a small scar through the eyebrow. It was pale on her rich black skin, Silently adding Sass to the look she was giving Officer Clay. ¡°It is true, sometimes it''s a gut feeling that saved me from a bullet, Be careful out there,¡± he said. In frustration, Officer Murphy just wanted to tug on her braids but since they were freshly done she resisted the urge. She wasn''t very fond of Being touched so the Long time it took to braid the cornrow''s side braids was, Almost too long but she sincerely did enjoy the look. With nothing to say Office Murphy was walking to the car.


    ¡°Do you know why I pulled you over?¡± Office Murphy said with dispassion she was hoping that this could just be a warning and she could just put the drunk at the police station. The Drunk was loud and was on her last nerve.


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    ¡°No idea, Officer,¡± said the man in the car, his brown hair a mess and his eyes bloodshot but his voice calm. There was a cheeky grin, he was not taking this seriously. The mousy man was even looking happy. He gave her the creeps. Maybe Officer Clay was on to something, She mentally shook her head on the other hand it might just be because he had a gut feeling that she was looking into It.


    ¡®Great, a fucking liar¡¯ she thought ¡°You were going about 50 miles over the speed limit. In a school zone.¡± she said and then thought ¡®and blasting music but that was just annoying but not illegal.¡¯ Officer Murphy was not in the mood, she had the cursing woman in the back of her car. It was giving her a headache and that medicine was not helping. She was prone to headaches but didn''t want that to stop her work So she rarely told anyone about it.


    ¡°Oh, really how silly of me, I should pay more attention to how I am driving.¡± he was talking down to her. He was flippant in his attitude. It was concerning. It was more like he was playing house than dealing with an officer of the law. People Usually sound a little nervous around officers even if they''ve done nothing. He acted as if nothing could touch him and that annoyed her greatly.


    ¡°It is not safe for the kids to play here with you driving like that.¡± Officer Kenza Murphy said ¡°You need to be more careful, License and registration please.¡± she was being polite but she wanted to snarl. The power of a police officer had not gone to her head yet so she was on her best behavior. Something was wrong with this man but she didn¡¯t know what that was setting her off.


    ¡°Of course officer,¡± the voice was sickly sweet, it was mocking and nauseating ¡°We need to care for the kids, right¡­¡±He said as if it was a joke then the man reached and grabbed the paperwork ¡°Here you go.¡± he handed off the papers and card.


    ¡°Stay here, I am going to run your papers,¡± Officer Murphy said trying to keep a polite tone in her voice.


    ¡°Will do officer¡± his amused look gave her a chill. Mr O¡¯Brian wiggled his Fingers add her. That made her nauseous.


    She walked back to her car. ¡°Run this guy in the system, he gives me the creeps,¡± Officer Murphy says, the hair on her arms roused. Blood was rushing through her veins. She didn¡¯t know why adrenaline was flowing through her. She looked at Officer Clay who was pale. He was waving her over. ¡°What''s wrong Clay?¡±


    ¡°We need to arrest him,¡± Officer Clay said in a serious tone


    ¡°Why? We didn¡¯t even run the papers yet¡± Office Murphy was confused and was wondering if this was an abuse of power. It showed on her face. Even though he creeped her out doesn''t mean she gets to arrest him on a dime.


    Officer Clay was not annoyed even though he could see what she was thinking, he was very understanding of the young officer but he was still serious ¡°I ran the plate. Either he stole that car or he is the serial killer whose house was just raided, there is an APD out for him. I''ve been keeping track during the downtime There are several bodies at his home. Doctor O¡¯Brien is a sick fuck with how they found those kids.¡±


    The cursing from the back seat stopped. Both officers turned their heads with that sudden silence.


    ¡°You know something?¡± Officer Clay said turning to the silent woman in the back seat. There was a deep silence as the woman in the back seat breathed out.


    ¡°My best friend''s kid is one of the kids that went missing.¡± Purdy Moon was still as the grave. The alcohol was not enough to stop her grief. Even though she got there all the trouble to just forget for a little bit it came rushing back. The stillness broke and she started to cry. During the crying, they heard words that sounded like Thomas, Terra, and oh god.


    ¡°I''ll get right on it!¡± she said. She felt horrible for the drunk, she had to do something so she hopped out of the cop car and started to run at the car which was the wrong thing to do, it spooked the driver.


    ¡°You¡¯ll never catch me!¡± The man said and the car squealed on the road. Officer Murphy turned around and ran back to her car. She jumped back into the car, growling under her breath. They were behind him in a flash. The siren and lights were flashing.


    ¡°That was a fuck up! Never let them know, that you know!¡± Officer Clay was livid, she was new to the force but that was a fucking damn stupid rookie move. After they had caught him or if he had gotten away a small voice in the back of his head said he was going to rip her a new one for being so stupid.


    ¡°I¡¯m so sorry! I fucked up!¡± Kenza yelled as the Cop car sped after the yellow car. The car accelerated fast The rookie put her hand on the grab handle, as she did when a car was moving too fast for her. It was a habit from her younger years that she had not quite broken.


    The yellow car sideswipe a blue car that was just driving by. The blue car was pushed into a green car. Officer Murphy was on the phone to Emergency services letting them know that some cars probably need help ''Cause they were hit in a hit and run. The yellow car raced down the street not caring about anyone on the road. He was full gas and was not going to be taken down lightly. He thought that the more turns he did would confuse the cops.


    He drove recklessly more nervous than planning. He ignored signs as he drove off into a ditch, the ditch was just a turn and a street down. ¡°Fucking damn it!¡± he yelled well hitting the steering wheel. The car door was jammed shut by the narrow ditch. He was in luck as his window was still open and he was a small man.


    He hopped out of the car and ran but was knocked down by both officers, he didn¡¯t get far. He wasn¡¯t an athlete He was a pediatrician and as a serial killer, all he had to do was to children it wasn''t exactly hard some would say, to take candy from a baby was easier.


    ¡°That was a short chase.¡± Officer Murphy said under her breath as he was being dragged to the police car


    ¡°You¡¯re a bastard, you¡¯re going away for a long time, you sicko!¡± the drunk Purdy said ¡°You think you can take those lives! Ruining families forever! You sick fuck!¡± The blurry-eyed woman looked at him and then gasped ¡°You¡¯re the man from the Hospital! That is why you were smiling like a creep! You enjoy causing pain to people!¡±


    He was stuck dumb, it was hitting him for the first time that he was in a lot of trouble and he thought then that he should try the second part of his plan. He had nothing to lose he already was in a world where if he lost. He would change the game.


    They started to drive to the station.


    ¡°I¡¯m not so sure about that¡± he bit his tongue and spite the blood at her. ¡°What the fuck! You fucking freak!¡± Purdy screamed at the madman.


    ¡°Quiet back there!¡± Officer Clay said


    then things got weird, the man started to speak in tongues, his Voice contained multitudes mostly children''s voices it was eerie in a way of hearing a children''s rhyme in the middle of a foggy night. Strange sounds that sounded animal. It made Purdy¡¯s hair rise, There was screaming in the front of the car for him to be silent and then there was her screaming in terror. His tattoos began to glow through his clothes. They seem to sizzle and burn marks on his clothes. His voice rolled over the screaming of hitting the other passengers and the driver. And then the car hit a speed bump except there weren''t any speed bumps in the road. The road was progressively getting bumpier and then they saw it. Pink crystals started to spike through the road, the car jerked back and forth. Purdy felt An intense burning sensation on her left foot and a portal opened, It didn''t open with the woosh but with lightning black lightning streaking off the pink crystals as if the pain crystals were charging it. Purdy was so distracted by the burning pain in her leg that she almost didn''t see the portal itself but when she did she let out a scream but it was too late. All sound Walked out immediately as they went into the portal the screeching of brakes the screaming of the patrons in the car the odd chanting in children''s voices all of it silenced. In the blackness light had been defeated, There was no odor, and There was no sound, They could taste blood in their mouths, and the feeling that their body was muted almost as if it were being torn in two. Not sure if they were awake or asleep. The car drove for eternity, that car drove for three seconds, they could not tell. All they knew was that something was terribly wrong and one was vindicated for being right.

 Chapter 5 in the in-between

    They had a rock collection which was currently the shape of a castle with many, many doors, and nestled behind each door was dimension. It was listed this way because that was the way that it made sense, with no thought outside of the spire of influence. It was one of the most powerful creatures to ever exist. It wasn''t vanity, it was just facts.


    They fix on everything in every format of reality, They exist in a state of flux. They are present in every reality and It had the force of all of those dimensions layered in on itself making it an Uber-dense structure. There were only duplicates of him when they wanted them to be.


    It was a they for they were not a he or she. They are one of a kind. Demos Can''t go into dimensions because the ground cracks under the weight of all those dimensions. They had a sock collection that was a room. They are in a room with piles of socks, there barely was a walkway but they were more likely to lay on the mound of socks. They loved their Miss Mashed Socks. A lot of dimensions were discovered in what a sock is. Demos would take just one sock from the dryer, when this happens, take it as a blessing that such a powerful creature is looking at your life.


    There were a lot of angels hanging around, their mannequin-like bodies, skin like porcelain, In a completely metaphorical way. He was simultaneously drinking a cup of tea, hunting for a new sock, just waiting for the dryer to be done upstairs intently into that dimension and there was a crack! And a purple crackle and pop one of the doors had flown off its hinges. The car was spinning out of control. When the car stops spinning they must have seen it demos because they hit the gas ramming into a door that was previously shut. It cracked open and they were in the next dimension.


    Demos had tried two things and only succeeded in one. First, they put environmental controls on the bodies that were with the dimensional wall, which succeeded then They physically tried to grab the car by the driver side door, but the door ripped off of its hinges, driver and rear driver side door. Ripped up and shredded by their claws and ¡®Oh my! That is an arm right there.¡¯


    ¡ª


    They drove through the portal, and all of the humans were screaming. Then they were in the hallway made of one stone of each type from every universe. It was a beautiful place not that they noticed it, all they noticed was the screams of all of the inhabitants of the car, even the man who stared at it. What they did notice was the purple monster that was now chasing them. The screams reached a higher pitch.


    The monster wasn¡¯t a monster but something scarier than that. It was the embodiment of dimensions. It was huge, a tall beast with legs like a rabbit, and a torso like a human but with jutting hip and shoulder bones. Arms that end in squid tentacles, a face like a dolphin, and a catfish mustache with ears the shape of trombones. A tail like a lion with blue fur at the tip and a blue goatee.


    And it was doing something very complicated on very short notice, environmental controls were needed to control the damage that was about to happen. At best they die from the germs of the planet they land themselves in too. Worst they kill off the planet''s inhabitants.


    It grabbed at the front driver-side door the claws cut through metal like butter the front and back doors of the car were ripping it off. There was a fountain of blood painting the walls as The door in the hallway opened by a speeding car and they drove through the door. Into the wild of a new world, one they had never seen or heard of before. The plants looked different and the dirt was different though they didn¡¯t know why. The shock of hitting the dimensions wall had them all pass out.


    ¡°That was very weird, what am I going to do with these doors,¡± said the purple embodiment of dimensions ¡°it that an arm?¡±


    ¡°Angel, I need to send a message to the other guardians¡± They pointed to the first angel in the row.


    The creature that looked more like a mannequin moved, its body shape was very similar to a human''s, and it was slightly translucent its white marble skin reflected light. Its face is covered in eyes. Three rows of eyes, three, two, three. The mouth was creepily normal for a human. It has two tails that twist around each other. It looked like a double helix.


    The wings look like feathers but their texture is similar to porcelain. It sounded like wind chimes when the wings moved, the halo was over its head, and there was one on its ankle


    and one on the opposite wrist the halos never touched to skin.


    There was a little wooden door where the stomach was supposed to be.


    ¡°I need you to follow that car.¡± They pointed to the second angel


    ¡°I need you to go set up a meeting,¡± They pointed to the third angel.


    There was a flutter of wings, and the room was empty except for Demos. They were alone. They had done just barely enough, the environmental controls, anything in that car had environmental controls, no inter-dimensional plague ships on his watch. It was a good thing that they couldn¡¯t get sick. There were a lot of angels hanging around. Maybe they know something it does not. They are eerily good at knowing when a dimensional split is coming. Well, it is their breeding ground. There are only so many angels and they can only breed in the split of dimensions.


    ¡ª


    There were things afoot And they need answers now. The four of them did not meet lightly. Their Sheer Collective mass was something to think about. not that it mattered in the void in between.


    Time was not on their side. Things need to be fixed as soon as possible. But they would not speed anything up.


    Space was livid and matter was close behind them.


    Dimension was confused as there were ways to travel from one dimension to the other but they had never thought to use an excess of souls to fling oneself to the other avatar of one''s own soul.


    Let us back up a bit and see this as a whole.


    In the spaces between Dimension, outside of time, and where space and matter were played things are where we stand or more Accurately Float. This was the only place that they could meet except for the very first dimension but they didn''t want to disturb the first dimension as it had a very good job to do distributing souls. The pure mass of the beings that floated in The Between Space all four of their presence on a dimension besides the first dimension would cause a crushing accident even in the fast void of space their presence would cause a super black hole that would devour the entire universe so they stayed in the void in between.


    The entity of time, the very guardian of time, the embodiment of time. They used the name that was the very first iteration of the word time when Mortal creatures finally understood the movement of time. Tia was what they called themselves. In a language far before writing in one of the very first dimensions, this was the word for time. Tia likes the ring of it. Tia used an avatar of a tree, (as a Guardian they can look like anything thing they want) to express themselves, trees themselves were not as old as time, Not even the first of the plants but when they came into being Tia like the metaphor. Roots grow into every dimension and branch off into the future. Of course, they were not an ordinary-looking tree not that they had a face and read it in the wood or anything as expressive as that. But each limb of their branches was a different type of tree. The trunk was a mismatch of different kinds of barks. In the roots though unseen would be incomprehensible to even the strongest computers.


    Tia Oddly enough did not believe in a strict timeline, Did not believe in Canon events, They could see similarities through the dimensions and plants. History did tend to repeat itself After all but just because a planet or civilization has reached a certain level of civilization does not mean they will act exactly the same as another Civilization of the same level. What Tia did believe in was that one should only mess with the timeline of one''s own dimension. Not that they liked time travelers in any dimension but such things happen as anomalies. Sometimes it would get so convoluted that they would have to prune a branch. That was rare and far in between.


    Space on the other hand did not have a name as they saw no point in it. They knew who they were anyone important enough to know of their existence would know who they were therefore there was no point. They were a little bit more fluid with their avatar as well, In general, they like the fluid nature of a cat, Sometimes on the other hand they enjoyed being a jellyfish. Sometimes they were just an outline of the feel of everything but what you were looking at.


    Embodiment of space the entity of space, the guardian of space. They are An entity of void They built the space of an ultimate size. Expanding far beyond the eye can see, Even with the greatest machines, And they did it over and over again every time a dimension split apart. What has been happening less and less nowadays so less is relative to a being that is as older As the very first split in dimensions. In the first universe where there was no time no space no matter only a great mass of potential energy. That wondered that had thoughts that couldn''t make up its own mind and then the 1st grade split happened. The second dimension was still raw, still new but with new things it had space it had matter it had time and to make that split dimensions were born.


    Demos the guardian of dimensions the embodiment of dimensions and the entity of the mansions, Who is the oldest of them for their birth caused them to be realized so very close in time. Demos was the first to grab a name and the first to use it. When there are so many potential versions of oneself you need a way to keep track even if it''s just for yourself. So Demos was the first thing to ever be named. In their very nature was duality, when one can split and reemerge at any time, one can end up talking to oneself a fair deal. They had changed their form many times. Currently, the Avatar they were wearing was a Tall purple bipedal


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    The guardian of the matter the embodiment of matter the entity of matter Very much was a friend of space they went hand in hand most of the time, You can''t see the vastness of space without some matter for reference size. Matter liked the form of a stone cat, Representing the fluidity and the weight of matter, Currently, they were in the form of an emerald cat, The gem shining in the non-light. There were no stars in the in-between, There also was no physics, No math that could be applied. They had no problem seeing the light but they gave off themselves like deep-water fish was beautiful. They were from before there was light before there was darkness only when they existed. Make it too because I''ve never been brought to their attention that there was an opportunity for them not to be able to see. Matter was the first to discover light and darkness in chemical reactions. They were in love with the scientific method. They were coming around to having a name, They were experimenting with Mat short for matter. Not Matt but Mat because it split the word right done the middle. They weren''t sure if they liked it or not.


    There was The First One, Demos, Tia, Space and Mat. Then there were the Angels. In the second wave of life they in themselves were unique throughout the multiverse. They were a creature that was merely a core with no soul. When they died there was no receipt there was no soul there was no afterlife. They have a rather unique mating ritual as well, They can only meet within a universe that has been freshly split, Using the souls of all the creatures that live there. They were unique bill being but they were useful as they were able to go through dimensional walls without the usual 2 methods. They were like white blood cells going through the cell wall membrane to get to where they needed to go. They were the key way that God''s talked to each other. Angel means messenger and that''s what they are.


    The way that souls went through dimensions was one of two ways. One: you died and your soul hit the dimensional bearer and was Separated into the receipt, and soul, the receipt was the part of you that when into the afterlife, The full contribution of your entire life you''re good you''re bad you''re Gray dealings in between. Second was the soul, the spark of life, The blueprint you were started with and built off of, the spark is returned to the first dimension where it is returned to the core of your being. The very fire where the spark came from the soul enriches the core and evolves it further therefore spitting out more sparks that seed the dimensions as they go easily through the dimensional walls like floating pollen into waning vessels. The core may be the same for Several souls but no soul is completely the same though they are very similar. The core is always evolving with the receiving of souls that had an interesting life. In the first dimension, there are very many cores. Each one of these cores Spewing forth thousands of souls that seed the dimensions with life. Life that has been touched with divinity mutates these cores to a high degree. They provide the new sparks with talent meaning talent of reflection of the divinity that had been taught to their soul. This is not always a good thing and can render the core inert and unable to unite new sparks of souls.


    The second way that one can travel through the dimensions is simple but yet more complicated.


    What happens is the soul is separated from the body but not split into the receipt and soul and hits the dimensional wall of a different dimension and a copy of their body is distributed to another dimension but with the rules of the dimension engraved into the body. Hence stopping what could be considered a plague ship. The rules of one dimension never fully align with the rules of another dimension even sister dimensions watch split from the same dimension like an amoeba are slightly different as the split of a universe only happens when the God of said dimension has an impasse and being omnipotent almighty and omnipresent means that the God cannot be wrong which leads to dimension split of binaries 1 plus 1 negative, or A and 1, or 0 or 1. However, you want to represent or however, you want to do the math. Sometimes the original body is obliterated othertimes the original body is in a coma, Where the soul in the mind is in the dimension that they traveled to.


    The problem that they are facing at the moment all four gods guardians first and last of their kind Is that the dimensional travel that happened was not one of the two options. This had never happened before, Through another dimension was the receipt of the soul and the body unchanged. Well, that''s not 100% true. A huge amount of souls split with the receipt but only the receipts went through the dimensional wall and no souls went back to their cores. As far as they could tell the excess souls were connected to one of the dimensional travelers. In and of itself a soul that has other souls compounded on and increasing the soul''s mass was an extremely dangerous thing and this is compounded by it going into a dimension that possibly could not support it with its base rules. This was a powder Keg that could go out of hand very easily. Due to the forceful nature of how the dimensional wall was breached there was what only could be called a doorway That could only be shot by the same individuals who walked through it and must walk back the other way. The only way to put it was The pink crystalline structures were akin to blood clots stopping the dimensions from bleeding into each other. But like blood clots, they were frail. Even now as Demos was waiting for his fellow compatriots to talk over he had a small portion of himself just one sliver of dimension standing in the doorway of the pink crystalline structure. He could not step through the doorway as that would completely destabilize the entire dimension due to his mass. But he could stop other foolish humans and other creatures from stepping through. Even something as small as a fly, an Ant, or a virus Would be devastating to be on the other side of the dimension.


    ¡°What are we going to do about it?¡± said Mat, twitching their green diamond tail. It glittered in the not-light of the in-between. The opal eyes narrowed as they looked at their companions.


    ¡°This is very hard as even going over to look would mean the death of that world if not the solar system, if we are lucky, remember what happened to dimension 4? That super black hole Destroyed the whole universe and then it exploded. We can''t put our foot on the scale here.¡± Space was not one to minced words. They were very sour about Dimension 4, they had a lot of things going on here. It was billions of years ago but for an immortal who has been there since the beginning, someone who was on a first-name basis with time themselves, it was just a matter of was. Topics didn¡¯t go hazy with time because they were untouched by time.


    ¡°But a soul that can ever expand without any of the natural limiting factors would be catastrophic, Worst case scenario it gets big enough that it can swallow a God, and then who knows what that will do to the dimensional fabric? Will it stop at one God? What happens if it gets to the first dimension what will it do with all those cores? We Will survive but I think we will be the only things that will.¡± Demos said, their purple tentacle-like hands waving back and forth. Their face was the cross of a dolphin and a horse, was showing worry. Their eyes were glittering yellow, like thousands of stars. Their voice was soft and calm even as they waved their hands. Their voice is always calm and measured it reminded people who heard of it of a librarian.


    ¡°Why do you think that we will survive? Isn''t it a danger to us as well? If it can potentially swallow gods can it swallow concepts? Are we really safe? This could be the potential end of everything. We already know that cores can directly interact with souls we see this in the angels so it''s very possible that vice versa will apply as well, And even if the offender does die his warp soul could completely taint and crack its original core.¡± Tia said in their way, one would look at a leaf and remember what was said but there was no moment where they talked. What they said was always aflashbackk. It was quite disorienting for anyone who hadn''t experienced it before to find all three of the others had known this quirk for as long as they had known Tia. Tia wasn¡¯t one to emote, but their leaves blew in a wind that wasn¡¯t there in the in-between.


    ¡°We haven''t had a cracked core in a long time, It''s gets weird when souls come from a cracked core, In the end, we just end up destroying them because there''s no good that can come from them anymore,¡± Demos said well considering what Tina had said, a cracked core was something to be sad over, all the potential, the history of lives it had lived, just gone because of one lifetime. Demos who saw all the possibilities of one core through the souls spark that they produced.


    ¡°Why don''t we just pull the trigger and destroy this world or solar system or possibly dimension just to solve ourselves this issue?¡± Mat said they were of a different mind than Space when it came to the matter of destruction, The colliding of matter is what starts new elements. People are no different them rocks to them. The world and all the people on it are just elements on the periodic table. Their cat-like ears were pulled back in annoyance. The light from their uranium teeth glowed with indifference to suffering.


    ¡°Besides that angering a lot of people, We can''t do it while he''s in this dimension, it has a strict in and out policy. One soul spark comes in then one soul and receipt comes out, no exceptions. It is just not built for it. They would not even be able to separate the soul and receipt. And an untethered soul that still has a receipt can do a lot of damage, especially from a soul with unlimited growth potential.¡± Space said their spongy jellyfish-like body flowing back and forth. It was hard to show anger looking like a jellyfish but Space was giving it a good go.


    ¡°There were four of them in the car. But I think¡­ well¡­ I know that I hurt one of them pretty bad.¡± Demos said sounding small as they still remembered the feel of the blood on their hands.


    ¡°How bad?¡± all of them looked at Demos, waiting as the tall purple guardian seemed to shrink in on themselves. Demos didn¡¯t like to hurt others and tried not to step on other''s toes or like appendages.


    Demos was about to speak, when an angel took the opportunity to deliver something that was lost by a human recently, wanting to be helpful and that they didn¡¯t want to be holding it any longer. It was creeping them out.


    ¡°That is an arm¡­¡± Space said, their body still and flashing several different colors. They desperately hoped that it was not their target as that would make things so much harder.


    ¡°Don¡¯t humans need that, or am I thinking of lizards?¡± Mat mused, They spent most of their time dealing with rocks and minerals what grows off the land has Such a short life that''s hard to pay attention to. Just to make one diamond the natural way is lifetimes past for any other creature that breathes.


    ¡°Technically they can survive that¡­ if they get medical attention immediately¡­¡± Tia said, knowing that there are several ways to save a life but not all humans knew how, and then there was the fact ¡°I wonder how hard they hit the dimensional wall I''d imagine that would hurt like heck.¡± they said as an afterthought.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think this is the one, um it doesn¡¯t have the stink of extra souls,¡± Demos said hoping that the other were not too mad at them.


    ¡°If we did black hole the planet¡­?¡± Mat said as they looked at their amber claws. Their glittering eyes were focused and their body looked relaxed, that was at least what they were going for.


    ¡°Souls are not affected by black holes, even the ones we make. They will just be stuck there for eternity. That is a long time to figure things out. The problem will still be there just waiting, eventually the universal will reset with new life or if we don¡¯t blow the whole thing up, there will be more than one life-giving planets and they will have all the time in the world to get there.¡± Space was annoyed as Mat had the habit of trying to get their way even when they were wrong.


    ¡°I can not stop time indefinitely in any dimension, with one affecting the other dimensions, I am the stream the dimensions are the forest. I can not cut off the water to one without it affecting the others.¡± Tia answered the question that was going to be asked and answered before they had the chance to another quirk of their biology. The Tree did seem taller, Tia was the tallest of the four but it showed when they laid down the law.


    ¡°Well, that shoots that plan in the foot. Well, this is going to get messy, this one for the last ditch effort,¡± Demos said, with a sigh.


    ¡°What is that?¡± Mat asked Feigning disinterest in a very catlike way.


    ¡°We have to get the humans to turn on them and pull the one back through the hole they made in the wall,¡± Demos said with very little confidence.

 Chapter 6 The wolf In The Trees

    It was a normal day for Ottokar traveling from one city to another. The sun was bright in the sky. It was a hot day with his brown robes and he was sweating under his fox mask. The mask covered his face and had a Pelt of Hair that covered the back of his head and went down his shoulders. The dust of the road was easy to pat away. His fur was ruffled and uncomfortable as it was prone to do after a long walk in his outfit. He hated how he looked and how people looked at him. Many could guess what he was by his job but he liked it when they had to pause and guess. It made them more careful in how they talked to him. He knew what he had been born for and he resented it. He was never allowed to have his own problems because he was supposed to be a peacekeeper, a bridge for the races. It was because he was an ¡®outsider¡¯ he was supposed to have perspective, someone with no money in the game but it just made him lonely. There was only one other of his kind that he had met and he did not care for her personality. Not that she was a bad person, it is just¡­ She was all in for the mission and never had time to talk about Their unique circumstances. All the time it was about what they could do for other people, never what they could do for themselves. He couldn''t even think of her as a potential partner because she had a vow of celibacy. Not that he had thought seriously about having a Partner. To have viable offspring He had limited Options. It was one of the downsides of being a first generation. His genetics were a lot more limited than the rest of the world. There would be a very small percentage chance that there is offspring would be the same race as him. And even then what kind of life that they have? Would they have to grow up solving other people''s problems or Would he end up jealous of them, them with the options that he just didn''t have?


    He was on the edge of the Magiji forest, and the forest''s gloom was a sharp line in the grass. The coastal prairie hit a sharp end into the palm trees. He was just at the Shark Tooth caves and was trading some metalwork for Maigojie City. The Gem Bellies did not like the people of Maigojie so they were hard trading partners because they did not want the silk that Maigoije was known for and their metalwork was in high demand. The Gem Bellies didn¡¯t want any food from Maigoije because one: they had plenty of mushrooms and two: They are vegetarian and the Magiji of Maigoije eat mostly fish. So the Magiji wanted metal and salt and the Gem Bellies of Shark Tooth Cave didn¡¯t want anything from the Magiji. Well, that is not quite true, the Gem Bellies wanted so much lumber and the city of Maigojie was a city of trees. So the one thing that the Gem Bellies wanted from the Magiji was the one thing that culturally they were not going to give up for any money. They settled on shells, Magiji had shells and Gem Bellies thought shells were pretty. But it was a great deal of Shells to metalwork or salt. No one was happy with it but they stopped fighting about it.


    The city of Maigojie was a beautiful place, as many times as he had seen it; he never stopped being impressed. The tree city of the Maigojie was a forest of tall trees with spider silk webbing so thick that the ground always looked like night, the mushrooms thrived with other plants that didn¡¯t need the light. Civilized Life was in the trees as the people were. Which was not fully true. The Magiji children lived on the ground. The palm trees stood like pillars in the gloom. The forest floor was covered in mushrooms that were little homes to the children. Some mushrooms glow and some don¡¯t, some are small and some are bigger than Ottokars head. The smell of the sea rippled in on the wind. The whole city was a cross between macrame, crochet, and kitting. The roads are knitted and the buildings hang like macrame. They had nets that looked like lace. The city was old but the Magiji maintained it to look new.


    The city was mostly a silvery white but the were colors in the blend, he was told that The colors were a matter of eating the source of the dye. There were many sea creatures that the main color change but it was hard because one would have to eat a huge diet of the purple snail to get a small amount of purple silk. It was hugely expensive as the one spinning the silk would not have to time to go fishing for the snails. They were very expensive to have these colors as they never faded like other dyes that faded in the wash away over time. Not that they didn¡¯t use the dyes sometimes after the silk was made, but it was never as vibrant. The silk was soft, beautiful, and stronger than metal. The city was cool during the day and warm at night. They had many things to buy and sell but the main thing people wanted was the silk they could only get from the Magiji. Ottokar knew that they had many great dishes to eat but their food did not travel well, they ate most of their food raw or salted. They lived on trees and silk; it made sense that they did not care for fire, they found it weird that other races used it so carelessly. The Magiji did not care for gems but they did like jewelry made from metal. They did not care for things made from wood as they found it a waste of a good tree. There were many layers of housing to use in just one tree, there were many homes on each tree, and there were many Magiji to house. They did like bone tools as they lasted as they do live a long time. The trade was easy when you knew what to expect. Ottokar had been working as a merchant for many years. For many years he worked with his mother, as she taught him many things on the road as she had him sit in the wagon she pulled along. From language to math and maps to the stars themselves, So he can never get lost at night.


    The Magiji people were a light blue color, from head to toe, with dragonfly wings of many colors, They looked a little like bipedal ants, Their eyes Looked human in shape But the inside Had many lenses, Leaving an eerie effect when they blinked. Their hands and feet were not like ants or humans There were three three fingers on each hand and three toes on each foot. They looked more like bird claws without the claws with their blunt fingers instead. Their chitin was smooth and shiny. As adults they made wigs and clothing out of their silk, They didn''t need either But it was a social status To show off who made the better silk. One of the reasons they wanted to trade with the Gem Bellies was that they made the best sewing supplies.


    As a people were very spiritual but not religious. As far as he could tell there was not a religion but the feeling that there was something greater but It was not their place to dictate what that thing wanted. It was to them that they should live good lives and live and let live. This is in part due to their childhood. The children lived on the ground away from the adults, until they were strong enough to fly to the treetops. Soon after they outgrow their wings. The wings don¡¯t grow when they molt and then they can¡¯t fly anymore. Then they hide their wings in the shell of a large nut that grew on the trees and start spinning silk. The molt was horrifying in Ottokar''s opinion, sliding out of your old skin. He had a nightmare about it when he had learned about it. The molt grew thicker every year, and the oldest of the Magiji had to have help to get out of their skin or they would die. The Magiji lived the longest of the sentient races. The old ones were huge rivaling the badger wolves in size and strength, their skin like armor. The silk holding their weight. They had the best silks to buy, but they tended to use their silks to reinforce the city.


    They act like they never were small and if one was not paying attention one can think that they are not the same species. They lay eggs and then leave them alone, there were one or two adults who teach them to speak but that is all. The babies are as small as dolls, an easy mouthful for a frog. It is the Children that dance on the forest floor. Mostly they just played with each other. They eat or try to eat everything. From pollen to bugs to frogs when they are bigger. Ottokar had seen Grinjaw and the others swarm and devour. He had met Grinjaw early in his childhood on only the second time he had seen the city. She didn¡¯t have a name back then but his nose knew her out of all the Magiji children, she was the one the most curious about him. They spent many a trip hanging out when his mother was trading goods.


    There was the Badger Wolves warehouse, there was one in each town. It was a big building that had no others like it in this city, the city was way up in the trees for one, and the warehouse was on the ground. It was a massive building made from long logs and had a simple door that was easy for Badger Wolves to open but a little hard for Ottokar to open. The wood used was from far away as it was illegal to use Trees As Building materials The forest. The hinge was on the top not the side like in human doors. He was strong but just not as strong as a Badger Wolf and the door was heavy as it was many logs together. He pushed it open, with a grinmace on his muzzle that no one could see. The warehouse was not the best building but then the Badger Wolves were not known for their buildings. The weather did not bother the Badger Wolves, their fur was nearly waterproof and it rarely got cold enough to snow. He pulled his wagon into the warehouse, it was safe there. There was an old badger wolf in the warehouse Skyfang was the one who watched the wagons and warehouse as his job. The Magiji children were small and liked to get into things. Skyfang was not a talker and Ottokar got a nod and that was it but he knew that his wagon would be fine.


    Now the hard part He would have to climb the massive rope ladder to talk to the merchants in the city to see what they wanted to buy, he knew what they wanted to sell, silk was a popular export of the city of Maigojie. The many peoples of the valley Hemohola wanted the strong, waterproof silk, it went for a good price and the people of Maigojie were not lacking in it. The whole city was made of silk, from the building to the roads, the silk held strong.


    Ottokar didn¡¯t care for heights, and the city was high up, with layers and layers of homes, he climbed passes But he climbed up to the top layer, it was hard to tell from the bottom but some trees were only 50 feet but the oldest trees were up to 200 feet. It was a scary climb. Maigojie was by the sea, so there was a lot of fishing in Maigojie, at least Ottokar liked the food, his mother fished for him from time to time, but it had always worried him, Orcas were big and mean enough to eat a swimming badger wolf. He had had bad dreams about Orcas. To think about it he had a lot of bad dreams. On the upside, On land, there was little else that could hurt his mother. She was on top of the food chain. He was on the food chain but not on the top of it. He was stronger than most races but that didn¡¯t not change much. He had never even got into a fight before. He had seen his mother fight but he was young then, not expected to fight only to hide in till it was better.


    The badger wolves could not climb the ropes or the tree to get into Maigojie and the people there liked it that way. They are respected but feared as they don¡¯t turn down a meal and sometimes other sentient are that meal. It was well known not to go to a Badger Wolf for medicinal help. They believe in putting others out of their misery. Because of that Ottokar and a few others were the go-between the Tree City and the Badger Wolves.


    Ottokar was out of breath when he made it to the top. There was more walking to do as the city was 5000 acres across and it had many layers, it was a big place and easy to get lost. He would have to make the climb many times to get the goods that they ordered to them. It would take him a day or two to get everything in the right place, then he could start taking orders again. This was going to be a long trip.


    At the top level, he met with the city head, Frogchacer. A huge Magiji that was the same size as a badger-wolf and was ancient. Their winter was mild and it very rarely snowed. But they still needed food, the sea was rough in the winter and wasn¡¯t safe. They were very relied on fish for their food. So they traded for it. FrogChacer was a kind old Magiji and wanted to talk to Ottokar about his travels. But Ottokar was not sure what to say as he had walked these roads for years and didn¡¯t have much to say about it. He wasn¡¯t one to make up stories so he talked about the Gembelly at Shark Tooth Caves and the people he met there. That was a Mistake as the face of the ancient Magiji Soured by the mention of Gembellies. He had forgotten that they did not get along, The Magiji didn''t understand why the Gembellies didn''t like them. It would be frustrating to be called a liar when you don''t know what you''re supposed to be lying about. Ottokar understood a little bit better why the Gembellies didn''t care for them but he didn''t know how to explain it. It could come down to meanings of hair but to the Magiji hair was purely to show off. To the Gembellies it was a whole language. Ottokar knew the braid for merchant and that was all he needed to know but he was curious about what it all meant but the Gembellies were tight-lipped about it. The chat faded out and he was on his way.


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Then there was Mushroomheart, a sweet old Magiji, though not as old as Frogchacer, who had a love of pottery and plants. She has a gorgeous garden that she is always adding to, getting the dirt up the ladder was the hardest part as it was heavy. She mostly liked to start was seeds, not seedlings. so that made it easier. She always had a tasty fish for him. He had a feeling that she would love tea but it was rude to bring things that needed fire to work. She was sad that she couldn¡¯t have fruit trees because of the weight limit, but she had many berry bushes. Many of the younger Magiji loved her because she shared the fruits of her labor with those just learning how to use crowns, the currency of the city though It was used outside the city but was not preferred. He was hoping to see Grinjaw at Mushroomheart¡¯s place but she wasn¡¯t there, in her place were three Magiji that could still fly. They must be a similar age as Grinjaw but he did not know them. Hopper, Bait, and one that for the life of him he could not remember her name. He asked if they wanted anything but they said they had nothing to trade and what more did they need but the sea? He was not going to argue with that.


    Then he moved on to Twinkletoes who was still young and finding his way through life. He was a year or two older than Grinjaw and was just heavy enough to lose the ability to fly. Ottokar had known him even before he had a name. Magiji doesn¡¯t get a true name in till they fly to the city. Usually, their nicknames become their names. The group that flies up name each other. The names are varied and sometimes hilarious but he knew better than to laugh. It was bad for trade relations. And the Magiji had long memories. Twinkletoes wanted some bone jewelry and some rare food. He had just made his first wig and it was obvious but it would be rude to say so. The wig was too thin and was showing bald spots. He would figure the fine details out soon enough.


    Ottokar wondered where Grinjaw was, she was one to follow him around not that that bugged him as she was one of his best friends. She wasn¡¯t in her home on the first layer or the mushroom garden and he didn¡¯t see her in to marketplace.


    Ottokar¡¯s days went on like this. He was happy and enjoying himself but he did miss his friend.


    ¡ª


    The trees wave in the wind. The massive nest that her people used as a home. GrinJaw was big enough to have a home there on the lower levels but it wasn¡¯t want she wanted. She wanted to see the world. And she wasn¡¯t going to take no for an answer. If Ottokar did not take her she was going to go by herself. She went to the store, it was halfway up the tree. All of her people started their adult life with a hundred ¡°crowns.¡± She was getting used to the money names, money had never been important before. In till she understood it better, she was rare to spend her money.


    Money was a new thing for her. The children didn¡¯t need money as there was food growing all over the place. They could play by the beach and get fish any time they wanted. The blue of the sky and ocean mix together on the horizon, and the clouds are stark white on the blue background. She hated that no matter how high she flew she couldn¡¯t touch a cloud. She didn¡¯t know that she had as mist was just a low-hanging cloud. To be fair she did love flying in the mists that came in from the ocean. The cold air on her Chitin made her invigorated. She had heard of bones and found it weird, why wouldn¡¯t you want an exoskeleton? It just made sense as the hard part was outside but she forgave Ottokar for it. It wasn¡¯t his fault that his biology was weird.


    She was getting older but she didn¡¯t want that life. Just making silk for a living, seemed boring and expected and she liked being unexpected. There were many things in the world. Ottokar talked about the different races and the different Towns. The Shark Tooth Caves of the Gembellies. the Hobs forest called Hornruu, and the human home the Flower Valley, sounded so alien and fascinating. She didn¡¯t like that she wasn¡¯t with Ottokar when he was in town but for her plan to work she had to wait.


    Grinjaw, she was just getting used to the name, There was a naming ceremony not too long ago and her hatch-mates thought it a good name for her. Her best friend wasn¡¯t even a Magiji, it was the Gee-off named Ottokar. She saw his wagon coming a thought of a plan to go with him. His wagon was easy to see as it was much smaller of the badger wolves'' wagons.  She was new to selling her silks and hadn¡¯t even decided how she wanted her wig to look, so she stayed with a bold bald head and was very grateful for Ottokar¡¯s help as she had only recently flown up to the canopy. She had been friends with Ottokar throughout her young life. He had started trading in her area not long after she had hatched. His wagon was not as big back then as he walked with his mother''s wagon.


    There was one thing the Grinjaw wanted to do, she wanted to be on the road. To see more than her forest. So she had a plan, she was going to get on that wagon and go on an adventure. It was a simple plan but it was hers and she was young. So it wasn¡¯t a good plan, Skyfang knew her and knew that she wouldn¡¯t mess with the wagon so she bribed him with three tasty frogs. It was barely a bite for him but he was happy. His old bones hurt and he didn¡¯t like to hunt anymore. So she had been feeding him frogs for so time now. He liked the colorful ones, he says they help the pain.


    Soon it was time for Ottokar to have out. He had the order forms for all the things he was to get. He was happy that it was such a fruitful trip. He was walking down to his wagon and saw a happy Skyfang and a slightly moving tarp.


    ¡°What are you planning?¡± Ottokar said with a sweet smile on his face, he was very fond of Grinjaw. It wasn¡¯t the first time that Grinjaw tried to get into his wagon. With his mask high on his forehead. Ottokar didn¡¯t feel the need to wear his mask with Grinjaw or any badger wolf. They knew what he was by smell alone. There was no hiding from them, so he didn¡¯t hide that he was his mother''s son and was going to live up to her name. The tarp moved again ¡°I can see you moving, what are you up to.¡± there was a giggle as Grinjaw moved from under the tarp.


    ¡°Nothing¡­¡± Grinjaw said unconvincingly her eyes darting back and forth looking at anything but Ottokar. She was never good a lying.


    ¡°I know that look Grinjaw, I¡¯m your friend and I know you, and when you are up to something.¡± He didn¡¯t like that she lying to him but he found it cute despite himself. He found a lot of things about her cute. He had missed her these past few days. He hadn''t seen her at all these past few days going up and down the Silk ladder.


    ¡°Well, I wanted to sneak into your wagon but maybe we can just walk together to the next town, I want to sell my silks of course but I want to see the world!¡± Grinjaw was Happily blathering.


    ¡°You should have asked me, not try to sneak. You¡¯re not good at sneaking Grinjaw.¡± his words had no bite to them. Skyfang found it hilarious but that may be just the colorful frogs he had just eaten. Ottokar had eaten one of the colorful frogs that Grinjaw had handed to him but he didn¡¯t like how it made him see weird colors and made the ground move.


    Otttokar shrugged, why not?


    Many times Ottokar had come and gone but this time is going with a friend. His wagon was huge now that he had grown to his full size and strength. He was part of the Badger Wolves from his mother''s side and human on his father''s side, Their love was not unheard of but was uncommon. He was smaller than his mother''s kin but larger than any human male.


    The badger wolves owned the roads and as one of their kin, he was free to pass. They knew him by their noses so it didn¡¯t matter that he wore a mask. A bone-white mask with swirls that resembled a fox in shape.


    The badger-wolves are big sentient beasts bigger than some bears they look the cross of a Honey Badger and a Grey Wolf. They only care to own the roads and a warehouse in each town. The safest way to travel was with Badger Wolves, they had the monopoly on shipping. They planted miles and miles of fruit trees on the side of the road to encourage small animals to the side of the road for a snack. They are the most wild of the sentient, their thick fur protecting them from the weather. They are the biggest predator around but they find that attacking other Sentient was too much of a bother and would rather trade for their meat.


    Ottokar and Grinjaw started their journey on the road, they weren¡¯t a lot of fanfare as the Magiji people were not very social and very solitary. She said goodbye to her friends but not her parents as the Magiji people did not keep track of such things, laying their eggs The Below in the darkness and mushrooms. The ones who survive fly to the canopy. They did not care who was who.


    Ottokar didn¡¯t care for the canopy as he was not a fan of heights. But he did his job well. He would not ever want to live there.


    With the wagon loaded and goodbyes said Ottokar and Grinjaw started down the road, it was a three-day journey to pull the wagon out of the coastal Prairie where the wind was high. They hit the Hornruu at Noon on the fifth day there was a boom, it was the loudest thing that they ever heard. It was to the right of the road and a few miles away. Curiosity was killing them and they took and detour to see what made the noise. As they traveled closer they found pink crystals with black lighting shapes inside, Crystals of all sizes. They had never seen crystals like that before and Ottokar knew the area well. He was seeing money and not really thinking.


    There was much to do, the crystals were bound to be worth some money as they were never seen here before, and they moved further into the grove of crystals, there was just more and more. It was eerie as there were no bugs or birds that they could hear. Looking closer the crystals sometimes had a bug or small animal inside of them. Despite the cheery color, they both were scared, this was unheard of, this devouring crystal. Suddenly the crystals they had collected looked more like a burden than a boon.


    ¡°I think this place is cursed,¡± Grinjaw said looking back and forth. She didn¡¯t want to touch the ground. She was worried that she would become like the bugs in the crystal. She shook herself the closest thing to a shiver her race can do.


    ¡°I think you may be right¡± Ottokar replied and at that time they heard a moan, high like a woman but in obvious pain. ¡°I think someone is hurt.¡± His ears were more acute than hers and so was his nose. He smelled blood.


    ¡°Someone is alive in this crystal-death storm?¡± Grinjaw said.


    They moved deeper in with their blood pumping in their veins, sweat cooling on their skin, and their mouths dry in anticipation. Grinjaw was reminded of the time that a very large frog had almost made her dinner. Ottokar was reminded of a badger-wolf that had been out of control and was frothing at the mouth. His mother had killed him Quickly but with pity. ¡°The rage disease will turn us mad. This was saving him. Others would have fallen to him and the disease would spread.¡± His Mother said to him that night. He didn¡¯t know why he thought of disease. The Pink Crystal was a stain on the dirt. It was wrong and never should be there.


    It wasn''t far when they saw a black and yellow carriage with nothing to pull it with. That was creepy, it was not on a hill, and it shouldn¡¯t move on its own. There were pink crystals embedded in the carriage. It was moving slowly like it was looking for something. It stopped about two wagons widths away. One side had no doors and a human woman stepped out, she was a darker shade than he had ever seen, she had dark brown skin, black hair, and ember eyes. She smelled of blood, there was blood on her weird dark green clothing, and was favoring her injured hands. They looked like they were bleeding. On the other side of the carriage, a door opened and another human woman stepped out, she was the opposite with red hair and the palest human he had seen before, red-orange hair, her eyes were not the same color and she had a dark mark on her forehead. They did not look like the humans that live in this area. Not in the least.

 Chapter 7: Dirt Under My Finger Nails

    So this is what dying feels like? My heart was out of control and my veins were on fire. The thumping was driving me insane, every inch of me was thumping with my heartbeat and was growing weaker by the second. It was so hard to breathe. My blood was turning cold. I was choking. There was no air coming in and  I knew that I was dying. I looked at my partner, barely turning my head and straining my eyes to see, but she wasn¡¯t moving. Was she dead too? Or just unconscious? I didn''t see any blood on her but you don¡¯t need to bleed out to die, crushed organs came to mind. I wasn¡¯t going to live long to be able to tell. I look to the left, to see the bastard¡­ The Baby Killer O¡¯Brien. He was out of the car and to the left of the driver''s seat. He had a calm smile on his face but there was a gleam of wickedness in his eyes. He said something that I could not hear over the thumping in my ears. I should have cuffed his hand behind his back. It was a rookie mistake and It is my biggest regret. If I died putting him in custody, that would have been one thing and I could rest in peace but to die a let this evil man free was intolerable. His hand was hot as I was rapidly cooling by blood loss. His hands are wet and all I smell is blood, It stifles me, it chokes me and then I am vomiting blood. It doesn¡¯t give me any satisfaction that I coated the other man in blood and vomit.


    The seat is wet, I look to see that it is my blood. My left arm is gone, the arm was cut off from the bicep and everything under that was gone. If I thought I would survive, I would be panicking. There was just clarity, as I remembered the purple claws ripped off the front and back door, had caught me and the seat belt. I hit the steering wheel with my chest, and that¡¯s why I can¡¯t breathe, my lungs are full of blood. The claw must have been super sharp, it cut through the door and my arm like nothing. The blood that was like a geyser was now just dripping away. There was so much blood everywhere. When I was distracted the bastard found my keys. He said something else to me, I saw his lips moving but I didn¡¯t understand any of it. He moved in as if to kiss me, I jerked my head away, and he stopped and looked at the keys, shook his head, got up, and then started to run into the forest. I hadn¡¯t even noticed outside the car, that there was a forest that was covered in the same pink crystals that were on the road before. There were just a whole lot more of them now. The world is now gray and slowly turning black. I was told that there would be a white light, but it was not there. There was a profound silence, that thumping was gone. And so was I.


    When I woke I found that I was dead. Stone cold with no more blood to bleed. I was looking at my body,  I guess it is not mine anymore just something for maggots to eat, a meal for the bugs. There is indeed no such thing as a pretty corpse, i was not a vain man but I wish I looked a little better, chalk white and painted in blood was not a good look for anyone.


    I check on my partner, I lean over my own body to take a look, She seems to be unconscious which is better than I thought. Her breathing looked painful but it was breathing. I looked around as I walked around to the car. Taking stock, I didn¡¯t want to try phasing through anything quite yet. I did occasionally jump and float for a bit, just to see if I could. The woman in the back seat seemed to be still unconscious though she seemed to be more banged up than Officer Murray was. There weren''t exactly seatbelts in the back seat And her face seemed to have hit the Metal grate in between the front seat and the back seat. She had a mark of it on her left cheek It looked like it was going to bruise. I recalled that her name was Moon. Usually, I would only remember the last name but I seem to have perfect clarity now. My life before seemed like writing on a crumpled piece of paper bits and pieces Were Missing Because they folded over them themselves And the memories were faded. If my life was a book it would be in perfect condition now. I remember it all. Even when I was a baby. Honestly, it is a little disturbing.


    I seem to be able to walk around the car or float around the car but I can''t seem to leave my body very far behind to chase after O''Brien. I just couldn''t get that far. I had never expected myself to become a ghost but that''s the only thing I could be. As my body had no more blood left to bleed. Honestly, I didn''t know what to expect when I died. I was under the impression of nothingness or maybe a bright light but there was nothing. I''m just waking up near my body. Made the concept of burial worse. Being stuck day in and day out next to a box in the ground. It was no wonder ghosts would go out to Spook someone just for some entertainment. This seems to be a very deadly traffic stop, and I worry for my partner that they''re going to go through a very rough time. Officer Kenza Murphy was a good egg but this was a complicated case. This time I noticed the pink glowing crystals the darkness inside the crystal seemed to swirl with a dark light. The whole forest grove was shining, twinkling and glowing. It felt like there should have been a sound that went with the change. It could be too bright to see even with my undead eyes and then I heard a voice. It suddenly changed back to normal well as normal as jutting pink crystal could be, And a forest with trees I''d never seen before.


    ¡°Well this isn¡¯t good,¡± It was not in a language that I knew but somehow I knew what was being said, my hearing had been muffled since I died but these words were clear as a bell. I looked back and forth to see where the voice was coming from. Then I saw it, it wasn¡¯t human, it was a small Iridescent elephant with green mushrooms growing off the top of its head and back. It was looking at him with a concerned look. Its eyes are gold, reflecting of my face staring back at me.


    ¡°Pardon me?¡± At times like this it paid to be polite, I didn¡¯t know what this elephant was but it was not a normal elephant, that I could figure out by himself. I had a feeling that I know what this pachyderm was and on the off chance that I am right, I did not want to piss off the Death with a capital D. Who knew what would happen to me if that was the case?


    ¡°This isn¡¯t good, I have no place for your soul to go¡­¡± The Elephant Death said. I am sure of it now. Its trunk grabs one of the mushrooms off the top of its head and eats it. It''s teeth Gleam silver.  ¡°You¡¯re stuck by your body, there is not much I can do¡­ ¡± The Elephant munched on the mushrooms.


    ¡°This is not what I thought death would be like¡­ there is no place for me? was I that bad of a person?¡± Arnold Clay said in words only heard by the dead and the gods. As the dead as so often said to talk to the living, it is rarely true and when it is they don¡¯t publicize it. No one truly wants to know the thoughts of the dead. It may inconvenience some theories that they have. As a cop, once or twice he thought it would be nice if the victim could tell them who had done it. But if there were any certainty mediums would be the first people to start dying. And If a medium was real, then there would be fake ones alongside and that would make the whole ¡®He said¡¯ ¡®she said¡¯ a whole lot worse.


    I stopped thinking for a bit. Was I just thinking in the third person? Why was I thinking in the third person? I just didn¡¯t do that, was it just a side effect of being dead? Is this what all good people went through? He would never know because he¡­ he was doing it again.


    ¡°It¡¯s not that you were a bad person,¡± The Elephant paused and then added  ¡°that I know of, It¡¯s that, you just came out of a huge dimensional hole and are on the wrong side of the wall. I don¡¯t know you, Your Death is on that side of the wall¡± the Elephant points Its truck to the thickest batch of crystals ¡°They would know what to do with you, me on the other foot¡± the elephant points Its trunk on its self ¡°Have a very organized system and you just don¡¯t fit.¡± the Elephant Death Shrug its shoulder.


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    ¡°So I¡¯m to be trapped next to a corpse¡± as a ghostly finger points to his recently deceased body with a purely emotional shake. At least I had both arms in death ¡°I hate to do this but is there anyone higher up that I could talk to?¡± Sometimes it was time to call the manager, but I was not sure what the manager of Death would be. No one liked a manager being called having time to get his supervisor involved when in his younger days or with somebody who is particularly entitled. In the later years, he was called the manager,  the supervisor, As the one who knows all the rules inside-out His job is to deal with them. I could not imagine what the Minefield must be to Be a manager of Death itself.


    The Elephant Death just humph with a trumpet on their trunk. ¡°Rude, but since I have no idea what to do with you.¡± Then the Elephant Death trumpeted louder than a steam engine. Holding his ears did nothing to help the sound, as both his arms and ears were insubstantial. It was a sound that will always be in his memories.


    There was silence then the world rippled and a monster of a unicorn stepped into reality. Imagine a Unicorn then now imagine its weightlifting cousin. The unicorn was huge, its body unlike a horse-like body instead try imagining a moose. It had sky blue fur and its mane and tail an orange-pink. Its horn was as long as a sword and it looked just as sharp.


    I was hooked by the majestic look of the unicorn. It was the scariest thing I had ever seen, but the loveliest as well. It had no shadow, for it was light itself.


    ¡°¡­ ¡± The sound it made hurt and I could not understand it, It was like the most perfect bell, blasting from loudspeakers for a concert when you''re 3 inches from it. I could hear nothing but the bell-like sound And it was so close that I couldn''t understand it. The unicorn looked embarrassed and spoke in a whisper ¡°I have come, what do you need Death?¡± it looked curious at me like it wanted to ask about me but was too polite to do so. the voice was beautiful, Like bells Tinkling and chiming and dinging It was Musical It was undescribable And if he had been alive He thinks it would have driven him insane. Apparently, there is some sort of clarity after death. The veil lifted and I suddenly realized my whole life was on a stage and now the lights were down and I could see the whole room looking at me. At the end, I wonder if they''re cheering or booing. Then This Unicorn would be the person sitting in the back taking notes.


    The Elephant Death did not have that same problem that the unicorn did. It didn''t care to be polite ¡°That!¡± it glared with its gold eyes and pointed its truck at me. ¡°is not one of mine and you need to deal with it.¡± I was not happy with having the Elephant Death talk about me like I was the dog stool on the carpet but I was too fearful of what The Unicorn might do. If Death was an elephant what stops God from being a Unicorn?


    ¡°You¡¯re right, he does not belong here¡± The Unicorn looks around ¡°The world is bleeding, did you do this?¡± a three-hoofed foot pointed at the crystals. the crystals before but this time I really looked at them, the slow-moving lightning strikes in the crystals, the crystals were everywhere trapping birds and bugs alike. The crystals look like ice shards, Despite the happy color, it was cold and terrirfing. They look sharp like Shattered Glass or Dangerous icicles.


    ¡°It was not I, but my prisoner O¡¯Brien who started this mess, he ran into the woods as I was dying. I had caught him for a heinous crime But He did something I didn¡¯t understand and then we were in a hall of beautiful stone with a creature that ripped the doors off and dealt me the fatal blow¡± Officer Clay said, flowery was the way he was going to play it. He had always loved old Plays and he died anyway who cares about cringe?


    ¡°Ah so it was Demos was the one to slay you, they must be heartbroken not to have stopped this tragedy,¡± The Unicorn said with little emotion. There seemed to thoughts running through its eyes but it was still, unnaturely still. It wasn¡¯t breathing and it wasn¡¯t hold its breath. it ¡­ just didn¡¯t need to breath. Then the words caught up to Me.


    ¡°My death is a tragedy?¡± I was touched until the next words were said. I knew that my life was Probably going to end in a violent fashion but I would have never put money on this outcome.


    ¡°You being here is a tragedy!¡± it was a harsh whisper ¡°Look around you! These crystals are the blood clots of the universe, everything that they touched is dead!¡± Air blew out of its great nostrils ¡°I can get you back where you belong but I need all of you in one place!¡± the was anger in its beautiful face.


    ¡°Then what will happen to me?¡± I said


    ¡°You will be free and go into the afterlife,¡± said the unicorn


    ¡°So my reward is death?¡± As Officer Clay said he wondered if an officer was an important distinction at this point. It was till death that he worked that job, wasn¡¯t his part over?


    ¡°You are a ghost from another world, you can only attach to things that are from that world, your ¡®reward¡¯ is a fair judgment from your Universes Death¡± it flapped its mane ¡°It¡¯s only on a loophole you do not face oblivion¡± The Unicorn was annoyed.


    If the dead could gulp I would have. ¡°I see, pardon my impertinence.¡± I hurried to say.


    ¡°A ghost with a core code is a dangerous thing, my lord,¡± The Elephant Death said


    ¡°He was through Demos¡¯ halls, it is the only reason that they did not all die by hitting the dimensional wall.¡± The unicorn said and I wished I understood what they meant.


    ¡°Who knows what damage they did to the hall.¡± the unicorn stomped its foot and there was a small tremor in the world. ¡°Otherwise the core code would not be intact. The dimensional wall is the last step of death.¡± the last part was said to me.


    ¡±That madman almost killed us all,¡± I said to myself.


    ¡°That would have been better for all involved. If killing you and them now would solve anything I would do it, what I need is for you to go back to your universe. You all as ghosts could do a lot of damage to the land.¡± The stare was unnerving I noticed that the unicorn''s eyes were not black but a whole nebula of stars.


    ¡°What do I do? I have nothing, I am but a ghost¡± Clay was at a loss.


    ¡°Then you are lucky that you have no work to do. May the living deal with the living. I have to talk to the remainder of your party to get you out of my world as fast as possible.¡± with that, The Unicorn stepped out of Death''s domain and into Life¡¯s.


    My focus was back on the car, where the muffled sounds of life were coming from the car, the Ow¡¯s and gasp of breath. They were alive, even though The Unicorn made it sound like a bad thing.

 Chapter 8: The Sea and The Moon.

    There was a car that was in a clearing in the woods with trees that had never been seen before, this car was covered in Pink crystals that had an inner glow of black Lightning. The car looked like it had been spared most of the crystals as the clearing was covered with a thick layer of the stuff.


    There was blood dipping out of the driver''s side of the car, into a huge pool of blood. For a time that was the only sound, then the silence was cut.


    ¡°Ahh! My head,¡± Kenza said, shaking her head she could not see straight, it kept on blurring and going in and out of focus. It was the worst migraine she had ever had. Light hurt, sound hurt and she wanted to vomit. She was pretty sure that she had whiplash.


    ¡°That was a trip,¡± Purdy said, who was ironically faring a little bit better because of the alcohol in her system. She was now very sober by the trip. Purdy''s head was clear, and she was cringing at how badly she had acted at the liquor store.


    ¡°That hurt, fuck that hurts¡± Kenza wasn¡¯t paying attention to Purdy, she was lost in the sensation. Purdy words were just sounds to her and sound just hurt at this time. Kenza wished that all the sound would stop.


    With her more focused eyes, Purdy saw it first, her eyes were a little blurry so it looked like it had just come out of the ether. ¡°What is that? A moose? An Unicorn?!¡± Purdy screams ¡°Why is it blue?¡± Then she looks down at her lap, strangely calm. ¡°That''s not right, I must have hit my head.¡± Her disbelief was strong ¡°I must be drunk. That¡¯s a weird ass Unicorn¡­ There is no such thing as Unicorns¡± She had had a fair amount of Unicorn-themed Trinkets as a young girl but they were never a real thing. Especially one that looked more like a moose than a horse. Her mind was wandering And she did not take The Unicorn seriously.


    In the front seat, Kenza Finally got her eyes under control, she started to think with her other senses She smelled blood. Her more focused eyes turn to the driver seat ¡°Oh my god! Clay!¡± Kenza unclasped her seatbelt and grabbed the late body of Officer Arnold Clay ¡°No! Clay! You can¡¯t be dead!¡± she put her head on his chest and heard no heartbeats then she saw the bloody stump of his arm. She burst into tears. A litany of no¡¯s was pouring from her mouth. She would have stayed that way if she hadn¡¯t heard Purdy yell ¡°He is gone! O¡¯Brien is gone!!!¡± That got Officer Kenza Murphy''s attention, her eyes full of tears and her heart full of hate for the man who started this.


    ¡°When I find that man I will kill him,¡± Kenza swore at the heavens. There was a thought in the back of their mind, If they felt this horrible How come O''Brien managed to make it Away when They were barely functioning.


    ¡°¡­ ¡± said The Unicorn but no one heard them. The Unicorn always had a hard time talking in the living world; It was hard to get the volume right. The wrong volume tended to blow out eardrums and cause insanity. They walked over to the car with missing doors and leaned in. The Unicorn''s huge head was in the back seat. The knife-like horn was too close to Purdy¡¯s nose.


    ¡°It¡¯s putting its head in!¡± Purdy said as she felt the hot breath of The Unicorn. ¡°Holy shit! It is real!¡± her eyes were crossed to look at the horn at the tip of her nose.


    ¡°I can see that!¡± Kenza Replied in a panicked voice. She had not seen the giant beast coming and its unique coloring was worrying As she had never heard of a mammal with blue fur. Wasn''t bright colors a sign of Venomous? or poisonous? She couldn''t remember at the moment her head still hurt too much.


    ¡°Silence! I¡¯m not going to keep waiting for you!¡± it was a harsh whisper that hurt their ears like a train whipping by your face. It stunned them to silence.


    ¡°¡­ ¡±Both women stared and wanted to be anywhere but there.


    The unicorn looked at both women ¡°Good now there are things we need to talk about, you have some choices to think about, but first thing first, you are unwelcome guests to MY¡± the world reverberated ¡°Universe. The one called Clay already told who is at fault, no questions in till I''m done.¡± he said to Kenza who was about to talk ¡°The one at fault has run away and it is a big world, I need you to get him back. I can fix things but I need him back here to avoid more damage to my universe. But I see the need to help you to get anything done.¡± the unicorn paused to look at both of them Can you get out of this thing? I¡¯m bent at a weird angle.¡± the attempt at humor was not taken. It was taken as an order, and they scrambled out of the car.


    When out of the car it hit them just how big the Unicorn was at least 10 feet tall not counting the sword-like horn. Purdy wiggled in her handcuffs.


    ¡°Okay, this won¡¯t be easy but¡­ wait why is she handcuffed?¡± the unicorn said


    ¡°She was drunk and disorderly,¡± Officer Kenza Murphy said without Sympathy.


    ¡°I think this has been a sobering experience enough for her to be uncuffed this is going to be unpleasant enough as it is.¡± the unicorn said


    ¡°this sounds like this is going to suck,¡± Purdy said


    ¡°it is, I¡¯m going to be adding to you, it is going to hurt.¡± the unicorn said


    ¡°you first ¡± The cop Uncuffed Purdy and pushed Purdy forward


    ¡°First you need to know to people are talking about¡± The unicorn poked her on the forehead with its wicked-looking horn and It was the worst pain she ever had. In a moment she understood the trees and the bugs and anything in her view, it was the most painful thing ever. She understood that what stood in front of her was a GOD, not just a Unicorn, the human brain is not built to understand divinity and she was going to go mad. She saw the universe in all its splendor and horror.


    ¡°Please it is too much! I¡¯m going to go mad!¡± Information was flying past her brain faster than she could think it was flashing light and massive sounds the entire world, the Universe, was information that she could understand if it wasn¡¯t flashing by so fast.


    Into the Multiverse, it started fast she knew it was very fast but it was slow to her. There was meaning everywhere, the red belly of the lizard-bird meant that it was looking for a mate. The lizard-bird was in the pink crystal. The half of a tree was covered in crystals, the lizard-bird was just flying off the tree. Frozen in time. The tree was dying, the leaves shriveling, as they would on a hot day. The bugs flying around. She knew what they were looking for. It was like she was looking at a book with font that was too small.The bugs were moving and it was hard to read the font. it was the closest thing her head could translate it to. She was lost in Sensation


    but it wasn''t in till she looked deeper into the unicorn''s eyes. And she saw the true nature of the thing. This looked like a Unicorn but it was so much more than what a Unicorn would suggest. Her soul was stinging but still, she looked even deeper into the unicorn''s eyes. and what she saw was Like coming up from the water. She turned around and saw the Lily pad, and the water in between the Lily pads were the connections of universes and each Lily pad was a universe in and of itself in the very center of this massive Lily pad garden was a sun that gave off the feeling of a flower, Tiny particles that resembled pollen fell on the Lily pads and were absorbed and as she looked closer into the sunflower She felt the memory that was before her brain had been even formed a memory so deep in her soul. She looked and she knew that the pollen was souls. Populating each lily pad that was The same iteration of the soul just from the same core just multiple times over falling into different worlds. It was excruciating, the horn was holding her in place, her pupils were overcoming her irises, and her eyes were stuck in lock with the God that had its horn to her forehead. She couldn¡¯t look away, the tears were overflowing from her eyes. But she could see the truth, This Unicorn was a God, a universe, and only a small part of a huge whole. ¡°please,¡± she gurgled as Snot her sinuses and Spit Filled her mouth, it was hard to breathe. Tears flowed from her unblinking eyes.


    ¡°please stop!¡± She would have screamed if she wasn''t completely under its control. The Unicorn blinked in surprise, Time for the blessed second, the God eyes were closed she could rip her graze away she did not wanna meet the gaze of the Unicorn again, Seeing the true shape of the multiverse was damaging enough the first time she didn''t wanna round two. She couldn''t close her eyes despite her desperate wish to but she looked to the side just her eyes to see the tree again that was half encased in crystals. She knew that the tree was screaming and her voice was too low for her to hear. ¡°please, help me!¡± She wanted to scream but all that came out was a whisper.


    ¡°ahh, too much I see. Less then¡±


    the tree''s Screams faded out of her consciousness. bugs became bugs again instead of piles of information that was hard for her to decipher not because it was unclear but because there was so much of it. ¡°pleasee¡­ please.. stop.¡± The hope was gone in her voice that the searing pain in her forehead would ever stop.


    ¡°A little less than.¡± It was a cold and Indifferent voice that cut through all of the information


    ¡°Please, please this is too much!¡± Purdy begged in pain. Holding on to the voice as she was lost in a sea of information.


    ¡°Less than, maybe an activation?¡± The Unicorn was talking to itself.


    She was on the floor twitching in pain. There was a mark on her forehead now. Seared into her forehead like a brand.


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    ¡°Your turn¡± The unicorn turned to Kenza, Stared with little consideration, and then nodded slightly ¡°You need to braid three strands of my hair.¡± There was no saying no to this Unicorn. The Braiding would be easier than the agony that she just saw Purdy go through. The strands are sharp like fiberglass but she braided and braided by the time it was three feet, her hands were bleeding. The pain was like fire. Then the braid wrapped itself around her right wrist. Her hand is bleeding; the blood dripping to the ground. The hair never seemed to end. There was always more of it. She didn¡¯t see it grow but it was like being on a treadmill; walking but not getting anywhere.


    She said nothing. She was going to tough it out. She was not going to give this Unicorn an inch if she could. She went through training and she was strong. Her hands are ripped to shreds. Any place that the hair touched was cut. The mane hair looked so soft but must hurt more than putting your hand in a horde of jellyfish.


    ¡°This will give you credibility, do not abuse it, it uses your blood,¡± said the Unicorn. The whisper that it spoke with still hurt the ears of those who heard it. Purdy seemed dead to the world, her eyes vacant and drooling from her mouth. She was breathing heavily. The sound Inspired fear which angered Kenza. She didn¡¯t like to be afraid.


    ¡°How so? It''s just a braid¡± Kenza was not Impressed; it did not seem worth cutting up her hands. She was angry that she had gone along with this nonsense. This Unicorn was just fucking with them. It seemed like it liked to hurt them.


    ¡°It will look like any document that you want. It will always come back to you. It is bonded to you by blood. It makes one document only. Your blood is the ink so more than one page is dangerous.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t do much with just one document,¡± she said. She was thinking back to the mountains of paperwork that her job entails. How she would be suspicious if any of her colleagues came in and wanted her to do anything with just one document. But maybe if she treated it like donating blood with lots of cookies and orange juice to help with the blood loss.


    ¡°It''s better than nothing and I''m not giving you unlimited power of any kind, it is not good for you¡± The Unicorn scolded her. Honestly, a mild scolding from the Unicorn was more terrifying than screaming from an out-of-control junkie. Not only was the Unicorn huge, intelligent, and powerful. there is something that she could not place. The epitome of the wrongness she felt in this world that was different than hers. She could tell that this wasn''t part of her world the animals, the plants, the very dirt itself told her that it was a place that she''d never even heard of.


    ¡°What did you do to her?¡± She ignored the scolding and asked the question instead. It was her intention to not let the Unicorn know that it had unnerved her so. She wanted the illusion of power even though she knew that she couldn''t have the real thing. The unicorn was in charge whether she liked it or not.


    ¡°She can translate any language spoken to her¡± The Unicorn was proud of his thinking. They didn¡¯t need to tell her about the environmental controls that were already placed upon her. They prevented her from becoming sick but it was more about hers not bringing sickness into a world unprepared for it.


    ¡°That''s a lot.¡± Kenza was impressed. She didn''t want to be but she was impressed. It seems like a very useful skill though she didn''t see how it would directly affect them. In the stories, they always got something interesting like lightning powers, flamethrowers, etc. No, some grand power wouldn''t be very helpful if you''re not supposed to kill your enemy only contain them. And coming down like an avenging God of Thunder wouldn''t do much help with the locals if they couldn''t say hi or bye to them.


    ¡°Only when spoken to her, and it nearly killed her, you braided as much as you could, this is what you get. If you had braided more you would have got more.¡± The Unicorn said, and Kenza Highly doubted that The Unicorn ever experienced something that she would call pain. The Unicorn looked at her as if she was like an Organism so tiny and inconsequential, that they could barely look at her through a microscope.


    ¡°¡­¡± She had nothing to say to that. Purdy was still on the dirt in pain. ¡°What are we doing here?¡± She whispered to herself not expecting an answer but an answer she got.


    ¡°Being a nuisance! One that I want gone, you need the find the spell caster and bring them back here!¡± the world rippled like water at the last word. ¡°Then I can send you home without ripping apart this world. Since it is my world I would like for it to stay intact. Luckily that Demos was fast with the environmental controls¡± the unicorn said Obviously irritated its wicked head back and forth its mains splaying in the air. Kenza Give it a wide berth remembering how sharp the hairs were.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t see anyone, who is demos?¡± Kenza asked The sharpness in her voice had been reduced for this question and she found that she could not remember seeing anyone else. Since they had arrived here.


    ¡°You really didn¡¯t see a large purple bipedal went you went through the hall of dimensions, that''s some focus you have there.¡± the unicorn said


    ¡°That thing?!¡± Purdy said, Apparently awake to the world at this point. She had been quietly zoned out for a while and Kenza had practically forgotten about her. Honestly, she had been surprised that the Drunk had not Vomited with their rough landing and then with her getting her head poked. Though she supposed that if they had vomited when the Unicorn was poking her forehead she would have drowned upon it.


    ¡°Watch what you say! They are the reason that you are not choking and dying for the microorganisms in the air, they stop you from being a plague ship.¡±The Unicorn said even though his voice was still in a whisper it was a harsh whisper that still choked the air around it.


    ¡°Oh my god,¡± said Kenza not thinking


    ¡°Yes?¡± there was a pause ¡°Well not your God I guess,¡± said the Unicorn God. The Unicorn seemed to be chuckling at their joke. They were knowing That the humans did not mean them them. But they took every opportunity to rub in their faces that they was a God.


    ¡°I find the hard to believe but here we are and I¡¯m going to have to trust my eyes and ears,¡± Kenza said As she actively did not believe her eyes and ears. Honestly, she was waiting to wake up hoping that when she did it Clay would still be alive in O''Brien would be in custody and the drunk could just shut up.


    ¡°A little help here,¡± said Purdy on the ground ¡°I want up.¡± to Kenza Annoyance the drunk was talking again. She didn¡¯t want to help her. Honestly, she had a fair amount of animosity towards the woman as she felt that she made O''Brien panic and that''s what caused him to rip a hole through the universe dragging her unfortunate butt with them. If the damn drunk could have kept her mouth shut maybe Officer Clay would be alive right now.


    ¡°My hands are all torn up,¡± Kenza said, She said as some excuse She wasn''t interested and helping the woman, the drunk, the foul mouth brat.


    ¡°An elbow then, come on man!¡± Purdy whined And that annoyed her even more. The drunk probably wouldn''t know this but she had always been sensitive about her looks going into a more masculine job and having a square jaw had one or more comments thrown her way. That Filled her with rage and she snapped.


    ¡°Fuck you, I am a lady¡± Officer Kenza Murphy said In an icy tone that suggested violence. Purdy heard that tone loud and clear and changed her Tactics.


    ¡°Please Ma¡¯am, there is a rock in my back it is very uncomfortable,¡± Purdy said No longer whining but very sincere. It was true there was a rather large stone pushing against her rib cage on the left side. She was pretty sure she would have a bruise.


    Kenza now mollified walks over to The fallen woman, offering an elbow, even with her hand torn up her arm muscles are strong and Purdy was pulled up with no problems.


    ¡°Damn I am dizzy,¡± Purdy said As the dizziness almost overtook her and she stumbled Trying hard to keep her feet under her.


    ¡°Whiner,¡± Kenza said under her breath but it was loud enough for her to hear.


    ¡°That felt like a horn going through my forehead, you just have some cuts on your hands¡± Purdy was Offended the Unicorn had said she had almost died so she feels that she had gotten the short end of the stick.


    ¡°My hand is burning and bleeding¡± Her hands looked bad but she was not one to wine about her problems. They were Shredded and in need of many bandages. The braid looked innocuous on her right wrist. It was soft as silk when she touched it now. How weird.


    ¡°Yeah looking at your hands, they look really bad, does the car have a first aid kit? I can help, don¡¯t want you bleeding all over the supplies.¡± Purdy said trying to be friendly.


    Kenza was suspicious but had no reason to reject her offer.


    The unicorn finding that their work was done turns to the ghost and remembers one last thing ¡°I would not bury that body if I were you. Mr. Clay would not like to be stranded alone¡±


    ¡°How do you know his name!?¡± Kenza was flustered


    ¡°I am God. if you forget, I can tell you again,¡± the unicorn was bored


    ¡°Are you saying that he is a ghost?¡± Purdy said in Horror. She had always been indifferent about an afterlife but the thoughts of ghosts have always unnerved her.


    ¡°That is exactly what I am saying, due to him being in my universe and not his own universe, he is currently attached to his body, not that it did him any good.¡± said the Unicorn


    ¡°Does that mean he is alive?¡± Kenza was hopeful


    ¡°No he is very dead, his soul is unable to move on,¡± The Unicorn said


    ¡°That is horrible!¡± Purdy said


    ¡°And that same will happen to you, if you don¡¯t hurry up and fix this¡± The Unicorn reply


    ¡°Why can¡¯t you fix this?¡± Purdy Says


    ¡°My way of fixing this is to blow up this planet which still wouldn¡¯t solve the problems with your souls. The taint Is too strong. So unless you want to float into space with no chance of moving on you are going to do what I say¡± the unicorn said ¡°You¡¯re saving me trouble and you''re saving your behind, it would be quite annoying if you all became ghosts, especially the spell caster, he has a really weird soul. If he could rip a hole through dimensions, I hate to see what his soul would do to the afterlife.¡± the unicorn said


    ¡°So a bullet through the head is a bad idea?¡± it was on both of their minds but only Kenza said it. She had the gun, and she started to think that they should have just shot him when he ran away from his car.


    ¡°A very bad idea, his soul is unstable I¡¯m not sure what he did to it but it is unnatural. What do you know about him?¡± The Unicorn said


    ¡°He is the baby killer, a serial killer in our world, the body recovered where mutilated and like possibly eaten,¡± Kenza said


    ¡°That giving me an idea, I will have to talk to your god and see what comes up¡± With that around the unicorn began to ripple and disappear.


    ¡°Any chance that was a mass hallucination?¡± Purdy said


    ¡°If so, we are still hallucinating cause the pink crystals are still here,¡± Kenza said

 Chapter 9: A Stormy Sea and A Cold Moon

    The silence Was oppressive. The woods were Empty of the sound of birds, squirrels, and bugs alike. The pink Crystal covered the land in silence like snow.


    After the Booming whispers of the unicorn was gone.Neither one of them wanted to speak to break The overwhelming silence. Suddenly realized there was a One sound in the silence  The cars engine was still rumbling slowly. Kenza quickly turned it off.


    After The Unicorn left there was silence, and neither knew what to say, they turned back to the car and the dead body within. They had to move the body of Officer Clay to drive the car. The door to the driver seat was gone, the seat belt was cut open and the body of the officer was slumped over the steering wheel. The ground outside of the car was coated in blood. The thick coat of crystals on the ground was slippery, dangerous, and sharp. They thought about what they would do with the body.


    ¡°Before we do anything, we need to move him. We need the car.¡± Kenza was forcing herself to look at her dead friend and mentor, her voice was tight to not let any emotion through. If she did she was not sure she could get through this and make the right decisions.


    ¡°This is so fucked¡­ I¡¯ve never seen a dead body before. Is there always this much blood?¡± Purdy was running her mouth not thinking about how this was making Kenza feel. Purdy was freaking out, she had refused to see the pictures of her mother''s accident and it made her wonder if there had been this much blood as well.


    ¡°Do you ever stop talking?¡± the question was low and dangerous, Kenza was staring at Purdy with murder in her eyes. Kenza was not in the mood for 20 questions Especially since she hadn''t seen that many dead bodies herself. She was fairly new to the force and she was not one who wanted innocent blood on her hands, itchy trigger fingers, and misunderstandings sometimes cause accidents that can never be taken back. She knew that it was a possibility and that eventually, She would have blood on her hands just by the nature of her job, guilty or innocent there was a chance of death if she didn¡¯t do her job perfectly. She felt like she had found peace with what was going to be an eventuality. No one out-runs death and she was in a job that chased danger but she was not in a rush to find out if could handle it or if it would ruin her.


    ¡°Sorry, I talk when I am nervous, it¡¯s just a habit,¡± Purdy said, a little shaken by the Violence in Kenza''s voice. The silence was heavy and Purdy was afraid to move then Kenza said


    ¡°You must but nervous all the time, because I have yet to see you be quiet for more than 5 minutes. You tend to run your mouth; To the detriment of us all. Why the hell did you talk to O¡¯Brien like that? This is your fault!¡±  Kenza''s  stepped into Purdy space, she was taller than Purdy. She leaned down so that they were nose to nose. Her voice started low but ended in a yell.


    ¡°How the hell was I to know, that he could rip a hole through the very fabric of reality! That creep has been taunting me all day!¡± Purdy yelled back, her fists were clenched and her arms were straight down and her chest forward. there was a fire in her eyes now. She knew her temper was getting ahead of her, the blood in her veins was hot. She knew her temper was not the answer but she was losing to it. She knew she had fucked up so many times today but she was not going to take the fall for some psycho!


    ¡°How the hell was he ¡®taunting¡¯ you?¡± Kenza said with air quotes ¡°You were bearly in the back seat more than 5 minutes before it all went to hell! And as much as I think he is guilty, you don¡¯t know shit! You escalated and scared him causing him to do this whole mess!¡±  Kenza was not letting this go, she wanted someone to blame and this drunk was right there. She was so angry that her eyes lost focus again. She was not seeing red but she was close to it.


    The ghost of Clay was shaking his head, this was not how to make allies and Kenza needed allies at this moment. The living world was fuzzy to him but he could hear clear enough to know that Officer Murphy was close to making an enemy of her only ally.


    ¡°The creepy bastard was staring and smiling at me in the cafeteria in the hospital when I was there vis-.¡± She was cut off by Kenza.


    ¡°Staring and smiling is not a crime.¡± It was said with a sneer, that Kenza leaned back and looked at her with narrowed eyes.


    ¡°Yeah, but it is creepy as hell! Are you really going to defend a cannibal?¡±


    ¡°The only rules that we know that he has spoken is the laws of reality. There is a small possibility that he stole that car And that''s why he was running away.¡±


    ¡°You can''t possibly believe that! Who rips a hole through the fabric of reality over a stolen car? The fact that we are here is a pretty good indication that he is guilty as hell!¡± Purdy¡¯s voice was horse, the alcohol, the crying at Terra¡¯s bed and yelling with Kenza had taken its toll. She was so very tired. She was moving on fumes of rage.


    The ghost of Officer Clay thought that Officer Murphy was trying so hard to be a good cop that she was not being a smart cop. Officer Murphy needed to be calm, that was the first step to de-escalation. If the person with a gun wasn¡¯t calm how could anyone else be?


    ¡°Enough! We have more important things to do.¡± She was avoiding answering the accusation. She would do anything then be wrong in this conversation.


    Kenza knew that there was an emergency blanket in the trunk. ¡°I¡¯m going to need your help with this¡± Her face was pinched holding back tears. the shock of the evening started to fade away and the aches of her body from the crash had come back in force. Purdy was not feeling much better as she was in the back seat with no seat belt. Her face was cut where she had hit the metal grating that separated the front from the back seat. Her wrist was cut by the handcuffs, but worse of all was the throbbing of the unicorn''s horn mark.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll help¡± She had known the man for maybe 20 minutes but she was still saddened but his death, it did not look like a fun way to go. Long since sober from the events she moved with all the grace that she could muster, which wasn¡¯t much. She helped move the man who was slippery with his blood.


    It was a tight fit with the two of them, Purdy was trying to get his feet out of the foot well, she was crouching in the blood trying not to slip on the bloody crystals, a few crystals were judding upward threatening to slice up her knees. Pulling out the big black booted feet one at a time, After she had put her hand on her calves she found the dark green slacks were sticky and she found the lack of warmth disturbing. She tried to keep her hand only on the heel of his boots. That way she could pretend she was not handing a corpse.


    Kenza had a harder job, she could not pretend that he was alive, she was staring at his vacate eyes, his busted nose, his lax jaw, blood from his nose and throat coating his face. Her eyes darted down but found no relief. The torn and bloody clothing and the stump where his arm used to be. There were three long gashes along his ribs. She couldn¡¯t tell how deep they went but as she looked to the side over Purdy¡¯s head, the deep lines through the side of the car, she was sure that they were deep, most likely puncturing his lung. It almost made her feel better, even if they had been able to tourniquet his arm fast enough, he would not have been able to survive with his ribs sliced open in the middle of the wood with no doctor in sight.


    Clay was not a particularly tall man But he was heavily corded with muscles. Even then he had a little pouch of fat on his stomach.  Kenza never asked how heavy he was.


    She grabbed his large shoulders, the blood making her grip impossible, she settled by grabbing the back of his uniform, as it was honestly the driest place on him. As she hauled him up and out of the car, the force of her yank caused her to start to slip on the crystal. Purdy in a quick motion grabbed her legs to steady her. Kenza bit off a shriek as the combination of falling and being unexpectedly held was throwing her for a loop. Once she was steady Purdy let go of her and focused on the dangling legs in front of her. Clay¡¯s body had fallen back into the car and his upper torso was laid out over the passenger seat.


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    She panted three times and then took one deep breath, ¡°Okay, okay, I can do this, he is twice my size but there are two of us, we can do this.¡± Kenza said, not wanting any answers but needing the pep talk. Purdy was wise enough not to say anything this time. Then Kenza kneeled and was handed the leg closest to her. She turned her head to Purdy and Purdy nodded her head, the plan was set and they slowly started to put the heavy body out of the car, they had to fight to stay upright as the slippery crystal threatened to introduce them to a concussion. When Clay was half out of the car and threatening to flop to the floor Kenza handed Purdy the leg she was holding and moved up to his torso, slipping a hand between his stump and shoulder, with a mighty heave she managed to get her other arm behind his back and under his other armpit.


    With a mighty heave, the body of clay was in the air. Their legs shook under the weight. Purdy¡¯s Dainty shoes were slippery as the splashes of blood soaked through her socks but her hold on Clay¡¯s legs was firm, one on either side of her hips. Kenza was having a harder time holding the very wet upper half of Clay, she had the heavier side of him but her combat boots did not slip as easily.


    They managed not to drop him though there were close calls once or twice. They didn¡¯t go far just a few feet, just to get out of the blood puddle.


    They laid him on the emergency blanket. As Purdy went to lay the edges over his face Kenza told her to wait ¡°Wait, I need to say some word first¡± Then she was silent for a long time.


    ` ¡°Arnold Clay, I don¡¯t know if you can hear me but I¡¯m going to say it anyway. Here lies Arnold Clay; an honorable man. You always told me to be the best I can be. To always follow the law and always act concerning those under my power. You didn¡¯t talk much but you always made what you said matter. Your respect for life was great, I¡¯m happy that you were my mentor. I am a better person for knowing you, I¡­ I¡± She had no other words as she burst into tears. Her sobs were loud and uncontrolled. She rolled in on herself mumbling ¡°I don¡¯t even know where your arm is¡­¡± Purdy sat down next to the crying woman and put an arm on her shoulder, it was shrugged off and she was given a nasty look before her face crumpled and she started to cry more. Purdy knew that Kenza didn¡¯t want comfort but that she needed it. She had failed her best friend and there was nothing she could do about that but she could help this woman in front of her. ¡®You don¡¯t have to like someone to show compassion¡¯ was something that Terra would say when Purdy¡¯s temper would get the better of her. Purdy put her hand on her shoulder and this time there were no complaints as she rubbed her back with small motions.


    Arnold was flatter that Kenza thought so highly of him. He sat near his body, he wanted to hug the young police officer.


    After about 15 minutes give or take the tears begin the fade. The was a grim determination in Kenza''s eyes, red-rimmed from the tears. ¡°Are you ready?¡±


    (She zipped up the bag) and followed the unicorn¡¯s advice with Purdy¡¯s help they carried the heavy man to the trunk of the car. They removed all but the spare tire to the back seat and put him in the trunk.


    ¡°If you think about it, it¡¯s less disrespectful than digging him back up again if you buried him¡± Purdy said, all she got back was a nasty look and a sigh.


    The ghost of Mr. Clay was both touched and impatient, the words were sweet and all but the killer was getting away but he could do nothing as he was a ghost. He tried but he couldn¡¯t move more than 50 feet if he was to guess, He wanted to yell at them but it was a wasted breath, ¡®wait¡¯ he thought ¡®I have no breath to waste.¡¯


    So he yelled for the hell of it, it was a waste but it made him feel better.


    Both women got in the car but did not know where to go, they were not awake when he had run away. Mr. Clay sat in the driver''s seat, trying to flip the turn signal to the right for the hell of it. On one of these tries it wiggled, he was on the right track as a new ghost, though it would not have worked on something that he did not know as well when he was alive.


    ¡°Creepy, does that normally move on its own?¡± Purdy asked


    ¡°No, no it''s never done that before,¡± Kenza said


    ¡°Maybe that unicorn wasn''t full of shit,¡± Purdy said, unnerved that had ghost was so close.


    ¡°Maybe we should not bad mouth things that have so much power, your mouth has already caused problems today, maybe you think a bit more than you speak.¡± Kenza sighed. This was gonna be a long adventure if this was her only company.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that a nice way to tell me to shut up?¡± Purdy said With a shit-eating grin


    She was given a flat look ¡°Just don¡¯t piss off any eldritch horror.¡±


    ¡°Just follow the hint,¡± Purdy said


    ¡°Can I trust you?¡± Officer Kenza Murphy said


    ¡°I¡¯m a drunk, barely that but I¡¯m not a bad person. And that guy really is a bad person¡± Purdy Moon said


    The crystals made it hard to drive. They were worrying the spikes would pop the tires. The crystal seemed to be embedded into the cars hood.


    ¡°You¡¯re under my protection now,¡± Kenza said, It was a bit of a non sequitur. They''ve been silent for a while now.


    ¡°Wow, thanks.¡± Purdy said mockingly ¡°Good to know I wasn¡¯t before¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be an ass¡± Kenza scolded. What would have meant to be an olive branch was now bitter in her mouth.


    ¡°I¡¯ll try,¡± Purdy said ¡°Ma¡¯am,¡± She said as an afterthought


    ¡°If you are going to act like that I would prefer ¡®Officer¡¯ I worked hard for the title¡±


    ¡°So, do I get to know your first name then Officer Murphy?¡± Purdy said with a half smile.


    ¡°It¡¯s Kenza, it would be silly at this point to whole back my name.¡± She said begrudgingly.


    ¡°Quite,¡± Purdy said


    ¡°Why were you even drunk? It was 3 in the afternoon,¡± Kenza said


    ¡°Do you even care?¡± Purdy said


    ¡°I am curious,¡± Kenza said


    ¡°I told you that my best friend¡¯s kid was taken by O¡¯Brien, what I didn¡¯t say was that she tried to kill herself when the body was found, I found out today and then that Tyler was cheating on me because I¡¯m been too depressed to fuck¡± Purdy said


    ¡°Oh god,¡± Kenza said


    ¡°We have been friends since the third grade, I guess that me alone wasn¡¯t enough to live for. So yeah that''s why I was day drinking, I didn¡¯t think that I would get so out of hand. I don¡¯t have a lot of people in my life, my father''s gods know where. he was never really in my life and my mother is dead, she thought Valium and alcohol is a great idea, and one day she just didn¡¯t wake up again. Max and Tini don¡¯t live close, I was alone in my grief. So yeah I was drinking and it got out of hand.¡±


    The car was silent. Tension was thick, and Kenza was surprised with how calm Purdy was sounding. With the pain of their partner''s death, she could see herself drinking herself to oblivion but she didn¡¯t want to validate her bad behavior either. She wasn¡¯t as balanced in sympathy as Clay was. With the fresh hurt from her thought, she said ¡°I¡¯m sorry for your loss.¡± which wasn¡¯t the right thing to say at the time.


    ¡°Don¡¯t say it unless you mean it, I can see it in your face. You want to lecture me, I know that I was out of line, fighting is not the answer.¡± Purdy was not having it, in her mind Kenza had failed her.


    ¡°So what about you?¡± Purdy said


    ¡°What about me?¡± was the sharp answer from Kenza.


    ¡°How was your day?¡± Purdy wanted to bite her fool tongue off, ¡°I, I mean before you met me¡­¡± The sheer awkwardness of her statement made her laugh nervously but that died quickly with the murderous glare that she got in return.


    They started to car and drove slowly as the crystals were anywhere about half a mile the crystals started to fade off.