Chapter IX - To be or not to be? (Undead)

Chapter IX

Slowly, the Ghul lord – Or what ever it is called – went for my neck. It was clear he delighted in the suspence of his slow, movement, he wanted to strech out the wait...

Was anyone coming?

With disgusting cracking noises, the ghul's maw slowly expanded to lovecraftian proportions, a long and sharp black tongue batted from left to right, hitting the walls of his mouth.

This was it. My death...

Abandoned by my backers, surrounded by monsters and finishing off like one of those abominations... I hardly could imagine worse...

Three...

Two...

one...

And lights of--

A noise filled the room and everyone stopped suddenly. That noise, I knew it! it was...

My Cellphone? What the hell? I'd thown out the battery and memory to avoid getting traced...

With a moment of confused blinking, the ghouls around me looked around until the teen guy fished the thing out of my pocket. As it got out, it cast a bright square of light onto the wall.

I saw it. They didn't.

Not the light. The key.

THE MIRROR AND THE EYES
WALK AND SEE IN BETWEEN!

And so I did. I really didn't want to see it. But it was my only chance. I forced it open, and let the astral world into me. Strait between my brow, the pressure pushed out, letting me see what could not be seen.

It wasn't just a third eye. It was an additional ear, tongue, skin and nose. On that wasn't aimed at the physical, one that perceived on the spiritual level.

There, were the ghouls, standing in unholy magnificiance, covered in the blood of their victims, screaming their hunger into the psychic world.

They however, weren't the only thing I could see. I felt the conduct of power all around me. A Circle of energy set around the room, bursting with arcane power. At the eastern and western sides were the ladies. Despite their distance, I could hear and see their chants, I felt the energy coursing through them, carrying their will into the spell.

I was not the bait. I was the trap!

I looked at them both, saw them in their true splendor, and they saw me. Their intent floated through the air, coming to me and I understood...

It all lasted a few second but the ghouls had lost their timing and cohesion. My shoulder bled badly. And that would be their downfall. They didn't notice my hand as it slid on the ground, splashing my very own blood around me.

A Circle.

I didn't know how to raise one. But my essence, spilled with my blood knew.

Ghouls were stronger than me in every regard; Speed, strenght, Endurance, Weapons. Except for one thing. They weren't human.

They followed their instinct. Their hunger. It was their driving force.

They didn't have free will; Will to choose, will to act, the will to believe... And belief, belief is power.

With an imperceptible thump across the ether, the circle closed around me. Because I wanted it to. Because it had to. Because I WILLED it to!

And then all hell broke loose. The light, the sound, the radiowaves flowing through the air. It had all just been background stuff. Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed.

And in this case; It transformed into fire.

A glass shattering boom, the sound of the air expanding and all the presure it create, hit me as everything around us changed to heat, The Circle barely held as the inferno raged.

Sweat perled on my forehead as my breathing go harder and harder. I could shield myself from the fire, but I had to draw power from somewhere. And that place was myself. Altought holding a circle could be trivial for a wizard, I wasn't even an innitiate...

The raging storm of flames eventually died down. Around me, all that remained were the ashes of the ghouls and furnitures.

“It's over.” I mumbled quietly to myself.

It took me a moment to realise I'd fallen onto the charred floor, facedown into the ashes. It hurt. My head hurt, my shoulder was in agony. My body shook from the physical stress i'd put upon it.

Footsteps around was all I could hear as my head throbed insecently. I didn't know who it was. I was too tired to care, Too wounded to bother.

I just wanted to sleep... Sleep forever...

*****

She was clad in Black and silver, I felt like I knew her, like I'd always only seen her from far away. She didn't speak, but she held my hand.

She had waited for me. Everytime we'd been about to get close, destiny separated us. But this time we danced the night away, happy to finally see each others, for real.

I knew her name but couldn't speak it. For us all she was just the lady in black. In the end we always knew we would be togueter.

But why did we spend so much time drifting apart, away from each others?

I her arm, I could finally rest. I could sleep in peace, away from worries. I didn't have to cry anymore. I was no longer alone, I was no longer harrased by the pain of the modern world.

I had chased false dream all my life. Now I knew I'd been blind...

I thought of all that I'd cared for, and I'd been a madman to do so... I'd been tossed about on a storming sea of moving emotions. Now I had found happiness.

I no longer could hear the neighbor's kid screaming, I no longer had to care about deadlines, I wasn't going to go crazy. I was just here with her, resting.

Resting with her, laying on her flowing robe. I looked at my Lady, and I asked her one last thing I needed.

“What is it you hide behind that mask, my dear?”

And so I saw, I saw her drop it and show me what was behind it. Beyond the skeletal mask was--

*****

I breathed in and rose abruptly from the bed. I couldn't see her anymore. My lady, the one who reap us all in the end. Eternal rest and peace weren't on the agenda of my life it seemed.

It was back to the soul crushing pain for good ol' Ezekiel. But in the end, I'd meet her again someday. But for now, death's embrace was still far away.

If I was alive, It meant I still had things to do. Bed wasn't the place i'd accomplish them.