Chapter Thirty-Nine - Meanwhile (2)

Meanwhile, Part 1

Livia stared at Jane’s body flying through the air. She couldn’t do anything but follow it with her eyes, to watch as it shattered at the tree trunk, one of the few solid enough not to shatter under the impact of a flying demon, but shatter that instead. She watched Jane…die. Her heart sank, her vision turning dark.

Then she got a notification. Not a gamification one, but one of those old ones, those stopping time around her, she had been getting before gamification turned their life onto its head for the second time. It was only three words, but she clung to it with all her might.

🖹

“She’s not dead.”

But how could that be true? She had seen the head splatter like a melon, the bits of brain matter spreading out like sparks from fireworks. A macabre celebration for the end of her true love. But she couldn’t cling to those words forever; time had to flow, whatever that flow brought.

She dismissed the notification, and brain matter continued its path down to the ground. “Jane,” she whispered, then ran up to her. She ignored the magic missiles that hit her, ripping deep wounds into her side as she crossed Marco’s sight line, the painful twang when one of those missiles cut through her bra. She ignored the trolls that were still standing, attacking her friends. She ignored the roar of the big troll that forced fear into her marrow. What was all that against Jane?

The distance seemed to stretch farther and farther, a dozen metres turning into an hour’s run. Time stretched and expanded, holding her back from reaching Jane’s body. The body that impossibly should not be dead? Seconds ticked through her mind, seconds that allowed thought to form.

“Why can’t I get there?” she thought. “What’s the system doing?” Then, “Why is it doing that?” And finally, “It must have a reason. I need to trust it.”

Her thighs were burning from running for miles, so she slowed down, her tunnel vision expanding. Then she noticed the figure running towards the same target, coming from out of the woods. A woman in a dirty white dress, looking like she had been lost in there for days. Recognition made her stumble, and she crashed to the ground, sliding along until she lay just in reach of Jane’s crumbled body.

From there, she stared as Wynter also reached Jane, her eyes glowing in bright yellow light. The light spread out, down her arm and flowed slowly over Jane’s body. Then the ground shook under heavy footsteps behind her, accompanied by a troll’s roar.

Livia could see the mighty figure running towards them, its oversized breasts jumping like bouncy balls. She couldn’t but wonder how they weren’t ripping free from that power. A wave of golden light suddenly shot out from Wynter, hitting the troll and stopping her in an instant. She hovered mid-step for a minute moment, then transformed into Rune—Rune’s real body—and dropped to the ground. “You have no power here, necromancer!” Wynter spat with fire in her voice.

The golden glow spread further over Jane’s body, then jumped to also enclose the bigger of the spread-out parts that had come loose from the impact. It pulsated, and Livia could see the magic flowing out of Wynter. Wynter had always been thin to a fault, although much of that came from having lost a large part of her intestines and most of her kidneys to some illness she hadn’t wanted to talk details about, but now her bones were showing in places that previously had padding. That just got worse now; Livia could see Wynter’s flesh shrinking in real time.

She feared the woman would wither away completely, when she stopped, falling to her knees. The glow dimmed, but it didn’t fade away. “Stabilised,” Wynter said, her voice faint and strained. She took a couple of breaths, staring into nothingness. “Someone needs to heal her. I can hold the soul, but I can’t put the body back together; too weak…”

Marco spoke up, startling Livia, who hadn’t even noticed him coming up. The fight noises had died down; apparently, the trolls had been defeated. “I have potions, but she can’t drink in that state?”

“Put the pieces back together and sprinkle it on in small doses,” Wynter said. “But she needs more.”

“Lessie!” Livia blurted out, scrambling for her phone. “I’m calling Lessie.”

Meanwhile, Part 2

Geri stared at the food laid out before her, the sight turning her stomach. She was so full she felt like bursting. She would have tried to throw up, but it wasn’t her physical stomach that was full. It was the troll’s life force she had sucked up that was trying to rip her apart from the inside.

And even if she had been hungry, trying to eat Jane while she was kept from dying even more than she already had by that strange, wild woman would have been rude. She wanted to help Marco and Paul, who were trying to puzzle Jane’s brain back together, both visibly green around the gills, but even the tiniest movement made her dizzy.

Livia was useless; she just lay there and stared, her phone gripped tight in her hands. Megan was willing to help, but missed the hands to do anything meaningful. Sam was in the bushes, barfing out whatever she still had left, which couldn’t be much at that point, and Rune, the only other one here who wasn’t grossed out, was held back by the glowing woman.

After a while, Rune walked up to her. Geri tried to say something, but Rune pointed to her ears. Geri nodded; no hearing aids. Those were back with Rune’s clothing in the woods. Geri tried to gesture something along, “I can’t move; my stomach is killing me”, but the act of moving her hands brought on a new wave of nausea. She’d have fallen had Rune not put her arm around her to prop her up.

Meanwhile, Part 3

“Hey, Livia, this is Charlie. Lessie’s with a—“

Livia’s panicked voice interrupted her. “Get her out there now, we need her here asap.”

“But the customer—“

“Whatever. Reimburse him, give him a hundred percent discount for a year; I don’t care. Hurry.”

“Fine, sec,” Charlie said and put the phone on the table. Had she not recognised Livia’s voice, she’d have suspected a prank call. Livia could be many things, quiet and contemplative, playful and gross, even an ice-cold boss, but panicked? And how could Lessie help with that?

She wanted to ask, but now wasn’t the time. Instead, she put up her best customer service smile and walked up to room one. She knocked, first softly, then, without waiting, forcefully. Groups of four, urgent but no emergency. That would have been double groups of two knocks.

She kept up the knocking, not leaving a pause for Lessie to get up, and counted the knocks. After ten groups, she added a single double knock between the groups of four. Three seconds later, Lessie ripped open the door, naked and with a befuddled man looking up from the bed’s room. “What?” she asked.

“Livia called, emergency, phone’s in the kitchen, call’s still live,” Charlie summed up the issue. Lessie pressed by her, nearly bowling her over, and ran towards the kitchen. Charlie sighed and addressed the customer.

“Sorry, man, family emergency. I’ll refund you and get you a handful of half-off coupons, ok?” she said, trying to sound sincere. She didn’t really care about the men; they paid, she spread her legs and could pay rent. She didn’t even like men and prayed for the day Tina finally got her operation.

“Sure, I understand,” the man said, trying to hide his erection.

“I can finish you off for free if you like,” Charlie offered. It would be free for the guy, but she’d still be paid. That’s how coupons worked, and this was a coupon-like situation, wasn’t it?

“Sorry, not to insult, but…” The man pointed in the general direction of Charlie’s crotch, of the clearly visible bulge there.

“That just means I know how to give a good blowjob,” Charlie winked. “But no offence taken, I feel the same.” The guy’s erection still stood solid as a tree, so she doubted he really felt that way. He could lie to himself all he wanted, but you could always tell she had learnt.

“Charlie, I need you to drive me,” Lessie called, storming out of the kitchen and dragging Felicity behind her. Charlie turned, and a wad of clothes hit her chest. “Get dressed,” Lessie added, then shoved Felicity into the room. “On the house,” she said as she shut the door, her accent forgotten.

🙚⚜🙘

“I’m already driving as fast as I can,” Charlie said again. “Any faster, and we might not get there at all but will have to wait out the day at a police station. Did you think to grab my licence?”

“No, I didn’t,” Lessie admitted. “Take a left here!”

“I know. I can read the GPS, too, you know. Anyway, why do you sound Scottish when you forget your accent?”

“Born and raised in Glasgow, third generation,” Alessandra said absently. “I’ve been to Brazil once, on a two-week vacation.”

“Ok, you got me fooled there, honestly. I thought you were leaning into it a bit, but it being completely fake…wow.” Charlie said to distract Lessie. In reality, she had suspected her to be a native speaker for a long time. “We’re closing in on the address.”

“Drive by it and watch for a small dirt road going off to the left; we need to take that.”

“This one?” Charlie asked, slowing down. “Foot traffic only, but it looks driveable?”

“Must be the one; there’s the silver car Livia’s being driven around in all the time.”

“Then hold on tight, this will be bumpy…”

And it was. The dirt track had never been intended for a car, even less for such a small, light and old one she was driving. Anything more than the speed of a light jog would threaten to eject them out the roof or at least produce head-shaped dents in the thin sheet metal. Charlie wondered if it would have been faster to walk, but now it was too late.

Even at that low a speed, it only took them less than two minutes to reach a point where the track entered a forested area, narrowing to less than the car’s width. “End of road,” Charlie said, turning off the engine and unbuckling.

“There,” Lessie said, more to herself, it seemed, as she wasn’t pointing out anything. Charlie regardless followed her gaze and saw a woman, covered in blood splatters, standing at the tree line, waving. It took her a moment to recognise Jane’s friend Sam. ‘Blood splatters? Then what are we doing here?’ she thought.

“Stay here,” Lessie said as she set off, awkwardly balancing on the soft and uneven ground on her high heels.

‘The devil I’ll do,” Charlie thought, then slipped out of her own heels to walk barefoot. She’d prefer some scrapes over twisting her ankle. Sam threw her a questioning look as she took Lessie’s arm to steady and lead her, but she didn’t say anything, so Charlie trailed behind.

Soon, they reached a clearing, and Charlie’s mind began to stutter.

Meanwhile, Part 4

Geri was ready to die. Again. Her vision was blurry, and her insides felt like she had swallowed a shredder. She hardly could stay upright, even with Rune’s support, as the excess of energy coursed through her body. She wanted to let it out, to cut herself open for it to escape, but she couldn’t even concentrate enough to summon her daggers.

“Geri, let me in. Please,” she heard a soft voice. Warm breath, smelling of life and death, washed over her face. She blinked a couple of times to clear her vision, without much effect but for the pain she felt in her swollen eyelids. They rubbed like sandpaper over her eyeballs.

“Geri, it’s me. You can trust me,” the voice said again, ever so softly and friendly. She recognised it. It was…someone she liked? Let them in how? And why not?

The next moment, a spear bored into her core, cutting her open, burning like fire. She howled, shouting her pain to the heavens. But then it ended as abruptly as it had started, and the pain turned into a gentle suction, a relief as it opened a way for the excess life force inside her to escape.

Her vision cleared, and she recognised the face in front of her. “Charlie? What are you doing here?” escaped her, then she noticed the constipated expression on Charlie’s face.

“Hey, girl,” Charlie said with a pained grin. “How did you overload that heavy on life? And how did it not pop you like a balloon?”

Geri still felt like she was bursting, but it no longer was quite as debilitating. “Ate a whole troll in one sitting,” she said with a grimaced smile.

“That would do it…” Charlie said. “Wait here, I need to dump this somewhere where it can do some good. She walked over towards Livia, and Geri could feel the link of life force stretching between them. It held tight to her core, but she felt it wouldn’t stretch that much farther, either. Maybe 20 metres in total, she estimated.

Charlie knelt down next to Livia, then the link expanded, and life force rapidly rushed out of her. Had Livia been injured? She was supposed to stay back. But whatever had happened, this outrush finally made her feel like she could walk around again, the feeling of bloat only stretching her uncomfortably.

“Thank you, Rune. I'm fine again. I can stand on my own now,” she said. “Let me check what’s going on.

“Thank the goddess,” Rune said. “You were completely out, and I had no idea what to do. Please give me a thumbs up if you’re fine.”

That made Geri remember Rune’s disabilities, so she did just that: extended her thumb, pointed it up and smiled. Then she pointed to herself, then towards the others. “I am going to look what is going on,” she enunciated clearly, hoping Rune would read her lips.

“Good, I can’t see that far, and that glowing woman is suppressing all my powers. All I know is that I saw Jane hit a tree hard…”

Geri nodded. She had seen more before her overeating had taken her out of it. It hadn’t looked good for Jane. And it still didn’t, but that golden glow had to mean something.

🙚⚜🙘

“No, ay cannot. Livia, please, ay tried, but my magic…it needs some life to work on…” Lessie said in a low but pained tone.

“What’s happening?” Geri asked, also keeping her voice down as she approached.

“Jane’s dead, but Wynter here,” Marco said, pointing to the glowing woman, “is keeping her soul around and says she can put it back if we find a way to heal the body. We’ve been able to do some patching with potions, but it is not enough.”

Geri looked at the kneeling woman, Wynter, who looked more like a walking skeleton than a living being. Her vampire nose told her otherwise; Wynter was alive, and not just barely, but brimming with it.

“Then I’ll try,” Charlie said. “Technically, I need a willing living or undead creature, but maybe I can stretch the rules just a little bit…”

“Please…” Livia begged, her face streaked with tears, the screen of the phone cracked from the force with which she held on to it.

“Do it,” Geri said. “I don’t think it’s an accident that you are here, with that power, right now.” She had noticed how things fell into place around Jane, even though she couldn’t put it in words. The stuff that happened was just a bit too convenient to be random.

“Here goes nothing…” Charlie said and pushed her hand through the golden shimmer to touch Jane. Nothing happened. “Ok, not willing. Let’s pray this isn’t a Buffy situation; I’m going for the unwilling victim variant…now!”

Geri felt how the link of life force tightened, forming a spear-like tip and ramming into Jane’s body. It wavered for a moment, reminding her of a noodle flapping in the wind, then it latched onto something.

“Got it! I got it!” Charlie exclaimed. “It’s just a tiny speck, but I got it. Let’s feed it! Geri, brace yourself, you’re our battery.”

Geri felt the life force rushing out of her in a rapid stream, flowing through Charlie and into Jane. Her knees went weak, and for the second time this day, she had to be held upright, this time by Marco. But she could see the result, could see Jane’s flesh knitting itself back together. It was working.

More and more life force left her body, being funnelled into Jane, healing her back up, until she had to cry out, “Stop, I need some to survive myself.” The flow stopped abruptly.

“I need a bit more,” Charlie said. “Just a tiny bit more, and I can restart her heart.”

“Take mine,” Marco, Paul and Sam said in unison.

Charlie held her hand out towards Sam. “Group members first,” she said with a tiny smile. Sam grabbed it, and Geri felt the link establishing, then it wriggled and stretched, snapping into a new form—connecting everyone to each other instead of the star shape it had before.

“Nice,” Charlie said. “I get a skill bonus for a full set.”