DJ’s fall was actually quite brief, mainly because her fall was broken by something solid and unforgiving. Both her and her illumination spell, out like a light.
DJ became aware of voices next, close to her, yet sounding muddled. Her eyes didn’t want to open. Someone was holding her hand. The voices were getting clearer. “…tand watch…” Familiar?
“She’s breathing and pulse is strong, she just doesn’t want to wake up.” This voice was a stranger’s, and now was directed at her. “C’mon, wake up, I’m not just going to leave you here…” DJ’s eyes shot open, her held hand suddenly reversing the grip to clench their hand, other rearing back, energy just beginning to gather…
“Whoa! Hey!” The man raised his arms in surrender, possibly also to fend off an expected punch… “Calm down, calm down… I’m not here to hurt you.” DJ, frowning, eased back on the quickie fireball, which hadn’t actually formed yet. The man was fairly ordinary-looking. Tall, brown hair, brown eyes. He certainly didn’t seem threatening. A tense moment passed as DJ eased down, letting go of his wrist.
Sitting up, she saw that she’d been laying out on a sidewalk bench. The place looked vaguely modern mid-western, as did the man’s clothes. Glancing at herself, she saw she still appeared to be a high-school girl. There was another man standing nearby, back to both of them, looking from side to side into the pea-soup fog that cut visibility to about 30’. He was covered in a red cloak, off-blonde hair down his back. Other than the three of them, the place appeared deserted, and dead silent. There wasn’t even the expected white noise of distant cars.
“My name is Harry.” DJ’s attention was brought back to the man who’d been tending her. “Harry Mason.”
Looking him over again, DJ mentally shrugged and answered. “DJ Woohoo.”
Harry nodded once. “DJ. Have you seen…”
“Harry,” the other man interrupted. “This isn’t exactly the best place for an interrogation, you know. We should move back to the dog house, it’d be safer inside…”
“Zorlond?” DJ said. “It’s good that I found you…”
The other man, startled, turned to face them. The spitting image of Zorlond, as DJ remembered him from before the entire Mark T Scandal, down to the red robes and red beard. Surprise was clear on his face. It was Harry that spoke first. “You can see him?”
DJ gave Harry a look. “Of course I can, he’s standing right there.” A general wave towards him. “As if anyone could miss him in that red robe.”
Harry seemed to absorb this, then gave a tiny chuckle. “Great, don’t know which is worse. Being a hallucinating nutcase or actually being haunted by a ghost.”
“Ha ha.” Zorlond sarcastically shot. “Look, lady, don’t know how the heck you can see me, but we need to get moving…” A loud, rising burst of white noise cut the conversation, as Zorlond shot furtive looks all around, settling on just up the street. “Right now, in fact…” The white noise gained a whining feedback as something started walking out of the mist… Dogs, apparently skinned alive, and still alive, in a way. And there were lots of them.
Hastily helping DJ to her feet, Harry simply said, “Run!”
Go back - Go to the parent episode.
Tue Sep 14 01:40:26 2004
Linking Enabled