It felt like days had passed when the sun finally dipped below the neighboring rooftops, getting me excited despite the fact I wasn't tired at all. But I climbed into the bed anyway and began an excruciating game of teetering on the edge of sleep, only to surge awake from a rush of adrenaline at the hope of success.
When I finally fell asleep, as the rays of morning light began coloring the sky through the eastern windows, the nightmares returned. This time I was back in the alley, choking the life out of Chocolate as she fought hard against me, screaming and clawing as I rained down blows, increasing my intensity with each hit.
Then a void of blackness opened just in front of me, warping the very fabric of the dream world. I cocked my head to the side as I examined the cold and foreboding sensation that emanated from it. It was not a product of my mind, that much I could feel on instinct.
There was a moment of relief as control returned to my body, and I was able to pull away from Chocolate. But then a low, groaning, rumble began emanating from the void, and then a hand as black as the void itself came forth from within, slowly reaching out to me with outstretched fingers. I scrambled away, but the void followed, keeping the same relative distance from me no matter which way or how fast I moved, the hand growing ever closer.
Beside the void, Chocolate pushed herself up onto an elbow and spread her thighs. “What? You don’t want me anymore? You’re not gonna let something stop you again this time too right? Oh wait…that's right," She said. A corpse appeared at her feet, and she turned around and lowered herself to the ground, laying her belly across it. She looked back over her shoulder at me. "This was how you wanted me the first time right, before I started fighting?”
I screamed and shuffled back away from the woman. “No! That wasn’t me! That wasn’t me!” The hand touched my chest, cold as ice, snapping my focus back to it, but it recoiled away as if stung. In the brief moment of contact, I felt it knew me.
“What’s wrong this time, handsome. I’m not bruised up enough…not enough blood for you?” The whites of her eyes turned blood red, and she let out an ear-piercing wail.
The hand latched firmly onto my shoulder this time. I tried to pull away, but the grip was like a cold vice, unmoving. Then it pulled me into the black void.
There was a moment of crushing fear and panic as the hand pulled me through the emptiness of a substance without form, or sound, or light, somehow simultaneously drawn to and repelled from the chilling forces around me.
I broke through the fabric as if breaking the surface of water, feeling at once relieved of the oppressive force all around me and overwhelmed by the sudden change in environment. Bezi floated above me, her spectral form youthful and beautiful, with a firm grip on my shoulder, keeping me steady. I glanced over my shoulder and saw my body still resting peacefully in bed. It was still jarring, even though it wasn’t the first time I’d seen it.
She released my shoulder, and I immediately began flailing about in a moment of panic, feeling an ever-present sensation that I was falling even though I stayed afloat exactly where I had been. She grabbed hold of my shoulder again, but it did little to calm my already frazzled nerves; I continued to stretch my arms and legs, trying to find purchase.
“Settle yourself, boy! You came dangerously close to touching fetish twice just now. Settle yourself!”
I reached out to her with both hands, but she batted both arms away with casual flicks of her wrist before I could lay a hand on her, then shoved me away from her with more force than her little push against my shoulder should have generated.
I tumbled end over end in the air across my bedroom. Somewhere in my rotation, I glimpsed my body getting further and further away, still lying comfortably in bed asleep, and my flailing grew wild.
“I’ll let you float as long as you like, boy. Whenever you’re ready to settle yourself, we can begin.”
“…” I tried to speak, but no words came, further increasing my panic. I brought my hands to my face and probed, sure I was missing a mouth or tongue. The sensation was dulled, as if I were feeling with a thin pair of gloves on, but I could make out the details well enough to know I was whole—mouth, lips, teeth, tongue.
“There is no air here, fool boy. Therefore, there are no words. You must think to articulate your will.”
“…wh—-what’s going on?” The feeling as I spoke was weird, not quite thinking, but close, more intentional than the oft-times random flights of thought that popped into my mind a thousand random times in a day.
“You have summoned me, boy. Good. So you are ready to learn, then.”
“…Red has…my son…my wife.”
“My proposition was clear, boy. I am only interested in you if you join me.”
“I’ll do what…ever it takes to get them back.” I was getting the hang of the weird way of communicating through will.
Bezi floated over to my body and lowered her ghostly form to just inches away. I felt an instinctual urge to rush towards her and grab hold. I felt vulnerable, disconnected from my body.
“I see you have severed the link between you and your red devil. That is very good. Yes, very good indeed.”
"Ms. Bezi, please, will you help me find him?"
“It is curious that you’ve managed to sever the connection on your own, but your demon is still out there, that I can see in the bone. Finding him will be only part of your first challenge. Indeed, I will show you how. That devil is far too dangerous to exist in our realm.”
"Thank you!" I paused as I expected to feel a wave of…something, excitement maybe, perhaps relief, but I felt no emotion at all. I thought back to my panic only moments earlier and questioned if I had truly felt that sensation, or just reacted the way I thought I should feel after discovering myself floating above my body. “What is this place?”
“You are in your bedroom, boy.”
“Yes, of course. But this…” I waved my hands around, “is different from the real world. There an emptiness to the place, but at the same time a definite weight to the air, like there’s a different gravity or something.”
"I told you there is no air here, boy. This is the ether realm, or ethereal plane—the realm between realms."
“This place somehow feels familiar. It’s more than just the fact I’ve been here before. It’s like… I know it."
“Surprisingly perceptive, boy. Yes, you should know this place, at least intuitively. There is much you will learn about the connection between our realms in due time.” She shrugged. “I suppose now is as good a time as any to begin your lessons. I’d ordinarily start with far more fundamental principles of shamanism, but since you are here now, there are far more urgent matters you must know and understand to spend even a second here in this realm, let alone how much time you’ve invested already.”
I nodded. “We have to hurry.”
She frowned. "Fool, boy. I assure you, there is nothing more urgent than your understanding of the danger you are in at this precise moment." I was about to respond, but she cut in over me, picking up right where she left off. "Most importantly, there is danger here, always. Never relax. Never get comfortable. You must always, always, beware in this realm."
“Beware of what?”
I saw her thinking about how best to respond. “The biggest threat to you here are creatures of other realms."
“Demons? Like Red?”
“Demons and more, boy.”
“This ethereal realm is in between our world and the nether then?”
"The ether is between all realms."
“So there are more realms? How ma--”
“You are straying off course, boy. Study as many hours as you’d like when we return to our realm. Right now, you must spend as little time here as possible. Just know the ethereal not only brushes our reality, it also brushes the nether. And just like we can cross from our realm here, so too can creatures of the nether."
“So…this is how Red came to our world?”
“It is a little m
ore complicated than that, boy. It would be impossible for it to cross over into our realm for any length of time without a tether.”
“…that tether was me.”
“Indeed. That brings me to the second thing. There are other creatures here, some benevolent, of course, but many, many more that are dangerous. And others still that are beyond such classifications. To visit the ethereal plane is to put oneself in harm’s way, every time, especially when entering via a token conduit.”
“you mean the bone dagger.”
She nodded. "The dagger fetish is your anchor here, and while it is your conduit to accessing this realm, at least while you have not yet harnessed the skill to cross here on your own, it also serves as a beacon should you ever be separated from your physical body in this plane. While this is helpful in ways I hope you never have to experience; it will also reveal your location to anything within close enough range to sense it. Remember that."
“You said it would mask me from creatures of the nether.”
“And so it does, in our physical realm. But it serves the opposite function when used as a bridge.”
I struggled to understand the full scope of what that even meant. How many other creatures like Red were here?
“You are beginning to demonstrate the proper caution, boy. That’s wise.”
"Even more reason why I need to hurry," I said, glancing over my shoulders into the muted light of the room, my paranoia growing by the second. "How do I kill Red? He has my son."
"Ahhh, so that is why you are no longer tethered to each other." She shook her head. "Unfortunately, it would, in part, require killing its host.."
“That is not an option. My son is just a small boy…has his whole life ahead of him. I’d rather lose him to Red than allow him to die.”
“Then you are so big a fool that I am not sure if you are still worthy of apprenticing under me.”
“I just.” I shook my head. “There has to be a way out of this. I convinced him to leave my body. I’m sure I can do the same for Dj.”
“Your son is lost, boy. Grieve him as if that devil has already claimed his life.”
“I can’t!”
“Surely you do not think you will manipulate the creature into releasing your son? It is you that have been played, boy. You are near the apex of your prime, while your son has nearly a decade before he is through puberty. Your devil has found a better host.”
Waves of anger crashed through me, the first thing I’d felt for sure since entering the realm. “I thought you could help. Fuck Red; it seems like you’re the one trying to manipulate me now.”
“Oh of course I am.” She laughed. “And you are trying to manipulate me. That is the nature of people. Best understand that.”
I crossed my arms. “So what are you after, then? I don’t want to free myself of one oppressor, only to move to another.”
"I want you, boy, for the same reason your devil did. It is the same reason others will seek you out, now that your nature has been revealed…and now that you are no longer protected by your link to a powerful nether demon," she placed her ghostly hand on my shoulder, "you have no idea how vulnerable you are now. Someone, or something, would have found you eventually. You had best be glad it was me that found you first."
“But…why?”
"Your aura is far stronger than most, boy. People like you are almost always tethered to a creature, whether of good or bad, or anything in between, whether they know it or not. These are often the people of the world that become famous for deeds of greatness, truly once in a generation accomplishments. But, these are also too often the people that become infamous for cruelty, ugliness, savagery. Unlike your devil, I seek to steer your life, not try to consume it."
“Steer it how?”
“Towards balance. Always. Above all, we shaman seek only to preserve the delicate balance between the realms. Surely, even you can see the wisdom of such a mandate.” She paused, and a faraway look came to her face. “Time grows short. You want to know how to destroy your devil, boy? Kill the body while the fetish is touching it. When the demon flees the corpse, the bone will claim it while it’s between realms.”
“I cannot kill my son, dammit!”
“Your son is already lost! You are not powerful enough to exorcise that devil, and my arts are not powerful enough to do it either. The boy is gone. It will be another twenty years before you get him back. Do you wait that long? And what then? Does the curse then get passed down to your grandchild?”
“No…I…I can’t. I can’t.”
“It is in your best interest to end this cycle now, boy. But that is not my primary concern. You asked me for the means to slay your devil and I have provided the closest thing. Now…” She floated back over to my resting body and reached down, touching her index and middle fingers to the center of my forehead and held it for a moment. I frowned as she adjusted the placement less than an inch to the side, then pressed further. Her fingers sank into my skull to the knuckle. “your path begins.”
“What are you doing?” I demanded as I rushed to my body, moving faster than I expected, my speed matching the urgency of my will.
Her arm shot out towards me, fingers stretched wide, and my body slammed to a halt well before I made it to the bed. “This process is delicate, boy.” She said as she began to slowly rotate the hand with her fingers in my skull a full one-eighty degree.
My struggling proved useless. I couldn't even move a finger. Being entirely at the shaman's mercy was a terrifying experience. "Dammit! Let me go."
"Oh, I will, child. But not…before…I am…done. There we are." She said, pulling her fingers free. "Learn to get used to seeing the world as it truly is. You will have one week to trap your demon's soul. If you can survive, I will come to you then, and we will continue. Bring the fetish back to me with the devil's essence trapped within, intact, and then I will be able to destroy it."
“I did not agree to do this.”
"No, but you will go to your son. And when you do, you will see that you have no choice but to slay him. Fail to capture the demon's essence at the time of transition, and it will simply find another host, most likely you once again."
She paused, and another distant expression came to her face. This time there was a flash of a frown, and she quickened her words. “To find the demon, wrap the fetish with something your son held precious. With the benefit of the gift I’ve just bestowed upon you, the bone will be able to guide you.” She stood and took a step back. “And when you see Fatima, tell her Bezi apologizes; she will understand this.”
I caught a trace of movement from the edge of my periphery, in the hall just outside of the bedroom. Bezi's outstretched arm, the arm holding me in place, whipped across her body, and I whipped into motion following the arc of her arm and slammed back into my sleeping body.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
SOMETHING MUST HAVE gone wrong because when I turned and looked from Bezi to the long window an arms-length behind her, I still saw the dulled, muted colors of the ethereal plane. I climbed back out of bed and stood in front of Bezi's floating visage. "I'm still in the ether realm."
Hints of a smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth, but instead of answering, she glanced beyond me, over my shoulder, and gasped. Her face melted into a mix of fear and shock. “When did this…?”
“Hey, what’s going on?” I said, but she ignored me, focused instead on the hall leading to the room.
A scraping sound in the hall behind me caught my attention, sounding somehow both distant and close at the same time. The hairs on the back of my neck stood as I turned, and all but fell backward when I saw a giant white wolf stalking into the room, head low, slowly swinging side to side as it sniffed the ground. It was the same wolf from the nether, I knew it beyond a doubt.
It sniffed one last time and then snapped its head up. “Shit!” I shouted as I jumped back, slamming my lower back hard into the nightstand behind me. The beast seemed to ignore me, its eyes locked on Bezi
as it took a cautious step forward, and then rushed in an explosion of speed I barely had time to register.
It was halfway across the room in a flash, and then slammed to a halt in a yelp of pain, much the same way the old woman did to me. It strained hard, muscles bulging and rippling from exertion, but it was trapped.
"This is good for you to have seen, boy," Bezi said, sounding muted, similar to the way things sound under water. "Let this be a lesson to you." Her voice strained, and the beast began trembling. A knot formed in my belly, but Bezi maintained her casual demeanor. "This is but one of countless dangers you face when traveling between realms. You must get used to seeing creatures such as these and worse, and still maintaining your bearings. While in the physical plane, no matter what you creatures you see in the ether, never let them know you’ve seen them.” She raised her outstretched arm higher into the air, lifting the beast off the ground. “Because some creatures, like this wolf, serve powerful masters. And if the wrong being learns you have the ability to see between realms, you will be in even more danger than you are now.”
“What do you mean ‘see between realms’?”
She nodded towards the bed, and I followed her gaze; it was empty. I frowned and looked down at my body, and realization dawned on me. I was back in my body, back in the physical realm, but somehow the world still looked faded and subdued, as if I were still in the ether. “So…you are still in the ether, but I’m in the physical?”
She nodded, then clenched her hand into a fist, and the beast let out a sharp whelp right before twisting into a sudden grotesque tangle of broken limbs, a body that had bowed backward, and neck that made a grotesque ‘v' so that the head tucked between its thick neck and bulbous shoulder. She let her arm drop, and the beast fell to the floor, twitching.
Red Lineage Page 19
