Click Ch. 09

"You're not Nick," she said. "...How lovely."

"And you are not Akira," I said narrowing my eyes. There was something utterly alien about her and I remembered the ancient knowledge of Yg. This was no demon but a soul thief. They borrowed the bodies of the innocent and not so innocent for their dire feeding habits. They would make love to their host's lovers and then drain the life force from them. I ordered Carol and Louisa from the pool and they left as quickly as they could once they saw how serious I was. Then once more I turned my full attention to the woman in my arms.

"Aren't you going to fuck me, now that we are alone," she snarled.

"I could do that, but I'd rather do this," I said as I touched the place just above the bridge of her nose and invoked the sacred words. She went from playful to hateful in an instant. As she thrashed in my grasp I invoked the names of the Old Gods and drove her from this body, forever. She was strong and it wasn't a thing that happened swiftly. But in the end she was powerless to resist a power older and greater than herself. I almost didn't catch Akira when she fell limp in my grasp. My arms were shaking and weak from holding her in place. But I lifted her up and set her on the top of the stone wall. Then I drank some of the pool's water to restore myself. Akira sat up slowly and cursed as she looked around.

"It happened again didn't it," she asked and I nodded. "But it was different this time."

"I drove it away," I said and she looked at me with a look that was all wonderment and shock woven together.

"How," she asked as she dangled her legs in the pool.

"A few chosen words," I said. "I have to leave."

"Wait, what do you mean leave," she said hopping into the pool and throwing her arms around my neck. "You saved me from that thing and now you want to leave."

"I am tired, besides it won't come back ever," I said and she smiled. "Something is happening to me and I don't think anyone should be around when it really starts. Ever since..." I stopped and she looked at me with concern and hurt.

"Ever since when," Akira said as she cupped the side of my face. "You have to tell someone. I can see the pain that is eating you up inside. I'm not going anywhere. Nick will understand."

"I," I began then paused and the wall came crashing down inside of me. "I'm not human."

"I know silly," she said smiling. "I have tasted your blood remember. You don't think I wouldn't notice."

"Oh, I didn't take that into account actually," I said. Then I launched into my long ass rant and she patiently sat there and listened. "Well, I belong to the race of the Dreamer in the Depths. I thought that I would keep my human form since I am only a half breed. But after meeting the others of my people that live below this city I am not so sure. There was this thing deep underground. It was a tear in the fabric of time/space. But it was also alive somehow and they called it Yog-Sothoth. I fell in the place between spaces and it has changed me in some fundamental way. I can feel it. I think it has stripped me of my humanity and I will become like them, like my father. You don't want..."

"Stop right there, who are you to tell me what I want or don't want. Let me make that decision if you please." Then she replied in kind with her own history as a Nephilim, what humans knew as revenants or vampires. "So what are your plans exactly?"

"I need to finish up here, get home and make plans to move into someplace secluded. I have a place in mind. Then I will make my goodbyes and leave. I guess that is it."

"Just like that, you sweep me off my feet and then you are going to dump me? I don't think so. I am going with you." Her eyes narrowed and I knew she meant what she said. But she hadn't seen my father or the others.

"If that is how you feel," I said unsure of anything at the moment. The kiss that followed answered that question utterly and completely.

What Lies Beneath:

We slipped back into camp just before dawn. I went back to my tent and she to hers. I actually slept deeply for the two hours or so I was allowed before Nick himself came to wake me. He seemed more his old self and less haunted. Oh, I recognized that agonizing pain that flittered behind his eyes when he thought no one was looking. There was a huge burden on him and I suspected it had nothing to do with the obelisk and this lost city. We were more alike than I knew before we started this adventure. There was something on his horizon that both terrified and excited him. I knew he wouldn't share it with me but I hoped there was someone he trusted enough to unburden himself. He actually smiled at me as I sat up.

"You don't have to give me the gross details but if you need to talk," I said.

"I wish I could," he said shaking his head. "But there is only so much guilt to pass around."

"Guilt," I said getting to my feet. "If I can help..." But he shook his head again.

"No, I just need you to make your little mapping experiment work," he said. "That will save weeks hell even months of time off of our timeframe here."

I assured him that it would work. I would make it happen even if I had to input the map that Abraxxa had given me into the device. But I didn't think it would come to that. We had a light breakfast and got back to work. I finalized the equations and the engineers did the rest. We placed the satellite uplink by the central pillar and fired off a burst straight up. The beam hit the lensing layer in the atmosphere and bounced down off all the stone outcroppings giving us a decent image of the city. It didn't show everything but it did reveal most of the objects close to the surface of the sand. I gave Carol the data and she disappeared into the main tent to analyze said information. It was this morning that Louisa dragged Nick to the temple for a serious powwow. There was something they had discovered in the temple that required his immediate attention. I learned later that there was some sort of artifact in the upper reaches of the temple that was the cause for the waterfall cascading over the obelisk.

'Master Nick has found the gravity pump,' Abraxxa chimed in after Louisa left.

'It is how the water is drawn upwards from below the temple,' I asked.

'Yes Master,' she said. 'My other aspect is going to take him to a hidden chamber in the lower part of the temple to retrieve a device to remove the obelisk safely.'

'What kind of device,' I asked.

'It is a portable gravity tool that will allow him to lift the obelisk from its seat in the pool. That is if he is compatible with it. The technology was created by your people after all.'

'My people, what sort of tech are we talking about,' I asked.

'I suppose you could call it organic technology. You see the scepter is alive and will only respond to certain active DNA markers. If he possesses enough of those markers it will allow him access to its abilities. If not it is just a lump of metal.'

I didn't have long to wait. Nick was calling for the flatbed truck and before the hour was out the obelisk was safely stowed, wrapped in tarps and ready for transport. Nick also removed all the ancient coins from the pool as a sort of bribe for Carol and her fellow archaeologists. Louisa and her engineers were going to have a field day trying to reverse engineer the portable gravity device. I wondered why he was moving this thing in the first place he could just scan it for the symbols it possessed. Was this part of the guilty event that was looming in his future? I would never know. We were moving out weeks ahead of schedule. Something had happened or was happening that had pushed Nick into a sort of frenzy. Maybe it was best we left this place, it had been forgotten by the outside world for a reason and the sooner we left the better. We broke camp and left the city by another direction entirely. Nick was heading for the coast where a ship was ready to receive the obelisk and we would all go our separate ways from there.

It was dusk when we cleared the communication dead zone. Arianna cried out as hundreds of messages came flooding in. She sifted through them and gave me a summary.

'Master, your sister has been trying to reach you since we entered the city,' she said.

'She knew I might be out of contact for a while, what is going on?'

'I am so sorry Master, it is your mother,' Arianna said almost crying. 'She's had the baby and there have been some serious complications.'

'What sort of complications,' I asked feeling my heart leap into my throat.

'She doesn't say all she says is that your mother had to be committed to a mental health facility and that you need to get home as soon as possible.'

I was out of the truck and racing towards Nick's vehicle as fast as I could. He stopped the vehicle and got out. One look at my face and he was holding me by my shoulders and telling me to slow down. I told him my mom was seriously ill and I needed to get home as soon as possible. He nodded and got on the radio and chartered a jet at the nearest city for a non-stop flight to Arkham. I raced back to the truck and pulled the driver out. By the time I was buckled up so was Akira in the passenger's seat. I didn't even bother to argue as I turned the vehicle towards my destination and gunned it. Arianna gave me a heads up display of my route and I just tuned out of the now as inside I was screaming to get home as quickly as I could. What had happened and why had Fiona not given me more information. If her plan was not to worry me she was failing miserably. I could reach out to her but it would be fruitless until I reach the aircraft and tell her that I was on my way. Even then it would be hours before we reached our final destination. I could have had Arianna send the craft she had built that could carry me home in short minutes. But how did I explain that to Akira as well as Nick?

"I'm not going anywhere," she said as she reached out and touched my hand. I took her hand in mine and squeezed it. "Tell me what is bothering you."

"I am afraid of what I am becoming," I said. "I fear you will see me and..."

"And run away is that it," she said and I nodded. "I understand but please trust me I am in it for the long haul."

"I feel bad for Nick," I said.

"If Nick hadn't pushed me away I wouldn't be here. He has to live with his decisions."

Once more I thought about what could make a man with so much drive someone like Akira away. What was going on in his life that was so time consuming and important he could waste such an opportunity? I shook my head and drove on as fast as I dared push the vehicle in the inhospitable conditions. It was well after midnight when we reached the airstrip. The private jet was waiting as well as men to take possession of the truck and take it to the port where Nick would be waiting for it. Akira and I got aboard the sleek aircraft and buckled up. The pilot announced take off and we felt the tendrils of acceleration grip us as the plane left the tarmac. We headed west crossing timelines at twice the speed of sound. Even at that speed it would take precious time to get home. What was Fiona keeping from me? What had happened to mom? I had the sinking feeling that it was all my fault. I had tried sending messages; both text and voice mail but to no avail. She was not going to speak to me until we were face to face. I paced, sat down and ate. I repeated this until Akira took my hand and pulled me down next to her. The simple act of her laying her hand on my face calmed me like nothing I ever imagined would. She never spoke a word but then again she didn't have to. The look in her eyes, the cool feeling of her hand in mine was enough for me. I let out one of those great sighs of relief and tried to think of something besides my mom. But I was drawn into memories of her that gave me a sense of hope. I remember catching fireflies in a jar and then letting them go. I recalled a time we took a walk in the park and got caught in a sudden downpour. She didn't get angry she just splashed in the newly formed puddles like any kid my age would have done. Hell she was the one who taught me how to properly fly a kite, how to swim and read every bed time story I ever begged for. What an amazing woman and what an amazing childhood! I closed my eyes and Akira held me and rocked me until I actually fell asleep.

We are all mad here:

The plane set down in Arkham. It is a small airport and can't handle some of the larger aircraft but the small jet was no problem at all. I was the first off the plane and there sitting waiting for me was the Ducatti with two helmets. I straddled the beast and put my helmet on even as Akira mirrored my actions. I felt her hands slip around my waist and her body lean against mine. I fired up the bike and sped off towards home, mom's house. I got there in less than ten minutes but no one was there. My next destination was my home near the college campus. I gunned the engine and flew around the slower moving traffic. I got there in record time. I raced up the steps without even taking off my helmet. I banged on the door and Isix answered it. She stood there and I could see by the circles under her eyes that she hadn't slept much and had been crying repeatedly. She just latched on as a new bout of tears came rushing forward. Fiona appeared on bare feet and dressed in one of my shirts. Her lower body was naked and there was a wrongness about it all suddenly. I slipped the helmet off and glared at her. She nodded as if saying you are right to be angry with me.

"What the fuck is going on," I asked even as Akira placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Come in and sit down, this is going to take a while to explain," Fiona said as she turned around and returned to the living room. She sat on the couch and waited for us to be seated before she spoke. I looked at my sister and saw that while outwardly she seemed composed there was a hint of that wrongness I detected earlier in and around her eyes. Fiona collected her thoughts and then began to speak. It was all about mom and her pregnancy. She spoke about how well things had gone for the nine months. But Fiona suspected something dire was wrong when Isix began becoming more and more aloof. By the time the last month of the pregnancy was upon mom the petite fae had stopped talking to her altogether. She tried to corner her but it was no good she refused to speak. The only thing she would say is that father would be so proud of us, meaning Fiona and me. She continued on and told of the multiple confrontations between her and our mutual father. He stone walled her as much as Isix had but he was always in good spirits. No matter how vitriol her language he just tried to sooth her with words of encouragement. Then mom went into labor and Fiona was barred from the room. They had to physically restrain her at one point to keep her away. She could hear mom cry out as the contractions grew closer and closer. Then there was the grunting as she bore down to deliver her third child into the world. Then there was a sound that came from the room that was inhuman. The cry of a new life but the contradictory deep and high pitched howl it produced chilled her blood. That's when Fiona broke free of her captors and burst into the room. There was never such a sight as what was beyond that door. There was her mother sitting against the wall with her knees pulled up tight against her. Her eyes were wide with terror as she beheld the thing she had given birth to. Fiona's eyes locked on the ever shifting mass of pale flesh. It was difficult to look at for any length of time as the outline was blurred and hurt her head. Then she saw her father take the child into his arms and hold it close. The wailing of the thing stopped and a kind of purring sound as if from some great cat filled the room. It was a boy though how father could tell was anyone's guess. Fiona rushed to her mother even as father and new born left the room. By the time she had her mother in her arms she was unresponsive. Her eyes were wide open but no one was home. The shock had been too much for her but that was just the beginning. She was rushed to Arkham Sanitarium for treatment. Her catatonic state lasted two days and then suddenly she was awake and talking like nothing had happened. It was only when two subjects were brought up that she reacted violently. The first was the birth of her child and the other was me. Whenever my name was brought up she reacted with fits of rage, fear and hysteria. So for the sake of her mental health those two things became taboo. The last time my name was brought up in a counseling session she look puzzled at the doctor and shook her head. She said that she didn't have a son, only a daughter. She had erased both the birth and me from her memory. It was the only way she could function within the parameters of sanity any more. Fiona said that she did the only thing she could do. She went to mom's house and removed any sign of my existence there. She boxed it all up and brought it here, to the house by the campus. I sat there and felt the impact of events. A chill ran through me and I turned on Isix at this point.

"It skips a generation," she said stoically. "You father's traits show up in your children. It could have been any woman but as long as you are the father then your offspring will be special."

"Special," I said through gritted teeth. Then I stopped and thought about it. If I hadn't been born as a half breed I wouldn't be having issues with my son. He was my son and even after Fiona's harrowing tale there was still a bond there. Was it the effect of direct exposure to Yog Sothoth that was creating these feelings or was it something simpler? He didn't ask to be born different, well what humanity viewed as strange or even monstrous. He was just a child with no control over his heritage or destiny, just like me. Every day that passed I was changing and deep down I knew that one day soon I would shed my own humanity. I would take my place with my other family. I had already made the choice to accept the inevitable so who was I to turn away from my own flesh and blood.

"I want to see mom once before I go," I said turning back to Fiona.

"Go, go where," she asked. I held up my hand and she could see the pattern of translucence that was forming on my skin. "NO!"

"Fiona, it is okay," I told her as she wept. "I have accepted it. I am glad you were here to take care of mom. I just need to do something for her before I go."

"I will take you there after we eat," she said sniffling. "You can give me that much at least."

"I'm starved," I said and she managed a small smile.

We ordered pizza and sat around talking about better times. Akira listened intently as she got a view into my childhood and the loving family I had been brought up in. But even as I listened to one of Fiona's stories I spoke with Arianna.

'I need you to contact a friend of mine in the Order,' I said.

'I have all the details Master,' she replied. 'Are you sure about this?'

'Positive,' I said. 'After tonight I have to disappear for good.'

So we ate, laughed, cried and even hugged before heading off to Arkham Sanitarium. The drive there was ripe with silence and a sense of dread. I didn't know how mom would react when she saw me but I had to at least say goodbye. The snowfall outside had gone from light flurries to a steady downpour of huge fluffy flakes. The regular tempo of the windshield wipers was loud in the vehicle. It was like some mechanical heartbeat as we made our way up the narrow two lane road. The trees were bare of leaves and the heat of the dessert was forgotten in the early winter of Massachusetts. I always wondered why they built these places out of the way from the prying eyes of ordinary people. But then if you look back just twenty or so years you find that mental illness was an affront to the community and everything it stood for so the fact that this century old building was shunned by the everyday citizen. It is still looked upon as a kind of malignancy that took over even the best of us. We reached the gated walls of the mental hospital. The guard let us in and we parked out front of the three story stone edifice. The gothic architecture was from a bygone era when it was looked upon more as a prison than a place of healing. The stone gargoyles peered down as we entered. It was just Fiona, Akira and I who made the journey to this god forsaken place. I wasn't surprised when the strong scent of antiseptic filled my nostrils. The bright white tiles and walls were a severe contrast to the dark brooding exterior. My arrival must have been expected because not one but several doctors and nurses were waiting to greet us. My fame had preceded me yet again. I was still getting used to my celebrity but I wielded it now so that my ends justified their means. They took the three of us into a large conference room and went over my mother's condition. She was suffering from acute paranoia and borderline schizophrenia. They were treating her the best they could from such a sudden onset of these conditions. After the briefing I was allowed to see her and spend time alone with my mother. One of the nurses led me down the hall and unlocked her room. I stepped inside and they closed the door behind me. The first thing I noticed was that her hair was now cropped very short and then I noticed how skinny she was. She turned around slowly to face the door and that's when my heart dropped, there was no sign of recognition at all in her eyes. She cocked her head to the side and smiled.