Satyr Play 03 Pt. 02

"Yes, you can be free of the pain if you just let go," an ancient voice whispered to him.

He paused as he'd heard that voice before. It'd terrified him then, but now it was trying to ease his suffering?

"You... you're the witch."

"Yes," she replied.

"Free me!" he cried.

"No."

He was rocked by the indifference in the voice. She had no compassion at all. But... wasn't this her fault?

"You brought me here, to this time. That makes you responsible for my fate!" he reasoned.

"No."

Despair washed over him, then rage.

"Why the fuck did you bring me here if you're just going to let me die!" he screamed.

She was quiet for a moment, then her whisper returned, but she wasn't really speaking to him. "A contingency plan, hmmm. A final and desperate option, not meant to be used unless all other options failed. The boy activating you was unexpected, but his fate is so tangled now, I couldn't see it coming."

Once more, he felt her indifference to his fate and shuddered at how cold the crone's voice was. He was somehow... less than insignificant to her. He thought he picked up a wistfulness when she spoke of Henry. Maybe he could use that.

"My fate is intertwined with Henry's—"

"Fool. Your fate is nothing... but you can serve one last purpose."

-=-

Sigrid turned to Carl. "Since you got what you needed from the boy—"

She took a single step towards the young man taped to the chair when Carl spun and stabbed his claws deep into the boy's chest and ripped his heart from the cavity. Sigrid watched his head come up in shock and despair. He was looking directly at her when life left his remaining eye.

Carl tossed the gore into his mouth and swallowed. He shuddered from the energy this small meal fed to his trembling muscles. Then he turned his bloody grin to Sigrid, and she almost launched an attack. She held back at the last second when Roy held up a hand before her.

"MMMmmiiinnnne," Roy growled, and Sigrid looked at him in surprise. She recalled he'd said it was impossible to speak in this form. Roy flicked his eyes her way briefly as he nodded to her, and she stepped back as she nodded in return. She wouldn't interfere.

"Kill the fucker," Sigrid growled, and Carl snorted in amusement, obviously supremely confident of his victory.

Everyone moved back to give the two big Weres room to maneuver. Carl's body was slightly larger with a longer reach, but Roy's movements were smoother.

The initial clash happened almost faster than the eye perceived. Carl surged forward while swiping his deadly claws at Roy, who was suddenly inside his reach and scoring a slash along the inside of Carl's outstretched arm. As Roy leaped past, Carl spun with inhuman speed and managed to rake the claws of his other arm across Roy's back. Both stepped back cautiously and assessed their injuries.

Carl's arm was already healing though it wasn't functioning properly yet. Roy was healing too but not as quickly. He was at a disadvantage there.

Sigrid frowned as she traded a look with Mary. They weren't going to let Roy die, but they couldn't interfere.

Roy was just going to have to fight smarter... or Carl dumber. She smiled. Maybe she could help with that.

-=-

Administrator Kenzie reviewed the video as the motion detector caught something at the lane entrance leading to the containment center facility. She watched a car stop, and three people get out to look around. A short time later, they got back in and left. It could be nothing, but it could also be something. She was willing to waste the time of an orderly, sending him outside to confirm. She paged one of the dimwits and gave him the order when he called in. He actually sounded pleased to get the opportunity to be violent. It was in their nature, after all.

She put it out of her mind and called Dr. Leslie. They were treating each other with extra frost ever since one of their inmates disappeared. She had yet to submit the report on that event to Minister Hoek.

"What? I'm busy," the doctor demanded.

"With only three patients to take care of?" she fired back.

There was a pause as she could hear Leslie grinding her teeth. "The new one is presenting additional challenges."

Kenzie frowned. "You strap him down and drug him. How much of a challenge can he be?"

The doctor sucked in and swallowed her angry retort. She didn't want to disclose the man's ability to leave his body and still affect his environment, so she went in a different direction.

"His metabolism is unique. It's too sensitive to tranquilizers and sedatives, so finding a proper amount to administer has been very challenging. The order was to keep him unconscious but alive. He's fighting everything I give him." She stifled a cruel grin as she thought about the delicious pain he was going through from the current treatment. How he survived and bounced back each time was an intriguing mystery, and she found that thrilling! She had so many more experiments she wanted to try on him. But first...

"Why did you call?"

"I must submit a report regarding the missing inmate. How do I explain how he vanished from a sealed cell without a trace? You were the last to see him. You sedated him. This won't look good on your record. Certainly, it's a black mark on mine, but I wasn't the one to lock him in the room," Kenzie suggested.

Leslie ground her teeth as she was being thrown under the bus. "You know very well, my bad fortune is yours, sister." Leslie spat the final word as she loathed the idea of being related to this bitch, much less being her twin.

"Then give me something I can use to protect both of us!" Kenzie spat back.

Cornered, Leslie was forced to play one of her hidden cards. "I-I believe it was the new arrival. He has... abilities."

Kenzie was immediately suspicious. She knew her sister too well. "And you're only reporting them now? What kind of abilities?"

Leslie sighed. "When he's drugged unconscious, his mind leaves his body. In that state, he retains the ability to manipulate his environment. He was likely the cause of the disturbance in the cafeteria. I think he moved the missing patient outside."

Kenzie was silent as this would get them off the hook, but she was still suspicious about why Leslie kept it secret from her. She would have to be extra vigilant around her.

Since their early childhood, they'd been plotting against each other when they were told they had a conjoined life force. They couldn't be further apart than a few hundred yards, or they'd begin to mentally degrade. Together, they maintained their genius-level intellects, but apart they could slip into a vegetative state. Neither could tolerate the idea of being dependent on the other, but they were trapped. Each looked for a means to escape, but so far, it had been fruitless. Could Leslie's hesitance in reporting the abilities of their new inmate indicate she was up to something? She would have to be extra cautious, but she wouldn't let on that she knew.

"I can work with this. Don't hesitate to keep me in the loop in the future," she said with her usual scorn.

"Whatever," Leslie said and disconnected.

Her phone immediately chimed, so she answered. "Yes?"

"The sky is green."

Kenzie recognized the dull voice of the Ogre she'd sent outside. "What do you mean it's green?"

"The sky is all wiggly and green but only above," it said, the effort to explain the phenomenon taxing its vocabulary and its limited intellect.

The Aurora Borealis was above the containment center? That wasn't good. It would draw attention to them, and that was something she couldn't abide. The memory of the three standing by their car flashed into her mind. "Check the grounds. We may have trespassers."

The phone disconnected, and she frowned at the receiver. Was he following her orders, or did the clumsy oaf just drop the phone? She called and sent the second Ogre out to assist the first.

In the meantime, she was going to personally check on their recent arrival. The strangest phenomenon did seem to revolve around him.

-=-

Meixiu was perched on a tree branch watching two Silver people hiding amongst the trees behind a garage structure. She wasn't sure what to make of that. She'd seen them on TV, and they'd protected the Glass People, so that meant they were the good guys. She'd also seen a group working for the US Military, and those were people the Hidden Races needed to avoid. Humans now had people working for them that might be able to expose the Hidden Races. She couldn't take that chance.

When the big guy suddenly walked around the side of the garage and spotted the two Silver People, he lifted a nasty looking little gun and pulled the trigger. The bullets ripped through the trees where the two had been only a second before. A small trail of kicked up leaves from the forest floor suggested the direction they'd run. The thug with the gun ran after them.

Meixiu was about to follow when her cell vibrated. She glanced around to confirm she was alone, then pulled it from her inner pocket and quickly read the text from Sigrid. More company after Henry? Not good! She needed to get him out!

She sent a quick reply about spotting the Silver People. She hoped Sigrid would have some advice on what to do. This situation had rapidly grown beyond her ability to deal with it.

-=-

Raymond and Eleanor heard the staccato burst of an automatic weapon and froze. Almost immediately, they were nearly bowled over by a silver streak that veered around them at the last second. They fell back onto their asses on the soft forest floor. The streak returned to stop and stand before them. Eleanor stared at the two in shock as Raymond watched them cautiously.

"A big guy with a machine gun is coming," one of the Silver People said, gesturing over his shoulder. There was a hollowness about the voice, but it was clearly English with a hint of an accent.

"Thanks!" Raymond said as he stood and helped Eleanor up. They heard the heavy thump of the running gunman approaching, so he gave his stunned wife a gentle pull. She nodded to him, then they tapped into their skills and faded into the darkness to slip away from the Silver people, moving off at an angle to avoid the guard as well. Their movements weren't as smooth and rapid as Meixiu's, but it sufficed to let them get away.

Thinking of Meixiu, they hoped she'd avoided the guard too.

-=-

Jake grabbed Brenda's hand. "Did you see that?" he asked excitedly as he stared at the point where the couple had been standing a moment before.

"I did! How did they do that?" she gasped in return.

Their sped-up perceptions picked up the sound of the big guy's approach. "I think we need to do something about this fella's weapon before he hurts someone." Jake picked up a rock and grinned at his wife.

"Agreed," Brenda said with a nod.

-=-

Kenzie stood next to the bed and watched the man convulsing in agony. In the bright, cold light filling the room, every stretched tendon, every bead of sweat, and every tremor was brilliantly visible to express how much pain her sister was putting the man through. She wasn't deluding herself to say she actually cared about his state. What was actually bothering her was the glee she could see in her sister's eyes. She was enjoying this! Disgusting!

She stared across the bed to see Leslie's excited expression. "There! He's beginning to purge the poison! How is he doing it?" the doctor gushed as her eyes flashed green.

Kenzie frowned. Her sister's eyes were blue. "What color are my eyes?" she asked.

Leslie didn't even look at her. "Blue."

"Look again."

With an annoyed frown, Leslie glanced up and froze. "They're green?"

"Something's not right," the administrator said and looked around. There was too much light. She turned and walked to the doorway, where she turned off the room's light. They gasped in unison as a green light was coming through the ceiling to cover the bed. The Aurora Borealis! It was in the room! He had to be drawing it to himself!

She walked back to stand next to the bed and watched the man's face begin to relax. He really was flushing the poison from his body. She reached out and ran her fingers through the green light. It felt... refreshing. Her jaw dropped open, and she looked across the bed to tell her sister what she thought the light was, but she wasn't there.

The blade stabbed deeply into her back, almost thrusting up out of her chest. Leslie wrapped an arm around her neck to hold her in place as the dagger began to make its presence felt.

"Are you mad?" she choked out in shock. "You're killing yourself too!"

"No, sister, not with Mèirleach Anam feeding me your life. Soon, I'll never have to share anything with you!"

"How?" Kenzie squeaked at the name of the ancient blade. Already, she could feel the lethargy filling her as the edge drank from her energy.

"He brought it to me. His mind traveled to Mab's castle. She used the blade on him, but he somehow got free and returned with it in his hand. To deliver it to me," Leslie gloated, her excitement growing as her sister slumped.

Kenzie stared at the man resting peacefully at last on the bed. In the terrible lethargy, she momentarily forgot her impending doom. How was it possible for him to travel so far? His eyes... they were open, and his lips moved.

The explosion caught Leslie and Kenzie completely off-guard. The bed suddenly flew apart as each fastener and connection suddenly expanded. Metal shrapnel fired in every direction, one bolt passing through the thigh of the doctor. It was the side rail's impact that knocked both of them across the room, breaking Leslie's grip on the blade handle in the tumble. Kenzie ended up leaning against the wall next to the door while Leslie was on her stomach on the floor eight feet away. Mèirleach Anam was on the floor between them. Kenzie wanted to leap forward, snatch up the dagger, and plunge it into the back of her sister, but she was still too weak.

The room was getting darker as the green light faded. Her sister had attacked her from the darkness, and Kenzie wouldn't allow that to happen again.

She stretched a hand up above her and managed to find a light switch. Pressing it produced a shower of sparks above the remains of the bed, and one light panel lit feebly. In the dim illumination, she saw the pile of scrap metal that had been the bed stir as a large horned creature sat up with a groan. The inmate had dropped his glamor, and she was looking at... a Satyr?

He was pulling the tubes and wires from his body, but the monitor had been smashed beyond salvage and sounded no alarms.

Her mind latched onto that. Alarm. She needed to trigger the alarm.

Once more, she forced a hand up along the wall and looked up to guide her hand to the emergency alarm. She tugged at it feebly until she managed to pull it all the way. A siren sounded in the distance.

Leslie groaned and whimpered, making Kenzie look to the blade in desperation.

She gasped as she tried to move her body and realized her leg was broken. However, seeing her sister drag herself forward, she tried to get to the blade first. The pain threatened to pull her consciousness away.

When her eyes opened again, she sucked in a frightened breath. Leslie was on her feet with the blade in her left hand as her right arm hung motionless.

"Time to finish the job," Leslie chuckled.

She was looking into the mad eyes of her sister when they suddenly dropped as the woman fell through the floor. Her scream came up through the tear and slowly became quieter and quieter as she fell from a great height.

Kenzie looked to the Satyr, who was sitting on his ass, looking back at her wearily.

She could feel it. Her keen intellect was slipping away, faster and faster. The world was shrinking for her as she stared in dismay at the creature before her.

The tear snapped closed, severing her connection to her sister, and her eyes rolled back as she slid down the wall. Kenzie and Leslie were gone before their bodies impacted their respective resting places.

-=-

Henry watched in confusion as a woman, who looked so much like the doctor, keeled over and died. Even though he'd saved her from the homicidal doctor. It might have been petty, but dropping Dr. Bitch from a great height onto a lava field not only eliminated her evil, but it also destroyed her remains so she wouldn't pollute Eden. The dagger was also finding a molten end, he hoped. He couldn't be sure about that, considering the magic imbued in the weapon, but he had hope.

Opening that tear had taken almost the last of his energy. If he tried to open one for himself, he wouldn't be able to keep it open long enough to get through it. They'd intentionally fed him poorly to keep him weak and compliant. His head spun with fatigue. He needed food and real sleep in that order.

He'd switched to his true form as he needed the additional strength just to remain conscious. He'd deleted the program for purging the toxins when he activated his exploded view program. The bed disassembled perfectly though launching the spell had been a big gamble. He would have been equally dismantled if the restraints hadn't exploded into their base components at precisely the same time.

Henry pushed himself to his hooves and shuffled towards the door. He tried the handle, but it was locked. He lifted and pressed the woman's hand against the plate next to the door, but that didn't work either. He squatted down as he contemplated the door. He didn't have the energy to kick it open. He was stuck, and the alarms had been triggered.

Shit.

-=-

Minkah stood in the garage before the car the Administrator had arranged for her. It was a piece of junk, but she wasn't surprised as that woman was a petty piece of shit. Minkah sighed once more. She'd been standing before the bloody car for minutes, her mind looking for an excuse to stay.

She couldn't deny it any longer, though she'd stubbornly tried. She needed to check on Henry. His ghostly plea for help had affected her more than she wanted to admit.

With an angry huff, she spun and marched down the hall towards the admin wing. Passing by the containment ward, she stopped and went to the door. She was surprised to see it was unlocked. She pulled it open and stepped into the hall. She didn't know which room was Henry's, so she looked into the first room's window but saw it was empty.

A muffled thump came from further down the hall. She held still and listened. When the alarm began, she ran out of the containment wing, but its door didn't automatically close, sealing her in. Cautiously, she went back into the hall and saw a red light flashing above a door. She walked to it and looked in the window. The lighting was very dim, but the room looked like a wreck. The bed was a pile of smashed junk in the middle of the room, and a large creature was crouched closer to the door. It was broad-shouldered and had large ram horns. Its head hung forward in exhaustion. As if sensing her gaze, the head slowly lifted, and she was looking at Henry.

He locked eyes with her for a moment, then recognition came to his expression. His eyes dropped, and he slumped in defeat. That stung more than she expected it would. She opened his door but cautiously remained in the hall.

"Are you here to kill me?" he asked wearily.

"No. I was just hired to bring you here," she replied. Then she spotted the leg of the administrator. She pulled her gun and held it on him. "You killed Administrator Kenzie?"

He gazed wearily at her gun, then up into her eyes again. "No... I thought I was saving her from the mad doctor who was trying to stab her. But she died anyway."

Minkah's eyes scanned what she could see from the hall but saw no sign of the doctor. "Is the doctor's body in there too?"