The Awakened Pt. 05

[Yes, yes it's working, Kane. Just a little more.]

The feeling quickened and suddenly he just felt...whole..? And yet at the same time he was totally drained.

[Quick, we have to get back or people will be wondering what's happened.]

As he woke, he looked up and saw the deep blue sky. He felt the cold paving slabs underneath his back and the bitter wind reddening his face. He'd never felt more relieved in his life.

"Kane! Mr Daniels!", a slightly frantic voice that he slowly recognised as Dr Jane's slowly reached his foggy brain. He felt light-headed, almost drunk.

Her worried face came into view and her hands were taking his pulse.

"Can you hear me, Kane?"

"Gods but you're beautiful."

"I'm...what...", she stammered, flushing a lovely shade of red as she removed her hands as if scalded.

"No, don't go, you're beautiful."

Kane felt almost as if he had no control. He frantically fought for consciousness and suddenly everything snapped back into place.

He realised that he was holding Dr Jane's hands. She was looking flushed, whether from excitement, embarrassment or both he didn't know. She seemed at a loss for words and he slowly released her hands before starting to sit up.

His head exploded with a massive migraine and he couldn't help the loud groan as he slumped back to the ground, closing his eyes against the pain.

"No, no, no, don't sit. Stay where you are." The professional doctor was back in charge.

"Kane! Is he alright?"

His parents.

"I don't know. I was his physician when he was recovering but he just collapsed and screamed out like he'd been shot or something."

"You're a doctor? Oh, thank heavens."

"Someone call an ambulance!" Dr Jane again.

"I'm not sure that's necessary doctor," said Si, "he was complaining about migraines for the past couple of days, presumably from stress or lack of sleep. With all the emotion of the day added on top it may have all just hit him as he got outside."

"Mmmm...migraine...really bad.." Kane managed to get out, eyes still firmly shut against the pain.

"I'm not sure that..."

"Honestly doctor, I think it's the stress. You'd be welcome to come and check up on him later if you want but I think he just needs rest."

"Do I know you?"

The sound of hands shaking.

"Possibly, I'm Si. I often visit patients at the hospital."

"He brings us doughnuts too!" came a voice from further away.

"Are you together?"

"Goodness me, no. He's just using the spare room until he decides what he wants to do. Did you not hear about..."

And the conversation between them tailed off as Kane tried to conserve energy. He was vaguely aware of being helped upright and into a car. He must have slept as the next thing he was aware of was being bumped around in the seat of a car before coming to a stop.

"Come on old thing, not much further now."

Kane just groaned.

He was surprised to be supported by someone on either side. Maybe his sister had come back to help?

It wasn't long before he felt the wonderful softness of his pillow beneath his head and his body sinking into the soft mattress.

Panicking briefly he forced himself into the spirit world and was reassured to find that he was fully cloaked. He looked around him briefly and was surprised to see Dr Jane taking his shoes off and Si holding a blanket to cover him with.

He took a brief moment to really look at the doctor. She had a surprisingly tender look on her face as she finished pulling off his shiny black oxfords. Her hair was loose now, just longer than shoulder length, a nice dirty blond colour. She looked surprisingly young without her more formal doctor's coat and with her hair out of its severe bun. And beautiful. Really beautiful. Gods, how could he have been so crass!

It hurt too much to maintain concentration. He pushed himself back into his body, relaxed and slept.

= = = = = = =

Kane woke up suddenly. None of that languorous, blissful rise to consciousness for him. It was a bit like when you've got jet lag and wake up bolt upright whether you like it or not.

Jarring.

Instantly awake.

It felt horrible and he sat up without thinking, wondering what had woken him.

His body was demanding food.

He was literally famished and was unable to wait any longer. He got up and felt fortunate that he didn't have a migraine to deal with. He was still dressed in his suit and so he quickly changed before heading down to the kitchen. It was still dark outside and he tried to keep the noise down as he started cooking whilst eating a huge bowl of muesli.

He'd just finished his second plate and was beginning to consider opening another tin of baked beans when a yawning Si appeared in his dressing gown.

"Did you leave any for me or is the larder empty?"

"There's still a few eggs and some toast if you like?"

"Perfect. How are you feeling?"

"Much improved thank you. And thank you for getting me back here."

Si waved his thanks away as he reached for some bread for the toaster.

"I had help from that nice doctor lady. You know the 'beautiful' one," he smiled teasingly at Kane.

He groaned, his emotions twisting him back and forth. One side was VERY interested in Dr Jane Watson while the other was guilty as all hell at the thought of being interested in another woman. At his wife's funeral!

"She said that she was keen to speak to you about your recovery...I know, I know, I told her about your misgivings and how you weren't going to be a lab rat. I think that she just wants to make sure that you're not experiencing any health issues after your miracle recovery. She also mentioned something about a clamour for more information from around the world."

"Oh no!"

"Tough to hide that glowing light of yours under a bushel old chap."

"Did she leave a number for me to contact her?"

"I added it to your phone. It's under Dr Jane Beautiful," grinned Si.

Kane sighed, flushing with embarrassment.

"How did the wake go? I'm so sorry that you got stuck with it."

"Not a bit, old thing. I was able to mingle and drink the odd G&T. Your sister was amazing. She really took over. When I got to the wake she was working the room like she'd been doing it all her life. They're coming over for lunch by the way before heading back home."

"That's good, I haven't had much chance to speak to them. I need to thank her and my parents...and...Si, I want to help them."

"Help them how...oh you mean heal some of their maladies?"

Kane nodded, looking unsure.

"Would you know what you're doing? What the after effects might be? How they'll react?"

"No to all of the above. But they're miserable. Every time that I call they're in pain. Their doctor keeps giving them pills in the hope that they'll go away. They're not interested in seventy year olds. Their quality of life is unbelievably bad. I at least want to try."

"Are they well enough to be treated though? Would you be using their energy or yours?"

"Oh gods, that's a good point! But how would I know?"

"Beats me - you're the miracle man. Now be a good chap and leave me to my scrambled eggs and go and have a shower. I don't know if it's a side effect of the amount you eat, the brain claw or the healing but you're rather ripe. Unless you've been farting mightily since coming downstairs..?"

Suddenly self-conscious he sniffed at himself. There was a rather strong odour, though not really BO as such. It certainly wasn't pleasant though. Why would he smell like this?

"I'm so sorry Si..."

"Off with you before you curdle my milk," Si grinned again, taking the sting out of his words.

Kane felt much improved after his shower and by the time his family arrived he had helped Si prepare roast beef with all the trimmings.

The conversation was a little stilted as it tended to be. His parents didn't do much or go anywhere and after the funeral had been analysed they soon lapsed into a discussion about ailments.

Feeling recovered, Kane gave Si a slight nod and slipped into the spirit world. He looked down at his frail, grey parents and started to reach out towards them. He could sense things, things that weren't right, almost like a bad taste. Part of him wanted to just try and charge them up with energy. But who knew what would happen there? It would probably end up putting them on a high for a while and not much else.

He tried to isolate the [taste] from them. None of the [tastes] were pleasant but he felt that he could start to tell them apart. He finally settled on one [taste] and [pushed] as gently as he could. He heard his mother gasp.

"Are you alright dear?" his father asked.

"I..I think so. My hand just...popped."

"It did what?"

Kane [pushed] again.

"Oh!"

His father pushed his chair away from the table coming round to her in concern.

Si looked at Kane's immobile face nervously, trying to signal to him, before asking his mother if she wanted some water.

Kane could sense that the [taste] was much weaker now and seeing Si's panicked look, returned to the physical realm.

"What is it Mum?"

She looked up with wonder in her eyes. Her claw of a hand was able to open up again. The swollen knuckles had receded. She tried to stretch her hand out and could almost extend it fully.

"Charles! Look!"

"What on earth happened?"

"Mum, that's amazing!"

She started to cry with happiness. His father looked up with tears in his eyes.

"What was in that roast beef?"

Si laughed.

"I wish that I could take any of the credit. It's organic Belted Galloway beef from High Hall Farm if I remember correctly. And maybe some good Devon air and a drop of red wine..? And a rather nice gravy if I do say so myself."

"My love, you'll be able to sew and knit again!"

"I know! I have missed it so."

They chatted back and forth trying to understand what had happened. In the end the sheer happiness of being able to use her hand again was all that mattered.

Kane made sure that he had second helpings as well as some of the excellent apple pie and custard, causing his sister to tease him that his new physique would soon be gone if he kept that up. That took some of the focus off his mother and they began to talk more about how well he looked, what his plans were for the future and some none-too-subtle queries about him moving back near them.

By the time tea had been served and drunk, it was time for his parents to head home. He had had a good chance to talk to Sarah and thank her for her help which embarrassed her as any praise always did. By the time they'd left he was tired and pleased.

"Well that went well."

"It did. Thank you so much for inviting them and cooking for them and for carrying the conversation."

"It looked like I needed to when, you know. I assume that was your doing?"

Kane nodded.

"I wanted to do much more but it's so difficult when the effect is instant. I didn't know what I was healing but I knew that I was helping something. I need to find a way to differentiate between the illnesses. But seeing her able to wave goodbye was a wonderful thing."

Si nodded, relaxing and replete on the sofa. He sighed and looked across at Kane.

"I've been dreading this conversation but this seems as good a time as any. Talk to me. You've been itching to tell me something that you've discovered. It's obviously unsettled you and I don't think that I can put it off any longer. Now that I have a buffer of food and wine to protect me, why don't you unload."

"We don't have to do this now if..."

"Kane! If we don't do this now then I'll never do it. What is it?"

"Do you remember me telling you that when I was at Aldred's place I noticed a lot of brain claws soaring around because he was being so obvious with his power? Well when I absorbed his knowledge it included a memory from one of his plane journeys."

"He was flying somewhere and had just enjoyed...membership of the mile high club in his private jet. He always seemed to be more in tune with the spirit world after those moments and he drifted into spirit form. Thankfully he must have been low on power, or his orgasm had minimised his aura because as they flew along he could see that he was much closer to the spirit world clouds."

"The clouds are made up of brain claws."

Si sat bolt upright. His face had completely drained of all colour. Kane pressed on.

"And not just brain claws, other things as well. Stuff I have no knowledge of. They all drift along up there with their tendrils out waiting to sense something, anything that they can feed on."

Si's mouth had slowly dropped open as his mind tried to deal with the horror that Kane's story was painting in such graphic detail.

"But...but..."

"I know. It scared the shit out of me too. We've managed to deal with five brain claws now. And all of them nearly killed me. To know that so many are just waiting for some kind of opportunity like that. And that there are so many of them that they look like clouds..."

He shivered.

Si started to hyperventilate with the shock and Kane quickly moved in front of his friend, hands to his chest trying to help him calm down.

"Deep breaths Si. Come on slow down. We'll get through this, come on. That's it, just breathe but slowly."

Eventually Si waved him away and just lay back on the sofa, both arms across his head.

"This is why I didn't want to have this conversation. I knew I didn't want to know. But it's far worse than I imagined, Kane. I'm not sure I'll ever sleep again knowing that those things are up there."

"Come on, Si. It's horrible but they've been up there a long time and we still only see them very rarely. It's not as if they're going to manifest down here just because we know that they exist now."

"That's not the point! My dear old thing, all that is keeping me going at the moment is that you are here. And for all the close scrapes, you have had notable success dealing with these things. Don't you understand? I had one of those things EATING ME!!!"

Si looked across as he shouted. His eyes were wide and wild.

"Where are you going?" he said, slightly panicked.

"To make a cup of tea."

Kane stood and went to the kitchen. The sovereign remedy with Si was always a cup of tea. So he raided the biscuit barrel and started to boil the kettle. By the time he'd finished Si had joined him in the kitchen and was looking more like himself.

"I'm sorry. I...I've told you that I'm not brave like you. I can't...the idea of them up there..."

"I don't blame you Si. It scares me witless. I've just had more time to deal with it. It also makes me wonder what draws them down to our level? Why don't they come down here all the time? There are people here after all."

"I hadn't considered that."

"Strange though, isn't it? If your main reason for being appears to be to feed on people, why would you stay so far away from your main source of food? What triggers them to make that leap? Is it difficult for them? Painful somehow? Dangerous maybe?"

"Well that's a thought isn't it? I wonder if they only get one chance at it? But why would that be the case?"

"We hardly know anything about them so it's tough to tell. We do know that the physical world is deadly to them though. We know that they are attracted to...what would you call it, surges of spirit energy?"

Si shrugged and nodded.

"We know that they trail around above us, floating or flying..? Pushed on some kind of spirit wind maybe? Have you ever felt wind in the spirit world?"

"No."

"Hmm, nor me."

They chatted back and forth like this for most of the rest of the evening before the frustration caused by their ignorance of the brain claws became too much and they headed to bed.

As Kane was getting ready for bed his thoughts drifted to Dr Jane. It wasn't just that she was beautiful. She intrigued him. Both aspects of his persona were attracted to her. Aldred would have already been in the car and texting her for her address, absolutely certain of a night of physical release. Kane liked her intelligence and her empathy. He'd trusted her immediately when she'd been there helping him out of his coma.

Kane reined in his thoughts but couldn't turn off his natural physical reaction as he imagined himself undressing her. His fingers itched over the phone, twitching with the need to do something.

Hi, this is Kane Daniels. I just wanted to say thank you for your help yesterday.

The response was almost immediate.

Kane! Great to hear from you.

I hope I didn't wake you

:) I'm working, just on a break right now so your timing is perfect

Si mentioned that you wanted to have a catchup

Yes! He's wonderful. Your recovery was so unusual that I wanted to be sure that you were OK

There was a pause when Kane didn't answer for a while.

We don't have to do it at the hospital if you'd prefer not to

That would be nice. Where would you like to meet?

The Coffee Lounge? It's in town, not too far from the hospital

Sounds good. When works for you?

After my shift? 9am?

Or is that too early?

Sorry

9am is great - see you then

Mine's a cappuccino and they do a nice croque monsieur too. See you soon!

Kane couldn't help smiling to himself as he settled back under the covers.