{Forsaken: Jack} 8/4/1997 - Mind the Gap
Run-Blind Jen was the oldest member of the pack, she looked to be in her early thirties or so and she’d been old enough to see the Pistols when they were playing in the seventies but had only been Uratha for around five years, or so she said. She was as skinny as they come but you could see the wiry muscle as she moved, she kept her hair shaved pretty close to the scalp but long enough to see the brown bristle, her eyes were a light blue that looked strange through the dark mascara. Her ears held a mass of piercings that she’d done herself, well done mind you as she was pretty experienced at piercing and her arms and back were covered in tattoos. Like all of the pack she wore an Arsenal jersey but hers had the sleeves hacked off, her wrists were covered in leather bands and metal spikes with pieces of wire laced in.
But while Run-Blind looked fairly average in the scheme of things it was her belt that tended to turn a few heads; a leather band that clung to her narrow waist it had tiny bone fragments sewn into it and glinted with silver metal, leather strips and metal chains hung from it and feathers, bones, claws and teeth hung from these. It clicked and rustled as she moved and when she was still her hands would idly trace over one of the bones or teeth; each piece had a story and Run-Blind had been adding to this belt for all the time she’d been Uratha and maybe a bit before. How many of the bones and charms contained bound spirits no one knew, many of the bones looked a little too strange to be real but she swore that each came from a creature, some were from the Herd but only the best adversaries got that honour.
Run-Blind and Ashley were at a tube station preparing to cross over into the Other, Run-Blind leading the little excursion, it being Ashley’s first try. The locus they were trying to use was the strongest in their territory, not that they controlled many loci at all really but this was the best one. It was also a little tricky to get just right. So they stood near the edge of the platform waiting for a train, it was late at night so the tunnel was quiet and almost empty, save a few drunks down one end. Ashley idly flicked her lighter as Run-Blind spoke.
“This here locus came about when… hey? You listening?” muttered Run-Blind jabbing Ashley in the ribs.
“Yeah, yeah, just tryin’ to see it is all,” she lied, badly.
“The fuck you were. Anyway, the way I figure this locus started happenin’ was some kid was here, an’ he was all hyper and shit running around crazy, his mum telling him to calm the fuck down but he wouldn’t have a bar of it, right? So the kid’s running about and the mum’s trying to grab him and calm him down when bam!” she claps her hands loudly in front of Ashley’s face, “the kid gets pulled off the platform in the draft as the mum tries to grab him.”
“How you know this?
“Ithaeur trick. Anyway the mum’s freaking out trying to pull the kid up, and he’s all half mangled down there and good as dead, and all these people are trying to drag her back. Long story short the kid dies, the mum lives, the crowd all see this shit go down. Now after that the mum goes a little over the edge right, she comes here every day, leaving flowers and shit, bringing the kid’s toys for him, not remembering what a little shit the kid was obviously. Now she does this day after day for years on end, a few of her friends and stuff join in for a while but they stop, then one day she just has enough and off the edge she goes, no one’s sure if it was an accident but most people figure she killed her self.”
“Shit, eh? That formed it then?”
“Mostly, this here spot’s pretty fucking unlucky; it’s caught a couple of people. I looked into it though before ya get freaked; it’s just bad luck, makes for a good locus though.”
The section of platform looked pretty normal, no shocking blood spatters or fragments of bone embedded in the concrete, but it made the hair on the back of the neck stand on end. The wind whistled down the tunnel as a train sped past, the wind whipping around the two Uratha, tugging gently at them. Ashley shivered slightly.
“So what do we do? How do we step over?”
“This time I’m gonna lead you through, easier that way. You hold my hand and we’ll just step over…” Ashley went to take her hand, Jen grabbed it away laughing, “Not now, you want people to think we’re a couple a dykes? Fuck Ash, we need a train to step on to.” Ashley glared and took a swing at Jen; she ducked easily and kicked Ashley in the shins, laughing.
The train arrived shortly and the two stepped up to the edge of the platform, Run-Blind stared intently at the window of the train, her reflection gazed back at her. Just as the doors opened she grabbed Ashley’s hand and leapt quickly onto the train, near dragging Ashley behind her. The world tripped. At least that was what it felt like; the sudden jerk, the rush of adrenalin, the movement of air and the eye boggling movement and suddenly the world was different.
They were in a train but the insides of it seemed to stretch out for miles on either side, it was long and had a definite snakelike quality to it as it slithered through the tunnel. And that’s exactly what it did; it slithered. It didn’t have compartments and the walls twisted as it wriggled around corners. Each window reflected a giant eye that watched the two Uratha move, in this strange world their brands shone silver in the flickering light of the serpent train. The seats were filled to bursting with faceless passengers and they were quite literally faceless, they made your eyes skim over them as they sat in horrible silence, more like parasites attached to a host than passengers riding a train.
Jen sat down on a seat, one of the passengers moved wordlessly aside and she gestured for Ashley to join her. The seats smelt strange, too plastic, the whole train smelt strange and Ashley tried not to stare at the passengers, or the blinking windows, or the doors that looked slightly too mouth-like for comfort.
“So this is it,” said Jen.
“It’s fucked up.”
“No shit.
“I don’t like it.”
“Too bad."
But while Run-Blind looked fairly average in the scheme of things it was her belt that tended to turn a few heads; a leather band that clung to her narrow waist it had tiny bone fragments sewn into it and glinted with silver metal, leather strips and metal chains hung from it and feathers, bones, claws and teeth hung from these. It clicked and rustled as she moved and when she was still her hands would idly trace over one of the bones or teeth; each piece had a story and Run-Blind had been adding to this belt for all the time she’d been Uratha and maybe a bit before. How many of the bones and charms contained bound spirits no one knew, many of the bones looked a little too strange to be real but she swore that each came from a creature, some were from the Herd but only the best adversaries got that honour.
Run-Blind and Ashley were at a tube station preparing to cross over into the Other, Run-Blind leading the little excursion, it being Ashley’s first try. The locus they were trying to use was the strongest in their territory, not that they controlled many loci at all really but this was the best one. It was also a little tricky to get just right. So they stood near the edge of the platform waiting for a train, it was late at night so the tunnel was quiet and almost empty, save a few drunks down one end. Ashley idly flicked her lighter as Run-Blind spoke.
“This here locus came about when… hey? You listening?” muttered Run-Blind jabbing Ashley in the ribs.
“Yeah, yeah, just tryin’ to see it is all,” she lied, badly.
“The fuck you were. Anyway, the way I figure this locus started happenin’ was some kid was here, an’ he was all hyper and shit running around crazy, his mum telling him to calm the fuck down but he wouldn’t have a bar of it, right? So the kid’s running about and the mum’s trying to grab him and calm him down when bam!” she claps her hands loudly in front of Ashley’s face, “the kid gets pulled off the platform in the draft as the mum tries to grab him.”
“How you know this?
“Ithaeur trick. Anyway the mum’s freaking out trying to pull the kid up, and he’s all half mangled down there and good as dead, and all these people are trying to drag her back. Long story short the kid dies, the mum lives, the crowd all see this shit go down. Now after that the mum goes a little over the edge right, she comes here every day, leaving flowers and shit, bringing the kid’s toys for him, not remembering what a little shit the kid was obviously. Now she does this day after day for years on end, a few of her friends and stuff join in for a while but they stop, then one day she just has enough and off the edge she goes, no one’s sure if it was an accident but most people figure she killed her self.”
“Shit, eh? That formed it then?”
“Mostly, this here spot’s pretty fucking unlucky; it’s caught a couple of people. I looked into it though before ya get freaked; it’s just bad luck, makes for a good locus though.”
The section of platform looked pretty normal, no shocking blood spatters or fragments of bone embedded in the concrete, but it made the hair on the back of the neck stand on end. The wind whistled down the tunnel as a train sped past, the wind whipping around the two Uratha, tugging gently at them. Ashley shivered slightly.
“So what do we do? How do we step over?”
“This time I’m gonna lead you through, easier that way. You hold my hand and we’ll just step over…” Ashley went to take her hand, Jen grabbed it away laughing, “Not now, you want people to think we’re a couple a dykes? Fuck Ash, we need a train to step on to.” Ashley glared and took a swing at Jen; she ducked easily and kicked Ashley in the shins, laughing.
The train arrived shortly and the two stepped up to the edge of the platform, Run-Blind stared intently at the window of the train, her reflection gazed back at her. Just as the doors opened she grabbed Ashley’s hand and leapt quickly onto the train, near dragging Ashley behind her. The world tripped. At least that was what it felt like; the sudden jerk, the rush of adrenalin, the movement of air and the eye boggling movement and suddenly the world was different.
They were in a train but the insides of it seemed to stretch out for miles on either side, it was long and had a definite snakelike quality to it as it slithered through the tunnel. And that’s exactly what it did; it slithered. It didn’t have compartments and the walls twisted as it wriggled around corners. Each window reflected a giant eye that watched the two Uratha move, in this strange world their brands shone silver in the flickering light of the serpent train. The seats were filled to bursting with faceless passengers and they were quite literally faceless, they made your eyes skim over them as they sat in horrible silence, more like parasites attached to a host than passengers riding a train.
Jen sat down on a seat, one of the passengers moved wordlessly aside and she gestured for Ashley to join her. The seats smelt strange, too plastic, the whole train smelt strange and Ashley tried not to stare at the passengers, or the blinking windows, or the doors that looked slightly too mouth-like for comfort.
“So this is it,” said Jen.
“It’s fucked up.”
“No shit.
“I don’t like it.”
“Too bad."