A Time to Heal

[ibn_al_xuff]

It is difficult to spiritually cleanse a room where so many souls have passed through; some have suffered before passing the veil. He pours the fresh water into his silver bowl and mixes the salt until it becomes diluted and the water clears. This is not ordinary table salt. It was mined in a very sacred place in India. It will soak in the

Comments

[amelia_z]

"As long as I'm not going to make him retarded or something," Amelia cracks softly. It's a private joke, Caleb will get it. Ibn will likely be cutely confused and deadpan the joke; be good at what you do.

[ibn_al_xuff]

"There are possible side effects, but I will be monitoring and I will sever the connection, Ms. Zukov." Ibn is very worried. This isn't something he has done before. "I will serve as an anchor to both of you and will monitor both of your vitals. This is an untested procedure. I can only speculate what the side effects might be."

[caleb_z]

Caleb laughs heartily, before replying with an accentuated Russian accent. "What you do now, boy?" The chuckling tapers off.

He glances over to Hotshot, and then to Ibn. Uncertainty on the face of the presiding mage isn't exactly comforting. Come now, Caleb. You knew this was experimental.

"Are you at least certain that mine will be the only soul her body can pull from during the link?" he asks as he lays back, and tries to relax. The answer won't really change anything. Amelia doesn't have a lot time left, after all, so all hope for her recovery is dependent on Ibn's skill.

[ibn_al_xuff]

Ibn nods thoughtfully. "I should be shielded as the anchor. I believe everyone else will be blocked. It is important that it is just the two of you."

Ibn doesn't add that his soul is marked by Lady Death and suspects and only she can claim it. Of course, that doesn't mean that this ritual won't be painful to him. And there's a slight possibility that some of his lifeforce will be leached.

[caleb_z]

Caleb wakes up on a smooth, hard surface. He sits up, holding his head and trying to overcome a vague disorientation. Sounds begin to catch his attention. Footsteps, talking. He opens his eyes and looks around him, noting hundreds of people moving about the hallways. Not just people, but kids. More precisely, teenagers.

On closer inspection, the faces of the kids are familiar to him. The halls, too. These are his old classmates, and this is the Academy. He stands, immediately noticing the weight from the backpack slung over his left shoulder. He looks down, and sees himself dressed as he was. His eyes shift from the bag to his arm, which he moves around and examines some.

“Interesting,” he notes, entranced by the sight of his eighteen year old form. Soon thereafter he looks around him for Amelia’s absent form.

“Richie,” he calls to an old friend, but he just walks on. “Richie? Ri -- Amy! Amy have you seen … Amelia…” His voice trails off as the girl walks by, either unwilling or unable to acknowledge his presence

[amelia_z]

A shrill scream slices through the hallway. Seconds later the girl's lavatory door swings open with enough force to rebound off the wall behind it.

Amelia comes out into the hallway, looking terribly close to hyper-ventilating. She blinks stupidly around at her surroundings and lets out another ear-piercing shriek.

In the mirror-- in the bathroom-- she was 15! That didn't feel quite right and this whole place wasn't quite kosher, and it only made her panic more because she thinks this should feel okay and yet she had that Twilight Zone feeling. It's like a horrible version of Time Enough At Last.

She turns a couple circles in the hall. Everything she takes in elicits more screams of varying distress and tone.

[caleb_z]

Caleb drops his backpack and takes off in the direction of the scream. People get pushed out of his way - in some cases, knocked off of their feet - but don't seem to notice. They just get back up, and go back about their business.

As he runs his hand instinctively finds his hip, but finds only denim. Dammit! I don't have the pistol yet!

"BIRD!" he screams as he comes into view of her, continuing on as fast as his legs will carry him.

[amelia_z]

She's... a lanky, scrawny teenager again. As Caleb comes into view, she realizes he is, too.

...

HAHA! Amelia breaks into a bit of hysterical laughter as she runs over to him and grabs his face. She cranes his head around and pushes him in one direction to turn him. HAH! "You're fine! Perfectly FINE!"

She sighs, huffs, thinks about this... "No... it must be. That's GREAT!" He gets a bear hug and Amelia goes back to laughing. "You had me worried! Let's promise to never do that again, like, ever!"

[amelia_z]

Amelia splutters. On air.

"What?" She can barely get it out between laughing. She won't say she can't believe what she's hearing, because it's Braat. Of course he thinks of these things.

"At least I did something right," she says, laughter slowly tapering off. The smile doesn't leave, though. "After six nights awake I cracked my flatscreen monitor literally banging my head into it, frustrated at trying to use two weeks of crash-course Chinese algebra fractions as code just to think about how to take Brainwave out

[caleb_z]

Caleb smiles for a second, evidently satisfied with the information.

He finishes his apple, and crosses the garage to toss it into the trash can. As soon as the core is out of his hand, he begins to search the counter next to Amelia's workbench, arriving at the garage door remote control.

He holds it up, presenting it to Amelia. "Now why do I get the feeling that our driveway isn't what we'll find on the other side of that doorway?" There's that mischievous look, accentuated by maroon eyes.

[amelia_z]

Amelia's giving the remote a suspicious look.

The garage is exactly as she left it, or at least it seems to be as her old stomping grounds. She could dig through things in here, spend hours poring over all the things that didn't survive to her in the dozen years or so before her awakening. It'd be false, though, and it doesn't exactly sound entertaining. She was just lecturing Caleb about masochistic exercises.

She's not sure she wants to see where the door leads. "What if it's not that one?" She points to the door leading to the house. "I came out of the bathroom. All the doors may not be tricky."

[caleb_z]

Caleb tosses her the remote. "Your call, Bird," he announces as he runs his fingers along the hood and roof of the Miata. "But if we remain here, we won't be able to take advantage of the police-free nature of the roadways, now will we?"

[caleb_z]

Said subject is standing right there, however. Even the sudden disabling of portions of his emotional and psychological makeup can't alter his highest priorities.

"Bird," he says softly. "I'm not certain what I'm doing to frighten you, but if you tell me what I'm doing I'll stop."

[damage_girl]

"Little Sister's too cranky." The Witch is at the end of the bar, no telling how long she's been there, but she's got a smirk like she's been watching.

She catches an anonymous glass of whiskey slid down the bar to her. She makes a mocking frown before a swig that empties half the glass. "Is the party no fun?"

[amelia_z]

"Wow, what a revelation! You're a bitch no matter where you are!"

Fine! Amelia won't ruin the party. In fact, there's an easy way to settle this. She puts her cigarette out. "We can do this. Yeah." Good! Great! Grand! Whatever!

"Drinks on me!" she tells the staff of Taras. She'll simply drink the Witch under the table in short order, and then someone can carry her sorry carcass out. "Keep 'em coming!"

[green_shield]

"Hey, hey, you're both bitches. You're both pretty and you both take up way too much of Caleb's mind so, uh, truce and a nice night?"