And her name is…

I can feel it now, the feeling that I’m leaving magic behind, as I cross over the mountains.I passed through a couple towns along the way and rid them of most of their prison population, and some alley trash at one of their local bars. I’m not sure whether the girls I saved are feeling particularly ‘saved’ when they got covered in their attempted rapists’s ashes, but they’re alive so they’ll have time to get over it. Even with all that, the journey home has been exhausting, and I probably shouldn’t have done it. The nostalgia in me to see it one last time carried me across the land and I didn’t let myself think too deeply on it. I’ll probably have to kill half the forests outside of Kheliq’s main domain on my way in. I’ll leave much of the guard force for Wulfric, he’ll need them.

I tried to bring a horse with me, and I discovered that I am not strong or experienced enough in teleporting to bring another being. I do feel a little bad for the stable hand that will go to the stables this morning and find one of the horses headless. I shift again just outside of the town, after I run down the mountain and toward my old home. For some reason I though more would have changed in six years, but it’s easy to find and I pad first through the same field Kheliq’s men approached us.

I expected to see smoke from the burnt houses, but of course the fires have long ago gone out. It looks like rain may have come not long after the fires were set because there is more remaining of the homes than I expected. The bones and skulls along the side of the road bring a burning behind my eyes, but I stare at the sun and walk on. The path I take is same one I took in my dream, but I take it confidently.

My house will be destroyed, like the rest. My house will not stand…

My house is overgrown, and in minor disrepair, but it stands. The front door is closed and I approach it cautiously, my heart pounding in my chest. It’s a rancher, only one floor with a mall front porch and a window on either side of the door. The kitchen is on the left, and the living room to the right. Both of the windows are covered with an opaque fabric that’s easier to see through from the inside, but blocks you from looking in unless you’re right up to the window. I don’t remember if I left my curtains like that when I left that morning and the idea that someone could be inside watching me weighs a heavy sense of dread in my chest.

I think all of the blood has left my face as I climb the few steps, and I know that it has when my foot falls through the second step. I hiss with pain as I pull it out, one of the broken pieces scratching my skin through the pants, but I’m not deterred. I pull the energy from one of the bushes beside the stairs and heal the gash before moving on. When I finish climbing the half dozen stairs and turn the knob I need to stop to take a deep breath I pretend is calming. It opens with a little force and I try another breath. I never locked my door, and it would have been stranger if I had tried to get in and it was.

I walk directly into the living room, the kitchen through a large doorway on the left and the bedrooms down a short hall running behind the living room and kitchen walls with the bathroom in the middle. It’s eerily exactly as I left it, and I don’t see so much as animal prints in the thick layer of dust on the floor. I swipe cob webs out of my way, but it looks like spiders have long given up on the bug population inside my house.

When you live so long you become a hoarder or a minimalist, and I was both. My living room and kitchen were perfect, just enough furniture and kitchenware for myself and a couple guests. My bedroom, however, had a wall of built in shelves that held every card or gift ever made for me by someone in town. I had had to get another book shelf to put on another wall for some of the larger crafts given to me by the kids. There was a long table in front of my front window that I always displayed gifts in for around a week, and then they moved into my room to join the others.

I hadn’t thought much about my system, until a little girl names Tina came to me, tears streaming down her face, accusing me of lying to her. I told her I’d loved the vase she made me, and when it left my front window she was sure I’d thrown it away. The only solution I could think of to end her tears was to show her my bedroom. She awe’d at the eclectic space, hopping on her little toes as she took everything in. I should have sworn her to secrecy, but she was twelve, and soon all the kids were coming over to confirm I still had their craft or gifts. Even a few of the adults I had known when they were children came by, tearing up when they found their card in one off my albums or paper flowers on a shelf.

On my way to my room I glanced at the kitchen table, and forced myself to not go into the room. In the middle of the table I could see the serving tray for my birthday cake. I stopped baking the large cake I made with my mom for every birthday after she died. Instead, I had divided the recipe by five and made myself a cupcake, but still used the same blue tray with ‘Happy Birthday’ written around the edge. My whole body shuddered at the idea of checking the fridge for it. Itshouldstill be there, but best case scenario it’s there and everything inside is rotten. That isn’t worth finding as the preferred outcome.

My bedroom door is open and I begrudgingly look at my unmade bed. Of course I had been taking every chance to take the easy way out that day. ‘Why make my bed, it’s my birthday’. Now the dust clung over the uneven surface of my favourite quilt and I wish I had taken the time to fold it up to put it in the trunk. I resist the urge to blow the dust off my collection of gifts and go to my wardrobe. Inside I have a long red dress with a corset top. Inside I have dresses in every colour and style because my size was so consistent the local seamstress liked to use me as her sample size for all her classes. I have three generations worth of sample clothes and I sigh a little at all the things I never wore.

The colour of my selection is a deep red like a wine and there isn’t much dust to shake off with it being in the wardrobe. In the very back is a black wool cloak and a pair of boots with buckles. The dress has off the shoulder sleeves, and the large full skirt is made of a thick fabric that will hide the warm boots. I’ve never been big on heals, and after all this shit I went through with Helion, wearing boots feels like a final middle finger to him.

The boots were under my bed and I’m dusting off the boots with a random T-shirt when I hear sounds outside. My whole body tenses and I feel the details of my dream rushing back. I stuff the boots into my bag along with the clothes all rolled so it doesn’t wrinkle too much. Everything is still pretty dusty but I can deal with that outside, or later, when I’m not worried about being cornered inside.

I run for the front door only to hear rustling in the overgrown wild flowers outside and slow my steps, moving instead to the front window where the curtains are drawn. If someone comes through that door their body will drop to the floor shortly after. I don’t even honestly care to check their intentions right now. My heart is pounding and I haven’t felt this sense of dread for what feels like ages.

I can hear the creak of my front steps and a moaning like someone is in pain. For a moment, I’m concerned. Considering everything, I can’t imagine the odds of a transient passing through needing help at the exact time that I happen to be in town. I can see a form through the curtain but the light of the day makes it difficult to make out any features so I move the curtain to get a better look and my blood runs cold. The man walking up the front steps… his name was Nathan, and he used to live in the next nearest house to mine, but now… he’s dead. His skin is pale and grey, gums receded so far that only a handful of teeth remain in his mouth. One of his arms is missing and the empty shirt sleeve hangs knotted and swaying at his side. The biggest problem with this is that when I last saw him he had two arms, and I highly doubt he tied that knot on his own.

Still, I can’t help moving to be in line with the door but far away as he approaches. “Nathan?” I call.

His head jerks up and I let a pained gasp out. His eyes looked hollow and white. The pupils are blown and he stops as he stares at me. Only a groan comes from his mouth and I realized he doesn’t have a tongue. Horror floods me as I both wondered what happened to it and whether he would have been able to speak if it was still in his mouth.

“Can you understand me Nathan?” I plead but he continues walking towards me.

I can hear more shuffling outside and move sideways to look, seeing more of what I can only think of as zombies. Theresa, Megan, Mike… they were all people from the town. A ragged sob works free from my lips and I cover my mouth to conceal it. Nathan reached the doorway but I can see my front gate clearly even through my tears and jumped through whatever dimension teleportation takes place in to bring me there. I hear them all groan in unison, and then watched them turn as my clumsy feet make sounds on the gravel road. They started walking toward me again and I head back the way I came.

“No, no, no,” I muttered to myself, but as I make my way more of the people I once knew come out of the ruined homes.

As a small blessing, I see none of the children and I run to the corner store. It wasn’t much of a store, but anything we couldn’t make ourselves was fetched from other towns and brought here, and I’m hoping for a jar or two of peaches from the orchard here in town. They were always my favourite treat to eat, with a side of cream, and if all I got from this visit home was a dress and peaches I’d be happy. There were in fact several jars on the shelf, covered in dust like everything else, but I grabbed as many as I can fit in my bag and set back off.

There are nearly thirty of my former friends following me as I headed back to the mountains and I couldn’t decide which emotion to feel.

“Megan, what do you want? What happened to you?” I beg.

I notice she has a tongue and hope it works but am horrified when it sort of does. “Yoouuu….waiting… died…” her voice is strained and hoarse, like her lungs are full of dust.

The tears fall immediately from my cheeks. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, but I’m going to get revenge, ok? I’m going to that piece of shit Kheliq’s party in two days and I’m going to kill him. I’m going to kill him and all that stand in my way for what he did.”

Her pupils shifted to her left and right before they drifted off somewhere else. “Nnooo.”

I just nod in return. “He’ll never hurt anyone again, and then.. then I’ll join you,” I choke out, and a bitter laugh follows it. “Not in the joyous lands of aeternum, or whatever afterlife you believe in, not after the deaths I’ve caused, but…” I choke again but swallow down more sobbing. “I’m so sorry.”

More of them come out of homes around me and my breathing goes even more hectic. Seeing them like this… it’s a punishment I didn’t think I deserved. I see Paul wander out onto the street, and he was the last mayor we had.

“How did this happen to you?” I only get groans in response. “Why are you like this?” Again only groans like they physically can’t answer. “What do you want?”

“Yyoouu,” I chorus of groans rings out and I feel a shiver run from the top of my head down my spine.

“I’m sorry,” I whimper again, backing up again as they start to move toward me. “Do you want me to make it end?”

My voice quivers but I reach out with my power regardless. I don’t know what draining them will do to me. I don’t even know if I can. I know I don’t want to leave them like this. Megan drops from my pull of their energy but I feel nothing. It felt like taking a breath when the air and your mouth are the same temperature. That can only mean one thing. Their bodies are empty shells, devoid of their souls.

The others look to Megan with their blank eyes and make a sound like a hiss. It’s just air being pulled up or down their rotting windpipes but I start backing up faster. I don’t know who did this, but I know it must have been done soon after they died for them to still resemble the people I knew. I small part of me wants to stick around, check out the rest of the town and see how many of their living corpses are walking around, but I only have two days to finish my journey. There’s only a small amount of closure in knowing their souls aren’t attached in this torturous existence, but I still feel like I’m falling them again. Still, the rational part of me knows it will be a waste of energy I can’t afford to waste to go around draining empty shells of this strange empty energy.

They aren’t pursuing me quickly, so as I walk away I kick off my shoes and stuff them in the other side of my bag. I sling my bag across my body and loosen the strap to accommodate my change to come. It hangs across my ass and I take off my dress around wearing it to cushion my jars of peaches. The dark bag against my dark appearance won’t be easily spotted, but a large creature in a dress would stand out. The shift is seamless now and I’m sprinting for the mountains as fast as I can. A dark part of me wonders how long they’ll follow me for and I check behind me until they’re too small to see and too far to feel. By this point I’m entering deeper area of natural growth and I can start to siphon enough energy to just keep running. Anything more than that and I would have to stop and focus, but I move like a heat wave zapping energy from everything around me.

When I feel the magic return to air I start to teleport small distances, stopping for short sprints to collect more energy. My stomach is empty but I can keep going like this for another 100 km. I’ve read the tortoise and the hare and I am terrified of resting long enough for the zombies to catch up. Any longer than that though and I could do some serious damage to my body. I know the general direction I need to head in and follow the stars to stay on course despite an indirect path. I want to come at his land from a side gate where the sun and shadows will be to my best benefit. Still I know I have to sleep, and after an entire day of running and teleporting I eat most of a deer and a jar peaches before I’m ready to try.