Ira

The women stretched with languid satisfaction and let out a contented sigh. She lay atop him amid tangled sheets in a large bed. Eyes bulging past shrunken cheeks, nose almost nonexistent, and mouth completely slack on one side, her face was a mockery of the beauty it had once been, but he did not mind what he could not see. Wandering hands roamed bare skin but he did not respond to her affections, only lay still with his eyes closed.

"As much as I would love to continue this, I'm Afraid I have a painting to reclaim. Of course..." She sat up and he opened his eyes. "you could always stay. With your help, I could get rid of that spoiled brat." In her excitement, she dug her nails in and scraped down his chest. "We could rule the mage together."

"No." his answer was sharp and succinct.

"No? I supposed I shouldn't be surprised. A dog is always loyal to its master Still it's such a disappointment to see your gifts wasted by that fool."

She moved to go, but his arm shot out. Gripping her by the throat he slammed her into the bed as he rolled, reversing their positions. He squeezed until the enchanting mask she wore wavered, allowing him to see her true face.

"Did you really think I wouldn't know what you were doing? That you could feed me your power until you could take control." He scoffed, relaxing his grip just enough to let her breathe. "I am no one's dog to be ordered about."

"Maybe but you always come to heal when your master calls" She sneered showing jagged teeth.

He leaned in so they were nose-to-nose and gave her a feral smile

"Careful Malyshka," he breathed, letting the thing that lived inside him come to the surface so she would see it "you're not the only one with sharp teeth." She hissed in outrage to hide her fear and shoved at his chest. The blows did nothing to move him. He tightened his hold on her, his nails drawing her blood and making his own thrum through his veins. "All that power and you could do nothing to stop me from ripping out your throat."

"Do it then." She spat at him. He sat back on his heels and wiped the spit off his chin, giving the globed fluid a disgusted look.

"I would." He informed her "But I won't. Not until you stop being useful. I still want my diamonds after all."

Furious, she jerked her legs out from under him, got out of the bed, and stomped to the chest next to the dresser. Pulling out a satin pouch she went to the door flung it open, then held out the pouch.

"Get. Out" She hissed.

He went to her, still as nude as she was.

His face in hers, he claimed his prize then stepped back to give her a mocking bow. "Until next time." when he straightened and gathered the clothes laid out on a chair.

her mask having knit itself back together showed him a beautiful display of rage.

The fourth of May was a somber day. The holiday, also known as the Day of Slumber, meant a four-day weekend for most. For others, it was a reverent time of remembrance. Customarily businesses and homes would turn off everything at midnight and, honor those who'd been lost while the world slept, lived in darkness for 23 hours while they told stories of the things that had happened so many years before. These days people used it as an excuse to go camping and or sleep in late, but many still kept to the old tradition. Mindy was one of those people, so the diner was closed for the weekend. Since neither Emma nor I had work on Friday that left us with three days of freedom and as solemn an affair as the day of Slumber, the day of awakening was just as much a celebration.

Even though it wasn't official everyone considered the last hour part of the next day and the moment the clock hit eleven it was the fifth, a day of embracing life, love, and nature. While the war hadn't ended officially until September, the soldiers had awoken to find the Nazi's super-soldiers defeated and with a renewed purpose claimed a victory that marked the beginning of the end. Now the parties alone could give Christmas and New Year's a run for their money. Instead of presents or fireworks, there were bonfires. Instead of Santa or turkeys, there were flowers.

And lights.

Lots and lots of lights

They were in the trees, on buildings, lining the street, on cars, everywhere. People work them as jewelry, in their hair, and on clothes. There were as many as could be found, bought, or traded. As if they alone could banish the darkness of the day before. Last year they'd been so bright it hurt my eyes and this year they were going to be "better than ever" according to the soggy newspaper laying in JD's driveway. I dreaded to think how but at least I wouldn't be in town to witness the ridiculous display.

Earlier in the week, since we'd already gone hiking and therefore fulfilled our quota for our nature appreciation, River had invited everyone to his and Autumn's house. The Hanson's had a house and several acres of land just a few miles outside of Ashtyn. After almost finding out they couldn't have their own kids they started fostering. When River and Autumn had landed in their laps, they had adopted the twins so that the system wouldn't split them up and now we're in the process of doing the same with their three other fosters. Like the twins, the two sisters and brother were biological siblings and the Hensons wanted to keep them together. While having a farm and coming from a lot of old money helped, the state was concerned with the couple taking on three kids at once, especially while handling twins known to have a troubled past. But River and Autumn would be legal soon so they hoped it wouldn't be an issue anymore. Meanwhile, they gave the twins their own space, they still had expectations of course but as long as the twins kept to those they were left alone for the most part. One of their expectations was that holidays were always spent together.

The rest of us weren't really doing anything, so Emma agreed to bring JD since Wes already left with his parents to see his grandmother. We picked JD up just after seven, but it took a long time to drag him away from his mother. When we arrived, they had been standing outside speaking in rapid-fire Hindi; her with hands-on-hips and him with his arms waving in the air. It took a while but eventually, they broke apart in a huff and JD marched to the car. Closing the door just a bit too hard, he slouched in his seat and scowled at the back of the passenger headrest.

"Want to talk about it?" Emma asked.

"No."

"Okay."

And we took off.

We were just out of town when JD's phone pinged, and he read out the notification.

"Autumn says 'change of plans." He frowned at his phone. "They want us to pick them up. Say's 'River's got directions."

At the end of their long driveway, we found the Henson's in their huge front yard. Blankets were spread out with snacks and the kids were running around with sparklers. Their bonfire wasn't lit yet but they had it ready, though the wood teepee looked ready to fall over.

As soon as we came to a stop the twins rushed over and piled inside. Autumn climbed into the middle and River jumped in after her.

"Come out let's go!" Autumn said a bit breathless. Tay waved at us over the fence while the girls chased each other.

"What's the rush?" Emma asked as she carefully swung the car around.

"don't want to be late for the party."

"What party?"

"The party we're going to" River announced as we bounced along the driveway. Then as an afterthought, he said, "at the old barn."

The Old barn was part of a family ranch owned by Ronald Lloyd. A few years back the old man had been sent to a home after almost setting his house on fire. Since he wasn't dead and didn't have any family, nobody could do anything with the place. The farm itself was over forty acres of land and had three Barns. Without anyone to look after it, the locals had taken to using the largest barn as a gathering spot.

When we arrived over fifty cars were parked haphazardly in front of the barn and music thudded through the thin walls. We all piled out and went inside where a girl handing out glow sticks shoved a bunch at River and waved us past. a couple dirty lamps set at each end of the barn were the only source of light and if it hadn't been for the bright bobbing colors, you wouldn't be able to see anyone in the dark space.

Autumn immediately dragged JD off to do who knows what while River led me and Emma toward the back. I recognized a few of the people we passed from school, but most were strangers. I almost tripped over my own feet when we shoved past a guy whose skin was completely transparent. Like glass, the green and blue from the glowsticks around his neck seemed to glint off the sharp line of his jaw. I could see the muscle and bone beneath though no one else seemed to. Shuddering I followed River to where a couple guys were handing out drinks. Grabbing a few, he shoved them at us and took another for himself.

Emma sniffed hers suspiciously and I hesitantly tried some of mine.

Nothing.

Frowning I took another sip.

Still nothing.

"What the hell is this?" Emma asked, making a face.

"Why, afraid it'll put some chest on your chest" River teased "Come on princesses, don't wimp out on me now. I got you some of the good stuff, you got to at least try it."

She gave him a dubious look but tasted it anyway and immediately started coughing. River just laughed then gulped down some of his own. Deciding to take a cue from him I downed the rest of mine. When I lowered my cup, both were looking at me with wide eyes. Emma seemed more shocked, but River let out a whoop and slapped me on the shoulder

"That's the spirit. Now come," He handed me Emma's cup "Let's get this party started."

A few hours and several more drinks later Emma and I were thoroughly hammered. I found myself sitting on a long couch but wasn't sure exactly how I had gotten there. As I sat, I watched a cute guy on the other end and the woman he was making out with. she looked old enough to be his mother, but apparently, he was into that because if I didn't know any better, I would have thought they were trying to eat each other's faces. She did have rather long teeth, but I wasn't really watching them. I was watching her hands. Her fingers had feathers. They seemed to be growing in every direction and I was debating whether or not I should ask her if she plucked them or groomed them like a bird when Autumn suddenly appeared in my line of vision.

"Come on," she said "they're about to light the fire"

I sighed but let her pull me up and outside. The moving crowd carried us to a large pit someone had dug Behind the barn. As we pushed to the front, people were throwing more wood onto the stack accumulating in its center. Someone shoved into me from behind I stumbled to the side, losing my hold on Autumn, and getting swallowed up by the jostling crowd. Head spinning, I searched for a familiar face, but it was too dark to see anything clearly. I tried standing still only to be pushed and prodded by strangers as they started to count.

...Three. Two. One.

There was a load woosh and the bonfire flared to life. All around me people shrieked and hollered with exuberance at the sudden illumination. I covered my ears as the sound reverberated through my head and fell to my knees.

Everything was too loud,

too close.

Just...

too much.

Someone bumped into me. Too disorientated to keep my balance, I went down, and they landed on top of me.

"Ira?"

My name was a long-slurred question and I blinked up at Emma. She scrambled off me and struggled to stand. I attempted to follow but it took a few tries before we were both upright. Clinging to each other, we stumble toward the barn by an unspoken consensus, the world tilting and spinning around us. We made it to the door before running into someone. They turned around and I mumbled an apology. Yellow weeping eyes peered down at us and it struck me that the person before was very tall and incredibly thin. Like a spindle wheel. I chuckled at the thought and the spindle person tilted their head at us.

"What's this?" s's pronounces like z made my ears buzz, but Emma just smiled back up at him. Or was it her? I couldn't really tell and was starting to feel too nauseous to care. They flicked a glance at the crowd as if to make sure no one was watching then bent over and whispered close. "Want to try something fun?"

I watched the words float off their tongue and wrap around us in a hazy cloud of sparkles. The smell of rot and rust washed over us, and I nearly lost the contents of my stomach. Frowning I shook my head to clear the bright spots but only succeeded in making myself dizzy. Seemingly unbothered by the smell Emma nodded a little too enthusiastically and we started to fall backward. The spindle person caught us before we hit the ground and steadied us as they prodded us upstairs to the loft and to a pile of old hay, gently pushing us to sit. I went down willingly but Emma tilted to the side, pulling me along, and I ended up half atop her.

"Fun." she sighed "that sounds...Fun'

I tried to say something, but I wasn't sure what. My mouth felt dry and sticky and there was a warning niggling at the back of my mind. Too tired to move I watched to spindle person crouch and offer something to Emma. It looked like a tiny light, the little blue pill floating in his palm like a star in the sky. Emma took the gift and brought it close to her face and squinted at it as the spindle person handed me my own little star.

A memory rattled somewhere deep within the fog clouding my thoughts.

"Is this a date-rape drug?" Emma asked.

That was a good question.

"If it was would I do this?" the spindle person buzzed and swallowed two little starts.

That was also a good point I thought.

The spindle person sighed serenely and sank to the ground. Looking like a giant spider with their pointed knees and elbows sticking out, they began to hum softly.

"I don't know" Emma sighed "'is 'ounds like a bad idea."

And she was right, it was a bad idea. I could feel the poisoned darkness clinging to my little star, but the spindle person had grown quiet and no longer seemed aware of us. Mesmerized by my little star I barely noticed Emma's struggle to sit up. The shift in positions left me lying in her lap and she bent over, almost face to face with me, my little star illuminating her look of awe.

"It's so pretty." She breathed.

"it's wrong," I told her because it was.

The spindle person had grown quiet and still. Glancing at them I saw that their face had grown slack as they stared blankly at the rafters. Suddenly envious of their emptiness I popped the little blue pill into my mouth and swallowed poison. A wave of warmth washed over me, and I sighed in contentment as the fog grew thicker and darker until I was floating in a deep mist of nothing.

Then Agony slammed into my head.

It seared through my veins and boiled in my lungs as moments in time flew through my mind. Like a frenzied flock of vultures, they tore through my thoughts and clawed at my senses. I felt a hand on my face, but they were a distant thought to the visions forcing their way into my mind. It was just like the dreams only now there was no distance or knowing to protect my mind from the overflow of information.

A babe not yet bast its first moon. Its screeching wail as its bones stretched too fast until they become brittle and shatter. its skin becoming shriveled and taut before it had learned what it was to blush or shed its layers. A mind tore from its safe place and put into a machine. Evil, evil vile thing. it sank its claw inside the soul. it took and took and took until innocence became death.

And death became youth

Grasping I fought the hands restraining me, but they only held me tighter and the more hands that touched me the more I saw. Someone was screaming but all I could focus on was the death, so much death, all around me.

Inside me.

An explosion. Thousands of pounds stacked atop flesh too soft to hold it. People buried alive; others gone in a breath. Alarms blaring. A man called out as he reached blooded hands toward his little girl. Tubes and Wires. Blaring monitors. A doctor's hushed murmurs. Bright lights fading.