The lights stopped. The rock fell to
the floor, bounced a couple of times, and rolled under the bed.
Brea turned to face me. There
was blood matted in her hair, blood streaking her face, hands, arms.
Hragulf’s torso lay on one side of her, twitching and
spurting.
Behind me, Mira began to
scream.
Brea smiled. She crooked a
finger. The blood flowed from her hair and body, the walls, Hragulf,
arcing through the air in long streams and passing into Brea’s body.
Mira’s scream turned into a choking gurgle and stopped. Quite a lot of
blood flowed past me into Brea.
I didn’t want to take my eyes
off Brea, but I had to. I risked a quick look behind me just in time to
see Mira’s shriveled, exsanguinated corpse hit the carpet.
I turned back to Brea. She
smirked. “I know what you’re thinking,” she said. “The
answer is yes, but much, much older and much, much stronger."
I gulped. "What did you do with
the real Brea?"
She laughed, harsh and cold
and mocking. "Really, Lemma? You can’t possibly be that
stupid.” Her eyes got big and innocent. “I’m the real and only
Brea."
Those eyes. Big and blue as
the sky, with little golden flecks that sparkled and caught the light.
Big and blue and everywhere, so huge, so world-filling, a cloud of
dancing golden sparkles all around me, here beneath the bright blue
sea.
I could resist, that was
allowed now, but what difference would it make? Where could I go? She was
everywhere. Every move I made, every barrier I raised, she was there almost
before I thought to try. Gently, inexorably, she drew my mind into her
embrace, soothing it until it was still.
Brea patted my head.
"Good girl. Now, I haven’t eaten a real meal in weeks, and I’m
famished! Two of you just won’t cut it, I’m going to need much more. Be a
dear and wait here a minute, hmm?” Then she dissolved into a dark green
cloud and flowed away.
Distantly, I heard screams.
That was bad, for reasons I’d be able to remember if I didn’t keep getting
distracted by those golden sparkles. But gradually, they faded. The blue
sky-ocean drained away. Reality slowly penetrated– I jerked awake. There
were still screams. There still might be time!
I scrambled to my feet and out
into the hallway, not even caring I was naked. I ran toward the screams
as fast as I could, past corpses too drained to identify, but before I
reached the dining hall, they had stopped.
So did I as I reached the
hall. There was no sign of Brea, but she had been here. A dozen dead
women, shriveled like mummies. I ran on into the hallway beyond, just in
time to see the green cloud surround two women whose names I didn’t
know. Their screams turned to gurgles just like Mira’s, and then they
were gone.
The cloud coalesced back into
Brea. As it did, I hurled a fireball at her, hard as I could. It splashed
against her naked back–and that was it. She didn’t even break stride as
she walked out into the courtyard.
I hurried after her. Maybe in
sunlight she’d be weakened enough to–
She gestured, and drew the
blood from the guards scattered around the yard, pulling it into herself
from a dozen women at once. A moment later, one last guard came charging out of
the gatehouse, screaming and brandishing a spear. Brea waved her hand,
and the guard flew sideways into a wall hard enough to crack it. Brea
made the finger-pulling feature again, and the blood came pouring out of
the woman’s armor.
So much for that idea.
Brea reached the castle gates,
massive things of wood and metal. She didn’t gesture or pause; they just
exploded outwards as she approached them. She walked out of the castle
and was gone.
I sagged against the wall. What
the FUCK was that!?
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