Chapter 6: Day: Mara and the Dreamers’ Club | Black Rose (Scenes 6-9)

Black Rose (Scenes 6-9)

6

A magic circle of pink roses appeared on the abandoned grounds of the Rancaster district, encompassing the trio of Celia and Colbie and Kendra, where they sighted the old drugstore through a thick and misty haze at a corner of the square. For about half an hour, they looked all around the square, looking into various storefronts and old boutiques on each side of the square, but they found no sign of Mara anywhere.

"Where the hell could she be?" Celia said, taking another round of looking through the storefronts of the square with Colbie and Kendra. "We should've found her by now!"

"Maybe she's somewhere else," Colbie said. "We haven't looked anywhere beyond this square yet."

"There's no way she could be anywhere else, I just know it! My blood magic is always spot-on!"

"Well, maybe she woke up and moved somewhere else a little warmer," Colbie said, fluffing up her jacket to keep out the winter breeze. "I know I would in this cold."

"Maybe, but I'm not sure."

"Hey, guys!" Kendra yelled up ahead of them. "I found something."

Colbie and Celia ran towards their friend crouching down next to the entrance of a nearby storefront they hadn't searched yet, just outside the square on the opposite side of the drugstore. Both girls came up to her, breathing out hot clouds misting in the chilly air.

"What did you find," both girls said, looking over Kendra's shoulder, and then both sucked in breath when they saw it.

"Blood," Kendra said. "Do you think it could be Mara's?"

Celia crouched down and put two fingers on the stain, still sticky and fresh, then placed the residue on her tongue.

Colble and Kendra looked away.

Colbie made a face. "Why do you keep doing that?"

"I'm not doing it, because I want to."

"Ugh!" Kendra said, shaking her head. "Why do you witches have to be so freaking weird all the time?"

"Trust me. You don't know what 'weird' is, until you've spent a day with my family. I'm tame compared to them." Celia looked into the storefront and walked in. "She's gotta be somewhere here," but just as Colbie and Kendra passed the threshold, Celia spun around and said, "Don't touch anything in this place."

Both girls said, "Why?"

"This place looks like a specialty pawnshop, one of those old dealerships dealing in cursed items. Don't touch anything, all right?"

Both girls nodded and followed Celia into the back room, where they found a trap door into a hidden basement below their feet. All three girls tensed as the air around the entrance into the basement turned acrid, smelling of blood. Then the sound of laborious breathing and sharp huffs resounded from somewhere deep in the basement, followed by silence.

Then heavy steps came running from the basement.

Colbie cursed, Kendra manifested both guns in her hands, aiming at the trapdoor entrance, and Celia released two spells in quick succession.

A seal of white roses appeared over the trapdoor entrance, covering it with thorny rose stems just in time, when something huge collided against the seal, bending the stems but not completely breaking them.

A sharp cry issued from the basement steps, followed by howling and snarling, attracting more wolves in the vicinity. Other howls resounded from around the district, both far away and close by.

The second seal encompassed all the girls, blinking them out of sight just as the wolf below smashed through the first seal amidst splintering rose stems and fluttering petals, huffing and snarling in pain.

But the spell couldn't complete its circuit, and only dropped them onto their original entry point in the middle of the square.

"Why are we here?" Colbie screamed.

Before Kendra said anything, Celia released another spell, encompassing them in another seal and blinking out of sight, but they kept reappearing at the center of the square.

That's when Kendra realized the terrifying reality of their predicament. She said, "Holy shit, we're screwed! We're fucking screwed!"

"Why?" Colibe said.

Then it clicked in Celia's head. "Please don't tell me—"

"This place is quarantined!" Kendra said. "They got spooked, remember? They just quarantined this place with magic; now we're stuck here with the wolves!"

7

Mara woke up screaming Nico's name in a dark cavernous place, her name echoing and reverberating along the underground. She was a crying wreck of her former self with mucus clogging up her nose and tears running down her clammy face.

After a time, she sat up and felt at her wet clothes, noticing the stains of her sister's blood had completely washed out. She looked at her hand and saw no cuts that she had sustained while struggling with the man's psychic control over her hand, managing to keep the barrel away from her head on the tenth count.

The moment of her sister's death was recorded and soon after submerged into the depths of Mara's subconscious mind, blocking out the details of that particular memory—the terror in her sister's eyes as Mara tried to encourage her, the gun shaking in her hand as it was pointed to her head, and of course the inevitable shot that ended her sister's life. All these details disappeared from Mara's waking mind, but her emotions over that event clung to her like an invisible monster, ripping through her soul even now as tears now trailed her face, and digging up earlier memories of happier times.

Mara and Nico used to explore these endless tunnels in their more innocent childhood dreams, in which Nico was always the brave one, leading Mara by one hand and carrying a lamp in the other. In those dreams, both sisters would eventually reach a lighted underground city filled with friendly ghosts who would show them all the haunts from the days of the Old West before the Baronetcy War ravaged this sacred place.

She now got up beside the glooming shimmer of an underground pond, shimmering from the depths of a nameless watery light. How she escaped that horrible moment on that stage and ended up here, she hadn't a clue.

She was about to go when her foot bumped the kodachi she had wielded against Colbie at the height of her mania. She bent down to get it, and a tingling sensation ran through her grip and up her arm, filling her with grief, for she had shed the blood of an innocent soul.

She collapsed to her knees, clutching the weapon in her hand, her face scrunched in an agony of grief and guilt, as more tears trailed down her cheeks over the death of her beloved sister and that innocent girl who tried to help her. And in her plight, she picked herself up and ran through the tunnels, running aimlessly from the shadow of her guilt and grief-stricken conscience, running and running and running till she tripped and fell headlong through another dreamscape, landing in a field of many flowers amidst a flutter of petals—

8

And into the arms of her sister's embrace, pressing her head onto her sister's bare breasts, shedding her tears onto her skin, wrapping her arms around her waist, tangling her hands in her hair, and planting hungry kisses on her cheeks and lips, only to look into her eyes and see a different girl's face.

It was not the face of her sister, Nico.

It was the face of Colbie Amame.

And in that moment of recognition, she unsheathed her phantom blade and stabbed her bare stomach, bursting the image of Colbie into petals of daisies and roses and purple carnations—

9

And appearing in the square before Colbie and Celia and Kendra amidst a flutter of petals, collapsing onto her hands and knees, several feet outside of Celia's fifth and last row of protective seals. And for a moment, all three girls forgot about the wolves and stared at Mara Cairns right in front of them.

All the while, a pack of enormous wolves prowled the edges of the square, huffing and snarling and sniffing the air, and spotted Mara away from the trio of other girls. They growled and huffed and moved forward into the square towards Mara, eyeing her under their glaring eyes.

And the girl just caught sight of them approaching, when Colbie screamed, "Run for it, Mara!"

Mara scrambled to her feet and ran, while a pair of wolves charged after her.

"Damn it!" Ignoring her friends' protests, Colbie sprinted towards the other girl, reaching out for her and grasping her forearm, then teleporting her back inside the circles of Celia's protective seals.

Right then, the wolves back off and growled at Mara and Colbie, now pacing around Celia's outer-most seal, eyeing the four girls and sniffing at the air, while more wolves entered the square, and several others appeared at the tops of the buildings overlooking the girls' position.

"Shit," Kendra said, looking around and seeing the wolves taking the high ground. "This place is a kill zone!"

Celia said, "Don't you have any silver bullets?"

"How was I supposed to know we were dealing with wolves?"

Celia cursed, then noticed the wolves eyeing her very closely as they circled around her seals. "Guys, they're singling me out. They know I'm in a weakened state right now."

Kendra, Colbie and Mara looked back at her.

Colbie said, "What do you mean?"

"They smell blood on me."

"That blood seal took a lot out of you earlier," Kendra said, getting pissed off now. "If you would've listened to us, we wouldn't be in this shit!"

"If I wasn't here putting up these seals," Celia said, "you two and Mara would be dead right now!"

"That's not gonna matter much, if you keep getting weaker while you keep up those seals," Kendra yelled. "The only reason we risked being here was because you could teleport us out of here on short notice, but since we're quarantined, we're screwed!"

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"Well, if you've got any bright ideas, I'd like to hear them," Celia said. "Otherwise, you can shove those words up your ass!"

"Guys!" Colbie said, grabbing a hold of Mara's hand. "Stop arguing; I've got an idea."

All three girls looked at her.

Kendra said, "What is it?"

"Just stay close to me, and hold onto each other's hands," she ordered. "I don't want any of you to get blown away when I do this. Just stay close, and make sure to keep a firm grip. And Celia," she said, "keep your seals up as long as you can. It's gonna get rough, I'm telling you."

Celia nodded. "I'll do what I can."

With that, Colbie focused her mind and imagined being inside of a twister, and just then the air around the seals swirled and blustered to life, backing the wolves away from the girls' position in the square, and began swirling into heavy gales and cutting crosswinds that closed around them. Then Colbie imagined a spiral set of stairs they could climb, and another blast of air lifted the girls from the ground. Taking Mara by her hand, Colbie had each of the others grab each other's hands to form a train, then led them up the spiral stairs made of air inside the tornado, till they reached the top platform ten stories up in the air, out of reach of the wolves that were now scattered from the winds.

When the gales finally dissipated, leaving a blast of air keeping them afloat on the platform above the ground, Colbie said, "All right, Celia, you can release your spell."

Celia was grateful, and on releasing the seal, she fell to her knees in exhaustion, still holding onto Mara and Kendra with both of her hands. "Thank God, now I can rest!"

Even Kendra fell to her knees, not daring to look down at how far she was from the ground, saying, "Girl, I'd kiss you right now, but I can't! I'm still scared of heights!"

"Just bare with it, okay," Colbie said, adding under her breath, "silly girl."

"Stop saying that!"

"Celia," Colbie said, "can you teleport us to the wall? We still have to get past that magic barrier."

"Not while I'm in midair," Celia said. "I can't teleport in the air like you can."

"Okay," Colbie said, smiling at her companions. "We'll do it my way, then. Come on, keep a firm grip on each other's hands," and she led them by the hand across continuous blasts from below their feet, blowing their hair into the sky as they walked on invisible steps.

All the while, Kendra tried everything she could to keep getting woozy from looking below her feet, saying under her breath, "I swear, Colbie, when we get back on the ground, I am so gonna punish you later. Just you wait!"

But they didn't walk far when Colbie noticed Mara's hands shaking from the cold moving air around them.

Colbie stopped, turned and saw that Mara wore no winter clothes, but only had thin sleeping clothes on her. She said, hovering over the roofs of the old shops in the abandoned district, "Hey, Mara, are you cold?"

"Yeah."

"You want my jacket?" Colbie said, taking it off and handing it to her. "Don't worry. I'm actually wearing two sweaters over my uniform. Here, have it."

"Thank you," Mara said, running her arms through the sleeves and smelling the hint of her perfume off it, bringing a little blush to her cheeks.

"No prob," she said and reached for her hand.

Mara obliged and felt a familiar rush pulsing through her. Something about Colbie reminded Mara of her sister, Nico, but she couldn't really place it as she followed her steps across footless paths of wind. Her last vision of making love to Nico when it was really Colbie flashed across her mind, and something in her heart fluttered at the thought of sharing that kind of intimacy with another girl other than Nico. She even remembered something through the storm of her insanity just before she had stabbed Colbie in the stomach, something about Colbie wanting to be her sister. It was a foolhardy promise, but a noble one in light of her sister's death, which she still couldn't accept in her heart. Nothing would ever replace Nico's affections, but Mara wanted to be Colbie's friend, anyway.

For the next several minutes, they followed Colbie's air-borne path in single file, till they got to the perimeter of the guard walls surrounding the district. Colbie calmed the blasts, descending till the girls were close enough to alight safely to the ground, before dissipating the winds entirely.

She said, "So what do we do about this barrier?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Kendra said, manifesting an enormous anti-tank rifle. "We'll just have to blast through it!"

"You're crazy!" Celia said. "If I can't teleport past it, how the hell do you expect to blast through it?"

"If you’ve got any bright ideas, tell me now," Kendra said. "Otherwise, I'm blasting us out of here! Any ideas?" She waited, glaring back at her companions. "No? Thought so. Now stand back," she added, raising her gun, taking aim at the enchanted wall through the crosshairs of her gun sights, and firing off a blast.

A percussive shock shattered the silence surrounding the neighborhood on either side of the wall, and waves of heat sent up a cloud of dirt and debris overtaking the grounds, startling the pedestrians on the other side and causing them to flee, and stopping traffic and causing the occupants to flee. And for just a few moments, the enchantment shimmered in a rainbow of colors around the point of impact, but once the cloud dissipated, they were disappointed.

The wall enchantment stood firm.

Kendra lowered her rifle and gaped, saying, "You’ve got to be shitting me! How can it withstand that at point-blank range?"

"Because it's designed to do that, you dummy!" Celia said, shaking the dust and other debris off her clothes. "You can't just go all super-soldier and expect things to work your way. It never works like that!"

"Well, why don't you do something?" Kendra shot back, her giant rifle disappearing as waves of heat began swirling around her. "If you're such a hot shot, then why don't you—"

"I already told you," Celia yelled, clenching her hands into fists. "I can't teleport past that barrier! You already saw what happened in the square!"

"Then shut your trap," Kendra said, then mumbling to herself, "Who the hell does she think she is? The Blood Rose Witch? Fucking wannabe!"

Only her words caught the attention of all three girls, and Celia glared at her friend and said through gritted teeth, "You better take that back! Take that back right fucking now!"

Kendra blew her off with a wave of her hand. "Make me, bitch."

"Calm down, you two!" Colbie said.

But neither girl calmed down. In fact, Kendra manifested hand guns in both hands, each with the hammers pulled back, while Celia threw up protection seals, and was about to place a blood seal on Kendra before she could fire any shots her way.

Before it escalated any further, Colbie screamed, "I said, calm down!" And she sent a gale barreling at them, toppling both girls off their feet amidst more flying debris and landing on their butts.

"What the hell?" Kendra said, glaring at her friend. "Are you trying to kill me or something?"

"You could've said something before doing that," Celia said, picking herself off the ground, shaking more dust off her clothes.

"I did try to say something, but you two weren't listening!" she said. "And if you haven't noticed yet, we're still stuck here!"

"Then why don't you do something?" Kendra said.

"I am, but I can't even hear myself think when you're fighting! So can you two just cool it for once?" Colbie said. "We still have to get out of here, you know."

"Then you two can fuck off!" Kendra said, walking in the opposite direction. "I'll find my own way out!"

Colbie said, "Kendra, come on; we need your help!"

"Forget her, Colbie," Celia said. "I've just about had it with her bullshit for one day."

Colbie just stared at her friend in shock. She may have expected something like this from Kendra, but not Celia.

Which wasn't lost on Mara in the slightest, either. Through it all, Mara had watched their fighting in disgust, as memories of her parents' last fight surged through her mind like residual dreamscapes of a former life. Tears welled up in her eyes at the thought of Nico Cairns' sacrifice being disgraced with the same petty bullshit that had warped the bonds of her family into broken shards of pain. The specter of her broken home was shadowing her when she had escaped it just a short while ago, waking up screaming her sister's name in the void of her own despair—

And now screaming at the impostors before her, screaming with the force of a sonic boom and saying, "You made a promise! You made a promise to my sister, and YOU LIIIIIIIIIIIIIED!"

And all at once, huge waves of psychic energy flowed through the air around the girls, and all the girls stopped bickering. Colbie and Celia turned and faced her against the on-coming rush of psychic currents, and even Kendra looked back at the epicenter of rage that had become Mara Cairns.

And like a sonic boom, her accusation scraped across the magic barrier, cracking it for yards along a stretch of wall, but she wasn't finished yet. Her kodachi manifested in her hands, and in one blind arc across the wall, she cut through the enchantment with a series of detonations blasting through it, sending concrete and twisted metal and clouds of debris flying through the air across the now-empty street and into the buildings on the other side, toppling the girls right off their feet.

When the dust settled and the smoke cleared, Mara was left standing in the rubble that had once been a whole block of wall along the street, barely holding her kodachi, and now falling to her knees and collapsing to the ground.

Right in front of Colbie and Celia and Kendra.

All three girls came running to her side, fearing that the worst had happened, that her body had given out and her mind had been submerged into the sleep of death.

Oshimai

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