What If? The Abyss

I Never meant to harm you

Lyra collapsed onto the rock hard bed, taking in every inch of the depressing, bleak room. She glanced across to her mother, who was still sleeping somehow inharmonious; she wore a tragic expression of grief and terror on her sleeping face. The monkey, fretfully thrashed around in his sleep rolling around arduously on the dusty stone floor.

Lyra was quite unprepared for a situation such as this, she didn't know what to do and time was ticking. She shuffled closer to her mother, as pan whimpered slightly as if warning Lyra not to get too close. Lyra brushed him off and then pushed back her mothers hair behind her ear and carefully wiped the sweat off her brow. To this, Mrs Coulter began to awake and for a split second she felt safe and warm with the hand stroking her face gently but then the screech of her dæmon after rolling over something sharp snapped her back to reality. 

Slowly, she opened her eyes and instantaneously welled up at the sight of her daughter at her bedside. Lyra quickly put a finger to her own lips to dissuade her mother from speaking as the guards were still outside and the King might be too, Lyra wasn't sure. She smiled kindly at her mother who was fighting off the urge to scream as the horrors of the night 2 days ago still loomed in her head. Without saying a word, Lyra brushed the ever falling tears from her mother's eyes and bent down and whispered something in her ear. She reassured her mother and told her of everything. Even through the gut wrenching pain that skewered Marisa's heart she listened intently wanting desperately to appease her daughter.

Lyra then wrapped her arms around her mother and softly kissed her forehead. Fearing her mother would burst and start sobbing again Lyra whispered to her:

"Shh..it's alright, we'll talk later okay." Of course that's not how Lyra expected the conversation to go, it would be a lot more intense than a chat of course. Now Marisa spoke up she said in a shaky but controlled "he's gone isn't he." (Referring to Asriel)Solemnly, Lyra nodded but squeezed her hand before getting up and approaching the door with Marisa in tow.

She knocked and then an African guard appeared at the door and just as he was beginning to speak..Lyra kicked him right in the nether regions, making him cry out in pain. She couldn't help whispering sorry as she started to tip toe down the stairs. She gripped Mrs Coulter's hand and lead her down the several flights of stairs. Pausing often, to hear if any guards were approaching, they eventually reached the bottom. The King was no longer there but in his place were two African guards. 

Whilst in the midst of contemplating what to do next, a knock on the door came. It was Will. He must be buying them time. Seizing the opportunity, Ozymandias snatched one of the guards' Red Kite dæmon by the wing and thrashed it to the ground as Pan, now a Porcupine skewered the other guards' snake dæmon knocking him unconscious. The 3 ran outside, darting behind gyropters and crates full of equipment. By now the African guards had come to retrieve Lyra and noticed their colleagues lying hurt on the floor.

Before they new it, what seemed like hundreds of guards and gallivespians came charging outside, desperately searching for Lyra who still had a death grip on Marisa's hand. They sent big trucks with about 3 guards each searching, weaving in and around all the crates and gyropters. Suddenly, Will darted behind a stationary truck and had to quickly run away from Lyra and her mother so as not to be caught.

Lyra stared after him in dismay but ultimately new what they had to do. But she and Pan didn't completely understand why the King was so bent on Lyra having no contact with her mother. Squeezing Marisa's hand tighter she said "run!"

The pair ran straight into the open, while several guards were quick in pursuit. Suddenly a guard seized Lyra's arm, relaxing her grip on Mrs Coulter's hand. Meanwhile Mrs Coulter (still fighting back strong) had been almost pinned down by 6 guards. But, she was vicious. Many guards went down as several came in to replace them. However, all of a sudden her body went limp.

Lyra screamed a bloodcurdling scream, and guards were jumping off her body as the king ran towards the girl, passed out on the floor. Lyra's body was as pale as anything and Marisa saw the gallivespian jump of her chest.

She had been stung.