Beneath the Waves

Weapon

Chris felt better when they finally ended their call. She was still a little worried, but hanging out on the phone for over 4 hours had her feeling like things might be okay (and that Ria didn't actually hate her). She put her phone on charge, and sat back down. She thought back to that feeling of rage that hit her when she saw Ria. It was so odd, almost as if seeing Ria triggered that feeling in her. Why would that be though? She had rarely been angry at Ria, and never as angry as she had been yesterday. What the hell had come over her? Maybe it was something to do with all this Amma stuff, the book and the nuns and the warrior shit... maybe it was stressing her out more than she realized. She was pretty sleep deprived so that could also be it. Talking to Ria on the phone didn't aggravate her, it wasn't her voice or anything like that. It couldn't be anything to do with her.

She pushed that thought to the back of her mind and got up from the couch. It wasn't even that late but she was exhausted. Instead of having dinner, she jumped in the shower and slid into bed.

It felt like she just blinked, when once again she woke up from some deafening whisper echoing in her ears. She knew it was Amma, so this time it was less scary, but no less annoying. She needed sleep, but how was she supposed to get any rest with this old lady ghost nun continuously bothering her.

She tried to ignore it, but it just became louder and more aggressive. She opened her eyes and almost shit herself. Amma was floating right above her. Parallel to her horizontal position. Face to face staring her right in the eyes. She gasped and whispered 'fuck'. Amma smiled, making Chris feel like she WANTED to scare the crap out of her.

Amma raised a wrinkled hand and put it over Chris' mouth. Chris felt her bed melt away into nothingness and in a moment she was falling and falling and falling and (you get the idea). At some point she must have turned to be upright, because she landed on her feet, the loud thud echoing through an empty space. The same empty space, she realized, that she walked through the night she met Amma the first time.

The dungeon, as she liked to call it. There were a few candles lit in metal braziers scattered across the room. Just enough light to see how grim it actually looked. She stole a glance at the wall of weapons again and wondered if she was going to have to use them. The thought of it gave her the heebies. She might be a horror buff, and she never squirmed at any type of gore, but the idea of using an honest to god weapon on someone was very different than a hyperfixation on ghostface.

She started towards the door at the far right, thinking that she was going to sit down and have another chat with Amma, or maybe get quizzed on the book, but it seemed like the old ghost had other ideas.

Chris was suddenly flung across the room. Landing on her hands and knees close to the weapons wall.

"Choose your weapon, child" came Amma's voice, once again barely more than a whisper.

How was she able to speak so clearly and audibly but at the same time sound like she was telling you a secret.

Before a coherent thought could be formed in her mind, she was pushed up against the wall, Amma's face nearly touching hers this time.

"Choose. Your. Weapon" she whispered through gritted teeth.

"Jesus okay fine, just let me go, you don't have to be so aggressive about it" came Chris' annoyed reply.

"Thou shalt not take the name of thy Lord in vain", seemingly aggravated herself now, Amma let her go, her body falling, slumped to the floor.

She got up and thought if this nun wanted a fight, then she was going to give it to her (even though she had no idea what she was doing"

She looked at the weapons wall, actually looked at it this time. There were a few things she didn't recognize, and another few she had seen in textbooks, horror movies and some that looked like medieval torture devices.

She settled for a long sword at the end of the line. Its shape was different than the swords of knights or princes, the blade was a mix between that of a katana and a broadsword. It had an inscription on it in a language she didn't understand. All she knew was the moment that she picked up that sword, it felt like it had always been a part of her hand, an extension of her arm, just part of her. She felt powerful. She expected herself to feel uncomfortable or unused to its weight in her hands, but it felt like it belonged there.

Amma smiled, "good choice, you chose the weapon of your foremothers"

She spun it around twice, letting the feel of it settle into her hands properly. She looked at Amma, smiled back and took what she felt like was a good starting position.

Sword raised in a defensive stance, but ready to strike at any time.

"I'm ready" she said, and she meant it.

__________________________________________________________________

Amma had different plans. It seemed like she wasn't hell-bent on just attacking Chris out of the blue, but that her aggravating behaviour had been part of the preparation. Chris was annoyed, tired and could feel a hint of anger colour the edges of her vision. This ghostly nun thing had just slammed her to the ground and against a wall and now that she had a weapon in hand, ready to fight, she wanted to...what? Talk?

Amma closed her eyes, whispered what sounded like gibberish to Chris and pulled out the top of the crucifix around her neck, revealing a sharp little sword. It was kind of cute, or it would be if the next moment it wasn't being used to carve a symbol into each of Amma's palms before being put back around her neck. The symbols seemed familiar, one was the symbol for Alpha and the other for Omega (wow they really couldn't be any more obvious could they). Blood pooled in her hands and she pressed them together. The pose looking as if she was in the middle of a prayer. She spoke more gibberish and immediately started glowing. Like a spotlight was shining on her from above, but there was no source. She rose off the floor, then her arms were flung open, here eyes rolled back, only whites visible and her mouth open. Light came streaming out of every orifice, even her eyes had beams of light pointing to the sky, like she was the source. The light started to fade and slowly she was lowered, feet once again touching the floor, arms limp at her sides, mouth closing, her eyes rolled back and Chris expected to see the familiar gaze staring back at her, but her eyes were all black. Whites, everything, black.

She looked at Chris and in a cloud of smoky haze she disappeared and reappeared to her right. Chris' neck whipped to the side, only just barely catching Amma disappearing again and reappearing in front of Chris again. She was barely touching the floor when she started running circles around Chris. Almost floating as she moved around her. Chris turned and turned until she felt dizzy, closing her eyes (against her better judgement) she felt a sudden lurch as her body was once again sent across the room and pinned against the wall. It felt harder this time. More forceful. Like Amma's strength had increased. She lowered Chris to the floor, ink black eyes staring into her soul. A sword that could have been the twin of Chris' appeared in her hand.

She lifted off the ground and did some kind of twirly manouvre, moving across the room slicing and swinging (showing off really) the sword around. She came to a standstill, tips of her toes touching the ground before the rest of her feet slowly lowered her to a normal stance. She raised the sword, blade parallel to the ground, her pitch black eyes barely visible over it, her legs spread out in a power stance. She pushed down into the ground and it was like some of the stone gave way and she sunk down deeper into the dungeon floor, showing her strength. Testing Chris.

She smirked.

"Are you ready now, child?"

Chris swallowed audibly, a little bit not okay at all, but she refused to let it show. She felt like holding on to that hint of anger was important, she didn't know why, she just had a feeling. So she kept it, bubbling at the top, replaying in her mind how she felt when she went off at Chris. She took her stance once again, looked at the creature in front of her and determined she replied,

"I'm ready".