All The Dark Places

36. Oculus

    Through the oculus in the ceiling she watched the moon reach its pinnacle in the sky. She felt cool, soft moss under her shoulder and the denim of Arnav's jeans next to her leg. Oh God, she thought, please don't tell me I've been spooning Arnav Patel. She had fallen asleep, or more accurately passed out from exhaustion with her head laid on the leather messenger bag she had borrowed from Scott. Arnav stayed, even though she told him to go, to run as far away from her as he could. Go back to the village and stay in your house. He would not go.

"No, what kind of knight would leave a damsel in distress all alone at a time like this?" he protested. She had to admit that she liked the kid. "I'm staying right here. Are you sure you don't want me to get Dr. Elkins?"

She shook her head no, and Arnav put a hand to his forehead and looked like he had a headache, and she was the cause. She had passed out shortly after she was bitten. Arnav did not suffer the same fate, apparently and had picked her up and carried her outside to a mossy embankment by the narrow little stream. She woke several times, just for a few seconds, long enough to realize that Arnav was carrying her effortlessly, and she was not a dainty waif. He laid her down by the creek and stuffed the messenger bag under her head, giving her room to turn over and vomit, which she had been doing since the bite. She saw his bit of genius when the bile washed away in the water. When she had no more to expel, she laid a hand on her stomach and felt a slow, dull ache. Nausea and pain coursed through her body.

"This feels like being on fire," she said to Arnav, who perched on a long, flat stone near her. "I feel like Hell."

"I wish Hannah was here to see this," he said.

"I wouldn't want anyone to see this. I'm puking my brains out."

"Yeah, but Hannah is chronicling all of this. She's our lore-master. What she writes is going to be the new history. I'll have to describe it to her. Who would believe this just a few weeks ago?"

"Nobody," she admitted. "I'm having trouble believing it now."

"I've been taking notes for Hannah since this started." Arnav reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a little Moleskine notebook and a small shaved down pencil. "At first I didn't think I would be part of the story. I mean, why would I be? But now? I don't know. I'm witnessing the dawning of a magical realm."

"Dawning of a magical realm? Hmm. Arnav, you have a unique outlook on life." She struggled to smile but could not manage. "You should go, Arnav. People are hunting for me. If they find me, they'll kill me, and if you're here, you might get hurt."

He stood up then and reached down to lift up the huge flat stone where he had been sitting. Effortlessly, he lifted it over his head and stood that way for a long moment, looking down at her.

"I've been testing it out, you know, practicing while you were asleep. I've got at least a +3 strength now and considering how energized I feel; I am guessing I also have a +2 bonus to my constitution stat. Now, my intelligence stat has always been high but I have to admit, wisdom and charisma are my dump stats." He tossed the stone to the other side of the creek, and it broke open into several pieces. "My dex is about average."

"Let me guess," she said. "Swords & Sorcery?"

"Yeah! You play?"

"A few times when I was a teenager. My brother was a gamer, and I sat in on a few games with my half orc rogue, Tonapah."

"You played a half orc named Tonapah? That's a truck stop town in California."

"Yeah, what did you expect, an elven sorceress with long flowing hair named Adriana? C'mon now. Do I look like that kind of gamer?"

He smiled ear to ear, and she saw his admiration for her grow. Seeing all of this as a game seemed juvenile to most people, but Rosalind saw it as a good coping mechanism. The world Arnav felt most comfortable in was a gaming world, a place where magic and superpowers were normal, and players had a set of rules about how to maneuver in that world.

"Can I sketch you?" he asked, already putting pencil to paper. "For Hannah's book."

"Yeah, whatever blows your skirt up, Arnav. Hannah is going to publish this book, huh?" She coughed and felt the pain stab at her ribs.

"Publish? I don't think there will be any publishing anywhere for a long time. I mean, the electricity is gone. So, publishing houses don't exist anymore. There may be a few old printing presses around but very few people know how to use them and they're very time consuming. I think books might be a thing of the past for a while, maybe permanently."

"Jesus, I had not thought about that," she admitted, feeling a deep sadness flood her.

"A lot of things are gonna be that way. Me and Hannah have been talking about it a lot, the stuff that won't exist anymore. Cars, books, television, music or at least recorded music. You know, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a good bard in the village. It tends to keep up morale."

"Arnav... I feel sick..."

"OK, turn to the side so you don't throw up on yourself."

"No, not like that... I feel... different... Oh God, it hurts!"

She curled into the fetal position and clutched her heart and her stomach and screamed. Suddenly, Arnav flew backwards, his back hitting the thick trunk of a tree. Stones flew to the side, leaves stripping off of trees near her. Even bark tore away from tree branches. Jamie edged to the side and rolled over, popping back up again to run through the creek and to the other side. There, the damaged stopped. He covered his ears and sank to the ground. When her screaming stopped, he bounded back over the creek and knelt down next to her.

"Are you all right?" he yelled.

"I don't know. I don't know what happened."

"Sonic Blast. It's a third level mage spell. Really impressive."

"A what? Sonic... oh, you're back on gamer terminology."

"Makes sense though, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, actually. It does."

Arnav pulled out his notebook and jotted down notes.

"You should try it out again. But this time, wait till I'm way over there. We'll calculate your AOE radius."

"AOE? Arnav, I sat in on two games when I was fourteen. I don't remember any of this stuff."

"Area of effect. This could be a great crowd control spell. Do you have the strength to try again?"

"I think so."

"OK, wait till I'm ready!" He ran across the creek that was only ankle deep and when he was at what he assumed was a safe distance, he yelled, "OK, ready!"

She wound herself up again, opening her mouth to scream and found that it came frighteningly easy this time. The pain was dissipating. Her scream was loud, so loud that she worried it would draw anyone who was searching for her to her location, but she could not stop. Birds flew from the trees and those who were not quick enough fell dead to the ground around her. A sapling birch bent and almost snapped in half. She saw Jamie on the other side of the creek, standing there in awe but unharmed. When the scream could go on no more, her throat was raw and her body wrecked with exhaustion. Everything went quiet, and Arnav returned, looking at her as if he had been reborn.

"Code name: Banshee," he announced.

"Arnav, this is no time for that. Did that really just happen?"

"Yeah, it did. The birds are dead."

"But you're not hurt?" she asked.

"No, and look," He gestured to the circular pattern of destruction around her. "The radius is cut off at the creek. I don't think the sonic blast can go over water. Maybe the water absorbs it or something. That was metal."

She stood up, wavering on her feet for a moment and then gathering the messenger bag and starting back toward the rectory.

"You really should go, Arnav."

"Not gonna happen. I wouldn't miss this for the world."