For the second time in thirty years, the entire world has fallen asleep...
Thirty years after the Greymen caused the decimation of her people, high school drop out Rain Collins spends her days learning to pickpocket and hold her booze. Yet she long...
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Lenore Lafayette sat up on the convenience store floor, feces and vomit clinging to her body. She pulled herself out of the pile as the smell of rotten death hit her and her own weakness overwhelmed her. She couldn't say how long she had been on that convenience store's floor, but the waste around her and the deterioration of her body and clothing indicated that another day probably would have killed her.
Other people had apparently been in the convenience store when she fell, but none of them were stirring. She hoped they were still asleep.
Her joints felt too large, her limbs too small. A dense rock was trying to tear its way out of her stomach through her skin, or at least, that's what it felt like. She moaned, pulling herself toward the rack of candy by the door. She had to crawl around one of the bodies that she hoped was sleeping but assumed was dead to reach it. She reached up and pulled down a chocolate bar, mashing it into her mouth and swallowing, ignoring the nausea that bubbled up as she ate.
With singular focus, Lenore force fed chocolate and candy to herself as the sky outside grew lighter, the day longer.
A bell tinkled behind Lenore as the front door swung open. A cool breeze swept in and, for the first time in a long time, Lenore smelled fresh air. She took a deep breath as it washed over her, then coughed as the smells of human waste and death mingled with the breeze.
"We've got one," a voice said behind her.
Lenore turned to see a beautiful young woman with flowing black hair standing in the doorway. The way the light caught her inky black hair made it seem like the woman was glowing. Lenore reached toward her.
"It will be all right," the woman said, stepping into the store and scooping Lenore up in her arms. Not long ago, Lenore probably would have wiped the floor with this woman in an arm wrestling match. Now she was small enough to be huddled like a baby in the woman's slender arms.
As the woman carried Lenore from the store, she hummed a lilting tune under her breath. The melody wove and leapt in an unpredictable, winding pattern. Lenore fell asleep in the woman's arms, unexpectedly exhausted despite her recent, long sleep.
***
When Lenore awoke, the woman was not there. In fact, Lenore was entirely alone. She blinked hard, trying to adjust her eyes to her surroundings, but she could see only darkness. Lenore cried out into the blackness, but the voice that came from her mouth was not just her own. Hundreds of other voices layered atop it, echoing with fading whispers.
"Hello?" a melodic voice came from somewhere in the darkness. The lilt of the voice was familiar. Lenore was sure this was the woman who had carried her.
"Hello!" Lenore called out in her strange voice. "Help me, please. I can't see."
The air moved beside Lenore, followed by the quiet whisper of fabric-on-fabric. She felt a weight settle beside her.
"What do you want to see?" the woman said.
"Everything. Anything."
Another shift beside her and Lenore felt skin on her face. A soft hand covered her eyes. The darkness disappeared, replaced by bloody red light. Darker shadows shifted in the light. The woman removed her hand from Lenore's face. Lenore turned to look at the spot where the woman sat. A dark red blob surrounded by bright red light sat there.
"Better?" the woman said.
"Not really," Lenore said, shaking her head.
"You'll get used to it."
Lenore felt the woman's fingers touching her own skin, her chest, her legs, her arms. It wasn't until the woman started prodding at Lenore's bare stomach that she realized she was naked.
"What are you doing?" she asked as the woman grabbing her shoulder and heaved, sending a tingling sensation down Lenore's arm.
"Fixing you," the woman said.
Lenore touched her shoulder where the woman had just pulled. The skin felt rough and wrinkled there. As she probed at the spot, she discovered that the skin was only partially attached. It seemed to ooze from her shoulder, pouring itself into a long flap at her side.
"Stop it!" Lenore shouted, pushing at the flap, trying in vain to morph her skin back into its normal shape.
The woman clicked her tongue. "Calm down, you'll be fine."
"No!" Lenore smacked the dark red of the woman's hand away as it sped through the bright red air toward the dark red of her own knees.
The woman didn't grab at Lenore again. "You can have your form again," the woman said. "You can have your eyes and your voice and your name. If you do as I ask, you will even have your freedom again. Would you like that?"
Lenore didn't know how to answer that question, so she said nothing.
"I will give you back your form first. If you agree."
Lenore poked at the bizarre flap of skin on her shoulder, considering the woman's offer. Though she couldn't really see with her strange red eyes, she could feel that it was repugnant, unnatural. She hesitated, however, unable to trust such a clearly untrustworthy trafficker of magic.
The woman frowned, leaning forward and poking at Lenore's shoulder. Lenore gasped, but when the woman removed her hand, the skin seemed normal again. "I am sending you to a special place where a special woman will be waiting for you. If you can convince her to trust you, I will give you powers beyond your wildest dreams. Any form you desire, you can take or make. Any voice or name, they will be yours."
Lenore nodded hoping that acquiescence would appease the woman.
"Good girl. Good girl," the woman said. Lenore could hear the smile in her voice. "There's one last thing I'll need from you before you go."
Lenore felt a tug in the back of her head. She was floating in the air, untethered, unattached. Another tug and she landed on the ground beside the woman again.
"What?" she mumbled, glancing around at the bright and dark red around her. "What's happening?"
"You will bond with Farrah Gilbert. Then you will report to me."
Lenore nodded, her mind a haze. The only thing that seemed clear were this woman's words. "Yes, Master."
"Good girl, Jenny."
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