The Rising - Ennead 2

Scene 12.6 - Through the Looking Glass

I wish I knew how I survived the onslaught, but I don't. I was unconscious for what seemed like forever.

I woke up to Kwame's worried face. Everything seemed to have been a nightmare, till I noticed that the right half of his face had been smashed and was swollen. Perhaps it was childish, but I did hate that his better side was the side that had been done in.

"Ewura. You okay?" He asked. His dark brown eyes were large with concern. It was perhaps a look I had missed a more than a little bit.

My memories took a little while to return. When they did, they came in like a derailed freight train. A slight shiver came to my arms as I remembered the impossible horrors and... "Trip, where is he?"

"Right here ma'am." The now familiar voice drawled lazily. My neck hurt when I sat up to try and get a look at him, but I was glad to note that I could move a little at least. Regardless, Kwame bent down to hold me as if I were some fragile thing.

Trip looked okay if you disregarded the left arm which hung limp at his side, and his ripped up polo shirt, and the fact that he was somehow barefoot, and the huge darkened patches of bloodstained shirt that adhered to his skin.

He grinned as if this was all in a day's work. "Nice to see you're back. Your friend was totally worried about you. In fact I think he cried..."

"Any luck with communication?" Kwame cut in, gently letting go of me.

"You're the Summoner," Trip replied, dropping the grin, "If you can't get through to the Network, what good am I supposed to do?"

"Just checking," Kwame grumbled, "have you ever heard of something like this? Is this a new normal that I'm unaware of?"

Trip didn't leave his spot beside the door, he stayed posted like a soldier expecting insurgents to break in. My attention moved away from their conversation as I observed our surroundings.

It seemed we were in the center compound of one of the village's cement-plastered mud houses. A number of patches of the green-painted cement had flaked off, revealing the brownish-red mud underneath.

I eventually drew my attention back to their conversation and heard Trip say, "...Estevario, a number Six, I was still considering whether to pass the story up to my superiors. You know, it's sorta difficult to believe a story like that."

"Until you're living it, no be so?" Kwame replied with a wan grin.

"Until you're living it." Trip agreed.

My voice was hoarse coming out, so I had to croak twice before they heard me say, "What on earth is going on."

"Nothing you'll remember when we get through tonight." Trip replied, sparing me a glance and an ingratiating smile.

"If we get through this." Kwame mumbled whilst he brushed something off the straw mat on which I lay.

"You two know something I don't. Don't you?"

Kwame's averted glance told me enough. I was right, they knew something! This... whatever it was, it didn't faze them as much as it should have.

The shivers returned to my arms when I remembered that first thing. The three-headed dog that killed my brother.

That monster had been huge, it had to have been at least a ton. There's no way someone like Trip could've decked it with that first elbow. The strength in his tiny frame was disproportionate. Perhaps not for an army ant, but definitely for a human.

Kwame knew me well enough to know what was going on behind my eyes. "Ewura," he said, "don't think about it. This isn't something that you should ever have had to see."

"Even if we wanted to tell you the truth, we would have to lie. It's one of the costs we pay." Trip chipped in without anyone's invitation.

I gazed into Kwame's eyes. I tried my best puppy dog eyes. I was that desperate with curiosity. My body hurt all over, but nothing burnt as much as the answers that he was holding back.

"Sorry. I can't tell you truth, and the last thing that I would want to tell you is a lie. Try and understand my situation. Okay?" he said.

"Oh okay. That's cool." He sighed with relief, overlooking the sarcasm, until I continued. "If you really won't tell me a lie then tell me this. Why can't we be...at least... do you not really see me that way?"

Kwame was shocked. He clearly hadn't seen that coming, and to be honest neither had I. He eventually schooled his features and started to speak.

"See, Ewura, e no be..."

Trip hushed him urgently and frantically signed to both of us to shut up. There was a sound from outside, a person whistling. It was a tune that I knew, and when whoever it was broke into singing, I recalled where I knew it from.

"Long time ago
Johnny and John
Went to the bush
To find a pawpaw there..."

The voice was moving right towards our hideout.