DUSK

fifteen

Clara lay so prone in her bed, she looked like a beautiful corpse.

Alice, lifted her head into her lap and eased the glass containing a red-black liquid between her lips. Clara, still and unaware drank it down, instinctively.

Everyone was gathered in her room.

"There is nothing we can do about the elders except wait and be judged." Alice said, her skin gone gray with fear.

"Can you give us some idea of how they think? What they may do?" Tess asked.

"They are unpredictable and powerful. They have contempt for humans and what they see as their animal-ways. They believe Hetu are the most highly evolved creatures on our planet; that we evolved from humans, from animals to higher beings."

"They sound like Nazis," Will, said.

"Yes. If immortals didn't need humans, some would most assuredly think to exterminate them all. Listen. This is important that you understand.  Hetu cannot always be detected, not even by you, Will. They have magick that can block even your extraordinary gift. They are shape-shifters, as you know. They would plan on observing us without our knowledge. It is their way.

They are brutal judges of character and immortal laws. If they see violations of either, they will come down hard. Often, the punishment is death."

Doug squeezed Alice's shoulder. She reached up and covered his hand with her own.

"Believe me. We all have something to worry about. Anyone of us could be judged... poorly," she sighed.  "They cannot cover such a long distance by magick alone. It will take them awhile to come here. At least not before nightfall. Like you," she looked to Tess. "They are at their most discreet in the black of night. They would want to judge you then."

"Expect them, this evening." Alice said.

~~~~

Will hadn't spoken to me since his awakening.  And now he sat silently in an easy chair drinking synthetic. "It's strange. It's like drinking liquid need." 

"-Will?" I said.

"Hm?"

"What did you see back there? With Stephen?" I asked.

Instead of answering, he got up and took me into his arms, embracing me, inhaling me. Ignoring my question.

"Apple blossoms," he said.

Whatever it was, he didn't feel he could share it with me.

"That bad, huh?" I said.

"Would you come with me, for a while?" he asked.

I nodded.

He took my hand and lead me into his backyard. There was an impressive garden there, as it would be under Alice's care. It was filled with exotic plants I had never seen before. It looked like another world, especially under that ever-present mist.

"I've never really seen it before," he said, scanning the dense foliage.

Some of the plants, sparked, others held a luminescent glow, some moved like worms, while others constantly rained a strange cloud of spores. None of this could be seen with the naked human eye.

He lead me along, beside him.

"I didn't know it would be like this. So much that is now known to me. It all passed me by when I was human," he sounded wistful, like an adult missing his innocence.