CREED

Chapter 21

Hi guys :) I am truly sorry for the delay in updating. Personal issues took first priority but things are finally settling. I appreciate your understanding so far, especially since I've been so inconsistent. If it wasn't for Topper getting on my back, I probably would have held back for much longer. So thank you my friend, for all your support and for encouraging me to continue even when I thought I could not xxx

PS* Please mind the errors. I did check through it, but failed to edit in my haste to have this posted. You can bombard me with questions if anything doesn't make sense. I know some things get repeated, but that's mainly because of perspective. Please bear with me. We are getting closer to the finish line ;)

McKenna:

Creed had to be okay.

He just...had to be...okay.

McKenna couldn't hear his voice in her mind anymore, but she could still feel him. His blood ran through her veins after all, thrumming with life, with purpose. McKenna fought with everything she had not to let go of that small prickle of awareness that kept her tethered to him. Swirls of colour knotted and burst behind her lids every time she blinked, tiny snippets of images bleeding through them as her mind reached out to grapple with information she wasn't sure she was receiving. Like stumbling along blindfolded but with a tear through the veil, she caught a very convoluted view from someone else's perspective. Some part of her told her it could be Creed's and she hoped that she wasn't wrong. At no point did she let go of the fragile thread, not even to listen to anything that was happening around her. This desperate last-ditch attempt at finding Creed was taking every ounce of energy she could spare. It was for that reason alone, when the snippets faltered, then altogether stopped, that she finally realized that they were inside the house again, her body curled loosely over itself as she sat leaning against the far wall, voices of varying degrees reaching her while they deliberated.

McKenna took a moment to gather herself, to go through each tone of voice and pick out their status, then, confident that they were not paying her any heed as yet, she turned her thoughts inwards again, seeking out the puzzle pieces and putting them together. She found a tiny spark still coating the thread that led to the images and followed it back. Slowly, she went through each image she passed, discarding the ones that made the least sense to her. Everything was shadowy and blurred, almost like a black and white horror movie. There were trees, tall and towering, roots thick and twisted, holding them firmly to the ground. Along with the image came a scent, one of death, of rotting flesh and incense. Smoke twirled lazily through their branches, or was it fog? She wasn't quite sure. Arched stones over mounds of earth, some crumbling away like yesteryear, cracked and worn with age, flickered by. Icy darkness leeched the colour of everything, the mottled greyish black pieces of insight she gathered forming an unfamiliar yet bizarre looking graveyard. The place seemed coated in despair.

An unconscious shiver raced through McKenna, her skin stinging as if someone just scratched at it. She felt it on her arms, her face, on her back, her sides, and she involuntarily flinched at the sensation. The next load of information was even harder to understand. It was sporadic, like seeing the same movie, but on an old slide projector. If she strained enough, she could make out words, but they held no meaning to her. It was odd then, mostly sand and stone, tilted and skewed. Occasionally a rolling picture would catch everything at once, but mostly, the screen was sideways. She watched with morbid fascination as a pair of shoes stepped between the thick black haze, almost as if were waltzing. Graceful, barely grazing the ground. Formidable, yet elegant. Her joints creaked then, twisted and ached, jarring her. McKenna unconsciously stiffened as she felt herself being hoisted upwards. Pissed off that someone tried to stand her up, she recoiled against them. With a disorienting wave of dizziness, her eyes flew open, and she surprisingly found herself still tucked against the wall, haven't actually moved. Unwilling to lose concentration, she shut her eyes again quickly, breaths coming in short puffs when something tightened across her chest and burned.