Shadow's Dance

Chapter 17: Purple People In A Paper World

Jane gasped as she sprouted from the blue mirror lake. She pulled herself of the strange water to see the area around her to be the astral plane. She had gone in her only a handful of time while sleeping. Like each time, a person appeared infront of her.

"You have an evil that you weigh on your shoulders, my dearest, what plague do you carry?"

Jane knelt infront of the figure and refused to look at its face. "Guide, I do not know how much longer I can go on. As I grow weaker from each attack, the closer I get to limbo. I have come to beg for assistance." She dipped her head further before something warm cradled her cheek.

"'Tis not from how you were created that caused such to occur. You know it in your heart how to over come such darkness. My help is not needed, time will heal your body but you must heal what lurks inside." Said the figure.

Jane reached to touch its hand on her skin but it faded. She opened her eyes to see her old bedroom. A loud sigh came from her lips as the events earlier flooded back. They'll probably be on edge more so than before. What felt like eons before, her muscles ached from what she assumed to be the energy that spewed from her before. Everything felt shot, when Jane looked down there was no doubt in her mind it would be weeks before she could could get through a portal let alone infuse herself with that corrosive energy. Black and purple marks coated her skin lightly.

Her memory was spotty at best, trying to recall the days prior was unusually difficult. Some seemed like dreams or fragments of someone else's memories, others were from months ago, blood, weapons, and the midnight air. One thing that Jane had decided on doing was to try her powers somewhere cold, enough to make her forget herself. Going to Alaska didn't seem so bad, it was cold and there was plenty of life. As her mind went to daydreaming, she soon snapped back to reality.

Jane rose up weakly from the bed and slid down to the floor. Her legs hurt too bad to get up and she felt uncomfortable sitting on the bed. If Phantom came in, there was nothing she could do. Jane couldn't slam them into the wall, Jane couldn't plunge a simple attack on them, Jane couldn't even stop a human. That feeling of helplessness made her angrier as someone knocked on the door as though she was free.

Iwix peaked from the edge of the door and smiled. How much she hated that fake smile each time made her skin boil. "Gave all of us a fright." He said while sitting on a chair in a far corner. "I could get you something for the pain." The tilt of his head expected a response that wound never come.

Jane sat still to glance at a few scars that had returned. None of them hurt, they just gave her a reminder. Her throat felt like sandpaper, she didn't even attempt to speak. Too full of shame, guilt, and overall shock, Jane shut down completely. The needles in her back kept telling her to give up. It was worse that a punch to her stomach, her need to live was not logical, she had none. So, Jane kept her mouth shut like the trained soldier she was. Those deadpan grey eyes were unmoving from the floor's surface.

"Jane." He said softly. "You need to eat something, even something tiny."

'They are afraid of another episode'.Called a gravelly voice in her head. 'You don't need to be sit here like a dog, you could crush them for good'. It hissed the temptation in her ear. But, as long as she didn't agree, Jane was in control. She could never repay her debt with Xquenda, the lady who in a blue moon would guide troubled beings that acted as links to the two universes. Jane owed her life in even the smallest of ways like being able to teach her how to contain the corruption or even just allowing her to be a bridge. Yet, there was always a cost. Her energy would simply become nonexistent after her final death. Jane would not be allowed into the astral world and thus ending any knowledge of the place that she carried with her. Not even Xquenda could stop that, it was the price for having access to the literal lifeblood of others and manipulate it.

She knew it looked bad, the scars that hadn't healed and the bruising, but everything was shot. Until her muscles repaired themselves, Jane was about as dangerous as a dull rubber blade. She felt so broken, violated, after the back to back episodes. They were too much for her body to handle, thus tried rejecting it by pumping energy through her. Her back would probably be the first to heal, there was less internal damage there. Jane sank further into her shoulders at the overwhelming feelings that swarmed her. At the same time, her heart felt numb.

She glanced at the tray that was sat down far enough to where Jane would need to move. A trick Phantom had used to see if she'd do something south out a command. However, this wasn't the same hole that she crawled out of. It was probably just to see if she had anything left inside of her. If it was bravery, willingness, hunger, or it could tell them how reluctant Jane had become. Her head looked away from it but it earned her a sigh from Iwix.

"Your body needs fuel Jane. What would happen if Phantom comes here in a month and started destroying things? You need to heal, your body it's-it's too much to leave untreated." She could hear the fear that shook him between words. "Eat."

Jane's eyes were coated in a milky film but she didn't move herself from the floor. Her blurred vision became filled with a burst of sun, sand, and dust. She could feel the dry air enter her lugs, when she looked down, Jane could see tanner skin filled to the brim with scars. Her clothes had been traded for a yellow skinned top with an arm band of yellow, murky brow cow hide pants, and nice leather boots that formed calluses on her feet. She had hands of that of a hard laborer, not that she wasn't one, but they were grimy with black deep within the skin.

An uncombed man with a scruffy beard offered her a chunk of bread. 'Eat.' He said once more. 'Bigger bounty for one that's able to do something. Not many venture out of the reservations. What caused you to?' His hand gripped her jaw and the chains she was attached to. Jane could see something press against the stranger's stomach, her ability created a pistol that rested there. The change of his expression slowly melted into another.

Decided a change of scenery, maybe I could get into paintin' houses too.

Her eyes snapped back to Iwix's position in the far corner. That wasn't recent, was it her former self? Then, she wouldn't disappear but rather move into another. No. That was someone who could use the same type of energy. The violence wasn't her, she didn't have that burning hatred, right? Her hands ached and she hadn't conjured a pistol so that was good news. Jane must've not been too long. Iwix still had worry marked all over. Was it a message?