Page 27 of Runes To Rain
After some time passes, days, perhaps, or weeks, or even months, the spinning of the room becomes normal. So normal that I can walk on my own without being dragged by the people who work in this place.
After some time, the voices start to make some sense again, or at least I start to understand them.
After some time, they begin leading me to an office with aperson behind a desk before I go to my room for the night. The person behind the desk asks me questions while I sit in silence. Each time I see them, their questions get louder. Some part of me that’s buried deep screams at me to keep my mouth shut and not respond. With nothing else to believe in, I listen to that voice.
More time passes, and I’m sitting on one of the couches in the big room. Two women whose voices I recognize are sitting at the other end of the couch and talking about a ghost they’re acquainted with.
Another voice that doesn't have a body tries to tell me ghosts don’t exist, but that’s ridiculous, so I tell them to be quiet.
Then the women tell me to be quiet or I’ll scare the ghost. I sit on my hands so I’m not tempted to speak again. I certainly don’t want to scare the ghost. I learn from listening to the women that the poor ghost lost its hat, and I get up to help look for it.
My chest hurts as I worry that we might never find the hat, and I rub at the pain with one hand as I look around the room for where it might have been lost. I hear a voice with a body say something to me, but I don’t listen. The hat is more important.
I blink, and then I’m on my knees on the ground near a couch that’s not my couch. I reach under it with my left hand as my right hand tries to rub away the pain in my chest.
Poor ghost, there’s no hat here.
I push myself to my feet and nearly run into a male body ahead of me. I’m looking around still, trying to figure out where the hat might be hiding.
The body moves away from me, the voice attached muttering an apology.
Remember not to speak and scare the ghost,I think to myself.
I look in the other direction, but as I turn my head, myattention is caught by the body I nearly ran into. As it moves away. I see bright wings protruding from its back.
I blink.
I know it means something, but I’m not sure what that could be. Maybe that’s what’s making my chest hurt. Actually, maybe that’s what scared the ghost away.
Poor ghost, I think as I launch myself at the body in front of me.
I collide hard against whoever it is, and we both fall, crashing through a table in the middle of the space. Purely by instinct, I have a piece of the table in my hand, and I stab at the body. It tries to roll me over, and I use all my strength and a nimbleness I shouldn’t have in this fuzzy state to keep myself on top. I stab at the face as it watches me.
That will teach him to scare ghosts away.
I feel a sudden pain, and my body freezes up. I look down and think I see a blade in my stomach. I look back towards the face as I attempt to figure out what happened. As the face swims in my vision, I look down again, and there’s no blade.
I blink.
The body forces me onto my back, pins my arms above my head, and the voice attached yells loudly.
“Help me! She’s trying to hurt herself! Maybe trying to kill herself! Help me restrain her!”
Something about the words feels wrong, but maybe it’s just because I’m worried about the ghost.
More bodies surround me, pinning me to the ground. There’s pressure on my stomach and so much pain. I hear a voice screaming that sounds a lot like my own, and then blessedly everything goes dark.
DIO’S JOURNAL - ENTRY 160
Annum:5614
Entry 160 - serenus
Everything has been smoother since that girl left. I’m getting to know the guys, and they’ve been great. Other than being a little distracted about the girl, that is. Actually, it’s just Lent and Fem who seem distracted. Reem has really thrown himself into the band now that I’ve joined.
We have a concert scheduled soon, so we’ve been rehearsing at all hours. I may be good at what I do, but there is always an adjustment period when getting used to a new band. The others are still figuring out how to best accompany me, and that will take them some time yet.
We’ve also been practicing our group magic work. At some point, we will need to summon that demon again,but for now, there is plenty the other guys can teach me about working as part of a coven. I’m also teaching them more about some of the rare runes I know. Even without the demon, we’ve been able to produce rain a couple of times. Not much rain, just a few drops, but weather work is challenging. It is an esoteric practice, and knowledge of magic is already rare enough. Of course, it is also the ultimate goal, the tool to achieve our cause.
