Ether, Chapter 2

  “I’m sorry; the music is so loud!  What did you say you did again?” The young man with brown eyes asked of one of the three girls that was paying him far too much attention.   The one with the stringy red hair smiled patiently and answered again.
    “We’re witches,” she said in much the same way one might mention that they were gold-medal winners. 
    “Really, what does that pay,” he asked, forcing a small, chatting laugh.  He was having a very good time.  Typically, at parties, he didn’t find himself the center of attention.  He knew something was off;  he just couldn’t put his finger on it.  The red-head was clearly the leader of the group.  The one with black hair and purple tips kept looking nervously around the party and pressing him to leave.  Only the brunette in the skirt that had four layers and reached down to her ankles and captivating green eyes seemed to think he was actually half as interesting as her actions led him to believe.  Which was a pity seeing as she hadn’t gotten a word out of her yet and every time he asked her a question the red-head just answered for her, something she seemed to find incredibly annoying.
    “It pay surprisingly well.  Plus the medical benefits are stellar.  Did you know that you could double your life span simply by agreeing to serve and do no harm?”
    “You don’t say?  That could come in handy,” he said without focusing on a single word she said.  He could feel that funny, hot feeling all over his face as he looked at the brunette.  He smiled at her and she looked away for a moment.  She cast her green eyes down to the floor and raised them back up to his slowly.  He was taken.  The red-head, used to using a more typical and straightforward approach decided on a new course of action.
    “You see, we’re really like a new company in town and we are looking for talented individuals who want to get in on the ground floor.  We are starting up a brand new chapter house here.”
    “We’ll the sounds great,” he said in passing, then to the brunette, “would you like a drink?”
    “No, thank you,” she said so softly that the words hardly made it out of her mouth. But, oh, what a beautiful smile she gave afterwards.
    “I can see that you’ve taken a shining to one of our newer members here, Ivy.  If you signed up with us there is a good chance that I could get her as your mentor, Jacob.”

    That brought his eyes snapping back to her.  She was smiling neatly; the kind of smile one presents when they are in absolutely no way amused.  Jacob eyed her for a moment, seeing the lure and ignoring it. “You’re serious about all this?  I mean, being witches and hiring me and all that?”
    “Dead serious,” said the red-head.   “We’d really, really like you to interview with us Jacob.”
    “Jay.  Call me Jay, please.”
    “Jay,” she echoed sweetly, forcing some charm into her gestures.  She extended her hand. “I’m Rain and this,” she said tilting her head to the girl with pink tips, “is Flora.”
    “Nice to meet you,” he said eyeing the two girls.  Then, looking at  Ivy he broadened his smile.  “Very nice to meet you.”  He squared his thin frame up to her, extended a small hand and waited for her to take it.  Her eyes went to it, considering.  She gave a pained look before grasping it.
    “Very nice to meet you, Jay,” she said before quickly retracting her hand and looking to the ground.
    “When can I interview” he asked bluntly of Rain.
    “Tonight,” Flora said quickly.  When Jay cast an odd look at her she added “our night manager is really looking for talented people and we think you’re something special.”
    “Well, it’s a little suddenly, you know?”  He gave each girl a questioning look.  But when he finally settled on Ivy he felt himself saying the words “but what the hell?  The night is young.”
    “Great!” Flora said smiling widely now, the first authentic one of the evening.  “You really are going to be very happy with this Jay.  We have our car out front.  Do you want to go now?
    “I don’t see why not” he said with a nervous smile.

    “Jesus, there you are!  I’ve been looking for you all over, man!  Where have you been hiding yourself?”  A large, boisterous man asked as he wedged himself in-between Jay and the trio. 
    “I’m sorry, do I,” Jay began.
    “Well don’t  be sorry!  I was just giving you a hard time,” he said with a large belly laugh before turning to the three women, “and now I see where you’ve been keeping the entertainment.  Damn.  I wish I found you sooner.”  Charles utter a pleased noise before winking at the red-head.  Before Flora could respond he turned back to Jay and smiled a big, showy smile.  “My man!  I won’t keep you from these three any longer than I have to.  Just something we have to discuss real quick.”
    “I‘m pretty sure we don‘t,” Jay stated with mild confusion.
    “Oh, I think we do.  But it’s just something we have to do real quick.”  Then, to the ladies.  “Really, just need a moment here.  Thanks for understanding.  I wouldn’t want to give him up either.  He fucked  my sister and she said he’s great.  Be right back,” Charles said as he wrapped an arm around Jays shoulders and directed him out of the room.
    “Where are we going?”
    “Outside.”
    “The hell I am,” Jay said pushing Charles’ arm away.  “I don’t even know you!”
    “Sure you do, I was in your math class in junior high,” Charles said with an enthusiastic grin.
    “You were not!”
    “How do you know?”
    “There weren’t any black students in any of my math classes,” Jay said defensively. “African-American.  I meant African-American.” 
    “Oh, so now you’re saying black folk can’t do math?”  Charles said, smile fading away.
    “No, that’s-that’s not what I meant.”
    “I’m sure screwing with you,” Charles said with a wink, “come on, though, seriously, they’re going to suspect something and we have to get the hell out of here.”
    “Why would I leave!  Did you see how they were looking at me?

    Charles sighed.  He wanted to smash the scrawny bastard over the head and throw him over his shoulder.  Charles had discovered, however, that knocking someone out rarely left a good first impression.  So he grinned a small, earnest grin and looked Jay in the eye.  “Let me level with you.  Those three were witches.  And not the sexy, topless ‘Dear Penthouse Forum, I Never Thought This Could Happen To Me’ kind of witches either.  They want to use you for something.  I don’t know what that is and I damn well know that you don’t want to find out.  So basically what I’m saying is you can stay if you want but, really, do you think it’s going to work out for you?”

    Jay looked back through the doorway of the room he’d jut been in.  Thought about the way they kept saying what he wanted to hear.  How they had tried .  At first he thought they were trying to steal his wallet.  Or his kidney.  The whole thing made him feel  uneasy..  He looked back to Charles, overly eager to tell the truth. 

    What it boiled down to was Jay had a chance to leave with three women, two moderately attractive and one astoundingly beautiful.  Those three women promised him that he’d be the only man amongst dozens of other women.  Or he could leave with a large black man who liked to touch him a lot. 

    “Yeah,” Jay said softly, mourning his instincts, “yeah, lets go.”  Charles didn’t waste anytime in flashing  a big smile and pulling a cell phone from his slacks.  He pushed a button and said  “got him.  Meet me at the car.”  Jay heard “roger” from his pocket. “This way, sir.”  Charles put his bulky arm around Jay again and began to move quickly towards the door.  His easy demeanor changed to a cautious one.  He began to look around the entryway to the house with suspicion.  . 

    “Hi,” said a rather statuesque woman standing besides a large, dirty SUV, “I’m Amy.”  She extended a hand to Jay which he eagerly shook. 
    “Jay.”
    “No time for this,” Charles said hurriedly and, as soon as the shake had ended.
    “What’s going on,” she asked, now showing the same level of concern as Charles. 
    “Witches.”
    “Christ.”
    “No, just witches,” he said dryly.  He took his arm off from around Jay now and pointed to The Beast.  “If you’d just make you way over there we’re set.”
    “You know they really didn’t act that dangerous,” Jay said weakly. “They offered me a job.  They seemed very nice.”
    “They’re typically are right up until the moment they kill you,” said Amy sing-songed.  Then she turned to Charles and frowned again, “how many?”
    “Three.  But I think there are more.  Hard to tell; they really know how to cloak.  I had to swim through it to find his one.  They were really trying to keep him off my radar.”
    “How did you find him then?”  Said Amy giving Jay an appreciative glance.  The kind one might give to their back-seat pet.
    “The man glows like a Christmas tree on a cloudy night.”
    “Goodie.”  She said and pulled out a pair of keys, pushed the ignition and opened the  passenger side door.  “Jay, if you’d be so kind to get in back, please.  Thank you very much,” she said creating an aura of ease.  Charles jumped into the passenger side seat, emitting a small groan.  He slammed the door shut behind him and yelled “what about Rodriquez” out the window before rolling it up.
    “He can take care of himself,” she said, punching the ignition.  For such a small woman, Jay noted, she really seemed quite strong.  Flipping the lights on and easing backwards she turned and smiled to Jay “anyone expecting you home tonight?”
    “Not that I know of,” Jay said, rife with discomfort.
    “Good,” Amy said to herself, put the car into drive and wheeled out into the street.
   
    No one said a word.  The two in front seemed incredibly tense.   Charles just kept twisting and turning his hand around in every direction.  Amy continued to mutter to herself, checking the rear-view and driving quickly.  So he mostly kept himself entertained by looking over the faded blue fabric of the back seat and wondering what he had gotten himself into.  Charles broke the silence.  “Incoming.  At least six.  They’re coming from behind.”  Amy looked into the rear-view again. 

    “There’s nothing there Charles.”  Six distinct impacts hit the roof.  “Oh,” she said, he shoulders raising at the joint, “wonderful.”  From the back of the roof a single set of footprints stepped forward and up length of it until it reached the windshield.  Jay looked with muted interest as the bottom of a pair of shoes took sure, careless steps down the windshield and onto the hood.  An older woman then confidently turned around and kneeled down.  Jay looked at the speedometer: Sixty-three.  The woman, her thin hair lashing and whipping at the air, was focused intently on him..  As if she were looking through him.  Jay noticed that, despite a crouched woman on their hood, nobody seemed to care.   No looking up.  No honking or flashing of headlights.  Nothing.  It was as though it wasn’t happening at all.

    The woman on the hood was dressed in a large, beautiful cloak.  It’s deep hues blurred in the air as it waived in the night sky.  It grew more vibrant with every streetlight they passed through.  Jays eyes caught her again and this time he couldn’t look away.  He felt a numb, tired feeling going through his feet and up his legs.  He could feel her mouth moving, speaking, but he couldn’t hear a word.  His eyes felt heavy and his entire body was drifting off.  “Ready,” he heard Amy ask as she took a left from the busy street onto a small residential byway. 
    “Yes ma’am,” Charles responded.
    “Hold on, Jay,” she said with far too much ease as she slammed on the breaks just before coming to a small park.   The woman atop the hood tumbled into the darkness.

    Jays face connected with the back of the seat in front of him.  He shuffled quickly, unbuckling himself from the seat and eyeing the roof suspiciously.  Amy had already shot her door open and jumped out  into the night.  “Get  him out of here,” she screamed at Charles before rushing off after the woman on the hood.
    “You heard her,” Charles said with a grin, turning and facing Jay while he opened the passenger door.
    “You’re not worried,” Jay gasped incredulously.
    “Terrified.  That’s a really unfair situation going on out there,” Charles mumbled as he jumped down to ground level and pulled the seat up.
    “Should we go and help her?” Jay asked as he hit the ground, peering into the darkness of the park.  He couldn’t make anything out but shadows.  He could see the playground equipment and little else.
    “Her?  Hell, I think we should probably help them.  Come on, we have to go now.  She can handle herself, you can’t.” 

    The two men starting huffing it down the street.  Jay looked back at the Bronco sitting plainly on the sidewalk.  No porch lights had turned on.  No hysterical shouting.  He decided against asking why and just followed.  They made their way around the park to a small arroyo about twelve feet deep.  “After you,” Charles said waving his hand to a  series of rusted, metal rungs that roughly equated to a ladder.  He turned to face the darkness now and it was clear to Jay that he was much more hard-edged and focused than Jay had previously given him credit for.  Jay cautiously put his right foot onto the first rung, lowering himself into the ditch. 

    “I can’t believe I had to walk so much tonight.  I think it’s Max’s idea of an exercise plan.  I swear, if I find out the man is behind all this I’m going to burn his house down.”  He let out a small cough.  “I mean, really.  Jogging twice in one night?  Man, that’s just wrong.  I’m not training for the Olympics.   All I wanted tonight was have a little drink.”  Jay had carefully lowered himself down the rungs, one by one, until he felt his foot touch the cement.  Three was an underlying sense of unsteadiness since he looked at the woman.  The ground under his feet felt unstable and rubbery.  He looked up at Charles’ silhouette and sighed. 


    A hand clasped over his mouth.  Jay flailed against the hold, throwing elbows into the bod behind him, kicking backwards and screaming.  An unnatural fatigue swept over him.  A feeling that the world was growing more distant by the moment.  That any place he’d lie down would be an excellent place to sleep.  The world started to lose it’s color and a dark film circled the edge of his vision.  Jay felt his mind lazily drifting into the void.

    Jay wasn’t unconscious though; he was paralyzed.  His body was lain down, his back to the cold cement and glass.   His eyes, rolling and unfocused, moved over the middle-aged woman prying open his shirt button by button.  She had terrifying, focused eyes.  Her face was adorned with sharp, stubby features and she lashed at his skin with her nails.  A dull, hot pain made itself known with every strike.  Jay tried to push her away.  Scream.  Anything. 

    “Hey,” Charles said in a friendly tone from above, “whatcha you doing there?”  The woman broke off her assault and turned to hiss at Charles.   She chanted something quickly and threw her arms up, screaming madly as a beautiful, violet light filled the arroyo.  It grew brighter as she continued to twirl her hands around.  Charles jumped into Jay’s field of vision and pushed his right hand up and shoved it hard into air.  The ditch echoed with the sound of wet meat being punched as the woman went flying into the opposite wall. 

    She howled wildly again, cursing vehemently and starting her incantations again.  Jay could feel life returning to him - he flexed his muscles and tried to lean forwards.  His hand scrapped against the gravel and concrete, slicing open as it met shards of glass. Jay looked over to see the woman closing in on Charles.  Through his blurred vision he saw a second brilliant purple light appear. She played with it in her hands, her nails extending in sharp light while flying into a tackle.  Charles ducked down growling, silent words spilling from his lips.

    That’s when his hands caught fire.

    Charles didn’t seem concerned by it.  He simply ran to the opposite side, his hands alight with a clearly burning flame that cast no light.  It shifted and swayed over them fluidly.  The witch, agile and howling again, bounced off the cement wall and came back for Charles, swinging for his chest.  The light of her hands made a clean slice through his left shoulder.  Charles cried out in pain as he shifted and turned.  She continued on past him, bouncing off opposite wall with two firm feet landing on it’s side.  She sprung back towards Charles with her hand behind her head and aiming for his neck.

    “Bitch please,” Charles said as she came at him head on.  He raised his hands together and threw both at her.  A burst of cold, floating flame connected with her, shoving her back once more.  Now the beautiful, lightless fluid covered her upper body.  She clamored out in pain.   This time Charles just took two steps forward and sprayed another wave of flames against her.  A soft, roaring sound made it’s way through the ditch as Charles painted the flames over her body.  She screamed one last time and jumped forward, placing a hard kick against his chest.  She then turned at looked at Jay for a short moment before looking up into the night sky.  She didn’t rise up, or float away.   The woman simply shot into the air at breakneck speed.

    “Jesus Christ,” Charles said as he moved his right hand over the wound. 
    “Are you alright,” Jay whispered in a weak, marginalized tone. 
    “Yeah, I’m fine.  A small scrape.  Mama will be able to fix me right up.”  Jay could only see the flash of Charles’ teeth in the darkness.  “Come on, though.  We have to get you someplace safe.  They’re really coming after you.
    “I can’t move.  I can hardly breath.”
    “Yeah,” Charles said dourly.  “Yeah, they do that.  Come on, man.  Get your hand out and I’ll pull you up.  There we go.  See, nothing to it.  Just get your arm over my shoulder here.  There we are.  This is, like, the third time we‘ve done this tonight.  You‘re going to owe me flowers pretty soon.”  Charles moaned under the strain of supporting another body as Jay took small, ineffective steps forward.  . 
    “You lit her on fire,” he said without accusation.
    “Slammed her ass into the wall, too,” Charles added proudly.
    “Is she going to be alright,” Jay asked as hiis vision faded.  .  He could feel himself fainting slowly. 
    “Probably.  Watch the arm.  Come on, man, just a little bit further.  We’re heading to that bridge.  Should be able to watch your ass properly from there.”
    “Thank you.”
    “You got it, buddy.”

    Jay was laid down carefully.  The area under the bridge was littered with social taboos.  It smelled like piss, weeds and smoke. A portion of his back was soaking up alcohol.  He hoped.   Charles groaned as he raised himself back up.  “Typically the first night goes a lot smoother than all this.  As your good-will ambassador I wish to apologize and promise you that the journey going forward will be a lot more smooth.”  Charles laughed lowly at this and his rich, baritone voice echoed.  “Something about you man.   Women just seem to want to take your clothes off.  Maybe that’s your power.  If so, I want to trade.”
    “I get a power,” Jay asked of the ceiling.  He could hardly move his own body now.  His vision was nearly gone. 
    “Don’t want to ruin it for you, but yeah, you’re getting something.  Hopefully it’s a fashion sense.  Maybe a sense of humor.  You haven’t laughed once tonight man.”
    “I have a great sense of humor,” Jay complained.

    A horrible roar thundered.  The evil sound of stone striking stone echoed through the ditch.  Even in the sound of it Jay could hear cement cracking.  A shattering quality to the waves of sound which quickened to a gallop.  Four stone feet were racing towards them.  Each thud multiplied  until one sound bled into the others.  Charles pulled a small flask from his coat and took a thirsty, draining quaff from it.  “Not my night,” he said, capping the bottle and tucking it away.  He turned to Jay then and said in his most neutral tone“just let me handle this.  Don’t worry about it.  I’ve got it under control.”

    Jay forced his neck up.  His heart beating so fast it sounded through his ears.  A pluse so strong that the thick blackness that was pooling in his eyes vibrated.  His world was now reduced to shadows.  He could hardly make out Charles or the bridge above him or  the night sky.  Only the lonely moon was truly visible.  He could make it out, just at the border of the small passageway overhead.   Jay forced himself upright, his body cramping, covering itself with viscous sweat.  He could feel the blazing fever his body was fighting off and all he wanted to do was run.  His body was screaming for him to run.

    “Now that’s a guard dog,” Charles muttered.  It was just outside the bridge now and charging.  Jay could just make out Charles’ hands up and at the ready, pointed outwards.  He couldn’t see any channeling, any projectiles but he could hear them hissing and vibrating.  They bounced off the creature without effect.

    It came, swooping over Jay, darkening his whole world.   He lethargically  shielded himself with his arms as four feet crunched  all around him.  “Fuck me sideways,” he heard Charles yell as he shot out of the bridge.  Jay tilted his head back to watch one shadow carry another further down the ditch.

    “Charles,” Jay cried.  There was no response. 

    His own voice didn’t carry much beyond the bridge.  It didn’t overcome the thundering of giant, stone steps.  It didn’t supercede the hissing sound of magic.  Jay knew this.  He knew that even if there wasn’t any sound that his own voice was too weak for someone fifteen meters away to hear.  He screamed again as loud as he could, forcing his diaphragm to contract as push as hard as it could.  “Charles,” came out the throaty whisper.   His lips trembled and sweat dripped from his noise into his mouth.  His body had collapsed onto the floor.  Besides the sickly yellow weeds there was no cushion but he still felt no pain.  He just felt like he was going to die. 

    There was a soft series of footsteps.  They came down the metal rungs with unsure placement.  The resounding clangs slow and  irregular.  Footsteps crushing tiny grains came towards him.  Slow, uneasy steps that brought the figure to the bridge.  It paused there for a moment.  Jay could feel the eyes on him.  The area around his body had expanded to a puddle, thick with his essence.  The figure tisked, the clicking noise of it’s tongue reverberating.  Then a few soft steps took it up to Jays side.  He tried to fight, tried to move back and kick at it’s leg but didn’t have the energy.

    “Jacob Smith,” she said softly.  “Jay.  It’s me: Ivy.   I’m not going to hurt you.  And I just wanted to say,” she paused.  Jay felt the wave of mercifully soft air washing over his soaked chest as she knelt down beside him.  “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.  For everything.  The Awakening is already very hard.  I know.  I had a bad one myself.”  He heard clasps unlocking, then felt cloth on his chest.  Then his face.  She touched him gingerly with slow, easy strokes.  Between her words she cooed in pity.  “I don’t have any real power here.  I’m sort of low on the totem pole.  That doesn’t excuse what’s going on with you tonight.  I just wanted to tell you a few things.  May I open your shirt all the way?  I’d like to get some more gunk off you.  Is that alright?”
   
    She waited a moment.  Jay tried to tell her yes but he couldn’t open his parched throat.  A gurgled noise escaped.  “I’m going to assume yes, for the moment, and if I’m wrong I owe you dinner.  Deal?”  The last two buttons of Jays shirt were unfastened  as he felt the wonderful chill of soft air hit the remaining areas of his skin.  Jay could feel her dab the cloth against him, going from the wettest spots to the least damp.   “I just wanted you to know a few things.  I know you have no reason to trust me.  I just hope you believe me,” her tone became earnest; her words became whispers.  “The first is that there are at least two sides to every story.  You’re going to hear one.  We have another.  The second is that we are here for you.  Not specifically you but you are part of it.  Most assuredly.”

    The swabs stopped and  Jay heard the sound of the cloth being dropped unceremoniously on the ground.  Ivy delicately began to button up his shirt, taking great care not to touch his skin.   She moved with a hampering uncertainty.  “The third is that whatever we do we do it for the greater good.  I may not always agree with my sisters.  I’m not supposed to.  Families branch out.  But I have never seen them do anything wrong.  Hurt anyone that didn’t deserve it.  We always try and do right.”  She sighed then and stopped buttoning him.  “That sounds horrible, I know.  But I just want to be honest with you.”  After a moment and a deep breath, “you seem like a really nice guy.  I hope everyone just tries to be honest with you.”

    Ivy resumed buttoning him up, pushing small, circular disks through their corresponding slits in the darkness of the night, hands covered in sweat.  Jay realized then that this was the nicest act that any woman had ever done for him.  He tried to smile.  “We can’t force you to go with us tonight.  We aren’t warriors like your new friends.  We can’t stop them in a fight.  We wanted to introduce you to the world under slightly different circumstances.  Better ones, I think.  I guess you’ll find all that out for yourself.”  She sighed, leaving the last button undone.  Jay felt her straighten out his collar, fixing it, before moving her naked hand over his forehead.  “You’re burning up.”  She stroked his forehead a few more times before lifting his neck up with her hands and sliding the wet cloth behind him.  She settled his head into the makeshift pillow. 

    “I want you to think about poison.   Don’t be frightened; it’s just an analogy.  But I want you to think about poison coursing through your body.  The effects that it would cause and what it does to you.  Well tonight someone, Mother, gave you a kind of poison.  She gave it to you with her eyes.  Now this poison was something like a tranquilizer.  The other woman, Sister Stream, she put a kind of accelerant in you.  Something the invokes the things that have been sleeping inside you.  It just helps with the process of The Awakening.  Now it looks like neither of them gave you a complete dose, which is why you’re still conscious and sweating.  I could try and fix it from one end or the other, but I don’t want to chance it.  So what I want you to start doing is thinking about poison.  The poison that Mother put into.  The thing that’s stopping you from moving.  I think if you concentrate on it you could push it out of your system.”

    A synthetic scream rang out from further on down the arroyo.  It was harsh and without melody.  Jay heard the clicks of Ivy’s tongue again.  “I loved that dog,” she said passively.  Jay felt her fingers trailing down his left hand now.  When they reached his hand she grasped it.  Even through the numbness Jay felt the beating of her heart as their fingers interwove.  “Just say that it wasn’t okay for me to undress you on our first date.  I’d really like to make you dinner.  It’s a good excuse.”  She laughed slightly, squeezed his hand once more.  “Once again, I’m sorry for everything.   I hope you come to believe everything I’ve told you tonight.   I think we’re going to meet again.  Can’t say for certain.”

    She rose to her full height then and took a few steps away.  She paused then and turned back, feet scraping against the concrete.  “It was very nice meeting you,” she said hesitantly.  “And, uh, goodbye,” she added weakly before moving off.  This time her steps were quick.  She was running away from him.  Midway to the rungs her steps stopped.  Jay thought for a moment that she was turning back.  But she didn’t.  She just disappeared.

    The pain was already subsiding.  Jay could feel his body convulsing less with every breath.  He thought of poison.  Arsenic and mandrake root and the tail of some South American newt that could kill a hundred thousand people if properly prepared.  He thought about the poisons you could find over the counter at any major drug store.  The chemicals that you could clean with.  The ones that would kill you if swallowed the right amount.  He thought about all the poisons he could think of and pushing them out. Pushing them out of his tissue and into his blood.  Pushing it from his blood to his lungs and from his lungs into the air. 

    His breathing became more and more steady.  His eyes stung as he opened them, a pool of sweat had returned to lay upon his eyelids.  It mixed with new tears that slid down his cheeks.  He breathed in, finally getting the scent of the tunnel back now.  It smelled like many putrid little things and a great deal of body odor.  And just beyond that the smell of fresh vanilla.  Jay placed his hands upon the cement, his body still so warm that the world felt like ice.  He propped himself up as ten thousand small needles made their way through his hands and arms.  They shot through them, over his chest and down his legs.

    Once steadied he rubbed his eyes with his left hand, mindful to only use the back of it.  He could already feel the caked blood and small glass shards again.  Now only a faint, black ring surrounded his vision.  He exhaled and inhaled slowly.  Pushing air in and out with precision.  The sound of rapid footsteps came from behind.  “Jay!” screamed the hoarse voice of Charles.  “Jay you son of a bitch!  Where are you?”  Jay took a moment to gather himself, turn back around.  He could see the figure of Charles darting towards him.  Still disorientated, weak, he took a moment to gather his voice.  Parched and rasp he rang out. “I’m here!”

    He looked at the small cloth now.  He poked it with a finger before lifting it up and pocketing it quickly.  The moisture of it dampening his jeans.  Jay pushed himself up, his head ringing.  He leaned against one of the slanting walls to keep from falling over.  He thought of poison and witches and fireballs and life and his ex-girlfriend that never buttoned up his shirt and the pain that was throbbing inside him.  “I’m here.”

    “I see him,” Rodriquez said with silent steps moving up to Jay and bracing the man with his hands.
    “Is he alright,” Charles asked, limping under the bridge, moving with panic. 
    “He seems to be.  Jacob, are you alright,” Rodriguez asked with intense, empathetic eyes.  His grip was strong and fierce.  Everything about the man was focused.
    “It‘s Jay,” he corrected.  “And I have no idea.  Do I seem alright?”
    “I told you he was philosophical,” Charles muttered, as he limped up to the other two men.  “We have to get moving.  Staved the carpet-munching carpetbaggers off for now but we need to get you to our edge of the ground so they can’t find you so easily.  Can you walk?”
    “Barely.”
    “Good enough,” Charles said with a small smile  “Wrap your arm around this guy here.  Come on.  To the ladder.  Amy’s getting the car.”
   
    Then the three men hobbled down the ditch, up the ladder and across the park.