“Four days ago, I found her dead in her room. She looked like she’d died in her sleep, but there was a trickle of sand coming from her mouth, and when I asked Massinisa to have a look for me…” Alice trails off, shuddering, and I put a sympathetic arm around her shoulders. “He said her throat and lungs were full.”
I wince, and try not to imagine how hideous that would feel. “And you think they’re after you, now?”
She nods, unhappily. “This morning, I thought I caught a glimpse of someone following me. I tried to look more closely, but whoever it was had ducked out of sight. If there were ever there to begin with. Maybe it’s just grief and nerves…”
“I think it would be perfectly natural if it were,” I say. “But I can also see that you wouldn’t want to just assume you’re imagining it, either.”
“Yeah,” Alice says. I can feel that she’s trying not to tremble.
“Have you got any idea…”
She cuts me off with a wild shake of her head. “No, I don’t know what to do. I’ve been trying to think of something that might help, and I can’t. Maybe if I knew what was going on… but I don’t. It’s really difficult to try to come up with any sort of answer when you don’t know the question. It feels like someone’s holding a gun to my head and shouting increasingly angry orders at me in a language I can’t understand. I don’t know what the right thing to do is, and I don’t want to die.” She’s crying now, although her voice is fierce. “I don’t want to die!”
I hold her quietly as she weeps, making gentle, reassuring noises. It’s less than a minute before she wipes her eyes briskly and pulls away from me, her face carefully set. “I do apologise. I’m not on my usual form at the moment. I’m fine, really.”
“Of course,” I agree. “It seems to me that there are several possible courses of action.”
"I reckon the best idea is probably to...
- ...try to find out about the ritual you disturbed." (50%)
- ...go get something to eat and consider the options." (30%)
- ...see if anyone knows who might be behind this." (10%)
- ...go looking for people whose ritual you found." (10%)
- ...try get you into hiding." (0%)
Voting Closes at: August 24, 2009 @ 1:00 pm
Loading ...Today’s pic is Twitter 365 – Ft Yotsuba [155] by KayVee.INC
NOTE: Sorry for being a bit late this afternoon — It’s been a very hectic day, and it’s not as if I can prepare entries in advance… 