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The first chapter of a new story that I don't know if I'll finish or not....
It's set in the marvel comics world... the continuation of a post I started for something else entirely.
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Don't see me… don't look at me. I don't exist. I'm just a figment of your imagination. Cassandra thought as she walked down the street. She ducked her head further into the collar of her favored jacket. It was beaten, warn, warm leather that embraced her like an old friend.
People walked down either side of the street. Each person more worried about getting to their warm home and welcoming families than anyone around them. Cassandra stopped to look up at the sky. A cold drizzle sprinkled her face. Civilians continued moving around her. She ducked her head back into her jacket and kept walking, stuffing her hands further into her pockets.
Unknown to the normal people, spirits walked the streets amongst them. In their world the streets were much the same. They trafficked too and from where ever they happened to have been going. Spirits, the otherworldly, things normal people liked to try to pretend didn't exist.
How can they all go on pretending? If there are superheroes and mutants, why not spirits, ghosts, demons and all the other things? Cassandra wondered. A spirit brushed past her, spreading the cold deeper into her bones. She shivered. Out of the corner of her eye she watched her fellow humans go about their business. She felt as a spirit herself. Almost, she wished she were.
Along the lonely path she walked, accompanied by naught but her own thoughts. The music of the river blended with the crunching of her shoes on the sleet. A single tendril of soaked hair escaped from her braid and draped across her cheek.
She stepped onto the familiar bridge. It wasn't much farther to her home. Her eyes watched her feet as she considered her home.
Purchased with the money from her parent's life insurance policies, it was an old home. Just outside the big city, where most people valued modern buildings; her antique home was a gem. It hadn't cost much, considering how out of date it was…but it was larger than many people owned.
It was secluded too… on a little parcel of land that kept her isolated from the rest of the busy city. The old building was home. Cassandra lovingly pictured the rusted wrought iron gate in her mind.
She was broken suddenly from her reverie by a rustling from the side of the bridge. Before she could react, a man darted across the open space. It seemed he hadn't seen her. He seemed more concerned by something behind him.
His hair was long and dark, curling slightly. It was damp with the rain and the water from the river. His clothes were torn and he was bleeding in many places. As Cassandra watched many more men jumped and climbed over the side of the bridge.
They leaped higher than normal men. With unnatural, predatoril grace they advanced on the lone man. Cassandra backpedaled quickly. Her heart jumped into her throat as she ran wildly for cover. She tucked around the corner of the nearest building, pressing her back to the cold stone of its walls and struggling for her lost breath.
She could hear vicious snarls and the sounds of a fight. The woman sucked in a breath and cautiously peered around the wall. In the place of the men that had been there, there were now creatures… creatures from a nightmare, or a book. Cassandra new instantly what they were. After all, if there were such things as spirits as she well knew, why not the other creatures of tales and fantasy?
"Vampires…" she breathed near-silently. It was obvious they were going to kill the other man. He was trying valiantly to fight, but their claws rent his flesh like paper. Cassandra knew she had to do something, or else the man would die!
Hoping she was doing the right thing, Cassandra dropped the shields that kept the spirits from noticing her. She focused her mediumistic light toward the fight. The spirits flocked from the city in a cascading flood that left her clinging to the building for support. Strangely enough, they ignored her and headed for the vampires… who looked just as overwhelmed as she felt.
"Aggg! Let's get out of here!" One of them called. He was strangely out of place for a vampire… with long golden tresses and eyes of amber… he was a god come to earth. A dark god. A god of wrath and destruction. He beckoned to the others as befitted a leader. They obeyed his demands and fled, leaving behind the broken and bloodied form.
Cassandra waited for a few long moments before building her shields back up. It took a lot longer for the spirits to dissipate. Finally she approached the man.
His blood was spreading with the water on the ground. She noted with concern that he wasn't wearing a jacket. The medium fell to her knees behind him, stifling a cough behind her hand. It appeared that he was unconscious. Gently she touched his cheek. It was pale as the new snow, and just as cold.
"I've got to get him back to my house…" she whispered. Her breath made a cloud in the air. A few more strands of black hair dropped from her braid and plastered against her face, accentuating the paleness of her own skin and the dark circles under her eyes. She coughed once more, and then labored to get him halfway onto her back. Then she began the long trek home.
==== End Chap. 1 ====
 Themascura · Wed Jul 18, 2007 @ 07:35am · 0 Comments |
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