Smoke & Mirrors: Xia Dreams Again
6/27/2006
04:56 PM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.
Currently the moon is in the waxing New Moon phase (11% full).
It is currently 16:44 Pacific Time on Tue Jun 27 2006.
Currently in Saint Claire, it's a sunny day. The temperature is 82 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the southwest at 13 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 29.95 and rising, and the relative humidity is 35 percent. The dewpoint is 52 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius.)
[Xia's Apartment]
Contents:
Xia
Obvious exits:
Clearing
Knock knock. Kenneth's there, standing in front of the kin's apartment door, gazing at the small phone in his hand. It's flipcover-less, allowing him to have a look at the bright smiley yellow happy face adorning its wallpaper. The halfmoon shifts from foot to foot as he waits.
Looking through the peep-hole in the door, the kin slowly opens up the door to allow Kenneth inside shortly afterward. Xia looks sickingly pale for this time of the year. One would think that someone of her class would be outside, soaking up the sun like that Sheryl Crow song. She doesn't even look up at Kenneth as she murmurs a greeting and closes the door behind him.
Kenneth doesn't take long to notice there's something wrong. "Hey Xia. It's... something up?" he swerves his original statement, and inquires after the woman.
"I don't know what is wrong with me," she says, keeping her eyes from Kenneth's face. She turns from him and ventures towards her dark bedroom. The kinwoman looks like she has just gotten up for the day, only wearing a silk bathrobe around her slender form.
Kenneth furrows his brow, taking another couple of steps in and looking around the apartment for what might be out of the ordinary. "Are you sick?" he asks first, then settling his dark eyed gaze on her. "Thought you might've been in class. I called ahead, but no one picked up." His cellphone gets held up, to indicate such.
Xia sits on her bed and pulls a pillow to her chest. "I haven't felt like going to class," she snaps. "Why are you suddenly concerned about me?" She looks bitterly up at Kenneth.
Kenneth straightens up like the bitterness towards his question pricked him in the back. "The hell, I noticed it happens to be a new moon out there and so I came to see how you were doin' without risking tearing off someone's head if they looked at me wrong," he growls back flatly, reflexively. A couple of blinks after, he shakes his head and looks off and away. "Or maybe just because I wanted to see how you were doin'."
"I don't need looking after," Xia says. She turns from Kenneth and lays her head down on the pillow. There appears to be something wrong with her, hearing sniffles from where she is turned from the Philodox.
Kenneth cocks his head to a side, hearing the muffled sniffling. Cellphone slipped back into his pocket, the halfmoon rounds to the other side of the bed, where he can face his kin. "I didn't come here to coddle you, Xia," he mumbles with an awkwardness. "But somethin's up with you. You don't look sick, so, must be something else." Slowly, he sits at the side edge of the bed, peering at her.
Xia sighs and wipes tears from her eyes with her fingertips. The kin's dark eyes looking up at Kenneth, reflecting in the light filtering in through the hallway. "I keep having those nightmares," she whimpers, choking down her cry.
Well, damn. Kenneth wets his lips, faced with a girl in tears again. "Nightmares? About what?" The philodox is far from smooth in handling this, but he tries his best at affecting a comforting expression.
Xia turns her face into the pillow. The Philodox providing no help while she faces down into it and screams with frustration.
Kenneth starts a bit. Even if there's no loud scream, it surprises him anyway, enough to make him stand up from the bed instead of sit on it. "Fuck," he curses lowly under his breath, working to try and figure out how to 'fix' this. "Xia," he starts to say again, bending down to a knee at the side of her bed. A hand reaches out to nudge her, to get her attention back.
Xia reaches out to shove Kenneth's nudging hand away from her. She is weak so her attempt of pushing him away isn't much of one at all. "Violence. Blood. Darkness... Fuckin' Mirrors! Mirrors, damn those motherfucking things." she curses.
Kenneth's hand is shoved away, and then he retracts it. "Huh? Mirrors?" That makes about as much sense as a pile of mud in an all white room. "You're not makin' much sense," he notes quietly. "Why're you having nightmares about..." That question slopes off too, as the Shadow Lord shakes his head. "C'mon. If you're not going to class today, then you can come with me. We could hang out or something. Get something to eat." Food. Food seems to work, at least for him.
"Go talk to Cole about it, he know a whole lot more about what's going on than you do." the kin replies and she turns back over again, with her back to Kenneth. She doesn't look like she is going anywhere, especially since she is still wearing that flimpsy silk bathrobe that is almost too revealing to be seen in public.
"Cole? Why the hell would Cole ... forget it." Kenneth stands up in a bout of frustration, starting for the bedroom door. The philodox pauses between the threshold, brow wrinkled down as he thinks to himself and lets the girl sob, sulk, or sink into the bed if she wanted to. Once, he glances back over his shoulder at her, totally at a loss.
Xia curls herself up on her bed but she doesn't fall asleep. The Philodox might have picked up by the scent that Xia has been like this for awhile, perhaps hasn't even left the apartment for days.
Sighing, Kenneth leaves the door open and goes to the kitchen to fix something for himself and the kin. Just some toast, some jam, and a couple glasses of milk. He comes back with the plates and glasses balanced. "Here -- you should eat something."
Xia sits up in bed and looks to Kenneth when he comes back in, carrying some toast and milk. Her eyes don't remain on him long as they dart around the room as if there was something hiding in the corners about ready to jump out that them.
Kenneth can take as long as he wants, not having any particular timetable. His eyes are all on Xia, watching her peculiar manner as he sets the plates and glasses down by a nearby bedside table. "Aren't you kind of a little old to be thinking there's monsters about to jump out from underneath your bed or outta your closet?"
"No," she snaps. If that was a joke, she didn't fall for it. Her petite form is trembling as she takes the glass of milk and slowly sips. By looking at her, she probably hasn't eaten for a few days either.
"Just makin' sure you're still with me here," Kenneth says in defense, sniffing once. "Whatever it is, Xia, you can tell me about it you know. I know... I didn't do the same before. But that's me. This... this isn't like you."
The kinwoman sighs. "I have been having nightmares," she replies. "Some others of the sept have been having them too. It is all of my worst nightmares, but I don't know how to stop them."
Kenneth, halfway in chewing a bite of jam and toast, pauses to take a drink of the other glass. At least he keeps from choking, even though he's surprised to hear her say sept and mention others. That seems to have raised a red flag. "What do you mean others have been having them too?" He all but keeps from demanding the information.
"I don't know," she replies, her voice sounding tired. "Cole told me when I went to see him. It was when you were away, and I thought that perhaps he would have heard something. He's a Galliard."
"Galliard or not... fucking... you didn't tell me about this when I did get back," Kenneth accuses, hand gripping the glass of milk tightly. "He say anything else about it?"
"Don't get angry with me," Xia snaps. Then she settles down to reply, "No."
"I'm not angry," Kenneth launches back, teeth grinding as he holds back. Forcing himself to chew away at another portion of his toast, the philodox mulls over the monosyllabic reply from the woman. After he swallows, he continues on. "Nightmares are one thing. But they're just dreams, too. They can't hurt you." So he wants to say. "Why'd you go and see Cole?"
"Because I trust him," she replies bitterly. "As I said, you weren't here." Her food is suddenly forgotten.
Kenneth sits up quite stiffly at that comment. Must have stung a lot. "Right," he says quietly, setting what bites of bread left back down on the plate. He lifts the milk to drain it, and with a heavy clunk of the glass back onto wood perhaps a bit louder than needed, sets it back down. "Right." The philodox stands, moving towards the door of the bedroom once more.
"I am no use to you at all..." she whispers towards his turned back. The kin narrows her eyes, waiting for Kenneth. She expects it to happen.
Whatever she's expecting, it doesn't happen. Kenneth does stop at the bedroom door, but he all he does is reach for the handle. The philodox then shuts the door, and turns back to the kin. "If you weren't you would've been gone a long time ago."
Xia looks up to Kenneth. She lets his words soak in before she replies, "I want you to know that I love you, Kenneth." Her tone sounds sincere as any Philodox would be able to judge. If it wasn't for Kenneth, she probably would have gone back to Chicago for a second time.
Kenneth strides back over to the bedside then, and leans over to caress her face with a much more gentle hand than before. He doesn't say a word in reply to hers, but there is a calm in his eyes that wants to extend forth. "I want you to sleep," he says finally. "I'll sit here. I'll watch."
Xia looks up as her cheek is caressed, feeling the warmth of his hand against her cool skin. She nods her head in reply, saying nothing as she lies her head down on the pillow.
"I'll be here all night if I have to," Kenneth says, making his quiet promise, his stubbornly decided vow. "When I left, I admit I did want to just disappear out of here. But when I was gone, I realized... I couldn't just leave." His voice is kept low, but he's still talking to her, as if lulling her to sleep with a spoken lullaby.
Xia is suddenly asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow again. Kenneth's presence seems to be enough to make her feel secure in her environment again.
Kenneth's voice eventually starts to drown itself out, and there's nothing but black for the kin. Sweet, sweet, dark oblivion. "There's something you should know," says a voice in her head that sounds remarkably like Kenneth's... "I do love you." Truly, it must be a dream.
Xia rubs her cheek against her pillow while she hears that warm tone in her head. As rest comes, she feels her body slowly become less tense.
The feeling of warmth seems to seep into her bones, lending a comfort that she hasn't felt in months. "There's something else you should know too..." the voice continues afterwards in a soft, soothing tone. "... I intend to kill you."
The tone is soothing to the kinwoman while it lulls her into a deeper sleep. Then, suddenly, she backtracks. "What?" the question echoes in her head. "Please let me sleep, I'm tired."
"You are asleep," the voice suggests quite obviously. "You're asleep, but you're talking to me, aren't you?" Suddenly, she whirls around. There stands Kenneth, and the room is her own bedroom. He's not in the same outfit he was wearing that she can remember, but the wilder, unkempt appearance that she had found him in long ago.
Xia seems confused. "I was, before I went to sleep." Her eyes study Kenneth, noticing that he is wearing another outfit.
"You're absolutely correct," the dream Kenneth says with a smirk. "And for that, you win a prize. You want to know what that prize is?" He starts to step forward, towards her. The skies that suddenly seem to just be there and have been there this entire time darken with the rolling of stormclouds.
Xia raises her eyebrow. "What is that?" she asks. She trembles as the stormclouds gather, although she doesn't exactly fear them.
Kenneth's smile grows a little more menacing, and yet remains sickly sweet. He reaches out with a hand, inviting her to take it. "Join me, and you'll see," he says in answer. Behind him and all around, the ground melts upwards into shapes of those mirror eyed crinos from her nightmares. The philodox looks to his left as more of them appear, and then to his right. And when he looks back, soon his eyes too are naught but reflections cast on silver. "Come on, Xia. There is nowhere else to go."
Xia doesn't take Kenneth's hand and flinches. "I will never," she replies in a snappy tone. "Quit playing these foolish games with me." She curls back her lip and turns away from the Philodox, although she knows that she is surrounded.
That sets him off. Lightning cracks overhead, casting a flaring split second of light across the stormy skies. Kenneth's smile quickly turns into a snarl, as he utters an incomprehensible command and the mirror wolves attack. Their jaws open, not revealing teeth but pointed daggers of darkness that absorb all light. Only one jolt of instinct comes through to the kin's mind. Run!
Xia feels that sudden instinct of fear and begins to run away from the wolves with the mirror eyes when they attack her.
Run, run! The howling of the wolf pack sounds behind her, and she's running away over an unrecognizeable field. The fear pounds in her like it does a deer, survival the only goal. Run! The barks and excited, bloodthirsty bays of her hunters getting closer sound almost like laughter. Derisive, scornful laughter. Why aren't her legs pumping fast enough? Every step she takes seems to lag horribly, and the ground seems too soft. The breeze is ice cold and more like that of a hurricane's gales, slapping at her face. "You can never escape!" cries the voice, high and howling like the wind and the wolves.
"I have to..." croacks Xia's voice to the breeze that slaps her face. She feels her stomach clentching, making her sick. There is a yerning for all of this to end.
One wolf sinks its fangs in, but instead of just pain, the strength seems to drain from her. That same will to survive that was keeping her alive, suddenly isn't as strong as before. That slows her down. The next wolf leaps on her back, but tears at the silken bathrobe. One after another, the lupines leap upon her and bring her down. She can feel their teeth sink in, feel herself being eaten alive. Wildly, they shake their heads back and forth in an effort to tear her flesh from her bones. All the while, the wind screams fiercely, coming in waves, whipping and batting at her face. A murder of crows flies up from all the commotion, cawing with sounds that call out her name. "Caw! Caw! Xia! Xia!" The sounds of gore and shaking continue, even as she feels the life starting to fade and the environment feeling distant. "Xia! Xia!" It sounds less like the crows now, and more like Kenneth's voice. Eventually, it just feels like she's being shaken hard. "Wake up already!"
Xia cries out as she is being torn to peices, the strengh and will for her to survive draining out of her. She feels lifeless as all she can do is watch her life slip away from her. As she awakens, she can feel her body being shaken but she does nothing to stop. Her eyelids flickering open and stare at Kenneth.
When she does open her eyes, the room is blindingly bright even though all Kenneth has done was turn on the light in her room. The plates and milk are gone, but her bed is all in disarray. Kenneth is on it, his hands on her shoulders and holding firm. "Xi..." his urging cuts short when she wakes up, and at that he looks, well, relieved. Only to an extent. His hands don't leave their contact with her, even though she's covered in a cold sweat. "Jesus Christ," he croaks out, tensed and staring down at her face.
Xia looks worse than before she even went to sleep and she leans over to heave up what little nutients she was holding down. Apparently she has seen enough of her own flesh being ripped off of her body. She coughs for several moments as she is bent over the side of the bed.
That makes Kenneth back up and off even more. "Jesus Christ," he blasphemes yet again, brows and face drawn tight. Nothing can save the carpet now, as there's no escape from the vomited contents. The philodox looks grim, and no small amount of actual worry plastered on his features.
"I want to die," she whispers. She has grown too weak to do it herself. Her body trembles as she feels the cold sweat against her skin. This is no longer a strong looking woman that Kenneth remembers from his cubhood.
Kenneth works his jaw, like there's nothing he'd want more than to just break out into a howl of anger. But he keeps down that urge, and moves to sieze the woman, sheets and all, and haul her up. "You're coming with me," he says, with a voice that brooks little argument. "And we're getting out of here. You're not staying by yourself in this place."
Xia nods as she is scooped up into Kenneth's arms. She could give a shit now where she is taken, she just doesn't care anymore. The petite woman weighs nearly nothing as she is lifted.
Kenneth might need a bit of effort, but he's moving by sheer determination. The philodox barely gets the doors open but then nothing's going to stop him as he carries the woman out into the living room and out the door as he finds her keys. A foot pulls the door after him, having it latch behind them. "I don't know what the hell is causing this to happen," he growls as he descends stairs and heads for the garage, and the car. When he does get to the vehicle, he sets her down and opens the door for the back seat instead. "In." It's a simple command.
Xia slips into the backseat. The kinwoman is generally good about putting on her seatbelt but it goes unbuckled as she gathers the sheets around her and leans against the door when it closes behind her.
The door shuts, and Kenneth rounds to the driver's seat. Not another word is spoken as he gets in, starts the car, and drives out towards the farmhouse. On the way, the halfmoon keeps glancing at the rearview mirror, apparently catching glimpses of the kin in the back.
Xia sits in the backseat the entire time staring out the back window.
Kenneth drives perhaps... a little faster than he normally would - considering he has no license to drive. Gradually, he finds himself taking the turn onto Sunrise Road past the new developing housing and signs for residences for sale, and turns onto the farmhouse driveway where he stops. The engine turns off, quite a few feet from the house. "Shit," he utters loudly after a long, silent moment. A glance goes back over his shoulder at the kin, then back to the front of the farmhouse.
Xia looks up as she finds that they are parked in front of the farmhouse. She hadn't noticed how recklessly the Philodox as driving the entire time while her head is throbbing.
It's about five more minutes of just sitting, staring, and inward thinking before Kenneth finally moves himself. He opens his door, taking out the keys, shoving them in his pocket and opening the back door. "C'mon," he says, much less tense but still bothered, "Let's get you to the infirmary."
Xia slips out of the car. Its surprising that she still has enough energy to move, although she makes it to the porch effortlessly.
Guiding her anyway, Kenneth leads the way up to the infirmary, and fixes the sheets for the woman. "You're safe here," he claims. "And I'm takin' your keys. 'Til someone comes and checks you out for taint, I don't want you to leave. Ok?"
Xia nods, "Where are you going?" she asks. The kin doesn't want to be left alone or at least with the feeling of being left alone.
"Nowhere," Kenneth replies quickly. "I'm not leaving - at least not yet. But I am going to get you some .. clothes. And some water. I'll be back. But you should get yourself cleaned up some."
================================== Farmhouse =================================
Message: 14/27 Posted Author
Kin in Infirmary Tue Jun 27, 2006 Kenneth
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About 10 PM at night, Kenneth brought a distraught, tired, Xia to the farmhouse and put her up in the infirmary. He has remained there on watch since, save for occassional moving around to get her things. Later on while she's asleep, he left and returned with clothes and a few personal toiletries of the kinswoman.
He's also looking for someone (which he will ask) who can sense the Wyrm to come and examine Xia for taint. (Please +mail Sai and Stacey if you do.) In the meantime, don't expect to be allowed into the infirmary without a good reason.
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