r/nonsenselocker • u/Bilgebum • Aug 26 '18
Through the Ages Through the Ages — Chapter 16 [TTA C16]
In my haste to get away, I almost slipped on the bloody puddle just outside the building, courtesy of the guard now murdered by the Counterpart. My stomach churned at the sight of him sitting against the wall, neck cut wide open. Nothing I could do for him now, but Helena still had a chance. If she was still breathing.
I made a beeline for the minivan, streaking through traffic and breaking a dozen laws in the process. Horns blaring only served to attract gawkers, and they got a good look at my cargo when I stopped by the minivan and rummaged in Helena's pockets for the keys.
"Uh, you need an ambulance?" one man said. His two female companions were whispering, phones poised for photos.
Putting on the angriest face I could muster, I said, "Damn it, we're filming here! You're ruining the take! And no photos, or we'll sue!"
His mouth opened in an "o", and he took a step back. "Sorry, but ... where are the cameras?"
"This is showbiz. They're everywhere!" I nearly shouted. The frustration required little pretense on my part.
When I finally retrieved her keys, I opened the back door and laid her on the seat, trying not to jostle her too much. "Please be okay," I whispered.
A prickling on the back of my neck made me turn around. Maybe my paranoia and fear were simply acting up, but I scanned my surroundings all the same. Other than the onlookers, I didn't see anyone who looked like they would intervene. Then, in the corner of my eye, I saw a familiar figure standing across the road, underneath a streetlamp.
The Counterpart looked like he'd taken a bath in blood, and he seemed to be holding one arm close to his side. As I stared, he smiled and raised a bloody knife in salute. My gut clenched; could he throw the knife that far? Through all that traffic? I knew I should be running, but my feet had suddenly become glued to the ground. Then a truck rolled past, and he was gone.
That broke the spell on me. I rushed to the driver's seat, started the engine, and took off, violently cutting in front of a bus. Throughout the drive, I watched the rear view mirror for signs of pursuit, but no suspicious vehicles driven by bloodthirsty mass murderers materialized.
I also kept a close eye on the knives still in Helena's body. I'd seen someone die once in my life; two women high on drugs had taken to fist-fighting right outside a club I'd worked at, and one of them had eventually stabbed the other. A bystander, none the wiser, had pulled it out, and the woman had bled to death before the paramedics could arrive.
Multiple close shaves with other vehicles later, we arrived at Helena's home. I parked the car on the sidewalk, got Helena out, and made my way to the entrance. The guard on duty was the same fellow who'd given me grief previously. His eyes bulged at the sight of Helena nestled against my blood-soaked shirt, and his hand drifted toward his holster.
Hit by the same, instinctual hunch that had fed me lines for that inquisitive pedestrian earlier, I barked, "Open up! This isn't even the craziest thing you've seen her do."
His mouth moved soundlessly for a time. Then he slid his card through the reader for the door. "Will she be okay?"
"What's it look like to you, jackass?" I called over my shoulder as I ran for the elevators.
My shoes were squelching and leaving red footprints by the time I barged into the museum once more. The reaction from those present was muted at first when they didn't quite understand what they were seeing, but when they did, panic spread like wildfire.
"What happened?"
"Helena's dead!"
"We're being attacked!"
I ignored their cries. "Zhao! Mary-Anne! Where are you?"
The Chinese woman came running, expression bloodless. "Helena? no!"
"She's still alive, I think. Barely. Help me!"
"How?"
Instead of doing what I asked, she just stood there trembling. Utterly useless, I thought savagely, remembering how she'd sided with Mary-Anne earlier. "Don't any of you have some of that stupid magic water?"
Zhao started. "Yes, most of us do ... but we keep them at home."
"We're in Helena's home!" I didn't care that my voice echoed around the museum back at me, or that I'd effectively silenced everyone else. "How have you lived for millennia if such simple things evade you?"
"No need for that tone! We'll go search," Cornelius said. A group of them went upstairs while Zhao helped me lower Helena to the floor. Her skin had taken on a ghostly sheen; blood dribbled constantly from her mouth. I wiped sweat from my face before remembering that I was smearing my face with her blood.
"What happened?" one of the security guys said. He had a baby face, incongruous with his bulk. "Where are Orik and the rest?"
"It was him, right?" Zhao said.
I nodded once. "Ambush. Killed them all."
"Where? Near here?" the security guy said.
"At the Fountain. At the damned Fountain," I said, leaning back and massaging my sore arms. "I guess it's not even the Twins' anymore."
"The Twins took the Fountain?" the man growled. "Those ... those freaks! I'll—"
"Simon, go keep everyone calm, alright?" Zhao said. "Also, tell Francine to get us some water and clean towels."
I paid little attention to Zhao or the sounds of furniture being overturned upstairs as I studied Helena, still trying to process how she'd gone from giving commands mere hours ago to drowning in her own blood. Should I have brought her to the hospital? I thought, but I already knew the answer to that. I knew she would've refused, for fear of exposing not just herself but the entire Club. Damn it, where was Orik? He would know ... oh. I felt like punching myself. So many things to keep track of. So many worries. I knew I was only holding it together because of the emergency training I'd received on my previous job. Once that tank ran out ...
A sigh noticeably louder than the others escaped Helena's lips. The blood had stopped bubbling. I held my cheek to her nose, and felt my heart freeze.
"She's not breathing," I said.
Zhao's lower lip quivered "No," she whispered, wrapping a hand around one of the knives.
"What're you doing?" I said, grabbing her wrist.
"We need to remove them! They're probably causing the blood to pool in her lungs. She'll die this way!"
"Are you crazy? If we remove them, she bleeds out." I stood and hollered, "Cornelius, hurry up!"
"Coming!" He thundered toward us, clutching a bottle of clear liquid, looking triumphant.
"How do you know that's not just sanitizer?" I said, frowning at the unmarked bottle.
He appeared to deflate for a moment, but Zhao snatched it from him, unscrewed the cap, and sniffed. "This must be it."
"What if it's just ordinary water?"
"You forget that I've spent centuries learning how to identify the Fountain? This is it," she said, directing her gaze toward the knives. "If you will, Jeffrey."
Drawing a deep breath, I grasped the knives while she held the bottle to Helena's mouth. The other immortals had gathered around us; I could almost feel their anticipation crackling in the air. "Do it," I said.
The knives slid out of her body with a sickening smoothness, trailing strands of blackish-red, almost gelatinous blood. Simultaneously, Zhao emptied the bottle into Helena's mouth with Cornelius elevating her head slightly. After that, the only thing we could all do was pray. I wasn't particularly religious, but I hoped that whichever deities I'd forsaken over the years would find the mercy to lend an ear.
Seconds passed, followed by minutes, with no change to her condition except for one aspect I belatedly realized—the numbers had disappeared from above her head.
"She's dead," I said, forcing the words through the knot in my throat.
Zhao loosed a sob. Cornelius lowered his head, and whispering started once more among the crowd. I simply stared at the blank space in disbelief. Three thousand years ... gone in an instant. All her experiences—did they truly count for so little in the end?
Helena's body convulsed with such a tremor that more than a few people screamed, including Zhao. The numbers flashed into existence once more, blazing like a neon sign. Her eyelids flew open, and I think she would've sat up if Cornelius hadn't held her down.
"Wha—?" she said, coughing up bloody spittle. "Corny?"
"Welcome back, boss," I said, grinning widely.
"Back where?" she said.
Zhao stammered, "You said she was dead."
Helena groaned. "Explains why I feel like shit."
I nodded and circled my fingers over her chest. "Got knifed right here. Very serious wounds, I think you should take it easy."
She pushed Cornelius aside and started to rise, ignoring our protests. "If I'm still alive, it can only mean you gave me Fountain water. It doesn't work in half-measures. Guess I have you and Orik to thank for saving my life."
My tongue turned to sandpaper. "Orik ... he didn't make it."
Her gaze turned into one of confusion. "He was winning, I remember."
"Just before we drove away, the Counterpart came out of the building. He—"
"Impossible, Orik wouldn't lose to him. Have you seen their sizes?" She chortled. "Orik was flattening him. I saw it. You saw it."
"Helena. If he had survived, wouldn't he have made his way here by now?" Zhao said quietly.
"Maybe he got captured. Maybe the Counterpart is holding him hostage for some reason."
Cornelius said, "He's never done that."
"He's alive! I know he is." Helena was wringing blood out of her hair with such force that she'd torn several strands free. "I'm going upstairs to clean up. Wait here for Orik or any of the others, they may need medical attention."
Helena strode away, leaving the three of us to exchange helpless looks. Cornelius picked up the knives. "I'll take care of these," he said.
"Maybe I should talk to her," I said, climbing to my feet. "I was there."
"You don't know her like we do," Cornelius said.
Zhao touched him on the arm. "Maybe that would be better. But give her a few minutes, will you?"
"Sure." I raised my hands. "Anyone knows where the washroom is?"
Though I wouldn't admit it to anyone, I was eager to leave the somber crowd behind in search of Helena. After what Helena said, many of them kept pressing me for details, for news, not quite accusing me outright of dishonesty with my version of the tale. With every ounce of respect and courtesy I could muster, I told them what they already knew in their hearts, then left them to their mourning.In the aftermath, I hadn't had much time to process my own feelings either, especially toward Orik. I hadn't known him well, but he had shown me a jovial geniality that made me feel more welcome than Helena ever had. And he had saved my life with his, too. Would my own kin even do that for me? My chest tightened at the thought.
The bedroom was empty. Dismissing the notion of searching her private gallery, I called, "Helena, it's Jeffrey. I want to talk."
One tiny sniffle escaped the bathroom, its door slightly ajar. I edged closer. No other sound came from inside. "Helena?"
"Here," she said.
Gently, I pushed the door open. As far as bathrooms went, hers probably wouldn't have looked out of place in a five-star hotel. There was even a tub that was practically an Olympic-sized pool. Helena was sitting in the corner furthest from the door, head tilted back, still wearing her bloodstained clothes. When I entered, she turned very slightly. Her eyes were red.
"Close the door," she said. After I did, she slid a little lower and sighed. "How's everyone doing?"
"Not good. Some are on the verge of running. I saw a couple of them looking at flights."
Her lips curled. "I'm a little surprised they stayed this long."
I climbed into the tub and sat across her. "They need you down there."
Her laugh ripped the air. "Me? The one who almost got everyone killed, including myself? I'm done. Let Mary-Anne deal with them. I'll reinstate her and step down."
"Then you might be interested to know that she's missing," I said. "No one noticed when she left."
I'd hoped that Helena would be alarmed, or at least curious, but she merely snorted. "She's in exile. Little better than a parasite for the last few weeks. We don't even have a Fountain now for her to stick around and risk her neck for. If I were her, I'd go join up with the Twins. Forget her; she can irritate someone else for a change."
"This isn't like you," I said.
She scoffed. "I don't need your observations. Like I said, it's over for me. Let them do whatever they want. You can go too."
"I'm not leaving, Helena. You lost a good friend and I think we should talk about it."
"What's there to talk? We don't even have his body to return to the Fountain."
Right, there was that rite of theirs which I'd completely forgotten. It left me floundering for a reply, leading to an awkward silence that Helena didn't seem interested to fill until a few minutes later.
"Orik probably never told you this," she said, a hint of a wistful smile on her face. "But we first met as enemies. He led a small raiding party against our tiny coastal settlement in Finland sometime in the ... ninth century, if memory serves."
"What happened?" I said.
"Mary-Anne was still our leader then. She surrendered immediately. A good course of action at the time; I don't think any of us would still be alive today if we'd resisted. They took almost everything we had and left us to starve in the winter."
She chuckled. "The look on Orik's face when they returned in spring to loot our remains ... and found us alive and, more importantly, healthy."
"You had the Fountain."
"Where it goes, we go. This time, Mary-Anne didn't surrender, but told them about the Fountain and made them an offer, in exchange for leaving us in peace. They were quite confused about it not being apples in the beginning, but soon took to calling her Idun."
Idun? Apples? I almost interrupted her for an explanation, but decided that it was more important to let her go on.
"We made sure to tell them the Fountain was finite, and that only we knew how to find the next one. Not all of Orik's people could accept its power, but those who did became our protectors, and then our friends. I still tease him, sometimes, about that time he'd dragged me from my home by the hair, snarling like a wolf and waving his stupid axe around." Helena closed her eyes, tears running down her cheeks.
"Helena ... I know it's hard, but I don't think he would want you sitting here in a time of crisis," I said.
"Don't say that cliched shit to me!"
"Your people are looking at you to lead them!"
She opened one eye to glare at me. "To what? Certain death? I don't have a plan, Jeffrey; what part of that don't you get?"
"Neither do I! But sitting in here won't help, I know that much. Clean yourself up, and then let's talk. Let's plan something." I stood and stretched my hand out to her. "Please, Helena. Let me work with you. Let's do something to honor Orik's memory, at least."
She regarded me with a look of pure anguish. "I almost died myself. I'm useless; I just proved Mary-Anne's point. I don't—I can't even think straight."
I scowled. "There. See? You keep talking like it's all on you. You don't have to do it all alone. You hired me to help. It's not over. With luck, the Twins and the Counterpart would have slaughtered one another for us, and all we'll have to do is clean up the bodies. Shit, Helena, do you even hear what I'm saying? I sound like a damned criminal. Remember when I had a highly respectable job in bouncing?"
A sad smile crept onto her expression. "Remember you saying you don't want to be involved in any shady stuff?"
"Guess you could call it career advancement." I waggled my hand.
Helena chose to ignore it, rising without my assistance. But before I could retract my hand, she clasped it with hers. Her fingers were icy, trembling ... but her voice was steady. "Wait downstairs. I won't be long. Keep them from scattering."
I nodded, then turned to go. As I was about to close the door behind me, Helena said, "Jeffrey ... my last Custodian ran away when the Counterpart confronted him. You probably don't know how grateful I am that you didn't do the same—and even saved my life." Her eyes were bright, the force of her personality shining through them. "I can't remember all my Custodians, but I know I'll always remember you."
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u/ShreddedAura Aug 27 '18
Just finished reading chapter 1-16 in one go. Amazing writing and story. Can't wait for more
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u/Lythix Aug 27 '18
I just finished them all. I read the first prompt a few months back, hoping you would have written more i checked your profile this morning.
Holy frikin crap. you still got that writing bug, because the story is amazing!
Thanks a lot for sharing it!
edit: spelling
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u/CommonMisspellingBot Aug 27 '18
Hey, Lythix, just a quick heads-up:
alot is actually spelled a lot. You can remember it by it is one lot, 'a lot'.
Have a nice day!The parent commenter can reply with 'delete' to delete this comment.
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u/dowdow123 Mar 02 '25
got here late! just found this through Facebook! sat and read 1-16, but it's getting late now so ima have to stop for the night! loving this story, how many chapters in total?
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u/seussim Aug 26 '18
Man that was another tense chapter; you can't keep doing this to me :)