Post 26

“Wait, was that a gunshot?” asked Peter. Laura was lying on the ground holding her right thigh with a pained expression on her face. Peter was scanning the area, but looked at her more closely when she didn’t answer his question, and she wasn’t making eye contact with him. She rolled towards him and he saw blood covering the side of her leg. “Laura! What the hell happened?”

Peter then looked beyond Laura and on to the fence as he shifted into a position to help Laura. At the fence line, he could see a dark shadow, down at the base of the fence, just on the far side of the big tree. Peter sprang into action, grabbing Laura by her wrists and pulling her to the side, putting the tree between them and whoever was causing the shadow. He then tried frantically to help her to her feet and at first she wasn’t cooperating. “Come on!” Peter cried. “We’ve got to get out of here!” She held her leg gingerly and pulled against Peter’s hands while trying to put her uninjured leg underneath her. She gritted her teeth and allowed Peter to help her up. He put her arm over his shoulders and helped support her weight, hoping that it would hurry them along.

They turned towards the house and began running. The vast expanse of green grass between them and the gate was intimidating, and any move they made directly towards the house would expose them to Gerald – it had to be Gerald. Instead of running directly towards the house, they ran towards the fence separating the Sinclair’s property from their neighbors, hoping to stay in the relative safety provided by the tree that stood between them.

Pa-pop! Another bullet hurled past them and broke a plank in the wooden fence ahead of them, just to their right. Gerald had moved! Peter risked turning and looking back as he carried Laura along, and he saw Gerald climbing the fence. He was covered in leaves and twigs sticking out at crazy angles from his clothing. He had donned camouflage and lay in wait for them to come to the house, and now he was coming after them! As Peter watched, he saw Gerald land and roll on their side of the fence. He came up and was kneeling to the side of the tree, looking at them as Peter turned away to run full-out towards the gate. It was still so far away, but they had to try.

Running as fast as he could with some of Laura’s weight on his shoulders, he tripped over her feet. They fell to the side, but recovered and kept running, fearful that at any moment, he could end up like the man in the visions he saw – shot in the head, killed instantly.

“Stop running away, you coward. Be part of me and taste real power!” yelled Gerald as he raised the rifle again.

Peter felt a sideways push from Laura, and they both went sprawling to the side as another bullet flew past them. It smacked against the side of the house, splintering the siding. Peter and Laura were barely able to recover from that. Adrenaline alone got Laura back on her feet. Peter got up next to her, and they began running again, though separately. Peter reached the gate first and opened it. He looked back for Laura, who was moving much more slowly than he was. Beyond Laura, he saw Gerald taking aim, but having trouble with the rifle, like it was resisting his will and aiming away. Peter took a step towards Laura, willing her forward faster. Gerald fought off whatever was trying to interfere with his attack, and leveled the rifle at Laura again.

Pop!

Laura ran forward a couple more steps and collapsed against Peter. He put his arms around her and felt wetness at her back. He drew his hand away and it was covered in blood! He looked into her eyes. She was staring back with a desperate look. She was almost beyond pain now. Her arms reached up and held his shoulders, and she began sinking down.

When her knees touched the ground, he told her, “Don’t stop now. We’re almost there!” He could sense Gerald running up to them and was beside himself trying to get her to keep running with him. He bent over and reached under her arms, grasping her back. His chest touched against hers as he pulled her upwards, and his head was beside hers. She began sobbing, fearful of death. Peter took a half-step forward for better leverage, and pulled up against her.

He was able to get her legs underneath her again, and she stood unsteadily, leaning against him. By the time she was standing, Peter looked past her and saw that Gerald was almost on top of them. He stopped running, and his rifle was at his side. When he got within ten feet of them, he grinned sadistically and threw the rifle to the side. “Looks like I’m not going to need that to finish off both of you.” His aura was utterly glowing, not only alive in motion, but alive with colors. Peter wondered if his mind were playing tricks on him, playing off Sam’s words from the restaurant about the colors in his aura, but he was certain that was what he was seeing. A cloud of spectral energy surrounded Gerald.

“Stay with me,” he whispered to Laura as his hand covered the wound in her back. He willed her to hold herself together long enough for help to come or for some miracle, and eased her tenderly, lovingly back down to the ground. When she was lying down, Peter turned towards Gerald again.

“Are you done having your little moment, boy?” Gerald’s voice was dripping with contempt. He assumed a fighter’s stance and taunted Peter towards him with waves of his hand. “I bet you don’t even get close to me.”

“I’ll do more than that, you bastard.”

Peter could barely contain his rage. Gerald knew this, and tried to throw him off his guard. “I forgot to thank you, by the way.”

Peter was perplexed. “What for?”

“The squirrel, of course. I had no idea that animals had so much energy in them! I mean, they hurt like hell going in, but once you get used to them, they’re not half bad.” Peter understood now why Gerald’s aura was so different now. He has taken many lives, and fed off the energy left behind. So that was why Gerald sent him the dead cat. “And you know what else?” Gerald began bouncing around like a prizefighter in the ring. “They put me back together nicely! This is the best I’ve felt since I took that shrapnel in Iraq.”

Peter had had enough. Even though he had no training or combat experience apart from the recent scuffle, he charged at Gerald, intent on strangling him to death with his bare hands. Gerald deftly turned him aside, causing Peter’s momentum to carry him flailing forward into the grass face-first.

“You’re going to have to do much better than that, boy. The greenest soldier could kick your ass, and I’m a motherfucking combat veteran.”

Peter stood up again. In his field of vision were both Gerald and Laura. Laura was not moving. Gerald was moving too much for his tastes. He needed a weapon. His eyes were drawn to the rifle lying discarded in the grass near the fence, but Gerald caught his glance. He side-stepped nimbly to the rifle and picked it up quickly. While he held the rifle, Peter’s fear outweighed his anger for a moment.

“This isn’t going to help you, boy. But I’m not going to shoot you with it, either.” He pressed the release button and dropped the magazine out of the weapon, then jerked the charging handle back and cleared the last round out of the chamber. It went spinning through the air and landed somewhere in the grass between them. Gerald then threw the weapon into the middle of the back yard. The suddenness of the throw caused Peter to duck first, and then retreat from Gerald a few steps. Gerald stepped towards him, closing the space between them. Peter finally realized what else was different about him. He wasn’t limping around at all. He seemed to be completely healthy now.

“Come on, boy. Don’t just stand there. Do something before your little whore dies. I need to be there when that happens so she can join me.” He thumped his chest to emphasize the joining. Peter looked at Laura again. She still hadn’t moved from where he lay her down. He felt like he had one shot at this. He turned and ran away from Gerald.

“You little coward, come back here!” Gerald called after him as he gave chase.

Peter was headed towards the tree. As he ran, he was afraid it wasn’t going to work. He was convinced that it wasn’t going to work. He felt helpless. The fence around him made him claustrophobic. He was trapped in a corner, and there really was nowhere to run. As he neared the tree, he slowed, knowing that Gerald was right behind him. He abruptly changed direction to his right, wishing he were wearing his baseball cleats. Gerald slowed down at his sudden change of direction, seemingly amused at what Peter was doing. “Oh, you want to play, do you?” Gerald asked.
Peter turned again, and now was running headlong at Gerald. Gerald got back into his fighting stance, but Peter wasn’t interested in fighting him. He also wasn’t going to let Gerald turn him aside again. He opened his arms wide and tackled Gerald around his beltline, driving his shoulder into the larger man’s gut. The two men crashed to the ground, Peter on top. “Close enough,” Peter thought to himself. “It had to be.”

Gerald began punching Peter in the back, which was about all that he could reach. Peter’s head was sheltered away from Gerald by Gerald’s own body. Peter was able to ignore the blows, but was surprised when Gerald once again gained the upper hand and ended up on top of Peter. He was definitely much stronger. Peter did all he could to roll over and face his assailant. After several punches in his back and now, some in his head, he was able to do just that. With all the strength he could marshal, he sat up and grabbed Gerald’s shirt. He reached out not only with his arms, but with his mind and spirit as well.

He connected.

The world around him went black, even though is eyes were open. Instantly, he saw an amazing collection of energies and faces, men and women, all imprisoned behind a barely-visible dark light. He began reaching into their cages, connecting with as many of them as he could, and pulling against their bonds. He could feel them slipping through, one by one. As they emerged from the shadowy light, their radiance was gleaming in the overwhelming dark, their form silhouetted neatly as they floated freely around Peter.

He reached all he could, and the darkness became more and more brilliant, filling every corner of his vision. He was disoriented by it all, until he saw a familiar spot. Was it up? Was it down? He had no way of knowing. He reached out for it, and the kaleidoscope of energy whirled all around him, channeling through him and into the spot to which he connected them. One by one, the colors fell through and left behind a dimmer realm. When all the glowing specters had gone, Peter found himself alone in a dark place. The only thing keeping him aware of movement around him was his connection to the familiar spot through which the color had gone. There was another presence here, a malevolent, brooding presence that had no desire to follow him through to the outside world, a sinister evil that wanted nothing more than to keep Peter in this place forever more.

Peter felt a sudden pulling, a rending of the connection he was bonded to. Whatever was here, it did not want Peter to leave the way he came. It made him hold on all that much more to the bond, focusing all his attention on maintaining that way out for himself. The attacks against him were fierce, but he was able to withstand them until finally, with determination, he turned again towards the center of where he felt this malevolent energy was coming from. Though he didn’t have arms in this place, the analogy to his mind was of holding the exit with one hand and reaching out to the malevolence with the other. His touch was all it took to connect the two together.

As the malevolence was being forced through the bonded site, Peter could feel a tearing at him. It was trying to cut him off before he could get out himself. It nearly worked. The hold that Peter still had on the site was weak. The last sliver of the malevolence went through the site, tearing at it the whole way. Peter hadn’t considered what may happen if the site were suddenly no longer there. He risked checking his surroundings for something – anything else – that might provide a means out should he need it, but there was none. There was only cruel, cold darkness.

He redoubled his focus on the site and pulled himself back from the brink through it, leaving only the nothingness behind.

His eyes could see again. Gerald was still on top of him, his shirt still in his hands. Behind Gerald, Peter saw the house, felt the sun on his head, and the grass beneath him. He also felt the myriad of bruises, scrapes and cuts left on him from Gerald’s beating. Everything hurt, from moving to breathing to just sitting still. It was almost overwhelming how much he felt here, after having been completely disconnected from his physical being.

But things had changed. Gerald no longer had an aura the he could see. Neither did he, he noticed, looking at his hands as they released the shirt from their grasp. Looking up at his face, though, he was baffled by Gerald’s expression. He wasn’t angry or malicious. He was actually frightened and nervous, as though Peter were going to kill him. Peter pulled his hands back so as to not threaten Gerald, and Gerald crab-walked backwards away from Peter, looking disoriented.