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Chapter Twenty Seven
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Midnight Strays Chapter Twenty Eight
Jane stood in the alley, her eyes closed to the night-time world. Strands of her magically empowered hair were "sniffing" the air, for all intents and purposes, trying to sense her invisible foe. She felt something brush against a single hair, making her senses dance like a spider at the center of its web. Her eight braids reached out, grabbing debris and garbage cans to use as weapons when . . ."Stop!" came a sharp voice a little further down the alley. Jane's friend, mentor and lover emerged from the darkness. Red looked the younger woman over. "What did you forget to do?"Jane's pretty face was masked by confusion, and then reality seemed to dawn on her. "I went for weapons with everything. I didn't keep anything for defense.""Precisely," Red said, trying to sound soothing. She normally wasn't quite so polite when a trainee made a mistake, but Jane's fragile mental state earned her a few breaks. "Anya, how was her defense up to that point?"A small section of apparently empty spa
Midnight Strays Chapter Twenty Nine
------------- -------------------- Back in Red's room . . . ------------- -------------------- Jane was curled up in a fetal position next to the bed when Red stormed in. She saw that Red was angry, and instinctively assumed it because of her. Red saw her lover cringe. "Stop that!" she started, then caught herself. "I . . . Jane, I need you to get up off the floor. We . . . need to talk." Jane didn't want to stand. She wanted Red to kneel down and comfort her. But Red wasn't going to budge, so Jane slowly crawled up onto the bed and sat down. "Jane, practice is over. Whatever Tarloh found out about, apparently it's the big time. That means you're going to have to suck it up. You know I want to help you, but we need you to be a grown up now. When whatever it is that is goin' on is done, I'll help you fight your demons. But right now, we need you to help us fight ours," Red finished. Jane tried to steel her shoulders. She had destroyed that demon and though it had deserved it, sh
Midnight Strays Chapter Thirty
------------ ----------------------- Twenty minutes later . . . ------------ ----------------------- In all their history, the Strays had never been so chaotic. People were running all over the Den looking for Jane, while Arthur tried putting Red and the other victims of the swarm back together again. There were four more dead and a dozen wounded. Between the Swarm's attack and that of the Hellspawn, the ranks of the Strays had been decimated. There war leader was down, Jane was missing, and there were a lot of people feeling helpless. Arthur was sweating like a racehorse after its second Kentucky Derby. He had stabilized the other wounded, but Red had been hit hard. He had worked insect corpses out of her body and closed up all the wounds, but she had lost a great deal of blood and he didn't have the energy to accelerate her replenishing. He wasn't going to ask for an energy boost from anyone, because no one had anything to . . . "Arthur," Natasha started. She was sitting acro
Midnight Strays Chapter Thirty one
----------- ------------------ Outside of town . . . ----------- ------------------ Jane's eyes opened, though it didn't matter much. There was pure darkness wherever she was that seemed to seep into her eyes. There was something sick . . . putrid . . . vile maybe, floating through the air. She didn't need to see it. She could feel it, and it made her soul cringe. She started to stand, but was smashed to the floor by some . . . thing. Her chest ached and she was sure her nose was beginning to bleed. {{I'VE BEEN SO LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS MOMENT,}} came a voice from the abyss. No, not from outside . . . it was coming from inside her head. {{A STAR ALONE IN THE NIGHT SKY . . . UNAWARE OF YOUR BRILLIANCE. UNAWARE OF THE DEVASTATION YOU COULD BRING.}} "I don't know what . . ." she started as she got to her knees, then felt a blow against her cheek, sending her spinning back to the chilly floor. She began to cry. She was going to die, and no one was coming to rescue her. Her nose was
Midnight Strays Chapter Thirty Two
------------- ------------------------ In the Shoggoth's layer . . . ------------- ------------------------ Jane was curled up in a ball somewhere in the darkness. She had run out of tears, breath and prayers many minutes earlier. She no longer believed that Red was going to tear through the surrounding blackness on a magnificent steed adorned with shining armor and rescue Jane. There was no light . . . only the Dark One. The Dark One was almost intoxicated. The girl was on the edge and beginning to fall slowly into the abyss. It had been whispering into her mind . . . telling her stories of agony and ecstasy intertwined. It teased her with false hopes, then slammed her with fear. It promised her relief, then delivered a mental image of Red's corpse rotting on the subway platform. It knew that Jane could no longer tell the truth from the lies, and in fact no longer cared. A problem with immortality is the belief that one is untouchable . . . that one is more powerful and wiser
Midnight Strays Chapter Thirty Three
---------------- ----------------------- In the depths of the earth . . . ---------------- ----------------------- The Dark One had forgotten what it meant to bleed, but Jane was reminding it. The little human woman had indeed been pushed over the edge of reason and had pulled the Dark One with her. But Jane had proven that she could fly . . . floating over the abyss and tickling it with her toes. Her snake-like hair was striking everywhere at once, and what passed for the Shoggoth's hide was torn and aching. There was a ventilation duct leading up and away from was once its throne room and was now its execution chamber and for the first time since before history began, a servant of the Elder Gods ran for its life. There would be another day for Jane. The Shoggoth melted its way into the ductwork and sped away. Jane continued to tear at anything she could get her hair on. When the pliant flesh of her enemy was gone, she let loose her wrath on the stone itself. Like a den of snak
Midnight Strays Chapter Thirty Four
------------ ----------------- Several days later . . . ------------ ----------------- Jane was lying in Red's bed, as she had been for days. She hadn't spoken to anyone, and barely even seemed to notice when Arthur came in to work his healing on her. She felt a shame so deep it could swallow the world, for the things she had almost done. Red had requisitioned a cot and had taken to recuperating there, not wanting to disturb Jane but refusing to leave her side. Out around the broken council table, there were only a dozen Strays left. The rest had died in recent conflicts or had left, their hearts heavy with remorse but their souls filled with doubt. They had signed on to help take on gangs and drug traffickers and even demonic crime in the streets. They hadn't planned on tangling with the servant of an Elder God. Tarloh, Talia, Arthur, Michael, Matthew, Mindy, Shield, Nathaniel, Anya, Robbie, Chris and Johan were trying to decide what they should do next. Natasha had postponed h
Midnight Strays Chapter Thirty Five
Those closest to Jane shared a look. "You think she's talking about her stepfather?" Talia asked of Red. "Who else? Damn it, is that piece of shit ever going to leave her alone?" Red looked at Tarloh. "You all decide whatever you're going to do. I'm going to go check on her." She stood up and made as brisk a pace towards her quarters as she could. As she descended the stairs, she realized that Talia had followed her. "I want to be there for her too," Red's best friend stated firmly. "I'll go with whatever the rest of the Strays decide. Red, I think I can help." Red agreed by remaining silent and continuing to her room. Jane was still asleep, albeit fitfully. Talia could see the two women's pain reflected on each other faces. Neither of them deserved what had happened to them, nor did they deserve the continuous strain that their burgeoning relationship had been under. It's hard to fall in love when you don't have time to breathe and while you're fighting for your life. Red gentl
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