Surface Dwellers, an Interactive Story Pt 3

in #story6 years ago

It feels good to be back! Back back, back to me! Back to my story!

Surface Dwellers Chapter One

Surface Dwellers Chapter Two


@accio doodles, process at end of post.

Thank you anyone who reads these for your patience while I’ve been recovering, the past few days I’ve felt SO much better, and seem to only be getting stronger, mentally and physically. I won’t bore you with a long update intro, this post has been waiting long enough.



Surface Dwellers Chapter Three

Mr. Crow and Me

(Creativity soundtrack 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 )



As she finished her eyes flickered for a moment to Mr. Crow, he had looked at her with cocked head. She felt the fire begin to rise again and turned to her friend. “Will you fight with me Lee? It’s dangerous but I’m tired of living without our magic. We don’t follow their rules, we have a chance.”

Lee glanced over at Ronan, and turned back to her sister with a wide, ferocious smile. “Do you really have to ask?” They laughed together as they bumped fists. Sometimes that was all that had gotten them by, laughing together. They went then, to attack Ronan with tickles. They had learned that when life became so uncertain, this was the only way to survive. To let go of it all and only love for the moment.

The following days passed; On the surface everything was as it should be, only Lee and Lane had the sharp thorn of impending danger in their sides, the only difference from their normal day being their level of alert. They had gone to work, come home, cooked dinner, built raccoon traps, done homework, done healing sessions on Mr. Crow, had a food fight… everything was exceedingly, painfully normal as nearly a week later Lane tucked Ronan in and kissed her goodnight.

She was on her back, the air had turned heavy with smoke. It burned her throat and blurred her eyes. She coughed and squinted against it as she pushed herself off of the ground, it was very dark here… She could see the outlines of tall black pines swirling and twisting above the smoke. Why was she here? How did she get to the shadowlands?

Her head snapped at a shrill caw. A warning cry. “What are you up to, Mr. Crow?” She asked in a breathless whisper, stepping in the direction of the sound. It was hard for her to move here, the atmosphere resisted her every motion. She saw it then, a figure forming in the tendrils. She followed the figure tentatively as it floated along, growing more solid with each step… a man?

It was still a few yards ahead of her when the ground she could not see changed changed from soft lush earth to something more solid. She focused her eyes, slight variations of darkness formed fuzzy shapes… a dock? Could it be…

She moved faster now, careful with her footing towards the figure. She watched him sit as she approached, leaning in to examine him she heard a voice trying to pull through white noise, too broken to distinguish. She focused with all of her will and slowly saw features become more defined… made out words through the static.

“The girls… danger…” Fractured sobbing. She could hear the misery, the loneliness, the desperation. Her heart was cracking like glass, she wanted to reach out, to touch him, to comfort him… there was no use, this was not a physical plane, this was not a definite place. The figure was shifting; reaching up. The warning calls were becoming frantic. “I tried… I’m sorry, Ally.” A deafening sound ripped through the dense atmosphere, a gunshot.

“JIM!”

She was still screaming when she shot up in bed, drenched in thick sweat. Mr. Crow was on her bedpost screaming at her, she flew out of her room without wasting the time to dress. She went directly to Ronans room and scooped up the child, who’s head bobbed in a sleepy daze. “Mama?” She couldn’t stop long enough to think of how to respond, she was running again. Lee was already in the hall, scooping up the hopping frantic bird with the same horrified expression she wore, running towards the door.

Lane hopped in back of Lee's car, holding a very confused Ronan as Lee started it and peeled out like the light had turned green on a drag track. They sped, racing against the sunrise to the Cater house. A twenty minute ride on a leisurely day felt like an eternal blink of the eye. Lee didn’t stop in the road, she didn’t stop in the driveway, she plowed straight through the yard to the back and tossed mud, drifting to a stop.

Lee wasn’t sure if the car had even stopped moving before her feet hit the ground. All that she could feel was the muscles pulsing in her legs, all that she could see was Jim Carter sitting at the end of the dock, all that she could hear was her heart beat pounding, she couldn’t even hear her own desperate screams. She realized he couldn’t hear her, either. Her bare feet hit the wood and she as she watched him close his hand around his pistol, saw him raise it to his head. She lunged.

The sound of the shot, of frightened birds scattering rang as the sun broke over the pine. “Jim?! JIM!!” She had his forearm grasped in her strong hand, the gun fell from it into the water. It hadn’t hit him! A sob of relief escapee her, but her reprieve was brief… there was something wrapped around his neck… and it lurched him towards the water. She scrambled, grabbing him around his chest, forced him back using a foot against a wooden post as leverage. With her free hand she began to tear at what she now identified as a slimy black tentacle extending from the water.

She saw, for the briefest of moments Lane next to her, Ronan just behind. She flew onto her back, Jim coming down on top of her. Ronan was sprayed with silver as she screamed at the splash in the water. Lee hardly managed to grab hold of the back of the girl’s pale blue, kitten patterned pajama top to stop her diving in after her mother. “Ronan no!” She cried holding tight to the struggling, screaming little girl. The water had gone still, and Lee held her breath as tightly as she held Jim and Ronan.

The surface bubbled and an oily silver pool collected at the surface. Lane’s head popped through the center gasping for air, dissipating the silver blood. Ronan collapsed in tears onto the dock and Lees breath returned as she released her. She lay Jim down gently on the dock as Lane climbed up, pulling Ronan into her, whispering reassurances. Lee removed the limp tentacle from Jim’s neck, and tossed it to the side. “Lane…” His veins were turning black underneath his skin. “Lane!..”

Lane moved closer to the pair and looked. A small whimpered “Mr. Carter?” escaped her arms, and she looked down at her shaken, terrified baby. She stood her up and looked into her eyes, cradling her little face in hand. “Listen to me Ronan, listen to me. I know you’re scared okay? I know baby, but you have to be brave right now. Mama and Auntie have to figure out a way to get the poison out of Mr. Carter so that he’ll be alright. Can you do that Ronan? Can you be brave for Mama?” Ronan nodded with trembling lip and stepped to the side. “Lane if it reaches his brain…”

Lane bit her lip hard. “I know.” If the poison reached his brain it would be too late, even if they did save his life there would be permanent, irreversible brain damage ranging from severe depression to psychosis to catatonia. Larger cousin to the Grindylows, the Gritoti hunted by injecting a neurological poison into their victims targeting the ‘will to live’, particularly serotonin receptors. No struggle. How a silver blooded creature native to the Mediterranean found itself in Jim Carters pond was no mystery. Hyde.

“How are we going to pull it out?” She asked, trying her hardest to keep the desperation from her voice as she watched Lee’s dark hand gently stroke his forehead. Her insides were shredding, her heart being peeled to pieces. There was no way, they didn’t have to tools, they didn’t have time to take him home. His eyes were half closed and unfocused, he was mumbling a low incoherent stream, his body was limp and the black scrawls were creeping up his chin. Lee’s head snapped so hard that Lane jumped. “Ronan?!” Lee gasped jumping up. “Get back here baby it’s dangerous!”

Ronan kneeled at the edge of the dock, staring down into the water bellow. Completely unfazed by her Auntie's command, the only part of her that moved was her lips, whispering almost silently to something unseen. Lee stepped over and pulled her back. “But Auntie! There’s leeches!” Ronan pointed wide eyed from Lee’s grasp. “There’s leeches…” Lee breathed turning her head to Lane. “There’s leeches!” She shouted grabbing Jim’s feet. “We have to get him to the bank!”

Lee gently dropped Ronan and took Jim under the shoulders, together with Ronan holding his hand they carried him and lowered him up gently onto the edge of the pond. They searched the water, grabbing all of the wiggly little blood suckers they could find , placing them first along his jawline, and under his collar bone so that the poison wouldn’t pass through to his brain or heart and working their way across all of the visible infected veins. They watched in nervous anticipation, sending off a low ripple as they asked the leech es to take only the damaged blood. As soon the black lines began to recede Lane buckled, falling back right on her ass in the mud, grabbing Ronan and pulling her onto her lap. “There’s leeches!” She laughed, the tears flowing freely now from joy. “You wonderful little creature!” She buried her face into the little mop of messy red hair, and kissed every bit of Ronan’s head that she could find.

Ronan’s giggles filled the air, like chimes of a purifying bell. Lee and Lane joined in, and the three of them sat there in the mud around Jim Carter laughing until their tummies were sore. They didn’t stop until he groaned, and shifted in the water. His eyes fluttered and came into focus, staring up at the three girls leaning over him. “What in the hell-”

His question was cut off by all three diving onto him at once, the crying renewed. For a little while as he tried to get his bearings he just sat there, until he noticed that neither woman was wearing any pants. “Where are your clothes? Why am I in the damned pond? What the hell is going on?” His demands shook them off of him, prompting them to sit him up and begin to remove the leeches. An expression of horror crossed his features, but Ronan sitting in front of him, big green eyes still brimming with tears, hair all a mess in her wet and muddy kitty pajamas stopped him from doing, or saying, anything else.

“You’re gonna come with us back to the house Jim. We still gotta fix you up, we’ll explain there.” Lee said gently as she helped him to his feet. They led him to the car, stifling a chuckle as he mumbled something about his lawn. Lane and Ronan sat on either side of him in the back, Ro cuddled up against him like she’d tunnel right into his body if she could, Lane’s head resting on his shoulder, Mr.Crow content and quiet in the passenger's seat as Lee brought them all home.

That first night State Trooper Carter had seen something he should not have seen. Ally never knew, Nan didn’t know… but Trooper Carter knew something was night right with the world, and he knew about the safe place they had built, so that’s where they took him… down into the vault. They made him potions to restore his strength, and slaves that healed his leech marks before his very eyes as they explained to him that they thought Hyde had sent something after him to smoke them out. They hadn’t expected it, but apparently his desire to obtain Ronan overruled his sense of self preservation. Attack on a human was punishable by death without trial. “These will protect you from most things.” Lee explained painting symbols onto his arms in a shiny black ink that seeped into his skin and disappeared.

Lane sat across from them, brushing Ronans wild mess of hair into submission. “Any lesser creatures like the one that got to you today. We need to be careful Jim, and we need to put protection on Nan without her knowing what’s happening before he can get at her too. My hope is that she’ll be safer at the diner around other people. I need to go into work today, I need to put up wards there for her. I’m already over an hour late, she’s probably called you fifty times over and will be calling in the national guard soon. Ronan is going to stay here with Lee, we’ll say she got sick… Explains why I’m late for work and why she’s not in school, and its Lee’s day off anyhow. You should stay here with them and rest.”

A. Jim let out a heavy sigh, “Nah I’m gonna go to work.” Both women stared, jaws dropped at him. He held up a hand to stop them from protesting, “Now you listen here I’m expectin’ him now and I won’t be caught off guard again. Seems to me the best way to keep us all safe is to stay together, active and out there livin’ normal lives and I ain’t takin’ no for an answer.”

B. Jim let out a heavy sigh, “Nah I’m gonna go to work.” He mumbled, forcing his eyes to stay open, Lee and Lane exchanged a glance and together led him over to one of the beds. “Nah, nah I gotta get to work.” He protested as they lowered him, his eyes closing, a loud snore escaping the moment his head hit the pillow. “Rest up Jim.” Lane smiled softly, giving him a light kiss on the forehead.



Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed, now…

Even with the few comments I’m getting so far not being able to think about what’s going to happen until the morning I should be posting it isn’t going to work, because if I happen to not feel well Friday it very well might not get done. SO, voting will close at midnight EST Wednesday, so that I have Thursday to work on it as well. <3 <3, oh and here’s my doodle process, mostly I just made a sketch and kept going in with darker pencils, then charcoal defining and shading…


please forgive the epic laundry mess, Rose insisted on being featured, all images credit moi, @accio.

Sort:  

Wow nice chapter ! Good pace and very intense scene !! YAY FOR LEECHES !!

I choose................ B

Poor Jim needs a bit of a rest, I think :> and these women seems like they know how to handle themselves? :D

Thanks Spidyyy!


This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.

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