Blue lit a smoke, looked at the monster standing between him and his friends and sighed.
"Bad dreams in the desert, coyote man."
Cody looked back at him, leering, his neck twisting round to an obscene degree. Blue heard the cracking of many small bones and winced; There was no coming back from that, but the boy-thing still stood there, grinning.
"You want some more, worm?"
The Nagual made a simple movement with his free hand and Blue fell to his knees, his heart pounding, sweat pouring from him. He felt as if he was burning up, every part of him ablaze, but he knew it was an illusion. He narrowed his eyes, focussed on the glowing ember at the tip of his cigarette and forced himself upright, smiling as he re-lit his cigarette.
"Come on then old man. Let's have it."
A way down the road, behind the shapeshifter, Felicity shook her head in dismay. He was a nice kid; A shame he had to go and get himself killed by acting like a dumb action hero. Cody threw back his head and howled.
Negative desert. Black sand, white sky, blood the colour of diamonds, cold green flames licking at his heels. Blue stands. Blue falls. Blue stood. Blue fell. The moon so low, like a dimple in the atmosphere, curving in to kiss the Earth. Smoke rising from footprints. Eyes as dead as John Wayne's. Cowboys and Indians and the cowgirl in the sand.
Cody growls the name of the place, "Zzyzx," and the desert explodes.
Makeshift closes her eyes, drops the name of her favourite deity and spreads her mind across the dawn, fighting the wolfman to bring in the light. With nothing else to go on, she reaches out to her friends with her thoughts.
Ari is limp and lifeless, caught in the strong grip of a walking corpse. Cody is long gone, his mind torn loose like wet tissue, wadded and tossed out of the taxi halfway between there and here. Blue is on his knees again, coughing up blood that makes him gag and retch, something ancient and wet sliding up his throat to be born in the dead sands. She flexes her thoughts, winds it back and over, and Blue is standing, smiling, lighting a smoke.
Hold for a heartbeat.
Hold for another.
Hold until your breath is gone and your lungs are about to burst. Let it go and Blue is falling.
"I will not let you fall." she promises, but the A-bomb winds of the nightmare desert tear her words from her blistered lips and shred them on the distant fallout shelter walls.
The time is now. The time is 1945. The times they are a-changin'. Speeding up, the mushroom cloud a spiralling whirlpool of oblivion which draws in everything in its wake, spinning them ever faster like an out of control fairground ride, the waltzers of doom. Scream if you want to go faster.
Cody steps forward, dragging Ari's heels through the dirt. He's barely human now, his hair a shaggy mane, his legs bent in all the wrong places. Smoke rises from his footprints, cold green flames licking at his heels. He laughs, low and guttural, a snarl of triumph.
Fliss holds her breath, holds everything together, then opens her eyes and smiles sadly at Blue, standing proud and strong at the end of the road. She can hold it no longer. The maelstrom bursts through, she loses her grip, and Blue is falling.
Blue falls. On his hands and knees, gagging and retching, trying not to look at the clumps of cancerous flesh which are staining the black Earth before him, he still can't help but wonder where the tumors are going as they drag themselves away into the darkness to start their own mutated reservation in the dry lake bed.
"Zzyzx!" Cody Wolfman calls the name again, howling gibberish to the fractured sky. The moon is so low, he reaches up one twisted paw and grazes the surface, obliterating historic bootprints. Dust drifts gently down upon his head, tickles his snout, and he sneezes.
In that instant, Fliss is at his throat. He walks like a man, she fights like a beast, expensive, exquisite orthodonture tearing through the rough pelt, hot blood splashing her porcelain cheeks. The Nagual lets out a howl of protest and knocks her away with his free hand. As she tumbles over, rolling backwards across the molten tarmac, the shapeshifter shifts his grip on Ari, then hurls her after her friend. The girls crash together and fall silent, and old Matus smiles his wolfish smile and wonders which of the little cihuapillis should get it first. He's always liked the look of Felicity, but the dark haired girl always seemed too stuck up for his liking, so maybe he should fuck her first, bring her down a notch or two? He's got plenty of time for both. He shuffles over to the girls, grabs a fistfull of Ari's hair in one hand, Fliss's ankle in the other and tenses, ready to spring up to the moon.
"If he moves, kill him."
Cody looks back at where Blue should be lying in a spreading pool of his own blood and filth and instead finds the boy standing. Smiling. Liting a smoke. At his side stands another, a man formed of diseased waste and dead flesh, twin guns in his hands, both cocked and trained on the wolfman. Blue nods at the stranger, then gives Cody a wolfish grin of his own.
"Coyote spirit, you up for a game of cowboys and Indians?"
The stranger steps forward, guns raised, and Matus drops the girls.
"Bishop..."
Pike smiled.
"Hokahe, Coyote."
A frozen instant, the dry hiss of a rattlesnake, then two cancerous slugs, fibrous and black, erupt from Pike's guns and slam into the wolfman's shoulders. He staggers, launches himself with a howl of fury and pain, lands with his jaws on the dead cowboy's throat. Only then does he realise that he's been played. Pike and his bunch are long gone, and they won't come back in any way but an ill advised remake. The thing beneath him isn't Pike Bishop, or even William Holden. It's Blue's reanimated tumour flesh, and it's still hungry. Surging up across the coyote's muzzle, the rapidly metastasizing cancer swarms across his face, blinding and suffocating him. It pours down his throat like a milkshake two months out of date, searing his stomach and spreading through his lungs untill they teem with malignant growths, swelling and rupturing and birthing successive generations of cancer. The black mass eats him from within and without, and the moon world withdraws from him forever.
Blue smoked, and smiled and stood. He blew a smoke ring which circled the slowly departing moon, then disappeared as the first rays of the rising sun burned scorched across the desert, eight hours late but never more welcome.
Fliss groaned, pulled herself upright, then rolled Ari to the recovery position.
"What happened?"
Blue shrugged.
"I'll tell you sometime. Is that a friend of yours?"
He nodded in the direction of a dust trail heading towards them at some speed, coming from the direction of the camp. Felicity cast her mind out and sighed.
"It's Midge. Late as usual."
"At least it saves us walking back - The taxi's well fucked."
He lit a fresh smoke, then held the pack out to Fliss. She took one, lit it and took a long pull, then blew out a cloud of smoke that obscured them from Midge, Ari and the eyes of all creation. Wasting no time, she wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him in close for a long, soft kiss. The pressure of her fingers on his skin was soothing and cool, the antithesis of the fevered battle, while the feeling of her tongue in his mouth was all he ever hoped and more besides. He knew in that instant that if anyone could ever save the world, it was her, and he would be with her every step of the way.
Stepping back, still stroking his neck, she smiled, placed the smoke between her moist lips and winked at him. Blue tried to match her cool, collected manner, but he had to fight his beaming grin back every step of the way.
"I thought you were too good for me?" he asked.
"Oh don't worry, I still am."
She watched the horizon, deep in thought, looking at something only she could see.
"You'll do for now though, and one day you'll leave us all behind."
He began to protest, but then the smoke cleared, the jeep pulled up alongside them and Ari was sitting up and moaning.
"Is anyone going to tell me what happened?"
Fliss and Blue looked at each other and burst out laughing. In the jeep, Midge looked at the trio, their battered, bloody faces, their tattered clothes and the smoking ruin of the taxi and sighed.
"Why do I never get asked on these nights out?"
Notes
Sunday 30 August 2009
Thursday 20 August 2009
Prison Letter
Felicity Schnitzler was imprisoned in Holmes chapel Correctional Hospital from 2007-2009 for the manslaughter of Dr Derek Young, a Physics teacher at Arlington High School in Northampton. Presented here, for the first time, is a prison letter dated March 21st 2008 addressed to Ari Ilya. It picks up on a previous letter from Ari. Several communications were sent between Felicity and Ari dating from March 2008 until her release in early 2009
Dear Ari,
I’m starting to find this incarceration therapeutic. Therapeutic in the sense that, it is allowing me to think, to process my ideals and theories into a coherent structure, a solid structure that I can use as a weapon to bludgeon the fascistic state via the power of words rather than weapons. Maybe it’s time to go back to the genesis of the movement and move away from the armed struggle. Who knows?
Have I made mistakes? Would you tell me? I suppose now that I’m locked away, you would. But would you have told me a few years ago when the struggles and demonstrations turned to the righteous socialistic murder of the authoritarian bourgeoisie; the Hypodermic Syringe Model turned flat on its face through the flagrant use of the bullet and the bomb. Were you afraid of what I had become, what you had become? Looking back now, I believe I was thoroughly soaked, even drenched in the sweat of my ancestors’ violent struggles.
You know, I blame my Grandfather; he served with Hitler’s Wehrmacht on the Eastern front – fighting for a cause he did not believe in. He struggled with his fellow Officers over the humanitarian treatment of prisoners. He had to hide his own liberal beliefs, until one day, it got too much, and he shot his units Oberleutnant through the head and escaped into the Russian countryside. He tried objection, he even tried writing a formal complaint to the Generalleutnant. He tried to rally his platoon with speeches and late night chats around campfires about the dire consequences and failures of National Socialism. He tried the peaceable means of protest and it didn’t work for him. So, he turned to the bullet and used violence and murder to make his point. He suffered with the weighty burden of cold blooded execution until his final days. The guilt, the shame, the sorrow; it was all washed away one cold dark night. You’d think the story would end here, that time would heal the wounds and torments of our family. However, it didn’t, the guilt was simply passed onto my Mother Seren and ,through her, me.
And here we are once again, at war with the enemy, using violence to get a point of view into the open, to make a statement so bold that it has to be drenched in blood.
And what do we say of long distance lineage? We are always betrayed by our fathers.
Yours truly,
Fliss x
Dear Ari,
I’m starting to find this incarceration therapeutic. Therapeutic in the sense that, it is allowing me to think, to process my ideals and theories into a coherent structure, a solid structure that I can use as a weapon to bludgeon the fascistic state via the power of words rather than weapons. Maybe it’s time to go back to the genesis of the movement and move away from the armed struggle. Who knows?
Have I made mistakes? Would you tell me? I suppose now that I’m locked away, you would. But would you have told me a few years ago when the struggles and demonstrations turned to the righteous socialistic murder of the authoritarian bourgeoisie; the Hypodermic Syringe Model turned flat on its face through the flagrant use of the bullet and the bomb. Were you afraid of what I had become, what you had become? Looking back now, I believe I was thoroughly soaked, even drenched in the sweat of my ancestors’ violent struggles.
You know, I blame my Grandfather; he served with Hitler’s Wehrmacht on the Eastern front – fighting for a cause he did not believe in. He struggled with his fellow Officers over the humanitarian treatment of prisoners. He had to hide his own liberal beliefs, until one day, it got too much, and he shot his units Oberleutnant through the head and escaped into the Russian countryside. He tried objection, he even tried writing a formal complaint to the Generalleutnant. He tried to rally his platoon with speeches and late night chats around campfires about the dire consequences and failures of National Socialism. He tried the peaceable means of protest and it didn’t work for him. So, he turned to the bullet and used violence and murder to make his point. He suffered with the weighty burden of cold blooded execution until his final days. The guilt, the shame, the sorrow; it was all washed away one cold dark night. You’d think the story would end here, that time would heal the wounds and torments of our family. However, it didn’t, the guilt was simply passed onto my Mother Seren and ,through her, me.
And here we are once again, at war with the enemy, using violence to get a point of view into the open, to make a statement so bold that it has to be drenched in blood.
And what do we say of long distance lineage? We are always betrayed by our fathers.
Yours truly,
Fliss x
Saturday 15 August 2009
Absolute Beginners Part 2 : A Night On The Town
"The dinosaurs are dead, fuckers! We're the kings of the Earth and your momma's a wallet!"
Felicity gazed through the shattered windscreen, watched the moon edging towards the horizon and thought about how it had all gone so horribly wrong. At ten o'clock, they had all been about ready to go back to the camp; They still had their jeep, most of their money and Cody was still behaving like a rational human being. Six hours later and they were racing across the desert in a stolen taxi, penniless and wretchedly hungover, with Blue at the wheel, while Cody hung out of the back window screaming abuse at the lizards and jackrabbits which watched their passing with disinterested eyes.
"Could you maybe let us out now?" asked Arihaily. "We'd be fine walking from here, honestly."
Blue turned to look at her in the back seat, leaving Felicity to reach across, grab the wheel and steer them between a huge cactus on one side and a deep gully on the other.
"Are you crazy?" he demanded. "This same lonely desert was the last known hiding place of the Brady Bunch! You wouldn't last five minutes before little Cindy was cracking your skull like a pinata and scarfing your sweet brains down like Satan's own eggnog!"
He turned back in his seat, took the wheel once more, then smiled dreamily at Felicity.
"You have such lovely brains..."
"Just drive, moron."
In the back seat, Ari clung tightly to Cody's legs in the hope of keeping at least half of him inside the car. With every bump they hit, he jerked further out, and she seemed to be the only one worrying about it.
"Fliss? Want to give me a hand here?"
Felicity reached between the seats, prised off one of Cody's shoes and twisted his little toe until it popped. Cody screamed into the pre-dawn skies, then promptly passed out.
"That should hold him for a few minutes. When he comes round, tell him to sit still and shut up or I go through the rest, one at a time."
Ari nodded dumbly, then hauled the unconscious boy back into the taxi. Fliss turned back to Blue.
"So how well do you know the other moron?"
Blue shook his head, causing the car to swerve wildly.
"Never spoken to him in my life before today. He just seemed a bit down after the old bastard borrowed his body, thought we could cheer him up."
"Right. And the acid?"
"Share and share alike. Want some?"
"Drive."
The car crossed through bands of faint light and utter darkness, the shadows of ancient geological formations which dotted the mesa. It was strangely soothing, hypnotic, and they all grew quiet. After a while, Blue glanced at Felicity and smiled.
"You should get some rest. You look done in."
Fliss yawned.
"I'm okay. So long as I can get a couple of hours before I'm on duty again, I'll be fine."
"What are you on tomorrow?"
She frowned.
"Bodyguard detail I think. Is that right Ari?"
There was no response so she swivelled in her chair to look at her friend, then smiled and nudged Blue's shoulder. He looked in the rear view mirror and saw Ari and Cody curled up asleep in each other's arms.
"Aww, I knew they'd hit it off."
Fliss yawned again, brought her legs up onto the seat and curled up like a cat.
"How much further is it?"
Blue shrugged.
"A while yet. Go on, I'll be fine. I'll wake you when we get there."
Felicity smiled at him, touched his arm.
"You know, you're actually not that bad."
"I have my moments."
They drove on, and after a few minutes, when he heard her soft snores, Blue reached out and snapped the radio on. The dial was shattered and the light blinked on and off continuously, but somehow it worked. He twisted the tuner, cycled through half a dozen fire and brimstone all night preachers, then smiled when he came across Freebird.
"Skynyrd... Nice."
He settled back in his chair, one hand on the wheel, the other resting lightly on Felicity's shoulder, driving on into the dawn. The music swam through his mind, and the strobing shadows soothed him until he found himself yawning and blinking. His legs began to feel heavy, as if there were lead weights tied to his feet. His hands too, then his arms. He felt the car accelerate as his dead weight pressed down on the pedal, and he realised with mild surprise that he could barely even lift his arm to steer. The car was driving itself, heading at full speed into the desert, the squealing tyres still audible above the endless guitar solo. Through heavy eyes, he looked at the clock on the dashboard and wasn't all that shocked to discover that the song had been playing for a little over an hour now, and still showed no signs of ending.
With a massive effort, he managed to flex his fingers, digging them into Felicity's shoulder. He squeezed harder and harder, until he felt the bones grating together and she sat up with a yelp of pain. The spell was broken and he had control of himself once more, just in time to swing the wheel before they hit the tower of rock looming directly before them, throwing the car off the road and into a ditch. There was a stomach churning drop as the ground disappeared beneath them, and they almost rolled over entirely, then crashed back onto their wheels once more, resting against the earthen wall of the ditch, one working headlight pointing up into the sky like a searchlight. The engine died, but the radio grew louder and more distorted, the music wailing and screeching as the end of the world prophets faded back in, their voices overlapping and merging, like an argument in a madhouse.
Felicity scrambled out first, then wrenched open the back door to help Ari and Cody out on to the road. Blue dragged himself up across the passenger seat and began looking around for shelter.
"Are you crazy?" Fliss demanded. "You damn near killed us. And you almost broke my shoulder! What the hell was that about?"
He ignored her, wandering along the road, patting at his pockets for cigarettes, lighter and anything else that he could use in the imminent attack. Ari felt it next, the thickening of the air, the sensation of a great hand, pushing her to the ground. She willed herself to remain upright and began to follow Blue, pulling the still-groggy Cody along beside her.
"Fliss, we've got to go. Now!"
Felicity jumped, began following her friends along the dusty road, heading towards the dawn.
"What is it? Who's after us?"
Ari stopped, turned slightly as if to speak, then froze and choked on her words. She slumped forwards, until it was Cody supporting her, holding her in the crook of his arm as he straightened up and grinned wolfishly at Felicity.
"Hello little cihuapilli. Have you come to play as well?"
Felicity staggered back as the words hit her like a fist.
"Matus? Oh shit..."
Notes
Felicity gazed through the shattered windscreen, watched the moon edging towards the horizon and thought about how it had all gone so horribly wrong. At ten o'clock, they had all been about ready to go back to the camp; They still had their jeep, most of their money and Cody was still behaving like a rational human being. Six hours later and they were racing across the desert in a stolen taxi, penniless and wretchedly hungover, with Blue at the wheel, while Cody hung out of the back window screaming abuse at the lizards and jackrabbits which watched their passing with disinterested eyes.
"Could you maybe let us out now?" asked Arihaily. "We'd be fine walking from here, honestly."
Blue turned to look at her in the back seat, leaving Felicity to reach across, grab the wheel and steer them between a huge cactus on one side and a deep gully on the other.
"Are you crazy?" he demanded. "This same lonely desert was the last known hiding place of the Brady Bunch! You wouldn't last five minutes before little Cindy was cracking your skull like a pinata and scarfing your sweet brains down like Satan's own eggnog!"
He turned back in his seat, took the wheel once more, then smiled dreamily at Felicity.
"You have such lovely brains..."
"Just drive, moron."
In the back seat, Ari clung tightly to Cody's legs in the hope of keeping at least half of him inside the car. With every bump they hit, he jerked further out, and she seemed to be the only one worrying about it.
"Fliss? Want to give me a hand here?"
Felicity reached between the seats, prised off one of Cody's shoes and twisted his little toe until it popped. Cody screamed into the pre-dawn skies, then promptly passed out.
"That should hold him for a few minutes. When he comes round, tell him to sit still and shut up or I go through the rest, one at a time."
Ari nodded dumbly, then hauled the unconscious boy back into the taxi. Fliss turned back to Blue.
"So how well do you know the other moron?"
Blue shook his head, causing the car to swerve wildly.
"Never spoken to him in my life before today. He just seemed a bit down after the old bastard borrowed his body, thought we could cheer him up."
"Right. And the acid?"
"Share and share alike. Want some?"
"Drive."
The car crossed through bands of faint light and utter darkness, the shadows of ancient geological formations which dotted the mesa. It was strangely soothing, hypnotic, and they all grew quiet. After a while, Blue glanced at Felicity and smiled.
"You should get some rest. You look done in."
Fliss yawned.
"I'm okay. So long as I can get a couple of hours before I'm on duty again, I'll be fine."
"What are you on tomorrow?"
She frowned.
"Bodyguard detail I think. Is that right Ari?"
There was no response so she swivelled in her chair to look at her friend, then smiled and nudged Blue's shoulder. He looked in the rear view mirror and saw Ari and Cody curled up asleep in each other's arms.
"Aww, I knew they'd hit it off."
Fliss yawned again, brought her legs up onto the seat and curled up like a cat.
"How much further is it?"
Blue shrugged.
"A while yet. Go on, I'll be fine. I'll wake you when we get there."
Felicity smiled at him, touched his arm.
"You know, you're actually not that bad."
"I have my moments."
They drove on, and after a few minutes, when he heard her soft snores, Blue reached out and snapped the radio on. The dial was shattered and the light blinked on and off continuously, but somehow it worked. He twisted the tuner, cycled through half a dozen fire and brimstone all night preachers, then smiled when he came across Freebird.
"Skynyrd... Nice."
He settled back in his chair, one hand on the wheel, the other resting lightly on Felicity's shoulder, driving on into the dawn. The music swam through his mind, and the strobing shadows soothed him until he found himself yawning and blinking. His legs began to feel heavy, as if there were lead weights tied to his feet. His hands too, then his arms. He felt the car accelerate as his dead weight pressed down on the pedal, and he realised with mild surprise that he could barely even lift his arm to steer. The car was driving itself, heading at full speed into the desert, the squealing tyres still audible above the endless guitar solo. Through heavy eyes, he looked at the clock on the dashboard and wasn't all that shocked to discover that the song had been playing for a little over an hour now, and still showed no signs of ending.
With a massive effort, he managed to flex his fingers, digging them into Felicity's shoulder. He squeezed harder and harder, until he felt the bones grating together and she sat up with a yelp of pain. The spell was broken and he had control of himself once more, just in time to swing the wheel before they hit the tower of rock looming directly before them, throwing the car off the road and into a ditch. There was a stomach churning drop as the ground disappeared beneath them, and they almost rolled over entirely, then crashed back onto their wheels once more, resting against the earthen wall of the ditch, one working headlight pointing up into the sky like a searchlight. The engine died, but the radio grew louder and more distorted, the music wailing and screeching as the end of the world prophets faded back in, their voices overlapping and merging, like an argument in a madhouse.
Felicity scrambled out first, then wrenched open the back door to help Ari and Cody out on to the road. Blue dragged himself up across the passenger seat and began looking around for shelter.
"Are you crazy?" Fliss demanded. "You damn near killed us. And you almost broke my shoulder! What the hell was that about?"
He ignored her, wandering along the road, patting at his pockets for cigarettes, lighter and anything else that he could use in the imminent attack. Ari felt it next, the thickening of the air, the sensation of a great hand, pushing her to the ground. She willed herself to remain upright and began to follow Blue, pulling the still-groggy Cody along beside her.
"Fliss, we've got to go. Now!"
Felicity jumped, began following her friends along the dusty road, heading towards the dawn.
"What is it? Who's after us?"
Ari stopped, turned slightly as if to speak, then froze and choked on her words. She slumped forwards, until it was Cody supporting her, holding her in the crook of his arm as he straightened up and grinned wolfishly at Felicity.
"Hello little cihuapilli. Have you come to play as well?"
Felicity staggered back as the words hit her like a fist.
"Matus? Oh shit..."
Notes
Saturday 1 August 2009
Absolute Beginners Part 1 - Soldier Girl
"We can soar like eagles or scamper like rabbits," said Matus. "We can swim like the dolphins, be kings and queens, or even be ourselves, for eternity."
The old Nagual nodded his head slowly, his milky blue eyes half closed, as if lost in deep thought. After a moment or two, the boys sitting cross-legged before him on the dry sand began to wonder if he was meditating or merely sleeping, and whether there was really any difference between the two once you reached the great age Matus claimed to be. The midday sun was warm without being unpleasant though, and the breeze rolling in from the desert kept the air in motion, so most of the students waited silently, attentively, for the lesson to continue. Seeing his chance, Blue risked a quick glance around at his fellow novices, then slipped a chocolate bar from his shirt pocket and took a large bite. He ducked his head again and munched contentedly, until the boy sitting beside him reached over and slapped him harshly between the shoulder blades. Blue sprawled forwards, his legs twitching like a dreaming dog, a thick drool of melted chocolate bubbling from his lips. The other students scattered in surprise, scrambling around and away to watch this strange turn of events from a safer distance.
A pair of guards, teenage girls in drab olive fatigues, came running over from their post outside the camp administration building, raising their rifles and shouting warnings at Blue's attacker. The boy merely turned and smiled at them, and they faltered and lowered their weapons.
"And we must beware at all times," said the boy, his voice that of the ancient Indian, his milky eyes twinkling with mischief, "for there are many dark actors playing games here. We must never let our guard down, no matter what the temptation."
He reached down and took the half-eaten chocolate bar from Blue's pocket and broke it into three pieces, offering two to the guards and popping the third into his own mouth. The dark haired girl smiled and accepted her piece meekly, while her fairer companion pointed at the still-convulsing Blue.
"Where is he Master Matus?"
The boy grinned, looking around at his stunned, curious students.
"Our sweet-toothed Tonal is wriggling down in the dirt, churning through the soil, blind and deaf, barely more than an eating, shitting machine. You see, we can be anything we wish to be, even a humble earthworm."
The bell by the mess hall door rang suddenly, and the Nagual returned to his own body, climbed stiffly to his feet and wiped the sand from his ass. The boy he had possessed blinked uncertainly at the armed girls before him, then frowned, spat out a lump of melted chocolate and peered at it in confusion. The other students laughed and chattered amongst themselves as they rose and made their way towards the mess hall, leaving the guards, the old teacher and the dazed student standing over the prone Blue. Matus shook his head sadly.
"Five more minutes and he would have been eating lunch. This one will always have trouble with his appetite, cihuapilli."
He looked over at the fair haired soldier girl and grinned.
"You will have to watch that, I think."
Before she could object, the old Indian had turned away to see to his other student, who was beginning to piece together the last few minutes. He looked up at his teacher, frowning.
"What just happened? Was someone else in my head?"
Matus smiled and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Help me to the canteen and I'll explain everything."
They slowly shuffled away, the student supporting his master as he learned what had just transpired.
Finally, just the guards remained. Sighing, the dark haired girl grabbed Blue's shoulder and rolled him roughly onto his back.
"Why does he always leave us to clean up after him?"
Her colleague shrugged.
"He probably thinks we're learning something from it all."
She squatted beside Blue's empty husk and gripped his head firmly in both hands, her thumbs at his temples.
"Wax on, wax off and all that shit."
Blue's eyes fluttered open, and for a moment they were a dirty off-white, like the flesh of a creature which spends it's entire life far removed from the sun. Then they rolled wildly as the irises gradually reappeared, before finally settling on the girl leaning over him. Looking up at her, with the desert sun shining through her short, boyish hair like a golden halo, he felt an uncontrollable urge to smile.
"You're lovely," he said thickly, pushing up onto his elbows. "Are you an angel?"
The girl stepped away, shaking her head.
"Not another one..."
The dark haired girl laughed.
"You love it when this happens. You play on it. You'll have him trotting after you for a week at least, until you get bored with it."
The blonde girl pulled a pack of cigarettes from her shirt pocket, lit one and tossed the pack down to Blue.
"Okay, here's the deal," she announced, blowing a sigil-cloud of smoke to imbue her words with power over him. "I will allow you and one of your friends to take me and my friend here out on the town this evening. There will be no physical contact unless I initiate it, which is so unlikely that you might as well forget about it now. You will pay for everything, which will include at least a meal, three drinks and a movie. At the end of the evening, you will bring us back here to the camp and say goodnight like gentlemen. The only thing you will take away with you is that fag packet, which you will treasure as a souvenir of our time together. You will often wonder what might have been, especially when I begin my meteoric rise to stardom, but you will always know that I was too good for you and you will be eternally grateful for the brief hours you spent in my company. Understood?"
"Fair enough. So what's your name then?"
"She's Christa Paffgen," said the dark haired girl, "and I'm Fata Morgana, although you couldn't care less about me."
Blue lay back on the warm Earth and blew a wreath of smoke around his head.
"Christa... That's nice."
The girls exchanged smiles and shouldered their rifles, ready to move on and leave him with the lie.
"Course, if you don't mind, I'll just call you Felicity."
He sat up again and grinned at their stunned expressions.
"Is that alright with you Ari?"
Felicity looked down at Blue, lost for words, then turned to Arihaily.
"I don't think we'll be getting rid of this one that easily."
Notes
The old Nagual nodded his head slowly, his milky blue eyes half closed, as if lost in deep thought. After a moment or two, the boys sitting cross-legged before him on the dry sand began to wonder if he was meditating or merely sleeping, and whether there was really any difference between the two once you reached the great age Matus claimed to be. The midday sun was warm without being unpleasant though, and the breeze rolling in from the desert kept the air in motion, so most of the students waited silently, attentively, for the lesson to continue. Seeing his chance, Blue risked a quick glance around at his fellow novices, then slipped a chocolate bar from his shirt pocket and took a large bite. He ducked his head again and munched contentedly, until the boy sitting beside him reached over and slapped him harshly between the shoulder blades. Blue sprawled forwards, his legs twitching like a dreaming dog, a thick drool of melted chocolate bubbling from his lips. The other students scattered in surprise, scrambling around and away to watch this strange turn of events from a safer distance.
A pair of guards, teenage girls in drab olive fatigues, came running over from their post outside the camp administration building, raising their rifles and shouting warnings at Blue's attacker. The boy merely turned and smiled at them, and they faltered and lowered their weapons.
"And we must beware at all times," said the boy, his voice that of the ancient Indian, his milky eyes twinkling with mischief, "for there are many dark actors playing games here. We must never let our guard down, no matter what the temptation."
He reached down and took the half-eaten chocolate bar from Blue's pocket and broke it into three pieces, offering two to the guards and popping the third into his own mouth. The dark haired girl smiled and accepted her piece meekly, while her fairer companion pointed at the still-convulsing Blue.
"Where is he Master Matus?"
The boy grinned, looking around at his stunned, curious students.
"Our sweet-toothed Tonal is wriggling down in the dirt, churning through the soil, blind and deaf, barely more than an eating, shitting machine. You see, we can be anything we wish to be, even a humble earthworm."
The bell by the mess hall door rang suddenly, and the Nagual returned to his own body, climbed stiffly to his feet and wiped the sand from his ass. The boy he had possessed blinked uncertainly at the armed girls before him, then frowned, spat out a lump of melted chocolate and peered at it in confusion. The other students laughed and chattered amongst themselves as they rose and made their way towards the mess hall, leaving the guards, the old teacher and the dazed student standing over the prone Blue. Matus shook his head sadly.
"Five more minutes and he would have been eating lunch. This one will always have trouble with his appetite, cihuapilli."
He looked over at the fair haired soldier girl and grinned.
"You will have to watch that, I think."
Before she could object, the old Indian had turned away to see to his other student, who was beginning to piece together the last few minutes. He looked up at his teacher, frowning.
"What just happened? Was someone else in my head?"
Matus smiled and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Help me to the canteen and I'll explain everything."
They slowly shuffled away, the student supporting his master as he learned what had just transpired.
Finally, just the guards remained. Sighing, the dark haired girl grabbed Blue's shoulder and rolled him roughly onto his back.
"Why does he always leave us to clean up after him?"
Her colleague shrugged.
"He probably thinks we're learning something from it all."
She squatted beside Blue's empty husk and gripped his head firmly in both hands, her thumbs at his temples.
"Wax on, wax off and all that shit."
Blue's eyes fluttered open, and for a moment they were a dirty off-white, like the flesh of a creature which spends it's entire life far removed from the sun. Then they rolled wildly as the irises gradually reappeared, before finally settling on the girl leaning over him. Looking up at her, with the desert sun shining through her short, boyish hair like a golden halo, he felt an uncontrollable urge to smile.
"You're lovely," he said thickly, pushing up onto his elbows. "Are you an angel?"
The girl stepped away, shaking her head.
"Not another one..."
The dark haired girl laughed.
"You love it when this happens. You play on it. You'll have him trotting after you for a week at least, until you get bored with it."
The blonde girl pulled a pack of cigarettes from her shirt pocket, lit one and tossed the pack down to Blue.
"Okay, here's the deal," she announced, blowing a sigil-cloud of smoke to imbue her words with power over him. "I will allow you and one of your friends to take me and my friend here out on the town this evening. There will be no physical contact unless I initiate it, which is so unlikely that you might as well forget about it now. You will pay for everything, which will include at least a meal, three drinks and a movie. At the end of the evening, you will bring us back here to the camp and say goodnight like gentlemen. The only thing you will take away with you is that fag packet, which you will treasure as a souvenir of our time together. You will often wonder what might have been, especially when I begin my meteoric rise to stardom, but you will always know that I was too good for you and you will be eternally grateful for the brief hours you spent in my company. Understood?"
"Fair enough. So what's your name then?"
"She's Christa Paffgen," said the dark haired girl, "and I'm Fata Morgana, although you couldn't care less about me."
Blue lay back on the warm Earth and blew a wreath of smoke around his head.
"Christa... That's nice."
The girls exchanged smiles and shouldered their rifles, ready to move on and leave him with the lie.
"Course, if you don't mind, I'll just call you Felicity."
He sat up again and grinned at their stunned expressions.
"Is that alright with you Ari?"
Felicity looked down at Blue, lost for words, then turned to Arihaily.
"I don't think we'll be getting rid of this one that easily."
Notes
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