Part 27

I am hunched over a pool of blood.  My blood to be exact.  The walls are red, the wood supports rotting and almost black, and the steam is oppressive.  

“What the?”  Jason asks but I am unable to respond.  I touch my stomach, my hand comes away bloodless, the stitches catching on my dry skin.  Finally I roll over, scoot myself so that my back is against the wall.

“-Able to jump to any of those we have made.”  I hear Benny offering an explanation to my brother, who I can now see is hunched over, leaning against the opposite wall.

“Are you okay?” Mary asks as she kneels down beside me.

I manage a smirk, “You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

“Didn’t think so.”

“Why’d you take me to the VA?”

“Rush told us you’d been there before.”

“You saw the Russian?”

“He’s watching your things.”

“Shi-,”  A fit of coughing cuts the rest of the word off.

“Is he okay?”  Jason asks, standing over us.

“Yeah,” I say, holding out my hand.  He takes it and I gingerly stand up.  “What happened?”

“Cyrus stabbed you,”  Mary says, “And we ended up back with the Russian near your-“  She pauses, 

“Room?”  She says in a questioning tone.  “He said you had served and the best bet would be to go to the VA.  Luckily, Benny has a sigil near the hospital.”

“Ok, thanks, next time, just let me bleed.”  I say.

“And you’d probably be dead,”  Jason argues.

“And you would not be here in the Devil’s Rib Cage with us.”  I take three steps away from the wall, testing myself. 

“The Devil’s Rib Cage?”  He asks.  “Can any of you tell me what is going on?”  Jason looks to each of us in turn.  

I shake my head.  “What happened back at the hospital?”  I ask, staring at Benny.

“The witch showed up,”  Freak Beans shudders, “That snake was crawling on her shoulders.”  He shudders again.

“What did she want this time?”  Mary asks.

“Um,”  Benny says.

“She didn’t say or you didn’t ask?”  Mary again.

“Uh, both.”

“Can we get my stuff?”  I take a deep breath and walk over to Benny without faltering.  “Now.”  I grab hold of his injured arm stiffly, locking his eyes with mine, and hope that he did not notice my legs begin to buckle when I stopped moving.

“I told you, your stuff is safe with the Russian.”  Mary says in protest.

“I know, that’s why we need to get it.”  I tell her.

“But-“ Jason protests.

“Mary, fill him in if you want.  Benny’s taking me to get my things.  Aren’t you?”  I grip his arm tighter.

He winces and nods.  A few seconds later and we are standing before the Russian, who sits behind a small fire contained within a coffee can.  He reaches a gloved hand into the can and pulls out an open container of beans as we approach.  “Thanks,  I hope you don’t mind,” he says, nodding to the food.  

I glare at Benny, who smiles sheepishly, then turn my attention to the corner where my pack is.  I hobble over to it, the quick shifts having done nothing to help my equilibrium.  I sink to the floor, crossing my legs, indian-style, and dig through the bag.  My Sphere is on top, and I shove it into my coat pocket, my hand brushing the Wheel of Time.  “Change my ass,”  I say under my breath.

“What?”  Rush asks.

“Everything’s here, kind of,”  I say glaring at the can of food Rush is eating.  Using a stack of boxes, I rise to my feet, bend over and grab the pack, slinging it over my shoulder.  “Come on Benny, time to get back to my brother.”

“Jason is involved now?”  Rush asks as he rises.

I nod.  “Yeah, and we’ve left him in the Devil’s Rib Cage.  We need to get back.” 

“Yes, I see.  Luck be with you my friend.”

“Thanks,” I say as I grab ahold of Benny again, “Shall we?”

And Jason is seated against the wall, Mary beside him, and they are laughing about something.

“What’s so funny?”  I manage.

“You don’t look so hot,”  Jason says as he stands and comes over to me.

“I’ll be fine.  Here,”  I reach in to my pocket and pull out the tarot card.  Hand it to him, watch as he inspects it before pulling out the rest of the deck.  He slides the card in, shuffles the deck and cuts it.  Shows me the top card.  “The moon.”

“Really?”  He asks, looking at the card himself.  “Of all the cards…”

“What’s it mean?”  Mary asks.

“Have you ever done drugs?”  Jason replies.

“You mean like pot?  Once.”

“No.  Acid.  We’re in for a bad trip.”  

“Like melt your face bad or the sofa cushions are chasing me through the house bad?”  Benny chimes in, looking a little worried.

“Like there is something coming bad,”  I say as I catch a shape in the distant steam cloud.   Jason and Mary are on either side of me, and I have to push them off.  “Let go of me,”  I snap.

Benny takes the lead, with Mary close behind him and me third.  Jason is close behind me, close enough that I can feel his breath on my neck.  

Deeper into the tunnels we go, the glowing red walls shifting to crimson then to brown and finally to green.  With each shift in color, the wooden beams seem to become even more rotten until finally, with the green lit walls, the buttresses are gone.  At some point the ground has changed as well and with each running step I take, something crunches underfoot, but I am still to busy looking over my shoulder to investigate.

“Uh guys?”  Benny says as I stumble into the back of Mary who has stopped short.  I recover and step to her side.  An expanse of water is before us, small waves lapping at Benny’s feat.  He looks down and steps back, out of the water.

I reach into my coat and pull out my sphere, lighting the room around me with a soft white light.  We are in a large chamber, the only wall I can see being the one behind us, the only opening in it the tunnel Jason is still staring down.

I kneel down, trying to figure out what we have been running over, and it isn’t until I remember the Lampman’s riddle that it occurs to me.  I hold the small pebbles up to my sphere and watch as the light shines through the small glass pebbles.  “We’ve made it to the Shores of Glass.”

“Yeah,”  Jason says, pulling his knife from inside his jacket, “But so has whatever was chasing us.  Be ready,”  He says as a large flailing shape bursts from the opening, foaming at the mouth.