by JD Jones
Chapter Twelve
No answers came to them immediately. John was the first to admit it. Emil agreed that he was not much help because he was not trying to find justice when he was killed. His concentration had been on staying alive part of the time and on fighting off the debilitating pain the rest of the time. By the time he had accepted the inevitable end he faced, it was too late to collect information on the man who had already disappeared. Being alone on a deserted road, bleeding profusely and drifting in and out of consciousness, Emil could only remember that the car must have needed a tune up because it ran really rough and smelled like bad eggs or something similar.
Kathy shifted around the site a few more minutes and finally gave in too. She sighed heavily as though accepting defeat. Her head was down and she was still obviously considering her options or the scene itself. John smiled as he watched her continue hanging on. She was like a bulldog with a bone. Once she grabbed hold of something, she would not let go. She might leave this scene with no answers but John knew that was not the end of things. Kathy would not accept defeat. He had learned that much about her. Quiet mostly. Forgiving always. But terminally persistent. She would never let up.
While Kathy dealt with her growing frustration and need to decide their next move, John looked toward the horizon for real. Now, the darkness he saw pooling on the horizon had a direction in his mind and in his eyes. It was like the darkness he had seen in his mind's eye was manifesting itself for him to see in the natural. It was close. A mile or two at the most. East. Deeper into the Warehouse District as it had been labeled on the map.
The darkness had become a dark cloud mounting higher toward the sky and filling the mid point on the horizon from his vantage point. Lightning flashes behind the clouds and streaks of electrical bolts met his eyes as he looked toward the disturbance. Thunder rumbled in his ears. A storm was happening not too far away.
“You see that?” John pointed toward the approaching storm. “We're going to get wet in a few minutes.”
“Huh?” Kathy acknowledged he had said something, just not that she had heard him.
“Storm coming.” John pointed again.
Kathy's eyes followed the direction of his finger and looked back and forth across the horizon. John held his finger and arm extended because it looked like she was having trouble focusing.
“Where?” she asked.
“Right there.” John was incredulous. “That big dark cloud, duh.” He teased her.
“What cloud?” She was serious.
“You can't see that huge, black cloud filling up the sky and half the horizon?”
“All I see is clear sky and a few birds flying by.” Kathy declared.
“What do you see, John?” Marcie entered the conversation and spoke in their minds.
“A huge, dark cloud rising up into the air really high. There's lots of lightning and I can hear thunder, too.”
“And you see this with your natural eyes, not just in your mind?” She pushed for more information.
“Yeah, my natural eyes.”
“Then it is a battle of the Darkness. A dark cloud signifies the Dark is operating and you have seen that coming for a while. The lightning and the thunder signify that a great battle is going on. Not just something evil happening, but an actual fight between two or more powerful members of the Dark.” Marcie explained a little about what she knew of his vision in the natural.
“Then it is real?” John asked.
“Real and part of more than one plane apparently.” Marcie added. “The fact you saw it coming in your mind for a while and now can see it in the actual plane where you exist means the battle is real and taking place in the human plane and the location will be right under that dark cloud you can see.”
“What should we do?” John was curious about how he was supposed to respond to this new development in his relationship with the spiritual realms.
“The choice is always yours,” Marcie made her words slow and clear. “Not everyone can see such things, so being able to see them makes you somewhat responsible to the things you see. But only you can decide what needs to be done about what you see. Maybe it's a warning to run. Maybe it's a warning to go help. Maybe it's something you see and will help someone else understand later, like you can see the place where Emil died. It could be that you see what is there and can do something about it or with it, but maybe not always. Again, only you can decide what and when and if, something can, should or will be done. You'll learn about dealing with the clouds as you experience them more and more.”
“You're just so clear and concise about all this.” John joked, trying to lighten the situation a little.
“Concise is exactly what one can not be with such things. Only the Creator of Life knows all things. The rest of us are left to figure it out as we go.”
“I think we should go take a look,” Kathy offered. “That way, when you see what's happening, you can make a better decision about what to do next. Can't see anything from here. How can you make a decision based on what you don't understand yet. See it. Understand it. Decide.”
She sounded so sure of herself that John was convinced, too. Her words went right along with Kathy's desire for him to delve deeper into the world of the Mist and learn more about the spiritual secrets of the planes like she was doing. She wanted them to progress together and she looked for every opportunity to suggest ways for them to do that.
“I was thinking that maybe I should investigate the cloud and see what it really means.” John lied. He was going along with what Kathy suggested. Everyone knew that what he had really been thinking was more along the lines of getting the hell out of there. But no one said anything.
Minutes later, John pulled the Jeep over to the side of the asphalt against one of the buildings underneath the darkest part of the cloud he could see. It was so clear in his eyes that he could not understand how Kathy could not see it. And if it was spiritual, how come Emil and Marcie could not see it? Anyway, he was here. He could at least take a look. Maybe it would give him some perspective on future sightings of the dark cloud. He didn't know. He put aside his misgivings at the gift he seemed to have been given, if that was what it was.
The lightning seemed to be centered over one building. He headed that way with Kathy close behind, following his lead. He was the adventurer and she was his adventure mate. Two intrepid explorers,maneuvering between the piles of debris and searching for the source of John's mysterious storm. Kathy enjoyed following John. He took the lead so infrequently, except when he felt he was expected to lead. She liked knowing he was in front, taking her forward and on to whatever lay ahead. She would follow him anywhere. Even to the end of the earth, she smiled to herself.
“Girl, you got it bad,” Marcie whispered in Kathy's ear so only Kathy could hear her. Their own private conversation.
“You have no idea,” Kathy giggled to herself and Marcie, privately. “Before I met John, I had this belief that all men were idiots with some kind of brain damage that made them get more stupid as they got older.”
Marcie laughed in Kathy's head.
“Not John, though?” Marcie asked.
“Not John. His pureness reached right through every defense I ever had and shook me awake. It was like he reached right inside me and turned something on. Something that was turned off and was not supposed to be. He fixed whatever wasn't working and I had to find out more about the guy who could do that for me.”
“Yeah, girl, I know what he turned on for you.” Marcie giggled in her school girl way.
“Well, yeah...that, too.” Kathy admitted. “But that was part of what was turned off. My defense systems included that and everything else that left me open to a real relationship. I can't explain it. John just walked up, smiled his stupidest grin and took my heart prisoner forever.”
“Wow!” Marcie exclaimed. “I've had some good relationships, but never anything like that. I've never even read about stuff like that.”
“That's because you were ki
lled too young to get your hands on those kinds of books,” Kathy reminded Marcie of her young age when she entered the Mist.
“Still, Love is what we are all about. Someday you'll be a fantastic addition to our cache of love in here.” Marcie made her pitch for Kathy choosing the Mist when it came her time to die in the natural.
“Sounds like my kind of place,” Kathy laughed and followed her husband into the building.
“I hear something,” John said as soon as they were a few feet inside the building. He could still see the cloud even though he had gone inside. Obviously it was not a natural cloud. They tended to stay outside in the natural world.
“Go slow. Be careful.” Marcie advised. “It is never wise to make the Dark mad. Although they can not hurt us of the Mist, you two are human and the human plane can be a bad place if the whatever it is from the Dark so chooses.
“I hear you.” John was running on adrenaline again. It had been a while since the last time he had felt this rush of energy flooding through him. This time it was giving him faith that he could keep moving instead of a feeling of immobility.
Kathy stayed close behind her husband. They rounded a corner of a high wall and stepped out into a large room that was probably some kind of work shop or construction facility in its glory days. John saw him first.
He looked nine feet tall. His chest and arms were covered in blood and the lower part of his face was smeared with the sticky substance though not covered. He was intent on eating the lump of flesh he had in his hands. They were huge hands, too. At least a foot across, each. Large even in proportion to his huge body. He was clothed, though the clothing was torn and hanging from his body in places. He did not look up at their intrusion, but only concentrated on the meal of raw, bloody flesh he was consuming. His black, unruly hair gave him a wild look in case one missed the gleam of the crazed victor in his eye. John took it all in and started moving back the way they had come, bumping into Kathy as she stood riveted to her spot on the floor.
The giant was amazing in her eyes. A huge specimen that was a man in essence but more than a man. A god. A present from the gods. He was a perfect man. Muscles and brawn and everything that made a real man tough and strong looking. This large man could hold a woman in a way that made her understand that she was his and no one was going to hurt her. Protection was not an issue and he was a man who oozed the confidence in his presence that made a woman want to be beside him. She barely noticed John bumping into her and passing by her in his retreat to get back behind the wall they had just stepped out from.
“Go, Little man.” Gol spoke out loud for John's benefit. “Hide your puny self from the power and strength of Gol.” He challenged the man. “I will have mercy on you for the gift of the strong woman that you brought me.”
Kathy stood still. Her legs would not move. Her brain told her to go. Her heart told her to explore this giant of a man. See what he had to offer. There was a certain something about him that held her attention and invited her to discover what he was all about. She could sense that he meant her no harm and was even desiring her to stay with him. He wanted her. It was intoxicating to be wanted by such a man. Still, her brain was waving the red flag and calling her to action. Escape.
“Move!” Kathy heard Marcie shouting in her head.
“Yes, now!” Emil added his own urging. “This is a powerful member of the Dark.”
Gol cocked his head to one side and smiled as he heard the voices of Marcie and Emil in his own head. Such was his power that all spiritual things were visible to him. It intrigued him to discover that his guests were not ordinary humans. He gave the woman another appraising glance. Then he saw it. She glowed, actually glowed. She was not merely human. She was also of the plane of Mist. He saw it in her glow. She was more than just a human woman sent to him by chance. She was the answer to his desire to procreate in this plane. Only a spiritual woman of such power as this one could birth a child of his. Gol was at once intrigued and captured by her presence. He turned on the charm of his presence like he had not done in many years.
Kathy felt the pull of Gol's presence. It was like a magnet pulling on her heart. Everything in her brain screamed, Run! But her heart gently called to her to give in to Gol's desire for her. The battle in her head was creating an adrenaline rush throughout the rest of her body. She could feel the shaking and quivering in her extremities, meaning the chemical reaction was burning through her.
Then John was at her side, pulling her backward. Her arms flailed at him to stop him from drawing her away from the object of her heart's desire. He fought her motions and pulled her to himself tightly.
“What's wrong?” She heard John ask.
“Nothing,” She spoke in her head.
The giant's charm was a spiritual thing and as such, it resounded in her head drawing her into the spiritual world more fully and more deeply than she had even gone with Emil. It felt safe and warm but it was not the same place where she had gone with Emil. There was no sound and no other people. It took her a moment to understand that she was being drawn inside Gol, himself. He was that powerful that he had his own place to go inside. She was impressed that someone so powerful wanted her to join him inside. Her heart was begging her to go. Her brain was fighting her heart with all it had.
“Snap out of it!” John shouted at Kathy while dragging her away.
Kathy went limp in John's arms and he felt her slip out of his grasp and slide down his legs to the floor. He tried to lift her but she was so much dead weight. And his eyes were also trying to keep the giant in sight. Gol had not moved. He just stood there with that silly grin he had affected.
“Kathy! Kathy!” John shouted.
He could not move her. She was either intentionally slipping out of his grasp and lying on the floor unmoving each time he grabbed her or she was so deep inside the spiritual place Gol had called her that she didn't respond to her body's stimuli any more. He would not leave her behind. He had fought overwhelming odds for her once. He would fight again.
He stood over her and faced the giant. He put her behind himself and stood between the giant and Kathy. Only death itself could stop him in this task of protecting the one he loved.
“Marcie! Emil!” John shouted in his head. “Any help would be appreciated.”
“We are limited to the power we have and the plane in which we live.” Marcie reminded him.
“We are ordinary entities, John.” Emil added. “We are no match for this Gol. None of us.”
“Together,” John pleaded. “The three of us against him, protecting Kathy.”
Suddenly John felt a powerful wave of concussion resounding through his head. It cleared his mind like erasing a blackboard in school and he had to shake his head physically to regain his thought process. By the time the cobwebs had cleared and he could think his own thoughts again, he looked down to discover Kathy was gone.
Marcie and Emil were gone, too.
He turned his head quickly to see Gol standing across the room with Kathy in his arms. She had her legs wrapped around his waist and was gyrating erotically on his hips as he held her aloft. She was not looking at John any more. Her eyes were fixed on Gol. He held her every attention.
“Kathy!” John exclaimed aloud and ran forward.
Gol swatted him like a small child against a large adult. John tumbled backwards against the wall, hitting his head and causing blood to erupt at one side. Again he felt the thoughts in his mind clanging around and trying to refocus. It took a few seconds. At least he thought it was a few seconds.
“Stay down, little man.” Gol warned him. “Do not make me kill you over this woman.”
But that was precisely what John intended to do. He was not giving Kathy up without a fight. And the only fight he knew was to the death. His or Gol's. One of them was not leaving here. Kathy was his wife. More than that, she was his completeness. He would not stand idly by and let anyone chop off his arm. Neither would he allow anyone to tear out his heart.
Struggling back to his feet, John got his bearings and wits about him again and moved slowly forward. His intentions were clear. He was going to bring the fight to Gol. The giant laughed.
“Surely you do not mean to fight me,” Gol was incredulous at the audacity of this puny human. “Do you not know who I am? I am Gol. No one challenges me and lives. I have slaughtered entire armies one at a time.”
“She is my wife!” John shouted to make himself more menacing. “No one takes what's mine and walks away.” He advanced another few steps as he talked.
“You are brave, little man,” Gol teased. “But bravery has gotten bigger and more skillful men than you killed before.”
“You talk too much.
John moved in for the attack. Gol side stepped John's slow, rushing movement and swatted him on the back before John even saw him move. John was catapulted forward and hit the opposite wall, falling to his knees as the double blow on his back and then against the wall had its effect.
John struggled back up without letting any time go by. He was no quitter. Kathy needed him. She was in danger. No danger would thwart him from rescuing her again. He had done it before. He would do it again.
Another mad rush and another swatting push from Gol landed John back against the wall he had started from. His head was bleeding from multiple gashes. He knew he was no match for the giant's power and skills. He was not fast enough. But he had to keep trying. Twice more he attacked and twice more the giant slammed him against the wall.
Breathing hard, John lay crumpled in a ball against the wall. He was having trouble getting his breath. He could feel something was broken in his side. Ribs, maybe. He just knew it hurt to breathe. He wanted to get up again. Every movement hurt. He was tired and he was hurt. But Kathy was still in danger. Struggling upright, he fought his way to a standing lean against the wall. He stared at the giant who still held Kathy around his waist. She was lost in the giant's grasp, in whatever spiritual hold he was exercising against her. Her hips kept grinding against his hips in an x-rated show of desire and uncontrolled lust. John was incensed at the picture the two presented before him. He was drawing up his energy for another attack when the giant spoke again.
“If you continue this foolishness, I will be forced to kill you, little man. But know this. Before I kill you, I will let you watch me as I take your woman for my very own. I will allow you to see her enjoy a real man who can satisfy her in a way only a real man can.”
“Ooooh, Baby!” Kathy cooed loudly at Gol's challenge. “Do me.” She urged the giant. “Give me your baby you real man.”
John was dumbfounded. He knew something had gripped his wife. He had supposed it was fear. Now, he knew it was something else. This giant had some kind of hold on her that drew her sexuality out in the open. This new knowledge of Gol's intention and the hold he had over Kathy shocked John. With the physical beating he had been taking and the mental pounding he just took, he was momentarily stopped in mid step. His mind fought to remember what it was he was doing. Rethink. Regroup. Rethink. He was shaking his head as the giant moved in and grabbed him away from the wall.
John lost consciousness for a minute and when he came too he was tied up. Lying on his side with some kind of wire wrapped around his body he struggled to move and discovered he was unable to even roll.
The giant stood before him with his back turned. Kathy lay naked before him with her legs spread wide in a gross sexual invitation. John thought he was going to be sick as he watched the giant move down upon his wife.
“No!” he screamed.
“We're back.” Marcie said in John's head.
“Where were you?” John asked in his head.
“That giant slammed us out of the plane,” Emil answered.
“Took us a while to get back. He is very powerful.” Marcie declared.
“What can we do?” Emil asked.
“Get to Kathy.” John explained. “He has some hold over her. Get her to come to her senses and resist him. You said the Dark can only have what it is invited to have.” John reminded Marcie.
“We'll try. You try, too.” Emil ordered.
The giant was entering Kathy. John could hear her sighing and begging for him to give her all he had.
“Kathy.” John spoke to her softly in her head. “Come back, Kathy.” He pleaded.
“Resist him,” Emil spoke. “Don't give in to his charms.”
“Stay with us, Kathy,” Marcie called out. “Don't let him have his way with you. You don't really want to have his children. You want to have John's children.”
Marcie's words cut John to his heart. His children. He and Kathy had talked about having children once. This was wrong. This giant was taking away his future. He felt a wave of helplessness wash over him. He jerked against the wire wrapped around him but could not get free.
“Kathy! Kathy!” he shouted again. “Wake up or whatever. I am here. I love you!”
Kathy heard John's words. Her brain was responding to him and trying to fight against the desire that ruled her body at the moment. She felt the giant inside her and knew his power in an intimate way. He was sharing his power with her and drawing her into his life by giving her his seed. It was an act of love and lust pulling her deeper inside him as he drove himself even deeper inside her.
“A-a-a-a-a-h!” She heard herself sigh. “Yes, give it all to me, baby.” She urged the giant onward in her lustful desire.
“No!” She shouted in her head. “Stop this! There must be a way out of this. Marcie! Emil! Help me!”
“It is a physical attack,” Marcie explained. “You must fight it off in a physical way.”
“How?” Kathy asked.
“You have got to tell him in the physical to stop. That you do not accept his seed. Or he will impregnate you any minute.” Marcie explained Kathy's options.
Kathy tried to force her physical body to respond. The hold of the giant on her physical presence was too strong. She could not break through the lust and desire of her body. Her body wanted to receive his seed. She could feel the thrusting drive of the giant inside her and knew that he was working towards impregnating her just as Marcie had said. Her body was responding with all the acceptance it could draw upon. Her ovaries were flushing and sending eggs toward the source of her desire. She had no doubt that her entire physical body was working to do exactly what her heart desired, receive the seed of the giant. Her mind had lost all control and influence over her body. She belonged to the giant, now.
“Marcie!” Kathy screamed in her head. “I don't want this.”
“In the physical world, you are wanting it very much,” Marcie pointed out. “Unless you can control your own body, you are going to be the receptacle of his seed any second.”
True to her word, the giant arched his back and drove himself so deep inside Kathy that she groaned from the depth he was pushing himself to. In her physical body she could feel the warmth of his flow entering her and filling her. Kathy panicked and struggled in her mind against the impregnation of the giant. Her body however, relaxed at his climax and accepted his seed willingly. It was all very legal in the human plane. Kathy had become the mother of Gol's seed. And because of her spiritual existence, she had the fortitude and power to control that seed and bring it to term for him. She was going to be the mother of a new race of giants in the earth.
“Yes!” Gol screamed as he stood up over Kathy and triumphed in his conquest of the woman.
He raised his arms and waved them high. Then he beat his chest and slammed his fist against his legs again and again. He had done it. Each seed the woman could bear would be a new home for his brothers. He would call them back from their place of exile. He would become the father of a new breed of human. A superior breed. He, Gol. And she would be his woman. Forever.
On the floor before him, Kathy lay quietly absorbing his seed and the experience of having lain with the giant. Her lust satisfied, her body quieted down in its sexual insistence for fulfillment. She retook co
ntrol of her physical form. Tears rolled down her cheeks. It was all ruined now. She was ruined. The blood between her legs told her that. He had hurt her and filled her with his seed. Her shame shook her heart and Kathy felt herself drawing away from the reality of what had just happened. It couldn't have been her. She had the perfect life with John. They were still at home in the camper. She should have stayed at home in the camper. Now, she had ruined it all. It was all gone.
“Kathy! Kathy!” Marcie was attempting to pull Kathy out of her pain.
“Kathy.” It was John's voice. Quiet. Searching.
She loved that voice. She loved that man. She was his woman. Not this giant's woman. Never. She struggled to sit up. The giant still swayed above her, claiming his greatness at the deed he had just perpetrated.
I am Gol. Soon to be King of this world. Ruler of the human kind. Lover of the Human women.”
“I do not want this giant's child.” Kathy maintained. “I am John's woman.”
“Not any more, woman.” Gol reminded her of the seed he had just planted inside her.
“I want out of this situation.” Kathy pleaded to no one in particular.
“Your body is in that situation,” Marcie advised. “It has accepted the seed of the giant and you are now pregnant with his child. The good news, it will be a short pregnancy. It will only take about three months. Quicker than human pregnancies, at least.”
“No,” Kathy whimpered and rolled over on her side. Marcie was right. She could feel the seed working inside her.
“John,” she called out in her mind. “John.”
She was sorry she had not been able to ward off Gol's deep calling to her body and spirit. She hated what had happened. In her mind she renounced any and all response of willingness she had given Gol.
Kathy cried. Gol laughed.
“I am here.” John answered her.
His voice was different. Defeated. She had caused that. Her inability to fight for herself had brought John to a fight he could not hope to win. He was defeated because she had placed him in a no win situation.
“Be strong, Kathy.” John told her.
“Yes, be strong, my woman.” Gol laughed. “I need you to carry many more children for me.”
“Never.” Kathy shouted out loud at the giant's taunt.
“That's not what you were saying a few minutes ago, lover.” He taunted her further.
“Never,” Kathy spoke quietly and cried to herself rolling tighter in her ball on the floor.
“I don't want to be here.” Kathy whined a few minutes later.
“Where do you want to be?” Marcie asked her.
“Back home, safe in our camper.” Kathy wished.
“Too late for that.” Marcie advised in a voice that said she was as sad about this as anyone.
“Then where can I go to escape this?” Kathy asked in her head.
“To the Mist.” Marcie answered.
“How?”
“Ask to leave your physical body and enter the Mist.” Marcie instructed her.
“That easy?”
“Go!” Gol shouted and once again that concussion of power washed through Kathy and John's head.
Marcie was gone, but her words remained. Kathy thought about it. If she died in the physical she could go to the Mist without the seed, leaving the seed to die behind her. She would have to leave John behind in the human plane. But there was no way that they could share their lives now that Gol had impregnated her. She thought about what to do.
“Don't do it Kathy.” John pleaded. “I need you.”
“I am already lost, John. My inability to fight him off has ruined it all for us. I flew too close to the flame of accepting the spiritual things in my mind and when I should have been cautious and warned off, I accepted and even invited the wrong spiritual presence into my life. It is my fault. I'm sorry, John. I ruined it all for us.”
“Please!” John shouted his plea out loud.
“It is the only way, John. And I have to do it now. Something tells me that as soon as this seed takes root in me, it will also affect how I think and regard its protection.” Kathy was reasoning things out.
“Please!” was all John could manage.
Tears filled his eyes at the thought of losing his wife. She was his completeness. He would be incomplete without her. He would be lost without her. He had already forgotten all the life he had lived before her. There was no life without her in it. She was his destiny. His entire life had been about getting to her and marrying her. She was his love. He knew he was hers. That was what made them one. Mutual love. Strong enough to find each other in this crazy world. Strong enough to hold them together.
“There has to be another way.” John wished for a miracle.
“She will always be here, in the Mist,” Emil was back.
“No!” Gol attempted to throw them away again. Nothing happened. It was like a wall blocked his power from working.
“I've made up my mind,” Kathy announced. “I want to give up this physical body and enter the Mist.” She spoke the words of acceptance.
“So be it.” Another voice entered the conversation.
“Who's that? Emil?” John was unsure. But it was male.
“No, John. I'm here but that was not me.”
“Who was it?”
“I am the Creator of Life,” the voice announced. “All life decisions are mine.”
“No!” Gol screamed and charged forward to stomp John where he lay tied up.
A powerful concussive force whisked through the room and slammed the giant back against the wall with the same force he had previously exercised against John's small frame. The only difference was that the giant was pinned there. He hit the wall and stuck to it like some force was holding him in place. No matter how he struggled to free himself, he was like a rag doll, being held against the wall with his feet dangling a few feet off the floor.
“Quiet. Gol.” The voice spoke firmly, authoritatively. “You and your brothers have made a mess here. Don't make me regret allowing you to form that Alliance.” The words carried a threat as well as the hope of some mercy.
Suddenly, the wire around John loosened. Immediately he moved to Kathy and held her tightly in his arms. She snuggled against his chest, wearied from the exertion and the mental drain of all that had transpired. Her tears flowed freely and dampened his shirt. John held her tightly and spoke lovingly in her ear.
“I'm here, Love.” John cooed softly. Kathy sniffed loudly and cried into his chest.
“I've ruined it all.” Her muffled voice floated up into the room past his chest.
“Decision time.” The voice announced in their heads.
“Decision?” John asked.
“Choice is still yours.” The voice declared. “Now, Gol can not influence it.”
“Options?” John asked.
“Living here in the human plane. Moving on to the Mist. Like always. Your choice. Or rather, hers.” The voice explained.
“Meaning?” John asked for clarification. Wishing.
“Meaning what?” the voice asked.
“Meaning, if she chooses staying here, is the seed inside her a factor?” John wanted to know.
“It is a viable seed. Gol is in human form so it is a match for her system. He is a virile specimen so the seed is active and pregnancy is assured.”
“Abortion?” John asked.
“Two things, there.” The voice began. “First. Gol's seed can not be aborted. In twenty four hours it will appear as a six month old fetus. No doctor will perform that procedure at that stage of a pregnancy. Second, aborting a spiritual child, like this one, will kill the mother.”
“Why?”
“The seed is attached to the mother at a spiritual level. They are inseparable now.”
“So, entering the Mist is the only way to escape this terrible thing that has been done to her?” John asked.
“Technically, she wanted it. So it is not a true crime. Gol manipulated the human p
syche a little but did not actually commit any deal breaking act.” The voice advised them.
“So, he gets away with impregnating me and forcing me to carry his child?” Kathy had regained her composure. Now she was mad. She clutched her clothing to her body, hiding her womanhood from Gol and whatever else was in the room.
“If you stay in this plane, bearing the child will be your burden. That is a fact.” The voice was plain and simply stating the facts as they were. No inflection as to making a choice or whether one choice was better than the other.
“If I elect to go to the Mist?” Kathy explored the option.
“You will die in this plane.” The voice answered her.
“The child?” Kathy inquired. The voice had said they were inseparable.
“The child goes with you. Gol will lose his seed and the power to create more seed, if you elect to take his strength with you into the Mist.” The voice explained it further.
“No!” Gol shouted. “You can't do that to me!”
Kathy smiled at John. It was a sad smile. He knew what she was thinking. She could not live with Gol's child in this plane. Gol would be her master as well as the child's. Who knew what evil he had planned for them? He served the Dark. She could take the child into the Mist and also rob Gol of any more children. Strike a blow for good and righteousness. But she needed something from John. She needed to know he was okay with her decision.
Tears filled John's eyes. Decision time. There really was no decision. There was only the time. Never enough of it. If they had shared a hundred years, he would have still asked for a few more seconds.
“Can we have a minute to say good bye?” John asked no one in particular.
“No!” Gol screamed again. “You can't let her take my child!”
“Enough!” The voice spoke firmly and Gol disappeared.
Only John and Kathy were left in the room. They put their heads together and cried softly, each with their own precious memories flooding their eyes. At first, John could hear her crying gentle sighs of sadness and desire beside him. Gently, almost imperceptibly, he felt her cries bleeding over into his head and then all of her was there. He was holding her body, now. Lifeless and bloody, she lay limply in his arms. In his head they were still together.
“I will always love you John Corwin,” she told the whole world.
“And I, you.” John reciprocated. “I will always love you, too.”
Read the other books in this series. Here is a sampling of Chapter One of Book Three, SAND, from the Campground series.