Mana Dissociation

by Christopher George

  CHAPTER NINE

  I wasn’t sure how long we had driven for. I’d spent most of it trying to ignore the pounding headache that was building in the front of my skull. I wasn’t sure if it was the adrenaline from the attack in the carpark or the fact that I’d been strangled, but it had been building steadily since I’d gotten into the car. I briefly looked out the window from time to time and wasn’t surprised to see that the landscape outside had turned into country vistas with small cottages. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really spend much time looking as it was much less painful to keep my eyes closed.

  I suspected that Aiden thought I was sleeping which was good. I didn’t particularly want to talk to him again until I had some idea of what I was going to say. He was acting like an unhinged maniac and I had no idea what would set him off or make him turn on me. I took several hesitant glances at him, but he was still curled up over the steering wheel with his eyes firmly in the rear vision mirror.

  We must have travelled all the through night as, when I next opened my eyes, it looked like it was daybreak. I groaned as I stretched and looked over at Aiden. He was still perched over the wheel with the same damned expression on his face. At first, I had thought that the expression had been anger, but now that I could see it more clearly the expression was clearly fear. What had these people done to him to make him fear them so? Why was he willing to go as far as he had to elude them?

  My headache had lessened a little, but I gazed in amazement at my arms. The mana, if that’s what it was called, was going crazy. It buzzed along my arm and back to my torso at a frantic pace and seemed to be getting worse. Although my headache had lessened, there was a ringing in the back of my head that seemed to reverberate through my skull. I found my leg bouncing on the floor nervously. I hadn’t even realized that I was doing it.

  “You need to calm yourself down,” Aiden commented as he noticed me.

  That was easier said than done. I’d only been kidnapped by a maniac who was killing people and being taken out into the country against my will. What did I have to be calm about? I didn’t answer him.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked.

  The moment he asked, I was surprised to find that I was hungry. For the first time in a couple of days, I actually felt that I could eat something. The only problem with that was that there didn’t appear to be anything to eat.

  “Yeah, do we have any food?”

  “No,” Aiden replied, “but we’ll make a stop.”

  I was wondering where he was planning to stop when I saw a sign for a fuel stop coming up ahead. Maybe there’d be a café or somewhere that we could buy food. I lost hope when we actually got there. It was nothing more than a petrol station.

  “Stay here,” Aiden commanded as he pulled the car over, “I won’t be long.”

  He disappeared into the shop for about four minutes. From where he’d parked the car, I couldn’t see into the store, but I heard shouting followed by a large smashing noise. Aiden emerged several minutes later and gently passed a small container over to me.

  “Cup a noodle?” I questioned, “for breakfast?”

  “They didn’t have much,” he explained.

  “What were the noises in there?” I asked hesitantly. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know the answer. I’d been stupidly hoping that perhaps they’d been doing some renovation or something to the store which would explain the noise.

  “I didn’t have any money.” Aiden muttered, as if this explained everything. The aroma of the cup before me, which had seemed appealing only seconds before, suddenly turned sour. This wasn’t saying much as cup of noodle isn’t normally too appealing to being with.

  “Did you kill him?”

  “Don’t know,” Aiden replied, “It’s not important. Put on your seat belt.”

  Aiden once again tore out of the carpark at high speed. I was beginning to wonder if he even knew how to drive properly when we pulled back onto the highway at full speed. I didn’t look back at the café. I hoped like all hell that those inside were okay, but I had a nagging feeling that we’d just driven away from a corpse. I was in serious shit. Aiden was every bit as dangerous as May had claimed. It was one thing to kill in a fight. This was a whole other thing.

  “Where are we going?” I asked hesitantly.

  “Don’t know,” Aiden replied grimly, “North. I think.”

  That wasn’t very helpful. The drive north was a silent affair. I had no interest in talking with him and he for his part seemed to be only determined enough to be as far away as possible. He had begun to mutter things under this breath and I couldn’t tell if they were supposed to be for me or if he was simply talking to himself.

  “Can’t teleport me if we’re moving,” was pretty much the only thing that I could make out and that was only because he seemed to be repeating it to himself as a mantra. I eventually just ignored him and tried to sleep – tried being the operative word here.

  I eventually determined that Aiden was right and that we were heading North. It looked almost like he was trying to make it into Scotland. I briefly wondered what would happen when we ran out of road. We were on an island after all.

  We crossed the border about four hours later. I had hoped for border guards and dogs and fences, but the crossing was pretty nondescript – it was simply a sign that said ‘Welcome to Scotland’. So much for security. I hadn’t expected Aiden to relax after we’d crossed the border and therefore wasn’t surprised. If anything, he seemed to be getting more frantic and the muttering to himself increased. I didn’t take this as a good sign.

  I’d just about fallen asleep when I heard him curse. I shot up from my resting position to see that there was a truck over the road and a familiar figure was standing in front of it – May. The whole scene had a funny feeling to it. It was like I was looking at it through fogged glass. It was almost like there was static in the air surrounding her. I glanced around not recognizing where we were. We weren’t on the main highway anymore. Damnit. I should have been paying more attention.

  Aiden slammed on the brakes with a snarl, almost causing the car to slide into a spin and hissed at me, “Get out.”

  I must have taken too long as he snapped, “Now! Get out of the car now!”

  I flashed a look back at him and was tempted to just say no, but thought better of it. It wouldn’t be a good idea to agitate him. I meekly unlocked the door and stepped outside. He immediately leapt out of the car from his side, slid over the bonnet and pulled me into a tight embrace from behind, his hand around my throat.

  “I told you not to follow us!” he hissed as we walked forward.

  May didn’t seem to respond at first. She simply raised her hand as if to try to calm him down and show that she didn’t have any weapons.

  “We just want to talk,” She called, “We can’t have you going on a rampage through the U.K.”

  “Then. Leave. Me. Alone!” he howled. I cringed a little as he’d been yelling straight into my ear.

  “Ms Wright,” a voice whispered unexpectedly. I shuddered in shock and glanced around. The voice had sounded like it had come from someone standing right next to me.

  “Are you okay?” the voice continued. I couldn’t place the voice, but sounded and awful lot like it was May. That was impossible, of course. She seemed to be engaged in a pointless argument with Aiden.

  “Nod your head if he’s hurting you. Don’t say anything. He doesn’t know we’re talking.”

  I quickly shook my head. Other than scaring the life out of me, he hadn’t resorted to violence against me yet.

  “Okay, that’s good,” the voice soothed, “But that’s not the worst of your problems.”

  I sighed deeply, tell me something I didn’t know.

  “You NEED to get away from him,” the voice urged, “Proximity to mana will prolong your sickness. It could lead to death. The longer you stay with him the more at risk you are. This is serious. You need to go.”

  Aiden was yelling something back, but I
couldn’t make it out, it was almost like the voice in my head had deafened me to all other noises. I took this as a good thing, until Aiden tightened his grip around my throat. For a second, the urge to elbow him in the stomach and run for it now was overpowering.

  The voice in my head must have anticipated this as it immediately warned, “No. Not now – he doesn’t have control of his powers. If you attack him now, he will probably respond with lethal force. Wait. Wait until he’s not expecting it. Wait until he thinks he’s won. We cannot teleport you whilst you’re in your condition, but we will be watching. When you make your move, we will be there.”

  I blinked several times as the flow of instructions stopped and looked around. I wasn’t sure if what I was being told and to be perfectly honest completely understand much of it. The only thing that I did understand was that the longer I stayed with Aiden the more danger I was in. Duh, tell me something I didn’t know.

  * * * * * *

  Other than to talk to me, I had little idea what the whole point that blockade had been. May didn't attempt to stop Aiden from leaving or appear to threaten him in any way. I was beginning to think that there were things here that I wasn’t being told. No check that, I was sure of that. Story of my life right now. I felt as a child surrounded by adults.

  "Don't follow us," Aiden snarled as he pulled me roughly back towards the car. May simply watched us as Aiden pushed me into the passenger seat and entered the driver’s side, slamming the door behind him. Again May did nothing.

  "Stop doing that!" I snapped immediately as he pulled away. I almost thought that I was going to strike him. I was so angry.

  "I need them to think that I'll hurt you if they keep coming after us," he explained, "I won't, but I want them to think that."

  "I know," I snapped, finally letting my anger get a hold of me, "I know all this! What I'm saying is stop it! I don't like it, and I want you to stop."

  What I really wanted was to be away from the whole situation, but, seeing as how I didn't think that was going to happen anytime soon, I'd have to settle for this. It felt good to finally explode and vent my feelings. I’d been on egg shells between the sickness and random killing since the carpark. It felt good to let loose regardless of the consequences.

  Aiden looked like I'd just struck him. He was trying to apologize and defend himself all at once.

  "You don't know what they're like!" He stammered, "I'd rather die than go back."

  He was almost shaking in his chair. So he had a death wish? That was all very well and good, but did he have to take me with him?

  "Okay, okay, okay, it's alright" I murmured, doing my best to soothe him. What the hell had I done to deserve this? How the hell do you console a homicidal maniac with magical powers? I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure of what I had seen in the carpark, but I was leaning more towards fantasy than science. Sure, it could have been a device of some kind that caused that light ribbon, but I doubted it.

  "I think we can make it back onto the highway," he grunted, "I thought it would be safer on the side roads. Clearly, I was wrong."

  "Okay," I murmured noncommittally, “…and what’s the plan then?"

  "I don't know," he said, "I haven't planned that far away."

  "So we keep driving forever?" I sneered, "Are you telling me that's the plan?"

  "No, okay," I could see his mind working, "We need to find somewhere remote. I can teach you to defend yourself. That way you'll be safe.”

  He seemed to latch on this idea as if it were a life preserver to a drowning man.

  I'll be safe? Holy crap, I'd feel one hell of a lot safer if I could simply get away from all this. I wasn’t sure who was telling me the truth. May or Aiden. I wanted nothing to do with any of this. I simply wanted to go home. But no one seemed to care about my wishes.

  We drove for about another half hour before he pulled off the road again, "We need to find a hotel or something. Somewhere where we can hole up."

  I had no interest in running off to a hotel room with him, but I couldn't immediately think of any way out of it, besides once he fell asleep I would be able to escape.

  "Give me your phone." He ordered briskly. It was funny how quickly we got back onto ordering me about.

  "I don't have one," I said, "I left it at the hotel room. I wasn't exactly expecting a road trip. There's a lot of things I didn't bring with me that I'll need. We can’t keep driving forever. You need to sleep. I need to sleep."

  “We can’t stop.” Aiden murmured. I almost felt sorry for him. “They’ll find us.”

  “Aiden. We need to stop. I can’t keep going like this.” I murmured simply. I hadn’t expected my words to have any effect.

  "Alright! Fine!" He snarled as he pulled the car back onto the road. I had no idea what his plan was, but he turned at the next off ramp heading towards the first town he found. On the way in, we found several hotels that would suit his needs.

  "Do you have a credit card?" That question had almost sounded like a question, rather than an order.

  "Yeah, why?" In hindsight, it was a stupid question. I wasn't going to tell him that the use of my credit card would allow us to be tracked. He must have already known that.

  "Please?" He murmured, "May I have it?"

  "No," I sighed, "but I'll check in."

  I’d expected him to flare up again, but to my surprise he simply shrugged and gestured towards the check in desk.

  The lady behind the hotel counter was a small elderly woman. I understood about a tenth of what she said. I'd always heard jokes about the Scottish accent, but I'd never believed that it was this bad. When she had initially greeted me, I had mistaken her for clearing her throat. Through mostly mime, we managed to procure a room, pay for it and found our way to the room.

  The room wasn’t much, certainly nothing like the room that work had paid for back in London, but it would do. The only problem with it was that there was a double bed in the center of the room and there was no way I was going to share it with Aiden. I’d sleep on the floor before that happened.

  “You may as well get some sleep,” Aiden grunted as he gestured to the bed, “I won’t be using it.”

  Thank god for the little mercies. I threw myself onto the bed and pulled the pillow over my head. I wasn’t sure if it was the stress or something else, but my headache was threatening to pop my head off.

  “Jess?” Aiden murmured as he set himself up on the chair facing towards the window.

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m not a bad person. I just can’t go back. I want you to know that.”

  I didn’t answer.

  CHAPTER TEN

  I’m not sure how long I slept. It could have been six or seven hours or it may have only been a few. When I awoke, Aiden was slumped over his chair sleeping. This was my chance. I could get away from all this! All I needed to do was to very quietly get out of the bed, slip over to the door, unlatch the chain and then be gone. Hopefully, Aiden wasn’t a light sleeper and I could get away without anyone being none the wiser.

  My sleep hadn’t done much to make me feel much better. My mouth felt dry and my head was pounding. In fact, l felt generally crap overall.

  The lights on my body didn’t seem be slowing down. In fact, if anything, it still seemed that they were getting worse. May had called it mana sickness, but knowing what it was didn’t help me very much.

  The mana lights looked like they were vibrating as they passed across my flesh. I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing, but I really doubted it.

  If May was correct and I had no reason to doubt anything that she had told me, then the longer I stayed with Aiden the more at risk I was. I very slowly pulled the covers from over me and slid myself out the bed. I was a little shaky on my feet, but, as crappy as I was feeling, I’d expected that. I hadn’t pulled the covers over me last night. Aiden must have done that while I was sleeping. I shivered slightly, glad that I was still wearing my clothes and he hadn’t undressed me whilst I slept. He
had taken my shoes off, but I suppose that was okay.

  I very carefully slipped my feet into my shoes and realized immediately how inappropriate they were for running away. What misogynistic asshole had designed heels anyway? As much as I loved these shoes, and I did - they weren’t going to get me very far.

  I’d original worn them thinking that the maximum amount of walking I was going to be doing was around a training room. Perhaps I should leave them here? No, I couldn’t do that. They were my favorite shoes after all.

  Once I had my shoes on, I was ready to try for the door. This would be the critical part of the operation. If I made it to the door undetected, then there was a chance that I was as good as gone.

  I took several hesitant steps forward and, just when I thought things were going to go my way, the world tilted on its axis and I fell to the floor. I tried my best not to make a noise, but it’s hard not to when you’re falling over.

  “Oh shit!” Aiden’s voice murmured sleepily, “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah” I grunted sourly, “I was trying to make it to the bathroom.”

  “I’ll help you,” Aiden was immediately at my side, helping me back to my feet. With his assistance, I made it into the bathroom and locked the door behind me.

  Well, that plan hadn’t worked. It was fortunate that the bathroom had been in the direction that I had been heading and I was able to lie my way out of it. I don’t know what his reaction would have been had I fallen halfway out the door.

  My current condition was going to make getting away from Aiden very difficult. Maybe if I could send him on an errand or something, I could be gone when he came back.

  “Aiden?” I called through the bathroom door, “I need painkillers for my headache.”

  “Yeah,” came the reply, “I took some from the fuel shop. They’re on the table out here.”

  “Oh.” Crap. That was thoughtful of him, but incredibly unhelpful.

  I washed my face and the feeling of the cold water on my skin helped a little, but I still thought that I was going to pass out or throw up at any second. Maybe both. I looked at myself in the mirror, but didn’t recognise what who I was looking at. The blue lights had almost completely dominated my skin. I couldn’t help but look at them as they passed across my arms, neck, stomach and back.