It Happens Every Day

by Derek A. Murphy

  Shifting her body on the bench to curl it around his shoulders, she whispered, "Once we leave this place, you won’t."

  "We can’t depend on the ‘Universe’ to cancel out those urges for us, Petra! You’re going and I’m staying!"

  She sat up, crying, "So you can find another Bor-bon-meeg to play with? Is that it? You miss her that much?"

  Stung by her accusation, he rolled up from the floor and stood above her, clutching the Staff like a life preserver.

  "I wish none of the things that happened to us had happened! You’re different now! You’re not the girl I loved! And I’m not the man you wanted! Not now! Not like this!"

  Hurt by his outburst, she picked up her pack and delved into it with a hand, bringing forth the little vial of her potion. Before he could stop her, she uncapped it and drank the last of it, throwing the vial to shatter on the stone across the room from them.

  "Are you happy now? That will keep me from being the way I am! I’ll be the Petra that fell through the Veils!"

  He stood helpless as she stormed off into the darkened portion of the building, willing to sleep in the cold and damp rather than share the warmth with him. Knowing it was useless to follow her, he sat on the bench, feeling the warm spot she left there and sighed, burying himself in the sorrow and confusion that had come to be so much a part of his life.

  * * *

  She found a passageway that led away from the globe and followed it; Petra thought that she was punishing herself for the way she had spoken to Brian. He didn’t deserve that and she knew it. What was it that Urh-mor-hrh had said? "The Curse covers us all." She knew it was the Curse that had caused her to speak the way she had; an attempt to anger him enough to attack her and vent his lusts on her, giving free rein to her own. It bothered her that he was stronger than she was at fighting the urges the Curse engendered in them. He hadn’t had a drug to fall back on to fight it, and she had purposely avoided using the last of her potion in order to prove that she was as strong as he was.

  Petra hadn’t known that he knew about the potion, but knew that he had probably seen her taking it in the time before the Soos-tow had snatched her. It was also probable that he had noticed the difference in her behavior after she took it those times. And she had been rationing it toward the last; that was when she finally admitted that she loved him and they had tried to make love.

  A bitter smile twisted her lips in the dark as she thought of that time. A fat lot of good it had done her to admit loving him. The damned bird had grabbed her just when they had finally found common ground and set all this damned stuff in motion! She found a cleared space on the floor of a corner and settled down for a solitary sleep. Tugging the collar of her jacket up, she wished she was still wearing the wool top she had stuffed in the pack. It was warmer than the sweatshirt and jacket combined. Kept her drier, too!

  Sometime after she had gotten to sleep, she was awakened by a whispering sound and her heart quickened its pace. Was Brian trying to find her to give her what she wanted? Well, it was too late now! The potion had taken effect and she found that she had no wish for any kind of sex, much less the rough sex that they had learned from these people! People! They were more like animals! She hoped that something went wrong after she was gone and they had to live like this forever! They didn’t deserve forgiveness from the Good Lord!

  The whispering came again and she turned her head this way and that, trying to find the source of it. The voice was too light to be Brian’s. And it certainly wasn’t the Uu-mor’s. She didn’t think that the beast could whisper; a grumble was the quietest sound it could make.

  As the sound grew in volume, it seemed to shiver in her bones, reaching right down to the core of her being and tickling a spot several inches below her belly button and a couple of inches deep inside her. Then the whispering grew lighter, almost gone, but the tingling it set off continued, making her rise to her feet and walk further down the passageway. With each step, the tingling rose within her, filling her body and reaching out into her fingers and toes. In a short while, she found herself clambering out through a small, ruined door at the back of the building and a trio of figures came to her, dancing naked in the mist.

  As they drew closer, she saw that they seemed to be painted with odd, outlandish designs all over their bodies. It was difficult to make out the designs on them because they never stopped dancing; always moving in time to a silent music that only they could hear. When they reached her, tugging gently at her arms, she found herself beginning to dance with them and tried to stop it. Rewarded by a cessation of the movement, she saw their faces clearly and saw that they wore masks, painted as outlandishly as their bodies, each pattern different from the others. One of them writhed right up against her, rubbing her body from side to side and at closer proximity, Petra saw that rather than being painted, the woman was tattooed.

  The women seemed confused as to why she had stopped dancing and, the moisture from the mist making a sheen on their bodies, redoubled their efforts, even going so far as to grasp her wrists to help her mimic their movements. When one of them tried to remove her jacket and sweatshirt, she backhanded her, dislodging the mask the woman wore and was shocked to see a mirror of her own face. The others seemed disconcerted by her violent resistance and backed away, the dance dying a slow death as the one she had slapped fumbled her mask back into place. Rather than being secured with a strap or anything so mundane, it seemed to stick directly onto the skin.

  Suddenly, one of the giant owls, a Soos-tow, strode into the group, buffeting the women aside with its wings and tried to herd Petra away from the entrance to the building. She removed her jacket, wrapping it around one forearm as her right hand went to the stone knife in her waistband. When the great bird’s head darted forward, its beak clacking shut inches from her face, she lunged with the knife and scored a hit in its great, arching breast. The knife couldn’t have gone in very far; though the blade was over a foot long, Petra was petite and the owl was darting backward when she connected with the knife. It might have penetrated the bird’s hide an inch; enough to ruffle some feathers and force the bird to try a different tack. Its wing came around striking Petra’s hand and arm and she felt as though she had been struck by a car door as she stretched her length on the wet stone. The knife went skittering across the stone, striking something inside the door of the building and Petra wailed as she felt the great talons hook themselves into the material of her sweatshirt and jeans, rasping against her skin. The beast’s weight pinned her to the ground and she thought then that the animal would snap her head off.

  * * *

  As Urh-mor-hrh rushed through the door, Brian rose from where he lay, startled by the tiger-ape’s attitude.

  "Where is woman?"

  Brian pointed toward the back of the building, saying, "We argued."

  "I heard! Follow her! Soos-tow are near! Can’t you smell them?"

  Needing no other urging, Brian grabbed the Staff and ran into the darkness, unmindful of any obstacles or dangers that may lie in his path as the tiger-ape rushed back out the main door. In the darkness, Brian could see nothing, but he heard a wail that he recognized as Petra’s voice and ran faster. There were no turnings in the passageway and it lay straight before him, dipping down several feet before it rose again and debouched into a small anteroom with an open door on the other side. The diffuse light coming out of the mist outside gave a wan illumination to the area just inside the door and seeing Petra’s knife lying just inside it spurred him to greater speed. As he exited the door, he heard her wail again and saw her suspended several feet from the ground by one of the giant owls, its talons tangled in her clothing. Not knowing if the beast’s talons were in her flesh or simply hooked in her clothes, he activated the beam function of the Staff and cut the animal’s legs from it just as Urh-mor-hrh leapt from the side, burying his claws in the beast’s back while his hind claws shredded one of its wings.

  Driven toward the ground, the owl rotated its head, tr
ying to snap one of the tiger-ape’s arms with its beak, but the angle was too great and Urh-mor-hrh dealt it a smashing blow with one hand that snapped its neck, driving it flat just as it hit the ground. Ripping and tearing, he worked the claws of all four appendages, removing the skin and feathers of its back along with several ribs.

  Brian ran to Petra, untangling the talons from her clothing and lifted her with one hand while directing the Staff toward the figures he saw standing just inside the mist. Before he could activate the beam again, Petra dragged his arm down, tears standing in her eyes.

  "No! Let them go!"

  Puzzled, he looked at her askance, asking, "Why? They would have taken you to the Temple! You would have died and I wouldn’t have been there to stop it."

  Crying, she buried her face in his chest.

  "They’re my doubles. One of them could be the Lisa you came here with. Oh-h, let them go."

  As one of them danced closer, he got a good look at the tattoos and the mask and shuddered; if they were Lisa-doubles, there seemed to be no sign of recognition. They simply danced and seemed to have no thought for anything but Petra.

  The tiger-ape moved off the shredded owl body and pointed his bloody muzzle into the mist behind the doubles.

  "There are more Soos-tow out there."

  Petra lifted her head from Brian’s chest, wiping away tears with the back of her hand and said, "Probably to transport the doubles."

  Brian ushered her back inside, picking up her knife, now chipped in several places, giving it a kind of serrated edge. When they left, the tiger-ape piled broken stones in the doorway to prevent her being lured that way again. As he stacked the last stone, he looked out into the mist to where the doubles still moved and saw larger figures move toward them. While he watched, the dancers mounted to the backs of the owls and he presently heard the sound of their wings beating as they took the air. He knew that once they achieved some altitude, the construction of the leading feathers on their pinions would make them silent as Death. Turning, he moved back to the front of the building, entering the main entrance. With the heavy wooden doors shut behind him, he was certain that Petra was safe. At least for now.

  Petra was changing out of her clothes; the jacket was a total ruin, the sweatshirt had fared better but had at least eight rents in it where the owl’s talons had ripped through it and passed back out when they curled for a grip. Likewise, the jeans held too many holes to be depended on to keep the mist and cold out. Her panties were little more than a shredded bit of nylon but the bra, though incredibly worn and ripped, still held its shape.

  Though the sight of her in such a state of undress inflamed him, Brian was too concerned with her safety to pay much attention. He continued to argue with her out of relief as she held her old woolen top preparatory to donning it.

  "You shouldn’t have left. You should’ve stayed with me no matter what we said to each other!"

  She sighed, knowing he was right. "I know."

  Urh-mor-hrh said, "You were gone long enough for them to have had you away before we arrived. What happened?"

  Shrugging, she said, "I don’t know. When I first got out there, I was dancing with them, then it just seemed so…I don’t know. Wrong, I suppose."

  The tiger-ape looked at Brian and said, "She broke the lure. How did she do that?"

  Brian shrugged. "I don’t know. I wasn’t there. Remember?"

  Sniffing, the beast moved to where she had thrown the vial earlier and spent some time sniffing of it. Returning to sit near them, he said, "You drank something. What was it?"

  Distracted and defensive, she said, "Something I had from home. It kept me from losing myself in the other worlds. It’s nothing special. Why?"

  "I’ve scented it before. I may be able to find some more if it’s what I think it is."

  Shrugging again, she said, "Centella, sativa, tea and lemon juice. It helps me concentrate and keep my mind centered so I don’t lose myself."

  "There is the scent of four things that can have no lasting effect on the mind. But there was also a fifth scent; it is a powerful, mystic drug. What was the last thing that you did not tell me of?"

  Shamefaced, she said, "The root of a gold-leaf tree. It’s a rare, deadly poison in our worlds, but in the right concentration, it can focus the mind as nothing else can."

  Silent, the tiger-ape moved to the door and opening it, stepped outside for just a moment and they heard its voice raised in a series of low-pitched grunts. Returning to its place, it sat and stared at Petra for a moment.

  "Trees that smelled like that once grew in the high hills on one end of the lake. I have sent several of my kind to retrieve some of their roots if they can be pried from the stone. I believe that you must have more of this poison to render you proof against the lure of your sisters."

  Knitting her brow, she asked, "Do you think it was the drug that kept me from leaving with them?"

  Shrugging, the tiger-ape said, "Part of their lure is the ability to reach into your soul and draw out your innermost wish to join with your own kind. There is nothing here more like you than the Sisters. Since these women are ‘you’ from other worlds, they are as like you as yourself."

  Brian said, "Like calls to like."

  "Exactly."

  Shooting a glance at Petra to see if she had drawn the same conclusion as he, Brian asked, "Does this mean that my doubles will eventually show up here?"

  "The Good Lord told me that when the first of you began crossing from world to world, it set the rest of you in motion. So long as the Precursors are moving from one world to another, the others will eventually follow." The tiger-ape nodded at Petra. "With you trapped here, cutoff from the others, they have ceased to follow you; that is why there have been no more of your doubles finding themselves trapped here to be fed on by the Good Lord’s brother."

  Turning his head to Brian, he said, "You are not the Precursor of your kind; he is still free, but has stopped moving from world to world so the rest of you are staying in your worlds."

  Shaking her head in puzzlement, Petra asked, "How do you know this?"

  Spreading his hands, Urh-mor-hrh said, "The Good Lord has vouchsafed me this knowledge to help guide you in His plan."

  Brian glanced at the edges of the globe and saw that it had shrunk at least a foot. He said, "We need to get some sleep. The globe will be gone in a few hours."

  Petra put out a hand. "Wait. What do we do until your people return with the roots?"

  Shifting his bulk on the stone to curl into a big ball of black and white fur, the tiger-ape closed his eyes and said, "We bide here."

  * * *

  For several ‘sleeps’, Petra had been feeling something pulling at her sense of being, urging her to exit the building and walk into the mist. Several times, she had caught herself at the door and turned back, but she didn’t know how much longer she could hold out. Not a word had she spoken to the others regarding these urges, but Brian had begun looking questioningly at her. He knew that there was something strange going on with her, but didn’t know what it was.

  They had stopped making love at all after their argument and she knew he refused to take a chance on releasing his unnatural lusts on her, while she longed for them. Her longing wasn’t as strong a thing as it had been and she attributed that to the lingering effects of her potion. She had started scratching marks on a stone to count the number of ‘sleeps’ since they arrived here and the stone was covered on all sides now with nearly a thousand marks. Her potion had never lasted more than a few days in the worlds; how was it possible for it to last so long here? Perhaps it was the non-passage of Time in this place. This Curse of the Good Lord was a terrible thing; she saw now that it had twisted and blasted everything and everyone in this place and that its power was still strong enough to twist new arrivals as well. That she and Brian had been twisted into the form dictated by the Curse was evident to her.

  She turned her head to look at Brian where he lay sleeping and sighed. Would
there ever be a time when they would be comfortable with each other again? How did he manage to resist his own longing and urges? Sometimes he looked at her with an expression on his face that all but screamed his pain. She saw his looks and could only turn away, hiding her own longing. Promising herself that someday, they would be together, she slowly withdrew into herself until that ‘day’ arrived.

  A thumping on the great doors drew them up from their various positions of repose and going to the door, Urh-mor-hrh opened it, allowing another, great tiger-ape to enter. The newcomer held a handful of shriveled roots in its hand and she saw that blood welled from numerous cuts and gashes in its hide. The two tiger-apes grunted at each other in their language until Urh-mor-hrh picked up Petra’s discarded hat, passing it to the other as he let him out the door. Sniffing of the roots, he turned back to them and extended them to her in his hand.

  "Taste them. Tell me if they are the thing we sought. Their scent is that which I remember but you must judge them."

  Taking one, she gnawed gingerly at its surface, recognizing the wild, acidic taste and hesitated a few seconds, rolling the infinitesimal bit of root on her tongue before spitting it out.

  "This is it. I need water and a fire."

  "I sent Mor-huh-fhr for them. He will return shortly."

  She began picking at the bits of root and asked, "Why are there so few? I thought you said there were many of the trees in the hills."

  Shrugging, he said, "There were. My people had to pound at the stone to release the roots from their tombs. Even with the slowness of the work, they were delayed by an attack of the Soos-tow."

  Suddenly worried that their adversaries were stepping up the work against them, she asked, "Will they attack us here?"

  Shaking his head, Urh-mor-hrh said, "All my people are here. There aren’t many of us now, but there are fewer Soos-tow and they will not attack so many of us."

  Her fears allayed by this news, Petra would have been more worried if she knew that there were only thirty-five adult Uu-mor outside in the mist, augmented by fifteen of their children, both adolescents and cubs. Arrayed against them, the Soos-tow were more numerous than Urh-mor-hrh knew; fully a hundred and fifty adults and very few of them chicks. The only thing that kept them from attacking was the fact that the Uu-mor were so ferocious that any one of them was equal to three or even four of the giant owls. The only advantages the Soos-tow held were their numbers and ability to cover long distances.