((Resolution to As Darkness Falls.))
_________________________
Ghosts and spirits, whispering phantoms of the darkness ....yet here in the Shanachie Theater, one of those ghosts was accepted and welcomed, one of those spirits was not wanted, and the phantom in question was a young man in a half-mask, preparing to undertake one of the more dramatic end acte sequences in musical theater.
"....Did I not instruct that Box Five was to be kept empty ..."
Below the stage, surrounded by the strange thickness of sound and silence, nestled against the wall in the place that had been a small girl's home for five months before anyone had even realised she was there, a large chrysalis sat. Mottled in beige and brown and yellow, it seemed to pulse slowly in time with an unheard heartbeat, lit up from the inside yet without revealing what form the transformation within was going to reveal when the time came. It had been three days since Juno had begun to wrap herself in the sweet-smelling organism that now hid her from the world, protecting her vulnerable state from friend as well as foe, sealing her away from anyone or anything that approached. And in those three days, it had become clear that the demon who had sparked this summering transformation was indeed attached to the young female, and not the home in which it had tormented her for weeks.
"....his eyes will find me there ....those eyes that hurt ..."
Footsteps had begun to haunt the Shanachie, those heavy beats against carpet and wood that were only too familiar to Mataya and Max, and the little girl now beyond the reach of the creature to whom those sounds belonged. Anyone who mentioned such sounds, or a sense of being watched, was asked very quietly not to mention it again, to ignore it, to behave as though nothing was out of the ordinary. Actor and actress were frightened enough for the fate of their fostered daughter without dealing with the paranoia, anxiety, and inevitable accusations that would fly, should it become widely known that they had willingly invited a demonic entity into the theater without even hinting at it to their friends and colleagues.
" ....unending night ....to a world where the daylight dissolves into darkness ....darkness ..."
No one but Mataya and Max knew the reason why a single section of the understage storage rooms had been shut off. No one but they knew why it was that Hortense, the Grey Lady of the Shanachie, refused to leave that one room. They did not dare share the information with anyone. How did you even begin to explain that the little girl you took in was in the midst of transforming like a caterpillar, that the ghost who inhabited the theater was protecting her ....that somehow the irritable wolfdog guarding that doorway was going to make everything all right before the chrysalis opened itself and revealed Juno's new face"
"....what you heard was a dream and nothing more ..."
And though Max and Mataya wanted to remain in the theater, to live there while Juno was trapped in the coccoon of her own making, they were frightened enough that Betryl's order for them to stay away during the darkest hours of the night had been heard and obeyed. Their house felt safe again, home again, a place of gentle quiet and warm solitude, and even the basement - the resting place of that evil for weeks on end - felt clean and unthreatening. To be sure of that, they had asked the psychic, Evelyn Frey, to cleanse the house thoroughly, in preparation for Juno's return. Now it was the theater that felt threatening, unsafe, malevolent ....but that would soon be over with, if the male Sanagi was to be believed.
"....I'm here, with you, beside you ....to guard you and to guide you ..."
As the romance of the music swelled all around, twisting through the darkness beneath the stage to wrap itself around the pulsating chrysalis tucked tight to the wall in that carefully chosen basement room, a sickening sense of inevitability followed it. The darkness seemed to grow darker, bringing with it the by now familiar yet still spine-tingling growl of some otherworldly voice as it approached for one last attempt to take a soul never intended for its use. Before the door, Betryl lifted his canine head, rising onto his paws. It was time.
"....all I want is freedom ....a world with no more night ..."
A shadow was deepening at the far end of the hall. The Sanagi rose onto his back legs, a shimmer in the air marking his transition from dog to man in one easy motion. Naked, he faced the being that was coming for his sister, the last of his race, the only remaining blood of his blood in all the multiverse. It was his mistake that had cost her the freedom to live her life as she should; his continued arrogance that had brought this demon to threaten the new life she had found here on Rhy'Din. But he would not make her pay for his mistakes any longer. The demon was his to deal with, to live with, to suffer through all eternity with in a bond neither would ever break. It was Betryl's fate, and Betryl's choice. Juno would not suffer this way any longer.
"....that's all I ask of you ..."
The low, bone-rattling rumble that always accompanied the creature's approach began to rise, intense and growing louder by the moment, until Betryl was certain they must be able to feel it beneath their feet on the stage above where he stood. The tiny hairs on the back of his head, on his arms, all over his body began to rise in a prickle of anticipation and natural fear. This was it. This was his last stand. This was where he would take the essence of this last tormentor of the Sanagi into himself, bind it to his own soul, and disappear forever from the life of the last sister he had. It was his fault she had suffered at all. Now he would make amends.
"....and now, how you've repaid me ....denied me and betrayed me ..."
The shadow shape, the only tangible manifestation of the evil darkness that haunted the Sanagi, growled anew, and with shocking, shuddering force, began to slither through the shadows of the hallway toward the door, gathering momentum, speed, strength, as it went. It was easily clear what the demon intended to do - to smash through the terrifyingly vulnerable young man and into the room beyond, to take what it wanted from within the chrysalis and leave behind the decaying bodies of the last of the Sanagi, destroyed and mutilated beyond repair.
"....you will curse the day you did not do all that the Phantom asked of you ..."
As high above them, the carefully rigged chandelier crashed down toward the audience in a crescendo of music and gasping, startled voices, demon and Sanagi crashed into one another in a deafening crack of thunderous silence. There was no flash of light, no absorbing darkness, no shock of sparking magics. Simply ....nothing. Where once Betryl had stood, facing off against the demon he had been born to contend with, now there was stillness. No body, no shadow, no sign that anyone or anything had even been there at all.
The theater settled to the usual warm array of sounds that filtered from above as the audience filed out to enjoy the interval, to discuss the show thus far and enthuse about what was coming in the second act. Only three beings knew why, suddenly, the Shanachie felt safe once again. A ghost, a woman, and a man recognised the sudden shock of relief as the sense of malevolence, of danger, fled away from them. And below their feet, the chrysalis rustled lightly, adjusting even in the midst of its pulsing, recognising in some small way the sacrifice made to keep it safe and unharmed.
Now all anyone could do was wait, and see what face the last of the Sanagi would be wearing when she finally emerged from her turning, fresh and whole and without the danger of a destiny hanging over her head. The haunting was over. It was time to live again.
Ghosts and spirits, whispering phantoms of the darkness ....yet here in the Shanachie Theater, one of those ghosts was accepted and welcomed, one of those spirits was not wanted, and the phantom in question was a young man in a half-mask, preparing to undertake one of the more dramatic end acte sequences in musical theater.
"....Did I not instruct that Box Five was to be kept empty ..."
Below the stage, surrounded by the strange thickness of sound and silence, nestled against the wall in the place that had been a small girl's home for five months before anyone had even realised she was there, a large chrysalis sat. Mottled in beige and brown and yellow, it seemed to pulse slowly in time with an unheard heartbeat, lit up from the inside yet without revealing what form the transformation within was going to reveal when the time came. It had been three days since Juno had begun to wrap herself in the sweet-smelling organism that now hid her from the world, protecting her vulnerable state from friend as well as foe, sealing her away from anyone or anything that approached. And in those three days, it had become clear that the demon who had sparked this summering transformation was indeed attached to the young female, and not the home in which it had tormented her for weeks.
"....his eyes will find me there ....those eyes that hurt ..."
Footsteps had begun to haunt the Shanachie, those heavy beats against carpet and wood that were only too familiar to Mataya and Max, and the little girl now beyond the reach of the creature to whom those sounds belonged. Anyone who mentioned such sounds, or a sense of being watched, was asked very quietly not to mention it again, to ignore it, to behave as though nothing was out of the ordinary. Actor and actress were frightened enough for the fate of their fostered daughter without dealing with the paranoia, anxiety, and inevitable accusations that would fly, should it become widely known that they had willingly invited a demonic entity into the theater without even hinting at it to their friends and colleagues.
" ....unending night ....to a world where the daylight dissolves into darkness ....darkness ..."
No one but Mataya and Max knew the reason why a single section of the understage storage rooms had been shut off. No one but they knew why it was that Hortense, the Grey Lady of the Shanachie, refused to leave that one room. They did not dare share the information with anyone. How did you even begin to explain that the little girl you took in was in the midst of transforming like a caterpillar, that the ghost who inhabited the theater was protecting her ....that somehow the irritable wolfdog guarding that doorway was going to make everything all right before the chrysalis opened itself and revealed Juno's new face"
"....what you heard was a dream and nothing more ..."
And though Max and Mataya wanted to remain in the theater, to live there while Juno was trapped in the coccoon of her own making, they were frightened enough that Betryl's order for them to stay away during the darkest hours of the night had been heard and obeyed. Their house felt safe again, home again, a place of gentle quiet and warm solitude, and even the basement - the resting place of that evil for weeks on end - felt clean and unthreatening. To be sure of that, they had asked the psychic, Evelyn Frey, to cleanse the house thoroughly, in preparation for Juno's return. Now it was the theater that felt threatening, unsafe, malevolent ....but that would soon be over with, if the male Sanagi was to be believed.
"....I'm here, with you, beside you ....to guard you and to guide you ..."
As the romance of the music swelled all around, twisting through the darkness beneath the stage to wrap itself around the pulsating chrysalis tucked tight to the wall in that carefully chosen basement room, a sickening sense of inevitability followed it. The darkness seemed to grow darker, bringing with it the by now familiar yet still spine-tingling growl of some otherworldly voice as it approached for one last attempt to take a soul never intended for its use. Before the door, Betryl lifted his canine head, rising onto his paws. It was time.
"....all I want is freedom ....a world with no more night ..."
A shadow was deepening at the far end of the hall. The Sanagi rose onto his back legs, a shimmer in the air marking his transition from dog to man in one easy motion. Naked, he faced the being that was coming for his sister, the last of his race, the only remaining blood of his blood in all the multiverse. It was his mistake that had cost her the freedom to live her life as she should; his continued arrogance that had brought this demon to threaten the new life she had found here on Rhy'Din. But he would not make her pay for his mistakes any longer. The demon was his to deal with, to live with, to suffer through all eternity with in a bond neither would ever break. It was Betryl's fate, and Betryl's choice. Juno would not suffer this way any longer.
"....that's all I ask of you ..."
The low, bone-rattling rumble that always accompanied the creature's approach began to rise, intense and growing louder by the moment, until Betryl was certain they must be able to feel it beneath their feet on the stage above where he stood. The tiny hairs on the back of his head, on his arms, all over his body began to rise in a prickle of anticipation and natural fear. This was it. This was his last stand. This was where he would take the essence of this last tormentor of the Sanagi into himself, bind it to his own soul, and disappear forever from the life of the last sister he had. It was his fault she had suffered at all. Now he would make amends.
"....and now, how you've repaid me ....denied me and betrayed me ..."
The shadow shape, the only tangible manifestation of the evil darkness that haunted the Sanagi, growled anew, and with shocking, shuddering force, began to slither through the shadows of the hallway toward the door, gathering momentum, speed, strength, as it went. It was easily clear what the demon intended to do - to smash through the terrifyingly vulnerable young man and into the room beyond, to take what it wanted from within the chrysalis and leave behind the decaying bodies of the last of the Sanagi, destroyed and mutilated beyond repair.
"....you will curse the day you did not do all that the Phantom asked of you ..."
As high above them, the carefully rigged chandelier crashed down toward the audience in a crescendo of music and gasping, startled voices, demon and Sanagi crashed into one another in a deafening crack of thunderous silence. There was no flash of light, no absorbing darkness, no shock of sparking magics. Simply ....nothing. Where once Betryl had stood, facing off against the demon he had been born to contend with, now there was stillness. No body, no shadow, no sign that anyone or anything had even been there at all.
The theater settled to the usual warm array of sounds that filtered from above as the audience filed out to enjoy the interval, to discuss the show thus far and enthuse about what was coming in the second act. Only three beings knew why, suddenly, the Shanachie felt safe once again. A ghost, a woman, and a man recognised the sudden shock of relief as the sense of malevolence, of danger, fled away from them. And below their feet, the chrysalis rustled lightly, adjusting even in the midst of its pulsing, recognising in some small way the sacrifice made to keep it safe and unharmed.
Now all anyone could do was wait, and see what face the last of the Sanagi would be wearing when she finally emerged from her turning, fresh and whole and without the danger of a destiny hanging over her head. The haunting was over. It was time to live again.