Natives of The Haze

Cin stumbled through the green, stifling flora. The air grew oppressing and hotter as she waded into the jungle looking for fresh water. The leaves of trees were shaped strangely and the branches were of different dark colors. She put her hand against a tree and wiped her forehead. She needed to find water fast. There was a small hill up ahead and she walked towards it. From the top of the hill, she saw that the forest spread out evenly all around her, but it was thin in some places to the south. As Cin made her way towards the probable water source, the figure with the stone slowly walked up behind Cin and gently tapped her shoulder with the stone. 

Cin shrieked and fell from the small hill. She tumbled head over heels and crashed to rest at the bottom of the hill. The sharp stone rolled down with her. Scared and bewildered, Cin gathered herself up and grabbed the stone to fling at her mysterious attacker who was nowhere to be seen. She heard running water nearby and made her way towards it, all the while keeping the stone held tight in her hand. The natives gathered to watch the girl who had picked up their god stone without burning up into flames. She was the chosen one of the stone god and they will give her to the stone god once he awoke in the darkness. The whispered in voices to each other of the gifts that the stone god would bestow upon them once he got his bride. 

The butcher rode the bike hard. Miles crunched under the wheels of his bike and wind whipped his hair like a cloak behind him. The last time he had felt happiness like this was when he had choked his wife to death on her own pillow. He rode faster, till tears streamed from his eyes and world around him blurred in a uniform gray. He could feel the sea wind in the air and the breeze carried a hint of salt. He knew he'd reach there soon. The butcher was lost in the thoughts of delicious murder of X and he failed to the grass rope that was tied across the road. By the time he saw that rope, it was too late. He was whisked up from his bike and the momentum of his speed rolled him to quite some distance before he came to a stop in a sorry heap.

"Fuckery." he muttered to himself.

Then bodies fell upon him. Holding him tight as nimble fingers tied his hands with rope and someone put a cloth over his eyes. Things, he thought, things he would kill soon. As they dragged him away, there was a mad smile playing on the butcher's lips.

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Let's call this dreamworld like space HAZE. And these are the strange people here. 

Chapter 13.

How Things Change

The bottle of  vodka was empty and her kitten was gone. Cin was in the pits. She opened another bottle of vodka and poured it in a shot glass. Her glasses were lost and all she saw was a blurry view of the world around her. The vodka did its work, her brain turned cartwheels in her head and soon, the room was spinning too fast for her to hold on. She fell to the floor in a vodka infused sleep and dreamed. She was going to find that bass and the stupid boy who was sending her the sos messages. 

The butcher woke up in the dreamworld and he was lying on his back in a desert. There was no way he was going to reach the sea from here. He got up and started walking. Something shone at a distance. A distant flash of chrome which left rainbows in its wake. He hazarded a guess and started to walk in the direction of the strange flash of light. It could be a mirage, but it could be anything in this place. The sand shifted and moved under his feet like a living animal but he pressed on. The sun glared down at him like a single eye of a furious god. He pressed on. He saw the shining object clearly now and a smile appeared on his face. It was a gleaming Harley Davidson on the road. Just looking at the bike stung his eyes and made them water. It was a marvelous sight as it stood on the road. A road which stretched from the desert to the sea. He knew it'd lead him to the sea. He got on the bike and kicked it to life. It roared like an angry animal. He liked it. He liked it a lot already. He was going to the beach.

Cin woke up on a beach. An eagle (a seagull?) flew overhead as she opened her eyes. There was the loud sound of surf somewhere and it added to the raging sound of hangover in her head. The other side of the beach was full of green plants of some kind she didn't know the names of. She rolled over and tried to get up. Cool sand squished in her fingers and stuck to her clothes. She wanted to drink some water but she knew that the sea water was not meant for drinking. She got up finally and stumbled away from the beach, into the foliage, looking for a water source. The sea called to her but it was not the water she needed. A pair of eyes watched her from the jungle. The thing watching her held a sharp stone in its hand and warily followed Cin. 

In the black tower, the pressure dropped. There was a noticeable change in the air quality. Things were changing. Fast. X got up from his bed and went to his window. He could feel her somewhere far to the east, she had managed to reach here. He also felt another black presence far in the west, and it was heading towards him. Fast. Things were changing. He hoped they'd change for good. Little did he know that he was going to be wrong. So wrong. 

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I missed two days! Shame on me! But here is Chapter 12. Our characters reach a strange dreamlike place. Will they meet up? What happens now? We'll know soon!

The Day The Eagle Landed

The eagle circled the black tower. In the nameless, timeless, godless place there were few things that lived the eagle had found its way here through dreams of dead children and broken hopes of lovers left forever alone. The eagle zeroed in on the window in the tower and glided on stale sea air towards it. X felt the presence before he even saw the bird. He went to the window and extended his arm for the eagle. The talons dug in sharp on his arm, but the bird was gentle. There was a small vial attached to the eagle's leg. X took the vial, the bird looked at him, and said "good luck, kid." 

Then, with a small poof, it was gone. The eagle disappeared and X was left with the vial in his hand. There was a small drop of blood in the vial. It floated in the glass chamber without touching its walls, immune to gravity. X crushed the vial in his hand, the glass broke and pierced his palm. His blood mixed with the drop of blood and it shocked his system like a bold of electricity. He fell to the floor as convulsions raked his body, his spine arched and his eyes rolled back in his skull. He could not draw enough air in his lungs to scream and all the came out of his mouth was a guttural sound, exclaiming his pain. Then, the pain stopped. There was a dull throb behind his eyes and he was able to breathe again. He looked at his palm. There was a pyramid tattooed in the skin of his palm. He moved his hand the three dimensional image of the pyramid tattoo also moved. 

A voice, sweet like sin, spoke in his head, "Open the pyramid, set me free."

Strangely, X knew the voice. He needed to get out of here. Even if he had to move mountains and level cities, he'd do it. And fuck the help if she didn't make it to the tower soon. He had the bass and he was going to do some damage with it. 

The butcher was getting ready to do some damage on his own. The old man had given him a motley collection of drugs and soon he was going to sleep the little sleep. The drugs were going to slow down his soul and send him into a sleep where he'd be free to explore the dreamlands and find the black tower. 

And when he found the black tower, he was going to kill X. 

Slowly.

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For no particular reason, this is Chapter 11 and the Second Movement of this story arc.

Finding The Boy

Evening fell, as the butcher drove with Cin in his car. She had her face stuck to her window by the time they reached the old man's place. He had somehow managed a villa's manager to give him the keys to the place and not bother him for the duration of his stay. The butcher didn't ask questions because he had seen the old man do some weird things. He was in handcuffs in a police cell when the old man had magicked him to the bar somewhere and given him beer and a cigar. He was devoted to the old man's will. No questions asked. 

The butcher stopped the car at  the entrance, got out and pulled Cin out of the car too. He half dragged, half carried her out of the car to the patio where the old man was sitting. Cin was pushed into a chair.

"She was drinking," the butcher said.

The old man kept looking at the sun setting through the clouds. He picked a glass of water from the table in front of him and offered it to Cin.

"Have some water, my dear."

Groggy and half drunk, Cin took the glass of water and drank it. She knew she was in a jam but she didn't know how deep the jam went.

"I have no idea what you guys want from me." she said after a while. "I just want to go back to my hotel and sleep."

The old man smiled at her. "Sure, you can leave, but first I've to tell you something about your dreams."

The last fumes of hangover left Cin's head when she heard that. "What about the dreams?"

"The dreams of a tower, and perhaps a boy who plays really bad music."

Cin stared at the old man. "It's not that bad. Just heavy, with a lot of bass."

"Ah, my dear, this is where you're mistaken. The music that the boy plays comes from the mouth of machines and it has no soul. The real music, is of wood and string and soul and poetry."

He patted his guitar to emphasize his point. 

"I need to find the boy. I need his music. I have certain projects that can only succeed with that kind of music."

"It will only lead to pain and suffering."

"I don't mind as long as I don't have to suffer."

The old man looked at her, turned his head a bit, and smiled.

"I like that. I like that a lot. So here's what I'm gonna do. I'll give you some free advice."

"I'm listening."

"This guy here," he pointed at the butcher, "killed his wife, his neighbors and most of his colleagues some days back."

"Shit happens."

"Right, so this fellow is going to find the boy before you. And when he finds the boy, he is going to snap his head off his neck and eat his brains."

It was Cin's turn to look at  the old man whose hands were shaking and his hair was slowly coming apart in disarray.

"Race you to him," Cin said and got up to leave the villa. 

No one stopped her.

Getting Down To Business

X was not able to shake the uneasy feeling that he had done something wrong. 

He had felt a presence near his window but in his mad frenzy with the music he had pushed it all away. Maybe it was a friend, maybe an enemy. He'd never know. 

Below the tower, the black sea churned angrily. Waves slammed against the tower's foundation but it had borne the waves for god knew how much time. This was a godless, timeless place anyway. It was just the console, the bed and X in the room. He didn't feel hungry here. He didn't even feel like sleeping, but he slept out of habit. He had once thought of jumping out of the window and ending it all, but a fear had come over his mind and the thought had rushed from his head like a scared animal. 

He remembered how to make music, that was all he needed some days. There was the bass. That was enough. And he knew help would come.

The help that X wanted, was sitting in a bar somewhere in a small village community and drinking her fear away. 

A forest of vodka shot glasses was littered on the table in front of her. The kitten, Blue was munching on a fish that a waitress had left for him. 

"Blue," Cin slurred, "mom washn't there. She wash NOT. I shaw her, but sheeee was NOT there!!"

Blue eyed her suspiciously and went back to his fish.

Cin addressed the empty glasses. "It wash a placsh of memories, dead thingshh. The mushic wassh sooo bad. Ghosht music. And that motherfucking tower. Oh mother. Mother..."

She put her head down on the table and drifted into the strange dreamless sleep of drunk people. Blue licked her ear and tried to wake her up but she was already snoring. The waitress came to their table and stood over  her.

"Oh damn it, not another one." she sighed. "Henry! There is a passed out case here! Send someone!"

Henry, the bartender, grumbled as he took out his cellphone and started to call people who carried drunk people home. There was not going to be any need of it though.

The waitress drifted from the table to take other orders.  

A man sitting some tables away saw that Cin was alone now. He walked up to her table and took out a picture from his coat pocket. It matched the face on the table. He picked her up from table, put her arm around his shoulder and started to drag her out of the bar. 

"Come on," he said, "we're going."

"Where arrh we goiiinnnggg?" Cin asked.

"We're going to meet the old man." the butcher replied.

In the bar, Blue left munching the fish and jumped from the table to follow the strange man who was taking his human away.

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Chapter 9! Next chapter, end of first act. And we plunge into second act :D

As always, all typos are mine. You can hit me on twitter @69fubar to talk about this story arc, or as the old ways were, leave a comment :)