Chapter 3: Love and Mothers
#4 of Shifties
John Lumic: My everlasting children. Tell me, how does it feel? Cyberman: We feel nothing. John Lumic: But in your minds, what do you think? Cyberman: We think the same. We are uniform. John Lumic: But you think of what? Cyberman: We think of the humans. We think of their difference and their pain. They suffer in the skin. They must be upgraded. John Lumic: Excellent! Then let's begin! -Doctor Who, Rise of the Cybermen Once upon a time, there was a town full of monsters. These monsters liked having sex and kissing and all sorts of nasty things. They also had girl parts and boy parts and tails. One of these monsters had once been a boy named Win. Win hated fog. The creature he had become hated how the water weighed down his fur, how it dulled the scents. Not enough to wipe them out entirely, but enough to make tracking a little more difficult. Win felt that another Shifty was approaching, somewhere off to the left. They could do that, could sense, somehow, any Shifty or Latent Shifty, they ones called 'Sleepers'. Unless the Sleeper was deliberately trying to hide themselves, then they had to be found by conventional methods. He scratched at his head, chuffing slightly. If he found her, he would be granted the greatest pleasure of all; the chance to Turn someone to the Light. Even now, its thoughts were concerned with the Rut, and he wondered when he would next get to couple with another. Right now, said the still-human part of its mind, as the second Shifty emerged from the fog with the particular head-tilt gait that meant she-or he, not like such words really mattered-was really, really horny. Win, eager to test the techniques the Mother had taught it in a flash of insight, was more than happy to oblige. * * * The phone was broken. Anna blinked the sweat out of her eyes. She had made it back to Nina's house, and had locked the doors, and then dialed the nearest police station, only to get a busy signal. She tried the college, 911, even her house in Georgia. Nothing. The only things still working were the numbers inside the town itself. "Of course," Anna muttered. Out of curiousity, she tried getting online on the family's Mac. Zip. That left hiding, or trying to hike out, and she had a sudden flashback to a National Geographic special, the one where the lion runs down the tired gazelle, and takes it in the haunch. No way. She wasn't letting those things get near her haunches, and stared at the keys on hall table, biting her lip in that way her mother had always warned her about, trying to find a way to get clear of this- Wait. Keys. She was on her feet in a second. They were keys for a Navigator, an SUV. Perfect. She could get some food and water, and maybe a gun or something, and then drive to the nearest town, and be safe. But what would she tell everyone? That a bunch of horny werewolves were raping people? They wouldn't believe that. That there was some sort of biological WMD? That was more likely, but any troops sent in would be woefully unprepared, and then you'd have werewolves with guns. (Some part of her wanted to giggle, but she shoved it down; the fever was burning itself off.) She would just have to work it out on the way, Anna decided, and stood up. Several minutes later, she climbed into the driver's seat of the navigator. She had found a replica Roman short sword-a gradius or something-in Nina's father's study, and had enough food and gas from the garage to make it all the way back to school. Almost like they wanted you to try to leave, a voice whispered in the back of her head. She ignored it, and cracked the garage door. It opened with a hum that was far too nosy, and Anna tried to swallow; her throat was suddenly dry. The SUV's beams revealed two Shifties frozen in her headlights-or maybe just a big, flexible one-and Anna screamed even as she floored the pedal and her heart leapt into her throat. She ran over the Shifites with a slight bump it's not just safe it's the law and skidded through a sharp right turn high centre of gravity makes them more prone to rollover and headed as fast as she could safely drive toward out.
Win licked its wounds. It was its fault, he hadn't been paying attention. The prey had shot straight out of the garage and knocked it and its partner over. It would've killed a normal man, but it was already healing. The creature licked its fast-vanishing wounds out of instinct which hadn't been there three hours ago, which currently occupied the space where its knowledge of reload time for each of the dozen or so weapons in its favorite videogame had been. Its mate was somehow yawning while it waited for its own neck to pull itself back through a right angle. Oh well, thought the human part of the creature that had once been a teenage boy, with an odd approximation of a shrug. The last of its wounds sealed, and it sniffed the air, the scent of smoke and rampant consumerism still heavy on the fog. One thing good about it; it held scents well. Win went padding off, its partner-not worthy of the term 'mate', hardly more than a few minutes' coupling-close behind. The girl couldn't be far.
As Anna drove, she began thinking about the future. Even if she went back to college and said nothing, she was going to meet up with the Shifties again sooner or later. And then what would she do? How would she recognize one? How would she kill it? How did Shifties die? Did you need stakes? Could you stab a stake through one's heart? Was she going to have to become Anna the Shifty Slayer? Would she have to seek out a bespectacled Englishman? How did they die? They could heal remarkably quickly; she had seen the girl's leg heal in seconds while she was being...turned. They were probably like that cheerleader on that TV show with all the superheroes; you had to destroy the brain stem, if not the entire brain. housewares Anna had a sudden, horrifying flashback to the beginning of a zombie movie she had seen once, one of the few remakes that could be compared with the original. The wife is driving away from her recently-zombified husband, and he's running behind her and keeping up easily, until he veers off to eat someone. Except there was no one here to distract the Shifties, and they could surround her and pounce on her by the dozens like that scene in that action movie, and feast upon her flesh in an entirely different way. Anna drove on, fully aware that she was making pop-culture references to distract herself. Help! Leon! She hadn't even played that game. This was getting ridiculo- The road ended so suddenly that Anna nearly drove into the lake. She skidded on the gravel, and nearly screamed. This was getting nowhere; she was farther away from out then when she started! She could just get a boat, use the sign as a paddle, and try to row out to the far side. Shifties couldn't cross running water, and she could hike to the nearest town- The sign. Front gate. That was the second time tonight. She was getting sloppy. Why was she so tired? She had had a whole day to sleep. Of course, that means you didn't eat anything either. "Screw Atkins," said Anna, ripping open a package of brightly colored corn snacks with her teeth as she pointed the car towards salvation. "I'm going to live."
Mother liked tea. It was one of Her few vices. Of course, the idea of 'vices' was a peculiarly human conceit. She and Her Children didn't have 'sin', not really. They just did things, and some things were good, and some things were bad, and some things were necessary, and She liked tea. Right now, She was sitting in the house of one of Her Children, a cup of hot Earl Grey in her hands. She had simply ran the tap water into the cup and heated it with Her own Power. Much faster than the stove. She was the only Shifty able to use magic, and not much of that, though this would, ideally, soon change. All they needed was to find the girl. This one girl, Annabelle Rachel Jacobs. Once they had her, she could make them more powerful then they could possibly imagine, and then all this hiding and lying and skulking around in the weak pink flesh would be over. The Mother raised the cup to Her lips and drank, the hot liquid cooling down Her stifled rage at the impotence of her and Her Children. And some incompetence, too. She had been far to indulgent in listening to Her advisors' council; waiting for the Sleepers to be shown the Light was a bad idea. And who had decided to leave the girl's door unlocked? 'Oh, she's feverish, she'll just sleep all night!' Instead, she had seen everything, probably learned a great deal from that book in the library, and inferred some, too. Now she was running, and they couldn't find her. If only this accursed fog would lift. Back in Her world, They would've been able to call on the local witch to clear the sky in instants. Of course, it was that benighted woman who had made Them-because of which They owed no small debt-and sent Them to this world-for which They owed her vengeance. The Mother shrugged. Oh well. Per ardua ad astra. All She had to do was wait. Anna's capture was inevitable. There was, really, nowhere to run, no place to hide.
The only way out of the town was barricaded, locked shut with a padlock and iron chain. The Shifties had had to change back to their human bodies to handle it, and they did so reluctantly, not liking the forced return to the pink flesh. There were half a dozen still patrolling the area, ready to catch the girl should she make some sort of desperate bid for escape. Several of them cocked their heads as a distant roar grew, getting closer and closer. Then a large red boxy thing, stinking of gas fumes and iron, came leaping out of the night to slam squarely into the gate, which was almost torn off of its hinges. The human parts of the Shifties all recognized a car, and some registered disappointment at such an obvious tactic. Ramming speed? Really now. How was she so important if that was the best tactic she could come up with? Well, nothing for it but to drag her out of the car by her hair and present her to Mother. They wrenched open the door with a squeal of metal, only to find the driver's seat occupied by a half-empty bag of processed corn snack. They had maybe a second's warning after Anna dropped from the undercarriage of the car onto the dead leaves, and before she cut the tendons in the first one's ankle. Truth be told, Anna thought as she rolled out from under the car, she hadn't even been sure she could hold on, but she did, somehow, and now she delivered a perfect thrust into her first victim's heart before diving into the fog. That would take a little while to heal, if it was even a recoverable wound. The other Shifties, panicked slightly, backed up against the car, peering nervously into the fog. The scent of blood filled their nostrils, so they couldn't find the girl if they wanted to. A slight rustle, like dead leaves being crushed underfoot, was their only warning before a disembodied arm with a sword on the end swept out from the fog and cut one's throat wide open. The arterial spray made the smell of blood even thicker, and the Shifties panicked, leaping into the fog with howls or growls or quacks as their species demanded. For the next few minutes, there was nothing but the sound of meat being cut. Then there was a sound like a fist slamming into a girl's sternum, and Anna flew backwards out of the fog into the side of the Navigator, leaving a huge dent. Crap. she thought, as her vision flickered. On the other hand, she wasn't supposed to be jumping around and killing supernatural creatures so easily, anyway. She had to get hit sooner or later. As an ivory figure approached through the fog, Anna grabbed the sword-which had embedded itself in the SUV-and used it to pull herself up. As the Mother emerged, the girl pulled the gladius out of the vehicle, and faced the woman uncertainly. Wait, woman? She could clearly see the flesh on the hands of the priestess, and smiled. This would be easy. She would take the witch down, and then climb over the gate. It was iron, so they couldn't follow her. Hope blooming for the first time in a while, she charged the woman, swinging with all her might at the head- The Mother stopped the swing casually, with the back of her hand, and the steel of the sword-some of the finest ever to come out of Modesto, California-shattered like glass. The momentum behind the blow carried her attacker to the ground. Anna pushed herself up onto her arms, keenly aware of the vulnerability of her position, and blinked sweat out of her eyes, her anger and fear and fury all beating in her chest like a drum. Okay, that wasn't supposed to happen. She tried to get up. " No", said the Mother, her voice carrying the justification for the bold in every syllable. It was reinforced with strange harmonics, butressed with reverb, plated with command, and still sounded oddly familiar. Anna found that she couldn't get up any farther. " You do not get up, young lady, until I tell you to." Anna felt the italics, too, shivering along her bones. She peered up at the face under the hood, and whole lot of things suddenly made sense. Why her mother had told her that story about the Shifties when she was little, for one. " Stand up ," said the Mother. Anna's hurts and wounds and pain and tiredness sleep no more suddenly came crashing down on her, and she felt like she would never move again, just stay on the cool dirt while her arms turned to roots and her hair turned to leaves. Her body disagreed, and she stood up, like a marionette. Like Pinnochio. The delerium of fever had been replaced by the delerium of fatigue, and she wondered if her nose would lengthen if she told a lie. But what do I have to lie about? she thought, and giggled. "Good girl," said Mother, in a regular voice. She definitely recognized it now. " Now drop that silly toy." Anna did so, and her head hung a little-she was never sure later if it was from exhaustion, shame, or childhood habit-and the broken sword fell from her hand. "Sorry Mom," she muttered.
And now her mother, the Mother, naked, was taking her upstairs somewhere, holding her daughter in her arms like she was a child again. Annabelle was so tired, and just wanted to go to sleep. "Why, mommy?" she muttered. "Oh honey," said Mrs. Jacobs. "I wanted to tell you, but I never thought you were ready. We bought you here to prepare you, to show you who you really are." She rested Annabelle on the bed, cleared a loose strand of hair. "You're my child. We're not supposed to even be able to have kids, and you're the only one that was ever born. That means you're special. You're the only one who can give us magic. We can give you your true shape, and you can see your real body." Pause. "Do you really think an ordinary girl could've laid a hand on any one of your Brothers and Sisters if they didn't want her to? Could hide and run and fight us for more than a few seconds?" She shook her head. "No. You're stronger than an ordinary girl, because you're mine." "Can you do magic?" "Yes, a little." "Can you teach me?" she yawned. So tired. "Tomorrow. Right now, I want someone to say hi." A shadow in the corner detached itself from the others. "Nina, come say hi to your Sister." Through Annabelle's closing eyes, she saw Nina blur slightly. She could struggle, but she was so tired, and, anyway, there was no fighting what you were. If I could escape And re-create a place as my own world And I could be your favorite girl Forever, perfectly together Tell me boy, now wouldn't that be sweet? -Gwen Stefani, The Sweet Escape
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