Bloody Hell.
Giles desperately rushed full bore through the dark, dense forest foliage...having already lost his glasses from the constant stinging lashes of the leaves and dry branches against his forehead and cheeks as he pushed past.
He can feel the warm wetness of of his blood flowing down his throbbing face, the salty taste of it against his parched lips fit to make him gag . The blood and the pain of those wounds worked in collusion with his sweat and the welling tears in his eyes to threaten his already impaired vision. He wiped furiously at his eyes to clear them, gasping for air and searching through the darkness for any signs of the living....or a reasonable facsimile thereof.
He pushed onward, stubborn and resolute, ignoring the pain and the burning in his lungs. He could ill afford to allow anything to deter him. She is here...now...alone and possibly afraid or in agony....and that was more than he could bear. But where the bollocks.....
He lost his footing and tumbled forward at full speed, the resistance against his body suddenly gone.
He collided hard and face down with the unyielding grassy ground, an audible and almost comical utterance of "oof" escaping his lips.
For a moment he just lay there, gathering his senses and his bearings....trying hard to supress a mounting anger. Pushing himself up to his knees, he wiped at his eyes once more to reveal the wide clearing he now found himself in.
A cool breeze wafted through the barely moonlit area, bullying the tallish grass and soothing the burning mess of his face. He closed his eyes for a moment, filling his lungs and relishing the small relief the chilly air brought with it. The breeze carried the myriad scents of the flora and the fauna, wet with dew. He took them in, concentrating on calming himself..........
Wait.
That scent.
Good lord...........
Giles quickly stood bolt upright, wiping his eyes clear and looking frantically all around him....peering through the haze, searching........
There.
Near the center of the clearing, a figure.
He must have missed it on the first pass, but there it was. A figure swathed in the purest white wrappings, the fabric of which billowed and waved in the small breeze.
He began moving in it's direction, spurred on by a small hope.
Please........please.........
The drying wounds on his face became less of a hindrance now as he drew closer, his heart pulsing in his throat. He could make out the form's characteristics a little better now. Clearly female and facing in the opposite direction, standing stock still even as the flowy night dress she wore snapped actively in the increasing wind....as did her mane of jet black shoulder length hair.
His heart pulsed forcefully in his throat now, his anticipation growing with each step he took. His gait faster and faster.
That scent. It was unmistakable.
He stopped short only a few steps from the still figure in the dark. His voice catching in his throat as he tried to speak a name.
Steeling himself for anything, he took another step forward.........
"Jenny....."
It seemed the night stilled it's chatter as the figure stirred as if from a reverie. Her head turned almost imperceptively as she spoke over her shoulder.
"Is it you, England? Is it my Rupert?"
It would have been impossible to measure the elation that Giles felt at that juncture. His eyes welled again as Jenny Calendar turned to fully face him, more breathtakingly beautiful and radiant than she'd ever been in life. Her smile shone fit to warm even the coldest of hearts.
"Oh, it is. It IS my Rupert."
"My god, Jenny......I thought I'd never.........."
His voice cracked as he fought to keep his composure. He had to keep to the business at hand....and time was already short as it is.
"Jenny....listen to me carefully.....we must......."
Jenny abruptly cut him off, "Rupert I've made a decision".
"Decision? W...what do you.......?
"I've decided I'm going to keep the baby".
Giles was taken a little aback by those words, stepping forward towards Jenny for clarity.
"Baby? Jenny, what on earth are you on about......? You weren't......." He stopped an arm's length away as Jenny produced a small bundle in her arms. How had he missed that?
"Would you like to hold her, Rupert?"
She gently held the bundle out to Giles, beaming proudly. Giles couldn't understand what the situation was, but he held out his arms towards Jenny's offering....momentarily lifting his blood-caked eyes quizzically back up to her face.....and now noticing that the happiness that held her face mere moments ago had been replaced by an expression of deep sadness.
"I'm afraid it's not all there".
As those words passed her lips, a severed, bloody baby's arm fell from the bundle, falling with a thud next to Gile's left shoe. He looked down at it in shock as bitter tears began to flow from Jenny's eyes.
A strange, heavy buzzing sound, as if from a thousand angry bees filled the air of the clearing, growing louder as Jenny stood there and sobbed.
"It's....not all...there........"
~~~~~~~~
Giles sat bolt upright in his bed.
That same blasted dream again for the third time in a week. He was having one devil of a time trying to decipher it's possible meaning.
He looked over at the digital clock on the nightstand...3:00 AM.
He reasoned he may as well get up as he wasn't going to get any more sleep tonight.........
A rustling sound.
Giles took little notice of it. Probably leaves being blown about outside in the...........
The sound again, this time a little more audible than the first....and closer.
Giles strained his ears and peered into the darkness searching for the source, all the while moving his hand slowly to the floor on the right side of his bed where he kept his battle axe.
His fingers alighted upon the leathered handle grip and closed on it tightly, slowly pulling it up to him.
As he lay there on his side and as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, his peripheral vision caught some movement on the ceiling.
His body tensed and he raised his weapon into as defensive a posture as he could achieve in the position he was in.
With his free hand, he slowly reached for the lamp on his nightstand and switched it on.
"What the bloody....."
There on his ceiling were what looked to be hundreds of bees, locusts, and a small cadre of waterbugs, all of which began noisily skittering and buzzing about in reaction to the sudden shock of light in the room.
Giles could feel the gooseflesh raise on his arms as he raised himself up to a sitting position. He slowly began to realize that the bugs were moving in controlled patterns, forming specific shapes on the ceiling.
No....not shapes.....they were letters.
"Good lord..."
The bugs finished their work, revealing a simple phrase both short and to the point:
As the implication of those words registered, the bugs abruptly flew at him in a hail, the room filling with them and their horribly loud buzzing.
Giles leapt off the bed, swinging his axe in an ineffectual attempt to drive them off. The angry buzzing was deafening now, and the bugs seemed to grow in number. Whole clumps of them were landing and crawling all over Giles' body now. Giles did his best to beat them off, almost sick with revulsion.
He turned in the general direction of his bedroom door, which he could barely make out through this monsoon of crawlers.
He quickly made his way to it and as his hand closed around the handle......silence.
The bugs were gone...simply vanished.
(DONE...FOR NOW.) :: tu ::
Giles desperately rushed full bore through the dark, dense forest foliage...having already lost his glasses from the constant stinging lashes of the leaves and dry branches against his forehead and cheeks as he pushed past.
He can feel the warm wetness of of his blood flowing down his throbbing face, the salty taste of it against his parched lips fit to make him gag . The blood and the pain of those wounds worked in collusion with his sweat and the welling tears in his eyes to threaten his already impaired vision. He wiped furiously at his eyes to clear them, gasping for air and searching through the darkness for any signs of the living....or a reasonable facsimile thereof.
He pushed onward, stubborn and resolute, ignoring the pain and the burning in his lungs. He could ill afford to allow anything to deter him. She is here...now...alone and possibly afraid or in agony....and that was more than he could bear. But where the bollocks.....
He lost his footing and tumbled forward at full speed, the resistance against his body suddenly gone.
He collided hard and face down with the unyielding grassy ground, an audible and almost comical utterance of "oof" escaping his lips.
For a moment he just lay there, gathering his senses and his bearings....trying hard to supress a mounting anger. Pushing himself up to his knees, he wiped at his eyes once more to reveal the wide clearing he now found himself in.
A cool breeze wafted through the barely moonlit area, bullying the tallish grass and soothing the burning mess of his face. He closed his eyes for a moment, filling his lungs and relishing the small relief the chilly air brought with it. The breeze carried the myriad scents of the flora and the fauna, wet with dew. He took them in, concentrating on calming himself..........
Wait.
That scent.
Good lord...........
Giles quickly stood bolt upright, wiping his eyes clear and looking frantically all around him....peering through the haze, searching........
There.
Near the center of the clearing, a figure.
He must have missed it on the first pass, but there it was. A figure swathed in the purest white wrappings, the fabric of which billowed and waved in the small breeze.
He began moving in it's direction, spurred on by a small hope.
Please........please.........
The drying wounds on his face became less of a hindrance now as he drew closer, his heart pulsing in his throat. He could make out the form's characteristics a little better now. Clearly female and facing in the opposite direction, standing stock still even as the flowy night dress she wore snapped actively in the increasing wind....as did her mane of jet black shoulder length hair.
His heart pulsed forcefully in his throat now, his anticipation growing with each step he took. His gait faster and faster.
That scent. It was unmistakable.
He stopped short only a few steps from the still figure in the dark. His voice catching in his throat as he tried to speak a name.
Steeling himself for anything, he took another step forward.........
"Jenny....."
It seemed the night stilled it's chatter as the figure stirred as if from a reverie. Her head turned almost imperceptively as she spoke over her shoulder.
"Is it you, England? Is it my Rupert?"
It would have been impossible to measure the elation that Giles felt at that juncture. His eyes welled again as Jenny Calendar turned to fully face him, more breathtakingly beautiful and radiant than she'd ever been in life. Her smile shone fit to warm even the coldest of hearts.
"Oh, it is. It IS my Rupert."
"My god, Jenny......I thought I'd never.........."
His voice cracked as he fought to keep his composure. He had to keep to the business at hand....and time was already short as it is.
"Jenny....listen to me carefully.....we must......."
Jenny abruptly cut him off, "Rupert I've made a decision".
"Decision? W...what do you.......?
"I've decided I'm going to keep the baby".
Giles was taken a little aback by those words, stepping forward towards Jenny for clarity.
"Baby? Jenny, what on earth are you on about......? You weren't......." He stopped an arm's length away as Jenny produced a small bundle in her arms. How had he missed that?
"Would you like to hold her, Rupert?"
She gently held the bundle out to Giles, beaming proudly. Giles couldn't understand what the situation was, but he held out his arms towards Jenny's offering....momentarily lifting his blood-caked eyes quizzically back up to her face.....and now noticing that the happiness that held her face mere moments ago had been replaced by an expression of deep sadness.
"I'm afraid it's not all there".
As those words passed her lips, a severed, bloody baby's arm fell from the bundle, falling with a thud next to Gile's left shoe. He looked down at it in shock as bitter tears began to flow from Jenny's eyes.
A strange, heavy buzzing sound, as if from a thousand angry bees filled the air of the clearing, growing louder as Jenny stood there and sobbed.
"It's....not all...there........"
~~~~~~~~
Giles sat bolt upright in his bed.
That same blasted dream again for the third time in a week. He was having one devil of a time trying to decipher it's possible meaning.
He looked over at the digital clock on the nightstand...3:00 AM.
He reasoned he may as well get up as he wasn't going to get any more sleep tonight.........
A rustling sound.
Giles took little notice of it. Probably leaves being blown about outside in the...........
The sound again, this time a little more audible than the first....and closer.
Giles strained his ears and peered into the darkness searching for the source, all the while moving his hand slowly to the floor on the right side of his bed where he kept his battle axe.
His fingers alighted upon the leathered handle grip and closed on it tightly, slowly pulling it up to him.
As he lay there on his side and as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, his peripheral vision caught some movement on the ceiling.
His body tensed and he raised his weapon into as defensive a posture as he could achieve in the position he was in.
With his free hand, he slowly reached for the lamp on his nightstand and switched it on.
"What the bloody....."
There on his ceiling were what looked to be hundreds of bees, locusts, and a small cadre of waterbugs, all of which began noisily skittering and buzzing about in reaction to the sudden shock of light in the room.
Giles could feel the gooseflesh raise on his arms as he raised himself up to a sitting position. He slowly began to realize that the bugs were moving in controlled patterns, forming specific shapes on the ceiling.
No....not shapes.....they were letters.
"Good lord..."
The bugs finished their work, revealing a simple phrase both short and to the point:
MIND YOUR BUSINESS
As the implication of those words registered, the bugs abruptly flew at him in a hail, the room filling with them and their horribly loud buzzing.
Giles leapt off the bed, swinging his axe in an ineffectual attempt to drive them off. The angry buzzing was deafening now, and the bugs seemed to grow in number. Whole clumps of them were landing and crawling all over Giles' body now. Giles did his best to beat them off, almost sick with revulsion.
He turned in the general direction of his bedroom door, which he could barely make out through this monsoon of crawlers.
He quickly made his way to it and as his hand closed around the handle......silence.
The bugs were gone...simply vanished.
(DONE...FOR NOW.) :: tu ::
