Fairysitters
Part 7
so now what do i do?
i don't know. stall 'til i get there.
but kathy. you don't understand. i don't have much time to
fool around with as it is.
hey, i know what!
what?
let 'im kill you!
let 'im kill me? like dead, murdered, stabbed?
yeah! he won't make it to me, anyway.
your support is overwhelming.
(sigh) look, you created him, right?
yuh.
so he won't even survive if you die.
but kathy. i don' wanna die.
he won't kill you. what's the point if he won't survive? he
can't be that dense.
are you sure?
trust me. just tell him that and see what he says.
o-kay...
...echoed
in my mind as I came to with the characteristic headache. I stood up straight,
and took a look at my wrists. Good thing I had tilted myself backward before
talking to Kathy, otherwise my already sore arms would've probably been bleeding
by now. Corwin hadn't returned yet, so I thought about what Kathy'd said. She
was right, of course. He wouldn't shoot me if his life depended on it. I
giggled, remembering his life did depend on it, technically.
"Have
you made you decision yet?" came his cocksure voice from the hall. As he
entered, I grinned amiably and started to answer him. "Before you
do," he said, raising a finger to silence me, "someone here would
like to see you." Before he had even finished, a little streak of aqua
windbreaker and brown skin, flew past him and wrapped itself around my waist
with considerable force.
"Heyyyy...ooof!"
was all I could get out. Naomi came dashing out of the hallway after Chris, but
was stopped by Corwin.
"I'm
sorry, I'm sorry, I should have said something sooner, I really
should've..." whispered Christine, fighting tears and emotion.
"Don't
worry about it, kiddo , I got everything cov...hey, are you okay?" As I
watched, her face became ashen and her eyes grew wide. "Chris, talk to me!
What's the matter?"
"This
is where it happened!" she gasped. "This is where we were..."
"Where
we were for wh...?" I began, but Corwin interrupted.
"You
were about to enlighten us on the nature of you decision?" he said, his
grin everpresent. I grinned back and said,
"Right.
Well, I've decided you'd probably be better off just killing me."
"Real-ly?"
he said, keeping his composure incredibly well.
"WHAT???"
came Christine's voice and a few extras, I thought.
"Yeah,
well, remember when I said you still don't get what you want? Well, that still
goes. I created you and, in fact, I created you last, so if I die, you'll be
the first to go. See, first you'll lose all your neat little a-bilities, then
you'll start losing little bits of your mem-ory, then your bo-dy and then your
con-scious mind and then poof! you're nothing but a lost memory for me.
So," I finished, "kill me. I...am ready." Very cool, I thought,
the way he and I had exchanged looks. Now he was the worried one and I was the
one with the cocky grin.
"Daina,
don't..." began Chris, looking up at me.
"Come
on, just shoot me!" I taunted.
"...please
stop..." Chris begged
"No,
really, go 'head!" I said.
"Daina,
listen..."
"Or
have the hired slave there do it..."
"...this
is how..."
"Dammit...!"
"Right
in the ol' heart..."
"...it
happened in..."
"...I'll
do it..."
"Whaddya
want me ta do, paint a bullseye on my chest...?
"...my
dream."
"...myself!!!"
"...and
pass out ammo...what?"
My
view of Christine was suddenly marred by a crossbow quarrel...one that buried
itself deep into my chest.
And,
suddenly, there it was. That horrible sharp pain, the same one I'd felt before
in Christine's dream.
The
same dream that she, moments before, had tried to tell me was now a reality.
I
gasped, more in shock than in pain, but the heaving motion brought fresh waves
of both. My expression, which had gone from mocking to questioning before, had
taken a huge plummet to pained confusion. I looked away from Chris (who was
screaming and shaking me frantically) to Corwin, who was looking at Naomi in
surprise.
"There,"
she said, her face mirroring the smug look I'd had a brief 5 seconds ago. She
threw the recently fired crossbow at Corwin's feet, then turned back to me.
"Hired slave that."
It
was then that things began to happen.
The
entire room began to shake.
I
began to cry after whimpering "Oh, Christ!" (them crossbow thingies
really hurt, man!)
In
the hallway, not far from the action, Robin turned to Fallon and Katy and said,
"Take Katy home and get Kathy."
In
the middle of her chess game with Jesse, Kathy's eyes flew wide open in shock.
"Don't bother," she said aloud, grabbing her coat and running to
Maple.
In
a simulated forest only an unmade door's distance from the action, Target, whom
had thus far braved the cold weather, the rain, the tornado and the general
nastiness of his uncontrolled surroundings, felt the ground beneath him shake
and breathed, "Ohhh nooo."
And
back in the room, while I was trying to keep the crossbow shaft in my chest
from moving around, my favorite mercenary lord and his paid sidekick were about
to catch serious heck from a really pissed off, newly turned six (a-gain with
the number six!) fairy empress-to-be.