Grief

Seth and Naz sat in the taxi-van in uncomfortable silence.  Seth stared out the window, watching the lights alongside the highway pass quickly by.  He glanced at Naz.  Naz was staring at, well, God only knows.  Those completely black eyes didn’t tell much.  Neither did his permanently expressionless face.  His gaze returned to the outside world.  Time passed.

Eventually, Seth’s nerves got the best of him, and he went searching in his trench.  He produced a small metal cylinder containing ketamine.  He took an unusually large bump and felt himself slow down.  He looked up to see Naz looking at him, presumably. 

“Why do you feel the need to use narcotics?” Naz asked coldly.

“Well, some of us have emotions that get the better of us.  But I’m sure you don’t have that problem,” Seth replied, acidulously. 

Naz cocked his head slightly.  “Hmph.”

Seth leaned back in the seat large enough to accommodate even the largest Visral.  He felt his eyes closing and welcomed the slow loss of his sense of self.  Time passed.

“We’re here,” Naz said mechanically.

Seth’s eyes slowly opened, and he got himself out of the cab as Naz settled the charge.  The cab pulled away as Seth attempted his first step.  It was unsuccessful.  He felt a steadying hand grip his arm to stop the fall.  He straightened and felt the small adrenaline rush clear his head a little.  He walked into the house and began walking up the stairs to his room.  He met Pawn halfway up.

“What’s up Gothy?  You’re looking more depressed than usual.  Your favorite band break up?”

Seth stared at him for a long moment.  “Talia’s dead.”  He started to walk past him.

Pawn grabbed his arm. “Whoa, you mean your girlfriend?”

“Not exactly the word I would have used, but yeah.”

Seth felt uncomfortable at the tears he felt coming to his eyes. 

“Well, no offense man, but aren’t you like a fan of death and shit?”

Seth sighed.  “I follow a code of selfishness.  I wanted Talia around.  Now she isn’t.  So now I grieve, and grieving is one of the most selfish acts there is.  After the grief has passed, the killing will start.  As soon as I get a lead.”

“Any way I can help?”

“Not yet.  But you may want to spend the night elsewhere.  And you might want to tell everyone else that, as well.  You remember what happened last time I fished for info from above.”

A dark look came into Pawn’s eyes.  “Yeah.  I still got the scar…”

“Tell everyone else the deal, so it’ll only affect me.”

That night, Seth Dreamed.

His focus was the brand on Talia’s severed head, which he had curled in his arms as he fell asleep.

Once he became lucid, he felt the Presence.  He looked into his hands, and her head, or at least the image, had followed him here.  He turned to locate the rippling darkness that was the avatar of his master.  He held Talias’s head out by her hair to face him. 

“What is this?”

The voice, if it could be called such ripped through his brain.  “It’s is a severed head,” it said nonchalantly.

“What is the sigil burned onto this severed head?” Seth said, impatient with the need for specifics.

“It is the sign of a god those of my circle had hoped lost.  It is the sign of S’rat Hakel, a once great enemy of ours.  It is… most irritating that someone on your plane has unearthed that name.  It has been eons.  This will be dealt with swiftly.”

“What is the first step I should take in finding the people who did this?”

“You will be given directives at a later time.  We need more information.”

Seth’s mouth gaped.  “You don’t know?”

The blackness grew, angrily.  He suddenly saw himself from the third person, facing a darkness that pulsed and crawled as far he could see, in any direction he could look.  A darkness larger than galaxies, and older than time.

His mind erupted in the babble of uncounted trillions of voices, screaming words in millions of languages that were millennia dead and yet to come. He gripped the sides of his head. “I DID NOT MEAN TO OFFEND!!!” he shouted into the din.

When he opened his eyes, the darkness had returned to more manageable dimensions.

“This being operates outside of our perception.  It is for that reason that we consider it a threat.  Do not question us.  You are a favored son, but do not forget what we are.  You will be given information as it comes.  S’rat Hakel will be weak from ages of anonymity.  His guard will fail soon enough.  Until then, find your own path.  Petty vengeance is beneath our concern.”

Seth bowed. “Yes, my lord.”

Seth felt the darkness flooding into him.

He woke up, more clear headed than usual.  He sat up on the side of bed, feeling the beginnings of a mild headache.  He opened his mouth to yawn and a geyser of blood erupted from it.  To his horror, he heard the sounds of what the screams of a drowning man must be like.  His vision blurred red, then black, and a different darkness was upon him as he fell to the floor.

When he woke again, he heard sounds of his roommates downstairs.  He crawled out of his room and down the stairs, and passed out again.  Santos was the first to find him.

Seth awoke again to a less than gentle kick to his side.

“Yo.  You alive?”

“Food.  High in iron,” was all he managed to get out.

“Hey, someone who cares, Seth’s dying!” he shouted and walked away.

His next lucid image was of Tanith feeding him creamed spinach and tuna.

Seth woke up two days later with a hard-on for homicide.