Night of Endless Portals

The sun’s rise that morning should have been accompanied by lines from the William Tell Overture. A fire blazed in the hearth, our room was warm and the scent of stew rose into the air. I’d drifted off sometime in the night, well after Kain, but I hadn’t dreamt a bit.

All of the others were asleep still. Between when I fell asleep and when I woke, Malia had shifted over to my side of the couch and wrapped her arms around my chest. Tia clung to her back like a baby monkey and I had to sit there without either laughing or making cooing noises at them. It was the hardest thing I’d done since spying on Kain’s memories.

The man himself sat next to the hearth with his head on the brick. He wasn’t close enough for the fire to reach out and ignite him, but he slept closer than I would have.

There was no way for me to get up without disturbing Malia and therefore Tia, so I sank back and craned my neck to examine our surroundings. Through the window to the porch I could see snow stacked up at least two feet high. Nothing like that should have ever happened in Austin. It made for a wonderful winter scene that sent chills of foreboding though my back and shoulders. How snow could frighten me after everything else that had happened boggled the mind, but I had good reasons for my concerns. If this wasn’t natural — it couldn’t be — then I needed to worry about whatever had brought this storm on in the first place.

The rest of the living room and kitchen looked undisturbed, through I noticed that Kain had left a mess in the kitchen after he prepared his stew. A week ago, I would have scolded him. As it was, him being a cowboy from another universe or time, I thought my chiding would be petty. Besides, he’d cooked us a meal unasked for. And I was being honest with myself, I felt an odd connection to Kain after viewing his memories.

As if my thoughts reached for him through his dreams, he snorted and started awake. He, along with Alaric, were the only ones who didn’t snore. Kain looked around for a moment, spotted Alaric first and then the mass of us girls on the couch and he relaxed. “Thought I might have dreamt up that whole affair last night. Whew!”

I could sense the history in his words, as if he’d dreamt up more than a few scenes in the course of his wanderings. I didn’t challenge him or ask mostly because I stood a good chance of waking Malia. It might have been selfish of me, but I enjoyed having her cling to me in the morning, her soft wheezing breaths wafting up over my neck and into my hair. She was beautiful, but I felt as though something was missing from her in this state. Animation leant her a powerful allure, one I hadn’t noticed until I saw her nearly still in the fresh light of morning.

“I’m gonna go get Reggie real quick. I’ll be back directly.” Kain stood, his legs wobbling as if they’d fallen asleep from his awkward posture and he tipped his non-existent hat to me again.

When he opened the door and stepped outside, I was shocked, but not nearly as much as Malia. She shot up out of my arms, tossing Tia back toward the arm of the couch and sprung to her feet.

“Don’t you touch her, motherfucker!” Malia bounced on the balls of her feet, both arms extended as if she held a knife in her hands. She blinked a few times and looked around the room as if she had no idea where she was. After a few seconds, she stared at me as if only seeing me then. “Harriet, are you okay?”

“Ow, my toes.” Tia rubbed her eyes as she struggled to free herself from the web of blankets she’d been thrown into. “What happened?”

Malia and I reacted like nervous mothers. I crossed the couch to her and Malia sprung to Tia’s side. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” We fired questions at her one after the other.

“I’m fine, why are you shouting?” Tia pulled her blankets up to cover her face, blocking Mail and me from her.

“What the actual fuck is going on?” A voice behind us stopped Malia and me in our tracks and made Tia drop her blanket. “Guys, what happened to me?”

“Alaric!” I hate to admit that it hurt me a little when Tia pushed between me and Malia to reach Alaric. At the same time, Malia and I spun on him.

“Alaric, you’re awake! Yay!” Tia danced at his side while Alaric tried to sit up.

Based on the way he moved, swaying back and forth, I had the impression he was trying to stand with the aid of his missing left arm. “What the fuck is wrong with me, why’s my arm feel weird? What are these bandages?”

Malia and Tia both turned to me, expecting me to answer Alaric’s questions. I took a deep breath and let it out through my nose. “This is going to be hard, man. But lay down for a sec…”

“Bullshit! This isn’t funny, Harlan!” Neither Tia nor I bothered to correct him. At the least, shock made people forgetful. And he didn’t need chastisement in his current state.

“I wouldn’t mess with you about this. You know that.”

He reached over his chest for his bandages with his right arm, scrambling over the empty spot where his left arm have been. His breathing sped up and his eyes widened as he found the stump corner of his chest. “This isn’t funny! I said this isn’t fucking funny!” Pushing Tia away, Alaric clawed at the air as if to rip the truth out and shake it before us.

When he started to hyperventilate, I intervened. As I’d done the previous day, closed my eyes and lay my hand and the end of Roo over his chest. “Shh. You’ll be okay, you’re gonna survive this.”

Slaps rained down on my head and tried to disrupt my concentration. But I kept my gaze unfocused and aimed toward the space right above Alaric’s chest. He grew more desperate as I did. But as if his agitation had peaked, he started to calm. At the same time, red and white light, like a candy cane or barber pole flowed down my arm into Alaric’s chest. He heaved a great sigh as my energy touched him. “What the fuck…” he shuddered once and fell unconscious.

When I’d touched him with Roo, I hadn’t known what was happening. But now that I touched him with my hand and my shawl, I knew that the red and white energy repaired his mind and soul. By process of elimination, that meant the faint green light from the day before had been for his body. I couldn’t be sure about that without any doubt, but the evidence fit.

Kain stomped back into the room as Alaric drifted back to sleep. This time, his sleep was normal, and not the product of the massive damage he’d taken. And I knew he would awaken as normal too.

“What happened? You look right bothered.” Kain shook his hat off and set it back in the closet as a small imp-like figure hopped into the room after him. He had a tiny nose and eyes with little horns on the front of his head.

“These are the people, K?” The imp grimaced. “Oh shit, I’m gonna die a whole bunch, aren’t I?”

“Can it Reggie. Just give me a shave and stay quiet.”

Tia shifted her attention like a seven-year old. “Who’re you?”

Reggie wiggled his shoulders. “Most people say “what,” as in what am I?”

Tia approached the demon without a hint of fear in her stance. “But you talk. That means you’re a who, right?”

Kain whistled and Reggie tilted his head. “Okay, I take it back. I like this one.” He waddled up to Tia and stuck his hand out. “Name’s Reginacladadaromboomshoopwow, call me Reggie.”

“I don’t know how to say that, so Reggie’s good! I’m Tia!” She shook the imp’s hand with enough force to lift his feet off the floor. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr Reggie!”

Reggie pulled his hand away and checked it, as if he were afraid Tia had pulled the whole thing off. “Likewise. And who are you two dames?”

I looked at Kain, who nodded and said, “I’m Harriet. This is Malia.”

“Charmed, I’m sure.” Reggie raised his nose into the air and sniffed. “Why do I smell Kain’s brand of poison? Oh shit and biscuits, you didn’t let him cook, did you?”

“Hey, I’m not bad!”

“Maybe, but now I’ll have to clean up the mess you made. Great!”

The stew in the fireplace had been cooking for hours. The scent of it had filled our house and set everyone’s bellies rumbling. Despite Alaric’s awakening, we were all ready to eat. Tia and Malia were served first while I waited for the end to eat mine. As appetizing as the stew smelled, it made me uneasy, as if I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat it.

Reggie served Kain last, right after the little demon took his own portion and settled it between his feet on the ground. He ate hunched over with his nose drooped over his bowl, slurping noisily. Kain shook his head at the demon and arranged himself on the ground nearby with the hearth as a table.

I raised a spoonful of soup to my mouth and had the instant revelation that I wouldn’t be able to eat it. The smell, the small chunks of tender meat floating in the broth all insisted I chow down now, fill my empty stomach. But a stronger force at the center of my chest assured me I would throw up anything I ate and that I wouldn’t enjoy the flavor.

Sighing, I walked back to the pot and dumped my soup back in.

Reggie slurped up another bite before he pointed at me. “See? She detected the poison you put in it! Smarter than the others, that one is. Except for the fact she hasn’t figured out how to dress herself.” The little demon shook his head as he gathered another spoonful of stew.

“That’s not it…”

“You just don’t like keeping your toes and pinkies in this weather?” Reggie raised an eyebrow while Tia and Malia snickered at him.

“No. I’m talking about the soup. I don’t think I can eat meat.”

Kain sucked in breath and swore in a whisper. “Sorry about that, Harriet. I shoulda thought about that before. Damned inconsiderate of me.”

“Is that a priest thing?”

Kain shrugged. “Every priest has some kind of taboo, meat eating, sex, violence, it runs the fence. Right thing to do woulda been to ask. Sorry”

I shivered. Anything but a sex taboo. I prayed in my head to whatever power had blessed or cursed me with my newfound abilities.

It answered. “Do not partake of the flesh of living things and we will not forsake you.”

I shivered at the response, it rang through my head like the others in the living room should have heard it. But they didn’t react to the loud, booming voice, so I was pretty sure it was in my mind.

“I’ll just make some pasta. Don’t mind me.”

Reggie shrugged his shoulders and mumbled. “More for the rest of us anyway.”

I passed Alaric’s sleeping form on my way to the kitchen. We would have to deal with him before long. To head off any potential problems there, I diverted to the coat closet and found some cold clothes that would suit him. Upstairs in the master bedroom I found some socks, pants and a shirt he could wear too. The sense we would need to leave soon grew between my shoulders, stronger than the previous night. As a result, I ransacked the upper floors for more bags, changes of clothing, and anything I could think of that might help us through the snap winter.

Our only hope lay in hopping between houses in this weather anyway, so the quilts and blankets, other than the ones we’d already taken, had to be left behind. But I took boots for Alaric as well as running shoes and even mittens.

Toothpaste and fresh brushes in the backs of bathroom cabinets made up the last of the materials I ran off with. This was the Collapse, we might have to share a toothbrush between some of us. My first thought was to share mine with Malia. I blushed hard at the thought, not only was that insanity to the extreme, but it was a little intimate. Far more intimate than Malia had indicated she wanted.

I hoped I was wrong about that as I dragged my finds downstairs back into the redolent clouds of stew. Malia had abandoned her bowl and stood over one of the pasteurized pans of water. When she spotted me, she grinned and said, “it looked like you got distracted, so I started pasta for you.”

“Thanks Malia!” Maybe I was wrong about how intimate we’d become. I hoped and prayed I was wrong.

Reggie bounced around the room collecting bowls. He reached the sink, hopped up and dexterously laid a few bowls on the counter and then hopped up onto a stool. “Man Kain buddy, you really outdid yourself this time. My compliments and all that.”

“Thanks, they had fresh ginger and powdered onions in their cupboard. It almost made itself.” Kain smacked his lips.

“I liked it too! You can cook for us anytime Mr Kain!” Tia scrambled up from her seat and brought her near-empty bowl with her. “I’ll help too Reggie!”

The little demon grinned at her and patted Tia on the head. “Thanks, you’re a peach.”

Tia blinked at him. “I’m not a peach, I’m a little girl!”

The rest of us chuckled at her while Tia collected the rest of the dishes. Reggie finished cleaning and patted the fridge. “I take it the power’s out, right?”

He addressed his question to me, so I answered. “Yeah, seems to be out everywhere.”

Reggie lowered his voice. “Then where did he get the meat. It wasn’t a… you know what, right?”

After our near-miss with the cannibals, I had a good idea of what he meant. “No, as far as I know, this wasn’t people.”

Reggie patted the fridge door again and nodded. “Good, good. Still, what was it?”

Kain raised his voice. “Will you relax, you old worry-wort. It was wendigo. Nothing human!”

Reggie’s hand stilled against the fridge and his red-color turned pale. “You fucking idiot!” Claws scrambled against the bare concrete, Reggie shouted at the rest of us. “We gotta get the fuck out of here!”

“What’re you talking about?” Kain stood with a frown on his face. “I left the remains where they fell, they won’t follow us.”

“You dragged their dead flesh here and supped on it, you fucking dolt! We’re all gonna reek like their dead kin for a day, maybe more!” Reggie’s voice didn’t lower as he rushed by Alaric, who swatted the screaming demon like a bothersome fly.

Reggie went flailing with a shriek as he turned toward Alaric. “The sleeping guy, ack!”

“Why are you guys making so much goddamned noise? And what is that awesome smell?” Alaric repeated his performance from earlier that day as he tried to push himself upright. “And what’s wrong with my fucking arm?”

At the same time, the winds outside peeked, scrabbling across the roof as if carried by angry air sprites. The snows picked up immediately, growing more intense. From the center of the living room, I couldn’t see more than a few feet through the flurries now.

Everyone else in the room except for Alaric and Tia froze. Malia had clearly heard legends about the wendigo. At the absence of claws shattering our windows, I walked over to Alaric.

“Relax man it’s me, Harriet.” I patted his chest. “Let me help you up.”

Alaric pushed himself upright with my help. “Man, my arm burns something fierce.” He reached for it as Reggie took up his panic.

“We have got to move people, this is not a fucking drill! The Wendigo won’t think what we’ve done is very fucking funny!”

“It’s better to meet them here in the house where we can defend ourselves…” Kain started up his own argument.

But to everyone’s surprise, Alaric scoffed and said, “Wendigo? If yall are serious, then we want to run. They’re funny monsters. If we run, they’ll hunt us, which means they only send a small force depending on how much of a threat they think we are. But it we stay in one place, the whole clan will come down on our heads.”

“What in damnation, boy?” Kain wiped his head as he stared at Alaric.

“Who’s the skeleton?” Alaric twisted his torso as if he were trying to point at Kain.

“Kain, meet Alaric, Alaric, Kain.” I helped pull Alaric to his feet. “If Reggie and Alaric are right about this, then we need to get moving now.”

“What the fuck happened to my arm?!” Alaric chose that moment to come fully to his senses.

I spun him around and put my hands on his shoulder. With a turn of the head, I barked at the others. “Get packed and ready to move, now!” I looked back at Alaric and lowered my voice so only he could hear. “Look, cousin, remember the Manticore?” Alaric’s breathing had already reach peak panic mode. But he nodded at me while his eyes spun about in their sockets, glimpsing his side as if he couldn’t quite bear to stare at the place where his arm had been. “We couldn’t save your arm, but we managed to save your life, okay?”

“My fucking arm… you’re joking, right Harlan? Tell me this is a weird magical joke or something.”

At that, the house creaked overhead, like snow had started to accumulate on the flat and horrendous roof and it would soon overwhelm the stylishly hideous architecture. I looked up and back out the windows. “I’m sorry man, but I’m not joking. And I want to talk to you about this, I want to help you if I can, but right now we need to get moving.”

Malia, Tia, and Kain made quick work of the packing. Alaric opened his mouth for another shout but our wind break in the back of the house took that moment to fail. A torrent of howls reached in through the breach and whipped about the interior of the home. At the same time, the temperature fell by several degrees. I couldn’t feel it, but everyone else’s breath came out as clouds of steam and the fire started to fade. “Wendigos!” Alaric shouted at the change in atmosphere and I took my chance.

“Yes! We need you to dress. Right now. I can help you!”

The panic in his eyes faded against Alaric’s determination. At the same time, it reasserted its presence in the form of the widening of his eyes and the way Alaric jumped as I helped him into the clothing I’d prepared.

Seconds later, we gathered at the front door. “Is this safe?” I shouted over the howls, with Tia cradled in my arms.

Kain and Reggie shook their heads, but the latter answered. “Not for me, toots. I looks like ol’ Reggie’s gonna die another day.”

He spat into his palms and nodded at Kain, who threw the door open.

Snow and sound piled over the stoop in equally high walls. Reggie leaped the snow drift with a single step while Kain kicked his way through the snow to make a path for the rest of us. Though I carried Tia in my arms and a bag on my back, I didn’t feel burdened in the least. Tia started shivering as soon as we opened the door, so I had a good idea of how cold it must have been, cold enough to toss a pot of boiling water only to see it turn to snow before it landed.

Kain’s guns exploded in front of us. They weren’t exactly quiet, but they did have silencers on them, which explained why I’d had trouble pinpointing his location the previous evening. A blue figure staggered back from his second shot and Reggie landed on another. The red and blue figures rolled around each other in the snow and quickly vanished into the blizzard.

Malia grabbed one end of Roo while I pushed the other end on Alaric one-handed. I wasn’t sure if this would work, but we could easily lose each other in the snowstorm. Icicles flew out from the snow and slammed into my barrier, which now included both Malia and Alaric. They’d grabbed onto Roo just in time.

I plowed forward, my progress inhibited by the massive piles of snow I had to traverse. Kain blinked in and out of the storm, his gunshots reassuring me that he hadn’t left us as he continued to fire into the swirling mass.

Reggie didn’t make an appearance after his initial encounter with the wendigo, but at least none of them charged us. We moved far enough for the house we’d stayed in to reshape itself into a great dark mountain behind us. Thirty feet out, the structure crumbled, shaking the earth and sending out a shockwave of air as it fell.

The howling grew louder, as if the wendigo only then realize they’d failed to slay heir quarry. Out in the street, the snow slowed by a thin margin, but enough that Kain stopped vanishing behind sheets of white powder. He waved us forward with his guns and we slogged through the snow.

Huffing and panting, we passed Kain as he held his ground and fired into the snow behind us. How he could see the wendigo through the walls of snow was beyond me, but I wasn’t going to stop and question him right there.

We plodded on for several blocks, with each step the snowstorm lost its ferocity and the path grew easier. Two feet of snow covered the whole area still, we hadn’t left the drifts behind, but at least we had some breathing room now.

When I checked behind us, the wall of blizzard swirled ever closer. It moved like a beast, slow and deliberate. Kain stood in the gap between us, firing into the storm with his coat flapping in the winds. He looked the picture of a hero in the moment and I thanked my own personal gods for his presence.

After those few short blocks, Alaric and Malia both looked exhausted. Alaric had only just recovered from a serious injury, but Malia was made of sterner stuff. For this trek to exhaust her so meant I should have been laying on the ground curled up in a puddle of my own sick. I’d ask the gods later how I managed to keep moving like this. For now, we pushed on and I tried to let the others lean on me where possible.

“They’re still chasing.” Kain’s voice brought a tiny shriek from my lips when it sounded so close to my ear. “But I’ve managed to down a few here and there.”

“Good, I’m not sure how much farther we can go.” I wasn’t talking about myself, I was talking about the other two. Kain understood the flick of my gaze as he nodded at the other two.

“Check, I might try something dangerous then…”

“Wait!” I shouted at him as I remembered sending my energy into Alaric the night before. “Let me see if I can help first. Keep us safe.”

“Ma’am.” Kain’s nod filled me with certainty.

I closed my eyes and imagined sending the light down the ends of Roo where Malia and Alaric clutched the fabric. At once, green waves of light traveled down the cloth and into my friends’ waiting hands.

It sapped a portion of my own boundless energy and I knew I could only do this once, maybe twice more before I collapsed myself. But in seconds, Malia and Alaric stood up straighter. The haunted expression on Alaric’s face dimmed and faded into the background once more.

He looked at me as if seeing me for the first time. “What did you do?”

“Answers later, running now!”

In the brief time we’d paused, the blizzard had already started to catch up with us. Tendrils of snow snaked around us, trying to pull us back into the heart of the storm. After our narrow escape, we didn’t want to let it catch us a second time.

Malia and Alaric managed to run while Kain kept pace with us, firing his pistols over his shoulder. “Reggie died.” He clucked his tongue and looked back at the same time I did.

Where the storm had been slow before, it now sped up. The little demon had been in that nightmare alone fighting for us this whole time. If I saw him again, I’d buy him a drink. Or rub his shoulders, something.

We ran now, the others panting after a few dozen yards. Running through the snows was ten times harder than running over a smooth trail. The difference pounded itself into our bones and muscles.

Kain’s shots grew more sporadic as the old man devoted more of his energy and attention to watching where he was going. His stamina surprised me, he had the wind of an Olympic runner, not some fifty or sixty-year old man.

The second time I paused to pass energy to Malia and Alaric I felt the change in me. For the first time since the snows started, I could feel the burning frost at the tips of my ears and toes. The fact I ran through this weather barefoot and covered in nothing but a light cloth was a miracle, a miracle which ran on some sort of fuel.

I tried not to think about it as we took off again. Each step depleted me now, brought the reality of dying from exposure further into relief. Frostbite was supposed to be horrific, not that I had any personal experience with it. At this rate, Alaric might not be the only one to lose a part of his body to the Collapse.

We stumbled over the drifts and I checked over my shoulder again. The storm looked slower now than it had before, with less force than it had managed at first. My vision had gone fuzzy from exhaustion. And Malia and Alaric beside me leaned against me when I slowed.

Once more I sent my energy into them. It poured out in spurts this time, a sporadic flow that barely soothed their exhaustion. For my part, the cold came slamming into me, sending my teeth a-chattering in the process.

“Are you okay, Harriet?” Tia raised a hand and placed it again my chest, over my heart.

“I’m… okay…” the chattering in my teeth belied my assurances.

Tears gathered at the corners of Tia’s eyes. “You’re not, I can tell!” What was I supposed to say to her? That we were all about to die because my mystical energy waned, because I’d never really jogged or built up my stamina before the Collapse? Before I could form another lie to use to calm her, Tia doubled over in my arms and groaned. “Owie.” She looked up at me and I swore I saw intent and determination in her eyes as she did.

Kain swore and knocked us all into the snow as the air pressure changed overhead. A black portal appeared above us, lined with flickering red flames. As it popped into being, Tia began to shake as if she’d had a seizure. A dozen flaming hounds, the flesh melted from their bodies, sprang from the portal in a group and barked as their feet landed on the street. One of them, the lead, pointed its nose toward the storm and bounded off with the other eleven in tow. A single hound turned back and slowed as it spotted us in the snow.

It barked at us and with the last bits of my faded strength, I called my barrier into existence. The flaming hound yipped and turned tail as I lost consciousness.