Chapter 41Where Someone Dreams

The women on the points, each a candle in front of them, started chanting. It sounded vaguely like Latin, but the reverb in here made it impossible to discern. I looked at Valerie and Isabel beside me, seeing Valerie looking a bit scared strangely enough, with an expression of forlorn recognition on her face. Isabel looked as quiet and innocent as ever, with only those piercing eyes to betray the strange thoughts within.

The darkness covered us all though. I usually wasn't aware of how sharp I saw anymore, how vivid everything was but I noticed my subconscious telling me we were invisible to normal eyes. Very odd. As if something was judging everything in the back of my mind. Neutral and objective. In a way.

The chanting stopped already. It sounded as if they had only just begun, this was all just an introduction. The man raised his arms and said something I did not understand but I probably amounted to 'please accept our sacrifice' or something. It had sounded ominous.

The four man standing around the boy urged him forward to the center of the circle. He didn't resist and didn't really look afraid. But he didn't have the same calm that Isabel had and didn't look as 'wrong' as her either. It was as if he was ordered to do this but didn't really know what it was.

The man in the center turned and got a bowl from behind him on the ground. I couldn't see it before from our perspective but I could smell it. It smelled like heavy liquor with something else in it. Smells I didn't recognize. Drugs and herbs I thought. It was a pretty dangerous cocktail I felt and would never drink something like that. Not that I could anymore.

Now that was a thought, would drugs still work on me?

I shook my head, it was a thought for later times. I saw how the man handed the bowl over to the boy who took it gingerly. His body probably telling him what he had in his hands was bad for him. Nothing was said, that struck me as odd, no singing either or urging anywhere. The boy put the bowl to his lips and drank. It wasn't much, perhaps one or one and a half cups of liquid. He slowly drank it, taking care not to spill any and handed the bowl back to the man.

All the men moved out of the circle, standing next to the women, making them stand between the points. The boy stood there silently.

Slowly, almost as if we ourselves could see it, we noticed a change in him. The liquid slowly spread through his body, lighting everything on fire and dulling everything down. We could smell his sweat slowly changing. It was as if his body was trying to push the poison out. The boy started to move, first a bit in a daze but then flailing wildly, clutching at his throat until he collapsed on the floor.

The women started chanting, the men falling in deeper with a different chant. In a way... I didn't like to admit it but the chants sounded beautiful. Their harmony was something to be admired. Though I hated myself for thinking this, as the circle felt evil and I didn't like appreciating anything they did to the boy.

The boy screamed. It wasn't out of pain. It was... Hard to say exactly. It was as if he suddenly woke up from a nightmare. He stood up and turned around in the circle, wildly looking at everyone until he settled on one of the women. They stopped chanting.

"You! Your child lost, a truck passing, hitting her. Her friends party. Soon."

Before the woman could even react, he turned to someone else, a man wearing glasses.

"You! Company lost, all forgotten, the shares gone. Letters, computers. Later."

A flash of realization went across the man's face but the boy was already turning around again. This time he kept on turning, looking form one to the other. It was creepy. I felt he spoke truths, what would come. I had no idea how I knew, but it was a feeling. So true. It was real. The boy looked to another woman.

"You! Sickness. Daughter, sick. Hospital. Life not lost but hurt. Soon."

He turned around again then looked at us, even though the women and men in the ring couldn't see. He looked straight up after, as if not to give us away.

"Ghost walking, old ghost. Dangerous! Danger! Long fall, fingers hurt, clothes torn. Surrounded." He took a deep breath. "Among the sister of the moon and the daughter of Ba'al! Now. Soon. Later."

He was talking... about us.