22 Nov 2024, 04:19
Spiraling Pt. 2
This is a follow-on to Spiraling
14 June, 2024
The following morning, at 5:30 a.m., and well before curfew was to end, AngelFyre had gathered her satchel and note and headed out. The sun had been up for little over an hour already, so she would not be futzing around in the dark, which was a relief. She did not go up to the Owlery to give the note to Archimedes because that would take too much time. Instead she stood below it and whistled for him and raised her arm, inviting him to come to the glove. She had his morning meat treats sitting in the finger well and ready for him. When he had finished his little morsels, she placed the note in the pouch, always tethered to his leg, and then brushed her middle and index fingers lightly against his breastbone.
“Okay, Arc. This is it. Go find our Colin and deliver the note. I will be down at the CoMC stables, near the fence line if you need to find me before classes start. Now go and as Simon always says, 'Fly high, fly fast, and fly safe!’ ”
Less than 10 minutes later, AngelFyre found herself at the stables. It was still early, but the day was growing a little brighter by the minute. She found a spot that would not give away her position to anyone not specifically looking for her, but she did, in fact, hope that a certain platinum haired lad would be looking for her that morning. She looked at her watch. She had two minutes. She had asked him in the note to meet her here at 6:30.
Her ears were pealed for any crunch of twigs or movement of branches on the other side of the fence line that might sound his approach. As she waited, she wondered what the chances were he would actually show up. She closed her eyes and thought about the note. Was it enough to move his stubborn self, even just a little back towards her and to a life he had had once loved and cherished? It was not long, but she thought it might pull at his heartstrings.
She heard a rustling in the brambles on the other side, but was uncertain if it was Colin or not. She peered into the forest as best she could, but she was in more light than was to be had on the other side of the fence, so she saw nothing beyond 5’-10’. She sighed and then cleared her throat before starting in as it was now a little past the appointed time to do so.My very dear Colin,
I am, right now, at the CoMC fence line by the stables, near the second grouping of trees. Please come. I have no chance of chasing you down and will not try. You have to come to me. You do not even have to speak (but I hope you will!!!). I just need you to listen. At 6:30 I will start talking. I hope you are there to hear it, otherwise I am going to look and sound right foolish, which will not be the first time, nor the last, but please do not help to make this morning one of those times. Just hear me out, knowing that together we can do anything.
Good Friends care for each other. Close friends understand each other. But True friends stay FOREVER: beyond words, beyond distance and beyond time.1
Your True and FOREVER friend,
Fyre Angel
“I do not know what, but I know something is hurting you… changing you. I feel like I should know what it is given you refer to me as your personal Seer, but the visions are not with me on this one, Brother. I wish they were, but I have no clue about what is not well with your soul these days. I want to know. You know I do. And you must know that whatever this is, you do not have to go through it alone. I told you last year, and the year before that even, I am here for you, Woofy. Anywhere and Anywhen. Those are not simply words I spout because they are easy to say. You know they come with the promise of action when, and if, needed. I miss you and I am worried sick about you.
I know I said you did not have to speak, and I meant it, but some little sign that you are here and heard any of this would go a long ways towards soothing the hurting heart on this side of the fence. You are not alone in hurting this year, not that it is a contest, but you know what I mean.”
She then silenced herself, hoping to hear something from him, but Archimedes swooped in instead and landed on the fence directly in front of her. She reached over to his leather pouch which she could tell had been opened. Perhaps Colin had sent a note bac-…
But no, he had not.
Instead what she got was a series of rapid-fire, gut wrenching visions. All seemed to be colored in black, but there was an even blacker than black void… a Darkness lurking on the edges, shutting out those he loved… Liam, Clair, his other siblings, friends, and even AngelFyre herself. The Darkness was creeping in towards Colin, who looked to be sleeping, curled up in a fetal position at least, and was relentlessly tormented as he did so. His arms occasionally flailed out, sometimes as if going on the offense and sometimes as if in a defensive posture. She watched in horror as he drank some black liquid from a bottle she did not recognize, many times over on different occasions. And each time he did, she recognized less and less of the lust for life wizard she knew and loved. His lips were stained black and his hair matted with leaf debris. She could not hear anything, but she could feel his screams rend her in two. Dirty and disheveled, she watched him in Hogsmeade, scrounging like a beggar for bottles behind the taverns, lifting each to the light to see if any liquid remained within, and bringing them to his lips to suck down the meager drops. Those did not contain anything black though. Those were often garnet or caramel in color. There were brutal fights, tears, blood, and separation. There was also scene after scene of Colin snogging way too many girls, but that looked... and felt... predatory, like something much more than just her friend marinating in his hormonal urges. The last visions had him standing at the Train Depot in Hogsmeade, but he was not looking at or waiting for a train. He was actually standing on the tracks, with his back to the castle and to everyone here, and he was walking away....
It all played out quickly and in a jumble, and she had no sense for the when of most of it.
AngelFyre had dug her nails into the fence rail in front of her as the visions struck, breaking a number of them and causing some bleeding. The visions ended as abruptly as they started, but it felt like she had been following him for eons through space and time and she fell to her knees when it all left her. “Oh, Colin!” she rasped in a barely audible tone. “Hold on. Just. Hold. On.”
If Colin was there, and had witnessed the event, he would recognize it for it was, having seen a vision come over her before. This time though, her blue eyes would remain open but would turn a cloudy white as her body would stiffen with a dangerous rigidity. There would have been no tears this time either.
At least... not until the after.
------- ---------- -------
@Colin McCoire
1 Good Friend quote in letter is attributed to TailPic found on Pinterest.
6 Jan 2025, 20:45
Spiraling Pt. 2
Colin crouched in the tall grasses and wild flowers outside the fence. The note was stuffed into his pocket. Your True and FOREVER Friend it had said. His dreams said otherwise. They'd been dark lately, and confused. He'd stayed in the forest a long while. He didn't want to come here at all, though the name at the bottom of the letter did mean something to him. In his darkness, it was a distant light, like a beacon on a far hill when your in a ship lost at sea. The darkness was so bright that it drowned out the light.
And yet, at the last moment, Colin went to the spot she'd asked him to go to. He made hardly a sound. Only someone expecting him to be here would have heard. Colin was actually pretty graceful when he had a mind to it. Perhaps the slight rustle was an unconscious sign. I'm here. Speak. Because I won't.
And Colin listened.
He knew AngelFyre was here already. He could smell the sun on her hair and the faint hint of hot choco --- and Simon Kincaid. An odd thought passed through his mind. A dark thought. Would she smell different if she were his girl and not Clair? Weird what the mind brings up when you're in the darkness. AngelFyre spoke.
Fyre always got right to the point, whenever the point was important and needed getting to. She knew. She knew the darkness was on him. Again. It was uncanny the way she just --- understood Colin. In a way no one else did. Ever. Even his dear Clair didn't really understand him this way.
Colin bowed his head as she talked.
She knew.
She just didn't know what she knew.
Even Colin didn't understand the what either. It was oppressive. It was like an embrace, not one of love and not one that cared deeply, but one that sought to extinguish, to bury life within itself and snuff it out. And it had wrapped its ugly limbs around Colin's heart. She wanted to be there for him, Fyre did, and part of Colin knew he should just leap out from behind the concealing tangle of weeds. Yet he couldn't.
Not yet.
It had been hard enough to come this far.
The darkness held him in its tender embrace. It caressed his heart. He could tell she was worried. He just had to figure this out. That's right, said the darkness. She won't be able help anyway. A seer is she? A seer who is blind. She's of little use. Her words are meaningless. Colin felt a moment of despair as his heart fluttered in its cage of chill emptiness. That made sense. He didn't even know what the dreams meant. How could she help? Why burden his friends with these things.
She said she was hurting too.
Colin didn't know what that meant.
He made no sound to communicate that he had heard her, or even that he was there. Tears began to flow. Tears of bitterness and isolation. He wept in the darkness. AngelFyre fell silent. She did that sometimes, when she was Seeing something. If that's what was going on, he could only hope she was seeing something happier than his dreams had been.
When she spoke at last, she sounded desperate: “Oh, Colin! Hold on. Just. Hold. On.”
Colin said nothing in return.
He was far from holding on.
Colin silently slipped back into the trees and ran for the depths of the forest. He was losing himself to the darkness.
@AngelFyre McCubbin
Keep your mind in hell; and don't despair.
Cursa McCoire
Rigel McCoire