DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games OAHE: Once upon an All Hallows Eve OAHE: Into Darkness They are Borne

Jayden can't quite fall asleep, as much as his grandfather spirit tried to be quiet, he chomped his non-existent gums. "We just can't sit here," the spirit finally said. "We need to do something. What? I have no idea. But I will bet your cat knows something."

===========================
Tiger knew that if they went as far as they had gone into the woods originally, it would take time. Did they have time? Every little bit that passed, the veil between became thinner and thinner.

[OOC: So the plan is to ride in the car to the woods, and then get into trouble.]

Jayden


He stood and stretched right and left, grunting as a couple of compressed vertebrae popped into a new position.

"I don't doubt she knows something, Grandpa. But do you know where she is so I can go ask her?"

Granpa considered "I might be able to find her. The real question will be if we can convince her to let you help. I might be signing your death warrant," the last was muttered almost under his breath.

Jayden


"Well, I've got to do something or all this will drive me crazy."

He pulled on a light jacket and headed for the door.

"C'mon... we'll take the car... you point the way."

[OOC: Assume that Tiger will hear the car when it gets near. We will need to give Ex some time to post, but we can start the gathering process.]

Not far from the museum Tiger hears a familiar sound of her burden's conveyance.

Jayden


"Back to the woods?" he asked the spirit of his grandfather as soon as he realized the direction they were taking.

Dizzy

She looks sideways at Shadow.

"That sounds like my burden."

And then taking up her courage, adds..

"And we need a lift."

Shadow

He stopped, back arched, and looked at her aghast.

"That one again?", he hissed. "We're about to go into what may be great danger, and will almost certainly deal with things their fragile little minds cannot handle. We were very, very lucky that it did not break the last time, and that we were able to get it back home and safe. Why are you... why do you want to take it with us a second time? Do you really want to see it break that much? What did it do to you that you would seek to be so cruel in return?"

Jayden


"Ahead and to the left?" he questioned the spirit as he maneuvered the car. Then he saw cats up ahead and stopped the car and climbed out.

"Dizzy! Damn you crazy cat! What are you doing way out here?"

Dizzy

And then she hears him call to her. It does generate a warm feeling inside. Not alone any more.

She looks at Shadow with that helpless 'what can I do?' expression.

"He has a spirit and me to look after him."

She turns towards her burden, taking courage and comfort from his presence. The future will have to look after itself. Then she strolls over, rubbing around his legs, making sure other cats know that he belongs to her.

"You'll have to help me protect him." She says to the spirit. It is not a question.

Shadow

He faded into his namesake, then tagged along in the darkness, following the younger cat.

"We go into danger. If that burden so much as sees one thing that his mind cannot handle I will personally shred you into nonexistence, spirit. Do not let it be exposed to any risk."

And to Tiger,

"Your burden is yours. But if it breaks, and you need it ended, I am willing to help if it would be too much for you."

Jayden


Jayden squatted beside the small cat, grunting as his left knee popped and then rubbed Dizzy behind the ears.

"How come you ran off with that other cat," he asked.

"Without at least telling me first."

Dizzy

She accepted her petting as well deserved, which it was, not understanding what he is saying but liking the attention.

"We will all look after him. It will not come to that" she meows to Shadow, knowing the spirit will hear her words too. "But thank you."

Underneath her new confidence, she had been worried that Shadow might refuse to let her burden come. But she knows how stubborn and reckless her burden can be and in many ways feels it is safer to keep him under observation. And she likes the attention..

Grandpa said "she is headed someplace that way," which was remarkably unhelpful for a mostly invisible form. Realizing his mistake he said "up hill, I think they want to go. Seems like either we could drive for a while towards the hills or walk a long ways. Not sure, just guessing, but..." The way grandpa said the last, he wasn't just addressing Jayden, but possibly the cats as well.

Jayden


Scowling and rolling his eyes briefly skyward, Jayden stood, made his way back to the car, calling for his damned cat to follow him. Once at the car, he held open the back door, gesturing for the felines to enter.

"Up hill, you say," he said, proving he had a remarkable grasp of the obvious.

Dizzy

She stalks towards the car, pauses for the door to be opened and jump in, her regal bearing intact. Settling down on the seat, ready to take a firm grasp of the upholstery if needed, she turns to the Spirit.

"He knows to go to the woods, yes?"

"We do now. More information is better than less," he shook his head.

To Jayden he said "to the woods boy, take the same road you did before."

Jayden


He rolled his eyes as he started the car's engine, then fastened his seat belt and headed off toward the woods, following the same road as he had the last time.

"Is the other cat with us?"

Shadow

In his two-dimensional form, he was, having tagged along with Tiger's shadow, but there was no way he'd reveal that to the Burden even if he could comprehend the question. Indeed, if the Burden did become aware of Shadow's current appearance, that would be enough to require its death.

"Drive boy," was all the old tired grandpa spirit's voice.

Up the road they went towards where the boy's shoe had been found. Though the body of the boy had not been recovered. Soon the lights of town were left behind and lost in the trees. It was a different world up here, especially at night.

They came to a dirt road that wound further up the mountain or they could continue along the main road. The dirt road lead further up hill, and away from civilization, such as it was out here.

Dizzy

She raises her head and then puts her front paws on the back of the seat in front of her so she can see why they have slowed. Her instincts tell her that deeper into the wood and up the hill is the right direction. She conveys that to the spirit.

Granpa says "take the dirt road. We are going further into the woods." He didn't sound happy. Though to be fair he hadn't sounded happy since Jayden discovered he could talk with the spirit of his dead grandfather.

Jayden


"Dirt road it is, Gramps," he said and made the turn, heading uphill and deeper into the forest.

"You sound like somebody licked the red off of your candy," he said, coming up with a line from some old western movie.

Grandpa was silent for a bit before responding. "Just don't have a good feeling about this. What can I say?"


They continued up the road and it got smaller and smaller. Soon it was little more than a pair of ruts and grass in between. Eventually they come to a place where a car can pull over, and the can continue on as well. After all they were the only people out here this night, or so it seemed.

Eventually the road petered out into a clearing where it was obvious people came up here to park. There was trash along the edges of the clearing, and marks where vehicles had pulled around, or even sat over night. This was a good spot to hike the more wild trails from, given the number of ways out of this little area.

The car wasn't going to go any further. They would have to hike now.

Shadow

A quiet aside to Tiger,

"Do not put your Burden in further danger. It is of no use to us where we must go, and will likely see too much if it is with us."

Jayden


"I haven't had a good feeling about a single damned thing since I hooked up with that damn cat," he said, but there was no apparent rancor in his tone.

Jayden stopped the car in the clearing, turned off the engine and got out, opening in turn the back door for the cat.

"Far as the car can make it, Dizzy."

Dizzy

"Not sure what I can do. Leaving him here on his own who knows what he will get up to. Easier in some ways to keep him in sight. Maybe we could find some small errands he could do?"

She replies to Shadow as they wait for the door to be opened and then she gets out and stretches nose to tail in an elongated stretch.

Shadow

Passing from the vehicle in her shadow, he replied,

"Do you trust that spirit to kitten-sit it? If we take it with us, it will cripple what we are able to do. The First Rule is paramount, and if we face something powerful enough to need us to act in our own full strength, we would be dooming him whichever way it went. We go into danger, it will be doubly dangerous for us and lethal for it if it is with us."

Dizzy

She is now more than a little frightened. Already she has lost Miss Amy from her life, she cannot lose another!

"I don't know. i will talk with it."

Out of the car now, she addresses her remarks to the spirit.

"We are going into danger and have concern for your welfare and more so for that of your charge. There may come a point where you must do as we ask, immediately and without question to preserve his life and your existence. Is this understood?"

The spirit said "I am not afraid of you putty tat. I am dead. I didn't go to heaven and I ain't gone to hell. So whatever it is you think you have to do, go for it. As far as the boy. I will do whatever I can to protect him. But he ain't got a clue, and that may or may not mean trouble.

"There is no way I can force him to do anything," the spirit waved his arm through the car. "But I will talk to him should you say to jump, maybe he will say how high." It shrugged.

To Jayden he says "now the danger is real. You got to listen to me, no matter what strange thing I tell you to do. You got that, boy?"

Jayden


Jayden looked back toward the car and the front seat where he visualized his grandfather sitting.

"I'll listen... that's all I can promise right now, but I'll always listen to you."

Shadow

"Keep it here, Spirit. Keep it here and it can be safe. Keep it in this moving thing, have it wait for our return. If you would truly protect it, this is what must be done."

The shadow considered adding a threat of sharpening his claws on the incorporeal thing, but it deigned not to for the time being.

Dizzy

She listens to this power play argument, not entirely sure what she wants. She doesn't want to alienate Shadow or the other cats as belonging to this sort of group is a big plus for her. On the other hand, she is really worried that if her burden remains here (or anywhere else) she can't do anything to protect him and something could easily circle around behind them and attack him. And she can't lose him like she lost Miss Amy. She will not go back to that awful place he rescued her from. She owes him!

But what to do for the best? She has no idea!

The trails were the only way out of the clearing. There were four of them, but if they wanted to continue up hill, that reduced it to two choices. As DC considered her options, and Shadow gave a stern look to the spirit, Jayden looked out at the world around him.

Jayden's eyes spotted something that possibly the cats might not. There is a dark spot on the hill several hundred yards away. It isn't that he was looking for it, it was more that he was looking at the green mass of trees, and that one void spot stood out. There was something up on the side of the mountain, and it was darker than the surrounding area.

Jayden


Jayden frowned and pointed at a spot about halfway up the mountain.

"Grandfather, can you see that dark spot? And can you tell what it is?"

The spirit said "that is a dark hole in the Earth. I can feel the darkness from here."

Jayden


He frowned and looked from the car to the dark spot and then in the direction the cat had gone. A thought occurred to him - from where he didn't know.

"Is that where Dizzy is headed?"

The spirit was silent for a bit. "I can't say, for sure. Even if it is, you shouldn't go there." The last sentence was said ever so softly.

Jayden


"Well, what should I do then, damnit!" he snapped.

"I'm tired of being left out of whatever all this weird s*** is."

Dizzy

She doesn't follow the conversation but does notice that their attention is focused on a particular area.

"Right let's get going" she says to Shadow.

And heads off towards what she thinks must be disturbance.

The spirit said to Dizzy. "I am not sure the boy will want to stay here. What task would you like him to do so that he feels useful? Leaving him just sitting will only add to the trouble you will face."

Shadow

He tagged along, quite literally shadowing the other cat. He listened closely to her answer to the spirit.

Dizzy

"Any ideas Shadow? I can go invisible and leave him behind but he will likely blunder into something on his own."

She has paused for now, unsure of what to do.

Shadow

The two dimensional feline pondered,

"Something that will keep it from blundering off. Is there anything it can do with its moving box thing here? Something that needs done and will take up its time and effort without needing to go anywhere else?"

Dizzy

The only thing I can think of is that he might stay in the metal thing ready for a quick get away. I've noticed that it only rumbles when he is in it and never goes anywhere without rumbling..."

Her head goes on one side as she considers.

"..but it won't last forever. We would need to be quick. Unless you have a better idea?"

Shadow

"Get the spirit to make something up to keep it busy and in place? It was a Burden once, it knows what makes them purr. Surely it can come up with something that will keep your burden alive and in position without blundering off into a harmful situation?"

Dizzy

She looks at the spirit.

"Well you have our suggestions, any ideas of your own?"

They need to be going. Every second they waste could be allowing the enemy to get stronger. The spirit has one last response and then she is off.

The spirit considered. "I got no idea. But I will try and come up with something." He admitted.

To Jayden he said "let us look around here. Maybe we can figure out something that will tell us what the hell is going on."

Dizzy

She nods to Shadow, slips under the metal contraption and goes invisible.

Slinking out again, she whispers to Shadow.

"Let's go. I'll follow you."

Shadow

The immaterial patch of darkness flowed out of the moving box, the image of whiskers twitching as it sought out the wrongness.

Jayden


"Look around here?" Jayden took a deep breath, held it a long moment and then expelled it noisily.

"What the hell..."

He looked around, but the cat - both cats - were gone.

"Okay... let's look around," he said with a marked lack of enthusiasm as he began to walk around the car. Pausing, he opened the trunk, took out the lug wrench and resumed his search, moving into the edge of the woods and then making his way around the clearing.

"What are we supposed to be looking for?"

The spirit took a moment to respond as if distracted. "I don't know. Mostly I was thinking that if someone came from town to go up there, that they would have to pass through this area and we might learn something without getting in to too much trouble."

[OOC: Jayden can continue here. The two intrepid cats will continue in OAHE: Darker and Deeper. This not to say that we won't have the two threads meet up, it is likely to happen. Just separating for the nonce.]

Jayden


As he made his way slowly through the underbrush around the clearing, Jayden worried about Dizzy.

"Can you uh... sense where Dizzy and the other cat are going and anything about what they are doing?"

The spirit said "no, I am unable to sense them. They have wandered out of view, and that is the limit of my senses. I am not an old ghost by any imagination, even if I was an old man when I died."

Jayden


To Jayden, his grandfather had always seemed older than God and he had a problem thinking of him as a young anything.

"What brought you back here, Gramps? I mean, hell, I don't know what I mean."

"I think I know what you mean. It an existential sense. They say spirits that don't want to move on, have unfinished business, all that rot, is why they stay. I don't know that is the reason I am still here. Maybe I am too dull to find the door?

"What I do know is that it has only been very recently that you could perceive me, and only when you have my old pistol nearby. I don't know if I told you but I was once a card carrying G Man. I wasn't part of those nasty guys who broke up the gangsters and such. No I was more of a book keeping agent. But that gun is from those days. I audited banking transactions and looked for places that criminals hide their money. Well I did then.

"The real kicker is I got shot on the job. That is why I didn't work for them anymore and went on to the career you know me by. I was in a bank doing an audit, pretty much routine, and the darn thing was robbed. The robbers had everyone turn out their pockets. When I turned out mine, they saw my gun. I wasn't going to do nothing. I was going to give it to them. But they didn't take the chance. One of them yelled G MAN and shot me. That is why I had that limp. Didn't do a ton of damage, but it hit the bone and did enough that the government gave me a disability pension."

As Jayden continued to have halfheartedly look around he saw something shiny. Moving over to it, he noticed it was a couple of dimes. Not that big a deal really, but next to it was a pack of gum, and a marble. The items were on top of the grass instead of trampled down under it, or in the earth.

Jayden


"I never knew, Gramps..." Jayden paused and grinned.

"You should've told me. Would've made a lot more interesting bedtime stories than those fairy tales you used to inflict on me."

Then a glittering reflection caught his eye and he bent over to take a close look at what appeared to be two dimes, a pack of Juicy Fruit and a marble.

"How far are we from the place where we found the boy, Gramps?"

"Not far, not very far at all," the ghost pointed and surprisingly enough in the darkness of the tree, they could both make out a little boy sitting against the trunk of a tree crying. Though neither heard him crying, and they could see the tree through the boy.

Jayden


Another spirit... the ghost of the boy?

Jayden scooped up the coins, gum and marble and made a tentative approach to the diaphanous lad.

"Did you drop these?"

The boy looked at him with shiny eyes. He nodded not trusting himself to speak. Holding out his hand palm up, he seemed to indicate he would like his items. Though they could see through the ghostly apparition, so it seemed unlikely that the boy could actually take and hold them items.

Jayden


He squatted in front of the boy spirit, grunting as his left knee popped, then laid the items on the ground in front of the lad.

"Here you go, son. Can you talk to me? Or to my grandfather?"

He pointed back in the direction of his grandfather spirit.

"I guess so. My paw made me promise not to talk to strangers, but that doesn't seem to matter now," he wiped one of his tears. The boy tried to pick up the items at first, then he tried to just touch them. Failing both attempts he just sat and looked the items and at the pair of visitors.

[OOC: Can Jayden hear the boy or just Gramps?]

[OOC: Both can her the boy on this night. :)]

Jayden


Jayden smiled a rather morose smile and nodded in response to the boy.

"Can you tell us what happened to you, son?"

The boy frowned. "Not exactly. I was walking in the woods when I fell down. I thought at first it had been my tripping over something, but I didn't trip. There was something on my back. Then a sharp pain on both sides of my neck, and hot liquid running out. There were weird sounds, sucking, and mewing, and almost like chanting. Then all was dark, till I found myself next to this tree.

"I stayed here because my Mommy told me to stay in one place when your lost. That way you can be found. But I can't touch anything so I am not lost, am I Mister?"

Jayden


"You're not lost as long as you have a friend who knows where you are," he said, his eyes smarting at what he'd heard.

"And I want to be your friend."

The boy looked up at Jayden. Then beyond at the grandfather spirit. "Your like me," he said in a statement.

Grandpa nodded.

"Why?"

"Because it happens boy."

The boy shook his head and looked back at Jayden. "What do I do now? Will you take me to my mommy?"

Jayden


"Not just yet," he said, "but we'll get you home later."

Jayden did not know exactly what to do at the moment.

"Did you see what... attacked you? And what is your name?"

Billy

The boy spirit shakes his head "no I didn't see who it was. My name is Billy," he admitted. At least he wasn't crying as much, though there were still tracks of tears on his ghostly little face.

"Why do I feel pain still?" He touched his chest, not where the wounds that killed him happened which was either side of his neck.

Jayden


"Ah, Billy... my name is Jayden."

He frowned and cocked his head to one side.

"What kind of pain do you feel, Billy? Maybe it is loneliness."

Jayden glanced back toward the spirit of his grandfather.

"Is there anything we can do to ease the boy's pain?"

Billy

"It is a constant pulling like someone is yanking on my heart." He tapped his chest again, basically center mass of his torso to be fair. It wasn't exactly where his heart would be located.

Grandpa

"I think that they are going to try and do that. I am not sure what is happening, but it isn't good. He is being, used."

Jayden


He nodded but didn't really understand... at least not completely.

"What direction does it pull you in, Billy? Is it always the same direction?"

Billy

The little boy pointed up hill in roughly the direction the cats had headed.

Jayden


He nodded, a gloomy expression on his face. That was just what he had expected.

"A friend of mine," he said, surprising himself at the thought which had just occurred to him, "is headed in that direction. Maybe she can do something to help you."

Billy

"I hope so. The pain is not fun." It was probably the silliest way to say something like that, but it felt true coming from the boy spirit.

Jayden


"I'm sure it isn't," he murmured, glancing from the spirit of the boy to the dark spot on the hill and then over to his grandfather. His eyebrows lifted in a questioning expression.

The grandfather spirit frowned at him and shrugged. Jayden noted that both of the spirits seemed even more solid than they had moments before.

As he squatted there a cool breeze started up. It smelled of something vaguely floral.

Jayden


It seemed odd that the spirits shapes seemed to be solidifying.

Jayden grunted sardonically as the thought occurred to him that, by now, he should be surprised at anything that did not seem odd.

"What's that smell?" he asked almost before he realized the floral scent.

"Almost... gardenia like."

He looked all around, especially upwind, to see if there was a visible source for the odor.

As Jayden looked around he noted that both the spirits were also looking around. Did spirits have a sense of smell?

Grandpa said "seems like it is from up hill. But it smells like a field of flowers. Nothing like that really that direction, as far as I can see."

Billy said "smells more like freshly baked cookies to me." He stands wiping tear streaks from his face and looks up hill.

Evidently spirits could smell things, at least at the moment.

Jayden


"Do you have to stay here, Billy, or can you follow me up that hill?" he asked, pointing in the direction upwind from their location.

Billy

"I can follow, but is that a good idea? I feel the pain stronger if I go that way, so something bad is happening up there."

Jayden


"Can you tell or do you have any idea just what uh... badness is happening up there?"

Jayden doubted he could help the boy's spirit much and now he was even more worried about Dizzy.

Billy

The boy just shook his head. It was beyond his ken.

Grandpa
Grandpa said "I am not sure what is up there, but I am sure that your friend went up there to deal with it. We should stay out of their way and let them do what they have to do. I don't want to loose you boy."

Jayden


He glowered in the direction of his translucent grandfather.

"I don't want to lose me either, but I want to do something!"

The grandfather spirit shrugged. "I understand boy. But they protect what they can do quite severely. Should you see something you aren't supposed to, well, it could mean reprisal at the very least. I shouldn't even be telling you that. But I want you to live."

Jayden


He looked from his grandfather to the boy and then back to the spirit of his grandsire.

"Reprisal? Reprisal by who? Whom?"

Jayden shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"This s*** is impossible."

Grandpa

"Exactly, it is impossible. That is what I am trying to say to you, and why we should just do what we are supposed to do. I know nothing galls you boy, but it might save your life."

Jayden


"But it looks to me that we are supposed to do exactly nothing except for occasional chauffeur work," he complained bitterly.

[OOC: And feeding, pampering and grooming! ]

[OOC: For that matter, the occasional chauffeur work is a special privilege only granted to the luckiest few. ]

[OOC: Somehow, I think Jayden would find those caveats to be less than gratifying. ]

"I won't disagree with ya boy. I am just trying to keep you alive."

As Jayden considered his options a low keening sound started high up above them. It grew, the warbling cry sounding like it was echoing and getting louder.