The bright violet-blue light of early morning in Etuua filtered through the cobwebs that stretched across the shattered windows of the living room. They caused dancing patterns of shadow to play across Mars’ face. She groaned as she rolled over, burying her head under the pillow, muttering, “Unngghh… freakin' sun. Go ‘way. ‘M sleepin’.”
RK stirred slightly, beginning to wake up, then was violently brought to life by a choking fit.
“Gah! (cough, cough) Wot the Heck? (hack, cough) Stupid spit,” she spluttered.
“Mmff-mmm-ph-mph.”
RK looked around, blinking in the light, trying to locate the source of the sound. She noticed Mars with her head shoved firmly under the improvised muffle. RK reached over and lifted the pillow off of Mars.
“Wot was that?” she inquired.
“Shyup and go back ta sleep,” Mars growled while pulling the pillow back down into place. RK sat there a moment, pondering the situation. She poked Mars in the shoulder.
“How can you breathe under there?”
“Mmph, grr-mm-Bug-off-mm-grr.”
RK thought about this, then decided it best to turn her attention elsewhere. Now that it was light, she was able to examine the room more closely. There were pictures on the walls, windows with curtains, lights of some sort, and furniture arranged around the room. It looks like something you’d find at home, she thought. Only here, everything was dead. Well, kind of dead. There was an unshakable feeling of uneasiness, as if something wasn’t quite right. As if something were trying to be not dead, or at least, trying not to be dead here. She shuddered, then turned to Mars and gave her a shove with her foot.
“Yo, dude, get up! We should do something now that it’s light.”
Mars emerged from her makeshift cave grumbling. “Yeah? Like wot? Deygo told us to stay here, remember? Wot’re we gonna do? Have a nice convo with the dead dudes?”
“Hey, show a little respect. They’re not ‘dead dudes.’ They’re ‘The Fallen.’”
“Yeh, wotever. They’re still dead. Not like they can hear us.”
“Ya never know.”
The house rumbled slightly.
“See?” RK said. “That’s probably them now. You ticked ‘em off, you did.”
“Oh, come off it, dude. It was just the house settling.”
“Sounded more like it was unsettling to me.”
“Psh, wotever,” Mars said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. “Feels kinda cold in here, tho. How’s that fire comin’?”
“It’s… Well, it’s…”
Both Mars and RK were staring at the dead coals of a nonexistent fire.
“Um, wasn’t that Rule #1? Not to let the fire go out?” RK ventured.
“Uh… yeah. Well… dang,” Mars contributed.
“And then you broke Rule #3 by not calling The Fallen The Fallen.”
“That doesn’t count! That’s not an insult! What should those bloody, decomposing, freaky dead, chemical cretins care, anyway?”
The house gave a violent shake, and strange rattling noises started to come from the Fallen around the room.
“Freak, Mars! If you hadn’t insulted them before, you sure as heck did now!” RK was pointing furiously at the skeleton in the chair in front of them.
“Uh-oh,” Mars said, staring at the bones that were now rising up from their formerly recumbent position. “Um, RK? I think now would be a good time to say, uh, flee.”
“No joke, Sherlock,” RK retorted as she was hastily tying on her shoes. “Didn’t he also say not to go outside?”
“Yeah, Rule #2. But where else do you suggest we go? The broom closet? I’m sure we could fend ‘em off with a mop and a dust pan. They’ll be all like, ‘Oh, we’re sorry. Cleaning maids? Didn’t know you were stopping by today.’ Ta heck with the Rules, dude, we gotta leave. NOW.”
The Fallen in the house were now up and moving toward Mars and RK. The sound they made was not so much heard in the ears as felt in the core of the soul. It was penetrating, like a deep bass, but not rattling the body, only the mind. And they were screaming.
The two women dashed toward the door. “You feel that, Mars? It’s like I can hear ‘em, but not hear ‘em.”
“Yeah, I know, dude. Just shut-up and run away!”
The two took a flying leap out of the house and hit the ground running. The Fallen from the house moved surprisingly quickly for being supposedly dead.
“What about those other things Deygo mentioned?” RK puffed between breaths. “You know, the evil creatures and ghosts and things? Won’t they be out here?”
“Shut-UP, you moron! You want to break every Rule he told us we must follow?”
“Um… no. That was # 4, wasn’t it?”
“Duh, dude.”
“Dang.”
“Holy freakin' A! What the heck’s that!?”
RK followed Mars’ gaze to an alley off to the left and a little in front of them. There a giant beast of some kind was emerging from the rubble that littered the ground. No, not emerging from, it was the rubble.
“Ah freak. I s’pose that’s after us, too, huh?”
The rock beast started moving toward them.
“I’d say so. Ah heck, there’s another one!”
Indeed, the creatures were coming from everywhere now. And not just the rock beasts, but also things formed from shadow, or dirt, or glass. Anything that was around. They were all joining in the pursuit with the Fallen to capture the two women.
(BAM!) Mars and RK were knocked to the ground. There was a grunt of pain from the thing they had run into. Having been so absorbed in watching the creatures following them, they had failed to notice the man standing in the middle of the street. He appeared to be doing some sort of spell, his hands extended in the direction of the beasts.
The two women scrambled quickly to their feet and made to dash off, but they suddenly found themselves incapable of moving. They looked to the man who was still staring back down the street, but he now had one hand pointing in their direction as well. Mars and RK turned back to look at the creatures that had been chasing them, to see how close to doom they were. But the beasts had stopped, as if some sort of invisible wall were put up in front of them. The man who had apparently halted their progress was still standing concentrating his efforts, murmuring words neither of the women could understand. After another few moments, the risen Fallen and the evil creatures started to depart, wandering away as if they had either lost interest in their prey, or had simply forgotten about it. Once they were completely dispersed, the man slowly lowered the arm that had been pointing in that direction, and turned toward Mars and RK, still holding them in place.
He studied them for a moment, then said, “J’ee ai’meh Jodin. J’ee ai’soh’may’loo tute ket hai’vay’loo nai’may’loo~s?”1
“Uh, dude, we got no clue wot you just said,” RK informed their captor.
Mars elbowed RK sharply in the side and hissed, “Idiot! That was Rule #5! Don’t talk to anyone!”
“Well, he’s not gonna just let us go if we don’t talk to him, now is he? Ta heck with the Rules, dude. It’s a little late to worry ‘bout them. ‘Sides, I doubt Deygo was expecting us to be in this situation when he left,” RK retorted. The two women glared at each other.
The man watched them a moment more, then said, “So, it is true. I had heard reports that Deygo was helping two mysterious foreigners, but I did not believe it.”
“You know Deygo?” RK asked hopefully.
“Yes, I know him. If you promise not to run away, we can go and talk someplace a little safer than in the middle of the street.”
The two women nodded their heads.
“Good,” the man said. “And since you do not understand Nay’weh Spay’chu, I shall introduce myself again. My name is Jodin.” He extended his hand to shake both RK’s and then Mars’, who introduced themselves in turn.
“Well,” Jodin said, smiling broadly and gesturing toward a vacant building, “shall we?”
1 "I am Jodin. I assume you two have names."
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