Author: Michael Reed

A time infernal The train ride was the longest she has ever taken. She had traveled from one end of the country to the other. Battled evils beyond her own understanding and lost contact a few times with her family. She watched the mountain or the thing they called the Santana mountain pass her by and missed Samantha, she hadn’t heard from her since she had used her ability to control her in 96. She had freed her and Samantha had run. Probably to one of her vampire friends in New Orleans or to Quebec. Her mother slept beside her pretending to be of all things an adopted ward. Her father, lying on his death bed waiting for Mary Katherine to come and take him to heaven. The train lurched as the break was pulled and they began sliding into the station. The town looked familiar but also foreign, like a thousand small towns she had seen and unlike any at all. This was her homeland after all. It held power over her fey blood and she felt stronger here.Her mother sighed deep emotional relief at being closer to the gazebo. Her mother’s place among the Shades. “Lizzie” she said with a motherly tone “Time is of the haste” Her butler a young man that was in love with her named Demitri immediately moved to gather their things. Lizzie stretched and followed her as the train continued it’s controlled crash along the rails passing a group of tired coyote that had seen a lean winter. The spring was blooming to life around them making them the only thing that hadn’t flourished. As the usher made his way towards the door she stopped and saw her brother for the first time in years. Standing outside of the station his sons beside him. She thought how it would break Sam’s heart to see it herself. But Sam couldn’t return to Texas for another twenty years at least.As the door opened she stepped off the train and stared into her brother’s wise old eyes. She had chosen to increase her weight considerably. Plumped up like hen she had told them. “is he” she asked breathing in the emotions of sadness but not grief. “Not yet” JQ said with reassurance.“Demitri load the carriage but wait on the automotive” she ordered.He nodded and did so immediately.The people looked at her trying to guess if she was in fact his sister. The lusts of many a man directed themselves towards her and a few of the women as well.“My sons, Sam and Martin” he introduced them with pride and a joy she wasn’t sure she had ever seen him feel before.Their desire was apparent enough but boys of that age usually couldn’t hide it well. “My ward Lizzie” she motioned to the young child that was petting a stray dog. She listened to local gossip as they went down the road towards the McCarthy lands. Her brother was well informed about most things in town though he’d failed to become the preacher his father had wanted, instead he was a business man, running supply trains that donated heavily to the churches in town. She had arranged shipments of various goods to him as she traveled and though they didn’t show it outwardly like many of the others in town she was by all rights a wealthy woman as was her brother. A Decade of being gone from her home had not softened her as much as society would have liked. She wasn’t the trauma ridden child so many wanted her to remain, she had become a woman with some of her own thoughts and it had often rubbed her father the wrong way over her calls and in writing. She had shipped all of the letters he sent her to him upon his request. Her mother had insisted. She often butt heads with her mother these days. The only thing they seemed to agree to was around a single beneficial plant on most occasions. Her mother was somehow getting older but becoming impulsive and somewhat irresponsible as well. The cycles of the fey they called it. Sometimes she caught glimmmers of her old mother, but often she reverted to a mind frame of child like wonder and idiocy. She was somewhat exhausted from everything. But her father was dying and about to meet his God. The afterlife was everything she had heard but even more. She couldn’t warn him, only show up and punch his representative in the face for the abuse and suffering he has created in his name. Time suddenly stood still and she lurched forward slightly. The world had stopped turning. The sign of an Intrusive, She stepped out of the carriage into the frozen streets of a moment in time that was known to those with a very special amulet as an Intrusive. Her father suddenly appeared before her and beside him was an angel. She smiled with sympathy and said “Sorry he tried to hold out but didn’t make it” Mary nodded to her and looked at her father’s soul. “Ready to make a deal Father?”“He looked at her in fear and guilt and she knew he was already gone.” “So he belongs to mother after all?” She asked looking at Her Sister with some amusement. “Not mine though” the angel said with sadness. “Consider this professional courtesy since we share the cause. I was picking him up during the Intrusive anyway, it’s frozen and it’s an honor to meet you Sister, they call you the Crimson Shadow even here.”The angel seemed to be a fan.She touched her father and he suddenly opened his eyes to her. “You deserve everything she does to you from this point forward Father but you will not remember why. It’s oddly fitting” she sighed “I still love you though, I’m just mad right now” she let him go and he too froze in time. She looked at the angel and smiled sweetly. “Dear child, would you be willing to toss him back in so he can have that last wish of his please” the angel looked delighted to be of use and nodded a minor favor was created between them without anything else spoken. Their amulets glowed and Mary walked into a shadow and out the other side while a mirror of herself got back in the carriage. She walked out into a canyon and saw the shadowy tendrils of smoke and flesh, the horrors she had seen frozen in time. The shadow realm was almost overrun with the damn beasts now. Only the Time Stop Rituals had been of use to stop them from entering the mortal realm. They had been fighting them ever since. The creature had completely walked into the mortal realm and froze in the Shroud of Time. She burned it away to ash with a single wave of her hand. Time resumed and she called herself back to her mirror. Her mother noticed but said nothing. “The town looks different now” she said out loud.“Not that different” her brother said flatly. They pulled up to his house and stepped out into the pecans and live oaks. Everything blooming slightly with new growth. The wind blew cold and she walked up her brother’s steps into the house. She went straight to her father’s room and knelt down at his side. He was barely breathing but his soul was back in his flesh.He looked at her with both regrets and love. She nodded letting him know it was more than a dream. Her mother walked in behind her and she saw the recognition in his eyes. “My ward Lizzie”She said with a smile. “My beautiful Mary Katherine” he said weekly“You came at the end like you promised, you were right, I do love you more than God”He was smiling wide as his soul left his body and twirled around her mother’s finger becoming a ring. His flesh went limp and she patted his head and put on the show. A grieving daughter that barely made it in time. She was upset that his last words went to her mother but it was to be expected. Familiar arms wrapped her in embrace.She hadn’t seen her Maid in months but was grateful for her being there. Demitri was also looking forward to seeing her. Her brother stepped in and sighed. He knew without knowing that his father had died. His feelings of both relief and grief filled the air.Beth helped her up and walked her out of the room before seething at Lizzie to follow them. They went into the parlor where a wake had been waiting for weeks. His servants went upstairs to prepare the body.Lizzie looked at the ring deeply in thought. She was getting used to the name. She had taken it from a foolish woman that had no further need of it. Her love hadn’t wanned but her mind had been altered and she wasn’t sure what best to create with his soul. His memory was slowly leaking into her own and she had to finish digestion before she gave it a good job. His soul wasn’t the weakest she had seen but it wasn’t the strongest either. They needed warriors to take back the shadow realm more than anything.JQ wasn’t sure how to feel. He was now the head of the house. When his brothers had placed him in his care he had simply hired others to help. A year of watching his father slowly fade away and become someone else. The doctor had told them to say goodbye. Mary had barley made it in time and he was grateful for that. His wife held him close and he found comfort in her presence.His sons slept nearby and his sister was just watching their father’s body like it might move.Her maid was looking at Mary like she might need to wipe a tear away at anytime. Her ward Lizzie was starring out the window then at her wedding finger than out the window again. He thought he felt a sudden chill in the air and then it was gone.He focused on his father and sighed thinking he saw him move. He had done so many times after late night talks with him. He had looked for him to move, he knew this time wasn’t going to change. He looked away and back towards his sons, he nudged them awake and said “Can’t be awake if you’re sleeping” something his father would say he was sure. The the two of them woke up and tried to keep from nodding off.As the sun rose and fell onto the body they did as well. The servents covered him in a cloth and everyone walked out of the parlor. JQ felt his heart skip and his head swim. He hit his knees and felt the ground rush up to meet him. Something was in his legs and he smelt gunpowder. He turned to see his Sister holding up the roof and Lizzie covering the children with her own body protecting them. A creature made of shadow had broke through the wall and was wrestling with Bethany. He thought he must be mad as an angel suddenly appeared and kicked the creature in the face.He awoke looking up at the corpse with his leg tingling. Everyone looked tired and nothing was out of place. His sons looked up at him with knowing eyes. The sun started creeping into the house and he motioned to the servants. His sister rose and nodded to him as she walked out of the parlor.The sound of Demitri in the Model A was a welcome sound. She was followed by Lizzie into the yard and they stopped to watch him pull up. Her nephews were suddenly full of energy seeing it. They looked up at their father and he nodded.“Beth Dear take anyone that wishes for a ride won’t you” she said loudly for everyone to hear her. They brought the horses around and placed her father inside the casket. The children and Bethany climbed into the car and it led them out to the small cemetery they had established where her faithful mentor was resting. A decade ago she wasn’t supposed to walk on the land. But new laws had been made, new treaties signed.They lowered the body into the ground and she set a small magical amulet in there to decay his body quickly. She didn’t want the Intrusive, to raise him up. She looked up at the dragon as it waited for the day it was free.