Mystic Miss ((Zodiac))

[Merry (DELETED 7994)]

The darkness seemed to stretch forever, her hands reached out for someone or something that she wasn't sure was even there anymore. It was in the darkness that she heard a familiar voice, whispering out into the fathomless black pit that Meredith found herself lost in. "Merry Death." The name spoken out, growing louder and louder, the same words repeated until it was all she could hear echoing around her skull. The voice became more feminine, so warm and inviting but it wasn't either of the women she claimed as sisters, no. It was just as she thought she might be madder than she must already be, here in this darkness, that a light came on.

Pure and blinding it completely flooded her senses, somewhere in the distance and yet it illuminated everything. There was nothing to see but particles of light, so clear that she imagined she could almost see rainbows within it. The other colours began to fade, the light steadying and becoming more clearly one colour. Purple. Everything purple, always purple. A violent violet that made her feel alive, aware and prepared to seek it's source. That voice faded in and out now, as if leading her towards something. Although she talk steps it was as if she walked through nothing, there was no echo of footfalls, nothing firm to keep her from falling just a constant pressure that embraced her.

"MERRY. DEATH." It was shouted now, to the left of her and Merry spun sharply towards it, her pace picking up so that she was running now for the one who called to her. More and more familiar, that was a beacon and the colour purple steadily grew. It was a colour that had been representative of both of them, and she was sure others had tried to reach out to her but none could get through to the other side. They had a such a similar energy, it was so easy to be drawn to this friend. Her arms stretched out, fingertips reaching, stretching, hoping to grasp hold of this lifeline back to the world she had left.

Her legs were aching with the effort of sprinting, her body contorting and twisting to try to get closer to her friend, closer to the light that would end the smothering darkness. The young Mystic gave a final push at the pressure that tried to hold her in place, falling, tumbling into the light. Her body shuddered, lungs aching as she gasped for air like a fish out of water, struggling to comprehend her surroundings. Dirt, she had dragged herself out of dirt in the middle of the wilderness. Her friend was not in sight, there was no arms to help pull her up from the earth but the energy still felt so close. "Zo..." She whimpered, her voice hoarse.

Merry felt weaker than she had upon falling into sleep, as if she had fallen to the shadow realm and yet as her hands moved frantically over her frame, checking every dip and curve she noted that nothing was out of place. She was herself, she was the same woman who had left yet she felt like a new born. Reaching out she tried to feel Perry, to call to him but she was not strong enough, her body longer moved at her will to other places. Many of her abilities remained, but she was so far from where she had been. "Reborn... Again?" A string of cursing in her native tongue, Romanian, left her then as she scrambled away from her shallow grave and to her feet.

The feeling of disorientation was overwhelming and she struggled to keep upright, let alone walk too far. "ZODIAC!" She shouted the name, surely the woman had to be nearby, the energy was so strong. She tried to focus on it, stumbling like a deer trying to walk for the first time, clumsy and in desperate need of someone to show her just how to do it. Merry tried hard to clear her mind, to empty it of the concerns and let the powers that remained extend, seeking some way to make contact, to find a way back to civilisation. It was about this time, with thoughts of civilisation that Merry recalled her search of her person had revealed that she was naked as the day was born, with nothing but her dark, thick hair that brushed against her ribcage to cover her. "This, this is not my day."

[Zodiac]

Life was finally returning to the world around them. Winter's embrace was finally fading and the signs of rebirth were beginning to assert themselves. The gypsy never missed a chance to slip away and immerse herself in the experience. As her grandmother had taught her- 'Spring is the divine's way of saying one more time' Wandering along the borderlines between what was safe and what the Fae claimed as their own gave her the space she needed within. The town was like any other. Despite its constant state of expanding, rebuilding and tearing down, a type of stagnation clung to the very air around it. Bricks and glass and concrete and steel had no inherent life to them and Gaia sought to slowly return those random elements back within herself. It was a never ending struggle that, in time, the earth goddess would win.

The same was true for the woods she drifted through this night, but the difference was here-rather than returning to dust what man had strove to created, a landscape most would find boring at best was an ever changing celebration of the cycle of life itself.

A landscape she did little to disturb in her passing. Her feet floating inches above the collections of dead leaves and fallen branches. Out here she did not have to exert her will to stay low to the ground to give others the illusion that her feet touched the ground like everyone else. Even stepping up onto a fallen tree, her foot held contact for only a moment before she began to float again to hold her at the same distance from the surface. Her ears picking up the tiny sounds around her now. Large and small heartbeats. Some in motion, others at rest, and some struggling to awaken from their winter naps. She smiled brightly-a rare thing in recent times- and spun in the air as if she was dancing.

"We Honor the Fertile Earth. We Honor the Warming Breezes. We Honor the Waxing Light. We Honor the Nurturing Rains. Welcome Spring, New Life to Bring, to Land, to Us, to All. Welcome Spring, Rebirth we Sing, Within and 'Round Us All."

Her thoughts began to call out. "It is a time of celebration. To be merry. No thoughts of death this night." she pushed as hard as her mind would allow, not caring who or what heard her 'speak'. "Be merry! No death!" she parroted for a time. She continued her mental chattering until she saw a naked woman running by.

Barely any reaction could be seen on the girl's face. Naked people running the woods at night had gone from a 'WTF?' moment to almost commonplace occurrence since the witch had lived here, and when one considered the things and such that walked both the dark bowers they now stood in and the streets of the town itself, a naked person barely ticked on the Strange-o-Meter.

That is, until the naked woman cried out her name as she continued to run along. Curious now, she drifted after the woman. She needed a shower-badly. Not the smell of her, though that held the unmistakable tinge of another night feeder in it, but she was filthy. She also smelled of the earth. Putting 2 and 2 together and managing to come up with 4, it was obvious the vampire had awoken and dug her way out of the ground. Zodiac did not know anyone who fit this scenario in her life that she could recall.

She drifted around from the woman's right and looked at her while she complained about this wasn't her day. She blinked a few times. She remembered this face, but it had been ages. Both Temperance and herself had thought the girl long passed.

"Merry?" her mindspeak whispered to the woman. "Honey, is that you?"

[Merry (DELETED 7994)]

Her hands brushed at the dirty in her arms as moved quickly, trying to find something that would serve as signpost, a notable landmark, anything to guide her home. She was coming up short and getting more frantic, continuing to call out for Zo in the darkness. When had she last seen her? Oh, so long ago, but she was on of the first friends made in this city, one of the few people who understand the strange young Gypsy raised woman, to not shy aware from her strange abilities. Her mind was touched by words, "Merry? Honey, is that you?" And though she tried as hard as she could to reach back, to speak out she couldn't, her mind could not talk with another.

Merry tried to slow her pace so that she might better listen for the woman's voice, her footsteps falling lighter upon the ground, eyes wide in their search. Her arms wrapped around her frame, making her both simultaneously more covered and better protected against the elements though in reality it made no difference at all. She whispered gratitude to her hair, doing the bulk of the work to hide her full chest and keep it warm, since when did she care about cold? It wasn't even full winter, she wondered what day it might be, what month of what year she had returned to. Did Perry sleep? Had he given up hope for her and moved on? She wouldn't begrudge it of him, so young, he deserved to find happiness.

The current path she walked seemed fruitless, and on a whim she turned to walk in another direction, hopeful. Each step made her feel more confident, as if this was exactly where she was meant to be going, that sense of another energy returned and without thinking she reached out into the darkness. It took her a minute of blindly reaching, of rushing headlong into the emptiness around her but it paid off when she stumbled, tripped and damn near fell into the arms of Zodiac. Her hands grabbed for the woman's shoulders to steady herself on those wobbly legs, a hand reaching to caress her old friend's cheek. "Zo... I don't know where I am."

[Zodiac]

She held on and steadied the woman as Merry finally focused on her. Zodiac had slept occasionally for odd lengths of time herself, but usually it was in familiar places such as her home. How had her fellow mystic ended up in such a odd place was a curiosity but now was not the time for such questions.
"It's okay. Your safe now." she smiled as her thoughts continued to slip into the woman's mind. "Where you are is in the woods just North of town, but I can get you somewhere more pleasant soon enough."

She imagined the confusion and decided to answer the inevitable questions after she got her out of here. How does one explain that the last time you had seen a person was years ago and you have no clue how they ended up like this? Zodiac unhooked the hooded cloak she wore and draped it around the woman's shoulders, hoping the cloth would help add to any feelings of security Merry might have at the moment.

"I need you to do one thing for me." She took Merry's hand and guided it to a small tree next to them. "I want you to hang on to this and don't move. I need to go on ahead for a bit, but I will bring you along soon enough. Okay?" Zodiac doubted Merry even knew the concept of summoning a friend to join you. All those newer skills were discovered by vampires after she had disappeared and was presumed lost. Now that she knew she was back, the gypsy could pull her to her side from anywhere. The 'hold on to this tree' thing was simply to keep her from wandering and possibly being seen or injuring herself.

"I'll be quick. I promise." She gave Merry a quick embrace and a smile before vanishing in a puff of teleportation. Zodiac reappeared behind the apartment complex she lived in and she made her way to her part of it quickly. Once inside behind locked doors she reached out her thoughts again.

"Ready?" she asked as she called up the power. "This may be a bit of a surprise," She had been on the summoning end of this spell before herself. To the gypsy it was a combination of teleporting and celerity. A sudden rush as you moved from one point to another. Immaterial, yet a sense you were still in this world and not passing through some other place as when one teleported. Less than 2 heartbeats later she reached out and took hold of Merry's arms as she appeared in the confines of Zodiac's living room.

"Now I bet you have a million and two questions to ask."

[Merry (DELETED 7994)]

It was good to be with something solid, to heal the worried hands that soothed and held her still. Merry's own hands lifted to brush at the woman's shoulders, the side of her neck, whispering her name just the once. It was so strange to think that this was the first person she saw, and she began to wonder where the others were again. She wanted to see them, but she feared asking, what if they were all gone too? She couldn't take that right now, she'd sink back into the darkness without hope. "Safe in the woods, safe with Zo Zo. Ok, I am safe with you."

The woman accepted the cloak over her shoulders, tucking it around her to help her feel more covered, less exposed to the elements and the eyes of others. She let herself be led to a nearby tree, wrapping an arm lazily about it, leaning against the solid strength of the trunk. "Ok, I trust you, I will stay." She shivered as Zo embraced her, she was real, this was real and she didn't have to be afraid anymore of the blackness. They were going back to the city, they were going home.

Ready? Was she ready for what? She didn't know what to expect so she simply nodding, pressing her eyes shut and waiting for whatever it is that was coming. A cold fear swept through as she felt weightless, bodiless, a part of something and yet nothing for just a second. As she opened her eyes she found that Zo was there, and they were in a living room. "Oh, thank goodness!" She cried, the young woman throwing herself onto her old friend, arms embracing to crush her against a full chest. "Too many questions. Zo, how long? How long was it?"

[Zodiac]

Normally, the idea of a facefull of breasts would not be unpleasant to the gypsy. It was the suddenly-BOOM-boobs that tossed her for a bit. She finally managed to pull loose of Merry's embrace and look up at the woman.

"How long?" Could she deal with the truth of it? "I'll tell you what, I will answer all your questions, but first..." She took Merry's hand gently and guided her to the bathroom. "Why don't you get a good hot shower first? I will find you something to wear and get a snack ready for you. I am surprised you don't feel hungry at the moment."

As she closed the door behind her, Zodiac wondered. How do you tell someone they took an extended nap for almost 5 years? She didn't even begin to know how to tell her about Temperance and some others. Mortil was still around at least, but she had no clue how the pair of them were getting on before Merry winked out. As she sat some blood packs into a kettle to warm up she decided to feel out the conversation and then decide what to do next.

Clothing was a problem. The girl had 5 inches on her and was larger in places than she was. The gypsy finally decided on a too large for her pair of sweat pants that had somehow managed to avoid a donation bag and a large t-shirt advertising Pandora's Box. She didn't even try on the subject of underwear. Inelegant, but it would cover her till they could get some real clothing for her.

She knocked on the bathroom door and opened it enough to lay the items on the edge of the sink, then retreated back to her kitchenette. "Use all the hot water you want" she encouraged Merry. She then prepared herself a mug and sat down. After lighting a cigarette (a carry over reflex from being alive when things got awkward) she held her temples and sighed deeply.

"Oh, Mater Lacrimarum, help me do this right." she silently begged her patron goddess.

[Merry (DELETED 7994)]

She'd lost her manners in all the excitement, poor Zo, Merry looked apologetic as her friend fussed about her, still avoiding the questions and urging her to go shower, to get into clean clothes and feel better. Food. Feed. Hunger. Oh god, the hunger! She felt the pangs that had probably been there all along for the first time, they were fierce and clutched at her in a way that made her want to tear into whatever was near. No, calm. Calm.

Taking Zo's advice she went into the bathroom, dropping the warming cloak from her frame to step into the shower. A bit of fiddling with the temperature knobs and she had the perfect amount of hot water running over her skin. It was so good to stand beneath the water, to let it wash away flecks of dirt, Merry scrubbing at her skin with hands to push away the rest, grabbing whatever products were in the shower to help her smell clean, fresh, modern. Her hair so thick had retained a lot of the dirt, she carefully worked her fingertips through to untangle, building up shampoo in thick lathers until the water no longer ran dark.

She squeaked at the voice, but was glad to see it came with a body who delivered clean clothes. Good, she could at least be decent to sit down and discuss the world. She stayed in there a few minutes longer, just letting the water pound down on her. Reluctantly the water was shot off, towels grabbed to rub and dry at her flesh, on wrapping up her tangles of hair until it was dry enough to let free. She stepped into the baggy clothing, glad for the softness of the material, she couldn't have handled anything over restrictive, and went to join Zo.

The dark haired beauty draped herself across the couch, eyes falling patiently on the other woman. "You... Mentioned hunger? Yes, I have this I admit. Then maybe we can speak some?"

[Zodiac]

When Merry emerged from the bath, Zodiac got up and returned to her little kitchen. She pulled two large steins down and filled them both from the blood packs and brought them to her.

"Both for you. That should at least take the edge off for now. We'll help you fill up later-promise. You still clean up nice, by the way."

She then sat back down and picked up her own mug and sipped a bit as she watched her guest drink. She lit another cigarette and took a deep mental breath.

"How long, you asked me," she began slowly. She did not think their kind had a sense of time when they slept like this. Even the few long naps she had found herself in was no different. Days would have passed where she felt like a normal cycle of hours should have been. "I am sorry, doll, but I don't have a gentle way of putting this. If I am right... From the last time I spoke to you and now, close to four years have passed. I can't say that is the total time you been asleep, cause we did not see each other daily in the past." There, it was out now.

"I also have no clues on Perry or .... Temperance." she continued. A flash of sadness crossed her face when she spoke Tempy's name. "I haven't seen Perry since I saw you last. Tempy left for a time, returned, and now is missing again. Around close to two years for her. Mortil is still up and about being the brat she is."

But, She continued. "I have a question of my own. How did you end up in the middle of a forest like that? Buried in the ground?" The few times a 'long nap' had grabbed her was when she was in her own bed safe and secure. Merry had to be out there for some reason originally. Her curiosity was wanting answers.

[Merry (DELETED 7994)]

Merry eagerly accepted the stein, eyeing the other one with gratitude, she may just need them both after all. Sipping form the one in her hands the dark haired beauty settled in to hear her questions answered, she had no doubt it was going to be difficult to hear. Something had occurred that she couldn't begin to fathom, she was quite convinced she'd fell asleep, slipped into the shadows and returned in the middle of nowhere. She smiled politely at Zo's completely, reaching to brush a hand over the woman's knee as a show of her gratitude.

Four years, that didn't sound possible and yet. "Four years..." She repeated out loud, at first shaking her head, though after a few moments began nodding, acceptance. Yes, perhaps it was something like that. "I can't feel him, I can't... I'm so weak, i've lost so many of my abilities Zodiac. I am sorry for Temperance, she is such a beautiful, kind soul. Mortll still fighting her way through the world does not surprise me, I shall have to find her and see if our Noelle still walks the waking world."

She took a few larger sips of the blood, tapping her fingers against the glass as she let her mind adjust to the new information. She would have missed a lot, perhaps Mortll and Noelle would not be interested in caring for their wayward Merry, perhaps they would be polite but not longer want to share time with her. She would see, it would be alright. "Hmm? The... Oh." A shrug, hand lifting to smooth down the dark curls, pushing them over her shoulders to feel the comforting weight. "I believe, Zodiac, that shadows claimed me. That I was... No more? I don't know how I managed to hold onto this body, it makes... I don't know. It must just have been the place I came out, within the ground strangely stuck. You know?"

[Zodiac]

No, she didn't know. So far, Zodiac had been lucky and not had to spend any time up close and personal in the Shadow Realm, so how things truly worked in there was something of second hand information. She also was a mystic. One who had learned how, with effort, to be able to return to the remains of her own body and not be forced to take over another living being. The thought of damning some innocent to the same fate she was stuck in was repugnant to the girl.

But again, that was a skill they had discovered after Merry had vanished. It was Merry she was looking at now, so how did this mystic manage such a feat? She doubted it was anything directly on her part that made it happen. Something in the woods, perhaps? She did feel comfortable out there. Something in the vibe of the area soothed her at times and she had done some spells and such there before, but she had done nothing this night to encourage anyone to suddenly wake up. Or had she?

A large chunk of something was missing from the puzzle before her now.

"No, I can't explain it myself," It was a reply she hated to give. She was no authority on everything certainly, but at least she felt she should be able to have some kind of clue on this. "In time perhaps we can figure it out, but for now? Well, here you are again." she smiled. "Finish your blood and then we can start to figure out what's next. I can call Mort if you want and have her come by. Maybe she knows more about those you are wondering about. Try to get you some decent clothes, yada yada yada. You could also stay here if you need to. Got a guest room doing nothing right now." It would be a process, but she had helped others before get back into the swing of things. Life, or un-life, goes on.

A familiar feeling beside her announced her cat had decided to join Zodiac. "You upset that I am ignoring you or something?" She began to pet the large black beast as it stared at Merry with unblinking green eyes. "You remember Merry, don't you?" she cooed softly. She did nothing to break the cat's focus. If there was, by chance, something not quite right about her guest, odds are Ginny would discover it in short order. "You remember Ginny, doll face?"