Ascension: Invocation by Brian Rickman

Author:Brian Rickman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Black Dahlia Press
Published: 2014-10-02T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

Alicia woke up the following morning with a severe hangover. She was sore. Every bone, every muscle in her body ached. For a brief moment, she had forgotten about the events of the night before. She sensed a presence next to her in the bed. Alicia turned her head and saw Sariana, still sleeping. It all came back to her. She must have been sore thanks to the soul evacuation Sariana had done as a parlor trick the night before.

A hangover was nothing new for Alicia and she knew the drill. Coffee, a few pills and a little time; she'd be right as rain. She turned and sat up on the corner of the bed, holding her head. The morning light, glaring through the hotel curtains hurt her eyes. She stood and slowly made her way to the bathroom to begin her morning ritual. Sariana's clothes were still on the floor. Alicia began picking them up and something fell out of one of the pockets with a clink. It was the knife Sariana had used the day before to silence the triclopod. She had a thought. Alicia carefully picked up the blade with a shower cap and wrapped it tight. Maybe one of the scientists at ground zero could run some tests and try to uncover what this thing was made of. DNA? She suspected that this was where Milan had disappeared to. Perhaps he would geek out on this.

Her other thought was to have Sariana perform mass soul removals. That would work, right? Alicia imagined the girl standing at a pulpit like a faith healer, ripping souls out one by one and converting the masses. She said it didn’t do any harm, after all. Alicia could broadcast this on television and surely that would sway more than a few to her cause.

Alicia placed Sariana's clothes on the vanity and began to remove her robe. She stopped, though, and went through the girl's pockets. Nothing. "Where's that PDA-looking thing?" she wondered. The lunacy of the night before began to creep back into Alicia's memory completely. Was she really doing this? Alicia let her robe fall and stood sideways in the mirror. "This isn't the body of a grandmother," she thought. Still, she had committed to the girl and Alicia wasn't one for breaking promises. She couldn't deny the prior day's events. Alicia knew that her life had changed dramatically but she was still unsure of the consequences.

She emerged from the bathroom to select her outfit for the day and found Sariana awake. She looked a little green as she sat in bed, still wrapped in the sheets.

“I was unconscious,” she told Alicia.

“You were exhausted. You needed your sleep.”

“We have to go.”

“We will. You have to get dressed first.”

"I don't feel well," she told Alicia.

"Give it time. You'll be all right. You're not going to puke are you?"

"Puke?"

"Vomit."

"I know what it means," Sariana said. "I just didn't know that was a possibility."

"Let's hope it's not. Why don't you get up and get dressed? You'll feel better once you're up and around.

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