The Plasm by William Meikle

Author:William Meikle [Meikle, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dark Regions Press
Published: 2014-07-28T04:00:00+00:00

8

Space

It came in their dreams.

He was back in the black pyramid, and the whole place rang with the sound of chanting. Steve felt it through the soles of his feet, and soon his whole frame shook, vibrating in time with the rhythm. His head swam, and it seemed as if the walls of the pyramid melted and ran. The pyramid receded into a great distance until it was little more than a pinpoint of light in a blanket of darkness, and he was alone, in a vast cathedral of emptiness where nothing existed save the dark and the pounding beat from below.

Shapes moved in the dark, wispy shadows with no substance that capered and whirled as the dance grew ever more frenetic. Steve tasted salt in his mouth and was buffeted as if by a surging tide, but as the beat grew ever stronger he cared little. He gave himself to it, lost in the dance, lost in the dark.

He didn’t know how long he wandered, there in the space between. He forgot himself, forgot his friends, lost in blackness where only rhythm mattered.

He woke in a cold sweat. Sam was draped over his back, the pair of them snuggled together like two spoons in a drawer. But spoons were never this warm. His back was soaked and clammy. Sam moaned and jerked—chasing rabbits, she called it. The moans got louder, and she started to thrash. Steve disentangled himself from her and turned round, stroking her upper arm. Usually this was enough to calm her—but not tonight. She tried to scream, and almost made it. Steve was about to shake her awake when she started to chant. He recognised it immediately.

O caput mortuum impero tibi per vivium Serpentem

Kerub impero tibi per Adam

A blue haze appeared in the corner of the room, wispy, like smoke.

Aquila impero tibi per alas Tauri.

Serpens impero tibi per Angelum et Leonem.

The haze started to take on the now familiar look of a misty cloud. There was a crack as static electricity arced from the cloud to the ceiling. Steve saw the flash behind his eyelids for a long second afterward. The cloud started to move, drifting closer. Steve dragged Sam away, tumbling them both out of the bed. Her head bounced on the deck.

The chant cut off mid-flow and the blue haze came apart like thin fog in a breeze. By the time Sam opened her eyes, there was no sign that anything had ever been there. She lay on the floor and looked up at him while rubbing the back of her head.

“What the hell did you do that for?”

What the Hell? She might be right.

He made her get dressed and hurriedly pulled on a vest and pants. He almost dragged her out of the room while she was still pulling on her own pants. He closed and locked the door behind them, taking one last look to make sure there was still no sign of the haze.

Sam waited until they got to their flight deck before starting to chew him out.

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