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The story of Hala

Started by Hala, June 18, 2008, 07:58:53 AM

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Hala

********Part 1*****************

Thick blood dripped from the dagger onto the cooling body, below it a slick crimson puddle spread, staining the fine tiles of the floor. The blood seemed drawn to the carpet the dead man was half upon.

"I will see you in hell Father" Ghassan spat as he stepped over the body towards the cringing forms of his sister and mother. Hala, his sister, held her hand out as if to ward him off.

"Ghassan, we were wrong, this must not...can not, be done."

Embers burned in Ghassans' eyes,

"The pact is set sweet Sister, the price is blood, and payment is due"

He tossed her aside as if she were a child and grabbed his mother, dragging her towards the still spreading stain. She had not looked closely at the carpet her daughter had presented to her last night, but now she saw the small grey sigils. They seemed to draw the blood of her husband to them, turning them from grey to red, a soft glow emanating from each that were touched.

She felt her son force her head over a portion of the carpet that was not yet colored and began screaming, a sharp blade was drawn across her throat. With her last moments she saw the final sigils alight with that soft glow.

Ghassan dropped his mothers' body upon the rug, striding to the form of his sister. Her body shuddered as a choking cry rocked her body. She was dragged to the center of the now consecrated circle; she felt the symbols and their power. The long sharp knife cut away her silk clothing, and she heard Ghassan pulling his belt free.

She had damned them both when she found the book in her fathers library, hidden and perhaps forgotten in an old Stygian chest. The reading of the thing should have been impossible for her, but she heard the words as her eyes took them in. They spoke of lost lore, forbidden knowledge, and power. She needed help, she needed her brother, and so she seduced him. As they lay in her bed afterwards she spoke of what she had found, of what she thought it would bring their family. That was the beginning, this was the end.

He rode her spending his rage, his pain, and perhaps his terror at what had been done. Her face pushed against the soft rug, her eye staring into a softly glowing rune. He grunted and pulled free of her.

"Come sister, the price is paid, the bargain sealed; now we claim our reward."

She lifted herself from the carpet, as it had begun to smolder; the runes had taken on a hasher glow, heat could be felt pouring out of them. She went to a small chest they had prepared the night before, lifting clothes for travel and slipping them on. Wiping away the last of the tears she followed her brother into the darkness. The flames from the rug were spreading, the house and bodies would burn this night, and all would assume the entire family was consumed in the unholy heat of it.

As they rode from the gates a new story began, she hoped it would be a long story, for she knew what lay at the end for them.

******Part 2********

The dream came again, soft whispers in her ear. She felt her breathing quicken, her pulse race. For the first month the only visions her dreams granted her were either the burning symbols or her brother tearing her mother away. She had cursed them both with her lust for knowledge, she had misjudged the path it would lead them down, and she had never guessed at the hatred in the heart of Ghassan.

For the second night she felt a caress in the darkness, a tendril that slipped up her leg, entwining her body. She would hear the voice as it promised escape from her fate, to save her from the vow her brother had sealed with his vicious actions. All that was needed was her consent, an answering whisper, asking for him to enter her, to take her, to become one with her and use her as his willing subject.

The dream ended the same as the last, it felt as if something saw her writhing in the night with her whispering lover, and as soon as it came he pulled away, leaving her longing for his touch, listening for the slightest hiss of a whisper. Her brother woke and raised his mad eyes to her.

"Of what do you dream sweet sister? I felt the power of it in my dreams, was He speaking to you? "

A twisted smile came to Ghassans' face as he mentioned the demon that spoke with him. It was the demon that had corrupted him, invaded him, showed him the path that he now plunged down. She suspected it was also the demon or one of its' infernal masters that warded off her dream lover. They had ensnared her brother though her translation of the book, and now they wanted her to join him in bondage. She had made no vows outside their house as it burned, though her brother had. Promises and dedications to the dark gods and demons dripped from his mouth like putrid oil. She shuddered at the memory.

"It was a dream, nothing more Ghassan. The fire again.."

Her voice trailed off lamely, but at the mention of the fire Ghassan seemed to become entranced, she watched him relive his actions, that sick horrible smile growing. She expected him to take her again, as he had near every night since their leaving of the house. What she had mistaken for pain on that night was passion. Her brother burned with lust for blood, and for worse. She knew he was reciting new incantations, learning new rituals from the beasts that spoke to him, at times he spoke them as he rode her, and she could feel the power of them growing.

There was a temptation to cry them out with him, to leap off the edge she stood upon and drown next to him in the numbing darkness. She was ready last night, than the dream came. A soft touch seemed to brush webs from her mind, and after that night she felt as if she had awoken from a drugged dream. She took a step back from the precipice and in the back of her mind she had heard the demons howl.

She glanced again at her brothers form, his mind was far from this place, his eyes staring out into the dark nothingness of the sky. His lips barely twitched, but she could tell he was speaking with the demon again, mayhap making promises and vowing her blood in payment. She felt a certain responsibility as it was her actions that had brought him to this state. She decided not to attempt to kill him, first she knew not what might happen, he could awake in an instant and choke the life from her. Second was her guilt. Ghassan had been a dedicated if ruthless son to her parents, and she had turned him from that path to one of patricide.  Part of her soul begged her to avenge her mother, but another part still loved her brother, and his end would bring neither of her parents back from the dead.

She dipped two slim fingers into the oil of the olives that had eaten for supper, than she brushed them against cooling ash from their fire. She made her own symbols, half remembered from another book she had read. Upon her palms, her cheeks, forehead. She stripped of her clothes and set the marks upon her breasts, her stomach, her inner thighs, than she whispered the words.

"Yes Mighty Set, my lord, my god, my love. Take me into your house, grant me protection against my enemies and all that I have is yours."

She felt power surge about her, she closed her eyes and threw back her head in ecstasy, her body collapsed as the essence of Set entered her. She felt his sweet caress everywhere, long thick fingers brushed against her, opening her, laying her bare before him.

As the rite finished she looked to her still lost brother.  She knew when they next met he would not return her kindness, his rage would burn like the pyre that had been their home when he realized that she had left.  She needed allies and so gathering her meager belongings she slipped off into the night towards Tortage to join the many that sought a new beginning in the Pirate City.
My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am.  ~Author Unknown