Chapter 4 of "The Coming War."
Here at long last is the second draft of chapter 4 of my novel, "The Coming War." If you've read this and enjoyed it please take the time to leave a breif comment. I need all the encouragement I can get.


Chapter 4:
Sacrifice

What was lost was found again
Inside the fragile splintered ends
Of people half remembered
Half forgotten, half forlorn
And some say, tis a helluva thing
To live through being unborn



The next morning the sun appeared almost reluctant to rise. It crept over the eastern mountains in one long liquid motion, gifting the world with neither warmth nor all that much light, though the hint of both lingered on the horizon. Susan watched the sky awaken, from the comfort of her perch in Rachel’s living room. She lay there drifting between sleep and consciousness, hoping she wouldn’t come fully awake for at least another hour, and yet oddly curious as to why the sun was taking so long to arrive. When at last it had Susan couldn’t help but feel disappointed. She could hardly detect it’s rays through the frost that had accumulated on Rachel’s windows. It trickled in opaquely through the panes, lending the whole house a soft sort of lightness that seemed to make time move even more slowly as it beckoned her tired body back to bed. Susan made the difficult decision to start her day. There really didn’t seem much point in waiting.
The problem with that plan was not so much that she’d gotten up too early, as it was she’d gone to bed too late the previous night. Either way though the effect was the same. Susan found herself stumbling blurry eyed into Rachel’s kitchen, hoping to find something in the refrigerator that had caffeine in it.
Five minutes down, she thought. Only about a zillion more to go.
The hardest part, she realized was going to be waiting for Tony’s call. She needed someone to help her decipher the events of the previous night. Her friend, by benefit of being the only member of their little ensemble she’d known for more than a week, qualified defacto.
Both Edna and Gregory were present. They’d stayed when Rachel left for work earlier that morning. The two adults spent their time staring intensely at one another, seemly at a complete loss for what to say next. Clearly they had only gone a very small way towards bridging the gap that fate had thrust between them, but there was little Susan could tell beyond that. Understanding other people had never been her strong suit. It was one of the skills she’d always relied on Tony for, and yet another reason she yearned for his return. He, unlike Susan, might have been able to derive some meaning from the frequent glances and mixed expressions that passed between the couple-some hidden context that to him would be insightful but to her might as well be static. In his absence, Susan was being forced to rely on her own judgment. Which can be a problem when you don’t trust yourself. Susan learned nothing that morning, and eventually the mini-cold war ended a bit after noon when Gregory disappeared suddenly, giving only a terse explanation as to where he was going. Susan couldn’t help but feel an opportunity had passed, though for what she didn’t know.
Edna tried to fill the intervening time with small talk about television shows, boys, and other equally meaningless topics. At first the girl tried to humor her companion. Eventually though, watching a full grown adult person staring suspiciously into corners grew tiresome. Susan left her perch on the couch, and headed back into the kitchen to grab lunch. She was so busy wishing Edna had somewhere else to be, she hardly noticed that she was overfilling her plate.
The phone rang, just before she had the chance to wonder why she’d done so.
"’Bout damn time!" Susan shouted. She winced when she realized she’d practically screamed into the receiver.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I’ve got classes, you know those things normal people got to. You learn stuff there."
Just then Edna poked her head into the kitchen. Something had moved outside, and she seemed to think it was her ex-husband. Susan moaned loudly and leaned back in her chair.
“It’s going that well huh.”
" You could say that.”
“What would you say?”
“I’d say things got a little weird last night and stayed that way."
"As opposed to before I left."
"Oh yeah."
"Can't wait to hear about it.”
“Can’t wait to tell you. When are you coming over?”
Now it was Tony’s turn to groan on the other end of the line.
“That may be a problem,” he said. “Dad was just a little pissed off I got home after he did last night. I don't think I'm gonna be going anywhere for the time being.”
Susan felt her stomach drop. She hadn’t realized just how much she needed to see him, until she was overwhelmed by the intensity of her own responses. Her hands tightened on the cold edge of Rachel’s counters as she grasped for some reason she could give to make him change his mind. Then just as suddenly she began to wonder why it was all so important.
"I think they were planning some kind of training thing today." She said finally.
"Well then one of THEM can come down here and explain to my old man how the world’s coming to an end, cause he damn sure aint gonna believe it from me."
"Your such a little drama queen Tony."
"Yes I know I’m fabulous but…wait a minute, what did you call me?"
He sounded happy, so it seemed that Edna had been right when she’d said he preferred the abbreviated version of his name.
"Tony. It's your name isn't it?"
"For that I'll try and make it happen. Don't bet on it though."
“See you tonight then.”
“Yeah but no pressure. I get it.”
A moment later Gregory materialized from thin air, looking extremely harried. He shot past Susan at a run, through Rachel’s living room, and then to the tiny office that sat wedged between the buiding’s bathroom and the steps which lead to it’s second story.
"Got to go, Captain Angry just showed up."
"And here I was, skipping class for you."
"Just tell them you were providing me much needed psychological counseling."
"Sounds like the truth, if you ask me."
Gregory returned from the office with a folded sheet of paper in his hand. It looked like he'd managed to calm down slightly.
“Where have you been?” Susan asked
“Eavesdropping,” the man replied, “ and gathering supplies.”
“He means stealing dear.” Edna entered the room like she hadn’t spent most of the day looking for the man. Susan’s opinion of the woman edged slightly lower, though she’d no idea why.
"How's your boyfriend, dear?"
Susan recoiled inwardly. She wanted to snap something cruel back at the woman, but found her mind was blank. She didn't care to think about what Tony was to her. He was a boy obviously, and the only good friend she'd ever had. The question of whether or not their friendship translated to anything else was not one she wanted to even think about.
The girl shuddered a little as she quietly retreating back through Rachel’s kitchen. A moment before she stepped out through the door that lead to Rachel’s backyard, she heard Gregory mutter something sharply to Edna. Something about another problem. Susan didn’t hear the rest though. She absolutely refused to here the rest.

# # # #

“Hey red, wait up!”
What now?
Gregory approached from behind as Susan was just flopping down on an oversized leather couch that had been shoved haphazardly onto the furthest corner of Rachel’s back porch. It was a well aged piece of interior furniture that looked like she felt, ill suited for it’s current role. The big man slid awkwardly in beside her. He had a sort of fatherly expression on his face. Problem was, Susan hated her father, so though she knew he was concerned, she had difficulty finding anything other than condescension in the his expression. Her reaction was swift and quite a bit different from what he had likely expected.
“Must be my day for nicknames,” she stammered inching away from him.
“You don’t like it?”
“I don’t need it. Susan work’s fine”
“Does it?”
She stood up and walked to the other end of the porch, seething.
“This is such bullshit,” she blurted. She was starting to feel short of breath.
Gregory didn’t seemed phased at all by the outburst.
“What is?” he asked.
“You talking to me like you know me, or care too.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“You just wouldn’t!”
“Why?”
It was a loaded question, Susan knew it, and more to the point she knew he was bating her. So she decided not to answer only to be shocked by the sudden realization that she couldn’t make herself stop.
“I shouldn’t have let it happen,” she stammered at him. It was like listening to someone else talking with her voice. She almost said more, she would have, but he cut her off.
“Now who’s full of it! You know as well as I do your not responsible for what she did to you. You weren’t given a choice.”
But he didn’t know what choices she’d been given, and Susan wasn’t about to tell him. The knowledge that he was aware she was hiding something was terrifying enough. They sat staring at each other for a long moment, then the stranger’s barn door shoulders heaved a great sigh. Susan decided she had to end the conversation.
“Susan,” he mumbled, leaning back in his seat. “I can forgive a lot.”
It was the perfect opening Susan went on the aggressive.
“Not everything though,” she said impulsively. She was trying not to loss the thin thread that was keeping her from falling apart completely. “You won’t forgive Edna, and you wouldn’t me!”
“Are you in need of confessional?”
It wasn’t the reaction she’d expected. He looked more worried than angry, but Susan decided to press her advantage, on the off chance she had one.
“You don’t look like much of a priest to me,” she shot back, then switching tracks. “Listen, I don’t know you people. I don’t believe you, and even if I did I wouldn’t care.”
For just a moment, Susan thought she’d finally managed to make the man angry. He even looked for a second like he was going to blow up, but then he just gave an indifferent sort of shrug and propped his feet up on a nearby railing.
“You will,” he said, yet again smiling down his nose at her. “Probably best if you don’t go shouting that at the others though. I’d rather not lose you as a candidate before I’ve found one to replace you.”
“We’re not friends.” Susan said.
“Never said I was.”
“Stop trying to make me like you.”
“Wouldn’t think of it,” he said, staring into the sky, as if he were studying the clouds. “But I do think you’re the one for this job, and you’re gonna have on hell of a time changing my mind.”
Gregory just kept looking down at her. Apparently thinking he’d just said something profound. All Susan wanted was to wipe the stupid grin off his face. She stormed back into Rachel’s kitchen, through the living room, and up the stairs towards the second floor.
It’s not my problem, she thought. How is any of this my problem?

# # # #
“It’s getting worse,” A voice said from beneath her. Susan hadn’t realized she’d fallen asleep until the words intruded on her dreams.
“There’s a couple more cities involved now, and they’re beginning to televise it.”
“What about the girl?”
“There’s something she’s not telling us but she’ll do. Though right now, I think he’s the surest bet we have.”
“Why do you say that?”
Susan recognized Rachel’s voice as the one that had just spoken. It was Gregory who answered.
"Well for starters, the kid's nuts about her. Don't know why though, strong wind would knock her over.”
Susan listened from the top of the stairway. She’d been about to come back down to face him when the counselor had returned home. After that, she’d frozen.
“Never did much care for skinny girls myself,” he continued.
Susan edged silently closer to the stairwell. She stood frozen at the top of the stairway, not really knowing why she couldn’t descend.
"Stay on topic please. Do you think that’s why he...." Rachel paused.
"What, didn't abandon her like ever other worthless piece in her life. "
“Well, yes.”
"Nah, I think the little guys got a John Wayne complex."
"Do tell?"
"A John Wayne complex is when you know the difference between right and wrong, and you think that makes you invincible."
Susan chuckled quietly to herself.
“Where is she now?” Rachel asked.
“She’s upstairs!” Edna waded into the conversation with enthusiasm and more than a little volume. “And ask him how long she’s been up there. Child was perfectly fine till he got back. We’d been having a wonderful little chat. She’d just gone outside to stretch her legs when this one decides it might be a good idea to reduce her to hysterics.”
Susan felt a great swell of gratitude towards the woman who only a few hours earlier she’d regarded as a nuisance. The thought did occur to her that things had not quite happened the way Edna described, but she ignored it entirely.
At least someone was defending her.
“I had my reasons” Gregory told them. He didn’t sound as defensive as Susan would have liked, just tired.
“Would you mind explaining them to me?” Rachel asked demurely, in soft, even tones that somehow seemed to rise above the anger of those around her. It was the sound of her voice more than any thing else that convince Susan it would be okay to come back down.
“Like I said, I think something else is bothering the kid. I thought I might be able to get her to talk about it,” Gregory said.
“That ‘kid’ has suffered a great deal more than most adults. It would be best if you treated her as one.”
“That’s what I’ve been doing.” Gregory backpedaled. “You tell me when I…”
Everyone stopped speaking when she reached the bottom stair. Susan’s eyes met Gregory’s first. She had wanted to show him she was still angry with him, but looking at the man Susan just couldn’t bring herself to hate him.
“I’d rather not talk about that,” she said, speaking only to Gregory. The way she looked at him, and he back at her, it was more a request than a statement.
“Agreed,” the man said, though it was clear he wasn’t happy. Then changing the subject, "So when's your boy gonna get here?"
Susan was so relieved that he wasn’t going to press her about her earlier behavior that she gave little thought to what she said next. "He said if you wanted him, you were gonna have to go and explain to his parents that the world is ending."
Susan didn't realized what she'd said, until it was too late. She'd just repeated what Tony had told her, without properly conveying the fact that he was joking. Gregory apparently wasn’t much for detecting sarcasm.
"Back in a little bit," he said, vanishing again. Susan wanted to call out for him to come back but she’d no idea whether or not he was still in the room.
Rachel spoke for them all. "I say, sometimes that man can be a bit dim.”
“He’s not really gonna do it, is he?” Susan looked imploringly from Rachel to Edna, then back again.
“Oh yeah,” Edna said. “I think you can pretty much count on it.”
# # # #

It was a full three hours after Rachel’s initial return that Gregory finally came stamping through the front door with Tony. For his part, Susan's appointed guardian seemed in remarkably good spirits. The same could not be said for Gregory Neiland.
"Unbelievable!" He shouted as he entered to no one in particular. "They didn't want me to take him.”
“He is their son.” Rachel reminded the man.
“You don’t understand. I sat down with them for an hour and watched the riots in DC, and they’re telling me they don't think it's as bad as I think! The whole damn country’s falling apart."
"Maybe they couldn’t bring themselves to let me go. " Tony tried. Greg didn't feel like stopping.
"I can’t imagine why," he snapped. “you’ve been more trouble to us then your worth.”
“I missed you too asshole.”
“What did you just say to me?”
“Gentlemen,” Rachel interrupted. “I’ll have none of that in my home.”
She turned a critical eye on Gregory, who withered before her gaze.
“What happened?” She asked. The big man groaned.
“I think I threw too much at them at once," he said, scratching his head. Tony nodded vigorously.
"But we don't have any more time. The doorway I came through closes completely in two days. I'm gonna have a hard enough time getting us through it as it is."
"Then how are we going to come back?" Susan asked.
"You don't," the man responded "At least not any time soon.”
Susan did want to believe she’d heard him right. “How long?” She asked.
“Two maybe even three years."
Edna exploded. She advanced into the room from the kitchen, shaking with indignation.
"We never agreed to tell them that."
The witches ex-husband seemed to grow at least a foot taller.
"Meaning you don't want to give them a choice," he shouted. "I guess some habits really do die hard don’t they?"
Susan was only half heard what followed. One thought overrode all others in her mind. Tony would never agree to leave his family for that long, which meant that very soon she would be alone. She looked up imploringly at Rachel. The counselor seemed to be thinking along similar lines. She was carefully studying Tony’s face. Susan could only imagine what she was looking for, but she assumed that it was some sign of what the boy would decide. Gregory and Edna continued their conversation uninterrupted.
"We can't afford for this child to refuse his destiny." Edna said, pointing at Tony as her voice was grew steadily louder. Susan was beginning to wonder what it must have been like to be married to a person who would send you to a world she wasn’t entirely sure existed, without bothering to ask you. Rachel turned away from Anthony, appearing to have just noticed the chaos that had broken out in her living room.
"I won't," Tony said softly. There was a moment when everyone stopped talking. It was the kind of thing that everyone’s experienced, sitting in a crowded room when suddenly everybody grows silent. Most of the time people just laugh it off. Didn’t happen in this case though. They all sat staring at each like fools, apparently unable to penetrate the silence that had descended on them like on of Rachel’s thick woolen blankets. It made sense really-their reaction. This wasn’t any other time.
Predictably, Edna was the first to recover.
"Why the hell not." She asked. She took a step towards Tony, at which the boy recoiled. “What sane person would agree to do that.”
The other were still too shocked to speak, and Tony seemed to struggle mightily with his answer. When the silence was broken again, it was Rachel and not Tony who spoke.
“What have you seen?” She asked, to which the room responded with another rousing bout of shocked silence.
“Nothing good,” Tony answered at last.
“Okay what am I missing?” Edna asked. Gregory coughed but kept his silence.
“Her guardian will be a prophet,” Rachel said. “It was a part of the prophecy I wasn’t sure I believed, until now.”
“And you didn’t feel the need to tell me?”
“No I did not.”
“Super,” Tony said, slapping his hands together. “Now that we’re all clear on that, let’s talk about how Greg here blew up my house.”
“Oh, we’re not quite done with this young man,” Edna blustered.
“Look, sometimes I see things," he said, turning to Susan. "That's how I knew you were stealing food. That's how I knew Rachel would help you. I just see things in my head. Sometimes I can make them happen. Sometimes I can’t."
"You can see the future?" Susan asked. She would have expected herself to be angrier with him for keeping such a secret from him, but it wasn’t like she’d been completely honest with him either.
"No," Tony continued. "Most of the time it's like possibilities."
"You said most of the time," Gregory inquired forcefully. It seemed to Susan like her throat had gone dry. "What have you seen son."
Tony grew a full shade paler as he stared determinedly at the ground. "Like I said, nothing good,"
The older man came forward and laid his large hand the young man's shoulder. His grip tightened as he spoke, "We will make it right,"
Tony's face was suddenly contorted in an exhausted sort of a grin. "You forgot to add 'or die trying.'" At this the older man gave a great burst of laughter and slapped him, this time hard, on the back.
"But what about the boys parents?" Edna persisted.
"I've put a spell on them," Gregory said. "They won't notice he's gone until after he returns."
"You can do that!!!?" Edna and Susan both said at once.
"And what about the school board?" Rachel asked. "Unfortunately Gregory I don’t think we can make two whole human beings disappear."
"Actually, I think I can but I’m going to need your help."
“Interesting,” was all the counselor could say.
The human scarecrow that was Gregory Neiland, produced a small black stone from inside his robes. He placed it in the center of one of Rachel’s coffee.
"This is called len'luithane,” he said. “It means forgotten one." He turned to both Susan and Tony. "I carry it with me because I can use it to make my enemy forget who I am. I can use this to make everyone you’ve ever known forget who you are."
“Is it permanent,” Rachel asked.
“Only as long as they wish to stay forgotten.”
"And why do you need us?" The counselor seemed apprehensive.
"I need an amplifier," he said. "The radius of affect is gonna have to be huge for this thing to work."
“And you need us to provide the additional range.”
"Well then,” Tony broke in, "Lets get crackin before I think about this too much."
The remark, Susan was sure, was intended as a joke. The problem with that was he sounded so brokenhearted. At that moment there was absolutely no one in the world she wanted to be less than Anthony Mauro.
“I need some time to prepare.” Gregory said.
“Great,” Tony shouted, storming into the kitchen. “I’ll just go bang my head against the refrigerator!”
# # # #
It struck Susan as strange how angry people always seemed to gravitate to the couch on Rachel’s back porch. Her friend sat staring intensely into the distance, as if her were trying to avoid noticing the person who was approaching him.
"He blew up our coffee table,” the boy said, without averting his eyes from the darkness that had fallen around them. “That's what finally convinced them. The whole building starts talking to them, and they don't even blink, but the coffee table goes up in smoke and suddenly I’m on a holy quest!"
"It must have been horrible for them."
“Maybe, but I tell you for a bunch of religious folks, it sure took them a while to figure out what was going down."
"They probably didn't want to believe it.”
“Or maybe they just don’t believe at all.”
“Give them a little credit. I mean, in walks a man they've never seen before, demanding they let him borrow their son. How are they supposed to react to that? It's their job to protect you."
"Yup, I’m loved. That's got to be it. Gosh I'm getting so many warm and fuzzies, I don't know how I'm gonna be able to never go home again!"
"Don't!” Susan cut him off. She couldn’t stand to listen to him when he was like that. “Don't make fun of them for loving you. I'd give anything to have what you have."
Tony looked stricken.
"God, Suz I didn't think." Tony leaned forward off the bench, his eyes never leaving Susan's. It was as though he were attempting the assess the damage his comments had just done.
“Looks like this really is my day for nicknames.” She said. Tony relaxed slightly, but Susan could tell there was something else troubling him.
“How’s that one fit?”
“Better than most,” she said. “You have a lot Tony don’t forget it."
"More like, had a lot," he said, "remember what they want us to do."
"I'm sorry," Susan couldn't think of anything else to say.
"Don't be. It's just that this would be easier if I knew they were all waiting on me to come home."
"I’m sorry this is happening" she said, feeling once again that this was all somehow her fault.
“It’s alright,” he said. “Just don't you forget about me, okay?"
Susan smiled warmly back at him. It was the exact moment she began to care.

# # # #

It was a quiet sort of ceremony, not at all what Susan had expected. Greg explained that in the “field,” of the stone, all one had to do was to wish to be forgotten. However, for the affect to be enduring, and for it to cover absolutely everyone she and Tony knew, Gregory would indeed need both Rachel and Edna’s help.
A pale blue light began to emanate from the stone as the three sorcerers took each others hands. Tony and Susan stood within the triad formed by their arms. Then, in unison, the outliers began to chant an incantation. The words were unfamiliar to Susan, and they were muttered flute-like tone that grated on her nerves
"Memorak torani losh!" They intoned. Susan wandered what it meant.
With each complete recitation of the spell, a burst of illumination was emitted by the stone. The light would cascade outward washing slowly over them both, but stopping before it breached the barrier created by the joined hands of the three speakers. As time passed, light filled the intervening space. Susan began to notice tiny glistening threads that stretched out from both she and Tony. Most of the bonds that came from her were slight, and seemed to shudder in the light of the stone. By contrast Tony's bonds were thicker, stronger looking, and there were much more of them. The strongest of the bonds she could see were between her friend and herself. Susan never had time to wonder why that was. Without thinking she grabbed hold of Tony’s hand. As the spell was repeated the seventh time, the stone gave a massive blast of illumination, and most of the bonds that connected them to the world were shattered. As the trio broke rank, the light slowly faded around her. Susan could see for a second the connections between herself the three adults who'd cast the spell, and Tony. When she was sure it was safe, she released her friend’s hand.
"Done." Gregory said.
"I'm sorry, but who are you people?"
"Shut up Tony!!!" All three adults screamed simultaneously. Susan could tell they weren't completely sure Tony was being untruthful.
"Geez people, learn to take a joke." Tony said, giving Susan a wink to let her know that he’d been kidding. Looking at them all, Susan was suddenly awash with conflicting emotions. There was relief that they could recall who she was, but there was also disgust that Tony could joke about what they’d just done. Then there was the question of why the bond between the two of them had been so strong?
Susan asked another instead. She’d just noticed her bags had appeared pact by the front door.
"When are we leaving?" The man called Gregory stood up seeming to grow taller again.
"No time like the present," he told her.
“Wait.” It was Rachel who’d spoken. She’d placed a hand lightly on Gregory’s shoulder, but apparently the force of her grip sufficient to get his attention. She bent down in front of the two children and for a moment she was neither serious nor stern. She just looked sad, and scared, and very much alone. Susan made to lay a hand on the woman’s shoulder and was shocked when she was pulled into a bear hug.
“Goodbye.” She said. Susan was confused. Tony apparently was not.
“How long?” He asked her.
“Not to much longer.”
“Good luck.”
“And you as well, my strange guardian.”
The moment lasted just a little while longer, then she released them and Gregory spread his arms widely. Then there appeared two great concentrations of bedazzling green light in each of his palms.
"Coriath lon' Therium Morganlathlorum'Rathain." He called out, only once before slamming both hands together. From the two fists there came a beam, brighter and more beautiful than Susan had ever seen. It seemed to strike out, away from where they stood, beyond Rachel’s home, and into the night sky. There was only a moment she could admire it, before the floor shifted out from underneath her, and she was falling in the direction of the light. As she flew along with the beam, her final destination came into focus. It resembled nothing so much as a diamond in jade firelight, and it glowed with a purity of energy that she’d never seen before. Susan tried to touch the thing, but as she reached out it grew, and suddenly she was accelerating through a brilliantly lit passageway. Then she was falling her speed increasing and her vision blurring. A cold wind rushed in her ears, a moment before it became very dark. Susan didn’t know, but she'd passed out.