The Wounded World, a story of Mantra, Chapter 19

By Aladdin

Edited by Christopher Leeson

THE WOUNDED WORLD:
A Story of Mantra

Originally written 2006

Posted March 21, 2020

CHAPTER 19

ALL OUR YESTERDAYS

Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.
                        William Blake

 

“Blake, are you all right?” asked Wrath.

 "F-Fine,” I said. “I’ve had a rough time of it.”

“What happened?”

I had a spin ready for him.  “After you left Evie and me alone in the van, I suddenly heard Gus's voice calling. He was ordering me to come to him. I think he was using mind-control. I couldn't hold myself back.  I told Evie to stay with the driver, and then I ran off into the dark. I didn’t even know where I was supposed to go. The next thing I knew, I was in a construction site with my ankles and wrists tied. I was gagged, too, and couldn’t attract help from anyone. The bonds must have been magical, because, suddenly, after a while, they dissolved and I could get up. I got out of there as quickly as I could.”

I didn’t like falsely casting blame on Gus, but telling the truth could get me into too much trouble.

“What’s your location?” 

“I don’t know. I need to find a sign, or ask somebody. There aren’t very many people on the street.”

Several seconds of silence followed. "Well, I’m sorry I have to tell you this, Mrs. Blake,” Tunney said at last. “We've intercepted a police call. I’m afraid it’s very bad news."

"It's about Gus?" I asked, bracing myself to hear a bout the boy’s death.

"Yes...it is." Then he told me what I already knew.

"W-Where's Evie?" I stammered.

"She's still with us. I thought she'd be safest if we kept her with the team."

"Y-Yes, thank you," I replied. "Does Evie know yet?"

"No. Telling a little girl something of that kind is no job for a stranger. I'm willing to stand with you -- when you talk to her, I mean.”

“What ultras were with Gus when...it happened?” I asked.

Two of the big-name, Hardcase and Yrial, that Indian girl from the Strangers.”

“Did they attack the boy?” I asked, letting my feelings seep into my tone.

“The report said that they’d pursued the boy from the school, intending to apprehend him. He turned at bay inside Runnymede Park and fought back powerfully. It’s their contention that they used no lethal force, but that the little guy died from some sort of seizure."

"D-Do you think that's how it really was?"

"Damned if I know. For the time being it’s in the hands of the city police.  The body is being taken to the Woodland Hills Medical Center. I’ll notify the Company about what I know. What do you want me to do -- about your little girl, I mean?"

"Would you take her to her grandmother's house? That’s where I intend to go next." I gave him the address.

"You don’t sound good, Mrs. Blake. Should we come pick you up?"

"No,” I said. “I can deal with this. There’s a restaurant close by.  I’ll summon a cab from there."

At that moment,  I found myself listening to a mutter of voices in Wrath’s background. Then Tunney’s voice returned, crisp with excitement:

"Something else has gone down."

"What?"

"There was a sighting of two new Mantra-style babes in an aerial fight over West Hollywood. One of them fits the description of a flying woman that we sighted near the school. The other one is described as having a snake tattoo on her leg."

"Two new Mantras? That doesn't make sense."

"There must be a whole sorority of them. Anyway, the pair of them were going at each other like they were crazy. The snake girl was blasted out of the air by some sort of explosion. Then the one in black followed her down and cut off her head. Oh, I should add that the killer had an accomplice, a heavily-armed male in a mask. One witness thought that it might have been Strike. We'll have to check out that angle. The suits around the office would be damned happy to have an excuse to go after him."

"H-Happy?” the break in my voice was real. “I-I’m sorry; I just can't talk anymore."

"I believe it.  We’ll see you soon.” With a simple farewell of “Out!” he disconnected.

"Any problem?" Strike asked.

I shook my head. "None that I can't handle. I need to contact Yrial?"

"Yeah, do it."

I made good on the telepathic linkup and Yrial brought me up to speed. She and Hardcase were still answering questions at the Canoga Park police department. There wasn’t much more that she could tell me.  I clicked off and passed along to Tark what little I’d learned.

My companion gave back a thoughtful frown before asking, “Do you want a ride over to your mother’s place?”

I shook my head. “No, you should lay low. We might run into Aladdin otherwise. They know that you were near Necromantra when she died and that makes you a suspect. But you’ve got worse problems to think about.” I then reiterated my advice that he should go inactive for the next couple days.

He nodded gravely, but didn’t let on that he would heed my advice. With a mumbled "goodbye," Strike mounted and rode off. I was left alone, there on Hollywood Boulevard, watching his exhaust fade into the night.

Up to this point, my adrenaline had been keeping me functioning. But now that it was leaching from my system, I shivered. My emotional state was going south. That wasn’t like me, not the old me.  I had lost thousands of comrades in battle across a long span of centuries, but I’d always toughed it out. Now I was living a whole new kind of life and dealing with having a whole new emotional structure. That night I learned how much worse it feels for a parent to lose a child than for a another person to lose a mate or a lover.

But letting go would solve nothing. I had to stop feeling sorry for myself. Consequently, I mounted into the air currents and soon, flying west, touched down close to Barbara Freeman's home. Thereupon I switched into civilian garb and went inside by the front door. She'd only just returned from her date and the first topic that came to her mind concerned who was watching the kids. The heartbreaking news just poured out of me after that. The flinty old lady, the army wife, was visibly shaken, but I knew that the worst was yet to come. Wrath would be arriving with Evie very soon. Once that happened, it would be up to me to tell a tender little tyke the worst news that she had ever heard -- at least since the death of her real mother.

As Barbara forlornly sat sobbing on the couch, I drifted to the window to watch for oncoming van lights. Part of me hoped that I wouldn’t see them before the next calendar year.

To get my mind off that faithful arrival, I took stock.  My powers were back. Lauren was alive, and so was Evie. Necromantra couldn’t threaten my family any longer.  Heather Parks and her friends were probably all right, though I hadn’t had a chance to confirm that. On the down side, the damage to the school would be a sore loss to the neighborhood. But what really made my heart sink was knowing that I was still stuck in some alternate realty. What was happening at home? Were my own Gus and Evie well?

In August, I had been in a similar fix, having appeared in an alternate world where no one had ever heard of Mantra. After a period of reorientation, I had made a dimensional portal that led home, but I didn’t know if the same enchantment would work now. Even giving the best case scenario, I’d be be leaving the Evie of this world alone at the moment of her worst despair.
 
I suddenly had an idea!

If I could find my way home, I might be able to take the local Evie with me! Once on my world, she would have a brother again -- one without the curse that had brought her family such woe. She could have a whole new life. 
 
Come off it, Lukasz! It won’t work.

I wasn’t thinking logically. How could I explain to my neighbors, the school, and the social services that Evie had suddenly acquired a twin? The sensation-loving media would pile on and my secretive life might not be able to stand up to their feeding frenzy. Worse, how would either of my daughters react to suddenly becoming part of a pair? How would Gus deal with such a thing? And by taking her away, wouldn’t I be doing injury to other innocent people -- her father, her uncles, her cousins, and her grandparents? They surely cherished the Evie they knew and would never allow me to remove her to another diminsion, especially if I were honest enough to admit that I wasn’t her real mother. Spiriting her away without their consent was out of the question. The child's mysterious disappearance might blight the lives of the entire family, and there could be no expiration date for that type of emotional torture.

And besides that, what kind of reality would I be going back to?  If this present version of myself was composed of my spirit in the body of this world’s Mantra, what was the state of alter ego back home? Was the Eden Blake of that world comatose? Was it walking around, oblivious to the ghastly adventures that I had been having? If I arrived there, would my world suddenly have two Mantras? Which of us would be the more justified in laying claim to the life that we both wished to have?  Would we have to fight it out, or would one of us need to gracefully bow out and go away?  Any way I looked at it, returning could mean trouble and sorrow -- and this world’s Evie would be mixed up in all the anguish and confusion. I didn’t want that.

Feeling bummed, I took another glance outside. The street seemed so empty. The moon above was masked behind a blanket of green vapors. The locals were probably shocked by the destruction of the school. How very dark the Night of Terror loomed. The neighbors were probably anxiouis and staying indoors. Had the night’s stock of abominable things finally run out, or were other strange magicks still going on nearby? Should I head out on patrol after I told Evie the bad news? I couldn’t leave her when she needed comforting the most. I was tired of fighting and planning. I wanted some peace and quiet, so I could sit alone nd weep. One of the worst things about being a woman is having womanish emotions.
 
Then, at just that moment, I saw myself backing away from myself.

I was time-shifting again! But why? I'd only been in this time frame for a few hours. Was my condition getting worse? Was I completely losing my anchorage in time? Was I about to become a leaf in a hurricane, blown randomly – until something – maybe even my own hand – would end my misery in an unnatural way?

#

Then, in what seemed like seconds, I was sitting elsewhere, surrounded by different people -- all sorts of people. I moved my left arm in startlement and was barely aware of having struck something. It was like I was half in a dream or half out of it. I fought to focus.

There was the sound of a chair being shoved away and I heard a complaint: "Hey, Mom, be careful!"

Astonished, I turned toward what was a familiar voice.

What I saw froze me in place.
 
Gus was alive again.

And, also great, Gus was Gus!

He was sitting across a table from me. He wasn't disfigured. I was seeing the same Gus that I had known before.

And he was scowling at me.

"You're looking spacey, Mom," the boy remarked. "People are going to think you're creepy."

I glanced around. Evie was seated to my right. Then it dawned on me that we were back in The Mall in Canoga Park. I looked down at myself and found that I was wearing the same shirt and jeans that I’d worn on Thursday night.

Did I dare to hope that, by some providence, I’d come home?

I touched my little girl's arm, wanting tactile proof that she was really there. Her flesh felt soft and warm. My voice sounded very shaky asking her, "Button, what d-day is this?"

"Ahh... it's Thursday, Mommy."

"Thursday the fourteen?"

She looked to her brother. "It's the fourteenth, isn't it, Gus?"

"Yeah, it is."

But then I felt something cold and clammy. Coca Cola was dribbling off the table and into my lap. I pushed my chair back, stood up, and attacked the wetness with a napkin.

Sitting down again, I glanced at the child. She seemed calm and bright, so unlike the woebegone tyke of that other world, the one so full of fear and sorrow.

Was I home?  Was I really home?

"Mommy, why are you looking that way? Are you mad about something?" Evie asked.

Shaking the cobwebs from my mind, I said, "No, Pumpkin. How could I be mad? Here I am with the little girl that I love the most."

She smiled again, but with uncertainty.

"Kids," I began slowly. "I think I must have blacked out for a few seconds. I'm still a little mixed up. We shopped for school supplies tonight, didn’t we?"

"Yeah," said Gus, who was looking at me as if I were an odd amphibian specimen from his nature-studies class.

"And then we got into line to eat at this restaurant -- the Kids' Club?"

"Yeah! Mom, are you putting us on?"

"Was I with you the whole time, or did I go off somewhere?"

"You were with us, Mommy," replied Evie. "You said, 'Let's eat at this one,' and we all sat down. Then you looked around and spilled your drink."

What did it all mean? What did anything mean?

Whatever you do, Lukasz, keep calm. Don't scare the kids.

"Umm, did I act funny at this table, or say funny things?”

"Not until now," Gus opined.

It seemed like I had lost about ten minutes, but during those ten minutes I had lived for days in the future. But it actually hadn’t been the future of this world.

What, exactly, had happened?
 

TO BE CONCLUDED IN CHAPTER 20.