Page 10

The group stood, shocked and shaking, staring at Madison, mouths agape, eyes saucerlike. After what seemed like years, Lily and Samson looked from Az to Mad and back again. What just happened here? seemed to loop thru everyone's mind at once.

Mad sat, still regaining her strength after reviving Samson, holding the heavy harpoon after having caught it right as it threatened to pierce the skin that guarded her heart. Didn't even mark the skin, or if it had it had already healed. The harpoon dully thudded as it hit the ground. Devoid of strength and energy, Mad collapsed onto the wet, cool earth, eyes open yet unfocused. Samson moved to her side in long quick strides, swiftly lifting her light body off the ground and heading for the van. His plans have changed, his purpose shifted. Samson no longer sought the easy refuge in the south, but knew his destiny was with the young, chosen one.

"Such is life in the whale's belly/it's soft and cushiony like raspberry jelly/if you look straight up you can see the stars/thru the blowhole and past the bars

I gotta roll, can't stand still/got a flame in my heart, can't get my fill/Eyes that shine burning red/Dreams of you all thru my head

Ring around the rosey/a pocketful of posey/ashes, ashes/we all fall down

Accipere quam facere praestat injuriam*

Mens agitat molem**

How can I see with stones in my eyes? Thou canst expect me to weave magic when thou doest hide from the light."

Samson drove at a feverish pace, sometimes on the road, mostly not, but Az knew better than to open his mouth. In fact he pretty much sat dumbfounded over what had occurred this afternoon. As they listened to the ramblings of Mad, who lay in the back swaddled in Lily's arms, a cold compress on her forehead for lack of anything better (none of them have ever experienced anything of this magnitude before; since they managed to grip a tiny ounce of sanity, they considered themselves ahead of the game) they only hoped that she would come to enough to explain what had happened. Lily and Azrael had no idea she was capable of that, but what he had seen renewed Samson's drifting faith in a higher power. All he knew was they couldn't get to New Promise fast enough. His brother would just have to understand his detour. He might never make it out alive, but he knew that this was where he was meant to be right now. The hole in his shirt told him that.

*It is better to suffer an injustice than to do an injustice

**The mind moves the matter. (Vergil)