And so, when it happened that Murmur had reawakened Pietro from his death, he had given him a chance to have days in the world he would not have had ordinarily.
But this was to be living in another form other than his own. For the body Pietro had worn had now deceased and dissipated.
There is an expression to say that some things can be both a 'blessing and a curse’. The innocent Monk was unaware of the deep and potent magic he had been performing with his resurrections.
With this embodiment came a sorry consequence: that now the door to the Heavens had closed for those he had saved - and Pietro could not find his way back, as he might have done with an ordinary departure into death.
His chance to exit the starry path had come and gone, and its exact configuration was unknown to him, and he subsequently became earth-bound thereafter.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances
When a soul is dislocated from its original habitat - from the body that housed it and gave it warmth in the world - when it is displaced and placed into yet another form, another body, another mortal flesh - it becomes confused as to where it should be, and has difficulty finding the pathways back into the heavens that it would usually return to periodically.
The science of the spirit and its relationship to the body in which it indwells, is a complex conundrum.
Life is not what it appears to be. Life is wholesome, and this unison of synergistic amalgamations persuade the common view that one thing is the other.
But one thing is many things - at the one time - and this simple truth goes to the essence of all life with its manifold complexities.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances
Looking sternly at her tear stained countenance, he asked "What name would you have christened this child?"
"Mirabella" she said, staring at the ground.
The young monk made the sign of the cross upon the little brow and softly whispered in her frilly ear.
"Mirabella" he said, "welcome to this world”.
And with that so said from the healer monk, the tiny girl blinked her shining eyes, and turned a pearly pink all over, as new blood had now fortified her inspirited body.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances
Hannah-Mary screamed an unearthly scream.
“You will not take my baby!" she whimpered.
With a push and a shove the door was forced open. It was Murmur, her twin brother.
Word had reached him from Francis that Hannah’s time was soon due, and he had sought his sister straightaway because of it.
With the door atilt, the early light came flowing through in golden beads.
He caught sight of his poor sister and what lay there beside her - of the little face plain staring - quite grey, yet very beautiful.
Upon seeing her brother, Hannah-Mary began once again to sob.
He knelt by her side and held out his arms reverently.
She gave over the bundle solemnly. With his arms around them both, Murmur began to pray.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances
It was then that the pain came upon the young mother. Mary clutched her cramping girth and cried, "not now!”
There was a muttering to be heard on the other side of the door. The witch had started cursing an evil mantra, issuing such blasphemies as are spoken by her kind.
It had started to rain.
Mary felt trapped - she could not leave by her one and only door, for fear of the Vivien - yet neither could she safely stay.
She needed help.
A fit of unconsciousness draped over her trembling form, as Hannah collapsed into the darkness, hitting her head on the cold slate floor. She felt nothing.
Come the morning the young mother lay in her mess, with a cold infant between her legs still tied by its cord.
Pitifully alone in her bewilderment she lay for many hours, without the will to do anything but wail.
There was blood all around, and yet the cottage smelt of roses. The sun was streaming through the little stone window, and illumined the naked child limp upon the floor.
- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS, Second Chances
[ circa 13th Century ~ ]
The old witch rapped and tapped at the window pane so abruptly that Mary was startled from her sleep.
Her dream-life had been troubled this night particularly, disturbed by some gawking gibbering demons sent to her bed, by the opportunistic Vivien.
"I've come to deliver your baby" called the old woman from behind the bolted door.
“Leave my home and go back to what hell you came from!” Hannah-Mary replied nervously - “You will not take my baby from me!”
She shouted this as loudly as she could, fearing that the old witch might not be able to hear her. The hag rattled the latch and pushed menacingly on the bulk of the old oak door.
Vivien was impervious to reason or consequence; being both wilful and determined in her wants. She had come to get the infant child and would not leave until the baby was in her bony arms - hers to steal away.
Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances
“But where would I go? What would I do?” he asked meekly. Even as a ghost he felt tired - more tired than he had ever been in earthly life.
He continued: "I don't know … anywhere but London" he sighed to himself, an old man's sigh.
That is how it began, that George became a constant companion to Francis - and after that, following him everywhere he went.
Although as a spirit George was invisible to the ordinary world, he still had a large community that followed close by him, of the animals that he had collected from the restaurants, and they, added to this, were drawn to Francis as well.
Francis of course, could see and hear George, as he did with most ‘other worldly’ souls that would accompany the two.
They buzzed at the entrance, hoping that a gate attendant would answer, but the compound looked desolate.
George fiddled with the intercom, taking a handkerchief out of his pocket, he began to wipe the dust from its buttons.
There was a click of a door and a woman approached with Chips slinking behind. The grey dog sniffed at the gate and licked Francis’s hand happy to see his old friend again.
- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances
