Familiar Angels

Souls were beginning to encircle the globe: if you looked up high enough and had the spiritual eyes to see, they were there at cloud level, hovering in the spaces above, moving in and throughout the azure ethers. 

The angels drifted up there also alongside them, and much like a congested highway, all of the beings, self-lit and ethereal, remained in the upper channel; as each death could no longer proceed forth, for they were compelled to follow the bandwidth of the earthen realm, forced to remain up there, unable to go further.

Fortunately most of the men, women and children were so preoccupied when first leaving their lives they had not a care as yet, being swept up with a feeling of release and infinite expression, whelmed by the beauty and light of the unveiled realm: and now content to be able to see their own familiar angels who had been alongside their days and their nights: those beings of light perhaps once thought to be their intuition; these gentle companions, with a calming presence that were ever protecting them, come what may.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

 

Good Samaritan

A passing fisherman found Tindle prostrate in a bed of froth and broken shells. Fragments had cut his cheek and his blood trickled onto the sand.

The sea was fast approaching and would soon fill the inlet in a rush and a flurry. The good samaritan hurriedly fetched his woven net to place over Tindle, and secured him tightly - then, with the aid of a makeshift pulley he dragged the lifeless body all the way to a higher sandbank.

The sunlight was dwindling, and the foxes were prowling the beach. Not another soul was to be found.

“Aye, you are quite the weight son, and I can haul thee no farther” he said, almost out of breath speaking to the unconscious man. The night airs were circling them both. He collected up the bits and pieces of driftwood and bracken and built a little fire. He hummed to himself, and covered Tindle’s body.

The two slept soundly until morning.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

By the Light

Goober struck a match seemingly from nowhere. A blue light filled the space around him and in the centre of that light, the small gathering could see a vision of a young woman asleep on a chair. It was as if they were looking into a faraway window, or into the story of the little match girl where scenes would be revealed with the appearance of the flame. He seemed relieved. He had finally found Sylvia and she was safe.

“Goober should we be frightened? If those evil people can cause all of this, and the good are now on the run - does this mean we are all done for?” Eve nervously sought answers - perhaps he could light another match that would show them some kind of future.

“Evil is kind of stupid” he replied - “it’s a selfish stupid, and a stupid nonetheless. It literally chases its own tail and eventually creates a hole, and falls right into it. That’s all I can say on the subject after witnessing eons and eons of stupid.” he said out loud. Goober’s pale blue eyes looked sad. He looked worn out.

Eve now felt concerned for the old Elf.

“I think I want to go back” said Eve. “I miss my home. I just need something familiar … and a hot drink, and something to eat, something that I like.”

And then she added thoughtfully “and a place that smells better than this.” A different kind of reality had come to her. So many things had happened that she could not explain, or understand.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Pack Your Things

Alex looked over to Puck, who, was once again emptying his boots of their contents - this time all over the mosaic tiling - he then gazed over to Mercedes, who was standing close to the lift, ready to take her chances as soon as the cleaners had finished mopping up.

“It was you” he said under his breath looking hard at her. And suddenly, very suddenly, his head hurt.

* * *

No sooner had the ‘apparition’ disappeared from the room, taking the small goat with it, Alex and Mercedes watched Romulus pacing again - they were both barely daring to breathe wondering what he would do next. They had witnessed unseemly magical events around him in the past - inexplicable and surprising manifestations - but this was something very different, for the man in the long coat was so real and unafraid, and the mess that he and the goat left behind was undeniably real. 

“Pack your things” Romulus shouted across the room addressing Alex who momentarily thought he was being told to leave. He had been waiting for this with mixed emotion but as it turned out Romulus meant for him to go with him.

“We leave on the 23.00 Silver Fox out of here.” Romulus liked to call his private get 'Silver Fox’ because the jet had been brought out of commercial retirement and repurposed.

Mercedes took her opportunity while the two were packing: when the lift doors opened and closed again she finally was inside it, making her way back down to earth, into the streets, never to return.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

The Eyes Have It

The magi and the magistrate became as one -
Silks and their weavers
merchants and their traders
all combined into one -
these made up the Lawyers robe,
pulled together with a single stitch,
embroidered with a common vernacular
to fill the bulging purse.

Aloft their station was the spectacle maker.
Fashioning ground glass, tooling the wire,
sight is a gift far beyond measure.
In the hierarchy of worldly wealth
the iridologist and his prescriptions
were well standing.

Again, the two became in twine -
hand in glove, lens with lens - tethered the two
more powerful than judiciary,
church, or governing mens.

Crusty cockles littered the sluice, the dark waters licked and slapped a tangle of seaweed and grit. Tindle paced the shore every morning half hoping the ‘messenger’ that came to him would appear again - however, he did not.

There was some movement in the half-light of the approaching dawn, but this was not at all whom he had been hoping for. It was his wife! As he came closer Tindle could see that she was naked, dancing around in circles, humming to herself as though she were a little child … unawares of any impropriety - completely without modesty or shame.

His wife had purchased a small shipload of whiskey from which she had tippled morning to night. The crates were all emptied now and their planks onsold to the carpenter, and the jugs were refurbished with vinegar.

“Put yer garments back on,” he shouted disapprovingly, rapidly approaching the rotund woman.

Although weathered by the rum, she still felt his disdain and yelled back “I have born ye babes, and I am worn. You would once tear my clothes from me, what offends thy eye these days old man?” she spat at him.

“I know not what you want from me wife. Do I not give you anything and everything you have asked for?” he replied, neglecting her question.

It was true. As the business had prospered her purse had always been full.

Tindle picked up a rock and threw it at her and it clipped the side of her cheek from behind. It went far harder than he had intended. She screamed in fright, and then with a rebound rage, took the jug she had been carrying and broke it onto a mound, then ran at him with the jagged porcelain.

Tindle lost his footing and fell sideways splitting his head on a rusted pike sticking out from the ribs of a wayward fisherman’s trawler.

She emptied his pockets before leaving him to the evening tides.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

An Apparition from the Past

Good and evil was not ever a true fight,
simply because there is only ever good.
Evil is never an equal opponent - not even close.
Materially evil is but a canker to be excised; discard it from that it would make putrid and give it no weight or undue measure.

Goat had followed. There was not one way of doing this, and unlike the comic books, evil could not be overcome by Puck using combat or attempting to match strength with simple sparring.

Puck had brought along with him some of the sea and saltwater, and the seaweed had soaked into the plush carpet. A few of the its beads exploded with the heat of the room and leaked further exuding a pungent smell.

To Alex’s wonderment the man that he had dreamt about was actually there now standing in the apartment, with a small goat hopping around beside him. He recognised him! What he did not know, and what he could not realise, is that Alex himself was Puck’s ticket into that room, into the vicinity of Romulus. It was he that had helped to make it happen, by the powers of association - one that went back in time to the beach of the diamond, to that inlet of Tindle, Dearth and Dingle, to now.

The goat did a hop and a jump and leapt forward onto the bed, landing into the middle of the piled sheets. He wiped his furry face into them, savouring the smell.

He then sprang onto the bed and left droppings upon the naked pillows; some more black beads littered the carpet - Romulus swiped at the small muscly creature with a stainless steel martini shaker. He missed. The goat simply urinated on it defiantly.

“You insult me you wretched farkin Pookhah” he hissed at Puck, who had said not a word since his arrival.

He was trying to recall if and when he had met the ‘great’ Romulus - this character was more than familiar. Alex, on the other hand, he knew well.

“I have your boats - it was I that pulled them from the water, and put them all into safety.” Puck said with a firm yet mocking tone.

“Piracy is an international crime” snarled Romulus, who awkwardly noted after saying this that Puck looked something like a medieval pirate, in the manner he was clothed.

“Piracy?” said Puck directly staring down the demon, “Piracy is stealing the blood from the innocent, and harvesting children, and containing their souls. Who now is the greater pirate?” He swore something in Elvish that was exceedingly disparaging, but untranslatable. Puck was in no mood to argue.

“What do you want for them?" an angry Romulus spat. He did not understand Puck’s curse, but caught its meaning well enough.

Meanwhile Mercedes unlocked the cupboard where the in-house phone was cradled, and pressed ‘0’ for housekeeping. It was the perfect time for her to escape when the the cleaners would leave … and with any luck Romulus would be too occupied to notice.

The lift bell pinged and out stepped four attendants with their trolleys and buckets, spray bottles and vacuum.

“I didn’t call for you” snapped Romulus blocking their entry and pressing the button to close the lift door.

“I did” Mercedes called and moving in front of him, “there’s water everywhere and it needs cleaning up before it stains the carpet - and it smells.” she added loudly. This bluff was her only chance.

“Very well” he consented, “and while you are at it call security will you?”


-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Blood Money

As usual Romulus interrupted their lunch - he had an uncanny knack of creating disturbance, for it seemed that the minute Mercedes or Alex felt relaxed he would manifest enough chaos to upset them all over again, and this time it was with his explosive temper.

He started roaring complaints as though they were to blame, or had some ability to help him with whatever was going wrong - neither of which was ever possible. Mercedes had no idea what his beef was - or why the supply chain had faltered, and although Alex understood the general concept, what bothered him all the more was the anger that was still to come his way.

He had seen Romulus in such a mood many times, and it did not go well for him. He wondered if it was connected to the implant between his legs, because subsequently this man who had everything seemed to only get relief by having his rage culminating in the subjugation and pain of others.

Alex asked himself over and over why did he stay with Romulus? He even knew deep down there was only one way out of this relationship, if you could call it a relationship. And yet the attention Romulus gave him felt so special - even if it did cause grief along the way. Mercedes was more of a prop, he told himself, their engagement meant nothing - it was he, Alex, that Romulus really cared for.

Romulus was pacing like an animal as he shouted down into his phone. It was a newer model - one of the clear handsets that lit up from the inside. It could read your body temp and pulse as you held it, and Romulus’s phone was flashing a beating heart, which for any normal man would be a sign of grave danger.

“What do you mean the cargo was intercepted?” he snapped.

He was referring to a fleet of mobile blood banks. Blood was the new currency, more valuable and profitable than gold - it was his ‘pet’ project in a volatile economy. His team had been working with storing blood and blood products in cryogenic vats, capturing the life essence of the ‘donors’ indefinitely.

Word was, amongst his fellow oligarchs, that crypto and gold would not be able to get close to the value of blood in the next decade. And yes, human farms were on the agenda. Yes, it prolonged life and quality of life, however it was far more significant than generally guessed - it contained signature, spirit, and immortality. Screw interplanetary exploration! There was more than one way to dominate the universe! Or so he thought.

Alex had returned to his hot chips, satisfied that danger was not yet impending as Romulus was far too absorbed with his phone call for the time being.

He had not yet seen the uncanny apparition that appeared in the far corner of the apartment room from out of nowhere. The lift had not delivered him, and he had not accompanied Romulus inside the building - and yet there he was.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series