Speak to me, Universal Lord

[ThriftshopAugur]

Sky wandered the streets, worn shoes hitting the sidewalk with a beat that she could only feel more then hear. The scowl seemed to make its attempts to remain permanent upon her lips, but it was the look in those eyes that led to the idea that she didn't much care for feeling somber.

Hands shoved into pockets as she looked past the blaze of manmade light and stars to truly catch sight of something far more universal. The stars.

Staring up at the sky that was when she would feel holy. Her fingers clenched in her pockets in frustration as a beautiful moment was broken again.

A whisper in her mind, a lover's caress of speech at the shell of her ear became a scream, a dull roar that rippled and lapped and multiplied to defeaning.

She grimaced as she twisted her head away trying to avoid the sound but it all was hopeless. Sky knew she'd likely blow out her own eardrums with as loud as she blasted the music from her mp3 player but maybe it was better this way.

It helped.

It kept her from wearing a straight jacket and being thrown into the mad house.

Maybe though, just maybe, this all was her insanity. Her psychotic make believe.

The thought made the pinprick tears of despair glisten against her lashes.

"Shut up shut up shut up!"

A shout out into the night that sent the people around her stepping away, giving wide berth from the strange girl.

Grimacing she ducked through the broken window of the abandoned theater.

She avoided all their looks, especially the shining trail of brilliant green and piercing topaz that tracked her disappearance until the slam of the door shut them all out.

[ThriftshopAugur]

It was with a handful of tears and the aftermath of a headache that it all finally went silent. Her room was quiet compared to the chaos in her mind and when the whispers finally went silent, it was the music that sang through her and poured through her spirit as white lightning.

Leaning back against the wall her head eased back and she opened eyes of such a deep brown they pooled into the hue of near black. Sky had figured that it would get easier with time but instead it had become worse.

The voices interlapped and changed, sometimes so serene and othertimes so disturbing she didn't know how to make sense of anything going on in her mind.

Sometimes it was just the voices but other times there were dreams. There was so much to make sense of and understand, yet Sky didn't have the means to understand any of it.

She knew it all had to mean something when it came to her, or maybe it meant nothing at all.

The only question that would remain was... why were they sharing their secrets and plans with her?

[ThriftshopAugur]

The night felt like despair as she walked down the dead streets and left her sneakers to quietly squeak along the concrete. It was one of those rare occasions where the chaos of her mind and the constant chatter of what Sky claimed as ?angel radio? was strangely silent. Schuyler didn?t know if she should feel a sense of unease or a sense of relief at such a moment of silence in her mind and her thoughts for once her own but instead what she really found herself feeling was loneliness.



The walk from the record store to the abandoned theater that they all called the Shelter was a long one that left her to her thoughts as her dark eyes lifted and soaked in her surroundings, drinking in the night in a visual saturation. More and more Sky was starting to feel how abandoned and alone she was even in the shelter. The twins Nightengale and Mockingjay had each other, everyone adored Mouse, and of course there was Finn and Avy. Sky didn?t even want to think about the ones in charge of their little shelter because it just left her envious and jealous of all the things she didn?t have.



It was funny to believe that the place that was supposed to be seen as a sanctuary made her feel all the more a freak. Sky couldn?t help but think that maybe she needed a break from it all and such a decision left her wandering into a different district of the West End. The place had held many names and even now the name of the club was faded and unreadable but she knew it well. The club was if anything Sky?s dirty little secret, her weary shame. For those nights when the voices were far too much to handle she exchanged the voices for pain to silence them all.



?Back so soon??



The growling rich purr of the woman?s voice teased at Sky?s ears as she looked over to find the sleek muscled figure of the woman leaning against the wall. In the hide and seek play of the light against the drifting shadows of the dimly lit club it was hard to see the other woman that had spoke but the voice was the evidence that Sky needed to keep from being so wary.



?They wouldn?t stop??

?Mm. I know too well how that is. Come we will find something to help alleviate the pain??



Sky swallowed thickly as she nodded and followed after the woman to slip deeper into the dark confines of the club. Sky knew well enough that silencing the voices in her head for this night would just mean physical pain and if anything she was willing to accept it. Dark eyes drank in the vision of the woman she followed in admiration from the black-gold mane of hair and toned curves to the tribal tattoos that licked and moved along the woman?s flesh sometimes in ways of dark fire and other times seeming stripes of Indian ink.



Dark eyes watched the couples and the gathered even as she tried to avoid letting her eyes drift to the ongoing display of a show upon the stage. Sky knew well without even looking of the extremes the club could often take during the night and tonight was not any different.



Pain was her only answer at this moment, when her head was filled with so many thoughts and voices that were not her own it became harder each day to feel any sort of salvation. Sky welcomed the sadists without a word or a sound of protest even as the sting of tears burned the back of her eyes. It mattered nothing to her, she would endure if only to have silence.

[ThriftshopAugur]

Ariahn closed her eyes as she leaned against the wall of the Crimson Scarf and waited. She never trusted those that suffered or resorted to pain, torment, or torture to endure or survive whatever else they were emotionally suffering through.



After all this time even Ariahn could not forget her past and the sadistic torture she and so many other women had gone through. To watch Sky go willingly into such torment was near anguish to the owner of the Crimson Scarf… and yet she allowed it. No matter what Ariahn thought or felt about the choices made, it wasn’t her place to stop or deny any from their own dark desires and strange pleasures.



That after all was what the Crimson Scarf was about and what it was made for. Her thoughts were led astray from Sky even as she remembered one night of senseless babbling from the young woman… something about angels. The mention of angels from Schuyler had her thinking of one that Ariahn had known, one that still haunted her. Even now Ariahn still could not shake the feeling that another was ever with her, ever watching her.



She found herself looking at her feet as she sucked her lip ring into her mouth and stared at her boots, knowing well beneath the floor was the underground path that connected the club to the theater. Did Sky even realize the private arrangements and agreement made to look out for the prophet and assure she would not come to any pain that would not be healed.



The Willow and the Champion had made the Tiger swear to such things, and so she had. Ariahn did it for the thought and memory of an angel that was never meant to be hers, one she should have been forbidden to desire.



If only Schuyler had realized that her own pain to silence the voices perhaps in its own way helped Ariahn hold on to her own flame of memory of an angel she would never know and never possess.

[ThriftshopAugur]

Schuyler woke up in the sensation of pain and silence. The voices were now were hushed but her body ached from the tips of her fingers to the end of her toes. She bit her lip if only to silence the whimper of pain threatening to escape her parched lips. It was always the same, the dehydrated feeling after too much blood had been spilled and the coarse brush of bandages against fresh wounds.

Sky usually didn't see who dressed her wounds when it came to unconsciousness there never was a need to know who dressed the wounds as long as it was done. Tonight though was a different time as Sky found herself waking up earlier then usual in her head silence. It was still the same room and she knew Ariahn would not allow any intense, life taking harm so for the most part... she was safe.

When dark eyes opened they found the most radiant combination of color, the young woman sitting indian style across from her with life damaged eyes of sapphire was a shining jewel of a girl. Those sapphire eyes should have been cloudy with misfortune and surely the sadness was evident but it was ever thrown off by the hopeful smile that seemed to come natural to the other girl's lips.

"Oh good, you're awake. We were so worried... this session was worse then the others."
"I know, but I needed it."

Sky grimaced at the way her voice sounded so raspy and gruff compared to the musical brightness of words spilling from the other girl's lips. It strangely made Sky think of a Magpie meeting a Canary. The thought brought a smile to her lips for looking at the girl it seemed to fit more and more. The girl was a canary with hair the shining yellow of that very namesake.

"Perhaps, maybe so. I never really asked for an explanation, it isn't my place. As long as you're happy and you feel better."
"I suppose."
"Do you not feel better? Do you not feel happy?"
"I can't honestly say. I just wanted it to be quiet."
"Sometimes I wonder the same thing."
"What's that?"
"If... I am happy."

The sing song sweetness was a tender tragedy judging by the sad spark in sapphires as the bright girl rose to her feet. Sky knew that look so well. The eyes of the Canary had the mark of damaged goods, broken hearts, and concrete tragedies. Just another lost soul taken to wing.

The Canary was distracted, there were no bars on the windows but as Sky watched the Canary she couldn't help but think that the girl seemed to look even more trapped. Trapped in a moment that could not be escaped from as she looked out at the night with sapphire eyes searching.

"Are you ready then to face them?"

A silence broken shook Schuyler from her own consideration of the Canary and the yellow haired girl's love lorn smile. A muted nod and she would only follow after the Canary to the club below.

"I should get back... thank you."
"Don't mention it, Ariahn took care of everything so if you wished to stay longer to relax you can."
"Maybe for awhile."
"I knew you would say that."
"Oh and why was that?"
"They always do... just another one waiting to get lost, to disappear from everything... and everyone that left them behind."
"And what of you?"

The Canary shrugged, wearing her love lorn smile and shook her head.

"Maybe... but it's worse to still be waiting. After all this time... I wait for one that never came back. I don't know what's worse. Not anymore. It's so hard to tell."
"That is so sad..."
"It breaks my heart every night."

A whisper before the Canary gestured to the gathered club. It was a silent gesture to have Sky enjoy herself and forget her sorrows. The Canary on the other hand, drifted away. Always she would be the Heart Mender but she never could heal her own heart from the pain that lingered on.

Just another night of waiting at an open window and praying for a return.

[ThriftshopAugur]

It was a forbidden temptation to lose herself in the sound, the pulse and invitation of the music to steal away the soul for a minute if not an hour. With her mind quiet Sky could easily succumb to the sound, eyes closed and hands raised to the sky in her own sort of religion as her body moved in the ebb and flow to join the sea of flesh in the grinding, swaying, gyrating, rocking tempo. Eyes closed and head tipped back she knew what it was to feel alive if only for that moment to feel like one that belonged even if each and every soul in the club was nothing more then just another freak.

Fingers moved through the black river of her hair,easing back the sweat soaked tendrils from her face as the solo dance of Sky continued on till she was deeper lost in the drowning pool of skin. The heat of the crowd's proximity clung to the air around her and she was swallowing down the taste of their sweat and longing without a grimace.

It was within minutes turning to hours that finally the music would die and leave her to the empty numbness of silence. Sky felt alienated with being alone in her own head with all the cadence of voices left quiet. On her own again she didn't know quite what to do with herself. There was no desire to return to the shelter to see the pity in Avy and Finn's eyes. Instead she turned and headed for the opposite direction. Darker alleys beckoned even as the pinprick of uncertainty and warning crawled along her skin. It didn't quite matter anymore did it?

Squinting in the shadows and the dim alley light she swore she saw a shine of citrine curls, a banner of comet light glowing a torch light of loneliness for a lost heart. Sky had no choice but to follow on as ignorant of the danger she was walking into even as the Canary was left to be.

[ThriftshopAugur]

The whispers came again, deep in the dark of the night to tear through her subconscious. It had been that way since the night the Lady and the Tempest had arrived at the Shelter. Sky had felt that something was off, something wasn’t right and that the warning was far more then that ill uneasy feeling quivering through her flesh.



Her hands rose to her temples as the whispers folded over and over, increasing in volume and lapping over each other until the voices and the whispers were deafening. Sky covered her ears even as she screamed if only to mute out the sound of those whispers.



This time it was so much more different. Not only now were there voices but there were images flashing through her mind of an angel involved and linked to the Lady that seemed to have a past intertwined with Avy and Finn. Another image of a religious man determined to find salvation for a courtesan cloaked in red.



Sky was screaming again as the images joined the voices till it was all too much to handle, a pale haired woman in companionship of a scarred man, a beauty of a vessel protected by a dark beast, and finally… two mistaken for sinners trapped to forever pay the price.



Schuyler had never known them and yet she found herself screaming their true names before the names of Avy and Finn touched her lips. It was the realization of the soundproof room that finally entered her awareness and she stumbled out of her room, eyes colt wild before she collapsed to her knees.



The words were not her own to speak but she spoke them the same as her flesh felt as if it was on fire. Fingers curled into a vice grip at her knees as the names trailed and twisted in Latin, focused intently on the destiny of two sinners to arrive at their door. This was only the beginning…

[ThriftshopAugur]

Everyone was looking for hope in a world filled and tainted with madness and envy, greed and desire. Souls thrived on the unobtainable and fleeting possibility of love, hope, desire, and fear anymore it just seemed so easy to cling to something so impossible to possess.



All of it was fleeting, rain in the palm of hands or snowflakes on the tongue. The possibility was endless until it all melted or slipped away. The notion haunted the hours where Schuyler did not sleep.



Sky couldn’t determine what was worst… the nights where all she heard were the whispers in her mind or the hours where all she had left were her own private thoughts.



She could only abandon the shelter to seek the solace of alone time. Once outside she eased her headphones back on and turned up the volume even as the shining dark of her eyes wandered the streets.



It was just another night and moment of curious wonder that had her staring into the shadows. There was just that odd pinprick uneasy feeling she felt once more that left her staring off into the darkness before she stepped deeper within it. Perhaps Sky tonight was willing to tempt fate or perhaps something or someone far less kind…

[ThriftshopAugur]

The streets seemed darker, filled with far more despair and foreboding then ever they had before. Schuyler huddled in her jacket with her hands shoved deep in her pockets as she moved through the alley way as quietly as she could.



Hours earlier she had pulled the headphones from her ears if only to focus on the sounds around her as dark eyes narrowed. She couldn’t shake that feeling that she was being followed. The West End had never felt this cruel and heartless, but tonight it felt different and Sky understood the reason why when she heard the terrified screams break the uncomfortable silence of the night.



Before Sky even was thinking of what she was doing she was taking off running towards the sound of the screams, she ran through the alleys till her chest was hurting and only then did she see the trio of males surrounding the figure of a blond in a scarlet red hooded sweatshirt.



“We paid you and you will do what we asked for, whore.”

“I don’t… I’m not… just let me go. You can have your money. Keep it.”

“We heard about you, you know… you really think you’re worthy of salvation. Look at you, you’re no better then a street roughened wench”

“I… I know.”



The woman’s voice that Sky heard was a warm dark honey sweetness of a whisper that brought Sky to carefully ease forward as her fingers curled into fists. If anything her time in the shelter had taught Sky to fight for the things she believed in, and the things she was against. This was one of those things she never could tolerate was to watch another woman brutalized. It didn’t matter the life choice the woman had made, she didn’t deserve this.



“Maybe God will come for you if you call for him loud enough girl, but we will get what we paid for.”

“Please… just let me be. I will give you the money, and everything else I made tonight… just please let me go. I want to go back to the church.”

“He won’t be there, you really think a man of the cloth would give a damn about a useless prostitute?”



Any response the girl could have made was drowned out in her screams of pain as the trio attacked her then. Sky no matter how much she wanted to react felt powerless as her feet would not move from where they rested. Even when her voice rose to a shrieked request for the men to stop they didn’t. It took everything in her power not for her to cover her eyes as literally Schuyler was starting to believe that she was going to watch the woman die before her very eyes.



“Please stop…”



Sky’s whisper was far more a strangled sob as it was then that the voices decided to pick up again. She made no attempts to stop them at this time, only left bitter in her powerless presence against the brutality before her very eyes.



It was those very dark eyes of the prophet that witnessed the next event as the shadows near the trio and the female seemed to distort and blur. The shadows themselves seemed to move in a whiplash attack of motion. One after another of the males was worked through and damaged, left for broken in wailing screams of agony and groans of protest.



Sky’s own vision seemed to blur as she finally found the capability to move her own feet as she ran forward towards the crumpled form of the attacked girl and towards the shadow figure that loomed over her. Predator or Protector Sky had to wonder now…



As she approached she felt the strangest sensation of unease and wonder as the energy in the air seemed something far more mechanical and electric. The very source of that gathered energy seemed to come from the one that had left a broken mess and ruin of the men that had attacked the other girl.



What surprised Schuyler the most was that the one that had protected and fought off the trio happened to be a slender waif of a girl that carried almost a look of detached innocence and serenity. Pale as fresh fallen snow with the rich luster of oil black curls was the girl that stood over the blond but it was the woman’s eyes that disturbed Sky the most. The girl’s eyes were such an unusually electrical shade of blue. The girl’s eyes reminded Sky of fire and lightning and pure energy all in one moment while also remaining so rich and vivid with such radiating intensity.



“Mm. Well this was a most unexpected meeting.”

“What?”

“This. I was advised of the coordinates but this was not advised.”

“What do you mean…this was planned?”

“Well I would not say planned but expected. If it was not her then it would have been you. You both are quite special. Perhaps it is your unusual connection to your God.”

“My God?”

“Well I don’t believe I have the classification or the program of religious beliefs but I do comprehend right from wrong.”

“Who…what… are you.”

“The who is far more easier to explain then the what I am afraid. However I was named Runa by the one who created me, and this is Belladonna Sweet as much as you are Schuyler Rose.”

“How do you know…”



Runa just smiled over to Schuyler before shaking her head.



“It’s a secret. Come and help me with her. The church is far too far away for us to carry her there even with my enhanced capability and you quite haven’t found your wings have you? So really it is pointless, we must go to your shelter. There are those that I need to speak with and I am certain that they would be most interested to know that I am quite… familiar with one called Diana.”



“What are you talking about?”

“Never mind what matters now is Ms. Sweet. She’s precious cargo you might say and the one that worships and prays to your Lord would not be pleased to find her damaged, so let us go.”



It seemed effortless the way that the slender waif of a woman picked up the crumpled, broken form of Belladonna even as she began to walk through the alleys and back towards the Shelter.



Schuyler had no choice but to follow even as she still pondered over the words Runa spoke. Finding wings… a shake of head and she continued on absolutely dumbfounded with the turn of events.

[TheOnlyException]

Runa had led the way until they arrived at the front door. The Ghost was never one so fixated or talented with invitations and welcome and thus she left the Prophet to open the door and welcome them within.

"It is perhaps best that your protectors deal with the healing of Ms. Sweet. She, her blood, has been tampered with much as yours but that is something to be discussed later. There is much to be said but not the place to say it, nor is it my place to tell you of what I know. I know what I was meant to in order to assist. That is all that is relevant. I can say though that I have been very involved with the assistance of this all. The business man that offered your Protector a job once is very talented in technology however even he has overlooked a glitch. That was no glitch though, Diana and I became quite close in those days. In fact you could say we... mirrored each other for a copy. An imprint if you will."

The Ghost continued on absently as she carried the unconscious Belladonna in her arms, a smile sent over her shoulder to Schuyler before the brilliance of electric blue eyes searched for those spoken of before that the Project ever were so fond in possessing.

For a moment Runa paused at a closed door, her expression a forgery of doll like curiousity before she smiled and walked away in the direction Schuyler went to the makeshift infirmary.

"Such a curious gathering this. Angels and Demons. Devils and Gods. A Betrayer and a Sinner and now the Whore of Babylon to join them all. So many others... this is dangerous intel to decipher. We must hurry, the others will come and they will help but we must work quickly. Time may well run out."