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Chapter 1
Awakenings
Adrian awoke to the sound of his alarm clock buzzing in his ear. The strange dream he had been having was still fresh in his mind. It was in a jungle. That's all he could remember. He rolled over, groaning. Finally, he rolled right out of the iron frame bed with a thud.
"Bollocks," he said as he peeled his face off the moth eaten carpet and dragged himself into the grimy bathroom. Adrian Davidson lived in an old boarding house in a small North American town, a few miles south of New York. It was seven in the morning. It was Monday. It could all go to hell, as far as he was concerned. He had to get ready for high school, but he just didn't care. The only reason he went was to catch another glimpse of Lulu.
He sighed, as he stared at himself in the cracked bathroom mirror. Bleary blue eyes under a shock of unruly ginger hair. He started to apply shaving foam to his chin. Adrian lived in the boarding house because his late mother implied in her will that he be given a flat and not have to pay, his mum doing a favor for the landlady she still owed. The landlady, a widow called Mrs. Haverton, disliked Adrian and would chuck him out at a moments notice if it wasn't for the fact she was superstitious about deathbed promises. The town, called Sunnyvale, was populated by people from all walks of life. If it wasn't, then the boarding house definitely was. Already he could hear hyperactive fourteen year old Jamie running about upstairs, he and his older sister from Las Vegas. Below lived Mr. Hunningan, a one-armed African-American who fought in the first Gulf War. Across the landing lived the Chinese Chung family, above and below them a family of Indians Adrian didn't know and an old man who was rumored to be an occultist.
The poor man could be heard having his wake up call, in the form of Mrs. Haverton banging on his door and shrieking "I 'ope you ain't doin' no evils in there, mister!"
Adrian finished shaving and stumbled to his clothes pile, where he chose a relatively clean pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. As he pulled them on, he looked out of his window onto Sunnyvale.
"Mornin', Little Prospect," he slurred. "Little Prospect" was the name of the town back in the early 19th Century, when it was a Western seaport style town. People still called it that, because the town never amounted to much. Adrian was an outcast. He wasn't part of a group at Sunnyville High School, where he never fitted in. Luckily Lulu wasn't really popular, which, in his view, made her a nicer person and easier to be friends with. Which he wasn't, yet, because he was too nervous to ask her out. Adrian was always the person on the sidelines, watching, always chose last for sports. He thought rather than acted and hated being in the centre of attention. His theory on popularity was that the more popular you are, the more of a bastard you were. Which was mostly true.
He gathered his school things into a rucksack and stumbled, still half asleep, onto the landing. On the floor below he ran into the suspected occultist. He was leaning on the banister, wearing a jacket and old trousers. His head lowered, he grasped a half empty beer bottle. His black ponytail hung around his neck.
"Y'alrigh'?" Adrian managed.
The man looked up at him. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked as if he had been crying. The man stared deep into Adrian's eyes, which was very disconcerting, as if he could see into his head. After a few embarrassing seconds the man's eyes widened in shock and he stumbled back into his room.
"Guess not." Adrian was feeling wide awake after that incident, as if the man's stare had rejuvenated him.
On the ground floor he found the landlady waiting for him. She was holding a china plate with a small sausage sandwich on it.
"Here," she said gruffly.
"Thanks," Adrian answered as cheerfully as he could manage. The landlady desperately wanted him to not like her sausage sandies so she could yell at him. Adrian enjoyed acting cheerful at a grumpy person.
Taking the sandwich he sauntered out of the front door and began to walk to school.
Up on the first floor of the boarding house, curtains were twitched aside, the suspected occultist watching him walk up Magnus Avenue.
The man paced away from the curtains and around the darkened room. Him! The man had lived one floor down from the boy, how could he have not noticed one so close!
The man approached a large mirror, and the grizzled face of Manitou scowled back. He looked at the bottle in his hand, and tossed it into the dustbin over the room. No time for grieving, he thought excitedly. I mustn't rush this. Never had he found one so quickly, and in the boys eyes the flame was already burning! All he had to do was fan the fire. And he was good at that.
His reflection faded, and was replaced by clouds and mist.
Now to search for what he was. He had done this for Sarah and John, and he still choked at the memory of them, only a week ago. He entered a trace, and felt for the boy's mind in the chaos of the world. Manitou was what he called a Primal, a human gifted with the ability to transform into an animal human hybrid, and use the powers of that animal. Plus, Manitou was the last remaining member of the Diaox tribe, and his ancestors guided him to the boy. The sought through his mind to the base level of the consciousness, where the animal side presided. He found it, and caught its attention. A fierce, intense predator looked back at him.
Hmmm. Never had one of those before. With his mentoring, the boy could be helpful, and he may know other people like him. Primals are naturally drawn to each other. But wait… a faint touch of something was in his mind also, faint, but with a source. Manitou followed the trail of the lingering feeling from the boy's mind.
Manitou was totally unprepared for what transpired next. His eyes snapped open, and the clouds and mist in the mirror had been replaced, not with his reflection, but with a hooded figure, facing away from him. Manitou tore his mind out before the figure could sense him, and the image returned to the reflection of him and his flat. Oh, no, he thought. First I find a new, potentially powerful primal, only to have it tainted by that.
Sarah… slithered. She slithered about her plastic prison, a small, thin, green snake. Important to remember who I am, she thought. Through the plastic she could see another snake, a brown cobra. It was watching her. She tilted her pointed head sideways, and the cobra nodded slightly. So Manitou was right, there were more than her, John and him. The cobra next to her had also been like her before the man cast his foul spell. I am Sarah Gladstone, she reminded herself, and wondered where John was. From her place, through plastic walls, she could see she was in a box, on a shelf, in a small lantern lit cave. The cave was long and held many animals in cages. How many here were like her? I am Sarah. If she tilted her head more, the cages could be seen to be filled with other animals. Alligators, chameleons, turtles, that sort of thing where nearest to her, past them on her left was some cages with dogs, foxes and wolves, down the other birds, rodents, plastic boxes with insects and the occasional water filled tank. All the way down to he left the long cave opened into a larger, rounder cave filled with larger, shackled mammals. She gathered from her short trip in the rat man's arms there were other caves with beds in, tables laden with sharp, silver tools and racks upon racks of liquid filled bottles. I am Sarah.
The cobra hissed, and slid away under a stone in its case. Sarah turned to see what had caused it to flee, when she saw two robed, hooded figures stalking down the isle towards her case. One trailed the belts and straps of a straight jacket and pranced about, cackling, while the other leaned to look into her case. A pair of green, bloodshot eyes stared at her from behind a featureless, steel mask.
Enjoying this? taunted a voice in her mind. Fitting in nicely? Poor girl, excuse me, snake, I wonder if you realized what's happening to you and that monkey.
I am Sarah Gladstone, Sarah thought, trying to ignore Despair's taunting.
Boo bloody hoo. Manitou really screwed up, huh? Leaving you here to rot. He never liked you. So what if you stopped the ritual? We can wait another measly year. When that time comes, all of humanity will be like you. Hahahahaha.
I am Sarah. Sod off.
Make me. The moment you forget who you are, you're stuck like that.
You're lying. I AM SARAH!
"Come on, Despair," Insanity gasped between random gibberish. "Let's see the monkeys!" Insanity danced back down the isle, smacking its straps into cages.
Be seeing you. I enjoy our little talks. Despair followed its dancing counterpart, leaving Sarah alone.
I'll show him. I am Sarah.
Adrian walked down Main Street. He lived in the run down part of town, i.e. the part what was more run down than the rest. To be honest, it wasn't all that bad. There were some newer sections of town, further up Main Street, round a few corners, next to the seafront. It's just he didn't live near there. He walked past bland grey concrete tower blocks, watching the birds in the sky, when he bumped into somebody.
"Sorry," both of them mumbled. Lowering his head to see who it was, Adrian saw a teenage he vaguely knew as "Crazy Jane." She was Little Prospect's resident Goth, dressed in a long leather coat and the kind of figure hugging black trousers they wore. Her face was hidden behind white makeup and her eyes surrounded by heavy black mascara. She herself wasn't crazy, but her uncle, her only living relative, was. She visited him daily at the infirmary in the hospital on the other side of town. She stared back, and then continued walking the way Adrian had come. She looks more depressed than Goths usually do, he thought as he continued walking.
Ten minutes later he reached Sunnyville High School. It was one of those yellowy red buildings that had a tall bit in the middle with two shorter, longer bits either sides, with large pane windows. Adrian stared at it glumly. Already other students were either standing, sitting or oozing around and on the stairs in front of the main entrance. Some were oozing because either they were so damn fat or they were still asleep and had been dragged to school. The most popular, the jocks and, for some reason, cheerleaders, at the top of the stairs, the cheerleaders giggling when the jocks stared at them, and gossiping in the high speed, high pitched voices that was intensely annoying to people who hated them, didn't care about what they were talking about or non-Americans. The front stairs were a perfect example of pyramid schemes.
Adrian leaned on a steel banister, painted green, halfway up the stairs. Adrian found he could make himself be ignored. He didn't know how else to describe it. When he wanted to, people never noticed him. It wasn't invisibility; he knew that, because in class he tried it when his teacher was talking at him. It seemed that he could only "fade" if people weren't paying attention to him before he did it. After that they could look at where he was at not notice him. He'd would rather fade into the background rather than draw the attention of the various bullies and other annoying people.
Adrian scanned the crowds for a glimpse of Lulu. Already more students were arriving, this time in groups. Adrian called them swarms. He faded further, still searching.
Manitou was meditating, communicating with the spirits of the sky and his ancestors. He needed to know which incarnation was working its way into the boy's mind. If he didn't purge it now, it would grow inside of him, and turn him, the way Xanthi, Robert and Anya had been. They had embraced the incarnation's power, but if the boy rejected it, there was still hope for him. Xanthi had been enticed by Wrath's anger, Anya by Despair's malice and Robert by Agony's power over pain.
The incarnation had been facing away from him; he couldn't see its defining characteristics. They all wore the same drab robes and a tarnished chain around their necks.
Manitou had found his ancestors collective spirit, it darted around the world, it answered not only to Manitou, but was the collective ancestral spirit of Australian Aborigines, other Native American tribes and the monks of the Tibetan mountains, when something brought him out of his trance with a jolt. An unexpected surge of power came from the boy he found to possess the ability he mentored. Instantly, Manitou reached out with his mind, to the boy. He found him at the school, leaning on a rail.
How? Manitou wondered. Without his teachings, the boy had managed to learn how to use a skill of the animal he was connected to. All Primals, even in human form, had some gifts of their animal. This boy seemed to be using that animal's gift for camouflage, to melt into the background. Manitou performed a quick search of his mind, and found that the incarnation had noticed.
Manitou stood up, and stumbled over to the large mirror that dominated his apartment. In it the incarnation had turned to face the mirror.
Sorrow.
Adrian's day was rapidly becoming bearable. He had seen Lulu, trotting up the steps, her long, dark blond hair swaying from side to side. Lulu was shapely, with bright green eyes in an above average face. Not stunningly beautiful, because then she would be a cheerleader. She was wearing a white short sleeved t-shirt and denim shorts. Adrian, still in his background state, found he had a sudden burst of courage. Right, he thought, I'm going to ask her out now. He unhooked himself from the rail and followed her into the school. Nobody saw the faint, almost smoky shadow of a robed figure follow him.
Inside, he saw her unlocking her locker, one of the many that lined the green walls of the corridors.
Right, it's now or never, thought Manitou as he sat, cross-legged in front of the mirror. He had to strike down Sorrow before it reached the boy. Sorrow's particular powers allowed it to unleash all of its icy sadness into a human's mind. Slow release of this power caused depression, but the full whack which Sorrow was preparing could knock the victim into a permanent coma.
Manitou forced his spirit out onto the astral plane. He could move freely in this state, his body remaining at his flat. Manitou's spiritual form was that of a great eagle, with shimmering white feathers.
Nobody saw him as he glided down Main Street, up the school stairs and through the doors. Perching on a locker of a moment, he saw the boy talking to a girl at the far end of the corridor, with Sorrow drawing ever closer. He could see into Sorrow's mind, if you stretched "mind" to its farthest possible limits, and Sorrow was thinking that if it sent the boy into a coma, Sorrow and the others would have one less potential enemy. Manitou could see that, even at his fastest, Sorrow could hurt the boy.
He swooped as Sorrow took its hood off, revealing the woman's face, made of the dark water, the mouth stuck open in a silent wail. He was halfway down the hall when Sorrow touched the back of the boy's head with a dripping finger.
It was going well. Lulu was actually making conversation with him, when he felt a chill down his spine. He turned around.
"What's wrong?" Lulu asked, a hint of a giggle in her voice.
Adrian turned back. "Nothing, I thought there was somebody behind-ack" Adrian coughed into his hand. He looked down to see flecks of red in his palm. Large flecks. He coughed again.
"Adrian, are you okay?" Lulu asked, holding his shoulder, panic in her voice. Adrian looked up. Blood was running in a small trickle from his nose. Suddenly, he fell to his knees, coughing and hacking. Lulu shrieked when she saw blood in his hands.
Sorrow was obviously enjoying the boy's torture. Instead of the silent wail, it had a maniacal grin. Manitou finally caught up with it, landed on its head, and began to peck at its eyes.
"Not the face!" it managed, withdrawing its finger. It stumbled back down the hall, the shimmering eagle balancing on its head, pecking its face. It looked like water, but was quite solid. Not only that, it was pathetic at proper fighting. It got its edge by sneaking up behind and doing the finger thing. It flailed at Manitou ineffectively, wailing.
Insanity was poking at a Doberman in a cage with a pointy stick. The dog bit at the stick, but Insanity took the stick out before the dog got hold. Insanity had its hood down, and the Doberman would cower from its stare. Wiry, black, unkempt hair stuck out in random directions. Stitched over its mouth and nose was a white mask, through which you could see its manic grin. The eyes bulged, with pupils similar to the D.M.W.'s. Insanity never blinked, its cold, sapphire eyes glinting in the lantern light.
"Hee hee hee," it giggled. With a jolt, it stopped laughing, put the stick down and ran from the cave.
Scurrying down the corridor, it skidded round a corner and ran into the other five incarnations. They had a special connection, and Agony had called him. Four of them were staring at Sorrow, who was lying on the floor, writhing and wailing.
"What's up?" Insanity asked, all hint of madness gone from the voice.
"Manitou," Wrath snarled.
"Why am I not surprised?" Insanity chuckled, the lilt of madness back in full force.
"He's gone too far this time," Agony hissed.
"What? And the past three attempts at the ritual he's stopped don't count?" Insanity had that special kind of sanity accessible only to the extremely deranged. "What was Sorrow doing?"
"She had found a leashed primal. One Manitou hadn't found until today," gurgled Filth.
"Now he found her. We can do nothing mentally, like she can. We are useless to her."
Then we just have to hope she escapes, said Despair, striding down the corridor towards them. Do you know where Sorrow is? If we know, we find Manitou and that primal.
Manitou found himself pecking the floor. He had won the fight, and Sorrow hadn't. For now. Manitou's spirit form walked over to the boy. He had collapsed, blood making a thin red line from the corner of his mouth. A girl was screaming for help, and some adolescents and tall, smarter dressed adults were running towards the boy. Manitou did a quick spot check of the boy's mind, and found it in a normal, sleeping state. Manitou left, returning to his physical body.
Lulu watched as Adrian was loaded onto an ambulance. Tears ran down her face. He seemed such a nice guy, unlike any of the other jocks who approached her. Before whatever had happed to him happened, she was telling him she lived in the less rundown areas, and that her mother would gladly let him live in the spare room, rather than living in the dingy flat. She found she quite liked him.
She did that juddering you did when you cried. It was just so shocking, she thought, the way he just keeled over like that.
"Lulu? Lulu?" She realized someone was talking to her.
"Yeah?" she sniffled. It was he English teacher, Mrs. Jones. She patted her back.
"Do you want to skip lesson? You could do with some time to calm down."
"Yes, please," Lulu whispered.
She found a quite space in the library. Surrounded by the books, which muffled sounds further, she thought about what he had said just before the… incident. "Nothing, I thought there was somebody behind me," was what he had meant to say. After school, she thought, she would go to the hospital, find him, and find out what happened.
Manitou was already there. So were Nina Ronkko and her younger brother, Jamie, who lived in the flat above him. Although Nina didn't show it, she cared about Adrian, and her brother Jamie played catch sometimes with the boy in the boarding house backyard. Manitou wasn't sure what Nina did, she was 19 and didn't go to school. Each morning she would ship Jamie off to middle school, and then disappear. Mrs. Havelock dispersed rumors she sold drugs and was a lady of 'negotiable affection.'
Manitou didn't really care what she did; it was slightly comforting to know that she was loosely keeping an eye on him as well as he was.
Manitou sat in the uncomfortable plastic seat in the waiting area. He looked up as a small whirlwind of hyperactive pre-teen landed on the seat next to him. It wore the blue cap on its head the wrong way round, and grinned at him.
"Hiya, Uncle Manny!" Jamie yelped in one gasp. "Adrian's okay!"
Nina slumped in the chair next to Jamie. She sighed.
"Do they know what happened?" Manitou asked, knowing full well what had actually transpired.
"Doctor said he's too young for a stroke, and it couldn't have been a brain tumor. Adrian's perfectly healthy, 'cept he just collapsed."
Manitou stood the same time as Nina did. "You look after yourself. I'm sure something is coming."
"Uh… sure," Nina said, puzzled at Manitou's warning. "Come on, Jay."
"Seeya, Manny!" the boy yelped as he bounded down the corridor. Manitou entered the patient's room and found Adrian's bed behind some curtains. Adrian was watching TV on a small portable television on the bedside table.
"Oh, hi, Manny," Adrian croaked, noticing Manitou enter. "Whaddya think of this?" he motioned to the TV, showing CNN.
"The search for two missing persons continues," the newswoman said. "Sarah Gladstone and John McCallister disappeared from the small town of Sunnyville over a week ago, officials stated," Manitou's chest tightened at the names. "…around the same time as the cattle mutilations in Texas. Conspiracy theorists have called it an "Alien Invasion." The government denies all claims of aliens -"
"Are you okay?" Manitou said hesitantly. He was still staring at the new reporter, who had moved onto a new story.
"The doctor's say I am."
"But you think different?" Manitou sat on a small chair next to the bed.
After a moments thought, Adrian answered. "Yes. People just don't fall down for no reason."
"Before you did, did you sense anything strange?"
Adrian looked bemused at Manitou's odd question. He sighed. "This is gonna sound weird, but I thought somebody was behind me." Adrian stared out of a window.
"Who was that girl?" Manitou asked, moving the conversation away from Sorrow. He didn't want to shock Adrian. A boy so in tune to the Primals without his mentoring could attract the other incarnations accidentally.
"Her? She's Lulu. She said I could come live in the spare room at her place."
Manitou chuckled. He recognized love as easily as he saw potentials. "Well, that'd be better than where we live, huh? I'd better be off; I promised Haverton I'd help with the cleaning."
As Manitou neared the exit, Adrian piped up, curiosity in his voice. "You know something, don't you?"
Manitou rubbed his temples, turning. His face was grim. Walking up to the bed, he whispered, so the nurses couldn't hear. "When are you out?"
"Six today, I think."
"You know the old warehouse on the seafront?" Adrian nodded. "If you need to know the truth, go there at eight. Bring something for your own protection."
At a quarter to six, Lulu appeared. Adrian brightened up immediately.
"Hi, Adrian!" she squeaked. He eyes were still red. "You okay now?"
"I'm… fine." Adrian choked. Lulu had leaned over him. She was wearing one of those t-shirts with the low neck-line.
"I was so worried! I knew you'd be out about now, so I thought I'd walk home with you!" Lulu sat down in the small chair suddenly and started rambling about her day. Adrian noticed this seemed to calm her down, and he didn't mind conversations where he just listened.
Eventually, it reached six.
"You can go home now," said one of the nurses kindly, snapping Adrian out of a doze. Lulu seemed not to have noticed the time pass any less than Adrian.
Within minutes, Adrian and Lulu were walking down Barber's Lane, away from the hospital. The sun had begun to set, and a cool breeze was blowing the scent of the sea at them. It was very quiet and peaceful. Adrian and Lulu walked, side by side, but not holding hands, down to the junction.
"This is where I go," Lulu said, a hint of reluctance in her voice.
"Uh… bye," Adrian said in the same tone as her. Much to his surprise Lulu leaned forward and planted a kiss on his cheek before walking away.
Arian walked down Main Street, a spring in his step.
Arriving at the boarding house, he looked up and saw the window onto Manitou's apartment. It was open. Adrian remembered what he had said in the patients ward. Common sense fought curiosity to a standstill. He didn't really know Manitou that well, what if he was a weirdo? But he did say to bring something for protection. But, then again, what if Manitou liked a challenge? Adrian reminded himself he thought too much.
On his landing he found a pile of mashed potato on a plate.
"What, no ketchup?" he yelled.
"Shaddup!" came the reply from downstairs. Smirking, Adrian took the plate inside and sat on his bed, eating and looking at the digital clock on the wall. At ten to eight, he rummaged around the debris in his room until he found what he was searching for.
Stumbling down the stairs, he made it out the boarding house before Mrs. Haverton could ask where he was going.
"Door's locked at ten!" she shrieked after him.
Adrian jogged down Main Street, the wooden baseball bat thumping his leg as it hung from his belt. It was nearing eight when he reached the warehouse Manitou said he would meet him at. It was a foreboding silhouette in the light of the setting sun. The rusted iron double doors on the front swung loosely in the sea breeze, making a piercing squeak in the odd silence that pervaded.
Adrian took the bat out of his belt and gave it a few practice swings before sidling towards the doors. He pushed one open with his foot, ready to swing at anything that would attack. The only thing that rushed out, however, was a gust of musty, salty air.
"Manny?" he said quietly.
He heard a friendly chuckle from the gloom. A match flared in the darkness, which lit a candle. "Come in, Adrian. I see you came prepared. That's good. That's very good."
Adrian gingerly sidled over the threshold. He saw Manitou sitting cross-legged in front of the single candle, with a kind expression on his face. He smiled at Adrian, who was reassured slightly. He lowered the bat and walked over to Manitou.
"Take a seat," Manitou said, his voice just above a whisper. Behind Adrian the wind blew the door shut with a loud clang, causing him to jump. Manitou, however, remained still. Adrian sat down opposite Manitou, the candle between them, each of them just on the edge of the pool of light.
"I knew you would come."
"Heh, curiosity killed the cat," Adrian joked.
"Not killed, just attracted."
Sorrow lay in the pentagram in the centre of the large cave, taking the place of the cauldron. Its liquid form appeared slightly melted, and occasionally it would twitch. Wrath and Agony stood at the edge of the pentagram, Agony scraping its hooks over each other, Wrath flexing its many muscles. Both of them turned at the sound of a staff echoing off the scuffed stone floor, and the man in the saffron robes entered the cave, along with Robert; who was in his perpetual crouch, and Filth; who flowed along behind the man, trailing thick black sludge.
"How is Sorrow?" asked the man.
"Resting. The pentagram is healing her, but slowly," Agony hissed through its sewn up lips.
"She did not expect Manitou to appear." Wrath growled.
"What was… she doing?" Robert croaked. He feared Wrath, and Wrath enjoyed watching him squirm when Robert talked to him.
"She had found a primal that Manitou didn't know existed."
"So soon? Oh, dear." The man sighed.
"Despair is finding their exact location now. He wants Agony to kill the new primal when he has found it," Filth gurgled. Agony nodded, smirked, and continued to sharpen his hooks.
"Very well. Come, Robert." The man swept from the room, staff tapping, Robert at his heels.
"Where is Anya?"
"Probably disemboweling some small mammal," Robert sulked. He was jealous that Anya was a cobra and Xanthi a hornet, and he was, what? A rat? What good was a rat?
"Ganas?" Robert said gingerly.
"Yes?" the man, Ganas, replied.
"Can't you make me a better animal?"
"No. Not yet. If you are faithful to the Nightmare, it may grant you a new form when it enters this world."
"What I am about to tell you may seem very… strange," Manitou said. "Like it or not, believe it or not as you will, you perceptions will not change reality. Firstly, do you believe in… ghosts?" Manitou seemed to pause to find words that Adrian would understand.
"…Sort of. Is that what attacked me?" Adrian answered. He thought it was odd Manitou had called him out hear to talk when they lived in the same building.
"No. Ghosts are not like that," Manitou sighed. "If I say its name it will come, and you are unprepared for that."
"So, do you want to help me stop it?"
"Yes. But first you must open your mind. Have you heard of Primals?"
"No, what are they?"
Manitou searched for something that he would know. "What about werewolves?"
"Oh, yeah, everyone knows werewolves. Are they real too?" Adrian didn't mean the trace of mockery in his voice.
"Yes." Adrian looked dumbfounded.
"Whatever. If that's all I'm here for, then I'm going." He began to stand up.
"Wait. Have you ever felt out of place? As if you don't belong?"
"…yeah. I do all the time. How do you know?"
"Sit and I shall explain.'" When Adrian had settled himself back onto the dusty concrete floor, he continued. "The myth of werewolves had arisen from sightings of Primals. These were the chief witch doctor, wizard or what have you from Aborigine, Japanese, English and Native American groups."
"This isn't some weird cult your getting me into, is it?" Adrian interrupted.
Manitou chuckled. "No. Now, the sightings said about human shaped wolves, and some people actually saw the primal change. But it was not just wolves. They could do eagles, bears, stallions, all sorts. The animal was determined by what the Primal's guide was."
"Are you one of those guides? I heard of mediums who guide spirits someplace. Are you one of them?"
"I am a guide… to anything that needs guiding," Manitou said patiently. "I am also a Primal. I tell you this because I know that you won't tell anyone."
"Well, course, if you were, nobody'd believe me."
"Exactly."
"So what's your animal then?"
"Eagle."
"…Show me."
"Fine… but don't scream or run away or faint or hit me with that thing." Manitou stood up and looked at a pile of boxes. "It'd be better if I do a kind of before and after thing. You may check behind the boxes for a costume if you want to." Adrian hesitated, then did.
"Nothing. So what do you do?"
"I go behind the boxes, and concentrate. Don't come round, no matter what you hear."
Adrian sat back down and watched him. He was quite curious as to what the man was up to. He gripped the handled of the bat just in case. From behind the boxes he heard some nasty sounding snaps. A window, miraculously intact, caused a shadow to fall across the floor so he could see Manitou's shadow in the moonlight. The shadow seemed to be growing in height. Whatever Manitou was doing seemed to have stopped, and he said "Brace yourself." The voice sounded hollow.
Adrian gulped. He sound of talons clicked against the floor as Manitou stepped out from behind his makeshift cover. Arian gasped. Manitou had changed from a human into a bird man. He was nearly an extra two foot taller, and the wings folded behind him made him look even higher. Scaly yellow skin covered his calves and forearms, and his fingers and toes ended in large black talons. Adrian noticed he had three fingers now. Funny how the mind picks that out he thought, staring at what he thought was the impossible. Manitou's lower face was a shiny pale yellow beak, his eyes like an eagle, but strangely, still Manitou's eyes. He had taken his jacket off so his wings had space, and his chest, head, wings and upper arms were all covered in white and light brown feathers.
"Eagle," he said again, his beak making his voice hollow sounding.
"Wow," Adrian managed, dropping the bat. He walked over gingerly, looking up into Manitou's eyes. "How the hell did you do that?"
"I concentrated," Manitou answered. He gave his wings a small flap to show they weren't fake. He walked back over to the candle, now burning low, and sat down again. Adrian managed to sit without falling over outright.
"This is what I am. A Primal."
Adrian gulped. "So what do want with me?"
Manitou chuckled again, his beak clacking this time. "I don't want you for anything. I'm offering you an opportunity. To be a Primal."
Adrian opened his mouth a few times. "Me?" he croaked.
"You know that empty feeling you have? The dreams of jungles? That's your Primal calling to you."
"But…" Adrian thought of Lulu.
"I know this seems overwhelming. I was like you when my grandfather told me he was a Primal too." Manitou smiled as best he could with a beak. "The thing that attacked you knew of your potential as well. There are more of them, and they seek to plunge this world into chaos. I can't stop them alone."
"You need me," Adrian said, almost to himself.
"Yes. There may be others like you to. When you sleep tonight, your guide may come to you. This one meeting has been enough for that. You don't have to if you don't want to, understand that. Give it a bit of thought. You know where to find me." With that, he stood, and flapped into the air and soared out of an open skylight. Adrian watched in awe.
Well, that went well, thought Manitou was he flew along the coast. He was going to visit his homeland.
Well, that was weird, thought Adrian as he stumbled back to the boarding house.
The incarnation sat on the floor. It had felt Manitou change. It had a connection with him because of what had happened to Sarah and John. Despair raised his head. He knew exactly where the primal was now.
Agony! he shouted. The hideous creature skittered in.
"Yes? You found him?"
Yes. How is Sorrow?
"She is regaining her strength."
A series of slow thuds came up the corridor to Despair's little cave. Wrath poked his burning head around the cave entrance. He had his hood down, and his real face was a charred human skull, wreathed in flames.
Agony is going, just Agony, Despair commanded. Wrath growled and stamped further down the corridor, dust falling in clouds form the ceiling.
Agony grinned horribly with his stitched up mouth, and reached up with a hook to his eyes. Slowly, he cut the thin rope holding the eyelids shut. When they were all cut, he opened his eyes, though they weren't eyes at all.
Two tiny, eye sized, needle-toothed mouths grinned and flick out little tongues.
Why do they keep us here? Sarah mused, slithering about her case. The brown cobra next to her case managed to communicate by licking the plastic casing, writing letters with his tongue and spit.
WhaT's Your nAMe?
was scrawled on the side. Sarah wrote back, barely forming the letters herself.
"Hee hee hee." giggled an insane voice as a piece of cardboard slid between the cases. "Naughty, naughty. You wanna know why you're here, huh? Well, when Master Velierious summons the Nightmare into this pathetic world and is uses his body as a vessel, he's gonna need lots to eat, huh?"
Sarah hissed as Insanity danced off down the isles of trapped former humans. She looked at the cardboard separating the cases and her name, scribbled in spit. I won't let that happen, she thought. Snake or not, it's not happening!
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