2019-09-13 - Blood In, Blood Out

It was very early in the morning and the sun wasn’t even on the cusp of rising at all. Minerva had been awoken in a frightening way, her nieces voice was scared and she had called to her, “Aunt Riya!” she frantically whispered.

That had made her sit straight up, but Minerva wasn’t in her apartment...or she wasn’t in the real world version of her apartment. She was in the Veil. “Ashira!?” she calls out to the darkness and tries to find the form of her niece.

Shoes are an afterthought as she races down the stairs and out into the inky blackness of the dream world. And then the smell hits her, the coppery taste of blood that sticks the roof of your mouth and makes you gag. Minerva takes off running in the direction where she last heard the voice.

She’s without the eyepatch since it was in the middle of the night, so her missing eye was just there for now. Not time to pop anything over it. “ASHIRA!” she calls out to the darkness, trying to get some sign that her niece was there.

That voice sounds painfully familiar and the woman straightens and tries to lay an eye on who it is coming from. What she sees in the rotting corpse of the man that was almost her husband off in the darkness. “Oh that’s not fair.” she breathes out.

“Life isn’t fair, Riya.” the voice snaps at her. It was something that made her straighten a bit more. Her frame trying to look taller like one would with a predator.

“Do you think I wanted to die at my age, do you think if I had known I was going to die I would have settled on /you/?” the voice is cold and patronizing.

And something about what he says makes her feel like she’s less than what he should have settled on. “No, you probably would have went for someone that wasn’t damaged and had two good eyes.” she whispers.

“Now, tell me what you drug me into a dream for.” she growls out.

“Like all things in life it’s complicated in exactly what I want from you.” the voice states as it draws closer. Minerva doesn’t move though. She stays rooted in place, her toes digging into the soil.

“We don’t have to be enemies, Irvriya...we could make a fine pair. You know what a gift you have and I could exploit that.” the voice feels like it creeps over her.

It’s really not the time for Irvriya to be fighting. She’s exhausted and not really prepared to deal with the Veil or what it can spit out at the moment. So the burning pain that radiates through her side just under her ribs makes her gasp out and she presses a hand to her side, drawing it back it’s covered in blood.

“Fuck. I missed it.” she grits out as she manages to make out the shape of something off to the side. She staggers her way back out of the woods. Blood dripping from her hands as she tries to make her way up the stairs. She gets the door opened and manages to knock her cellphone off with her as she collapses inside.

Her brother is on speed dial, thank god. “Cip...check on Ashira.” she whispers into the phone before she closes her eyes.