Occulturation #7 Ystra's Nightmare
Ystra walks through the city. She had hoped that Garesh would be able to help her find Lauren, but she fears that if she goes to Garesh’s house again, Millie will kill her. Lauren wanders through the city streets as it becomes afternoon. She knows that Lauren must be famished after breaking her compulsion, but Lauren hasn’t returned to her. Unless Lauren finds another witch to feed her, Ystra can’t think of where Lauren would go to feed. Ystra doesn’t know of any other witches in the area, and she doubts that Lauren would know of any either.
There is only one other way for a Screamer to feed without a witch to provide them a soul. Ystra had thought that no one used this alternative method anymore, until she met Garesh. Witches can harmlessly extract souls from humans. Garesh reminded them of the other method. Garesh killed a child to feed Screamers. Ystra hopes that Lauren doesn’t do the same. However, Lauren cannot ignore the possibility, and it is beginning to seem more and more likely that Lauren has trespassed the laws for human-Screamer coexistence. These laws are the laws of man. Civil laws, rather than soul-powered bindings.
Nevertheless, if Lauren commits murder, Ystra is going to be in so much trouble. Ystra hopes she isn’t too late. She knows her hope is in vain. Her bond with Lauren is still intact, so she knows that Lauren is still alive. Lauren would have faded away by now if she hadn’t already fed. Ystra thinks about where Lauren would go if she wanted to kill. Lauren recalls what she can about Lauren. Lauren is a mare, a type of nightmare spirit that sits upon and throttles its victims to death. While the human suffocates, they are paralyzed and suffer terrible nightmares.
Lauren wouldn’t be foolish enough to hunt patients in a clinic for sleep disorders. However, she might seek out people that are sure to have experienced trauma in their life. Ystra turns down a sidestreet and heads towards the veterans’ home, a facility awarded to soldiers who have spent their time in the military and survived. Since the military works mainly to keep the city safe from Screamer attacks, the amount of people that survive long enough to use the veterans’ home is quite small. Since it’s not so populous, Lauren would have an easy time killing without being spotted.
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Lauren savors the moment. She feeds upon the victim slowly. Draining the man of his soul, little by little as she torments him with nightmares. Surrounded by Screamers, all of his friends dying around him while he is helpless to do anything. It’s a lovely nightmare. Lauren hears the door open. A man in simple clothing and a silver medallion around his neck walks in and closes the door. “I’ve been tracking you since last night,” the man says, “You’re pretty hard to tail, going through doors and all.”
Lauren grunts in annoyance. She wants to continue torturing the poor fellow in the bed. A slow, painful death. Oh, well. She thrusts her fear mongering powers into the dying man’s mind, shattering his Psyche. The man dies, and Lauren consumes his soul. “You monster, you were just playing with your food,” the man says, as he takes out a silver dagger. The man takes out a purple cloth and stuffs it through the keyhole of the door to keep Lauren from escaping. Lauren cackles at the man’s foolishness. The man frowns. “I’ve trapped you,” the man says, “Why is that funny?”
“I’m trapped in here with you,” Lauren says, “Trapping me is the best way to ensure your death.” Lauren lunges at the man, crashing into him and landing on top of him. The man is on his back on the floor. He stabs Lauren in the arm with his silver dagger. A terrible pain permeates Lauren’s entire body. It’s not a physical pain. It’s the terrible pain of sorrow, hopelessness and despair. Lauren goes limp and falls to the ground. She isn’t dead, she just doesn’t have the motivation to make any effort to keep her ethereal body upright.
“Ha, for one so cocky, you sure die quick.” The man says. He sheathes his silver dagger and stands there, waiting for something. He waits there for about ten seconds before he loses his patience and asks, “Why haven’t you disappeared yet? You’re dead, right?” He takes his silver dagger out again. Lauren doesn’t move. Why would she move? She doesn’t see any reason to avoid the inevitable. Everything dies. She knows this from experience. She’s died before, and it’s clearly going to happen again. There is no reason to delay her death. Why has she continued living for so long? Why has she continued to feed? There is no joy in this life, no reason to prolong her miserable existence.
Why would she make the effort to kill? Why? Lauren feels something. It’s not the fire of passion or the chains of obligation. No, she remembers the addictive, euphoric experience of torturing, killing, hunting. It has been so long since she has killed for sport. It’s been so long since she has killed at all. She remembers why she is alive, the reason she keeps going. Lauren stands up. She releases the soul in her, the soul she took from the veteran she just killed. When she releases the soul, it gives her a great burst of power.
The man stabs Lauren with the silver dagger. She grabs his arm by the wrist and pulls it off her, wrenching the dagger from his hands. The dagger is painful to hold. She presses the palm of her hand against the man’s forehead and imbues him with paralyzing terror. She feels the formation of a waking nightmare in the man’s mind. Angels returned, diving from the clouds and striking down all that live. Lauren slices the man’s throat while he stares off into the distance, petrified by his worst fears.
Lauren waits for the man to die, for his soul to leave the body. No soul comes out. Did this person sell their soul? No, she feels the almost magnetic attraction of the dead man’s soul, but she can’t take it. Lauren stabs him to make sure he is dead, but his soul remains locked in his corpse. Lauren slumps to the ground. She is going to die. She has only a few hours to live because she released the soul she had been feeding upon, and she is trapped in this room, unable to find anyone else to hunt.
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Ystra runs past the receptionist at the desk by the front door of the veteran’s facility. The receptionist calls out to her, but she ignores her. She knows she is too late. Lauren hasn’t returned yet, but she is still alive. Ystra can’t think of where else she could be. Lauren runs past a hallway of closed doors. Then she stops and goes back down the hallway a few doors. She thought she saw--there! A purple cloth stuffed through the keyhole. It is one of the methods she can use to trap Lauren and keep her out of trouble. Someone must have trapped her in that room. Ystra can’t blame them for trapping Lauren. It was the right thing to do.
Ystra pulls the purple cloth out of the hole and opens the door. She sees Lauren sitting in a corner of the room with her knees to her face. There are two corpses in the room. One of them lies on the bed, and he looks like he might be sleeping. He isn’t breathing. The other one is bleeding and bears wounds from a bloody silver dagger.
“Lauren, do you know what you’ve done?” Ystra asks. Lauren looks up. She smiles, until she sees that it’s Ystra. “I’m following the agreement.” Lauren says spitefully. Ystra shakes her head. “Lauren, you broke my compulsion, and you murdered people.” Ystra says. Lauren nods and stands up. She picks up the silver dagger and shudders when she touches it. Grimacing in pain, she makes her way out the door towards another bedroom to find a victim.
“Lauren, you’re not going to kill anyone else.” Ystra says. Lauren scoffs. She opens the door to another room, but there is no one inside. She tries the room next door, but there is no one in there either. “Lauren, come home.” Ystra begs. Lauren tries another door. This one is locked. She grins. “I can’t leave without a meal.” Lauren says. She drops the silver dagger. “You’ve already killed two people.” Ystra says, “That’s more than enough to feed you for the month.”
Lauren ignores Ystra and enters the room through the keyhole. “Lauren, I compel you to leave the room and not harm anyone inside it.” Ystra says. Lauren leaves the room and scowls. Ystra is angry at Lauren’s disobedience. “Lauren, I can’t let you kill anyone.” Ystra says. Lauren shakes her head. “Ystra, I’m going to die,” Lauren says, “I had to release the soul of the sleeping man I killed for a powersurge against the priest.”
Ystra is taken aback. Screamers are not supposed to recklessly boost their power in such ways because it forces them to feed more than once per month. Lauren might have had a good excuse of self-defense if she hadn’t been the one to initiate the violence by murdering people in their sleep.
As she thinks about it, Ystra realizes that the timeframe doesn’t make sense. Was Lauren in that room for hours? If so, she should have starved to death already because she surged to kill the priest. “Lauren, if you released the soul, why haven’t you died yet?” Ystra immediatly knows the answer, “Lauren, you ate the priest’s soul. You don’t need to feed anymore.” Lauren grunts in frustration, walks over the doorway with the priest’s corpse in the room and points at it. “Ystra, I can’t reach his soul.” Lauren says.
Ystra looks down. She can’t tell if the corpse has a soul. Souls are only really useful for witches and Screamers. A dead person can’t use a soul. A dead person can’t even hold onto a soul. How would this corpse still have a soul? Lauren must have just failed to grab it when she killed him.
“I’m going to go kill someone for my next meal.” Lauren says. Ystra doesn’t want Lauren to kill, but she knows that Lauren will starve to death if she doesn’t feed. Luckily, Ystra is a witch. “You are not going to kill anyone else, Lauren.” Ystra says. Lauren laughs, “Are you going to compel me?” Ystra growls in frustration. Lauren is so difficult today. “Follow me, Lauren,” Ystra says, “I don’t need to compel you. I’m going to get you a meal.”
Lauren laughs even more. “You? You’re going to get a soul for me?” Lauren asks mockingly, “You fail to get a soul almost every month. I’m only still alive because witches are given souls for free each month for their first few years out of apprenticeship. You really think you’re going get me a soul within a few hours?” Ystra knows she hasn’t been good at getting souls. It’s harder for a Motivator. She doesn’t like that term. Fey Bargainers, that makes sense. Incorporeal Motivators? She doesn’t motivate anyone. She doesn’t even give an incentive. She supplies an opportunity to achieve their dreams, their desires. She doesn’t even ask for anything in return, no favors, not even a soul. The soul is really a side-effect of the whole process. It’s similar to how one calls Incorporeal.
Ystra walks toward the exit and Lauren follows. She reaches the lobby near the main entrance when she hears a woman say “Hold it right there, witch!” Ystra stops moving. She turns to see an old woman with curly white hair in a simply dress and apron holding a rifle pointed at Ystra’s face. Lauren laughs. “Ystra, your being held at gunpoint by a lowly maid!” Ystra doesn’t think this is very funny. Ystra puts her hands in the air and slowly turns her entire body to face the “maid.”
The “maid” doesn’t like Lauren laughing at her being a “lowly maid.” “I’m not a maid!” the woman shouts indignantly, “I’m room service!” Lauren continues laughing. “Yeah, that’s just another way to say maid.” Ystra pales. “Lauren, don’t antagonize her.” Lauren stops laughing and looks at Ystra with a confused expression. “What, are you scared?” Lauren asks, “The worst that could happen is that she kills you.” Ystra starts trembling. “Um, sorry miss, room service,” Ystra stutters, “I, uh, I don’t mean any harm. You see, I came to-”
The room service woman cries out and swings her gun around to point at Lauren, who continued walking toward the exit. “What are you waiting for, Ystra?” Lauren asks, beckoning to her from the exit doorway, “Didn’t you say you were going to feed me?” Ystra can't believe Lauren is being so reckless in a dangerous situation like this. The room service woman could fire at them at any second.
“Don’t go anywhere!” the woman with the gun says. Lauren groans in annoyance. “Put the gun down, maid,” Lauren says, “You’re scaring Ystra.” The maid turns to point the gun at Ystra. Lauren smiles. “Good girl, now shoot the witch,” Lauren says, “Free me from my bonds!” Ystra falls on her knees and pleads for her life, “Please, I didn’t hurt anyone.” The maid is trembling. “You’re a witch… I should… I should…” the woman looks between Lauren and Ystra and seems at a loss on what to do.
“What are you waiting for, servant?” Lauren asks, “If you’re going to shoot her, do it already.” The woman lowers her gun to the floor. “I can’t do it.” Lauren walks over to Ystra and helps her up from the floor. “Let’s go, Ystra,” Lauren says, “If we hurry, you might find someone desperate enough to give up their soul. If not, then I’ll just kill someone.” Ystra hurries out the door with Lauren.
After leaving the veterans’ facility, Ystra leads Lauren to the western edge of town near the wall. Ystra complains about how Lauren tried to kill her. Lauren denies doing anything that might have put her in harms way. Ystra quickly finds that bickering is leading nowhere, so she devotes her focus to looking for someone who might be willing to give up their soul.
“Hopeless! It’s hopeless!” Ystra hears a man say loudly. She turns to see a man at a bus stop, looking at his phone. Ystra sighs in relief. This person sounds like they’re in a difficult situation. This is exactly what Ystra is looking for. She thinks back to her training. Getting a soul from a human is somewhat similar to calling and binding Incorporeal.
A witch calls an Incorporeal for that has the same desire that she has. A witch doesn’t negotiate with the spirit, she simply calls it forth and binds it into physical form with the sacrifice of a soul. This gives the Incorporeal the substance that allows it to complete the one task that it obsesses over, which task is the same thing the witch wants completed as well. For example, if one wanted to clean a room, a witch would call forth a spirit that finds it meaning in cleaning, then it would bind the spirit into a form that allows it to clean. The binding is powered by a soul, which binding and soul also feeds the Incorporeal. In this sense, the binding and soul are really more of a side effect or means to obtain the real desire. There is no compromise or promise to do something for the witch as in the case of Fey Bargaining. It is also why she doesn’t think Movitator is a good term. The Incorporeal are already motivated, they just have lost all hope of ever having a chance to exercise their vice or habit or desire ever again. She grants them this opportunity.
It’s the same with extracting souls from humans. She finds a human, finds what it wants and gives it what it wants. In the same way that she calls an Incorporeal and gives it the bindings that give it physical form enough to do what it wants. Except, for a human, she can only help it if they give her a soul. It’s not Bargaining. She doesn’t take the soul in exchange for her service, she performs the service regardless of whether they give her a soul, but in some cases the service will require a soul to change the bindings.
Ystra walks up to the man at the bus stop. “Sir, what’s wrong?” Ystra asks. The man is sobbing. He seems really upset about something. He says, “It’s my brother’s wedding. It’s across town and I can’t make it there.” Ystra isn’t sure if this is something she can help with. If he is missing his brother’s wedding, then what could she possibly do to help? She can’t go back in time. “I’m sorry,” Ystra says, “Is it still going on? If you leave now, you might make it in time for the end.”
“The wedding doesn’t start for a few hours.” The man says. This confuses Ystra even more. If the wedding hasn’t started yet, why can’t he go? Did he make prior arrangements? If so, he would surely cancel them if he finds the wedding so important as to cry in public. “If the wedding hasn’t started yet, why can’t you make it?” Ystra asks.
“The highways are shut down,” the man says, “Something about a crime and Screamers, it’s not important.” Ystra thinks it is very important to know what happened if there was a crime or Screamers. Obviously, everything is of little importance to this man in comparison to the wedding. Ystra thinks about this problem. “I really want to help you.” Ystra says. Lauren grabs Ystra’s arm and tries to pull her away. “Ystra, we don’t have time to help him,” Lauren says, “Someone is going to die in a few hours, and it’s not going to be me.” Lauren seems intent on the idea of killing somebody to live. Ystra isn’t going to let that happen.
“We can help you, sir. I’m Ystra and I’m a witch,” Ystra says, “This is Lauren and she is an Incorporeal Screamer.” The man stops crying and looks up at them in horror. Lauren groans in annoyance. “Sir, let us give you a ride to your wedding,” Ystra says, “The highways may be closed, but Lauren here doesn’t need highways. She is an Incorporeal, thus this body of hers is produced with a binding.” The man steps back, shocked at the absurdity of the situation. A Screamer is in his presence but not actively attacking him. A witch is explaining how she would like to help. This is not how he expects witches and Screamers to behave.
“I can replace Lauren’s bindings to give her a form more suitable to your needs,” Ystra explains, “She could become a horse and bring you to your wedding.” The man nods, though his eyes stare vacantly in the distance. “Ystra, you would need a soul to replace my bindings,” Lauren says, “Speaking of souls, we need to go get one. Now.” Ystra nods eagerly, “Yes, of course.”
Lauren shakes her head with a confused expression. “Ystra, I don’t think you are understanding what I’m saying.” Lauren says. Ystra responds, “I know I need a soul to replace your bindings. Sir, we’d love to help you, but we need a soul for the replacement of the bindings. Could we use your soul to get Lauren into a horse form to bring you to your wedding?”
The man seems hesitant to give up his soul. Humans tend to have this unreasonable belief that they need their souls for something. He eventually relents and agrees to give up his soul because nothing is more important to him than being at his brother’s wedding. Ystra puts one hand on the man’s chest and one hand on Lauren’s chest. Ystra says, “Lauren, equino morpho!” Lauren disappears for a few seconds as the bindings that give her human shape become undone. She reforms as a brown horse wearing a grey saddle.
“There you go, sir. I’m glad I could be of assistance to you,” Ystra says, “Don’t worry about Lauren, I’ll compel her properly to make sure she doesn’t try anything funny on your ride.”
“Ystra, there really isn’t any need for compulsion.” Lauren says.
“If you’re going to behave, then you won’t even notice the compulsion,” Ystra says, “Lauren, I compel you to safely deliver this man to his wedding in time and return to me immediately afterwards.” Ystra helps the man onto the horse and sends them on their way. Lauren gallops off at a supernaturally fast pace and the man barely stays on, holding tightly to the saddle horn.