IGNATIUS The Colors of Rage

Chapter c Seizures

When Iggy reopened his eyes the sun was no longer high in the sky, but lingering low near the edge of the tall brick wall that surrounded the house. He found himself laid on the hard ground with an unknown pressure pushing down on the lower half of him. He felt a warm lapping against his cheek as if someone was rinsing dirt away with a towel.  

Face to face and eye to eye with a dark haired woman, who sat on his waist leaning over him. Her skin was bronzed from the early sun exposure. Her lips were wide, low set, and smudged with red. She smiled. Her first incisors, canines, and first premolars of her top jaw were extended and sharp.

“At last you have awakened,” she cooed. Her solid blue eyes twinkled. “Oh, at last.” She opened her mouth and her tongue licked the side of his face, picking up the fresh droplets of blood from where the ground sheared his cheek. She pulled her bright red tongue back into her mouth and swallowed. “Oh, you simply taste so good! I came here to send an urgent message, but you! I simply can’t pass you. Oh, no…”

Iggy tried to scream, but his voice fell flat. A shallow whisper was all that he could muster. “Baine,” he called, gurgling heavy saliva. “Help me.” 

“Help me,” she chuckled. She inhaled a hot breath from his exhale and licked his numb lips. “Simply wonderful. You know who Baine is… you must work for him. I’m sure he is open to sharing with his guests. I’ve heard he’s quite hospitable.” She tilted her head and a grin stretched across her face. Her soft chest pressed against his. “I can’t wait any longer, I’m going to start right here.” Her lips pecked his left eyelid. “Right here, on your dark eye. What a blessing to have such a flattering deformity. Unlike this hideous arm you have.” Her lips parted and her sharp teeth laid against his flesh, just below his eye. 

The panic, it consumed him, but there was little that he could do. His limbs were too weak to move, let alone fight, and his voice was gone. His chest heaved up and down, sweat dampened his hair, and he was certain that he was going to die. Her first tooth pierced his flesh. That’s it. That’s all it takes. He was already done for. He could feel the infection seep into his skin before her next tooth cut in. 

A rock the size of a fist roared through the air like a missile and whacked her right in the temple. The force whipped her off of him. Baine, a frightful tank with red raging eyes, stormed into the garden. He leapt over Iggy and grabbed the woman by her snarled dark hair. He took the same rock that he’d thrown from the ground and slammed it against her face again and again until it crumbled in his palm.

After him, Nansen flew through the side door, clenching a near empty can of aerosol antibiotic in his hand. He slid down to Iggy's side, shredding the knees of his pants without care, and hovered over him. Nansen’s golden eyes shimmered with warmth even though he trembled in crisis. 

The pin needle holes in Iggy’s face already started to swell. His shaking fingers reached out for Nansen’s hand holding the medicine. “He… Help…!” he gasped.

Nansen’s hand met Iggy’s wet cheek and framed the bite between his index finger and thumb. “This will stop the infection… I’m going to try to block your eye. I’m going to try to save it.” He rolled Iggy’s face toward the sky and a blast of white powder sprayed directly into the swelling bite. It was uncontainable and fell into the crease between Iggy’s eyelid, seeping into the eye socket. When the white cloud dissipated, all Iggy could see was the blurry darkness of the night sky. There were no more stars and the moon looked like a smudge of white paint. His vision was instantly a hundred times worse.

Baine thrashed that woman to and fro, then slammed her so hard against the ground that her body created an indent in the earth. He balled up her hair in a fist and dangled her like a bag by the straps. “Who are you,'' he roared in madness, “and why are you here?!”

She was bruised and bleeding everywhere. Her face was unrecognizable. Through her broken jaw, her words were barely audible. “Silgria... the Silgria house sent me! Help!”

Baine’s leg pulled back and swung into her, cracking her spine. He bent forward to speak directly into her ear. “The Silgrias, you say?”

“Yes! They are in great danger!” 

Nansen wrapped his arms around Iggy’s neck and knees, then lifted him to his chest. The back of Iggy’s head felt wet. His eye burned hot and tears were pouring out of the corner. The rest of him, numb. 

Baine’s hand closed around a larger mass of her hair, and he pulled her across the ground after himself. He halted at Nansen’s side and spread his fingers through Iggy’s knotted black hair, right where it had felt wet. The motion was gentle, like supporting the back of an infant’s head, until his fingers felt the fluid and curled in on themselves. Iggy’s hair pulled tight within his grasp without him even noticing. His face turned away from Nansen’s chest and Baine looked closer at the scratches etched into the side of his cheek. Their eyes met and his nose inhaled the air in between them. The flesh around his green eyes darkened in complexion and his pupils dilated. His lips eased apart and the tips of his sharp teeth were visible. His tongue trailed along the edges and he swallowed dryly.

Nansen drove his hand around into Iggy’s hair, and worked to pry Baine’s fingers out from there. “Hey, let him go!” Nansen troubled. The muscles of Baine’s jaw flexed hard and the dark shadow looming over his eyes darkened further. His eyes fixated on Iggy’s reddened skin, obsessively, yet he still found the strength to resist going further. “This is Iggy!” Nansen reminded him. “Our brother, let him go already!” 

Only then his hand wretched away, stubbornly.