Cold Breath

"You think you're safe! You think you're friends will protect you! You're a little mouse, nothing more!" Briar tightly covered her ears trying to dispell the venomous voice all around her. "You can't ignore me!" The voice became shrill and pitchy.

Briar lashed out blindly, trying to banish the figure but her arms never made contact with a solid form. The chill was becoming overbearing, weakening her resistance. Her limbs became heavy and started to tremble. Slowly her arms fell away. The words of the figure continued nonstop blurring into a loud roar. The noise was like a rod driving through her brain. Her bones ached and gave way; she feel to her knees. Her head fell forward. The strain of the voice was making her nauseous.

"You're weak! You'll never amount to anything! You will do as I tell you." The roar slowly fell to a single voice. "This doesn't have to be painful. It can be quite pleasant. The power, the knowledge you will hold over others." The voice seemed to relish the thought; its tone becoming husky.

Briar opened her mouth to speak, to give in. She needed relief, the pain was overwhelming. Tears rolled down her cheeks. Suddenly another voice sounded in the freezing cold. It was a rough voice, from age and suffering.

"Briar patch, you're not alone." The cold seemed to diminish slightly.

"You are nothing more than a figment of her imagination. Child your father is dead and gone. You are alone!" Briar braced herself for the chill but it didn't come.

"My Briar patch, I regret what I have done and now I regret what I must do, but remember I do this out of love." A dim light appeared in the darkness; it revealed the figures facing each other.

"Dad," Briar sobbed at the figure of her father. He was dressed in a cloak that resembled butterfly wings. He brought his fists up, across each knuckle were glowing blue lines, the etchings of a binding spell.

"It's time to wake up to face the truth." He slammed his knuckles together as the other figure roared in anger. The dreamscapce shook as it was ripped apart.

"Dad no! Don't leave!" Briar screamed.

"She's coming to. Hold her! Stop her flailing!" Briar could feel hands and arms around her. The air was heavy with magic to the point it was sickening. The chill was gone, but the pain was not. A new pain sweep through her psyche. A memory from time when she was young and innocent. In a world where adults were protectors of the young. Where the young grew with hope and had a childhood of carefree fun.

The images were a blur and with each image a sudden pain took residence. An orderly wrenching her wrist for running in the hallway, caused shooting pain to rush up her arm. A house maid slapping her cheek with enough force to send her flying into a wall for asking a question. Briar running through a field trying avoid the jaws of guards dogs, the beast trianers laughing the entire time shouting that she was nothing more than pathetic child chew toy.

Each time a new memory came, pain washed over her. While her parents were slowly dying the orderly's, house staff, and care givers got their rocks off on physically and mentally torturing her. Her parents none the wiser. It wasn't because they were obvious, it was the fact that they were bedridden. The last memory she had before blacking out was of her father staggering along the wall with horror etched in his face as he watched an orderly repeatedly kicking her in the ribs, he could only watch for he had fallen and couldn't get up.



Briar awake to a dull ache in her head. Her body was numb, yet as soon as she moved she felt shooting pain. Her breathig became erratic. Panting filled the room as she tried to force her body to move. As time passed the pain lessened. She finally found herself sitting on the edge of a bed. Slowly her eyes adjusted to the candle lit room and realized she was in Caia's room.

Briar whimpered at the image of an orderly holding her off the gound by her wrist, shaking her violently saying what a stupid child she was. She felt along her wrist expecting to find her wrist deformed, but it was fine. It dawned on her that all she was feeling were phantom pains from a distance past. With that knowledge the pain seemed to lessen physically, but tears were streaming down her face.

All those years of total fear, all because the people in charge of taking care of her family were sick bastards. What hurt the most wasTate didn't even know, how could he he wasn't there, not until the very end and by then her father had alreay had the binding set in place and new people hired by way of help from a concerned family friend.

Slowly the pain subsided and Briar became aware of voices. "We did as much as we could." The voice stopped as there was much shuffling. "The connection is still there, but there is no longer a direct link."

"How did you do it?" Alan piped. His voice was curious and excited as if Briar was a science experiment. Briar made a soft noise and realized she didn't like what he said.

"There was a binding spell placed on her. It was an old one and the link was being filtered through it. All that we did was server it. Then it was up to her to find her way back." This voice was different than the one before. It was unbais and straightforward.

Briar rolled her eyes as Alan made noises of awe. "They why is she still freezing cold?" It was Tate; he was concerned and angry. It made Briar warm and fuzzy but confused; she felt fine except for the lingering phantom pain. She wasn't cold at all.

"Unfortunately there still is a connection. Whoever is doing this has something of personal value on them that allows for this connection and of course something from Briar. A hair, a button, blood, it could be a number of things. The pale blue skin and low body temperature are the only evidence of the connection. We were able to put a blocker in. For all she knows she is normal. To others, her touch is cold, she bleeds less, her heart beats less, and high temperature will make her sick or be fatale."

The voices faded as the shuffling started up again. A door opened and closed somewhere and the house became silent. Briar sat there is a state of numbness. After a while the house became active as people entered and moved about.

Briar suddenly got up and left the room, she needed air. As soon as the hall light hit her skin she gasped. She looked like a corpse. She stepped in the kitchen as she heard Knox and Thaddeus approach her.

"Dude I'm telling you that Keleb fellow is bad news. Look what happened the other night. You were soaking wet by the time we left. He's badluck. Just cut your obsession." Thaddeus was matter of fact. Briar could see the shadows of Thaddeus's hand movements. He was trying to emphasize how unlucky Keleb.

"I had to chase and charm him. He's meeting me here tomorrow. I think he could of use to the team." Knox had a goofy look on his face as Briar watched them turn a corner.

"You're dumb, stupid and blind. Have you even told Jervan?" Thaddeus was meet with silence.

Briar tuned them out when she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. She whipped and sighed.

"Whoa it's only me." Tate smiled with his hands up. It was brief but Briar caught Tate giving her a once over. His eyes darkened. "Why didn't you tell us....tell me?"

Briar looked away and spoke without meeting his eyes. "I thought it was nothig. At first it wasn't...."

"Then what, you thought you could handle it by yourself. You're my little sister. I've alway been there. I can protect you. Thats my job."

Briar suddenly met his eyes. Anger coursed through her. "You left me to go to that guild. You left me with mom and dad. I was focred to see them suffer and writher away all by myself, while you were off living and leaning. What they did to me...." Briar stopped herself, before she could say more.

Tate's pitiful eye's narrowed. "Excuse me?!" He kept still bit rage was lurking in his eyes. Briar suddenly felt sick. The kitchen was much hotter than it was when she first entered. She stepped towards the back door looking for a way out; she felt trapped. "Wait you're not leaving. What happened? What aren't you saying?" Tate rushed Briar making her jump at his sudden speed. Fear was crawling inside her. She'd never seen him so angry. His voice turned soft as he softened his stance. "What did the binding spell reveal?"

Briar knew he wouldn't stop her now she needed space and the air outside was cold. "Nothing you need to worry about. What's done is done. Nothing can change that. It's nothing I want you blaming yourself for." Without another word Briar went into the yard closing the door behind her.