赤裸裸的滑稽故事

Myka looked up at Alice with confusion. Ashleigh moved further into the room to get a better look.

The body was hunched, holding its knees to its chest, its shoulders curled toward the ground. There was no doubt that this body had been mummified, but Alpha Gorn had been alive just a few years ago. Could it really be him?

"Are you sure? How do you know?" Ashleigh asked.

Alice shrugged.

"I met the man far more times than I ever wanted to," she said. "He may be a husk, but his bone structure is the same. And if you look closely at his neck, you\'ll see a symbol, it\'s shriveled and dried out like the rest of him, but it\'s there. An ankh, Egyptian symbol of eternal life."

Ashleigh leaned in, looking for the tattoo.

Alice was right; it was just below the jawbone. She pulled back and stared at the remains.

"What happened to him?" Ashleigh asked.

"You don\'t want to know," Alice replied. Glancing back over her shoulder at Myka. "Are you doing all right?"

Myka nodded but looked away.

Alice couldn\'t help but notice how his hand moved to his ribs. She knew that he was instinctively trying to hide the mark that Gorn had left on him, even though it was already hidden beneath his shirt.

She stepped over to him, squatting down to look him in the eyes.

"Go outside," she whispered. "Get some fresh air."

Myka nodded and swallowed. Alice helped him to his feet and guided him out of the room, staying behind as he made his way out the front door.

"So," Ashleigh said, "what happened to him?"

Alice looked back. She glanced at Ashleigh, who looked back at her with curiosity and concern. Alice took a deep breath.

"Have you ever seen a fire mummy? Or heard of one?" Alice asked.

Ashleigh shook her head.

Alice turned back to Gorn\'s remains.

"Now you have," Alice replied. "Or at least an attempt at one."

"Ok… what does that mean?"

"Basically, in the traditional way, he would have been dying naturally and given some kind of saltwater to help dehydrate his body. Then after he died, his body would have been slowly, over time, placed above a heat source to finish dehydrating him."

"But that\'s not what happened here?" Ashleigh asked, looking back at the remains.

"Nope," Alice replied. "I\'m sure he was given plenty of salt, maybe a little water. But, I don\'t think he was entirely dead when the heat was introduced."

Ashleigh looked around the room at the charred wood.

"You mean the fire?" she asked.

"I think the fire in the house either came after or was used to scare him…." Alice said, pointing down.

Ashleigh looked at the ground. Surrounding the stove and body was a ring of uncharred flooring, as though something had protected this area from the fire that raged through the home.

"Here too," Alice said, pointing to the top of the stove.

Ashleigh noticed for the first time that the remains were not sitting on the stove. Instead, they were melded to it.

"Goddess…" she whispered in horror.

Alice took a deep breath.

"You said that Roman was Irina\'s son, right?" she asked.

"That\'s what the Luna\'s told me, yes."

Alice nodded and licked her lips.

"He\'s the one that first told me about the fire mummy," she said. "He wondered what would happen if the process was started before death."

Ashleigh turned and stared at Alice.

"Are you saying that Roman killed Alpha Gorn?"

"I\'m saying that it seems unlikely that the man who tortured his mother into killing herself ended up dying in a way that Roman was curious about without his involvement."

Ashleigh sighed. Every time she learned something new about Roman, it gave her more reasons that he needed to be put down.

"Let\'s go," Alice said, turning toward the door.

"What about him?" Ashleigh asked, pointing to the remains.

Alice looked back at the mummified scream; she could almost hear it. But then, a very light smile touched her lips.

"Oh, Ashleigh, have you learned nothing from all the Fae Queen drama? Grave robbing is bad. We should leave him locked away in his forgotten tomb."

Ashleigh hesitated.

"But he was an Alpha… shouldn\'t we at least give him a pyre?"

"Roman did that already," Alice replied.

Ashleigh sighed.

"Alice, I\'m serious."

"So am I," Alice replied. She stepped back into the room, looking Ashleigh in the eye. "Did you happen to explore any other houses before you followed that creature in here?"

Ashleigh\'s eyes went wide momentarily, and then she looked away.

"Yes…" she whispered.

"Then you probably saw and understood the same thing I did," Alice said, her voice cold with a controlled rage. "He did that."

Ashleigh clenched her jaw.

"Myka grew up here," Alice continued.

Ashleigh\'s head shot up, and she stared at Alice in shock.

"He left thirteen years ago to enter a cruel reality. This place meant something to him. But his memories and what you and I have seen today don\'t match," Alice said. "The idea for this village started as a cruel knife twist. A warm fantasy intended to be destroyed. But after Myka left, Gorn got rid of the fantasy altogether."

Ashleigh looked back at the mummy of the Alpha of Spring, feeling a deep disgust in her stomach that had nothing to do with his demise.

"Don\'t tell Myka what you saw," Alice whispered.

Ashleigh heard a plea in her voice.

"As I said, this place meant something to him," Alice continued. "Seeing it like this has already affected him. There\'s no reason to hurt him with the rest."

Alice turned to leave the room.

"You care a lot about him," Ashleigh whispered.

Alice sighed, not bothering to turn around.

"It doesn\'t matter what you think," she said, sounding tired. "Axel trusts me. He knows I only love him."

"No, that\'s not what I meant," Ashleigh quickly corrected. "I just… I know you care about Axel, and I knew you cared about the kids in the lab. But I assumed it was more of a situational understanding than a real caring. But, with Myka… I can see it. He\'s your family."

Alice smiled to herself but still didn\'t turn around.

"Congratulations, Ashleigh," she said. "You\'re finally starting to see beyond yourself."

***

Myka had always had a bit of a \'sense\' in nature. Knowing there was a danger with just enough time to avoid it, an understanding of plants without ever seeing them. He always knew the perfect places to camp and avoid natural disasters or unwelcome visitors.

Before his conversation with Ashleigh, he had never really thought too much about it. But his thinking changed once he learned about his heritage, Irina, and the powers she had.

Now, he felt it. That soft hum in the air, the tug from the ground. Nature called to him. It whispered and reached out to communicate.

As they had traveled, he felt it. It was part of the reason that he wasn\'t concerned about talking so loud on the phone. He knew, he just knew, no one was nearby during those times.

But from the moment they crossed the border into Spring, everything felt different for Myka. It was like the leaves were screaming, and the trees howled in pain.

For the first few hours, as they made their way toward the village, he had struggled to keep himself upright.

When they finally arrived, it was Myka that sensed the creatures coming. They stopped at the lake, and he told them which way and how many. Ashleigh immediately took off into the trees; Alice had stayed long enough to fish out a suppressant from her bag.

As she ran off to join the hunt, Myka took the suppressant and caught his breath. It was then that he had first looked at the lake, the village. Then, his past crashed over him in a wave of sorrow and pain.

Now, the suppressant had fully kicked in, and he sat on his knees in front of his childhood home, trying to breathe as the emotions overwhelmed him.

"Myka?" Alice\'s gentle voice called out to him.

She approached him slowly. Her heart ached at the sight. Then, gently touching his shoulders, she knelt down beside him.

"It\'s ok," she whispered. "I\'ve got you."

Myka turned to look at her, tears in his eyes and a laugh on his lips. Alice furrowed her brows.

"Myka?" she questioned.

"He\'s dead?" Myka said. "Gorn… he\'s gone.. you\'re sure?"

Alice nodded and swallowed as she looked at him with concern.

Myka let out another laugh that devolved into heavy sobs, and then he fell against her. Alice wrapped her arms around him tightly, petting his hair and offering words of comfort.

From the porch, Ashleigh watched as Alice comforted Myka.

\'It\'s never felt so good to be so wrong about a person,\' she thought with a smile.

\'Glad to know you are opening your mind a little,\' Lily whispered.

\'Lily?\'

\'Be careful with him,\' Lily continued.

\'What do you mean?\' Ashleigh asked.

\'His power, it\'s not just hearing nature or knowing how to interact with it,\' Lily said. \'There is empathy in that power. A connection to all living things, great and small. It\'s what drove Irina crazy.\'

\'He\'s been fine until we got to Spring,\' Ashleigh replied. \'Maybe it\'s all the painful memories getting to him?\'

Ashleigh could feel Lily shaking her head in disagreement.

\'When the Dark Queen emerged from the mound, she left a wound. The power of the ley line has been leaking into Spring ever since. I can feel it.\'

\'What do you mean? I thought you said that was dangerous… Are we too late?\'

\'No, this is an accident, a side effect. It is nothing compared to what she will do intentionally. But, still, the power is chaotic. It is why you see the growth of this place as though twenty years have passed since its use.

\'It might even be why so many from Spring have had no issue with acting against the other wolves. And it is the reason why Myka struggles. Nature is reacting to the overflow; it doesn\'t like it.\'

\'What can I do?\' Ashleigh asked.

\'Protect him, but encourage him to focus on the ley line, the hum of energy that moves through all living things. It will help him find the way to the gate,\' Lily said. \'And then, all of you must hurry to the mound. The sooner it is destroyed, the sooner the land can begin to heal.\'