Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 2 (Afterlife saga Book 7) (24 page)

“Li...st...en…to…me,” I said trying in vain to get her to just let me say a few words but she simply tightened it further, making it almost impossible to speak again. I pulled down as hard as I could, trying to give myself even an inch in which to draw breath but the most I could manage was a centimetre at best.

“Stubborn girl! Even to the last few breaths you wish to fight with me and your will to survive. Um…maybe you do love my brother after all, as you say you do. At least it has to be said, I do admire your courage and bravery,” she said leaning forward and letting her other side come forth.

“I want you to die knowing what we truly are, my brothers and I. I want you to see what it is you give your life for in the name of love!” She snarled cruelly as she tightened the scarf to the point it was cutting into my neck.

Seeing her this way didn’t shock me as I had seen it many times before, which meant her sadistic slitted grin didn’t last long. My eyes may have looked panicked but that wasn’t at the sight of Sophia’s demon, it was merely in the face of death and something deep inside of me wanted her to know the real me she was killing. So drawing in all of my strength I pulled even harder, straining my neck muscles and those in my arms, trying to get just the tiniest bit free.  

“It’s a shame really, I had really wanted you to just drink some tea and die painlessly from poison but like you and my brother, I guess it was never meant to be,” she said picking up her cup and drinking back her own tea after tilting it my way to toast me,

“Here’s to immortality.” This was when I finally managed to pull it back enough to utter three tiny words…

“I…am…E…lec…tus.” The second the words escaped me the scarf dropped from my neck and Sophia launched over the table grabbing my hand,

“What did you say?!” she shouted shaking me and trying to get me to say it again but I couldn’t say a word for coughing. I was desperately trying to drag air back into my burning lungs, barely keeping myself from passing out as it was, let alone speaking.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!” she screamed and then suddenly her eyes widened in panic and her hand flew to her neck.

“Wh…what…have…you done?” she stammered out as she continued to clutch her neck as though she no longer knew how to breathe. Then before I could do anything her head hit the table, knocking over the cups and spilling tea over each side of the hexagon. She looked dead! My hands flew to my mouth as I couldn’t believe what I was seeing…

Was Sophia really dead!?

I sucked in a deep ragged breath, having no clue what to do or how I would explain any of this when Draven found out. But worst of all, fearing for my friend, the Sophia of the future, who was still out there somewhere and I was just praying that having her other self die in this time didn’t affect her now? What if she just disappeared!

“Oh shit, oh shit…she must have drunk from the wrong cup!” I said on a gasp thinking she had drank from the one intended for me. However, I wasn’t given long to think on this as a familiar voice spoke up from behind me…

“No, she drank the right one.”

Chapter 59

Doppelganger Ambush

I could barely believe my ears as I must have been dreaming, for it couldn’t be…could it? The figure slowly walked up to stand next to me and looked down at the body of a princess sprawled out over the table like one of her stuffed decorations. I looked up at her and gasped, needing to see for myself. The woman suddenly whipped off her head piece and said,

“Man, I was such a bitch!” I think other than passing out from shock, my mouth dropping open was the right first response and then the second was to shout her name…

“Sophia!” Then I threw myself in her arms and hugged her close. I had been so worried about her!

“Thank God you’re safe!” I told her making her laugh as she hugged me back.

“I think I should be saying the same about you,” she said nodding down at herself. I followed her gaze and this was when panic set back in.

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.” I couldn’t help but repeat this over and over knowing what had just happened.

“Calm down, it isn’t that bad.”

“Isn’t that bad, Sophia, you just poisoned yourself!” I said looking back at her in astonishment.

“Well yeah I did, but she deserved it.” Sophia responded as though we were talking about someone else that was currently sprawled out on the table.

“She deserved it? Jesus Sophia, you killed yourself!”

“Now let’s not go that far.” she said holding her hands up in her defence.

“Well, is she dead or not?” I asked edging closer to see if I could see signs of life.

“Uh…I’m not really sure,” she said squatting down next to herself.

“You’re not sure!” I shouted close to losing it.

“Calm down, let’s just think about this sensibly and…” Sophia was saying just as two people burst in the room.

“Don’t you lay a hand on her you bitchnugget!” Pip shouted stumbling into the room as her and Ranka looked to have been fighting to see who could get in the room first. They both righted themselves, scowling at each other before taking in the crazy scene in front of them.

“Nice of you to join us,” Sophia commented with a smirk and hand cocked on her hip. Pip did a comical double take which turned into a triple take.

“I uh…okay this is so not the party I was expecting to crash.” Pip said, whereas Ranka took a more logical approach.

“There are two of you?” Okay so when I said it was more logical, what I really meant to say was blindingly obvious!

“And the prize for the ‘No shit Sherlock’ award goes to…oh and wouldn’t you know, Captain Obvious here!” Pip said sarcastically dragging out her words. Ranka turned to her and said,

“I don’t know of this Sherlock.”

“No but give it a millennia or two, Mohawk.” Pip said patting her on the back.

“Okay, so if you two are finished bonding over there, can we move on please?” Sophia said nodding to her other self. Pip then shook herself and said,

“Pluck a turkey! It is good to see you home, girl!” And then Pip came over to Sophia and gave her a big hug, then she turned to me for a fist bump and said,

“Glad you’re not dead again.”

“Me too,” I said and then laughed when she said,

“But buck me off your back and shit on a stick, you have more lives than a damn cat!”

“She’s right you know,” Sophia said agreeing.

“…Any later and you would have been one dead Keira.” I hugged Sophia again and said,

“Thank you for saving me…well, from yourself.”

“Speaking of dead and bitches, did you really kill yourself?” Pip asked and Ranka stayed in the background looking as though she was still trying to figure out what the Hell was going on, which kind of made four of us.

“I don’t think so.”

“Let’s check,” Pip said lifting Saphira’s head back by her hair and when her wet open mouth twitched she dropped her head, making it smack back on the table with a deafening thump. Our own Sophia groaned, folding her arms and Pip just shrugged her shoulders and before she could say it, we both said it for her,

“Yeah, we know, ‘You’re bad.”

“Well, at least we know she isn’t dead now and plus more importantly…what the hell was you thinking! Have you never seen Back to the Future 2! Do you know nothing about the space time continuum!?” Pip shouted after smacking Sophia’s arm, getting irate.

“Oww and no, unfortunately my science fiction is a little rusty!” Sophia said sarcastically, rubbing the place she had hit.

“Why don’t you explain it to us, Pip.” I suggested calmly.

“I knew I should have forced the issue before we left,” she commented to herself shaking her head and I couldn’t help think we didn’t really have the time for movie night before our grand and stupid idea about travelling back in time.

“Right…how does it go again…Oh right. ‘Great Scot, Jennifer could conceivably encounter her future self. The consequences of that could be disastrous. I foresee two possibilities; one...Coming face to face with herself 30 years older would put her into shock and she would simply pass out or two... The encounter could create a time paradox, the results of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space time continuum and destroy the entire universe… Granted that's the worst case scenario.”

“How the hell does she remember shit like this?” I asked Sophia who shot me a look as if to say, ‘It’s Pip we are talking about here’. But instead of saying that she decided a more important question to ask was, 

“Who’
s
Jennifer?”

“Marty McFly’s girlfriend.” Pip answered with a grin. 

“Who’s Marty McFly?” she then asked and this time Pip lost her grin and snapped,

“Really?!”

“I think I understand this,” Ranka said shocking everyone from where she still stood near the door. 

“Oh great, the only one in the room who didn’t get on the time travelling express understands the space tim
e
continuum!”

“Your little friend here is clearly lost in her own mind and needs to be put to rest,” Ranka said to us both, making Pip lose it.   

“Hey! Yo Bitchmuncher, I am not a damn dog!” I placed a hand on her shoulder and said,

“I think she just meant you might need to sleep Pip, not get put down.”

“Oh, well that’s alright then. Peace Out,” she said giving Ranka the Peace sign that wouldn’t have mattered if she had given her a Nazi salute, because she had no clue what it meant. I decided not to explain this but found myself asking something that was equally as unimportant as most of this conversation was going,          

“Bitchmuncher? Bitchnugget?”

“I dunno, it was the first thing that came to mind, plus I think I am going through a ‘bitch phase’. I was half tempted to go with Knob jockey or Ass clown. Man I wish I was more like Bond, he has all the best one liners.” And I was half tempted to say that I couldn’t really see Bond saying words like ‘Bitchnugget’ and Ass Clown’ but I decided to leave it be, considering we had more important issues at the moment, like the dead doppelganger currently lying in a pool of tea.

“Sorry to interrupt this pointless crap we keep chatting about but can we at least address the fact that my other self is lying unconscious in a puddle of tea,” Sophia said nodding at herself yet again.

“Hey sure sister, it isn’t like you’re the one who poisoned her or anything,” Pip replied rolling her eyes.

“Yes well, next time I will just jump out of my hiding place and shout ‘surprise, surprise’ hoping that the whole spac
e
continuum thingy doesn’t happen and she simply passes out like Jennifer, Marty McFly’s girlfriend!” Sophia shouted and Pip broke out into a massive grin before she bumped hips with Sophia, saying,

“Aww shucks, you
were
paying attention i
n
time paradox class.” I gave Sophia a sideways glance and she shrugged her shoulders at me and whispered,

“What, it was quite an interesting theory.”

“Yeah, one we thankfully proved wrong, unless the Universe is crumbling as we speak,” I commented cheerfully just being thankful we hadn’t yet got to Pip’s/ Doc Brown’s worst case scenario.

“No, but it just might do if we don’t hurry up!” Sophia said in a sudden panic.

“Why, what’s up?” I asked when she started grabbing her unconscious self from the table and trying to tear her clothes off.

“My brother is on his way! And man, he sure is pissed!” she hissed.

“Bollocks!” Pip said jumping in and helping her.

“Ranka, can you stall him?” I asked looking up at her to see her version of looking panicked was very different from our own. I could only hope that inside she was screaming ‘Shit!’ like the rest of us and not just standing there with one raised eyebrow.

“I’m sorry, let me rephrase that, STALL HIM NOW!” I shouted when she didn’t move. She groaned at me and unfolded her arms.

“I will see what I can do,” she replie
d
sedately before leaving.

“Is it just me or is that woman hard work?” Pip said as we all tried to lift a very wet Sophia off the table.

“Ooops.” This time it was my turn to say ‘my bad’ as she slipped from my fingers and her cheek slapped back on the table once again.

“Look, I know she was a bitch but can we at least try not to break her further,” Sophia asked shooting me a look.

“Yeah and now you mention it, why were you such a raving bitch head, in this time?” Pip asked grabbing her under one arm as I did the same on the other side. Sophia then stopped what she was doing and put her hand on her hip and said,

“Really, you’re asking me that now?”

“She has a point,” I told Pip looking up over Sophia’s floppy head.

“Fine. Just saying the heads up would have been nice.” Pip grumbled before hoisting our burden up further so we didn’t drop her again.

“So where are we putting Miss Arabian Bitchy Nights here?” Pip asked changing the subject.

“Stuff her in that trunk over there,” Sophia said trying to tear her own clothes off.

“We can’t do that...! Uh…can we?” I asked thinking this was wrong on so many levels.

“Look, I get overall say on what happens to her,” Sophia said and Pip made a whiny noise.

“Aww no fair.”

“I will make you a deal, if we ever have to go back in time to save the world again and we encounter your younger self, then you get a say but right now, stuff her ass in that trunk!” Sophia said calling the shots and I was just glad someone other than me was doing it.

“Oh and pull her dress off,” she added, just to make the day even stranger.

“Holy shitballs, but this mission just went from weird to screwball in a heartbeat,” Pip said meaning we were totally in agreement here. We then did as Sophia asked and started to undress the soggy girl. I had to say undressing an unconscious wet woman had officially made it to my top ten ‘most difficult shit’ list and with the likes of ‘dealing with Harpies’ and ‘getting into Hell’, let’s just say it was a hard list to get onto!

“Jesus, it’s like undressing a fish!” Pip commented obviously finding it as difficult as me.

“Give it to me,” Sophia said, holding out her hand when we finally got it free from her body. Pip then threw it at her and it ended up slapping her in the face. I couldn’t help my reaction because I burst out laughing.

“Don’t say it!” Sophia warned holding up a finger at her, just before Pip said her famous ‘my bad’ line. Meanwhile I still couldn’t stop laughing.

“I think deliria has set in,” Pip said shaking a thumb over her shoulder at me and she was probably right. Of course, watching Sophia struggling to get this wet dress on and the way she had to wiggle around just to get it down her was in itself enough to set me off into wild hysteria once again, not even taking into account how crazy the whole situation was. Added to this was also the next task of trying to swing Sophia’s body in the large chest and then fold her limbs in a way that we could get the bloody thing closed!

“I give up! She can stay looking like a hoopla game for all I care!” Pip said slapping her hands together like she was getting the dust off.

“Seriously, I am starting to question how we get ourselves into this crazy shit.” Sophia agreed after taking one look at her other self with her legs and arms sticking up once she had the dress finally on.

“You and me both,” I said after I had wiped away the tears of laughter.

“So what now?”

“Pip you have to hide, you sit there and let’s have some tea.” Sophia said answering my question.

“Tell me you’re joking!” I screeched in what was no doubt an annoying voice.

“Look, he will be here any second and if we don’t sit down right now, then how else will this look?” she said holding out both her arms to the mess on the table.

“Like there has been a struggle,” I agreed.

“Exactly! At least this way we can just pretend you had an accident,” Sophia said folding herself down as gracefully as her former self did and doing so in a sopping wet gown no less.