Against my instincts

Chapter Four from Thorne: The Withering Shore

Cameron Scott

Mar 18, 2024

Welcome to the fourth chapter for Thorne: The Withering Shore.

There are six chapters to the Withering Shore but Thorne’s story doesn’t end there, so stay tuned for more adventures.

Read chapter one first

Thorne: The Withering Shore

I was always told that the day belonged to us but the night belongs to them. It was never a truth I wanted to unfurl but all paths are leading me there, down to the pier at the end of the line. Down to the darkness that bleeds into the withering shore.

Chapter Four - Against my instincts

Thorne knew not to believe her senses as her vision played tricks with her mind. The faces from the party stared at her as the familiar strangers changed with each blink. It was the face of Yasmin Knox then Brian Elison then Audrey’s panicked gaze became Alina. Only it wasn’t the Alina she knew.

Thorne tried to pull back but she couldn’t move.

All she could was watch as Alina’s face twisted so that her smile stretched too wide and her eyes seemed to grow and grow, the iris swallowing all the white until they were gaping holes above her chagrin smile.

Thorne jerked awake on a bed enveloped by pillows and linens that held her in place. She knew that she wasn’t home but couldn’t place where she was. Or where the soft scent of lavender was coming from. She slowly sat up to take in her surrounds, her head pounding, when Alina opened the door.

‘You’re awake,’ she said, her soft smile nothing like what she had just created in her nightmare. Thorne had no idea how long she’d been out. Hours? Days? Months?

The last thing she remembered was rushing through the party at Elison’s penthouse. She had just seen the ouroboros. She had gone to tell Alina. Then she passed out.

‘I think I was drugged,’ said Thorne as Alina sat down on the bed and handed her a glass of water.

‘You were,’ said Alina. ‘You barely had two drinks before you started slurring then you passed out and I brought you back here. The doctor said you should be fine.’

‘Doctor?’ Said Thorne, she had no memory of anything between the party and now. There was just a gaping hole between the sea of strangers and the mass of pillows. ‘How long was I out?’

‘Nearly a day. But don’t worry, I’ve been watching over you,’ She said as she took Thorne’s hand in hers. ‘I’m sorry that this happened, I invited you and then you get drugged.’

‘Actually, I think I invited myself.’

‘They’re looking into who did it, checking the cameras around the kitchens where the drinks were made right up until when you drank it. They’ll find them, don’t worry.’

The cameras. Of course there were cameras. Thorne’s abilities meant that she could hide herself in plain sight. She could make a person believe that they were seeing anything that she wanted them to see - but a camera? She would be plastered all over the footage. They would see her going into the study and finding the ouroboros.

There was no hiding anymore.

‘Alina, I have to tell you.’ She had wanted to warn Alina and now she had to tell her the truth. Alina watched her while she took another sip of water, waiting for her to start.

‘I saw something,’ breathed Thorne. Alina almost looked disappointed, as if she was expecting more but there was no other way to begin. ‘A few weeks ago, a client hired me to catch her husband in an affair. Your colleague, Brian Elison. I followed him to an apartment building, thinking I would find some evidence for my client.’

‘On Brian? That’s why you were there? Because of Audrey?’

‘Right,’ said Thorne. She knew that she shouldn’t be telling her details like this. Names of clients and what they asked her to do was confidential. It wasn’t legally binding, of course, she wasn’t the police. But it came with the territory. She should be keeping this to herself but against her instincts, she continued. Thorne wanted to let her in.

‘They call it an Artach. It marks the doorway between worlds. Between life and death.’ She half-expected her to laugh. Thorne did when she first found out. She thought it was all one big joke. But Alina didn’t. She studied her face for a long time before she spoke:

‘Do you really believe that?’

‘I don’t have to believe it,’ said Thorne. ‘I’ve seen it. I used the Artach to open the door fifteen years ago. We didn’t know what it was then, we were kids playing with things that we didn’t understand.’

‘At Fernleigh?’ Said Alina, encouraging her to drink more water.

‘Yeah. It took all of us. No one person could open something like that. There’s too much power trying to keep it shut. But together… We opened it and death came out to greet us.’

‘What does this have to do with last night?’

‘I saw it on the floor at the Elisons’ apartment and then I saw it on your invitation to that stupid event. And then I saw Brian at the event itself.’

‘I doubt he knows what he’s doing.’ It’s worse than that. Thorne remembered Audrey’s words when she was first hired, her warning about her husband’s activities.

‘He knows exactly what he’s doing,’ said Thorne. ‘When I went to his study I found an Ouroborous – do you know what that is?’ Thorne didn’t wait for her to respond. It was all coming out now, faster than she could stop. ‘Another symbol: a snake devouring its own tail. An endless cycle and if you master it, an endless life.’ Thorne drank another glass of water that Alina offered her, she was feeling dizzy but it helped. Before she could stop herself she continued. ‘But it’s not as if everyone knows about it. We stumbled upon the Artach, the ouroboros - all of it. We had to work it all out as we went, there was no books around about it. Nothing to teach us. So how do they know about it? It doesn’t make any sense - Why this? Why now?’

‘Well surely he wants to be immortal. Isn’t that what you’re saying?’

‘There are ways…’ Said Thorne as her vision started to spin.

‘But you can control it.’

‘Yes - no. Wait -’ she was going to faint again. She could feel it.

‘Sssh,’ said Alina as she eased Thorne back down onto the pillows. ‘It’s okay. Rest. I’ll get you something to eat, it’ll make you feel better.’ Thorne fell back to sleep where the nightmare was waiting to claim her.

Thorne woke with a start again to find Alina at her side smiling down at her with a warm bowl of soup.

‘It’s okay,’ she cooed. ‘You’re still here with me.’

‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me,’ said Thorne. ‘Can we get the Doctor back?’

‘Yes, yes. Just have some of this, it will make you feel better.’ Alina fed her a spoonful of soup. It’s warmth did seem to take the edge off but she still felt heavy with sleep. ‘You were talking about the door,’ continued Alina. ‘How did you open it?’

‘I didn’t. Alice did.’ Alina dropped the spoon into the bowl and sighed:

‘I really was hoping you were both still together. You may be hard to find but she is impossible to track.’

‘What?’ Mumbled Thorne. Alina drew her focus back to Thorne’s face, speaking slowly.

‘If we don’t have Alice, how do we open the door?’ Thorne didn’t like the way she was looking at her. The way her hand pinned the linen down at her sides, trapping her. But she couldn’t help it:

‘Sacrifice,’ she said.

‘Sacrifice? That’s it?’ Thorne started to drift off to sleep once more but Alina put the bowl down and started to shake her. ‘No, no, no. Stay with me – is that what it takes?’

‘Everything comes with a price,’ she said.

‘I’m not worried about that,’ said Alina. It didn’t make any sense but Thorne didn’t have the strength to question her. She could feel herself drifting back off into sleep only this time Alina just watched her.

The door opened and at first Thorne thought that she was back in her nightmare as Yasmin Knox appeared in the frame. The room started to spin and Thorne couldn’t catch the tail of it to make it stop.

‘What are you doing here?’ She mumbled to Yasmin at the door.

‘She’s helping me with you, of course,’ said Alina. Thorne scoffed in reply. She had barely glimpsed Yasmin at the party and now she was helping her? It didn’t make any sense. But the thought began to unravel and Thorne realised what she heard. She wasn’t there to help Thorne. She was there to help Alina with Thorne.

It was a trap.

Thorne knew that she should have stopped. Should have kept the secrets of the Artach to herself but she couldn’t help herself. Even still, she struggled to stay awake, which made Alina smile down at her.

‘Yasmin has always been a genius. Even this – ’ Alina let the soup pour from the spoon back into the bowl. ‘Finding the balance of synthetics and herbs to mask the flavour. You can’t even taste the metallic edge that overpowers it normally.’ Thorne wanted to vomit. She had taken what Alina had given her blindly. Trusted her. It was a trap.

‘What did you give me?’ She said.

‘Nothing that will kill you, don’t worry. Just something that gave me what I wanted – like a truth serum. Only it’s more that you just have loose lips, you’ll say anything that comes to your head. It really is wonderful in a conversation with someone like you. You should let you guard down sometimes, Rose. Then none of this would ever have been necessary.’ Alina stroked Thorne’s cheek, dragging her nails so that she left a mark on her skin and made her wince. ‘Shh, shh. It’s okay. You’re okay.’

Thorne tried to pull away from her but her limbs were so heavy. Alina watched her struggle with a curious frown but she made no motion to help her.

‘Goodbye, Thorne,’ said Alina finally. ‘Sleep well.’

Thorne tried to fight against the weight that was drawing her eyes closed but there was no way that she could win. She saw Alina saunter out into the hall that was bathed in a honey, warm glow where Yasmin was waiting for her. They both watched her as Alina drew the door closed and Thorne fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

When she woke again Thorne found herself alone. She had been used and tossed aside. All the information that she could give was now gone with Alina and her possessions. She would have thought she was still dreaming if it wasn’t for the note that Alina left on her custom stationary:

It’s been a pleasure.

She had given her everything she needed. And if Alina was the mastermind behind it then there was no doubt that she was going to open the door and take what she wanted.

Thorne’s thoughts ran wild, going over the past events in a blur.

She had planned it all, their meeting, the false sense of danger. She laid the steps out for her to walk so that she would help her.

But Alina had known her when she was a child. When perhaps she would have slipped away in defeat, never to be seen again.

Not anymore.

Thorne steadied herself against the kitchen island, gripping the note in her hand like a vice. She needed to think. She needed a plan.

She tried to think back on her conversation and what she had told Alina. Not just what she said but how Alina had taken it. She had been focused on what Thorne said about the door. Intent and listening. Nothing was a surprise to her just more pieces to the puzzle.

Except Audrey.

She hadn’t known that Audrey Elison had hired her.

It wasn’t much but it was a start. She would go back to Audrey and wring the lead dry.

She tore the note up and left it on the ground. She didn’t trust anything else in the apartment so she headed home to get the emergency bottle of whiskey she kept in her bottom desk drawer.

It was cheap and burned like hell but, just like Thorne, it would get the job done.

VERSE

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