Thank you

To all of you who followed this through to the end, thank you, I appreciate the interest you have shown. Any comments are very welcome! -JD

58

“Why should we go look at something?” asked Kent, and I heard a nervous waver to his voice. Something was hitting him harder than the rest of us. He was the most steady of us, and his reaction made me wonder what the rest of us were missing. Kevin turned back and looked at Kent, who gave Kevin a sideways glance, and a slight nod, and the two of them went from magicker to cop in an eyeblink. “Fern, we're going back across the bridge now. You and Cobb are coming with us” Kevin said in a flat voice the brooked no argument.
He looked at Kent. “How bad?” he asked. “Real bad Lovey-boy, real bad, we should be moving.” Kent said, and his eyes and head were suddenly on a swivel, looking everywhere for something, anything that might clue him in to what he was feeling. Kent pulled the dagger he had carried and was holding it point back along his forearm, in a martial art style fighting grip. Kevin was clumsily trying to string the bow Cobb had given him and after a wuick moment, gave up and grabbed it like a club, and moved shoulder to shoulder with Kent, who had placed himself between me and the shore.
“Move you two, now!” Kent growled. I could see his teeth bared as he looked back towards the shore. “How fast would it take to knock this spell down if we have to?” Kent asked Kevin, Cobb and I forgotten in the tension they were projecting. “Don't know if we can” said Kevin. “Think the car would do it?” “I don't know Nixy, all fae-boy said was that it would screw the pooch on his glamour, Fernie put the bridge up, not him.” We were all trotting by now, and fighting the urge to run in a blind panic towards the shore. Kent and Kevin were close behind Cobb and I, and Cobb ran to the edge
Kent grabbed him as he tried to stand his ground. “Damn fool, move your punk fairy ass!” Kevin shouted. I looked back beyond them, and saw a kind of sluggish, gelatinous fog roil slowly up the bridge. The sight of it sent a tingle of fear down my back, and I knew that fog was what had so badly rattled Kent. He could feel it. “No, we have to fight here!” snarled Kent. “We can't beat it to the other side. We gotta fight here.”
“Can we make the portal?” I asked. I didn't wait for an answer, but took off as fast as I could run. “The portal's the answer Nixy, we clobber the ring, it can't get through! I made the damn thing I can bring it down!” All three men pounded after me and we raced as fast as we could across the bridge towards the portal through the barrier. The fog moved faster than we did, but we had a long lead, and stumbled past the portal gasping for breath. Kevin turned and began chanting, and Kent started the same chant with him. I didn't know what else to do so I started in as soon as I could follow the cadence, and we called and channeled power to the portal.
The circle started to glow, and We could feel the rigidity of the circle start to fray. I looked up and saw the fog was about twenty yards away, and I could sense a hunger in it that frightened me to my core. It felt like nothing that belonged here on this earth. I chanted louder, and backed slowly away from the hole as I did so. Kent and Kevin were doing the same thing when the fog got to the portal edge and struck. A flash of sparkling mist burst from it like a breath on a cold day and enveloped Nix, and he screamed in agony, and aged before our eyes and crumbled to rotted skin and bones. The mist recoiled to the fog and gathered and as it shot forward the circle collapsed, snapping the barrier into place over the bridge.
The bridge shook as the spell was attack by the barrier, and we could see just through the brittle grey the bridge to the island collapse upon itself and dissolve away. The fog or whatever it was, dropped through the insubstantial bridge and hit the water with a bare ripple, and it was gone. Kevin grabbed me by the arms and yelled “brace it Fernie! It's collapsing, brace it!” I started in on the chant I had used to power the bridge, calling on my own resources to hold it in place.
There was a draining sensation as the spell grabbed me and started draining off my life to stabilize itself. Then there was a strange sensation like when your ear pops from an altitude change, and I was pulling power from some other source. The bridge stabilized and locked down again, and we stood, looking back at the barrier a mere four meters from us. “What the hell was that?” Kevin asked us. I had no answer, and apparently neither had Cobb. Kevin emptied his backpack and gently gathered up Kent's remains, leaving everything on the bridge. Cobb gathered up those belongings and carried them back across to my car. I got the shakes as we crossed onto solid ground, and collapsed on the grass and earth, and clutched it until the shaking passed.
Kevin called Halifax and told them what had happened, and that we would be back in a day with the remains. Cobb had left us as soon as we had packed to go back to Pictou, saying that he would contact me again soon, and that we would discuss the service. I had resisted the urge to punch him in the face, and settled for just leaving him there on the shore near the bridge. Kevin and I rode in silence back to Halifax, and on Tuesday, we attended Kent Nix's funeral.
It was a full affair, for an officer who fell in the line of duty, and I was numb through most of it. It was the vision of him being aged to death that haunted me in my dreams for the next week, and it still does some. Cobb has yet to contact me and Kevin has taken a month's leave from the department. The bridge is still there too. Cobb's glamour was destroyed when the portal collapsed and the bridge is visible, leading right up to th barrier. We're alive, which is something, but so is that thing, whatever it is, and if there's anyone still alive on Prince Edward Island, they have my sympathy. I'm never going back there again. I'm not even sure a mandate from God himself could make me go.
I have other, more joyous and human things to celebrate. Fawn's starting to show, and we have a baby shower tomorrow for her. Since I don't know whether it's going to be a boy or a girl, I did the sensible thing and got Fawn a trip to the local spa for a massage.

57

“Uh, yeah, she's right, let's get hello outta here” ,said Kent. Cobb looked at the two of them, and ignored me. “How long does it take to do psychometry on an object? And does it being where the incident occurred help with the casting?” he asked in a eager voice. Kent and Kevin started to get up and check their packs and the items they got from Cobb. “Takes about an hour regardless,” said Kevin. “All the site does for the caster is how far back you can read, detail and intensity of the information.” “Can we try it here?” said Cobb very intensely. “I have something that I need to know now that we're here, and this would be a start if we could read what happened here.”
I can tell you what happened you idiot. A dragon happened. Most of the stuff around here you'd find would be pieces of cars and trucks. Dragons breathe fire Cobb, or did you forget that. They tend to like things extra-crispy, and I have no intention of sticking around to see how well-done my tan could get when he finds us.” I said angrily. “I am leaving now, and I'll walk the bridge alone if I have to . This place is creeping me out. Why aren't you guys feeling it any.....Cobb!” I turned on him, angry. “Take the glamour off them now! You're endangering all of us with these stupid stunts!”
Cobb looked at me angrily. “I need to find out what is here!” he said. “No, you don't. WE need to get back across the bridge, now. It's going to be dark soon. I do NOT want to be over here when it gets dark.” I said, glaring back at him. “We are leaving now, and if you want to come back tomorrow, go right ahead.” I didn't wait but turned and headed for the bridge and the way back to home. I'd had enough of mysterious manipulations, damn services that screwed up lives, and mind-altering glamours. It was time to go home and call the service done.
Kent and Kevin caught me at the base of the bridge. “Nice catch on that glamour” said Kevin. “It was simple, you two had been feeling the bad vibes right up until he'd pulled the piece of glass out of the ground and you two looked at it.” I told him. After that you were acting like you wanted to stay. That made it easy to spot.” I took a breath and started up the ramp to the bridge. “What about Cobb?” asked Kent. “The guy's been an asshole, but do we really want to leave him alone there?” “At this point I don't care, he's crewed with this service one too many times and I am sick of it. I am crossing, and I' leaving his dagger there, and I am going home and taking a hot bath, drinking cocoa, and sleeping for two days.”
“Sounds good to me,” Kent replied. “I could look forward to a few days off after this little action. This has been one heck of a lot more strenuous than the police work has been.” “I think my girlfriend would like to see more of me for about a week,” Kevin laughed. “I've got some vacation built up, this seems like a good time to take it.” “Less talk, more walk,” said Kent and he started up the ramp. “Don't you mean wok, Nix?” Kevin quipped. “When you going to do that stir-fry salmon again?” Kevin adjusted his fedora to help shad his eyes as we got up on top and started across the bridge.
As we stepped out onto the bridge, we all heard pounding feet rapidly approach from behind us. We turned together and saw Cobb running hard up the ramp and waving his sword and shield. We waited to hear what he wanted but he continued to run at us and make a motion to have us come back down the ramp to him. “What do you think he wants?” Kent said to Kevin and I. “I think he wants us to go back down. Fat chance of that, eh?” Kevin said. “Yeah, but let's wait to see what he's got to say.” I said, suddenly uneasy for no reason that I could figure.
We waited and Cobb came pounding up to us. “Please, you have to come back down and look at what I've found. I think it's very important you see it” he said between gasping for air. He was looking back down the ramp towards the brittle meadow we had explored a short while ago. Either he was a tremendous actor or something he had found shook him very badly. Either way, I felt very uneasy about going back sown there.
“I think we should come back tomorrow if it's that important. Staying would have us out on that bridge after dark, and I don't want to be on it when I can't see in front of me” I said, and I think my own unease was echoed in Kent and Kevin, as Kevin had turned and was looking out over the strait back towards home. This place clearly had affected all of us in one way or another, and now Cobb was trying to get us to go back, and look at something for what reason?