Help us someone, let us out of here
living here so long undisturbed
dreaming of the time we were free
so many years ago
before the time when we first heard;
"Welcome to the home by the sea”
Home by the Sea
Genesis

Knee deep in snow, Calla wrapped the coat closer to her body with one hand and used the other to hike it up so that she could trudge up the hill which greeted her when she reached the other side of the Thames River. It was a long steep grade, which even in the dark she could tell had been some type of road at one time. Here and there stretches of pavement met her feet on the occasion they met the bottom of the snow but mostly the hill had been reclaimed by Mother Nature and was now overgrown with weeds and rocks. Demeter had often to joked to her that the one place in the entire world where rocks actually bred was New England, as the stiffness in her knees settled in for a good long visit, she could see that Demeter had been right. Large boulders jutted out of the hillside, beyond which was the remains of an old water tower now long discarded and out of use. It sat quietly rusting away on its’ three sturdy steel legs looking over the river to the new fancy glass tower casino on the other bank. In the dim light she could make out the outline of a small building, a utility shed of some type, she reached out to trace her hand along the stiff brick as she passed it and used it to push against as she began to make her way up the next part of the hill.

The path lead around a corner and further upward still, her nose tingled so much she thought the tip of it would freeze right on her face and drop off into the white snow below. Calla stopped for a moment to briskly rub her hands up and down her arms and once again pull the long coat tight around her. No longer could she use her hands to hold it up or keep it closed, the brush was too thick here, briers and prickers met her every inch of the way and she had to push against them in the dark. They scraped against her cheek and bit into the palms of her naked hands. Finally the hill ceased and she emerged in the on the outskirts of the old buildings. Calla stopped once more to take a quick glance back the way she came and be sure that he not followed her across the river. She couldn’t stay away from him forever, sooner or later he would return to the room and find her gone. Still, she knew that she could not reach his mind so maybe he could not reach hers either. Maybe she could hide here until Master Daniel came for her and he would come….

Wouldn’t he?

She didn’t know. She couldn’t rely on him to ride to her rescue, as far as she knew he was still off world somewhere and he had no idea of what was going on at home. The ground below was jagged and uneven, pavement kept breaking up into pot holes which could engulf a VW Bug. Several times on her journey Calla’s foot landed in one of those large gaping holes, her ankle twisted and she twirled toward the ground and into the frozen snow. Each time she fell, the pain ran up her leg and throughout the rest of her in stark waves but she pulled herself up and out of the snow and pushed forward through the storm. The hiking boots she wore were lined with something called Thin-Sulate and while they did help to keep her feet warm at first, now they were nothing more than a refrigerator for her toes to hide inside of. The biting cold began to sink through her clothing and brought stiffness to her knees which slowly began to spread toward her hips and upward to the joints in her fingers.

All around her was a labyrinth of buildings. The full moon broke through the thick clouds overhead from time to time illuminated the broken windows and the sturdy bars on them. With the snow falling all around the buildings shined and glistened with an eerie glow making them look almost peaceful. Inside faces stared back at her; they beckoned her to come forward, to talk to them, to spend time with them, to listen to them! Faces twisted and gnarled into otherworldly expressions which would haunt her until her dying day. They called to her as she passed by swiftly as she could. Tortured and tormented they had spent their days here in this God Forsaken place, some of them had been quite insane and it had been right to lock them up and away from the Good People of the World. Others were not crazy, they were just sad or lonely or depressed, they had seen too much or lived lives they were not meant to. Their minds had broken but there could have been hope for them. Instead they had been locked away here forced to take pills they did not want and endure shock treatments which were not as kind as they were today.

So many buildings! So many souls! There must be one building where the souls would be kind. Just one building where she could hide. Calla tried to open the closed wooden doors she found that at some point in time someone had come along and nailed them all shut. They gave but only part way, she could not get inside any of them. Broken windows were everywhere but almost all of them had bars before the glass and she could not get through there either.

Onward she went through the stinging cold, the wind had picked up now and it howled around her, Calla pulled the collar of the coat close around her ears to keep it the cold at bay. Everything on her was freezing now, she couldn’t feel her toes or her knees any longer, her ankle kept crying out in protest, and every step became an adventure just to see where her feet would land and if she would stay upright on them. Calla closed her eyes and drew in a frosty breath. There was pavement beneath her feet again and she moved forward very slowly as the wind whipped up the falling snow. The pavement went on for a good long stretch, in the pale light of the moon she could she was passing by the remnants of an old green house. The glass was completely gone now but the frame was in tact and weeds of all sorts had grown up inside, dark brown dead leaves filled every inch of the interior and spilled across the walls into the snow.

Calla looked up with worn and tired eyes, there was a building in front of her, there was a door and it looked as though it might be partly open but she couldn’t be sure. On nothing more than sheer will she moved her frozen feet forward and climbed one last small hill. She thought her knees would give out before she could climb the three steps to the door and they buckled beneath her, she groped out for the tree which had grown through the cement and found it was not a tree but a large pricker bush. The sharp stickers bit into her hand and sliced it open as she grabbed at it for support. Hot blood gushed forward it ran down her palm and fell into the white snow at her feet; she tried to close her hand and could not, briers stuck out of her flesh. Calla bit at them and spit them out.

Three steps. It was just three little steps.

Blood running hot and sticky from her palm and bringing odd warmth to her fingers before it turned cold and began to congeal and then freeze, she laid her hand on the cold brass knob. At first the door gave only part way and her heart sunk as the cold settled all the way through her bones. Calla tugged at it again with a weak grip and it gave a little more. One more try. One more. The door opened enough for her to squeeze inside.

David had been just about to buy those cigarettes when he remembered he really had left his money in the duffle bag back in the room. Expecting to find a sleeping Calla sprawled out on the bed, he used the cardboard key to open the door and let himself inside. The lights were on and nobody was home.

She was gone.

“Fuck!” David shouted as he balled up his fists and shook them in the air. “Fucking bitch!” It was the shoulder; it had to have been his shoulder. He had been so damn careful about not taking his shirt off if he was going to face her when he was fucking her. Danny had gotten himself shot or something at some point, David couldn’t fake that scar. She had reached up to touch the skin under his shirt as she lay with him, she felt its absence. Damn! He was pacing the room and staring blankly out the window when something rather odd caught his attention.

Out on the river, someone was out on the river. Not in a boat. They were standing; no make that running, across the unfrozen water. In the light of the full moon David saw a mass of red hair flying out from behind her as she went.

“Gotcha!” He grabbed up the car keys and headed out the door but not before taking his special black bag from its hiding place. She’d been bad and it was time that he gave her a slight correction.

On frozen legs Calla stumbled through the entryway and shut the door behind her. Dark. Nothing but darkness at first. Then, then, that smell. A horrid dry stench greeted her. Something rotted and old, long forgotten and stowed away.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

There were large chunks of something hard under her feet and they broke and crunched as she lightly stepped across what at some point in time had been a floor. Her numb right foot, the one with the protesting ankle, struck upon something hard and Calla fell face first onto a small set of stairs, her knee jamming hard against them as she went. There was another audible crunching sound but this time it didn’t come from the floor at her feet. Deadened finger tips reached down to touch the newly wounded knee cap. Her jeans were already soaked through with blood, the bone beneath was clearly broken.

In the dark her numb fingers crawled out to touch the cold steps and the chunks of plaster which lay scattered everywhere. That was part of what she smelled, a mixture of dry and soaked, rotted dry wall. The walls of this place had been falling down for some time. Bits of it stuck to the wound on her palm. Calla rose part way on icy feet, her damage right knee gave out an unforgiving wail. How many steps? With her good hand she reached out and tried to find the landing, stretching as far as she could her fingers found what they were looking for and then made their way down once more.

“Hades?” Calla called out while she lay face down in the rotten plaster and garbage.

Four steps.

It was just four steps. Four small steps, she encouraged herself. It was warmer in here then it was outside. Although not by much, the wind came in through the shattered windows and echoed through the holes in the walls around her. Still, maybe she could find one room that would offer something which resembled shelter and the space to call for Hades to come to her aid. Four steps, that’s all. Her knee did not want to cooperate and neither did her ankle, Calla found herself crawling the distance up the four cement steps. Sharp bits of old plaster and of things she didn’t recognized bit into her hand as she pulled herself up to the last step.

So cold. So damn cold. Calla sat freezing on the landing bringing her knees up to her chest and her arms around them in an attempt to find warmth. The breath which clung cold in her lungs exited in puffs of white and her nose to began to drip ceaselessly. There was a long corridor before her, it was lined with shattered windows and the moon light offered some glimpse of what was down that way. The walls had long ago begun to fall, so much so that she would say there was more plaster on the floor than there was on the wall. Where the plaster still held its proper place the paint peeled in great long sheets. Wainscoting lined the lower walls and at one time this place may have actually been very attractive. Yes, at one time when the walls had been new, the sun had probably shown brightly through the windows and the beams did not sag overhead. She could almost see those days in her mind, the ghostly images of women in white, nurses, walked by with white hats on their heads and trays in their hands, their white stockings looking smart with their sensible white shoes.

This building had been different than some of the others, it had housed a different kind of tenant. Not the kind who were normally considered dangerous or outright insane but something….different. As she sat on the cold sagging cement floor with her butt turning numb, Calla could feel the souls in this place, they were trapped here just as those who pressed their faces against the bars in the other buildings were trapped. These souls were also different. They hid from her. She could feel them; somewhere deep inside of her she thought she heard someone snicker just the slightest bit.

Calla used the wall at her back to push herself onto her feet. Behind her was nothing but an empty room and more stairs leading upward. Keeping her good hand against the wall and using it to slink against from time to time, Calla made her way down the daunting corridor. If only she had a fire just something to bring warmth for a little while. She could make a fire and then she laughed a little to herself. Sure, she could make a fire and burn this whole place to the ground. Just one little spark was all it was begging for. Or and possibly worse than that, it wouldn’t burn to the ground but the man pretending to be Daniel would see it and it would give her away.

There would be no fire and no warmth other than what she could make for herself. “Hades?” Calla began to call as she walked down the long hallway. “Hades? Uncle, hear me.” She begged. The frozen air in her lungs made it hard to breathe, they just wanted to squeeze up and shut tight, to freeze with the cold. Blood coursed down her leg ran into the sock and then into her boot where it was beginning to make a small pool under her heel. She dragged it behind her more than walked upon it, using the crumbling walls for support. The wound in her hand was no better. The briers had cut deep and it bled freely, leaving a clear trail behind her as she walked. Calla used her good hand to unbutton the coat and rip off a piece of the cardigan sweater, she wrapped it around the palm of her hand and cinched it tight with her teeth as she continued her journey. “Uncle, hear me, please you must hear me. I need you.” The hallway split off into several different directions. Ahead she could see the highway beyond the broken windows, to the right was a set of stairs leading up and a branch of the corridor which lead to maze of rooms, to the left another corridor and another maze of rooms. It was so cold, it made it so hard to think straight. Something in her kept whispering that she needed to go up but more stairs were not in order for her, she couldn’t climb up to the next floor, she couldn’t even feel her legs or her feet any more. Her clothes were turning wet and cold as the snow which had clung to them earlier began to melt.

“Hades!” She called out in desperation. “Oh, Daniel! Daniel please help me.” Calla stood at the base of the flight stairs with hopeless eyes. Against the screaming protests of both her knee and ankle, Calla began to climb.

“Ow!” Daniel cried and brought his leg up to his chin. “Ow!”

“What? What is it?” Sam asked as she leaned forward from the back seat. “Daniel!”

“My leg, it hurts.” Daniel rolled up his pant leg to inspect his own skin, it was white and perfect just as it should be. Still, it felt as though there should be a gaping hole staring back at him. There should be blood pouring from it, it should be soaking the leg of khakis

(jeans)

“Calla.” He whispered as his eyes doubled in size. “She’s hurt her leg, something’s wrong.” His eyes closed as he drew in a hard breath. Daniel had kept turning up the heat in the car for the last ten or fifteen minutes but no matter what he did he just couldn’t get warm. Before that he had had that bad taste floating around in the back of his mouth. That one Daniel had done his best not to think about, but the biting cold and now the sharp pain would not go away. There was a sharp ache in his right ankle and throbbing in his right palm but it was the knee that hurt most. “Something is sooo very wrong.”

“Can you see her? Talk to her? Anything?” Jack asked.

“I keep trying but I don’t think she can hear me. I can feel her. I don’t think we’re close enough. How much farther?”

“It’s still a ride and this weather isn’t making this easy.” Jack remarked as they passed the sign which read Mohegan Sun Casino exit 79A 5 miles. With this snow and these shitty roads those five miles were apt to turn into a half an hour or even more.

“She isn’t listening for you.” Teal’c remarked from the backseat.

“What?” Daniel turned around sharply to look at him.

“She is unaware that you are even on this planet, Daniel Jackson, she is not listening for you. You have to concentrate harder.”

“Harder? Yeah, got it.” Daniel agreed as he turned around in his seat and laid his head against the cold glass. Harder. Problem was he wasn’t really sure that he wanted to know just exactly what was going on. The amateur porn he had been treated to earlier today had been enough. “It’s so goddamn cold.”

It was just a random thought skipping through his head but it was Calla’s voice and for one instant he could see where she was and it was dark, lonely and desolate. Certainly not the words one would use to describe a gaming casino and resort. She wasn’t at the Mohegan Sun. “We’re going to the wrong place.”

“What?”

“She’s not there. Not anymore.” Daniel stopped and gazed out the window at the passing world. He had a pervasive feeling of despair and lonesomeness. “Oh shit.” He muttered. “She knows. She left him.” She was alone and on the run from David. Out of nowhere Daniel drew his cell phone from his pocket and opened it, no signal, the battery was dead. “Give me your phone.” Sam handed hers over the seat. It had signal and Daniel dialed his home number and then punched in the code for the answering machine. Calla’s desperate plea met his ears; “Daniel help me, I want to come home.” She had probably tried to reach him on the cell phone and couldn’t get through. When the message ended he pushed the proper buttons to replay it and handed it over to Sam so she could listen to it.

“Oh, Daniel. She sounds….”

“Not good, huh?” He bit on the tip of his thumb nail. “No, not good. I know.” Come on, Calla, listen for me. Please just tell me where you are, I’ll come get you.

Jack’s cell phone was ringing. “Get that, will ya?” He asked Daniel as he struggled to keep his eyes on the road. The snow was letting up or so it seemed for the moment and here and there the flakes grew small and the moon peeked out from behind the clouds. The storm had already dropped about a foot of the white stuff from what he could see and he was running along a stretch of road that did not look as though it had seen the likes of a snow plow in the last two hours or so. Jack felt Daniel’s hand moving along the length of his thigh searching for the ringing People Collar, Daniel’s fingers were stiff and shaking.

“Daniel Jackson.” He said as he put the phone to his ear.

“Doctor Jackson, I’ve been trying to reach you on your cell phone.” General Hammond said. “Seems you’re out of service or something.”

“Yeah, I noticed. What have you got, General?”

General Hammond proceeded to tell Daniel of Calla’s telephone call to his house in Colorado and that they had traced the call to room 217 of the Mohegan Sun Casino. The call had come in eighteen minutes ago. “The desk clerk remembers checking Calla and him into the hotel. Said she was a ‘delicate lady’.” The General heard Daniel snicker and draw in a breath. “How close are ya, son?”

“Not close enough.” Daniel remarked. “But we’re getting closer. Do me a favor?” Daniel asked.

“Sure, whatever you need.”

“Check around for me and see if there are any, any,” he stammered, “old or abandoned buildings around the casino, will you? Let me know if you find any.”

“Ok, why?”

“Just a hunch.” Daniel hung up the phone and placed it back in Jack’s pocket.

“They’re at the casino?” Jack asked.

She was gone from there of that he was certain. Wherever she was it was cold, the wind howled through open windows and blew down empty corridors, he could hear its blustery echo in his mind. If she was on foot then she couldn’t be far from wherever the casino was, she had to be near there somewhere. “No, but I guess for now, that’s where we’re going.”

David pulled into the driveway leading to the Norwich State Hospital, the first thing he did was drive all the way to the back looking for the most likely place for her to have emerged from the other side. Down the hill and off to the left he saw the water below him, a little further on down he saw fresh foot prints in the snow. They were scattered hither and yon, Callie had not been able to keep to an even pace as she trudged through the snow. In several places he could see the full imprint of her body where she had stumbled and fallen into the fresh snow. Tracks meandered up to different buildings and doorways and then continued on down in a helter-skelter pattern.

Holy Jesus, this place is friggin’ creepy, David thought as he took note of the bars on the windows and the shattered glass as he passed. In one place there was a huge mass of toilets laying in the snow. Just toilets, that’s all, about a dozen of them in various stages of broken. Strange and creepy. A chill went through him. The foot prints lead up to a ramshackle greenhouse and then stumbled up to the door of another building and were gone.

Callie was in there.

David shut off the headlights and killed the engine. He had stopped long enough to grab his kit from his duffle bag, he grabbed the black canvas bag and headed toward the door.

Calla had just settled herself on the landing on the second floor and was inspecting the damage to her bloody swollen knee and her enlarged bruised ankle when the headlights flashed by. She pressed herself into the corner and waited until they passed, painfully she rose to peer out the window to see the Suburban going past soon the engine died. At first she thought that a good thing but then realized the car had not gone away, the Imposter had parked outside this building.

He knew she was here.

“Hades!” She cried softly as she scrunched down as far as she could, her eyes peeking over the broken pane to see him walking up to the door with a black bag in his hand. What did he have there? Calla shuttered and scrambled for a place to hide. Her frightened mind kicked into Overdrive and it would not shut up.

Daniel. Daniel. Daniel. Over and over the one thought that rang in her mind was the name of her Master. Please Daniel, hear me. She thought that she felt him but she couldn’t be sure, maybe it was him, the Imposter she felt now that he was near. Maybe it was a trick, a little bait for the trap.

The floors here on the second floor could only hope to be in the same stellar shape as those on the first were. They were soft and squishy, Calla tried to step lightly and quickly but her leg would have none of it. If she could make her way down to the other end of the hall and down the stairs, she could sneak out behind him, out through the same door she had come in. Like the corridor on the first floor this one was lined with barred broken windows, she tried to keep to the shadows and her eyes on the outside while she passed through as quickly as she could. She did not see him but she did see the Suburban, if she could get to that and the keys were still in it maybe she could get out of here. If. If. If.

Halfway down the empty corridor she saw the shadow emerge from the door way. Calla froze in her tracks and held her breath hoping he would believe her nothing more than a shadow in the dark. “Hi Callie.”

“Leave me alone!” She shouted at him. The Imposter drew his arms back and broke out into a sprint towards her. Calla tried to run for the stairs she had come up.

“You’ve been a bad girl, Callie.” He taunted as he came up behind her. “Such a bad girl.” David dropped the fake mid-western accent and returned to his Texas drawl. “Gots ta te'ch yu'se a less'n Mizus Jackson." She made it to the landing before his hand landed on her shoulder, David reached down and grabbed her forearm, he yanked hard to turn her around, and there was a loud popping sound as Calla’s shoulder dislocated from its socket. Her wounded knee gave way as she tumbled forward. "Bad bad gurl." David intoned darkly as he caught her and then shook his finger in her face.

"Who are you?" Calla stammered as she tried to wriggle out of his grasp.

"Aw, nawh, w’eres my good man’as?" David smiled at her while keeping a firm hold on the squirming woman. "Puhlese, ‘low me ta iner’duce m’self, I’m David, Danny’s olda brotha, so nice ta meet yew...sis." The bag dropped from his hand as he reached out to trace the outline of her neck. "Been a real puh-leasure fucking yew, ya’ll know dat, don‘cha? Loads and loads o’ fun. But I want you ta do sump’thin for me, right now." David moved in closer to her and Calla tried to turn her head away from him but he caught the back of her neck and held her where he wanted her. David smiled for her. "Say it for me, right now. Master David. C'mon Callie, say it." The hand at the back of her neck gave a harsh squeeze. "Say it." He demanded.

"No, only Daniel is Master." Calla tried to stay strong as her heart raced in her chest and sweat broke out on her cold body. "You are no one." She shook her head at him. "Only Daniel!"

The hand on her forearm reached under the wool of her coat and slid over her breasts. "Danny's dead." David whispered hot in her ear as he pulled himself in close to her. "I killed him."

"No! You lie!" Calla pushed against him in an attempt to shove him off of her. It was no good, between her aching bleeding knee, twisted ankle, and frozen joints, she didn’t have a prayer in hell and she knew it. "I feel him." Calla whispered. “I feel Daniel.”

"Do you?" He threatened as his fingers closed around her left nipple, Calla drew in a harsh breath as she tried to cringe away from his touch. . "Danny was s’posed to go see the Nox ta’day, right?" David asked. "He n’ver made it to the Nox, Callie, he n’ver made it to the base this mornin’." David came in closer and licked the outline of her ear as he whispered. "I killed him, slit his scrawny throat and dumped his body in a lake." He felt her shiver and heard her cry out. David stepped away from her. "All you feel is me."

Nox? Was that where Daniel had been going today? To see Lya or Maeve? How did this one know? "I don't believe you." She hissed at him and then shoved at him again. "You're a liar, Sa'Tan Daniel lives!"

David tightened his grip on her. "C'mon, Callie, show me how bad you can be, hum? Keep fighting me. I'll show you how bad I can be." David's voice was sinister. "Danny's dead and that means I’m your Master now. So say it, Master David." The fingers twisting her nipple turned into talons as they stretched the skin to its maximum, twisted it harshly and then let it go. "He's dead. Nawh you be a good gurl and do what I tell you. You can't hurt me, Callie, now that he's gone, you need me."

"I don't want you." She cried as she tried to hold back the tears. "I'll never want you." Daniel had to be alive. He had to be, even if he was still with Maeve, no matter what she was telling him at this very moment, just so long as he was still breathing she'd be happy. He couldn't be dead. Just couldn't.

"Aw, c’mon, nawh, Callie, I want you. Dat’s mo’ran enuff fo’ me."

"It's not for me!" Calla hissed through gritted teeth and shoved at him one last time with both arms. Her right arm shrieked its disapproval at such harsh action but David's grip loosened and then eased altogether. Calla lost her precarious balance and went tumbling down the cement stairs to the landing below. She took the brunt of the fall on her spine as she went down the unforgiving steps. Up on the second floor she saw the look of surprise on the Imposters’ face as he looked disbelievingly at his empty arms. She hit the landing hard, her head bounced off the cold cement, stars flashed across her eyes and fresh blood began to emerge from her skull. Before she could breathe or think she saw him bounding down the steps after her. Calla scrambled for the last set of stairs as his hand reached out and grabbed a handful of auburn hair but it was too late, she threw her weight forward and tumbled out of his reach and down the last five stairs to the vacant first floor below, leaving him with nothing more than a fistful of her hair.

“You best be gettin’ back ‘ere, gurl.”

Calla clawed desperately at the broken glass and fallen plaster on the floor below her in a pitiful attempt to rise but her knee wasn’t having any of it. “Daniel!” She cried softly as she crawled through the ruins of the old building with David close behind her. “Please, Sa'Tan Daniel!”

David’s hand clamped down on her neck with a vicious bite. “Danny can’t help you now.” David began dragging her down the littered hallway by her hair. Calla screamed and clawed at the flesh of his hand with her good arm as she tried to get away from him. “Such a bad gurl, Callie. Gots ta teach ya sum man’ers, missy.”

Daniel’s head crashed back into the head rest as they crawled down the highway in the blinding snow storm. Bile rose in his throat. “Stop, stop the car.” He moaned, he hardly waited for Jack to pull over before he jumped out and began vomiting in the new fallen snow on the side of I-395. Daniel stood hunched over with his hands gripping his knee caps and his stomach heaving its left over contents at his feet. The inner recessed of his mind resonated with the sound of her voice. Calla’s freedom had not lasted long, David found her, wherever she had been hiding, he found her. This time she wasn’t going to get away from him no matter what she tried. “Screaming,” he muttered as the last of the bile issued forth and spilled onto the ground. “Oh, God, she’s screaming!” His gut gave out another heaving wretch but spilled nothing onto the highway, the dry heaves were beginning to set in.

Pain. Just pure white hot pain. It surrounded him. Swallowed him. Shot through him. Daniel’s stomach gave out another harsh dry heave, suddenly the entire right side of his body felt as though it been T-boned by a Mac truck. His head pounded, his back felt someone had used it for a snowboard and his shoulder felt as though it had been ripped from his socket, it barely moved when he commanded it to. The few parts of his body which did not currently cry out were so frozen with cold and stiff that he could barely move them at all. Standing in the falling snow on the side of the highway Daniel's head swirled and spun with the echo of her cries. Suddenly the biting numbing cold turned into a harsh cold burning sensation. It engulfed slowly from toes to nose and then swept back down him again in a tidal wave of heat. Daniel took two steps forward and pitched face first into the cold snow.

Cold. The cold was good. Daniel just wanted to lie in the snow bank and let it cool off his body; it blocked the pain and helped to raise his mind from the abyss.

“Get him up!” Jack shouted as he ran around the front of the Denali to where Sam and Teal’c were already standing. “Come on, Daniel, don’t you give up!”

Teal’c reached down with his strong hands and rolled Daniel over in the snow. “If she is screaming, Dr. Jackson, and you wish to be heard, you must whisper to her.” Teal'c pulled the still stunned Dr. Jackson to his feet, brushed the snow from his coat and put him back into the passenger seat of the Denali. "We must be close to her."

"He's right. Daniel, look!” The sign ahead read Mohegan Sun Casino Exit 79A 2 miles. “So just hang in there a little while longer, got that?" Jack ordered as he turned the engine over and pulled back onto I-395.

“Indeed, Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c said as he leaned over the backseat. “You must quiet your mind, remember whatever is happening to Callestah is not happening to you. You’re only a by-stander in this, you must remember that.”

“By-stander?” Daniel barked as his hand rubbed the back of his head, he didn’t feel like much a by-stander at this moment. Everything felt so real.

“Whisper,” was Teal’cs only response before he settled himself back into the seat.

Slumped in the passenger's seat with his head resting against the cold window, Daniel began to whisper her name inside his mind.

David dragged Calla down the decrepit hallway to a large room with three large picture windows, or they had been picture windows when they were new, now they were nothing more than sharp shards of glass resting among the plaster, dry wall, bits of floor and a mass of trash that vagrants had left as their calling cards. In the oversized room there were three metal frame beds sans mattresses, their cold steel frames stark and shining in the moonlight like the jaws of some giant monster ready to gobble up whatever passerby happened to be unlucky enough to enter the unfeeling room.

With no words or sound at all, David dragged her to the far end of the room beneath the windows and dumped her into a pile of broken glass. "Don't move." He demanded as he loomed over her and opened the black carrying case. "Looky what I got." He produced a pair of police issue handcuffs and length of rope which he held in the same hand. "Oh, we are gonna have a hot time in the ol town tonight, yessir, missy, we certainly are." Reaching down quickly, he grabbed hold of Calla's lapel and yanked upward harshly. The small woman tumbled out of the coat. One article of clothing down, David sat his full weight on her pelvis as his greedy hands reached out and ripped off the green cardigan sweater to reveal a very lovely and lacy matching bra. "Pretty." In one quick motion the bra was gone, ripped in half, he tossed it across the room and grabbed for her wrists.

"No," she begged beneath him. "Please, only Daniel." She mumbled. "Only Master Daniel."

David chuckled as he leaned in and brought his face in closer to hers, he could see the fear in her eyes, hell he could smell it coming off of her in hot waves. "Master David." One cuff clamped down on her wrist. "Be a good gurl and say it, Callie." He demanded through gnashed teeth as he reached for the arm which lay limp at her side, it was slick with blood from her palm, his hand slipped off at first but Calla made no attempt to move it away from him and it was then he realized she couldn't. Her right shoulder lay far lower on the ground than her left, it twisted and distorted in an unnatural way. Nah, Callie wouldn't be using that arm anytime in the near future. David smiled a crooked and gnarled smile in the pale moonlight then grabbed the wounded hand and jerked it upward as hard as he could. Calla screamed below him and he settled his weight on her again. "Master David." He repeated and clamped the cuff onto her wrist.

Calla lay half-naked, his weight on her chest pushing her further on the broken glass and sharp bits of plaster, they bit into the flesh at her back and then tore downward when he moved her. It crushed the air from her lungs making it so very difficult to breathe and everything hurt, everything ached, everything was spinning too far out of control. In the dim light, Calla looked up to see Daniel's face over her, it was twisted and contorted with anger, she saw the darkness in Daniel’s cold eyes as he carefully looped one end of the rope around the chain links on the handcuffs. There was no mistaking the danger in Daniel’s voice when he spoke to her; "Stay right there. I'll be right back." Holding onto the other end he walked the two feet to the cast iron radiator under the window. The rope was just a bit too short, with both hands he yanked hard on it, Calla's body rose at the other end and she gave out another shout of agony. The rope slackened and David secured it to the radiator before returning to where she laid.

"Hey, you know what, Callie?" David swiped at the base of his nose which had begun to run from the cold and mold in this place. The Brothers Jackson both suffered from allergies and his eyes were beginning to swell just the tiniest bit as he sneezed. "Yaw dad'dy taught me a trick. You wanna see it?" David plopped down on the floor next to her as he reached for the button on her jeans. "It's a good one, I think yaw gonna like it." Greedy hands torn the denim jeans from her hips, down her waist, past her thighs and over her knees. "Ooh, now dat looks like it hurts." David commented in a dry voice as he yanked the material past the swollen knee and she gave out another cry. The sound of it made him smile. "Watch this." David tossed his own coat aside and pulled the sweater over his head, he watched her eyes well with at the sight of the clean skin on his right shoulder. Reaching into the black bag he drew out a large syringe and uncapped it with his teeth.

"No." She protested and tried to wiggle away from him. Now the mark between her bare and freezing breasts began to glow.

"Yeah." David winked at her in the dark. "Looks like we'se gon' have us some cump'ny, hey gurl?" His cold hand ran over her grandfather's mark, he settled the point of the syringe over it. “Maybe paw’s comin’ ta pay us a l’il visit.”

"Don't!” Calla cried as she shook with cold and fear. Though there were shards of glass biting through the flesh at her back, between her shoulders and into the space just above her buttocks, she couldn't feel the pain only the pressure they made as they sunk deeper and deeper into her and more of her blood spilled onto the cold concrete floor. Through cold or fear, or perhaps both, Calla’s body had reached a point of being comfortably numb. There was no more strength or air in her lungs left to scream with, looking up into the eyes she had once loved so much, the stinging needle settled itself into the place by her heart. What Daniel had given her was now taken away. "Danny." She mumbled as her eyes closed and her body lay still below her Master's brother.

Somewhere, back there, beyond the pain and the cold, beyond the numbness and fear, there was a voice.

Calla opened her eyes and looked up as the needle was removed; David capped it and put it back into his special bag of tricks. "There now, that's better, isn't it?" He teased. "Poor little Goddess, all her power is gone now." David slid his belt open and freed his hard cock. "All of her hope is gone."

"Only Danny." She whispered as she felt him settle over her once more.

"Look at me." David shook her jaw until her eyes opened again and she was staring into his eyes

Danny's eyes

"Say it, now."

Daniel's voice ringing in her mind and his eyes staring back at her those terribly cold and angry eyes.

In one merciless action he pinned her knees to her shoulders, and thrust himself deep inside of her.

Daniel kept his eyes shut tight and drew in a hard breath when the pain began in his lower regions. Teal'c voice in his mind, telling him he was just a by-stander and that's all, he tried desperately to keep hold of that thought as he reached out to her. It was so horrendously difficult to push past the pain and overriding sense of fear. Daniel swore that for the rest of his life he would never again say anything about ‘natural selection’ or ‘survival of the fittest’, rape was rape; it didn’t matter when it happened, it was wrong and it was brutal.

Just a by-stander. Not really there. Just watching.

There was no reply to his plea but Daniel felt himself being pulled away from the car, away from where he sat moving at a snail’s pace down the four lane highway. Everything around him was quiet and still, no one screamed.

As though he were sitting in the last balcony row, the lights around him dimmed, it seemed as though he could see a pair of heavy red velvet curtains part, the lights on the screen came up. Only this time when they did, he was no longer sitting in the balcony but was part of a Major Motion Picture.

Wherever this very strange movie was being filmed, it was dreadfully cold. Wind which should have been outside was not, it howled through the open windows and plasterless walls around him. It smelled old and rotten in this place, the pervasive sense of being watched clung to him and he could not shake it. Daniel began to walk down the corridor in front of him; it was lined with windows which were nothing more than sharp shards of glass clinging to life. The wind howled and the snow drifted in.

She was here, somewhere in this dismal place, Daniel could feel her and he needed only to follow his feet in order to find her, he let them lead the way. There was a voice coming from the end of the hallway, a familiar voice. “Look at me! Say it!” It said. Daniel recognized the voice as his own but with a heavy southern accent. Hesitantly he peered into the doorway to behold the sight of David pinning a broken, bleeding and bonded Calla to the floor, he was inside of her, brutalizing her, raping her. Calla did not cry out, just as he always knew she would not. All those nights he had held himself back from the dark thoughts in his mind, back from doing things like this to her. David? No, not David. He was clearly enjoying himself. Daniel's legs grew more unsteady with each step he took towards where she lay on the floor looking up at his brother and seeing Daniel's face. Her arms were held up behind her head by a pair of handcuffs and length of rope, David had offered her no slack. They stretched her wounded shoulder past the breaking point. Rough hands on her knees pitched their weight forward and pushed her own weight ruthlessly onto her chest, it became so very hard to breathe. The knee which faced him was badly distorted and he could see the bone jutting from it. There was blood everywhere. There were pools of it at her head, her side, and her leg. Still, she fought against him as best she could. Her body wriggled as she pulled at the restraints on her wrists and tried to use her good leg to push him away from her. David smiled with delight as he pushed harder inside of her and pulled her body closer to him, further away from the radiator, the handcuffs bit into her wrists.

Danny? Her voice was small and hurt.

Shhhh. I’m here. Daniel brought his hand down over her eyes to close them and keep her from staring at David any longer. Don’t look at him, Calla. It was such an incredibly selfish thing to say to her but it was the first thing which came to his mind as he looked on the scene, even Daniel saw himself over her and not David. What and who was she seeing there? Please, don’t look at him. But Daniel did, he took a very long and hard look at his brother. “I’m gonna rip your throat out, Davy.” Daniel muttered as they drove down the road.

O’Neill looked over at him and reached out to him. “Do not touch him, O’Neill, “ Teal’c said, “he has found her. Leave him be.”

Both in the car and his mind, Daniel reached out with both hands to grab his brother and missed. It seemed that in both places he had no power, he was only a by-stander. He had felt the iciness of her skin when he closed her eyes. Guilt and grief in his heart, Daniel reached down to touch her again and she was cold, oh so very cold. Her eyes opened and she looked up at him, the pain in her eyes was unbearable, Daniel reached out to close them again. He could do nothing to stop what David was doing to her but he could offer her comfort and hope. In his mind, Daniel settled himself on the long forgotten floor and held her as close to himself as he could.

In the car his arms reached out and he brought a non-existent woman close to his heart. Daniel’s hand moved slowly up and down from his neck to chest, as though he were stroking her head.

I’m coming, I’m so close to you. Hold on. Was he really going to tell her this? It seemed so wrong. Don’t fight anymore, Calla. Please don’t fight him anymore, you’re too weak.

It was Daniel’s voice in her head, he was alive. With her eyes closed Calla could see Daniel, he was sitting next to her, and his eyes were not cold or angry but shining and warm, welcoming her to him as he brought her close to him even though his brother was doing such terrible things to her, Daniel still brought her close to her until she rested with her bleeding back against his chest and she could hear his heart beating.

thum-thumpa-thump-thump

Shhh. Listen. Daniel whispered. Listen to the sound of my heart.

Above her, with his rage far beyond his control, David continued his savage thrusting and brualizing of the woman his brother loved.

It hurts. He's hurting me. Calla cried softly in Daniel’s arms.

I know, he began to rock her slowly back and forth. Daniel had never felt so helpless in his life, not even when he watched the cover-stone fall on his parents had he felt so powerless. The only thing he could do was to hold her and watch while David ruthlessly thrust himself in and out of her. I know. Give it to me, Calla, all of it, give it to me. I’m strong, I can take it. Please, give it over to me. It won’t hurt anymore. Daniel looked over at his brother and saw the expression on his face, the clenched teeth and his eyes rolling back in his head. He can’t hold out much longer, Daniel thought as he brought her as close as he could. Christ, just fucking cum, Davey! Leave her alone!

I want to go home. Calla pleaded as her body began to give up its fight. Daniel was right, there was no fight left in her but she did not want to surrender to Master David, to give in to him and let him…..

Master David was pulling out of her now and for one brief moment she thought he was done with her and that it was over and then his arms reached down and toward her pelvis and she felt the excruciating pain of being split in two as David forced his fist inside her. “How ya like that one, Callie?” He sneered with delight.

“Someone stop him, oh please, someone stop him.” Daniel begged in a hushed whisper.

“You got something that I’ve just been itchin’ to get me a taste of, you know that?” David shoved his fist deeper into her. yes, something more than merely sweet. Something new. Some place his brother had yet to avail himself to. “Turn over, bitch.”

“No.” Calla moaned helplessly. “Please, only for Daniel. Only Daniel.”

“Only David.” He corrected with harshness. “Mine now, Danny’s not coming back.” David pulled his fist from her cunt and turned over onto her stomach, shards of glass bit into her cheek and breasts as he brought her ass up high in the air and re-inserted his fist into her aching throbbing hole. “Got me some toys, Callie, but, ah, they can wait a minute.” David’s hard throbbing cock split her ass while his fist continued its work.

“No!” Daniel screamed and opened his eyes. “Oh, God! Someone has got to stop him!”

“We will, Daniel, just stay with her.” Sam said from the back seat as she put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

Yes, that’s what he should be telling her. Stay with me, Calla. She whimpered to his request and offer of comfort. I’ll bring you home soon. I promise. Daniel wrapped his arms around her, in this position; Daniel could hold her as close as he wanted to, as close as she needed him to. Just listen to my heart. I love you, I’ll bring you home soon. At his promise he felt her go limp in his arms and watched the look of disappointment which crossed his brother’s face as she stopped squirming beneath him. Daniel sat there with her in his arms watching David (himself) attack Calla with viscous force, his own tears ran down his cheeks as he held her as close as he possibly could to himself trying to shield her to bring her away to some place safe, some place where David couldn't touch her anymore. That’s it, just give it to me. I love you and nothing he does will ever change that, Calla. I love you. Don't fight him anymore.

There was a new sensation coming to him now, no longer was he in the car nor in this cold place but he felt as though he were fading away. Fading off to some place else but there was something he had to do before he could go there. Daniel opened his eyes and looked around again. There was an odd shadow cast across the beleaguered floor, across the room were old metal frame beds which had no mattress upon them. He looked to the moonlight coming through the open windows. The windows were not open, they were broken, shattered in fact. Those strange shadows were coming from the bars across the broken glass.

“Why are there bars on the windows?”

“Get Hammond on the phone, see if he’s gotten anywhere with that abandoned building theory of Daniels.” O’Neill demanded as he drove down the highway.

There were no bars on the windows now, in fact there were no windows. No, today the sun was bright and warm and Daniel was walking alone on a little used path in the woods. Birds sang over head as they flew to their nests, in the bushes small animals hunted for food or jumped around at play. As he rounded a bend there was a woman lying on the path. Daniel bent and turned her over lightly. Calla. Her face was swollen and bruised, her arm hung useless at her side. Daniel scooped her in his arms and walked down the path looking for help. He passed no one and the sky overhead began to darken with rain clouds.

“I’m going to find some....” he looked down at the woman he was carrying but she was no longer a woman, she was a girl of about eighteen or so and her face was no longer swollen and bruised. There was fresh blood on the flimsy gauze dress as though she had unexpectedly had a rather large period. But that was not where that blood had come from. Daniel kissed the top of her head and continued his journey down the path which was becoming increasingly overgrown and difficult to walk. The first of the rains began to fall and he noticed that the burden in his arms had become exceedingly lighter than it had been. Daniel looked down once more to see the same girl he had met at the mall so many years ago and the one had seen in his dream just last night laying helpless in his arms. She was not bloody, she was not bruised or battered but the fear coming from her could be felt for miles around.

Fresh rain water soaked both of them through to the skin thunder rang out overhead as lightning ignited the sky a brilliant electric purple, before the path cleared itself of weeds and rocks. The torrential rain ceased to fall but the thunder rolled and the lightning continued to flash, Daniel came to an altar beside which stood people. One was Aphrodite; she stood there with anticipation on her face, her honey-blonde hair swept away from her hear-shaped face. The other made Daniel’s blood run cold, he held the small girl close to himself and refused to lay her upon the altar.

“Colonel we got it! The Norwich State Hospital, it’s an abandoned mental facility and it’s right across the river from the Mohegan Sun Casino.” Major Carter exclaimed from the back seat as she relayed the news she was receiving from General Hammond. “You’re kidding?!” She exclaimed. “Sorry, sir. Is that right?” She waited for a moment for his response. “Yes, got it, thank you sir. I’ll let you know when this is over.” She clicked off the phone and leaned over the front seat. Daniel was sitting calmly with his head resting against the glass, his eyes closed and he looked as though he were sleeping if it weren’t for the incessant way his hand kept stroking the air above his chest and the tears spilling effortlessly down his cheeks. “All right, here’s the bad news.” She began. “Looks like it’s a complex of roughly twenty buildings. The whole place is abandoned and has been for about ten years.” She dropped her voice low. “It’s an old asylum. From what General Hammond was telling me it’s like a small city unto itself. How we are going to find her in that?”

“We’re not,” Jack informed her, “he is.” They passed by the sign which read Mohegan Sun Boulevard This Exit and crossed the Thames River.

End Chapter Twenty-Five
Daughter of the Gods: Every New Beginning
By Moon Mistress
Continue to
Chapter Twenty-Six

This story and all stories in the Kingdom of the Gods & Daughter of the Gods series are copyrighted to Lisa Beth Darling these stories may not be transferred outside of this URL in any fashion.