Pandora's Box

[lit_gal]

A long time ago, I wrote Ad Libitum. ONE,  TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN

This is the sequel

Pandora's Box.
Jim/Blair, Alex/Naomi
Prompt: Silence is a great healer
( Chapters 1-3 )   ( Chapter four )  ( Chapter Five )  ( Chapter 6 )

We're moving into the straight Jim/Blair section of the story. After all, Naomi and Alex lost. Of course, they may pop up again because you know Naomi is not going to just fade off into the sunset.  However, In Ad Libitum, a number of things didn't happen. Blair didn't die in the fountain. Jim and Alex didn't fight. Jim didn't go to the temple.  Well, the universe has certain things that it wants, and the universe is going to get what the universe wants. And honestly.... the universe really doesn't care much about what Jim or Blair really want.


~7~

Blair felt his whole body relax into the water, and he seriously questioned why he’d ever hesitated getting in. Muscles relaxed and the gentle lapping of water against the stone ledge lulled him into a half sleep. Blair considered asking Jim if he was okay, but he was too relaxed to bother. A distant part of Blair's brain wondered if there was something more interesting than water in these pools. If there was, he really should check on Jim.

“He will be fine. Enquiri is strong, and he knows where his heart is.” Incacha walked out from the mist. Blair frowned, because he didn't remember there being mist. But then he didn't remember the forest either.

“In his chest,” Blair said. He reached up to put his hand over his own heart. He quickly put his hand back so he could cover himself. Flashing the dead guy felt wrong.

“No, that is not where you find your heart.” Incacha vanished into the mist.

“Ooookay.” Blair looked around. “Man, there are some seriously good drugs in here. Jim, maybe we shouldn’t be doing this,” Blair suggested. The mist started moving at him, the swirls and soft curves turning to straight lines as a wind sent it hurling at him. Okay, this is not good. “Jim, seriously, we need to get out of here.” Blair waited for the pull on his arm, for some sign that Jim was going to get them out of this trouble. Instead, the wind blew harder.

Images started appearing in the mist. Simon fell, the sound of a gunshot cracked through the air. A formation of jets streaked through the sky. A man covered his ears with his hands, crouched in the corner. Blair's gut told him this was a Sentinel, but not one that Blair knew. Jim stood with his hands raised, his eyes wide with panic. A hospital with dirty windows in a dirty city, and a man’s hand pressed against the pane as though trying to get out. The images spun past him so fast that Blair flinched from one to another, unable to really focus enough to get any details.

“Jim!” Blair bellowed out. An image of Jim approached him, Jim with mountain pines behind him.

“Sandburg, this could go incredibly bad,” Jim said as he looked around, his arms crossed. The mountain was chilly enough that every breath caused a puff of white air so that Jim looked a little like a dragon who couldn’t get his fire going. Blair wanted to chuckle at the thought. Jim turned toward him, and Blair thought maybe he had chuckled. Jim was not a fan of getting laughed at.

“Always the optimist, Chief.” Jim sounded like he was answering, but Blair definitely hadn’t said anything. He looked around in confusion. A stone jaguar from the temple stood in the middle of a clearing that was definitely part of the Cascade Mountains.

“We’ll see,” Jim said. He reached out to ruffle Blair’s hair, and Blair seemed to come unmoored from reality. The mist spun around him, and then the wind started again. The mist grew thicker and thicker until Blair struggled to breathe. His lungs burned.

“Sweetie, remember what I told you?” Naomi asked. “Silence is the great teacher. Listen to the silence.”

Blair opened his mouth to tell Naomi exactly what he thought of her advice. Or maybe he was going to call for help again. He didn't have a chance to do either. His chest seemed constrict and his heart pounded dangerously fast. Panting for breath, he waved his hands through the mist, struggling to find Jim. He groped like a blind man, his heart the drumbeat that drove him on. However, Jim was nowhere to be found.

And then, silence. Perfect silence.

Slowly, Blair opened his eyes. The Cascade Mountains and forest were gone, and he was back in Mexico. Birds flew through the air silently. Not even their wing beats made a sound in this perfectly still jungle. A wolf sat at the base of one of the jaguar pillars.

“You're a long way from home, boy.” Blair could feel his mouth work and his tongue form the words, but he couldn't hear anything. This trip was getting a little out there, even for him. A movement caught his eye, and he looked left to see a black jaguar pad silently through the trees. The wolf looked over at it, his tongue hanging out. Blair thought he was about to see the Technicolor version of Wild Kingdom. He really didn't want to see that, especially since the wolf was no match for a jaguar. He might eat meat, but he was man enough to admit that he was a hypocrite when it came to seeing animals die. He didn't want to. He could eat hamburger and avoid thinking about slaughterhouses without ever having the cognitive dissonance Naomi liked to warn about.

The jaguar stopped at the edge of the clearing, his blue eyes settling on Blair.

“Freaky,” Blair said, his voice still silent.

The cat lay down, and even with the sound turned off, Blair could see that the animal was distressed. He went to move closer, but a pain in his chest made him fall to his knees. He clutched his chest and cursed and funny enough, cursing didn’t feel as good when the silence absorbed all the fury and sound. Desperate to end the pain, Blair looked around. Who knows what he expected to find, but the way his dreams had been going, he was hoping for an emergency room tucked between two cypress trees.

Instead, he saw Naomi sitting in a bench, her back to him. It was a small church with a cross hung over the pulpit and stained glass windows with roses. He remembered this church. Even as the memory returned, the fog parted to show the couple at the altar with the baby. In about thirty minutes, his mother was about to give an eight-year-old Blair a lecture on water symbolism that turned into an explanation of birth waters, which became a discussion of how babies got into a woman. He’d been traumatized. Why was he remembering this now?

Blair looked over, and the wolf was panting hard, its tongue hanging out. Birthwaters. Life and death. Beginnings and endings. Blair pressed a hand against his chest and held his breath. Nothing. His heart wasn’t beating. When people died in their dreams, it was never a good sign. Never. But death often meant rebirth. In the tarot, the death card brought change, and water symbolized both death and life.

So, was he dreaming of death or life?

The jaguar stood and roared into the sky, all his white teeth showing even though silence muted his voice.

“Unhappy kitty,” Blair said. Unhappy kitty with blue eyes. Okay, so that was Jim. Blair looked over at the wolf. Wolves symbolized evil in the middle ages, but those people had so many hang-ups, Blair seriously hoped his subconscious wasn’t going to take that as any sort of source reference. Wolves in mythology suckled abandoned children and were associated with Lupa, goddess of midwifery. They were pack animals, loyal to a home pack until biology drove them out to become lone wolves until they found a mating pack. Blair could see the symbolism there. Maybe his dream wanted to tell him to let go of his ties with Naomi and stay loyal to Jim. He’d already pretty much decided that on his own. In some Native Peoples, the wolf was the teacher of new ideas, but in others, he was the trickster.

Incacha rose from the mist beside Blair. “Choose, young shaman, or forfeit your Sentinel.”

“Choose what?” While Incacha had found his voice, Blair was still silent.

“Life or death. The waters offer both, but if you remain here too much longer, lost in your own thoughts, you will forfeit your choice.”

“What?” Blair felt panic roll through him. With no evidence to support his assumption, he assumed Incacha knew exactly what he was talking about. “I choose life. I choose Jim. Man, the mysteries of a dream are totally unimportant compared to him,” Blair shouted as loud as he could. Silence still filled the air, pressing down on him. Blair was still on his knees, and his chest still hurt, and he still couldn’t feel his heart beating. What was he supposed to do? He’d chosen, so what else was he supposed to do?

Incacha looked down at him, no help there. The jaguar screamed silently into the air, and Blair looked over at the wolf. It was still panting, still in pain. “Go,” Blair yelled at it. When his word actually made a sound, he startled himself so badly that he fell onto his back. However, that got the wolf moving. It started to run toward the jaguar. The cat bounded forward, and the two animals met mid-leap, joining in and enormous flash that pressed Blair flat onto his back.

“Breath, Chief. Don’t you fucking die on me. Do you hear me? I will fucking follow you and strangle you with your own fucking pony tail.” Jim’s voice was rough, the sort of tone he used when his tightly controlled emotions slipped out of his control.

Coughing, Blair tried to lift his hands only to find them too weak. His heart still ached painfully. “Blair?”

Blair opened his eyes, and even the dim light inside the temple made them water. However, unless he was seeing things, Jim was crying. He was full-on crying. He was tears-flowing-down-his-face-and-he-doesn’t-even-care crying. Blair frowned as he tried to put the pieces of reality back together.

“Just keep breathing,” Jim practically begged him. Reaching over, Jim grabbed something soft and shoved it under Blair’s head. “Just breathe, Chief. We can figure the rest out if you just breathe, okay? Don’t stop breathing.”

“Good plan,” Blair said. He tried to say it, anyway. He was pretty sure the ‘G’ and the ‘P’ came out, but the rest sort of slurred together.

“Shhhh. Just focus on breathing. Keep that heart of yours beating for me, Chief. And when I find your mother, I’m going to strangle her and dump her body where no one can find her.”

Blair could feel his heart start to pound a little faster.

“Hey, calm down. I’m not serious,” Jim said, and he almost sounded like he meant it. However, Jim had that clenched jaw expression that meant he really wanted to hurt someone. “I’m just frustrated that she didn’t warn us. No way could she have been down here for all this time without knowing. I’m so sorry, Chief. I lived with the Chopec. I should have recognized the wall art.”

Blair’s eyes darted to the wall, but he couldn’t see anything, and Jim was not making much sense.

“Just keep calm. We’ll get you out of here. Somehow. It’s just important for you to recover.”

Blair didn’t know exactly what he was recovering from, but the desperation in Jim voice was definitely freaking him out. Forcing his body to respond, Blair lifted his hand the two inches it took to grab at Jim. “You need something?” Jim asked, his blue eyes immediately focusing on Blair as Jim leaned close.

“Wha… ha…ned.” Even that much drained every ounce of energy. Luckily, Jim was skilled at translating mumble.

“It was a ceremony, Blair. The water, it was more dangerous for you because you’re the shaman, and it sucked you in. Shit. It’s my fault, Blair. I should have been sitting next to you, guarding you, not off looking at the crazy pictures in my head. I’m so sorry.”

Blair rolled his eyes at Jim’s ability to blame himself for anything. No way could he have known. Now his mother…. Blair thought about how she’d looked at the water. She’d known something. Blair’s eyes slid closed and he could feel sleep pull at him.