Sylar Syndrome
Chapter Seven
This time Claire picked the door. They stepped into a quiet apartment living room. Plastic decorated the floral furniture and hundreds of books and snow globes lined the shelves.
"Where the hell are we?" Claire asked picking up one of the globes, shaking it up and watching the white glitter swirl around.
"My nightmare," Sylar said darkly.
Claire turned to open the door again but they weren't allowed to leave so easily this time. The door had disappeared. There was only a solid wall to greet her.
"Can't you just tell me I'm special?"
"What?" Claire turned around to see Sylar, his appearance changed. He was now wearing slacks with a gray sweater over his button up shirt, heavy black rimmed glasses and neatly slicked back hair. She looked down and found herself holding a long pair of shiny scissors where the snow globe had been.
"Oh, God."
"Can't you just tell me that I'm special? That I can be an ordinary watch maker? Isn't that enough?"
"Why would I tell you that, when you can be so much more…" She didn't want to say the words. Something had crawled inside of her and was forcing her actions.
Sylar rushed up to her, grabbing the scissors. They struggled against each other for control of the situation for a minute before Claire jerked hard on the shearing implement, bringing Sylar with them and plunging the twin blades deep into her own chest.
Sylar backed away, horrified at what had just happened. She looked down, shocked to see only the end of the handle still sticking out. Blood was flowing from the wound and coated her hands as she tried to pull the scissors out. Sylar went into shock as she fell to the floor, her eyes glazing over.
He was screaming and pulling at his hair when she started breathing again. With a long gasp for precious air she removed the scissors and watched the mortal wound close. She got to her feet and tossed them clattering across the floor away from her.
"Sylar?" He had his back turned to her, retching with dry heaves. She put a hand on his shoulder. "Sylar, it's okay. It's not real, remember?"
When he turned to face her he was beginning to change the same way Peter had. Blackness was flooding into his eyes, turning them psychotic and dead.
"Sylar, please don't do this. Not now…"
He flicked his wrist at her, sending her flying into the wall, helplessly pinned against it. Dark veins started to appear around his temples and down his neck, pulsating with black energy.
"Sylar… It's me… It's Claire. You don't want to hurt me," she whimpered.
"I know exactly who you are, Claire Bennett. I've been inside of you, remember?" A twisted smile spread across his face and he caressed hers, trailing his fingers down her neck and tracing her collar bone. When buttons started to fly off of her shirt exposing the skin beneath she concentrated on making it all stop.
Her shield started to appear. The rippling energy coursed over her body providing a barrier between her and Sylar.
"You want to play? Alright, let's play and get this over with." She pointed the glowing energy at him and pushed it away from her. He was knocked back across the room, doing a somersault for a landing. She was instantly released from her space on the wall.
"Neat trick cheerleader," Sylar said, jumping to his feet with a wicked sneer. He levitated a few of the snow globes from the shelves and sent them spiraling towards her. Claire deflected them all. He started pulling knives and anything else sharp that he could find in the drawers with his mind, pitching them all at her relentlessly.
All of the projectiles crashed into her shield, denting it, refusing to let go of their target. She pushed her hands out in front of her concentrating harder, brows furrowed, a drop of sweat formed near her hair line. She willed the force field to send the weapons away, back to their owner.
Now Sylar was the one nailed to the wall. He wriggled and squirmed, spouting profanities. One of the knives keeping his shoulder and the wall connected started to slip out. Claire ran over and jammed it back in with the heel of her hand.
"Sylar," she said placing her hands on his face, looking him in the eyes. "You can fight this. You can make it go away. You're stronger than this."
"There's something you're right about. I am stronger than this." He ripped his arms loose and landed a direct punch. Claire was pounded into the floor. Her left eye went blank as the bone above it was crunched down.
Pulling a knife out of his leg, Sylar aimed an angled kick at Claire. She bounced into the air where he grabbed her and brought spine down hard over his knee. A bleeding and battered Claire rolled over the floor, struggling to breathe, groaning in pain.
Sylar came for her again positioning himself to stomp on the back of her neck and finish her off. She could feel him hovering over her and she tensed in preparation for the next blow but it never came. Claire chanced a looked at him.
He was just standing there with his eyes scrunched shut and his fists curled at this temples. There seemed to be some kind of internal power struggle going on.
Claire climbed to her feet, drawn to him. She was compelled to take his hands, letting them unclench naturally and she placed them around her, snaking her own arms around his waist. She placed her head on his chest and listened to the erratic beating of his heart.
"Gabrielle, I need you."
His eyes opened, suddenly void of possession. He kissed the top of her head and smoothed her hair out of her face. She was so warm.
Claire started to pull herself from the embrace but thought better of it. She reached up and grabbed his face bringing his lips to hers. The kiss was eager, hungry. She did need him.
Electricity shot from his fingers. Adrenaline flooded his veins. Their hearts were beating so fast, body temperatures rising. She broke from the kiss to trail her lips down his neck and back up again.
"Tell me you need me," she whispered into his ear.
"I always need you."
"Tell me you want me."
"I'll always want you."
Sylar lifted her up into his arms, moving over to the kitchen counter, sweeping off the knick knacks with a subtle wave of his hand. He placed her on the surface, wrapping her legs around his waist and pulled her into him. He kissed her neck, elated in her heavy excited breathing. Objects started to fly around the room of their own accord, crashing into the walls. A whirlwind vortex surrounded them, enclosing them in their own little world.
She nibbled at his ear and he slid his finger down her shirt, undoing what few buttons were left. He kissed her collar bone, trailing his lips down to her stomach. She slipped her hands under his shirt and violently tore it off his back.
She gyrated her hips, grinding into him and he couldn't hold down a moan of pleasure. He ran a hand up her leg and the small of her back, holding her as close as possible. Her skin was so warm and soft against his.
He wanted to kiss every inch of her. He wanted to smother her in his bottled up affections. He was blinded by the heart bursting joy that she wanted him as well and consumed by primal urges to physically express himself. She unbuttoned the top of his pants.
But it was all wrong.
"Not like this," he whispered, crushing his own moment of happiness. He started to pull away but she grabbed the back of his head, twisting her fingers through his hair and forced their mouths to meet again.
He did want her. Badly. But this wasn't the way he wanted it to go… And certainly not on a replica of his dead mother's kitchen counter. The telekinetic winds died down and everything that was caught up in it fell crashing to the floor.
"Not like this," he whispered again accepting a few more pecks.
He unlocked her legs from around him and stepped back looking deep in to her eyes. To bad the time and place weren't the only things wrong.
Claire drove a knife deep into his gut with a vicious twist and an evil grin. Her eyes were blacker than death and dark veins spread across her chest and down her arms. Sylar felt his heart breaking into a thousand pieces realizing that nothing that had just happened had been real.
"What's wrong lover?" she said pulling the knife out and licking the edge of it.
"What the hell are you?" Sylar stumbled back as Claire landed a kick at the fresh stab wound. He went reeling to the floor. Claire straddled him, dipping in to drop a rough kiss and bit his lip. He turned his face away, unable to look at her.
"Oh, come on. I'm still ready to go." She rubbed her body against his, grinding her hips into him and biting his neck.
"Do you make it a habit to leave a girl unsatisfied?"
"You're not her."
The fire reignited inside him. He slammed her into the ceiling with his mind and dropped her to the floor with a heavy thud. He repeated the process a few times before pinning her down. Claire's body laughed hysterically.
"What exactly do you think you're going to do to me? Hmm? Anything you can do to hurt this body is only going to heal. And even if you do manage to cause some permanent damage, you'll just be killing the one you love."
"I'd rather see her dead than watch you crawl around inside her." Sylar blasted away at her with every ounce of voltage he could.
"Somebody's jealous!" Her sweet voice taunted him between giggles.
Sylar changed tactics and began freezing the floor and wall around her until she was a solid block of ice. He crossed over and placed a hand on her chilled face. Her eyes glistened at him.
"I'm sorry," he said kissing her frozen lips one last time. He walked away, charging a ball of radio active matter in his eyes. He turned and released it. The ice shattered with a deafening crash, spilling over the floor to his feet.
It was to his horror though that Claire's form had remained untouched, protected by the rippling black wall of her shield. She wagged a finger at him, shaking her head.
"My turn."
She bridged the gap between them at full speed, leaping into the air and connecting a super powered fist to the top of his head. He collapsed only for her to pick him up and hurl him at the wall. Dust clouded the air as a support beam snapped in half.
Her black shield formed into a wall of spikes that crushed and gored him against the wall. He cried out in agony and the sound only provoked her more. She grabbed him by the ankles and swung his body over her head and back into the floor like a rag doll.
"I've been looking for someone to play with for so long now. All of my other toys broke to easily so when I heard about the super heroes out there I actually found myself getting excited," she knelt down to put her face right next to his. "But if this is the best they have to offer… I have to say that I'm a little disappointed."
Sylar spit blood on the floor at her feet. "Just tell me one thing."
Claire's head cocked to the side, seemingly amused by this turn of the game.
"I knew she hated me… But could she have ever loved me?"
The creature inhabiting Claire's mind contorted her face in the deep thought, searching for the answer.
"There was potential."
Sylar smirked.
"Then that's enough." He bounded to his feet and mustered every joule of voltage he could and started tearing away at the shield.
She was knocked away, stunned for a moment by the shear amount of power he was dumping on her. The force field absorbed it all, beginning to glow from a dull orange, to a vibrant red, and finally a white hot. Claire's hands pushed out in front of her and strained to control the energy. Her eyebrows furrowed, sweat poured down her neck, and blood slowly trickled from her nose. Her skin started to peel away from her arms under the intense heat and pressure.
Sylar's knees buckled from beneath him. He too began to burn from the massive energies pouring out of him. They were both dying now.
Claire's shield finally hit the point of maximum overload just as Sylar's body gave out and he slumped back against the wall. He watched as the dark field of energy started to break apart. A blinding white light radiated outward from the center, consuming the shadows. All of the energies were released and the blast wave sent Sylar crunching through the wall and the next one and the next one.
