Part 3: Blood and Water
"Mommy…I hafta peeee." The last word was stretched out for emphasis. Lucia pulled on my ear to get me to wake up. My eyes felt like two pieces of sandpaper as my eyelids slid slowly open. I rubbed my temple with one hand. I didn't understand what I'd just seen. What were his memories doing in my head? Were they his or was it just some dream sent to plague me with these thoughts?? I knew that it could only be his thoughts.
"Moooommmmmmy!!" Lucia balled
her hands together and did the pee pee dance. "I have to peeeeeeee!"
The consequence of giving her a glass of water earlier was to get up about
two hours later and take her to the poddy. There was no rest for
the wary. I shook my head to try and keep the dream clear in my mind.
I HAD to remember it. I knew it was important. He was trying
to tell me something. He was trying to lead me to him. I took
Lucia's hand and led her to the bathroom. After she was done, she
hugged me and trotted off to bed. I shut the light off and my body
went in auto mode to find a place to go back to sleep. It was too
much for my brain to try and sort out. It needed the rest.
I collapsed wherever and returned immediately back to sleep.
* * *
It was a regular day, just like hundreds of others. Wake up, dress, shower, watch the tech channel, make a salad. But things were different than before. Ever since Phantom left that one time I refused him, I'd taken residence in his apartment, basically making it my own. Half my slag was moved into a back room already. Boy he would be mad when he found it all here, the elf paraphanalia, the underwear, the cheap stripper's clothes, and all the comic books. If he came back. I just couldn't stand to live with Nat anymore. It was too much stress. I had nowhere else to go but here. Now she had her own children. She had her own life, and I didn't feel like a part of it anymore. I figured I'd leave her to her own harmony. She had someone else to look after her now.
And…it made me sick to see them together.
But somehow I was convinced by Nat and her new sasquatch of a husband, Ghost, to come here…to the NAN. Native American Nation. It was pleasant despite my hesitation. Everyone was here, even people we'd only Ran with a couple times. Neo I remembered, he was the friendly combat mage we met a while back. There was an Orc here too, who I finally recognized from before. He was the Orc who tried to approach us in the alley, who got us involved with that gang incident a while back. I wasn't too happy to be around him when I did recognize him, but he turned out to be somewhat nice for an Orc. His name was Rav. We all sat around the table telling exaggerated stories about our Runs and dirty jokes, while Ghost made some soy burgers on the grill. I found it best to keep my attention on the conversation. Rav actually made me laugh a couple of times.
Things were actually peaceful. It was a pleasant fiction.
Suddenly there was an explosion that had us all up in our seats. Orange heat flared around us, scraping our faces. Gunfire rang out from nowhere at all making us instinctively duck and cling to the ground. Nat ripped open the back of the Sedan and threw us what weapons we'd brought. To me, my sword and submachine gun, to everyone else, handguns and rifles. Even on vacation, we were locked and loaded by force of habit. Gunfire exploded around us again, ringing loudly in my ears. I scanned the area, the heat of the explosion flickering brightly in my thermoptic vision, and found nothing. The gunfire intensified, pressing us back into the forest. I retreated with the others back into the trees of the NAN. It was the only direction to flee in.
The night animals buzzed and chirped around us as we pressed deeper into the foliage. I kept a hand on Neo's arm so he wouldn't lose his way. He was the only one of us not wired like a toaster oven. It was a lovely night in the reserve. I knew we could never have a decent vacation. It was pissing me off. Could Aurora have a moment of peace?? Noooo…the Gods must hate me. I saw Nat wave to me in my night vision. All Clear. Then I saw Rav stop in front of us. He saw something up ahead. I creeped up beside him, hugging the bushes. There was a clearing up ahead with a Panzer parked in the center of it. Around it little green lights danced and bobbed strangely in the night vision. I switched to thermo and magnified the area within my vision. I dawned on me that the lights were the nodes to figures that were walking away from the hovercraft. We waited till it was all clear. We crept ever closer to the clearing to inspect it. It was too quiet. The bugs had stopped buzzing. My hands twitched slightly a couple times as I activated my wired reflexes. My fingers tightened on the grip of my submac.
The loud voice of a man nearly made me jump out of my skin.
"Come out…surrender now." I scanned the area for a source, but could just barely make out the hefty figure of the man standing near the craft. It was too dark and my headware couldn't seem to lock onto his heat signature. He seemed muffled on night vision. They had to have some kind of stealth. If they were around us, we couldn't see them. I had that sudden sinking feeling I'd had for months. Something told me they were all around us, waiting to strike. What choice was left? I hate compliance.
I let the gun loosen in my grip and swing around to dangle by my index finger. Maybe if they figured us as noncombatant and we told them we did not mean to trespass in this area, they'd let us go? "Don't shoot!" I said as I walked out into the clearing, arms held high over my head, the submac dangling like an ornament. Before I reached the clearing, something the man said made me stop in my tracks.
"Come out, my Little Butterfly."
It couldn't be. I started to swing the gun around in my hand, my fingers tightening in the grip. My arm was suddenly wrenched and twisted behind me. I grunted in pain and squirmed around to see who my aggressor was. I only caught a glimpse, but that was enough to make my blood run cold. It just couldn't be. That face, I'd feared it all my life. I'd feared the smile and the curves of it that were carved into my memory. Yet there it was, jaded and pasty white….dead. A black, lifeless tongue emerged from his mouth and brushed the skin of my neck. It dragged across the nape of my neck in a perverse kiss. I screamed and tried to rip away from the ghost, the monster. I'd killed him!! He was dead!! I KILLED HIM!!! He twisted my arm again and half dragged, half threw me against the side of the Panzer. My face crunched against the metal, deadening my screams of fury and confusion.
You don't understand. He was dead and I killed him!!! The thoughts kept repeating as my mind kept not comprehending how a dead man could walk, how a dead man could smile at me, how a dead man could throw me into the side of a hovercraft!!! I tried to bring my free arm up in a punch, but he yanked me back like a rag doll and bashed me against the side of the craft again and again and again, then let go of my arm. My head bounced back from it one last time as I slid to my knees, my lips sticking begrudgingly to the metal. My face slid down the side and I collapsed to my knees, my cheek leaving a crimson trail of blood down the black metal. Incomprehension still flittered through my tired brain as consciousness flickered in and out. Off and on I heard the screams of violence and a firefight. Off and on. He was dead because I killed him… My head fell slack against the cool metal. It was almost a welcome coolness, it felt nice against all the hot blood that I could feel on my face. Then I blacked out to the tattered sounds of screaming.
When I awoke, I had the strange sensation that I was standing up without using my legs. I rotated my head around in an effort to find the strength to open my eyes. I didn't want to unless it was to wake up from this dream. Finally they did open and I gazed upon another new horror.
It was Glenn. It couldn't have been him, but there he was, standing casually with one leg propped up on the back of the couch. We were in the cabin and he was just standing there smiling at me. His skin was pasty white, half of his face a black construct of metal and wiring. I remembered how he'd looked when the Lone Star had taken me into the morgue to identify his body. I'd seen him then, his body barely in one piece. I saw his face, a lifeless white tinged with the blue of death. I'd touched his skin and found it colder than the look he gave me now. David stood off behind him, that very same smile engraved upon his features. He was a hulking figure, like the one I'd known before, only pieced together with bits of black metal and wire. I prayed to God, if there was one, to just let me wake up. This was all some sick dream, some twisted nightmare.
I didn't wake up from it.
I found my self pinned by giant arms that were all too familiar. It was Ghost's arms. The conclave I felt against my back told me he had an immense hole in his chest, where once a steel beam had been impaled through it. All the ghosts of the dead seemed to gather around me. It had to be a dream, but it wasn't! I strained against Ghost's grip in an effort to release myself, but all my efforts proved useless. Glenn laughed at that, an empty, soulless laugh. He came close to me and put a clawed finger on my cheek. I winced as he pressed down and traced a bloody path along the tattoo that marked my jawline. Tears of anguish choked my vision. This couldn't be the Glenn I'd known, the sweet elf, my little brother, my best friend. I clutched hopelessly at something in my pocket. Glenn reached down and took it from my hand. It was the picture of me and him at the club, posing with drunken happy smiles that were lost now forever. The investigators had given it to me at the morgue. His glazed eyes concentrated on it for a moment before a voice not quite his spoke out.
"Ah..this…I will always keep it near to my heart." He crumpled the picture in his hand and then put it in his mouth. He chewed on it slowly then gulped it down without a word. My heart fell at that. If there was any humanity in him, it was lost at that moment. Ghost covered my mouth with one big loping hand to mute the yells of anger that emerged from within me. David approached me now, very entertained by all that had transpired. He stood face to face with me, looming just in front of my eyes.
"Ah how it is refreshing to see and hear you again, my Little Butterfly." He put a finger on my cheek, wiping some of the blood off. He sucked it grotesquely from his thumb and returned to smiling. "I've waited so long for this,…to see you again." He gave an unspoken order to the dead Ghost that held me and the behemoth began to squeeze the anger out of me with his great arms. I dug my claws into his skin with every bit of strength I could muster, but to little effect. I finally went limp as my body started to give way underneath the pressure. He finally released me and I fell into the waiting arms of David. He twirled me around before I could regain my composure and gripped my neck in a sleeper hold. He began to drag me across the room, my flailing legs knocking over lamps and crashing against table legs. I dug my heels across the carpeting in an effort to stop him as he dragged me up the stairs. His vice grip held and his other hand kept me from screaming. This just couldn't be happening. Let me wake up, please!
I fell to the ground hard as he dropped me, then quickly yanked my arm and tossed me into the room before I could stand. I crashed into a table, the edge of it digging into the small of my back. The door clicked as he locked it. I hurriedly rolled around and threw the table at him with all the anger that gave me strength. He swatted it aside like it was nothing. I frantically felt around for anything I can use, any weapon, anything that could save me as he advanced like a lion on a lamb. I grasped a lamp and sent it flying at him. The crystal shattered everywhere but still he came. I sent everything at him, the chair, the nightstand, the cheap books, the comm, but still he came. Finally, I broke off the bedpost and wielded it like a bat. I swung it at him foolishly and it splintered against his forearm. I threw the broken piece at him and tore off the other bedpost, which met the same fate. I looked around, the room was in pieces, there was nothing left to throw, nowhere else to run. I glared at David, ensnared and angered. I was an animal trapped in a corner.
I slid my hand razors out to their full extensions. I wasn't finished yet. And I'll be damned if I ever let him take control of me again!!! I clawed at him viciously, trying desperately to cut anything, to stop his advance anyway I knew how. He took the blows lightly and caught me by the arms. I jerked one free and clawed him across the half of his face not covered by black cybernetics. He stared at me dully for a few seconds, that same sadistic smile plastered on his face. I remember the last time I'd done that to him. It was the other side I'd raked with my fingernails, the side now covered by metal. Inhuman black blood oozed out of the wounds and dribbled down his face. The black ichor stuck to my blades. He regained his hold on my arm, shook me senseless and slammed me into the wall again. The white plaster crackled where I hit it, facefirst. I bounced off it and fell to all fours, ready to puke. My head was spinning from the trauma. Sour bile worked its way up from my bowels to my throat. I coughed heavily and brought a twitching hand up to my face. I could already feel it beginning to swell and bruise. Whatever blood was on my hands, most of it wasn't his.
In that instant, all the power I'd ever possessed over him when I killed him, all the freedom I thought I'd gained…. was gone. He raised me up by the neck, choking me, and then threw me across the room. I landed on the bed unevenly, beaten, broken…powerless. I choked on my own spit and blood, I began to weep and yell, but a hand came down on my throat and clamped it. David's pale face hovered over mine. He put a clawed finger to my lower lip and sliced it down the middle.
"Shhhh…." He whispered to me, his face ever the mask of a smile. He never liked it when I cried, that was the first rule I learned. I was choked quiet as he cut the light armor away from my body. My chapped lips moved in silent protest, but things were inevitable now. His weight pressed me down into the bed, and I shut my eyes as whatever cold organ he'd been recreated with penetrated my body. My mind reverted back into a pattern that'd been conditioned into it so long ago, over the years.
I was sixteen again, or fifteen, or fourteen, or thirteen. I was his special little doll, his private possession, his Little Butterfly. If he wanted my hair a certain way, it was cut and made that way. My flesh was manipulated however he wanted it to be. I was just a little doll; a little lump of clay cast out by the world and picked up by him. David would visit me at night after the other children were asleep. When it'd happen, I'd watch my soul fly up there on the ceiling with the peculiar shadows that were always cast there. I'd lie there and watch them flutter around like dark butterflies. My soul would dance around with them detached from my watching body. After he was finished he'd lie on top of me and talk to me, almost sweetly. I'd feel the rise and fall of his chest and hope that one day that breathing might suddenly stop.
"You are beautiful."
"Really?" My robotic answers always followed.
"Your hair, silk roses. Such beauty…"
"I never noticed."
"..never wasted. You'll always be mine. You're beautiful, just like those butterflies."
"Yes, I like them. They're pretty…"
My body arched against his in an effort to find escape, but found none. A wave of pleasurable pain passed through me, making my very soul shudder. My hands clenched tight, my own claws digging into my palms. I'd almost let myself slip into that pattern again. He'd uncovered my mouth, but now my screams were short and ragged. I was running out of breath to scream, out of the will to live. The nightmare still hadn't ended. I'd sworn to myself I'd never let it happen again, but it had. It had. It had… There was a crash and a yell, and I was suddenly free of his cold embrace. I laid there, dazed and almost lifeless till another body fell on me. This time it was Rav. He had somehow broken into the room and was trying to fight David. I had sense enough to kick him and spring off the bed. I was almost hyperventilating; I'd just about reached the borderline of total, delirious anger. My hands twitched with the adrenaline and the fury. The Orc was unconscious. David looked to me and saw the animal that peered out from within my eyes. I snapped my face towards him. He was never going to touch me again, one way or the other. He raised a gun and shot it. I heard a high-pitched whistling and noticed the dart sticking out of my arm. I quickly brushed it away, but the damage was done.
I slowly sank to the floor,
the carpeting feeling rough against my sensitive face. I gagged quietly
as the tranquilizer took effect. My fading vision caught David's
feet as he slowly walked towards me. My eyes rolled back into
my head and I fell into darkness once again.
Drip, drip, drip. It was a calming sound, methodical and simple. I listened to it for a while, unable to open my eyes. They were painfully swollen shut; I could feel the heated, aggravated, bruised skin around them.
Drip, drip, drip.
My body felt weightless and suspended. I was floating for what seemed like an eternity till I finally had the strength to force open my eyes. No sooner did I open them then I wish I hadn't.
Drip, drip, drip.
I watched the spreading pool of blood, morbidly fascinated until I realized it was my own. My toes barely scraped the ground as my hanging body dangled powerlessly. My arms were chained above me. I was hung up like a piece of meat. Trails of red life twisted around my ankles and trickled between my toes and onto the floor. Drip, drip, drip. I could barely see the words because of the darkness of the room I was in. They were carved into the skin, all over me. All over my legs, all over my stomach, all over my arms, my hands, my breasts. All over me. Little Butterfly. Little Butterfly. Little Butterfly. Everywhere, everywhere Little Butterfly!!! I blinked back salty tears that made the cuts on my face burn. They fell from wide-open eyes. It was a twisted irony for what I had done to David when I'd murdered him. The police had found his body with the words Little Butterfly cut into his chest.
It was a cold poker plunged into my mind, a freezing arrow. The methodical sound continued. It was the loudest thing I could hear, even above the single long maddening scream that had to have been mine. David said something about art, but I didn't hear him. All I could focus on was the continuous drip, drip, drip. That is when I came to the brink, the razor edge of insanity. I peered into that black abyss and saw two figures standing there. I walked along the edge to see them.
One was a demon that looked just like me with all of my cybernetic implants, except hers were not implants; hers were a part of her. Her horns were not made of poly alloy, but of bone that protruded from her skull. Blue ram horns curled around her ears crowned by smaller demi-horns that sat atop the center of her forehead. Her white claws were extensions of her fingers, long elegant and deadly. Markings like the tattoos I had adorned her body. Her fangs glinted hungrily, each tip aching for blood. She glared at me with wild, dizzying eyes that darted over my figure with an animal's alertness.
The other figure was a child, me as I had been before I'd marked my face with the design of the butterfly David had given me the night I'd killed him. She was me before I'd ever been defiled by that monster, living or dead. The child clutched a teddy bear. The same Mr. Bear I used to cuddle to my chest. She looked up at me with her natural jade eyes, those wide, innocent eyes I didn't have anymore and asked, "When's mommy coming home?"
I looked down at her and answered. "I don't know."
"When's daddy coming home?" She implored me further.
"I..I don't know." I leaned over her, my shadow enveloping her small crouching figure. She began to cry. I looked between the demon and the child and back again. I knew that one was the passive insanity and the other was the raving insanity. I could either become a child or an animal.
I stared down at the child for an introspective moment. She was everything I could never be. She was everything I'd forced myself not to be. It was a path I didn't care to choose. I turned my back on the crying child and stood face to face with the demon. She darted her head quickly from side to side. A low bestial growl sounded from her and her blazing green eyes pierced deep into my own. I knew I could never go back once I chose her path, but I'd rather pass on as a demon then die without ever tasting his blood on my lips. I reached my hand out to her. She raised one clawed hand to mine, the sharp tips brazing my palm. I closed my eyes and I slipped on the razor edge. I could still hear the drip, drip, drip, but it was fading like everything else. I could still see her eyes..burning brightly through the darkness like beacons. I reached for them.
I fell forward, my hands free and my body weightless. I thought I had finally died, the last drops of my blood spilling out. I was leaning, suspended by nothing, held in a womb of blackness. Slowly, I felt myself swathed in silk. My body was floating, wrapped within a cocoon of blackness and strangely comforted by a warming presence. The hush of running water soothed my senses. Time slowed down and I felt at peace. Cold water ran down my back, making me tremble till finally I was immersed in it. The chill faded to a pleasant warmth that caressed my body and rejuvenated my senses. I could feel myself being pulled out of the void that held me. My eyes gradually focused in on a starry sky. I felt a warm hand on my cheek, and I finally realized I was looking up into Phantom's face. He was like an angel, my saving grace from the black abyss. His halo was the night that enveloped the stream we were in. I closed my eyes and reached out for him, containing him in my arms in the tightest embrace I could manage.
"You came back." My tears mixed with the lapping stream that ran around us. I never realized how much I missed him until I saw him again. I never realized what my heart was trying to tell me that time he tried to kiss me and I turned my back on him. I never realized it till now. I didn't want to let go so I kept my arms around his neck. All the pain in my body, and my heart, was gone. I dug my head into his chest as if he could block out everything that could hurt me in the world.
He practically had to pry me away from him when we got out of the stream. I felt a prick in my arm and saw the flash of a syringe.
"For the pain." He told me as I began to sway with the morphine's effects. I wouldn't have notice if he hadn't said anything. Indeed my body hurt all over. The stream had eased and closed the cuts, but all over my body black and blue bruises patched my skin like a dalmation. I could barely open my left eye; it was so swollen, as was most of my face. I steadied myself slowly as the pain leaked away with the drug. I finally had the presence of mind to look at my surroundings.
It was not good. Over by the stream I could see Nat and Ghost. He was devoid of his right arm. Rav and Neo were in the stream, reddening the waters with their various wounds. I ran over to Nat's side and kneeled by Ghost. I looked to Nat. She was completely panicked. Circuitry stuck out garishly from the stub of an arm he had left. Flickers of short outs illuminated her face even more. I put my hands on the arm and fiddled with the protruding wires. I'd learned this stuff before, yeah, after all my own wiring needed tweeking every now and again. But all the wires looked the same for some reason. My vision swayed a little. I hesitated a second and then tried rewiring the two main artery connections that'd stop the short-circuiting. A buzzing pain shot through my wrists and I let go. Bad idea. I'd just electrocuted everyone within a 3-foot radius. Nat fiddled with the wires some more and got them to stop sparking.
I stood up, balancing myself warily. I looked back at Phantom. It was strange, he stood as far as the little clearing would allow away from Ghost.
"Hey?" I waved to him; I'd almost forgotten why we were here in the first place. When he didn't respond, I ran over to him clumsily. Here I was pleading for that behemoth again. "Can't you help him? Please…" I looked back over to Ghost, he looked more like drek than I did. "If you don't he'll die." He kept his back turned to me and didn't respond for a long moment.
"Why don't we just leave…" He said in a somewhat cold repressed tone.
"…what?" I swiveled my head around to chase my juggling vision. He was making less sense than I was under the influence. I shook my head as if he'd just asked the stupidest question in the world. "Because I can't!" I looked back over to Ghost again. If the behemoth died, it'd scar Nat forever. Phantom turned and peered at me, most of his indecisiveness hid by his mask. He looked to Ghost and then back at me again. "Please??" I sounded like a little child asking for a piece of candy. Phantom's moon eyes narrowed at Ghost. I could see that tension building in them again. If he wanted to kill Ghost in that moment, he could have.
"What would you do for me?" He asked coldly, a tone that didn't seem natural for him in my eyes. Whatever tilted thoughts went through my head, I gathered them all up and put my hands on Phantom's temples. "If you help us, well then, just look for yourself!!" I sent him whatever fractured images of me and him that flitted through my tired brain. Me and him. He and I! He and she! I know what you wanted before and now I know I can give it to you. No regrets, no sins! Just you and I! He grabbed my wrists and removed my hands from his temples. I let go and he stepped past me, releasing my wrists hesitantly. Well, that was, unexpected. I didn't expect that from myself, HAHA!!! It felt good.
His hands glowed white when they came into contact with his chest. I could see Ghost heave a much needed breathe of air. With that done, Phantom returned to my side and stared at me with those empty eyes of his. The slightest bit of exhaustion wrinkled his brow. "Thank you." I whispered to him, I gave him the sweetest smile that my swollen face could present.
"Can we go now?" He sounded like an upset child. I shot around as a branch cracked on the other side of the stream. I looked to the bank and saw at least ten of those bobbing nodes. Those creatures were here, the ones that had been with David. David??? Isn't he dead??!??! All of the events came back to me in a flash of remembrance. David's voice rang out all around us again, reinforcing the memories of all that had happened.
"You're trapped, surrender now and make things…less painless for yourselves."
I whipped around in a panic noting that the things were on all sides of us! Just beyond the hill leading from our side of the stream David's black form stood at the head of the formation of nodes that cut through the haze. I looked to Phantom with a disbelieving expression stretched across my face. He stood with a hand on the hilt of each sword he carried strapped to his back and thigh, but otherwise he seemed calmer than if he were on a sunday walk. My mouth fell open in confusion at that. We were in deep drek and he was..calm????? I frantically searched around for a weapon and saw a katana winking at me in the pale moonlight. It was the Government Issue one I'd bought from the weapons store Phantom had taken me too. I ended up not having to give my left ear for it after all. I picked it up and leveled it in front of me. Nat must have brought it with her. The katana wobbled with my twitching grip and fragged up senses. Mental note, if I lived through this, buy a reflex trigger. I didn't want to look up at David, if it was him because it COULDN'T be, so I focused on the other figures that lingered in fuzzy blobs in my night vision. The little nodes flickered and the stalemate continued. They held back away for some reason, though they could have overwhelmed us at any moment.
I looked to Phantom and his calmed self, "If you won't fight,… I will." He looked back to me and blinked a couple of times. I realize that I must have looked ridiculous. I couldn't fight a damned thing in my condition. And I realized it was so drafty because I was quite nude. I looked around and wrapped myself in the wet sheet that was on the grass near the bank. Not much cover, but it's all I had. I saw Rav fly by in my vision. He charged viciously at the figure that couldn't be David, his six hand razors drawn. I heard the sounds of a scuffle and then I saw him fly back to land at Phantom's feet. I leveled the wobbling blade at the figures which seemed to press in just a little bit more at the Orc's attack. Rav jumped to his feet, his short temper lit. He turned to Phantom who gazed at him casually and yelled into his face, "Why won't you fight! You fragging ninja pussy!"
His movements were lightening fast, causing me to stare at him dumbly again. I saw his white eyes light up with hot anger. In two undetectable movements, he spun the Orc around, while breaking the one arm, then using the momentum of the breaking arm to flip him over onto his back, breaking the other arm with the weight of his own fall. I heard the bones crack…. Rav scooted away from Phantom and went into the stream, the only thing that was keeping us all alive.
"Time is up!" The nightmare voice yelled again. I saw the nodes swarm in upon us. I looked to Phantom, we were all going to DIE!!!!! He wasn't standing where I thought he'd be, he was already ripping into the enemy, his two swords flashed white crescent paths across things I could barely cut out of the darkness with any of my visions. He flipped back and four of the figures fell, their cut bodies lit up by sparking circuits. I screamed and swung the sword around at one that had almost grabbed me from behind. I caught it across the neck but that only slowed it down for a millisecond. I sprinted back towards Nat, watching as the tide of nodes swarmed everywhere and hoping I wouldn't see David's face among them. A circle of the fallen figures formed around Phantom as he went against the endless tide. In the growing space, I saw him quickly take off one of the packs that had been attached to his belt and throw it in the middle of the creatures. He held up his hand in a peace sign and jumped out of the circle, landing by me. I looked back to the pack he'd left, unsuspecting. Before I could ask what was going on, he swept me off my feet and started running. A flash of bright light stung my eyes and I screamed a curse word. I'd been looking right into it. He kept running and running and running.
We were free! We had survived that awful night. The bad dream was finally over. It was high time the good dream started. That night he took me back to the apartment that I had usurped. He even carried me to the bed and laid me down upon it with more care than any person had ever treated me with. He rested his hands on me and healed the internal wounds that had made me start to cringe and cough up blood when the morphine wore off. He pulled the covers up around me and made sure I was comfortable. I pulled them close to myself and watched him attentively as he walked across the room, stopped, looked at me, then walked out again. He seemed confused, nervous even!
A few minutes later, Phantom returned to the room in boxers and stared at me nervously again. I was apparently in his bed and it seemed to me that he was debating whether to sleep next to me or not. I feigned sleep as I watched him through near closed eyes. He was an enigma to me as I watched him, one minute to be so deadly, and the next to be so childlike. I felt him climb into bed next to me. His foot twitched horribly as he tried to go to sleep. I rolled over to look at him and found that he was facing away from me, his back turned. Even now he gave me the choice. It must have been so very hard for him.
I smiled at the back of his head and slid a foot over his so he'd stop twitching. I gripped his shoulder and rolled him around softly so he'd be facing me. "It's okay.." I smiled to him and returned the kiss he'd given me so many nights ago. "I've seen you…" I caressed his cheek with my fingers. I felt free, I was finally doing something I wanted. I'd found someone I could love, I'd found someone who loved me and didn't try to possess me. He never tried to use me. I kissed him again, more passionately, and he finally started to get the message as he slid towards me and I wrapped him in the silk sheets he'd given me.
Then it was just he and I, no one else existed in the world. I let him feel the joy I held in my heart at finding someone like him. Every ecstasy of free will that I felt, I gave to him. In giving up my anger, I was liberated. It was complete and total freedom, white waves of passion I'd never thought I'd feel, that I'd thought had been lost to me forever when I was bent to the will of a madman. I'd held it all in too long, my rage, my fury subsided as I felt his breath against my face. I'd been searching for his face all my life, and I'd found it in this white wave.
In the silence afterwards, we held each other and I slept more peacefully then ever I had.
In the silence, I was free.
I loud noise jerked me out of my sleep. Always the best dreams are interrupted! I was stretched out on the couch. The tech channel droned on.
"..and you too can own this upgrade for the amazing price of 60,000 nuyen! And remember, all of our products require a patent of authenticity for all you shady people out there. Tune in at 6pm to see our show on reactionary cyberware! Be there or your fate is meat! "
I rubbed my eyes and stretched. There was that noise again, an odd thump thump, almost like footsteps stopping and starting. I looked over the couch towards the back of the apartment where the front door was. It was a pool of blackness. I couldn't tell if anyone was there or not. I reached around the side of the couch and unsheathed my katana which had been resting there. It was quiet again as I raised myself and walked cautiously towards the front of the apartment. I cast a glance back towards Lucia's room. The door was cracked how I'd left it. There was a thump at the front again. I blinked and switched my headware several times, night-vision, thermo, and mag picked up nothing at all.
It was probably just a cat burglar, nothing I couldn't handle. I gripped the hilt of the sword tightly and peered into the kitchen. Nothing there either. I glanced around awkwardly. Something wasn't right. My eyes passed over the front door and I tested the access panel. It was unlocked. A dim hope rose in my heart. The only one who knew the access code besides me was Phantom. Maybe he'd come home?? I increased my stride and walked quickly back into the living room and looked around. There was nothing. I knew he could sneak by me if he wanted to, but why would he do that?? The trid cast strange shadows along the walls of the empty room. I reached over and hit the switch to turn on the lamp. The little bulb lit up the living room.
I screamed as someone grabbed my hand and took it away from the lamp. I jerked my arm back, hitting the lamp and making it fall over. It broke on the floor and the room was thrown into blackness once again. I spun around at the sound of a familiar low laugh. The trid lost signal, the channel flickered in and out.
"..your fate..is meat…your fate..is meat….your…fate.."
The insane shadows danced across his familiar features, his familiar smile. My heart stopped beating in my chest, my breath stuck in my lungs. But my arms moved of their own accord. I swung downward towards David, scraping my blade across his torso. The blade sparked against the black metal that plated across his chest. He wasn't a man anymore; he was a monster of metal born from the shell of a dead man. I swung at him again, this time the katana clanged off of his black cyber-arm. The impact bounced the sword away, making my arms vibrate. He reached out with his other arm and seized my wrist. He twisted my arm behind my back and held it against the direction it was supposed to go. His hand clamped tighter and the bones of my wrist collapsed in on themselves as if they were made of jelly. The sword clattered to the ground, my hand unable to support it. I cursed and screamed. Fury bubbled up from the deepest part of me and slid through the cracks of my sanity. He released my limb and I swung around smashing the backside of my good fist against the side of his head. I sprung back a step, cradling my broken arm. This was happening too fast.
Nothing was ever enough to phase him. David lashed out at me again, lifting me up in his great arms and throwing me on top of the coffee table. My back shattered the glass in the middle of it. A glint of metal caught my eye too late. He jammed my own sword through the pit of my stomach, through the table and into the floor, effectively nailing me to it. I couldn't speak, I couldn't breathe, I was like a butterfly pinned in a display case. All I could do was choke on my own blood. He kneeled by my side and tucked some loose hairs behind my ear to get them out of my face. I glared at him, stunned and confused, my eyes wide with fear and anger. He stared back. In life his eyes had been dark brown, now they were a dull black faded from their former luster. His left eye was a solid metallic red.
I spit at him. The knot of blood landed on his cheek and slid down his white face leaving a trail of crimson. I tried to move again, to do anything, but I couldn't feel my legs. All I could do was lie there and watch him. I choked on my words, coughing violently. He put two fingers on my lips and then looked towards the back of the apartment. I half managed a cry of defiance. I knew what was going through his twisted mind. Lucia was back there! I managed to move my hands, but the sword stayed in place keeping me pinned to the table.
"..nouh….you.can…t" I forced out the gurgling words. David leaned over and kissed me on the chin with his black lips then covered my mouth with his hand. He looked back towards Lucia's room and called out in my voice.
"Lucia, honey, come out. Mommy needs to talk to you." There were a few seconds of silence, and then Lucia's tiny form emerged from the room. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and found her way into the living room, Phantom's glove gripped in one tiny hand. David sat next to me, crouching like a gargoyle. Lucia stopped in front of him seemingly not noticing me.
"Hey, you're not mommy." The little elf accused in her child voice.
"I know…I'm not." David answered. He sat back and crossed his arms, proceeding to talk with her while I watched in horror. If he touched her I'd kill him! Somehow, someway I'd kill him! I'd find a way no matter what it took! My eyes watered with the sheer frustrating anger that boiled my blood. I still couldn't move. I still couldn't speak. My fingers twitched with the nerve impulses that were sporadically sent from my severed spine.
"Mommy told me not to talk to strangers." Lucia wrinkled her button nose at him, her spikey black hair falling in front of her eyes.
"I guess you can call me, Grandpa. That seems close enough." David cocked his head, amused by the little elf's rebelliousness.
"Gwan pa?" Her eyes lit up. "I never had one of those before." She wiped her nose with her arm and began to chew absently on Phantom's glove. I vainly tried to get my body to move, to do anything as I watched him rise to his feet. David offered a hand out to her.
"I have some friends I know who would love to meet you, Lucia. Especially an 'uncle'." She took his hand, smiling innocently.
"Those are nice! I never had one of those before either!!" She began to walk with him towards the front of the apartment. I stretched my hand out towards her, unable to stop them. My body just wouldn't listen. My mind was stuck in a prison of flesh. I cried out, struggling against the katana that pinned me down. I couldn't let him take her!! I couldn't!! But still my body didn't work. Hot tears of frustration squeezed from my eyes.
Lucia's tinkling voice questioned David again, "Will mommy be there?"
David looked down at her and
smiled, "Of course she will. She'll be there very soon." The
front door closed behind them and I screamed again. I had to get
up!! I had to get up!! I HAD TO GET UP!!!!!
I tore from the nightmare, my body covered in sweat. I could hardly contain my heavy breathing. It was my worst fear. That he'd intrude upon my life again and take what I had left of it. I tried to take a couple of breaths to calm myself. I repeated it over and over to myself. It was just a dream. It was just a dream. I shook uncontrollably for a few seconds till I lie back down and put my hands to my face. I glanced over and saw Lucia curled up in a little ball beside me. Instead of the child coming to sleep with the mommy because she had bad dreams, it was the other way around. She nuzzled her head into my shoulder and clutched the self-same glove in her tiny, yet strong, grasp. I felt relieved that it was really her, and she was there, safe and within my reach. I rubbed her hair affectionately and then laid my head back against the pillow. I watched her all night. She never left my sight. I would never let her be taken. I would never let that nightmare come true.
***
Go to the Previous Part
Go to the Next Part