Her blood curdling scream brought Duncan and Adam into the room as Richie collapsed onto the floor. "Ssh! Stop screaming!" Adam ran to the pale girl, leading her back to the bed. "He's all right."
"No! He's dead!" Melissa screamed as she watched Duncan pull the knife out of Richie's chest.
"He's fine." Duncan said quietly, sitting back on the balls of his feet, staring at Richie. Melissa's screams subsided as she watched the bloody skin began to close up before her eyes. A moment later Richie was sitting up, looking at her, concerned.
"Look, all better." He whispered, unsure of himself. He ran his hand over his chest, smearing the blood away from the now-smooth skin. Melissa then, promptly fainted.
When she woke again, she could hear the men talking outside the bedroom. "You certainly handled that well." Duncan said dryly. There was a slight chuckle before Richie replied. "I told you that I didn't know how to tell her! She didn't believe me! I had to prove it to her before she called the loony-bin to come retrieve me. I told you that you guys should have told her. You have had experience with this kind of thing."
"She's your responsibility." Adam cut in. "If you can't handle her, then you must find someone who will." All the talk of handling her prompted Melissa to slowly get out of bed and head towards the door.
"I guess you should feel lucky that you can't scare her to death." Duncan chuckled. "That surely would have done it."
"It's not funny Mac!" Richie sounded hurt, "What am I to say to her now? She's going to freak when I come back in there alive and well." Richie was looking at the others pleadingly. His back was to the door as Melissa opened it and stood there glaring at them.
"Well, figure something out." Adam looked at him pityingly before giving Melissa a forced smile. "Feeling better?"
"M-Melissa?" Richie spun and faced her.
"Are you some sort of magician?" She eyed him, thoughtfully this time.
"No. I can't even do card tricks." Richie admitted. "It wasn't a trick. It was real. I told you, I can not die." Richie's voice shook as she approached him, running her hand over his blood-stained chest where the knife had been embedded earlier. All she felt was the electrical current.
"So I died?"
"No, You almost did, but no, you haven't died yet."
"Then how do you know I wouldn't die if I stuck a knife in my chest?"
"This feeling that passes between us when we touch…it's a sign." Richie stepped away from her touch, readjusting his shirt.
"I wouldn't recommend stabbing yourself." Duncan added, finally feeling sorry for his friend . "It's a rather painful experience."
"So you are dead also?"
"Well, I wouldn't actually call it dead. We prefer to be called, Immortal." Duncan laughed, "It's the PC way of phrasing it." Then more serious, he added, "I died on the battlefield, over four hundred years ago."
"Well, you look good for your age." Melissa frowned, having difficulty believing it all despite what she had witnessed. "And you?" She asked Adam, who looked uncomfortable with the question.
"I-I was murdered by a very irate husband. He seemed to believe that I was spending time with one of his wives."
"And were you?" Melissa smiled, liking the man immensely. He even blushed as he answered. "Well, I thought she was his daughter."
"He would have killed you for that too. Men were very protective back then." Duncan explained.
"Back when?"
"Over five thousand years ago. Methos is the oldest of us known. He was alive before time was counted." Duncan looked at her kindly for the first time, and it shocked Melissa how gorgeous he really was when not scowling and trying to frighten her.
"Methos?" She looked from one man to the other, confused.
"That's his real name." Richie explained, wondering about the change in Duncan. "He goes by Adam now because Methos is a very rare name. Many would like to be the one to kill the legendary man."
"Kill him? Why? What people? I thought you said you can't die."
"There are others like us. Some are good and some are bad. We Immortals are in a 'game'. The game is that we go around killing each other. When we kill another Immortal, we get that persons power, learn everything they know,..., and receive their strength. Since Adam is the oldest, it's figured that he's had to kill a great many others to survive this long, so the quickening will be powerful."
"What's the quickening?"
"That's what we go through when we receive the Immortals power." Adam shrugged, "A beautiful sight to see, slightly painful to experience, yet,..., dangerous." Seeing what she was about to ask, he added, " It's dangerous because during a quickening, your unable to protect yourself, and right after you are very weak. So, you're a sitting target for another attacking Immortal."
Wobbling over to the nearby couch, Melissa tried to digest all that she had been told, it was a lot, yet left many questions bouncing around in her head. Sitting down, she asked. "Okay…why are you killing each other?"
"The final Immortal,...,after all others are killed, will have absolute power. Be the wisest and strongest in the entire universe. He or she will then go on to live a normal life. Live and die like a normal person. That is called the prize." Duncan explained as he went into the kitchen area to get everyone something to drink.
"So, why are you all friends? Why don't you kill each other?" Melissa eyed the three men as they settled down around her. "Aren't you breaking the laws by not killing each other?"
"Well, according to some." Adam agreed. "But we are peaceful….for the most part. We just want to act normal, fall in love, have friends, have careers, a nice place to live."
"We can't have children." Duncan agreed, as he poured her some juice. "So having families are difficult. So we…sort of adopt each other as our friends and family. Long term friendships are difficult with mortals because, after many years….they start to notice that we don't get any older."
"I was nineteen when I died." Richie added. "And I'll look nineteen forever…or until my head is cut off."
"How old do you get to be? Is there a limit?"
"Just until your mortal life is over. Until you die or are killed." Richie shrugged. "There are Immortals of just about any age. There is one….he's about eight hundred years old, but he only lived ten years as a mortal. So he has a ten year olds body."
"How could he have survived that long if someone is after his head?" Melissa questioned, once again doubting their story.
"By his wits." Adam answered when the others remained silent. "Immortality does not exist only because of ones strength, but in ones power of mind. Kenny, the boy Richie mentioned, is alive because he managed to outwit every other Immortal he has met. Including Richie and Duncan. In fact, he nearly had Duncan's head if I remember correctly. To survive in our game, you must learn fighting skills as well as learn from every experience you are faced with. You must have fast reflexes of the body and the mind. That is where we come in. We want to train you to survive before you become Immortal. That was a flaw in Duncan's dealing with Richie. Richie knew about Duncan's immortality, but not his own. Perhaps if he had been trained a bit, he would not have been killed so early in life." Adam looked directly at Duncan as he said that.
"That's why we have told you now. So you can make your decision. Either believe us and we help you, or at least you know where you can be helped when you do become Immortal." Richie sighed, relieved that they had finally decided to help him explain. He had never blamed Duncan for not telling him. He had been saddened a little that he couldn't mature physically as he had mentally. Duncan had always been a friend, trying to teach him from his own mistakes so that he wouldn't have to repeat them.
"What kind of training?"
"Survival." They all said at once. Chuckling over their echo, Richie smiled at the girl. "We will try to teach you the art of sword-fighting, how to protect yourself, to keep yourself out of situations like last night."
"You really like to test ones trust don't you." Melissa sighed drained, mentally and emotionally.
"Yeah, that's what friends are for." Richie rose, offering her his hand. "Come on, lets get you cleaned up and fed before you tell me everything that happened last night." Richie was gentle but forceful as he prodded her back into the bedroom.