My Agumon & Other Stories

Story 2: Love

"You are more real to me than anything else in the world. Without you, I am afraid I would become particles. I would de-materialize and gravity would cease to have its hold on me and I would float into the spheres surrounding the Earth. You keep that from happening. You keep me real, for to me, you are reality. And granted, if I were to cease to exist, to die via the body, or be eradicated by the forces around us in the truest sense of erasure, you would not de-materialize, and all these people here," the Prophet gestured to the mass of cloaks, "would bear witness to your being, and I would drift in the air around them, never memorialized. My soul has been wasted by sin of age. Grant this poor old fool the sight of the beauty of your youth."

At which point two members of the cult removed the clothing of 7-year-old Ava, who, terrified, resisted little from her position upon the "altar"-a refrigerator set on its back, raised on a layer of crates, draped in satin bedsheets. A woman's hands removed her socks and jeans. A man's her shirt. He walked over the surface of the wooden boxes to face Ava with the woman and together they pressed her down and removed her panties. Ava cried. The fear mixed with embarrassment. She covered herself with tiny hands.

At the same time, the Prophet's own garment was taken off him by the ones who stood behind him. Cloak gone, he stood naked just as Ava crouched.

"The Worshippers see. The Worshippers see! She is the one we dream of. Our youthful Goddess. May I present my weak, mortal body to yours, the body untouched."

Ava saw the penis and knew exactly what it was meant for. She looked out to the crowd and wondered, Why won't any of these adults help me?

"Bless my anatomy with First Touch. Behold, Worshippers, her destiny's apotheosis."

Not one came over to her but him. She imagined backing away. Stepping off the tower and fleeing. She did not move. This place, wherever she was, was not meant for escape. Someone could rescue her, but she herself would be unable to do anything against these people. And no one would rescue her. Not in time. Ava looked at the woman who had disrobed her. She could see her face. It was a good face. She could have been a waitress who served her cheerfully at Denny's. Or a teacher. Ava made a silent plee to this face of a teacher. The woman responded. She touched the girl's hair. Wide eyes gazed up at her, followed her as she wandered behind her. The woman stroked her back with long-nailed fingers, saying, "The Prophet's need must be met for the granting of syzyrgy." She gently opened Ava's mouth, then grabbed her neck and pushed her forward.

Ava stopped crying. No savior.

Ava was found in 4 days. She was 22 miles away, in the house of Mortimer and Stephanie Nielsen, a couple notorious in their neighborhood for demonstrated Antisemitic behavior. They were the followers of Karol Troversson, a man who was guilty of his own "creepy" reputation, abnormal behavior such as late-night house projects that kept awake those who lived near him and arguments he had aloud with himself while sitting on a folding chair outside. Visits to the playground that involved eerie slow walks past the children, while he smoked and stared, elicited the notice of their parents and complaints to the police, leaving him suspect during the search for Ava. He was Ava's next-door neighbor.

Troversson's cult, calling itself "Worshippers of the Youth," was never collectively caught. The three aforementioned were tried and sentenced for Kidnapping and First Degree Sexual Assault of a Minor Child, among other felony counts, along with two other members. It was unknown at the time if this was the extent of the group, a statement Ava was not well of mind to make, and which her parents and she were to later find out was not the case.

At first, Ava's family did not move from the house that sat yards away from the site in which Ava's torturer previously hollered and drove Ava from sleep with his hammering and drilling. Ava's father could not afford it. The house itself had been a wedding present from his parents, both since passed away, having had their son late in their lives, and very old by the point in which he got married. Ava's mother also had no parents to support them; hers were lost to a case of food poisoning during her college years. Making matters worse was that Ava's mother, before the event with Troversson, had lost her job, for a reason that could not be defined to Ava at the time. Later she would come to terms with her mother's addition to alcohol.

Everything was difficult afterwards. Ava went back to school. Most of her classmates were not made aware by the elders that such a tragedy had happened to her, and none looked at the news. They simply asked her where she had been during her long absence. She told them what her parents had told her to say: "I went on vacation." Older students knew, though. The common reaction they had when they saw her was a face of panic, as they were unprepared on how to handle a little kid who had been stolen and raped. Some met with her, and gave her a gentle touch on the arm, saying, "Hi, Ava. Nice outfit. I like your hair." One big sixth-grader gave her a switchblade knife without even saying anything. Another, a $200 gift certificate for Hot Topic.

Ava saw teachers very differently. She was smart enough to realize that all of them brought goodwill when it came to her situation, however, she would always remember the long fingernails of the woman who had forced her down. The face of a teacher. If a woman has the appearance she will help you with your spelling, while beating you and helping a grown man penetrate you, any of these people can be a potential attacker. So Ava avoided adults as well as she could.

It was at this time, the DigiPortal opened. Veemon found her. Veemon took her away, from these... this... the REAL WORLD. She became digital and everything around her became digital and it was all, so, much, better. The monsters were great. And she and Veemon became partners, linked always with the Digivice, so that when she became "real" again, he would be a deet-deet-deet, deet-deet-deet away. The Digivice rested in bed with her, and remained attached to her belt during school. She confronted people with a smile and went on her way.

Before long, things turned worse again. After the incident, Ava was accustomed to being watched (as a victim, as a fascinating tragic figure). But there came a point in which she noticed she was really being watched. By men and women she didn't know at all. They crept by the fence that the community had built as "protection." Obviously, they didn't know how much protection Ava really needed, because one night she was abducted again.

"Veemon, DigiVolve to... ExVeemon!"

They were in another warehouse. When Ava woke up from the drugs, she found that they had already stripped her, and that there were far more people than before. A hundred adults had gathered in cloaks. The warehouse had been decorated with items seemingly from a mansion or museum. Golden tapestries were installed along the walls. Ava lay on a stone dais, with her clothes separated on a glass table. The clothes were within reach. And so was the Digivice.

Veemon materialized. Veemon used the power of her heart to transform into something taller, deadlier. A form meant to protect her. She had her savior now.

The cult extended far beyond imagination-including wealthy people and people from around the nation. This knowledge proved frightening after the second abduction. It didn't end with white trash next-door neighbors. Karol Troversson was one of many. Ava's family was relocated by the government.

Years later, Ava stares out at the sea from within a lighthouse. This lighthouse she and ExVeemon visit all the time, as her father was given a job with its guardianship. Guardianship... Ava, now fourteen, looks at ExVeemon from over her arm. They are lying on their sides in the sleeping quarters by the viewing post. He has retained this body since the last encounter with the cult, and she presumes it is to always be ready to defend her. It had continued to be necessary, less here than in the Digital World, where the theme of abduction had continued. When she was young, she had been captured many a time by evil Digimon-metal Digimon, possessed Digimon, affected by the darkness. The DigiWorld had been becoming more dangerous then, and now it has been so long since they've ventured into that realm... But Ava didn't think about that. She thought about how he always rescued her in the end.

"Ava! Don't worry! I am here."

Ava became short of breath. ExVeemon drew his attention away from the window and sat up. "Ava? Are you hurt?"

She shook her head.

As dark-hearted as a Digimon could become, their design begins with goodness. Corruption happens, but if you help, they will revert to benevolent creatures. Or they become eggs, which hatch, and they are reborn. All evil purged. Humans are the ones who cannot change. She saw the sin in every one of them. Even the boys with which she journeyed the DigiWorld with, saved both Worlds with, had shown that they were little above evil.

"I love you, ExVeemon."

She brought herself up as well, and held his claws. "I love you. I don't want any human boy to touch me. I don't want any... adult... to ever be with me again."

ExVeemon's eyes, she feels, are sending signals for her. His face is hardened so, that the eyes are the only way for her to know if she is making a mistake now, confessing to him, finally.

"I want you to make love to me." She cries. "Oh God. That's all I want. Is for you to love me like I do... I-I mean... love you. You are more real to me than anything in the world. The only reason I'm real is because you're real. To me. Without you, I feel I would die and evaporate."

ExVeemon's eyes shift. Downward. He appears to be in shame.

"Do you love me? DO YOU?"

He is silent.

Ava becomes desperate. "Please... just..." She lets go of his claws and moves across the bed. She wants to feel him. Her guardian. He starts to pull away as she touches the groin. She wants to know if it will remove itself from a pouch, or if ExVeemon simply has covering over it that she has not noticed before. Ava breathes over his chest. Rubs what would be the crotch in a way she thinks pleases him.

She realizes...

There is nothing there. He has no genitalia. He is a Digimon. He is an entity consisting of bits and bytes. One that will, upon death, become an egg, hatch, and be reborn. With no use for reproduction.

Her face burns. She feels sticky and vile. She is a human. She removes her hand from below as slowwww as possible. At the same speed, Ava brings her fingers to the side of ExVeemon's face. Her jaw shudders.

She has never loved anyone as much as she loves him.