"Inventing the Future"
"Chapter 48: Crossing the Line"
Bright red eyes peering down at Jaming and Meredith from beneath a dark hood struck such a note of terror into Jaming's heart that, at first, he could do nothing more than stare in disbelief. Emperor Griffon stood on the foot of their bed, observing them disdainfully as the pregnant human female cringed in his former servant's arms. "Is this what you have been doing with your time, Jaming? Increasing the human population in a place that I took the time to destroy, and negating your master's efforts?"
"Sir...I..." Jaming shook his head, trying to find the words to plead for mercy, not for himself, but for Meredith and their child.
Meredith got over her shock and pulled away from Jaming to demand angrily, "What are you doing here? You can't just barge in here and-"
The red eyes narrowed, and with a wave of his hand, Griffon sent her sailing into the wall. Her cry of pain sliced clear to Jaming's heart, but when he tried to rush to her aid another wave of the hand sent him into the opposite wall. "Did you think you wouldn't be held accountable for your disgraceful defeat, Dr. Jaming?"
"She has nothing to do with this," Jaming tried to move, but found that he couldn't. "Punish me if that's why you're here, but-"
Griffon interrupted sternly, his childlike voice not quite matching the untold power he possessed. "She has everything to do with this. She is human, and so is the brat she's carrying."
"No, please!" Jaming begged. His pride, which served as shield and armor to his dignity, was quite forgotten. He knew what was about to happen, and he couldn't even move a finger!
Meredith was also trying desperately to move, her eyes begging Jaming to help her-to help them-and Jaming thought he even detected some blame in that desperate look, but she looked so briefly in his direction that he couldn't be sure. She turned her eyes to Griffon and whispered, "Not my baby...please, not my baby..."
Jaming then found himself standing about fifty feet away from his house, and Meredith was not with him. Before he could begin to wonder how he got there he heard Meredith's terrible scream, and he saw the house explode in a fireball.
Fire.
Loss.
It was happening again. Everything and everyone he ever loved...they were always taken away!
Griffon appeared before him and pointed up at Jaming. "And now, it's your turn."
"Bastard!" Jaming sobbed, and damned if he still couldn't move! And what was that obnoxious ringing sound?
Jaming opened his eyes in time to hear his alarm clock finish ringing, and his mouth gaped open as he tried desperately to draw in enough breath to scream. It took him a moment to realize that he was safe in his bed with Meredith lying beside him, and the scream never came.
He saw her sleeping peacefully, one of her fists tucked underneath her chin in an almost childlike manner, and he reached out and touched her shoulder with a shaky hand to prove to himself that she was real and solid.
Her sleep was a light one, however, and her blue eyes blinked open at his touch. Her contacts were in their case on the night stand, but she was close enough to see his expression, and she propped herself up on her elbow with a frown. "What's the matter?"
Jaming pulled her to his chest and sighed heavily. She was there. She was safe. She was real. He felt the press of her pregnant belly against his own flat one, and he rejoiced at the reassuring 'nudge' as the baby kicked. "Nothing. Everything's as it should be."
'But for how long?' A voice in the back of Jaming's mind, faint and taunting, sounding suspiciously like his own, cast a shadow over his relief. He ignored it, and did his best to stop trembling. He felt as if he truly had lost them, and now he had them back.
"Hey..." Meredith whispered, leaning back a little and sitting up a bit more so that she could press her forehead against his. "It's all right..."
It was only then that he realized how much his eyes were watering, and he drew a shaky breath to steady himself. "I know. I'm sorry I woke you. I didn't mean to. Why don't you go back to sleep for a little while?"
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Jaming remembered pleading for her life and the life of their child, and he remembered her desperate scream. He remembered how powerless he was to stop it, and worse still, he knew how powerless he would be if that ever did happen. Finally, worst of all, he knew that it could still happen if Griffon ever remembered him and was angry enough to go after him. He shook his head, sitting back and reaching for his monocle. "It's nothing I'd like to relive in the telling of it. I'm going to go and get the paper. We'll have pancakes and sausage for breakfast. How does that sound?"
Meredith leaned forward and kissed his cheek, looking rather serious but respecting his wishes and dropping the subject. "Sounds good to me."
Parn watched as Jaming emerged from the post office with a newspaper under one arm. The strange blue-skinned man was flipping through a stack of junk mail, and even given his strange appearance he seemed to be feeling quite out of sorts.
'How does a man like that even exist, let alone snag a woman? Even a weird bookworm like Meredith. Especially with those teeth!'
Jaming was completely oblivious to Parn's scrutiny, and he headed off in the direction of a new-looking house that sat near a large green shed of some sort.
'And how did Julia fall in with those two?' Parn thought as he headed for Julia's house at a casual stroll. He thought back over the short time he had spent living with Julia, and on a hunch he tried the doorknob. It gave a satisfying 'click', and he smiled to himself in private amusement as he let himself in. 'That woman still hasn't learned to lock her door.'
Unbeknownst to Parn, Pau had been watching him from the entrance of his cave. And, remembering what had happened the day before, the little Moon Person bolted for Jaming's house to warn Julia.
It was most unfortunate that he didn't think to knock on Julia's door to let Parn know that he had been spotted, otherwise the following events could have been avoided.
Parn looked up at the sound of the door opening, and he dropped the knife he had been using to slash the painting, finding himself face-to-face with Jaming. From the looks of things, the blue-skinned man meant business. The painting, which previously hung on the wall, was now a ruin of shredded canvas.
"What are you doing here?" Parn demanded, sounding more flustered than he meant to.
"Well, unlike you, I've been given permission to enter by the occupant of this house," was Jaming's curt reply, but his next words stuck in his throat and he couldn't say them. He had spotted the ruined painting, and he froze.
"Now, look here!" Parn began in what he thought was a very reasonable tone of voice. "You can't just-"
"What have you done?" growled Jaming, pointing at the painting.
"Something I should have done a long time ago," Parn shrugged, as if stating the obvious. "I found her diary...I know why she took the painting. I couldn't let that happen."
Behind Jaming there was a faint whimper, and he realized that Julia had finally seen the fate of her painting and what she thought might be her way back home.
"Julia..." Parn began, but stopped when she turned a pair of hateful, tear-filled eyes to him.
"Don't you come near me. Get out of my house. No...get out of Veniccio. I never want to see you again."
Julia never once raised her voice, almost as if she didn't have the energy to do so, and the anger that coursed through Jaming at that moment was so pure and so clear that it made him a little bit light-headed. His right hand slowly clenched into a fist. Julia had just lost her chance to get back to the one she loved. She had lost him, much like Jaming had lost Meredith in his dream, only this wasn't a dream. This was reality, and it was irrevocable.
What happened next was all a blur. Parn moved to approach Julia, and Meredith got between them and held up a hand to stop him. The artist raised a hand as if to slap her, and Jaming gave in to an urge he hadn't felt in quite some time. He cocked back his fist and punched Parn squarely in the jaw, knocking him to the floor.
Pau, who was peeking around the doorjamb and watching the exchange with a dumbfounded expression, perked his ears and gasped, "No way..."
Jaming wondered for a moment if he had broken one of the bones in his hand, and he flexed the digits a few times as Parn stared up at him in disbelief. "If you ever try to strike Meredith again, or any woman for that matter, I will not be responsible for my actions. Is that clear?"
"I wasn't going to hit her!" Parn held his cheek and pressed his tongue against his molars, feeling one of them wiggle a bit at the pressure. "Are you mad?"
Pau chimed in, "He looks pretty pissed to me. I'd leave, if I were you. I saw the whole thing. I don't think anyone will want to buy your paintings if they find out about this."
Meredith stood with her arms around Julia, trying in vain to console the other woman, who was crying bitterly into her shoulder. "Parn, do you have any idea what you've done?"
The artist cautiously stood up, but Jaming did not hit him again. And, when Parn he saw how badly he had hurt Julia, he finally began to realize just how awful he had been. He looked behind him at the painting, and he came to the realization that even if she was going to take him back before, now she never would.
That painting was a total loss. How could he fix this? He lowered his eyes and left the house, giving Jaming a wide berth and whispering an apology to Julia as he passed.
Jaming saw that Parn was heading directly for the Veniccio train station, and he wondered why he didn't feel as relieved as he should have. He rubbed his sore knuckles before reaching over with his other hand and hesitantly touching Julia's shoulder. "I'm so sorry..."
Jaming had often observed that a nightmare could set the tone for the rest of the day, and he had thought that they only affected the dreamer. Until today, he had never wondered if that negativity was contagious.
Author's Note: I might be ending this chapter on a bit of a downer, but I have tentative plans for Parn to redeem himself. As for he and Julia being a couple again, though? Yeah...not happening.