by VS Winters
As carefully as I possibly could, I moved one arm very slowly down off the couch and pressed my palm to the ground. I did the same with my foot, leaving my flip-flop on the cushion and using my toes to dig into the floor. It was hard to hold myself up as I maneuvered down from the couch without making a sound, and I could feel my muscles quaking inside me. Once I was flat on the ground, I kept my eyes on her, making sure she didn't make any quick movements to turn toward me. Inch by inch, I moved myself toward the doorway that led to the hall.
"I did watch this surgery show one time," she said, spinning around, tapping her finger to her chin as she stared up at the ceiling.
I stopped in my tracks, not making a movement or sound. I held my breath, and did everything in my power to keep the little bit of strength I had left holding me up.
She waved her hand and turned back to the bar. "I don't need to be pretty about this. It's not like you'll be going out in public afterward. We'll probably just feed you to the dog in the alley."
I closed my eyes for a moment, thankful that she had turned back, but I knew that I didn't have much longer to get out of sight. I made my way around the corner, and as soon as I had gotten halfway down the hall, I pulled myself up to my feet and stumbled as quietly as I could toward the little mermaids' room. As I reached the doorway, I heard the nymph groan loudly. "Now, where in the world did you go? Silly little human. You're just making this harder for yourself. When I find you, I'm going to rip you to shreds. So, you can come out now, or we can do this the hard way, and I can promise no one will care about your human screams as I rip open your flesh and pull out every single bit of you until the light comes out."
Holding on to the doorframe, I rolled my eyes. "I really hate that bitch."
I scooted into the bathroom, but kept the light off. I hurried over to the window and jumped up, holding onto the sill as I grunted and pushed open the window. I didn't go out it though, I dropped back down to the floor and made my way back over to the door, pulling it open wide. I tucked myself behind the open door, peeking through the crack in the hinges, trying my best to keep my nerves at bay. I figured that if I could touch her, I could put my hands on her and maybe I could pull the darkness out of her. It was the only thing I could think to do at that point.
The clack of the nymph's heels echoed as she made her way toward the bathroom. I pressed my lips closed and held tightly to the door handle so that I wouldn't shake it as my knees shook beneath me just holding me up. I watched through the crack as the nymph entered holding the knife, looking back and forth. "I know you're in here, or did you make the dive out the window? That would be a pity. All that light wasted. Of course, it wouldn't be what they were asking me for, but then again, it couldn't hurt if it was destroyed."
I watched as she walked up to the window, pulling the trash can over and stepping on top of it to peer out. She giggled as she pulled herself up on the sill and turned to face the bathroom, swinging her legs forward and back. "Oopsie, looks like the little mortal took a spill out the window. I wonder how long it took for the dog to eat her brains?"
I watched her for a moment as she narrowed her eyes, her head twitching slightly. She began to talk to someone, someone I couldn't hear. "I know what you told me. It's not my fault she got away. She couldn't have gotten far. And what does it matter anyway? What do you mean she's not dead? She's not here."
If I was going to make my move, it had to be then. I threw open the door and ran as fast as I could straight for her. She dropped the knife on the ground and her eyes went wide as she pulled her legs up into the window. She put her hand out as I reached for her, shaking her head. "Don't touch me. Do not touch me!"
I stopped just an inch from her, my finger waving right in front of her chest. "You should've thought about that before you decided you were gonna play with knives. Oh, and fuck you."
With that, I jammed my finger against her chest. The light burst, but it didn't hold, and the nymph toppled over backwards out of the window. I heard her hit the ground with a grunt, but it didn't kill her. Instead, the sound of her clacking heels echoed through the alley as she ran off into the darkness. I really had hoped to either cleanse or kill her, but in that moment, I was just glad she was gone.
From behind me, the door flew open, slamming against the wall. I turned around with my hands up, but the air left my lungs as Crius ran straight for me. My arms fell to my sides and my knees wobbled. "I came here—Alecto and Lire the Pegasus sent word to me. They were outside waiting for me. When we got inside, we heard a scream. What happened?"
I wrapped my arms around his neck, and didn't even stop myself from planting my face against his chest. "Your little green goblin girlfriend wanted to practice her surgery skills on me. I pushed her out the window. She didn't die, the bitch is still alive, but she's gone."
Crius sighed and leaned down, picking me up in his arms. Truth be told, I could've walked right out of there, but there was no way I was giving up the opportunity to be that close to him, not after I had been so worried. Once I was in his arms, I felt the exhaustion take over and I relaxed my muscles, letting him carry me out to the main area where Alecto stood with her sword drawn and the Pegasus alert.
"It's a shame, but I'm going to have to cut ties with speakeasy now," Crius said, stopping in front of them. "It was Lilith, the nymph. She's corrupted."
I picked up my head glancing over at Alecto. "More than she was before she got infected."
I could hear Lire laugh in my head. Crius tightened his grasp on me. "We have to get out of here. I'm sure you'll come with me, Alecto. What will you do, Lire?"
"I have friends and family I want to check on and then I'm gonna do some research of my own," she responded. "You know how to get ahold of me, Crius. I'll never be too far."
As we walked from the speakeasy to Crius's car, I glanced up at the darkened sky watching the beautiful majestic Pegasus soar off, her wings wide and sparkling. I had no idea where he was taking me, but I trusted him with everything in me, and I couldn't fight back even if I wanted to.
Chapter Fourteen
I was seriously beginning to think that I had slept more since I acquired the light inside of me than I had in the last ten years. Of course, I had also expelled more energy than I think I had kept inside of me my whole life. I had imagined a lot of things about Crius. What his life was like, what he thought about, what he looked like naked. You know, the normal. What I didn't see coming was the place he called home.
We pulled up in front of an apartment complex in the human side of the world. It was dingy, dark, and I had no idea where we were, but it didn't look like the nice side of town. "Uh, side trip to Cleveland?"
Crius stared at me confused as I stood up out of the car, stepping to the side so that Alecto could struggle out of the back seat. She looked up at the complex. "Your castle is in ruin."
Crius rolled his eyes. "It's not my castle. It's a space I have away from the others, a hideout here on Earth side. It's close to something important. Come on."
We headed inside and, luckily, straight down the hall to one of the apartments on the end. As we walked inside, Crius turned to Alecto. "Uh, maybe you can take the door watch. It's a small space and I'm not used to people trampling on my personal area."
She looked to me and I gave her a nod. She stood up straight and put her hand on her sword. "I will guard with honor. Should I be expecting the pizza boy again?"
Crius blinked at her and shook his head as he shut the door. I turned and looked around the space. There was furniture, which was shocking, actual kitchen items, though few and far between, and the place didn't smell like a moldy sock, which was ninety-nine percent of the apartment-dwelling single men I knew. I was starting to wonder if he had actually killed the last owner and taken over his life.
He pointed toward the bathroom. "The shower and such. Then, the bedroom is back here."
He was acting nervous, but for me it felt intimate, but not out of the ordinary. I felt as if being
alone in a home with Crius wasn't strange in the least. It was a feeling that was frustrating as hell, though. Between feeling like two different people, and constantly wanting and needing Crius at my side despite the fact that I had known him less time than my mailman, everything was starting to feel like a memory that I couldn't quite get the full scope of. As I watched him walk along in front of me, I couldn't help but feel like I had seen him do that a million times. The way that his body moved, his muscles flexed, and the slight turnout of his feet was so familiar and comforting.
I had never been in a relationship with anybody long enough to understand the way they walked, at least that I could remember. But for some reason, with Crius it was like he had been there the whole time. Was that how it was when you married someone? Spent your life with someone? You eventually knew exactly how they walked and talked, how the muscles in their back shifted right and left, and how the imperfections in their skin were almost arousing to see. It was strange, but at the same time I didn't ever want the beating of my heart and the pull I felt toward him to stop.
Inside the bedroom, there was a mattress, surprisingly on a bed frame, a sheet on top, and what looked like a warm fur blanket that you would find in some Viking home. I turned to him, my cheeks a little bit red, and cleared my throat. "I can sleep on the couch. I mean, if it's anything like the couch at the bar, I'll be perfectly fine. It probably has less germs too."
He walked past me and grabbed the edge of the blanket, flipping it up in the air several times to lay it straight on the bed. "I can get you more blankets if you’re cold. I won't be needing the bed, so you can stay in here for the night. Quite honestly, you probably won't see much of me anyway."
He turned quickly to walk away and my eyes narrowed. "Hold it right there."
There was no way that I was going to let him get out of questions that easily. I felt like we were supposed to be a team at that point, even if he thought he was protecting me. I've been through a hell of a lot without him over the last twenty-four hours and I wanted to know where he was going. It was starting to feel like if he left me alone again, I might not survive it. He might not survive it. It was important to me that we did things as a team.
Slowly he turned back around, holding his chin high, refusing to make eye contact with me, as if he were a child in trouble. I had to hold back a chuckle. "Where have you been? We're supposed to be working on this corruption together, and you disappeared, and I didn't hear anything from you until five creatures tried to kill me. One nearly did by setting my house on fire, and then your ex-girlfriend tried to slice me open like deli meat. If I'm going to be part of this, if I'm going to use this power that I have, you have to stop treating it like it's not part of me. If you found answers, I want to hear them too."
His eyes shifted to mine, and he stared at me for moment as if he were proud of me for standing up to him. That look quickly faded though, and it was back to dark, stormy, and mysterious. He opened his mouth to say something and I put up my hand quickly. "Before you say anything, I want you to be honest with me. This isn't going to work if you're not honest with me."
His eyes shifted up to the ceiling and he took in a deep breath. "What I had to do concerned my private business. If you need to know about it, I'll let you in."
When he turned to walk away, he grabbed his leg, and I suddenly realized that he had been pushing through yet another wound he had received. He was favoring his left side, and couldn't hide the limp any longer. Seeing him hurt kind of made me feel bad for being such a brat, but at the same time, if I had been there maybe it wouldn't have happened. I stepped forward to stop him. "You know, you don't have to do this on your own. I'm stronger than you think. I have a lot left in me and I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon. The creatures that I met back in the house, they showed me that everyone needs my help, and I need yours."
He looked to his left, letting me know he was listening to me. I took another step forward. "I need you to be in one piece. And I know there's a lot going on, a lot of things that neither one of us can explain, but I know deep down that I can do a whole lot more and help you a whole lot more if I'm with you." My voice trailed off a bit and I looked down at my hands. "I know you feel it too. I'm not going crazy. Don't leave me alone in this."
His forehead wrinkled, and he stood there for a moment, his eyes shifting back and forth as if he had heard me say that before. I tilted my head to the side and reached out for his shoulder, but before I could touch him, he shook his head and walked to the doorway, grabbing the door handle. "Right now, you need to rest. You're too important to…this entire situation. I can't let you be killed because you go out when you're not ready. I'll be back soon enough."
He shut the door behind him, leaving me in the silence and stillness of his room. Frustration had come over me, and it wasn't necessarily because I wasn't going with him, but because whatever he was going through, whatever he was figuring out, he was pulling away from me at the same time.
Chapter Fifteen
Sitting on the bed, I ran my hand over the soft furry blanket and listened to Crius out in the main room doing whatever it was he was doing to prepare to leave again. Everything in me wanted to march out there, to shake my finger at him and tell him he was wrong.
I wanted to stand up for myself and tell him that he wasn't in control of me, and that I was going to go with him no matter what. At the same time though, I knew deep down he was right. The fight between light and dark, combined with getting away from the nymph, was exhausting. I didn't think I could lie down and sleep, but my body was definitely weak. I wasn't sure if I came up against another corrupted soul if I would even be able to help.
Then again, I wasn't sure what my body was capable of at that point. I was constantly underestimating myself, but I had a feeling that wherever he was going, it wasn't a place to test that theory. After about an hour of him clomping around, I walked to the bedroom door and opened it up. Staring across the room, he had opened the front door and was leaving with a bag on his back. He turned back to me, his eyes shimmering silver, and gave me a nod before walking out and shutting the door behind him. He had left me behind, and he wasn't even thinking about taking me.
I took a deep breath and stuck out my bottom lip, rocking back and forth from my heels to my toes, unsure of what to do in the place. I could clean, but that didn't sound like any fun. I glanced over at the bathroom where the light was on and found a bunch of medical supplies strewn all over the place. Apparently, whatever wound he had, he tried to fix it himself. I could only imagine that he would heal faster than I would, but I was also pretty sure whatever wound he had, it would've killed me.
"Well, Mr. Strange and Sexy, if you're not going to tell me about yourself, and you're not going to take me with you, I'll just try to find the answers myself." I smiled as I talked to myself, looking around the place wondering where I should start.
Sure, going through someone's things was not really the nicest thing to do when they were letting you stay at their house and heal, but Crius and I, we didn't have a normal relationship. Hell, I had no idea what kind of relationship we had, but I was going to go through everything he owned until I could to piece together who the man was. I went to work, going through drawers and looking for anything that might be personal to him. His apartment wasn't anything like a normal person's. There was no mail, no notes to himself, not even any trash.
I searched through the kitchen and all its drawers, on top of all the cabinets, throughout the living room, and the drawers of the different bookcases and the desk in the corner. Still, there was nothing there. I moved to his bedroom and opened up his closet, finding no clothes, one pair of boots, and some sort of strange weapon that he had leaned up against the back of the closet. When I found nothing there, I sighed and turned, leaning against the doorframe, crossing my arms over my chest. There wasn't a single photo or letter, or even hand-scribbled note that made it look like there was actually a person who lived there. With my house gone, an
d the few things that I had collected over the years, it was like neither Crius nor I had existed before then.
It made me start to think about my own memories. I had never really had a reason to sit and contemplate my past. Most of my memories were from recent times, and everything else was kind of blurry. I always thought maybe I was on the road to dementia, and forget about any memories from when I was a child. They were even more fractured than my adult memories. I knew that I was an orphan, and because of that, I just assumed there was a reason my mind was blocking it all out. Being an orphan never led to a good backstory and even though I had seen a psychiatrist a couple of times, they could never get me to remember anything.
I walked from the bedroom back into the living room and stood there staring around the space. Maybe there was a reason why I couldn't remember any of that stuff, and why everything else seemed like bits and pieces of someone else's story. But considering the memories I had been having in the dreams, and how that life seemed more comfortable to me than anything else I've been through, maybe it was a life I had purposely blocked out. I put my hands up to my face and shook my head. It sounded absolutely nuts, but then again, we had just ended a war with giant gods, and I had a light inside me that cured people from some sort of strange infection. I guess having a secret past wouldn't be that crazy.
I crossed my arms and figured I might as well go lie down in the bed and cover up with the warm blanket. If Crius was going to make me stay there, then I might as well be as strong as I could when he got back so maybe he would take me the next time. I turned and walked back across the room toward the bedroom. As I reached the bedroom door, I froze, the sound of glass shattering ringing out in my ears.
