“Jay, I’ll explain things to you later. Now we have to hurry to the top floor.”
He didn’t move. He stood there, looking at his hands, searching for a clue of what had happened but he was unable to find any.
Shit, I fucked everything up.
“Jay, please trust me on this. We have to go. Now!” I said to him one last time.
This time, he heard me and managed to snap from his deep thoughts. I felt bad for not telling the truth, but something was wrong here, and it was closely connected to the cube reacting to something in this building.
We ran all the way to the elevators, and we all rode one. In a moment, we were on the top floor, the only lit up place of the whole building. I could hear the clanking of metal on metal, the distinctive sound of a fight.
“It comes from the main room. We have to hurry,” Silver said.
As we ran to the main area of the floor, I could see three men fighting. I recognized the tattoos on the sleeveless arms of the two of them, signs of the Originators.
I stopped and urged the rest of them to do the same. “Stop. We’ll only get on their way. They are Originators, the most elite soldiers of the known galaxy. We’ll only make things worse if we rush in there now.”
I had seen Originators fight in the past, but this was nothing like that. The duo moved in perfect unison, backing each other up, using their bodies as support, making the impossible possible. Exactly like Dark Jay had done before.
I looked at Jay, but he seemed way too lost in his thoughts. I didn’t know what to do to make him come back, but it was like our time together was not enough for him to get more intimate with me.
I was ready to say something when I heard a loud shout coming from inside the room, where the battle raged.
“Antony!” a woman bellowed.
Their adversary, a man with a dark red demon mask in the style of the ancient Japanese ones, ornate with black lines and two, small horns, managed to kill one of the two Originators.
I capped my mouth with my hand, and I tried to understand what was going on. Then, with one broad swing, the red demon decapitated the other Originator.
All of us stood still, frozen in the sight of two of the most elite soldiers getting killed by a total stranger. I wanted to run and help them, but I was too late. The other man picked something up from their bodies and headed for the window leading outside.
Before he jumped, he looked straight to our way and waved. I didn’t know if that was meant as some kind of taunt or something, but I felt anger boiling inside my chest.
“What has happened?” Silver was the first one to talk.
I rushed into the room, Jay and Zan behind me. “Silver, scan their bodies for traces of the Nusae energy. We have to know what was that this man took,” I said, trying to hold back my tears.
I wanted to promise I would avenge them, but I didn’t know if I could. So, my best hope was to make sure I solved this Great Mystery so that their deaths weren’t in vain.
“Eladia, we have a problem. There is a bomb on the ground floor, a bomb ready to burst. We have to hurry, now!”
“Shit. No signs about any Nusae artifacts?”
“No! Please, let’s go! We don’t have enough time!”
I swore behind my teeth once again, and I decided it was too late now to search their bodies. Only that Jay thought otherwise.
“Jay! Jay, we have to go! Come on!”
But there was something shining in his hand. While holding the cube, he revealed the faces of the two fallen Originators. I charged next to him only to see two very familiar faces on the floor.
“Jessie? Antony?”
I heard someone calling that name before but I thought what were the chances it was that Antony?
“Do you know them?” Jay asked me.
“Yes. Well, I thought I knew them. I’ll make sure to explain everything to you Jay, but we have to go. Now!”
He nodded and we quickly used the elevator to get downstairs. It was not the safer choice, not by far, but we were fifty floors up in the sky and using the stairs would make it impossible to make it in time.
We ran towards the entrance only to see Ron, the guard, waiting for us on the ground floor.
“Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for you for over ten minutes.”
“Run Ron. Run if you want to live!” I said out loud, but it was too late.
The bomb exploded only a second after we took a step out of the building. I saw Ron get buried under the falling rumbles. There was nothing I can do but cry.
We were alive but so many people died today because of this Nusae artifact. I didn’t know that for sure, but something in my mind told me that this tiny thing was the reason behind everything that had happened here today.
I turned around me to look at Jay, only to see him walk away. I rushed to his side and stopped him before taking another step forward.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“Leave me alone. You lied to me. You were lying to me from the start. There is something inside me, right? Something that takes over my body and kills in my place?”
He knows.
“I can explain. Please…”
“Just leave it human. Esuh means lonely, and now I understand why.”
I wanted to follow him but at that moment, amidst the dirt of the destroyed embassy, I saw someone moving straight into a back alley.
Another demon, this one with a blue mask, ran away from the crime scene. It was either that or my imagination was playing tricks on me.
Either way, once again, I ran after Jay, the man with the two faces, the alien I had started to fall in love with.
The only thing I could do now was to chase him and talk to him but in my mind, I cherished the moments we spent together on that chilly roof.
I wished that that moment had never ended.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Eladia
Mosa was believed to be impenetrable. Mosa, humanity’s greatest city, the jewel of Yaerus. When I see the rumbles of the Great Embassy lying all around me, I can’t help but feel fear grow inside me about my planet, my race, about myself. And yet, the only thing in my mind, even among this chaos, is what does Jay feel about me?
Can I earn his trust again?
I don’t know. Nonetheless, I keep running after him. Well, not run but certainly limp. Having just survived a fifty-floors plunge to our deaths, we are mostly fine except some minor injuries. Jay, however, is the only one that seems seriously hurt, lying on the ground, his face filled with blood.
It’s a miracle that we’re all still alive.
Before I can even begin to understand what’s going on, Jay is on his feet, trying to get away from me. I don’t know how he’s able to even stand or where he finds that inner strength to keep moving, but I’m not sure I want to find out soon. Probably, he’s trying to get away from me.
Behind me, Zan and Silver try to keep up with us. Zan is in shock while Silver remains the same emotionless android as always. To be honest, I don’t blame her. She’s not programmed to have feelings after all.
Everything is blurry. I...I don’t know what to think anymore. Today is the first day I saw someone die in front of me and the day a building collapsed on me while we were still inside. If I’m in shock, it certainly feels empty in here; empty and distant.
Yeah, that’s the word...distant.
“Eladia...you should back off. Give him some space. He doesn’t want to see you now,” Silver says to me although I hear nothing except my name.
Eladia.
My name is not mine if it doesn’t come from his lips.
God, I’m so selfish. The world just crumbled and fell on my head and the only thing I can think is our moments up on that roof. When he got me naked under that chilly sky and made love to me.
The distance between us shortens with every step. Soon, I’ll be able to catch up to him. But what am I going to say to him then? Am I ready to face him?
His da
rk expression is imprinted on my mind, his eyes sparkling flames of blame. I want to stop following him but I can’t. I can’t turn back now. We’re way too deep into this to stop.
“I told you before human, stop following me,” he suddenly says.
Jay stops. His voice is a mix of cold and blank feelings. There is nothing in there reminding me of the old Jay, my Jay.
“You know I can’t do that. We have to talk. I want to explain to you how I feel,” I say, but I know my words can’t reach him.
A cloud of dirt covers everything around us. It must have been over half an hour already since the time the bomb on the Great Embassy set off. Only a haunting silence remains now. Are there more victims? Was there something I could do to stop it?
“There is nothing...there is nothing you can do now. You were lying to me...you...you…” he keeps saying, muttering. For a moment it feels like he isn’t talking to me but to himself.
“I had to keep this secret from you, Jay. You don’t know what your other self can do.”
I can hear the despair in my voice; despair and misery. What troubles me the most, however, is that if I can hear it, then it’s sure that Jay must have picked up on that himself. I feel something running down my back. It’s itching and hot. There’s a voice inside me telling me that it’s blood. I choose to ignore it.
“You speak like you wanted to protect me, but you only wanted to protect yourself,” he says.
Jay starts walking away from me again.
My body feels heavy, and I want to sit down and rest for a while, but I know that we don’t have much time before the police arrive. Jay is an Esuh, part of an extinct alien species. If the police find out about him, they will keep him stranded in a research facility somewhere on Yaerus and experiment on him for many years before they let him go. I can’t let that happen.
I’m ready to take another step forward when Zan rushes to my side and stops me.
“You don’t have to do this. Jasih is afraid and alone. Jasih is like Zan before he met Silver.”
The young boy sounds anxious and sad. He’s wearing normal clothes now, and he doesn’t walk on his fours all the time, but he’s still hairier than common humans, even though Silver insists in grooming him every two weeks or so. His dark hair makes him look older than his real age, and his green eyes sparkle in the middle of the night.
Still, even he’s right.
My lips curl upwards in a tilted smile. I stretch my hand and touch his thick-with-hair head. I pat him; he seems confused for a moment.
“You can’t be more right, Zan. But like you’ve found Silver, Jay needs to find that one person he can communicate with. Only that he’s not so good at talking as you were when we first met you. That’s why I have to chase him and teach him how to talk,” I say.
I’m not sure he understands completely but still, he nods. Hell, I’m not sure I know what I’m saying myself. I’m just another Chronicler trying to follow the trail of clues the Nusae left behind before vanishing. The Great Mystery seems an easier task to tackle now, certainly easier than finding the right words to mend this situation.
And so, I keep following him.
Zan wants to come after me, but Silver stops him. He tries complaining, but the last thing I hear is Silver saying to him: “she has to do this alone.”
That’s a pretty wise comment from a robot that thinks in ones and zeroes. She must have picked this up from a film or something.
Five minutes later, we’re still walking. We have wandered off the area of the destroyed embassy. I’m not sure where we are, but we’re still walking. In time, I hear the first sirens of police vehicles echo in the dead silence of the night. The flying shuttles head to the area of the destroyed building, their blue and red lights flashing prominently.
My attention is drawn to them so much that I forget for a moment that I’m on a mission to win back Jay’s trust. When I turn my head to check on him, I quickly notice that he has stopped walking. He’s standing perfectly still. My heart skirts wildly; the first thing that comes to my mind is that he must have changed his mind, that he wants to talk to me after all.
“Jay...,” I start, but he doesn’t react to my voice.
He’s just standing there, his statuesque build towering before me. I can still feel his hot breath on my neck when he hugged me before, on that roof. This time, even though we’re just a breath away from each other, I know I have to keep my hands to myself.
I open my mouth to say something, but the words never come. Even though I’m not ready to give up on him yet, I don’t know what to say. So, I grab my ponytail and pull it down to a tighter knot.
I start putting random words in a line, forming sentences; it sounds like talking, but I’m not sure it’s me that it does it.
“The first time I saw you, you were just a tall man with a really pale skin sleeping inside a cryo-pod. The only thing I thought back then was that these pods have the power to last for years and that I have to set you free from your eternal sleep. However, that day, when we got attacked by a pack of wild animals that tried to kill us, you fought them with all your strength, but you couldn’t win.
“And that’s when your dark self, woke up and protected us all. With ash gray skin and bloodlust filling his eyes, the man inside you took over and almost killed us. I was afraid, thinking that the next time you turn, the same thing will happen again.
“So, we all agreed that it would be better if we never said anything to you. And that worked for the first six months, while we were traveling from planet to planet. You didn’t change, not even once and even we had started to forget our own lies. Around that time, Silver came up with a theory that you only change when you’re in a pinch, like when you hit your head, or you’re in danger. How could I’ve known that you could also change when making love to me?”
Throughout my monolog, Jay doesn’t talk, not even once. If he’s giving me the cold shoulder, then he’s way too good and way too stubborn. It’s not like him to not say anything, even when he knows he’s right. He always wants to have the last word.
So, I walk around him and get in front of him. His body is stiff and full of dark red stains. I was sure that there were countless wounds under his clothes, but I never expected to see him collapse. Jay falls to the ground, first hitting his back and then his head.
The pain must have been immense. He came back for a second, shouting in pain before his eyes rolled back and he passed out again.
Fear hits me like a cold wave of water. I start shaking seeing him lie on the ground motionless, lifeless. I want to do something, but I feel like my will has abandoned my body. Fortunately, Silver and Zan appear out of nowhere and take over.
Jay was the only thing giving me the strength I needed to stay conscious. Now that he collapsed, my legs start trembling, and my stomach is trying to push more bile out of my body.
I manage to hold back a new round of throwing up, but I’m way too tired to keep my eyes open. So, without saying anything to my friends, I make the two steps needed towards the nearby pavement and sit on the concrete. Before I know it, I’m lying there, sleeping the sadness off.
It has been a long day.
Chapter Thirty
Jay
I’m standing on the roof of a building. It feels familiar, but I can’t get my mind to focus enough to recognize it. The sky is dark, and there is nothing to do up here but watch the city fade under my feet.
I take a step towards the edge of the roof, and I get the feeling that I’ve lived in this exact moment before. It’s that feeling when you know what’s going to happen, and everything feels familiar to you even though you know you’ve never been to that place before.
I take a good look around me, but I can’t understand where I am. For now, I’m on the roof of a city in the middle of nowhere.
Suddenly, a girl appears before me, a girl with long, blond hair and shining, blue eyes. That girl is the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen, so beautiful that I can’t thi
nk myself doing anything illicit to her. She’s a creature made of pure light, her whole body shining like a star.
It takes me a minute to figure that the young woman is standing on the ledge of the roof, one foot hanging over the edge.
“Hello?”
My word echoes around me like I’m in an empty room, making the whole place seem even more empty than it already is. The girl never replies to me; she only stands up there, leaning at the end of the roof.
Right then I realize that something is wrong with her. The light doesn’t come from her but from behind her. Soon, the glow gets more intense, strong enough to swallow the city whole in its brightness.
“Run! Don’t just stand there!!! Jump!” I start saying to her.
Jump!
This word echoes deep inside me like it’s a command I have to follow. I’m vaguely aware that I just said that to myself, but it doesn’t make it easier to disobey it.
Soon, the light is strong enough that I can’t do anything but close my eyes. There is no sound anymore, anything except a murmur coming from the distant dark.
“Jay...Jay...”
That name again. Who is calling me in that name?
Her voice is like a beacon of hope in this blinding light. Out of nowhere, a name pops in my mind:
Eladia.
“Jay, are you alright? Oh my god, Jay, you’re finally awake!”
When I open my eyes, the first thing I notice is that I’m not in pain anymore. In fact, it feels like I’m better than the last time I found myself waking up from a mystery slumber.
I take a deep breath and look around me only to see a line of familiar faces. Eladia is standing above me, her black hair caught in that hideous tail as always, but her brown eyes big and beautiful as I remember them.
Silver, the Android with the holographic human parts is sitting two feet behind her, close enough for me to see her but too far to talk to me. On her side, the wild boy from Primordial Earth, Zan, seems worried in his own, stoic way, sitting next to her.
Jasih: Paranormal Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Àlien Mates Book 2) Page 13
