The Enki

Chapter 32

I can't see yet but I hear a faint drip and the soft beeping of machines. When I open my eyes, I am momentarily blinded by the clinical lights. Was I hospital? The last thing I remember was the knife..  CHRISTOPHE!

I frantically try to pull myself off the bed I'm lying on, but realise my hands are bound to the bed and I was wearing a hospital gown. This wasn't good at all. The complete fear I feel, is unlike anything I have ever felt before. The brain fog that I have mixed with my complete imprisonment was terrifying. So many thoughts raced through my mind, was I going to end up like my mother? I am completely hopeless. I reach out for Christophe but I feel nothing. I feel nothing. I was always one for trying to remain positive. Perhaps we are so far away we can't feel each other? But he always said that we would be connected.

I hear steps approaching the door and  I automatically try to fix my gown realising I don't have use of my hands.  The door opens and Magnus enters. He looks as tall as ever and even more like a viking with a flowing shirt and leather trousers. He walks over to the bed and I feel so exposed.

"Magnus, don't you dare touch me".

"Is it Rose you prefer or Taqeph?

He was trying to goad me, but I was fine with that as long as it meant he didn't touch me.

"Taqeph is pretty new to me, so Rose is fine. Is your real name Magnus, or was that another lie?"

He laughs, not cruelly, but almost charming.

"I don't think I lied as much as you believe I did".

"Really Magnus? You were working with my father, trying to get close to me. For what? Why am I hear? What did you do with Christophe?"

"Lots of questions Rose, but I'm not sure I have all the answers".

I was getting frustrated now, but I hold back tears. I wouldn't let him see me cry.

"What do you have the answer to?"

"Your future, beautiful one"

I laugh, what future did he imagine me having? Dread started to creep up on me.

"My future, with who?"

He smiles and then I know it.

"No way. Not you. Never. I won't agree to if. Ever."

Magnus comes to sit down on the edge of the bed and I try to shuffle away. He reaches out and strokes my hair.

"Rose, I've been around for a long time. I've experienced a lot. You've read about history in books, I've lived through it. Our kind. We've done well for ourselves. We remain relatively hidden from the world. But it isn't the was things should be! We are gods on Earth. Our powers not even the mother can control. You've felt it. I know it. Deep down you know it's our time to take what was ours by right."

"That's all very romanticised Magnus, but my mother tells a different story".

Magnus frowns and tenses up.

"Yes, she probably does. The question is, who do you believe? You love Christophe right? He is for our kind you know? He doesn't want for us to fade into the past like we never existed at all".

I remember the blade piercing his body.

"Speaking of, what did you do with Christophe?"

I can't hide the nervousness from my voice. I love him. I knew he couldn't die unless by his own hand, so he was alive, but what level of alive he was? That was a different story.

"I imagine he'll be suffering. Its strange you know, your father doesn't care much for you, but he seems to have taken Christophe transitioning you very badly. I mean, I told him that it was all a means to an end, but he was still annoyed".

Magnus had a point, it was strange. The feelings were mutual. I didn't care much for him either. Then I had a thought.

"A means to an end? To what? What end?"

"Silly girl, you really can't be that stupid".

No I wasn't but I didn't really want to say out loud my worst fear.

"Don't patronise me Magnus".

His hand grips my face, tight enough to hold it in place and he plants a soft kiss on my lips. I want to scream but something tells me it wouldn't make much of a difference.

"Rose, we had something once, a connection. I wonder if Christophe hadn't got to you first, whether you would have come to me willingly".

"Doesn't it make you sick, to know that you are going to force me to have sex with you against my will?"

I want to kill him. I reach out, trying my hardest to release energy from my hands but there is nothing. Magnus notes my struggle.

"You are in a negative energy zone Rose, its keeping all your power inside of you. Your father didn't take any risks with your mother and he certainly won't with you".

It was pointless. I could feel myself giving up.

"Rose, this really doesn't need to be a thing. Try reframing it. Dont you want to be the mother that saves the Enki?"

"Its rape Magnus, not matter how you try to fluff it up. You are forcing me to have sex with you against my will. Don't you feel any shame? Are you completely void of humanity?"

"We transcend humanity.."

"BULLSHIT. We are here to protect humanity, to protect the world. Not try to grab power every which way me want it".

"You know nothing of our race, of our struggles. You cannot know what we have all been through".

"You are talking about rape Magnus, rape. Rape of me, rape of humanity, rape of the world. No wonder the mother wants us dead, when we abuse her gift so awfully".

He stops and doesn't reply. He looks at me. His facade of the charming viking wears of and I see uncertainty cross his face. Eventually he gets up and walks towards the door. Looking back he says:

"Regardless of how we feel, it has to be done. You will come to see the truth. Until then I won't touch you. It'll make me unpopular with your father, perhaps he will send someone else in my place. It would be best for both of us if we worked together. Think about Rose. Believe me when I say, I am a lot more agreeable than your father. You may not love me. You may hate me. But if it means that I can hold an Enki baby in my arms and know we saved our race. Then I'll be the bad guy. You can hurt me every single day for the rest of our lives. Fine."

Damn him. Damn him to hell if it even exists. I had zero choice. I could fight it or I could live with it. Wait for the moment that I could escape, like my mother did.

Magnus leaves the room and I cry at the loss of myself, my independence, my soul and my virginity.

I hear the door open and expect to see Magnus, but I see my father instead. An almost perfect reflection of myself except the pure evil that exists within.