Static Reflections: Book 1 of The Mortal Guard Series

Chapter 39 - Boris: Immortal Consequence

Chapter 39 - Boris: "Immortal Consequence"

That night, Boris had returned to the dream world that Absalom took him to when he wanted to speak with him. The otter had a feeling that the demon would bring him back here once he was unable to kill Pierce. Absalom would give him a different target when he couldn't murder the first.

Back in the chair Boris always sat in; he waited for that spotlight to come on behind him. Minutes passed of staying in the blackness, and it never did. "Hello!" The otter called. Still no response. "Hello?!" Quietly, in the distance, the beginning of that song played again.

Under blue moon, I saw you.

So soon you'll take me.

Up in your arms too late to beg you.

Or cancel it, though I know it must be

The killing time,

Unwillingly mine.

A small flame appeared in front of him, casting an orange glow across his dark fur. Boris watched closely; then, he looked around. "Absalom?! Hello?!"

The song got louder.

Fate, up against your will.

Through the thick and thin,

He will wait until

You give yourself to him.

Boris let a frightened noise escape him as the flame swiftly expanded, surrounding him in a circle, the height increasing almost three times what it used to be. The song continued in the distance, sounding more muffled than before. Without warning, the chair levitated off the cement floor and then flipped over, hanging Boris upside down. The straps tugged at his wrists and rubbed at his shins, the blood beginning to rush to his head.

In starlit nights I saw you.

So cruelly, you kissed me.

Your lips a magic world,

Your sky all hung with jewels.

The killing moon

Will come too soon.

Boris yelled out again, the heat from the surrounding fire causing the suit he was wearing to get moist from his sweat, pressing against his chest. "ABSALOM!"

"Boris," the voice finally responded. "Sorry, little puppet, but I must punish you for failing to kill Pierce Tucker."

"F-failing?! What?!" the otter yelled. "I couldn't! You . . . you saw!"

"You didn't think to stake it?!" Absalom responded. The flames below Boris crawled across the floor, lacing from each side of the fire to cover the circle's area. The shadow form he took was still nowhere evident.

"Where the hell would I have gotten a stake?! Is this some sort of joke?!" Boris screamed at him.

"Don't you know how power works in this world? True power is limited," Absalom explained. "You can take power away from someone and add it to your own with the right abilities, but that power dwindles fast. For my goals, I needed you to kill at least two animals in a short time, yet you failed to murder Pierce Tucker and took them in as a spit in my face."

"N-no!" Boris struggled against his bindings. "I didn't do it to spite you! You told me to bring them along!"

"I also told you that that was your target. You failed the real test," Absalom hissed, Boris's chair lowering toward the flame lashing out at his head below.