Symbiota Sapiens

Chapter 14

I was back in the club, right before all this started. Dancing with this hot girl. Yes. This is how it was. I remember. She was sliding against me, melting against me, wanting me. Wanting me to kiss her, to touch her, to make her immortal forever.

No...that can't be right. This was before.

But the way she pressed her body against me. That's what she wanted, right? Or without the young forever part. And then the runner came...

And there he is, I'm kissing her throat but I feel the shift in balance as his hard body leans into us. I feel the heat coming from his skin and his hands brush against me, too, as he reaches around to explore her body.

I look up and oddly it's Julian there. The young version, staring back at me intensely. Locking eyes with me. And for some reason I can't look anywhere but into eyes that are wise beyond the youthful face.

"She's just a girl, Jer. She doesn't mean anything to you, does she? Just a body. Look at her face."

With his permission I am able to look at her face but...it's not there. Nothing. No matter how I try I can't see her face.

"What is this? What did you do to her?" I demand.

"Me? This is your dream. I'm disconnected from you right now, remember?"

"Oh. You."

It's the Kid, invading my dreams.

"No. This is all you. All your memory. Amazing detail, huh? Right down to the texture of skin. But you don't remember her face do you? Yeah. Like I said. Just a body."

"I would have remembered. Stuff happened." I protested.

"Oh yeah. This."

Suddenly Julian was growing, aging before my eyes until he was as he is now. Eighteen. Strong, confident.

He reaches towards me, puts his arms around me, pulling me towards him, and he kisses me on the lips before pulling back, an angry look on his face.

"You want a girl, don't you? You've just got to have a girl to feel like you’re really a man! So fine, here she is, you bastard! But don't you forget it's me you're doing it with! I'm the one touching you, kissing you, loving you!"

The girls clothes disappeared but I barely cared when Julian leant forward to kiss me again.

Then suddenly it changed. The faceless girl suddenly surged upwards, knocking Julian and me both away from her as her wrathful features suddenly surfaced from the fuzzy gloom that had obscured it.

I stepped towards Julian to protect him, but then she was Elena, radiating power and anger as she raised one hand, and an unseen force blocked me from reaching him.

"YOU were to PUT HIM ASIDE! HOW DARE YOU DEFY your DUTY! You would throw away the fate of the world FOR A MORTAL!?" She bellowed, her telepathic blast pounding into my head with spikes of pain.

"I never asked for your damn duty!" I screamed back at her, and was knocked over by a blast of energy.

"YOU WERE PRIVELEGED TO RECEIVE THE GIFT. THE FIRST SUCH GIFT IN DECADES. THERE IS A PRICE. IT IS HIM."

Julian was raised into the air as if by an invisible hand on his neck, struggling weakly.

"PATHETIC!"

"Leave him alone!" I begged. "Please. I love him! I don't care if he's mortal, he's my friend and my brother and I love him!"

"HOW STUPID OF YOU TO INVOLVE HIM IN THIS, THEN." Elena lectured. "DID YOU THINK HE WOULD SURVIVE THIS GAME AS HE IS? LOOK, HE IS ALREADY A CASUALTY."