What Lies Between ✔

Freakshow

Ben: Part 2

***

"It's such an odd feeling, the feeling of digestion," Kairos was saying around a large bite of chocolate chip muffin. "And taste! Taste is so wonderful. I cannot believe how much I have been missing out on!" Her eyes were so round and shiny staring down at the half-gone muffin, reminding me of the cartoon characters I used to watch on T.V every Saturday morning with Josh as a kid. "The chocolate is glorious!"

"It's only a muffin, nothing special. You should have stayed with Adrian and them in that restaurant," I said, feeling guilty that I hadn't insisted she'd gone back to eat something a little more worthy of her first meal. I had forgotten all I had on me was the coins jangling around in my pockets.

"Sometimes the things that seem most trivial are what matter the most," she said, pulling off a chunk of muffin top and popping it hungrily into her mouth. "Well, that's what Lidia says anyway."

"The chick who wanted to kill me back in Purgatory?" I asked. "And what matters about a muffin? It's a pastry."

"Simple things are worth being cherished, like this delectable pastry," she smiled, crumbs falling from the corners of her mouth. "And Lidia's intentions were not to kill you, they were to protect me."

"Yeah, protect you by kicking my ass."

"In her defense, you did look quite threatening in that shadow form of yours. Are you able to do that in every realm you travel to?"

"Every realm I've been in so far, yeah. I just show up like that, or I'm just see-through."

"Hmm, can you do it even in this realm, while in your body?"

"Don't know, never tried. I kind of like to stay solid."

"Ha," she said thoughtfully. "I wonder why your soul takes the form of a shadow? I've never heard of such a thing before." She wiped her hand across her crumby lips.

"Use a napkin," I scolded, handing her a few. "I don't know why. Why can I see auras? Why can I travel? What's with this energy blasting shit I can do? Mostly, why the hell is this all starting now? I could see things before, spirits, auras, but it's like ever since I came into contact with you, it just spiraled out of control."

"Me?"

"Yeah, you're the only difference in my life recently. Well, you and those losers we somehow acquired. But I guess I've always been kind of weird."

"Unnatural, indeed," she agreed, nodding to herself. "Souls normally look like living people, unless they are in the Living Realm where their presence is repressed by the massive amount of life energy. It takes a while for the soul to absorb enough energy if they do not have a living vessel to possess or their own body to return to. It takes awhile to adapt and look solid again. That's why Ghosts appear transparent on earth."

"Except you have no problem gaining energy when you're a soul. You became a solid human within hours of arriving here," I pointed out to her.

"Because I am part demonic, perhaps," she grumbled as she rubbed a napkin in the corners of her mouth, a hint of repulsion in her voice. "I do not know much about Demons, but I do know they enjoy taking what is not theirs. The life energy of other beings is probably no exception." Then her brows knitted together as she stopped dabbing at her mouth, slowly lowering her hand. "Hey Ben, you know what I realized?"

"What would that be?" I asked, watching her expression carefully. I could see sadness stirring in her eyes.

"Hydra is Typhon's daughter. That makes her my sister, and any other child of his my sibling." She gave a shudder. "I had always thought about what it would be like, meeting my family. I knew that my parents would not be perfect, but never did I think that..." her words trailed off, her face becoming drawn.