Infinite: Power

Chapter 2: Grey

Los Angeles, United States of America

Year 1910

I had a strange sensation of loss. I was already aware I would never lose her in a literal way. However, it was a bit heart-breaking when I saw him holding her hand, ever so delicately, to take her away from me, to place an infinite small distance between us, in what was left for their way to the altar. Clem, surely feeling the same in a minor amount, briefly turned her dashing bright eyes to me. They had such a tender look that disarmed me just before I let her go with Malcolm, the groom.

"Emmett," Lyllet, my youngest cousin, slightly pulled from the end of my sleeve. "You should move aside, you know."

I had been standing in middle of the red carpet more than necessary, still stupefied as I watched my sister side by side with my about-to-be brother in law. I quickly moved to my right and the ceremony officially started.

"I should've married your sister," Felix, my best friend, whispered in my ear as he stared ahead, and his voice had an inch of humor. "But I didn't want you to hate me,"

"If that was you instead of Malcolm, I wouldn't have released her hand." I replied, smiling back. Felix rumpled his dark brown hair and drew back his shoulders.

"Bet you wouldn't." He replied, louder than he probably expected, and several heads turned to glance at us. We lowered our heads, containing a laugh.

Clementine was my only sister. Well, she was my twin sister. Now that she was departing, I could only shudder to imagine how empty our house would be without her. Still, as she stared at her future husband, she looked so immensely and ecstatically happy that I wished I could stop time right then. The eternal singing of birds outside, the touching melody of the piano at the background, the sunlight entering through the numerous and colorful vitreous of the church, the proud smile of Malcolm as he raised the veil to kiss her, the curious relief I felt now that I realized he'd be her safe harbor now... all those things would be sealed inside my memory for the rest of my days.

"Brother, don't be shy!" Clem exclaimed afterwards as they were preparing to leave for their honeymoon. She reached both of her arms out to embrace me tightly. "I will miss you, dear Emmett."

"Nonsense." I chuckled in her ear, swallowing a lump in my throat. "Go and enjoy yourself, live fully each day from now on and don't think about this old lad too much."

She released me, her eyes holding back the tears. I had to breathe quietly for a second to recover my composure.

"You will be back in less than you think, sister." I assured her with a smile and patted her head. "Don't cause troubles to poor Malcolm, please. I don't want to have him returning you to me tomorrow."

As she rolled her eyes, the tears that had been waiting to fall rolled down her cheeks too.

"Find yourself a wife while I am absent, Emmett. You couldn't find a better opportunity!" Clem said to me as she went inside the car. "And she better be half as good as I am!"

"Good riddance!" I waved my hand goodbye and the car got smaller at the distance.

After having a decent meal in the afternoon, I decided to go to meet Felix and my friends at the hippodrome. That day I felt lucky, fortunate, and I needed to get distracted from the nostalgia that the silence in my home brought to me. I was not used to feel so lonely and I would definitely never let myself get used to it. I picked up my hat and stared at myself in the mirror.

"Dear Lord!" I cried, horrified. It seemed like I had aged at least twenty more years. Nobody would have believed I was eighteen. Perhaps the tension for the wedding and the inner depression were reflecting in the outside. "I should take a bath, most definitely."

But the bath delayed me so much that I had lost track of time as I relaxed in the hot, steaming water. My friends would certainly be furious if I didn't show up. Curiously, that afternoon the clouds covered every trace of sunray, making the day quite different from how it had been at the morning. It was summer in California, how come the sky would look as cloudy as that? To make it worse, rain started to fall little by little, drop by drop, and I could not catch a proper taxi anywhere. People hurried in the streets, running as though the devil were chasing them. I was only thankful I had brought my hat along to cover my easy-to-get-tangled blond hair.

I glanced at my watch, already knowing it was late.

"I should take the alleys," I said, encouraging myself. Alleys were somehow dangerous but now that it was raining, even thieves seemed to worry about getting wet. There was not a

soul out there and I almost felt like I had to run, just like the other people. "What is, exactly, the point of running from rain? It rains ahead and it rains at the back. One certainly doesn't get drier for doing so."

As I walked around a corner, getting tired of hearing my own voice, I found there was one person standing right in my way, a few steps away. It was as though a dim fog surrounded him, and the place around us. He was wearing a long dark coat and I could not see any other detail, for the rain had started to fall with more strength and intensity. I tried to walk my way around him.

"Good afternoon, sir." I greeted him as I walked past him. He stood in his position, apparently not troubled at all that he was soaked in water. I briefly glanced at his face and continued...

I stopped.

My heart was racing. I wondered if it had been a mind hallucination, or perhaps the foggy sight had tricked me, before I turned around ever so carefully to corroborate that I had seen wrong. There was something in his face that had made me spin back to stare at him in disbelief.

His hair was thin and strangely silvery, sparkled by very, very few yellow hairs. Because of the water, it was messy. His face had a long, straight nose and sharp features. He had a recently-grown beard and a hard expression. Then, he turned a burning gaze to me, locking eyes.

His face... I knew the face, but it was wrong.

"Hi, Emmett." Felix said. I gasped.

That face, even the small mole under the right corner of his lips, was similar – if not identical – to Felix's face. The mouth, curled in a stubborn grimace proper in his family; the slightly pronounced cheekbones...

"Fe—Felix??" I could not hide my shock. "Whatever happened to you!?"

It was Felix, but at the same time it wasn't. Yet, this was no twin. This was not... natural. I could perceive it. The dark brown hair was gone, replaced by this strange white hair shining at the white light from the cloudy sky. He looked even older... perhaps, twenty-six or twenty-seven? Every nerve of my organism was paralyzed, certain that whatever that person was doing there, it was not for anything ordinary. My heart, in state of alert, obliged me to lean in closer, to stare at him with the most intense disbelief at the suspense of the question about why that... creature even existed.

Immobile, I stood up there, as the rain fell between the two of us. He seemed to want to say something. I noticed some marked circles under his eyes and a few little wrinkles.

This was an older version of Felix. It was like staring at his father. But, of course, I had seen his father before and it was nothing like this.

"In the name of the Lord," I began, trying to sound firm. "What in the world are you?"

To my horror, he replied.

"I know exactly what you're thinking, man. Trust me." His voice – his very own voice – and his accent sounded quite strange. Lazy. Dragging the words. I had never heard anyone speaking in such manner. "But don't be afraid now, okay?"

"I am not." I replied, with indignation. Felix's older version curled one side of his mouth upwards and nodded.

"Alright, that's alright," He said and his expression turned stern. "Because you're gonna be."

Right before I could continue, his two hands collapsed against my chest and pushed me back as if I had received an electric shock. I fell into a deep, dark abysm instead of the wet, solid floor I had expected to find beneath me.

It felt like dying.

And, perhaps, I did.