INMARCESIBLE

INMARCESIBLE - 8

Eric_

My tiredness made me hang limp like wet laundry on a cold still day. I felt like every muscle was giving into gravity. What I wanted was sleep, a nice warm bed and a solid night of dreams. But they won't let me have that. I couldn't have chaos outside and chaos in here too. I could feel the fear in my chest waiting to take over. Perhaps it only wanted to protect me from what's out there. It sat there like an angry ball propelling me towards an anxiety I couldn't afford to let loose. When anxiety and fear grabbed me by the tongue and dried my mouth, I didn't panic anymore. I've been there before, I knew the feeling, and knowing it makes it less scary - I was all the stronger from my battle scars. So instead of letting it take me down, I told myself everything will be alright. I reminded myself of her, the reason for my existence. I couldn't forget my goals, of the wager I made. I couldn't give up now. Fear can only hold me back, stop me from reaching them. I couldn't say it never comes again, but the taste of near victory made it a little easier. Saraphina was the answer to all my fears. To all my demons. And I couldn't deny the fact that I needed her desperately.

But I realized she was broken, but not unmendable. Even if she was, I was going to force her to heal. The way she was now, she was of no use to me.

"It seems like your cute little plan failed to work out." Helen and her annoying voice rang in my ears as she appeared out of nowhere. This fiend tended to do that from time to time, startling me that is.

"Shut up and be evil somewhere else Helena." I couldn't help grousing.

"Aww! Why so grumpy little Benny? I was just trying to comfort you out of your woes. Besides, you need about as much comforting as possible right about now." Her smirk was one that of a venomous snake that knew it bit real hard at the very right spot, "The clock is ticking my love. You don't have much time."

True. Time was what was of essence to me right now. Now that I watched time dissolving before my eyes like a mirage across the desert, I realized there was a time I never gave thought to all the time that enclosed my life into only a small speck in a timeline. In that time, I had so much time that I let it slide through my fingers like worthless pennies; so much time that I let it vanish like a magician in an act; and now I realized that I had so much time, and I wasted it all like it was nothing. And looking back at all my wasted time now, I couldn't help but regret it all, for today might be my last tomorrow.   

Slowly but connivingly, she moved into my personal space and pressed her body against me. Her body soft and poised, yet held just the right blend of venom and wickedness within it. Her dark eyes, that of a predator was a bottomless pool of eerie darkness; her eyes were no longer human and I could not see any whites of her eyes nor the vessels that flowed through them. They were the depths of Tartarus holding a thousand souls within. "You would do so much better if you just came to me Ben." She slithered her hands under my shirt to feel me up with a look of beastly discern.

I grabbed her over friendly hands and ripped them off me in irritation. "Don't make me manhandle you Helena. It certainly wouldn't end well for you, I assure you."

She just tsk in annoyance and withdrew in sullenness. "Remember Ben, you can never escape fate. Not without me at least."

I decided I was going to change my fate the moment I signed the contract, and I was very far from giving up yet. Not yet!

....••••....

Saraphina_ 

"Who are you?" I asked him. He was still staring at me as if he knew me inside and out. 

"Are you not Chelsea?" He seemed to mistake me for someone else. But the ache of familiarity was so powerful, I began second-guessing myself. 

"No. My mistake," he shook his head into a sad smile. "It couldn't have been her. I am sorry I mistook you for someone else." His eyes had the kind of look as if the woman he was looking for was the beginning and ending of his world. Definitely a lover.