Todlich Unterwasser Gefahr (Deadly Underwater Danger-Pt. 10)
14:56 Dec 18 2009
Times Read: 695
(Bear with me, this a write in progress...IT HAS ALSO COME TO MY ATTENTION RECENTLY THAT MY GERMAN ISN'T PERFECT. If you can correct my sentence structure, let me know...)
"My name is Chrisim," my guest replied softly. "I won't say I cannot be dangerous, but I am not what you are thinking, young Neil." Young? I am tired of people calling me that. I may not be hundreds or thousands of years old, but I was still not young either. Regardless, it told me he was an ancient of some variety, or an egotistical ass who liked to lord his age over others. I had seen all kinds by now. I only had the name to go by for gender, but I was almost certain I was accurate.
I was astounded when the concealing layers continued to be removed from his head. I glanced at the fire. The play of colors within it were the same as his hair. It was the colors seen in tiger lilies and streaked with black amid the flaming oranges, reds and yellows. He was far too gray and frigid to be a fire elemental. This only confused me more.
"Stop trying to figure out what I am," Chrisim stated exasperation. "What doesn't matter to you."
"You don't like the owner of this house," I stated swiftly. "I am going to assume by the fireworks on the door that he dislikes you also. So, perhaps I should ask who you are...something besides your name."
The heavy coat came off. I had been right...male. His hair was in a heavy ponytail, but with the removal of the coat I noted the length. It was down to his lower calves and doubled from halfway down his back to the upper part of the leg. That meant his hair was longer than he was tall.
I looked towards the open door to the lake beyond with a thoughtful frown. "Nevermind, you are a Mer," I said wistfully. "That explains why the lake is dangerous, but not what you are doing on shore."
A frown crossed his face. I caught it out of the corner of my eyes and turned back to face him curiously. "I saw you and thought the vampire had returned here," Chrisim stated simply. "He left a few things...unsaid...between us. I merely wished to speak my peace and be gone, only I didn't find him here. I found you."
"Well, his twin was almost killed. I escaped and I am in hiding from the wretched asshole." I was still too upset by that disturbing bit of information to contain the fury it caused. The vampire and my agent...twins, with a twin bond...I would die here. "Too bad I didn't finish it when I had the chance," I suddenly growled in frustration. That caused his frown to deepen drastically. "You don't like him. Surely, you don't like his twin either!"
"You are protected in his home," the Mer stated looking shocked. "Why would that be if you are not important to them?"
"Important," I asked in disbelief. "The man only wants to fuck me! Technically, they both do. The vampire has a bit of flesh though, so he isn't too keen to pushing for what he wants. The twin, my modeling agent...he is not above a little torture and threat to get what he sees as his damn right! He treated me like shit and I returned the favor!"
My words shocked me. What had I done to say such a thing? I had 'returned the favor'? That was news to me. I thought someone else had tried to kill us. Had I been protecting myself from him? What had happened that night? What had he done? What had I? I stood up and swayed dizzily. The Mer started to come forward to catch me. "No," I hissed in terror, "don't touch me!" No sooner than the words left my lips I felt the sting of electricity pulsing through me, frying my senses.
As screams of agony dropped me to the floor something shattered on my way down. I writhed amidst the broken glass feeling the tiny cuts like afterthoughts on my skin. Each slice sent the energy curling about the opening as if it were actively seeking a way out of my flesh. When it stopped, I curled up on the floor in misery. I was exhausted and hurting so bad I could feel my hair endings hurting in my scalp. My jaw ached, my teeth throbbed, my eyes felt as if they were boiling and close to popping out as tears dripped down my face. I began to shiver. It was so cold in here.
I looked up into Chrisim's eyes and realized the cold was him holding me. He looked upset. I glanced down and found my blood staining the floor all over. It was all over my clothes and his hands too. Damn, I had thought the cuts were small ones. Some of them gaped with dark black centers, that was not a mere gash. I shivered harder and saw the blood welling up from my skin faster. If I had a seizure while he was "holding me", I would "hurt" him. There was "so much blood". The energy traveled through the "blood".
"Hush, Neil," Chrisim murmured.
Was I talking? I lifted my hand to touch his worried face. I tried to smile. "At least someone" was "here to care", I thought as I felt myself drifting vaguely. I had come close to dying once. I knew what it felt like. It was a close friend these days and never had it been closer than now. It was only a mere breath away..."when" will "I die," I thought to myself.
It would be soon now. I could feel myself slipping past that 'point of no return' the doctors had all continuously pulled me away from, an edge more dangerous than the cliff I had stood upon outside.
"Neil, he will think I killed you!" There was anger in his voice. I felt a moment of regret as he shook me, but I refused to let this moment slip away one more time. I wanted it. "Don't you dare!"
I wanted that darkness. I wanted an end to the fear, and pain and degradation that I lived with every waking moment. I was exhausted. I wanted to sleep and never open my eyes again. I could feel him lift me up, but a smile formed on my face. He was too late. Whatever he had planned, it would not interfere with my wishes this time. I had bled too much; the cuts were too deep this time. The last of my strength fled and I was gone: like a candle that fought against a wind only to be snuffed out suddenly.
Rouleau lurched to his feet clutching his chest in sudden terror. Michel sat up with the sheets clutched in his hand frightened by his strange behavior. They had been asleep for hours. “What is it,” Michel whispered fearfully. “Has something happened to him?”
“It is Neil,” the vampire hissed. “I told him to stay inside and he would be safe, but he is not safe.” Rouleau raced out of the house, clothing appearing on him as he disappeared through the door. Michel didn’t hesitate. He got out of the bed and followed him as naked as he had been in the bed.
The doors to outside were thrown wide and left open. Michel ran through it shifting as he passed through the magical barrier at the front of the house. The vampire made no attempt to hide his presence as he raced through the woods. It didn’t take long to figure out where he was heading. Only one portal gate lay in this direction, and Rouleau only used it to go to one place.
The second he realized where Rouleau was going, Michel slowed to a stop and turned about to go home. He had what he needed to know. There wasn’t much point in following him. Rouleau would know who had betrayed him the second he got here. Only…when he told the twin where to go, something in his silence disturbed Michel. His steps slowed. Glancing between the direction to the house and the direction to the portal, Michel didn’t know which way to go.
It was a bright day, but the thickness of branches overhead made it look darker. It was almost too thick a tree line to walk in between. Obviously, humans did not often traverse them in any form. Neil was not sure what he expected to find out here in this world within a world, but it soon became clear to him that it wasn’t likely to be anything pleasant. He turned about several times looking around him in confusion.
There were no defining landmarks to guide him even if he did know the way back to the cabin, which he didn’t. What had possessed that silly Mer to leave him out here at all? It was bad enough the man had found a way to heal him before he had died. Why had he left him lost in the forest?
The snarl in the trees directly behind him caught him completely off-guard. Neil didn't bother to turn around and look the way some stupid movie actor would. Instead, he whipped away from the direction of the creature making the racket, and fled. Before he had completed his first step, a heavy weight slammed him to the ground with the force of being clipped by a small car on a city street. It mashed his face down into the moist loam, the rotting leaves cutting off his oxygen and panicking him slightly.
Pieces of debris stuck to his face as he pushed up enough to breathe. Then, a sinister voice he knew well and was terrified of ever hearing again whispered along the shell of his ear, "I told you I would find you..." His breathe was hot and moist, causing an involuntary shiver along Neil's spine. "You belong to me."
Sheer panic set in.
Neil scrambled to get out from under the man's weight, digging down into the forest floor with his fingers to get the leverage he needed. No matter how the male holding him shifted to contain him, he fought to get free. Several times, a hand barely gripped one limb only to feel the male wrap him back up just as tightly. Neil never bothered to consider giving in. That was not, and never had been, an option between them. Pure fear drove him to escape. The shirt on his back tore off, baring bright white skin and his scrawny ribcage to the harsh sunlight. Neil threw the leafy vegetation backwards trying to blind his attacker. He gained enough ground to roll over.
What he faced wasn't any better...it was a complete nightmare. Darkness fell into his face, flashing black and yellow eyes glared at him, while long, jagged and curling fangs dripped saliva snapping at his face aggressively. Neil's psyche couldn't take any more terror. It broke his temporarily calm exterior into shreds. Neil began to scream as short bursts of energy washed through him. Yet...nothing happened. There were not any seizures, or electricity...only a sadistic laughter coming from the creature hovering over him.
"Not this time," his former agent hissed angrily showing Neil the thin, silver wire he had wrapped around Neil's arm during some part of their fighting. "If you have enough magic to fight me, you are old enough for anything I can dish out." Neil was breathing too hard. He had to stop and catch his breath as he almost passed out. "I shouldn't have been nice to you, you ungrateful brat. I shouldn't have waited!"
Neil panted almost too hard to speak clearly. His mind was working overtime, but it was coming up blank even as his swift lungs forced oxygen into his brain. "I don't know what you are talking about. Why are you mad at me? What did I do?"
"Why," his old agent growled so fiercely Neil flinched. "You have the balls to ask me that after what you did to me?" Neil racked his scattered thoughts for a reason, but all he could come up with was a familiar and vague feeling of fear. The look did not sit well with the male on top of him. His former agent was pissed and he wouldn't be satisfied until he made certain Neil knew it.
Neil screamed as those gruesome teeth snapped for his throat a second time. They went back to rolling and struggling in the moist foliage to get the better of the other. More than anything else, Neil focused on keeping those teeth away from his skin. All it would take is one bite to drain all of the fight out of his weakened system.
Angry from the effort it was taking to hold onto him, Neil found his agent suddenly releasing him. It was unexpected. It was not the moment of salvation he had been looking for so much as a silence before the storm. Neil didn't intend to wait around for it to drown him. A vicious growl howled through the trees as he scrambled to his feet and fled again. The hunt was on! If he caught him again, he would surely kill him.
Darkness ate at the shadows beneath the trees, distracting and trying to herd him subtly. Neil simply ran with fervent prayers that someone...somehow...would save him from the beast. Sudden surges of insight would change the path of his feet right or left as if he had traveled these woods for centuries. Just as the leaves and twigs slapped up on his thighs, Neil's feet slipped out from under him and he fell.
Instead of teeth closing over his skin, Neil was surprised to see himself looking up at the top of a ridge where a dark, black wolf watched him silently. He was twisting down a steep slope and the creature was growing further and further away. Those yellowed eyes were furious. That had been a very close call.
Cold slapped up and snapped him out of his daze. The rocks of a stream bed scraped skin off of the palms of his hands as he tried to orient himself and soften the blow of hitting the bottom of the slope. Soaking wet, Neil looked back up the second he found his balance. The wolf was gone. Fear hit him hard. It would not take the animal long to be down here and biting his face off. Without much more thought, Neil was up and running again. The direction he chose was again instinctive rather than coincidence, but Neil didn't have time to wonder who was choosing his directions for him. All that mattered was the feeling that there was something ahead of him...something that would help...if he could make it there.
A soft slap of a paw upon damp earth was the only indication that the wolf was again almost upon him. Neil realized there was no way he was going to outrun the creature. That was the whole point of this little hunting interlude. He had wanted Neil to know he was completely at his mercy. Still, something was urging him on desperately.
A hole underfoot settled everything. Neil went down hard and screaming at the onslaught of pain. The sickening sound of bones snapping confused him briefly. Had the wolf caught him? No, it was standing to the side watching him roll on the ground in agony. Its charge had halted with enough force to dig its front paws into the ground. Neil tried to ignore it, but even with sheer the force of the pain eating at his muscles a wolf's ire was not something you could be distracted from. It was not happy at the anti-climatic end of his little game. It started to pace around him sniffing the air restlessly, sensing out how injured he was probably. It didn't like Neil's fear to find any other excuse besides him to flare up.
Eventually, Neil stopped screaming. He rolled onto his back to face the animal. The slightest movement causing his stomach to heave as fresh pain threatened to make him vomit. The wolf's golden eyes were easier to face than his agent's face...or that terrible 'mask' he wore when angry. There was no name to describe how terrifyingly bestial his face changed into when furious. The shadows cast by the trees seemed to make the creature look beautiful. It would have worked too, except for the pure evil in those glowing amber eyes. It snarled, teeth long and dripping as it made a short, feinting lunge at him.
Neil closed his eyes. He could feel the rage radiating from the beast without having to see it. There was nothing he could do any longer. The pain was causing him to nearly pass out and he refused to be that helpless in front of him. A stray beam of sunlight rested on his eyelids giving the impression of hope and security where there was none to be found. Neil felt himself relaxing as he focused on the pain and tried to forget there was a wolf about to tear his throat open. Several snarls were completely ignored. Then, the animal grew quiet. Neil shuddered as a shadow blocked out the stray beam of light. He opened his eyes smelling the wolf’s fetid breath on his face.
“I can’t remember why we are fighting,” Neil whispered.
The wolf stared at him angrily. Then, Neil watched as the killing blow was delivered. Neil sucked in his breath in a spurt of sheer fear, but the teeth never closed on him. He heard the snap of those powerful jaws, but the wolf was spinning backwards away from him just before they locked together. A blur of darkness clung to the beast as they rolled away from him swiftly.
Neil twisted onto his stomach and drug at the ground until his body began to move. It hurt and he had to stop for a minute as his flesh flinched away from the pain. Then, he did it again. It was a little more bearable, so he pushed to his knees and up to one foot. The trees helped. He could use them to support his body weight as he hobbled along on one leg and the trees to get away from the sounds of the fight behind him.
There was a break in the forest ahead. Neil almost laughed at the irony of it. The trees were his only means of getting away and just as suddenly as he needed them...they were gone. He went to the edge of the forest and blinked in dazed surprise. It was the house. How had he gotten back to the house on his own? Neil fell to his knees after one bouncing hop that floored him with pain. Sweat broke out all along his face. His body shivered in denial of the agony that rippled through him.
Refusing to give up so close to his only means of safety, Neil drug his hands into the earth and pulled himself forward. The pain blurred his eyesight, but he needed to cross into the magical barrier that protected the house. It was slow going with several pauses as he nearly passed out. Neil stopped at the edge of the cliff. He had veered off course with his eyesight impaired. Still, the cliff was inside the barrier...His eyes closed in exhaustion.
Sounds made him open his eyes. At the edge of the trees, Rouleau tried desperately to keep his twin from getting to Neil. The vampire was losing. Neil screamed as a silver dagger he recognized plunged deep into the vampire’s chest. Rouleau looked startled. “You wouldn’t,” he whispered as the dagger was withdrawn for the killing blow that took off his head. Neil shuddered, closing his eyes to block out the blood and the bouncing face that rolled away from them. He had to look again. There was a black, ashy smoke rising from the where the vampire’s body had been. The vampire’s twin was staring at that smoke intently.
Neil refused to watch. He knew his own death would quickly follow. He didn’t want to see it coming. Not when delivered by these hands. Neil was yanked up violently. The startled terror on his face made the creature holding him laugh. “Did you really think I couldn’t get inside of a barrier I created?”
“Rouleau said he made the barrier,” Neil muttered still refusing to look upon the face of his murderer.
“You stupid creature,” his agent snarled in his face, “I am Rouleau!” A long silver blade flashed in the light. Neil gasped in stunned dismay, falling slowly at first. Then, the water began to rush at him so swiftly. Thankfully, the dagger in his heart caused him to black out before he hit the sheet of darkness below.
Looking down with an angry expression, it was a surprise when he turned to face Michel’s horrified eyes. “Michel,” he whispered softly in wonder. Michel was holding a shaky hand before his wide open mouth as if he were barely holding back a scream. His wide eyes watered in tears. Slowly, that angelic face turned to one side and back again in denial of what it had just witnessed, getting faster as his feet stumbled back a step. “Michel…”
“No,” Michel burst. “What did you do? You killed him. You killed the both of them! You lied to me again!”
“Michel, stop,” the creature growled as the boy turned to flee into the trees. His words halted those steps before they were ever started. The head fell in defeat. It disturbed him to see Michel so passive and miserable, but what else could he do.
“You are lying,” Michel whispered. “You like seeing me like this. You think I deserve to suffer for wanting to run at all.” Those gentle eyes glanced up at him as he drew near. “You don’t like it when I disobey you.” A hand reached out to touch his face gently and Michel closed his eyes as tears fell heavily from them. “Did you lie when you said you never meant to kill me, too? You killed Neil.”
“I didn’t kill him, Michel. He is alive. Unlike you, he can live through a great deal of damage. I didn’t know that until he almost killed me. He died that day too, but he came back before the ambulance took him away. So did I. He has died since and lived. The dagger will paralyze him, but he lives.”
“You will never find him! He fell into the lake. It has an undertow,” Michel protested.
“I don’t have to find him, Michel. There are Mer People down there. They will get rid of the trash landers leave in their waters without me having to do a thing. The only question is: how will they get rid of him. Honestly, at this point, I think he deserves whatever he gets. If they kill him, he will be out of my hair and out of my responsibility. I am tired playing nice with him. I treated you worse than I did him and he is an ass!”
Michel allowed him to pull him into his embrace, melting his curves around the hard muscles. “You killed Rouleau,” he whispered softly. “Does that mean you want me back now?”
“He had served his purpose. You aren’t mad at me about that too, are you?” Michel shook his head. “Good, I can’t go back to modeling. How would you like for me to come live with you instead?”
“The maids wouldn’t like your visitors. Or the bloody way you like to fuck me where anyone can see…They are human and humans don’t survive the things you do to me. They will call the police.”
“Then, I will fire them and hire new ones. I am tired of America. I wish to come home. Perhaps Konnig’s wife will be pleased to see me again.” Michel shivered.
“She is your daughter…Rouleau and you are the same person. He was a clone of you. She is your child.”
“She doesn’t seem to mind fucking her uncle. I doubt she would care if she knew. She seduced me, you know. I had nothing to do with that. In fact, I am surprised she isn’t more perverted. My family…is odd.”
“I wasn’t really aware you had any,” Michel sighed sadly. “Rouleau hated you and Konnig’s wife…Well,” he shrugged as if to say that one explained itself.
“I have them. If you don’t like the way I do things, you will never want to meet any of them in person. I doubt any of them learned to be nicer. It is very hard for me. I can’t imagine why any of the others would bother to try. They enjoyed it. They always enjoyed it.”
“And you didn’t,” Michel stated with a twisted expression that clearly didn’t believe that for anything in the worlds. “Please, try to keep the lying to nearly believable boundaries. I might be able to lie to myself,” he added sarcastically while his lover frowned at him in mild irritation.
“From now on, Michel, I am Rouleau…I am the vampire that owns the house you live in and you are mine. Is that clear to you?” Michel nodded, but tears continued to fill his eyes. “You liked living there with me.”
“It was different. You might really be him, but you don’t act like he did,” Michel whispered. “Even Konnig was starting to like him,” Michel scoffed feeling ridiculous.
“I can try to act like him,” he promised. “Will that make you happy?” Michel nodded, but it would never happen. He knew it would never happen, but for a while…he could pretend and hope. He allowed him to lead him back to the portal home feeling eyes watching him. Once he glanced back and thought he saw something blue and angry glaring at them. Michel paused and shivered. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” Michel whispered hurrying away from there. “I just want to go home.”
Two figures leapt off of that cliff with discarded cloaks flying away in the wild whip of the winds. Wind, magic and the sting of salt water in the air guided the pair until they hit that black sheet of fluid below. Both shifted into their Mer forms before they were more than a few inches past the surface. It didn’t take long to grab the bleeding bit of flesh and drag it deeper and deeper into the darkness.
2009, (Jenna Karro). All rights reserved. No republication of this material, in any form or medium, is permitted without express permission of the author.
(Do NOT copy any of my journal without my permission!) Jenna Karro
COMMENTS
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RomaMarieNightwing
16:30 Apr 03 2010
Fabulous, exciting, suspensful, creative Novel works Jenna!
totally spellbinding & captivating!
you can place your copyright numbers on here, so they know it's patent works!