Atemporals [Part Six]
For the briefest of moments, I became nothing. My body shrugged away like an unwanted coat. I felt my fingers, my toes, melt down into wisps and suddenly I was pulsing ball of light.
Colors radiated around me. Through me. I knew, somehow, this was The Fabric of Everthing.
Nick pulsed beside me in a bulbous yellow mass of light. Clouds whizzed behind us, as if cast behind a foggy window, and I realized we were moving. The barn, the forest, everything was left behind us in a dense haze. Nick tugged me along like a satellite caught up in his gravitational pull.
It was wondrous, magical really. Like I'd entered a new dimension. Colors sped by in this beautiful ebb and flow. Like the whole fabric was breathing.
Suddenly, I was aware of some foreign presence. I knew this as surely as one knows their own name. Some other blob of light that shone red with menace. The colors around us rippled and darkened.
Nick pulled us faster and faster, but this presence grew stronger, darker. Two dark masses crashed into us. The collision sent Nick tumbling away. I wanted to scream, yet I had no mouth. Colors were tossed into a blender, whirling before my eyes.
Then, I blinked.
I stood beneath a flickering neon bar sign. But, I mean...I wasn't me.
I had breasts. Curly auburn hair that fell past my shoulders. A tight leather biker jacket clung sticky to my arms.
"Boo," came a voice.
A man wearing an unnerving grin stared at me like a maniac. A girl, perhaps no older than sixteen, stepped up beside her. Her eyebrows nearly disappeared into her low cut bangs.
"Aren't you quite the figure?" the girl said. "I could just eat you up."
"Now, now," clucked the biker dude. "I do recall active Transmigration being frowned upon in your circles. Mighty hypocritical, no? What of this poor woman's soul?"
The man's voice was laced with venom. By this time, I'd put two and two together. Bald heads and billowing robes or not--these were Acolytes. A bartender stepped outside and lit a cigarette. He eyed us warily. My two adversaries herded me away from his gaze.
"Which one are you, I wonder?" said the girl. "Oh, please say Tesla! How I'd love to ascend by ripping your bumbling soul to shreds."
They advanced further, driving me back into a dark alleyway strewn with trash. I nearly tripped over a tumbled trash bin.
"Come now, Nick, fix your stance. I haven't had a good duel in ages."
"Rumor has it your weaving's nearly as good as Darwin's is these days."
"Was," corrected the girl. "Tell me, with Albert and Darwin gone, what's left of your little resistance?"
I was running out of real estate, and fast. My mind swam. If I could just distract them long enough, maybe I could send a message off to Nick.
If I fucking knew where he'd gone
"Miss, everything alright?" rang the bartender's voice from the entrance of the alley. He flung his cigarette to the ground and stubbed it out with his toe. "What are ya'll doin' back here?"
The girl whirled around, fixed him with a sweet smile.
"Everythan's fine. Ma's just a little--"
"Help me!" I screamed. "Call somebody!
The girl's thread was on him in an instant. A flurry of burnt orange clasped the poor man's legs and slammed him against the dumpster with a loud thwack.
The two turned back toward me.
A dark purple thread spilled out of the biker dude. It pooled at his feet like blood. He cracked his knuckles and grinned. I willed my thread forward to meet his--a clash of light blue and dark purple. But his thread twisted and curled expertly around mine like a viper that'd found its catch. My mind strained as I tried to maneuver, but my movements were clunky and slow.
All I had was what Darwin had time to teach me.
As his thread enveloped mine, I sent out a desperate message. A shot of blue in the darkness of the alley.
Nick, help me! I subscreamed.
The girl giggled as she intercepted it.
"Copernicus, my friend, I think we've lucked out."
Her thread slammed me against the brick wall. The leather of my jacket frayed against the rough brick as she dragged me higher and higher. Orange talons wrapped round my chest and squeezed so tight I felt a rib pop.
"We've found their precious Natural after all."
Haven't forgot about this story! :) Just getting bogged down with my whole "flying by the seat of my pants" approach. I hope you're still enjoying.
Posted Jul 16, 2017, 9:27 PM UTC · edited