“Look at his eyes, Adonis. It’s like staring up into the sky.”
Adonis looked up into the sky, and squinted, and all he saw were flying drones, ash, and smoke.
“Don’t look there. Look at this,” Nero said.
Cautiously, Adonis walked over and squatted over the two men. Nero smacked his body double, not gently but loud enough to hear, and he stirred to life. His eyes flickered like a lamp with a bad bulb until they went pitch black, and then small, shining specks appeared in them.
He gazed up at his savior in nothing but pure rage.
“I’m going to kill you again,” Tirinius said flatly. “I should have eaten you the first time I killed you.”
Tirinius’ face became warped, monstrous, and evil in a split second. He lunged for Nero’s face but Adonis was quick enough to intervene. He grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, pushed him down, and sat on his chest.
With too many beers still in his system, Tirinius didn’t put up much of a fight. His hands were cut from the broken glass bottles from the bar shelf that had fell on him earlier, and whenever he attempted to teleport, nothing happened.
“Why did you take us here,” Adonis asked.
“Well I… I don’t know anymore,” Nero faltered. “I… why are we here again?”
“You said you were gonna die unless we got here!”
Tirinius coughed loudly and waved his hand out to get their attention.
“I thought I was going to die. So, I called him here on accident. It doesn’t mean anything,” Tirinius explained. “Met you the first time the same way.”
“I’ve never met this ugly, one-armed bastard in my life,” Nero said.
“Ugly? You have the SAME FACE,” Adonis exclaimed. “THE SAME FACE!”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t see the similarity,” Nero replied.
Tirinius wheezed and laughed because in his world, Nero said the same thing when they met.
“When I get up from here, I’m eating you,” Tirinius said.
“Eat shit,” Nero shouted.
He grabbed a fistful of pebbles and dirt and shoved it in Tirinius’ mouth. To both Nero and Adonis’ extreme disgust, he swallowed.
“Disgusting,”, Nero shuddered.
“No. It’s exactly what I need,” Tirinius coughed.
He coughed and wheezed to the point that Adonis got up from his chest, worried he was the cause. But he continued, wheezing harder and faster until he let out one last groan and froze in place.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Is he okay,” Adonis asked.
He gently touched Tirinius’ left cheek, but when he pulled away, the skin came off with it. A slimy, blue substance stretched from the piece of skin, leaving a malodorous smell in the air. The missing cheek had no tendons, and no bones, but plenty of rocks filled the inside of the body.
Adonis shook his hand as if it were burned, his eyes watered from the smell until the skin finally unglued itself from his hand.
“I think I’m gonna puke,” Adonis said.
The two of them slowly backed up as the skin sloughed off, slowly. From far away they watched the pebbles inside of him, sticking together by the foul, sticky blue liquid, change shape into a golem.
It was a mixture of white, from the cement, red from the bricks, black and grey from the gravel. The golem was oblong, with no eyes, nor lips, but it had holes on the side for its ears. The arms hung so low, that they touched the ground, but the legs were extremely short, causing it to lean forward, like a gorilla.
It picked up the body of the man next to him, Ronnie, slung him over his back, and ran off, using its hands in place of its feet.
Adonis and Nero watched the entire process silently, unsure how to react.
Nero had no problem, however, doing something inappropriate again to break any awkward silence.
“Should I try eating dirt,” Nero asked.
“NO! What kind of ques- NO! Shouldn’t we be looking for your son,” Adonis replied.
“Oh shit,” Nero mumbled. “Let’s try checking Rosie’s place again, then the Kiruna district.”
----------------------------------------
Ace suddenly shot up out of his bed, as if he was propelled forward in his sleep. Fenton jumped out of his chair in surprise and stared as Ace started hyperventilating. He relaxed once he noticed his surroundings.
It was a simple hospital room.
The pale blue walls, bright lights, and tiles were much more comforting than the ash and burnt landscape outside. The soft beeps sped up the faster his heart raced but soon slowed down as he knew that he would be safe. Fenton walked over to the bed and checked to ensure he was fine.
“I’m okay,” said Ace. “It was just a shock. I’m fine.”
“Good. Just stay here while we go out,” Fenton said.
“Go where?”
“Out. People need us. I wanted to stay until you woke up, but now I know you’re fine. You really scared us.”
“Let me come!”
He wobbly stood up from the bed and tried to make his way to the door. Pain surprised him as he realized the IV was still stuck in his arm and he had accidentally yanked it out on his way to the door.
Fenton sighed, snapped his fingers, and then a sudden force dragged him back to the bed and reconnected Ace to the ECG machine. His telekinetic powers locked the door, opened the blinds, and turned on the television with one swift flick of the wrist.
“I think you should stay here while we go out”, Fenton replied. “It's for the best.”
Ace gripped the sheets and furrowed his brow.
“I know my ability isn’t flashy, but I’m not weak. I can do this.”
“No one thinks you’re weak. You became stronger right before our eyes. We thought your ability was evolving, but the doctor said you have a second one.”
The ECG machine started beeping faster and faster as Ace’s heart raced. His ability never evolved because it was never meant to. He was never “weak”, but his insecurities kept him from trying harder to meet his full potential.
“Can I have some water? I’m a little weird right now,” Ace rasped.
“Sure.”
Fenton left to go get a water bottle from the vending machine down the hallway, and when he returned Ace was gone. Fenton ran out the room, down the hallway, through the stairwell, and into the lobby.
The busy hospital lobby gave him a jolt as he saw doctors and nurses scrambling up and down the hallway, pushing burnt bodies and those hanging on to life, trying to stay connected to the plane of the living.
The doors to the hospital were missing, as the blast had broken the glass doors.
A nurse walked around in the corner wearing a strange contraption with many babies hanging on her body, wondering when it would be safe to take the newborns with her to somewhere safer. She tried to calm them as she walked up and down the halls.
He pushed his way through the pandemonium and out onto the street.
The outside of Ahana Hospital was worse than the floors above. People were running north with their children covered in dirt and blood. Blood had seeped into the cracks of the pavement and stained them, leaving bloody feet and handprints all over them. The mass exodus from the city had begun.
Fenton’s eyes pulsated dark purple when he scanned the crowd for the familiar aura. He was on the other side of the street, stumbling into an alleyway.