The Price of Living Immortality

HARRISON

I hadn't been resting at all. The last time I'd gone into my peaceful trance was weeks ago. Since I've been on my own, I've nearly decimated the population of wild immortals around here, and I was running low on entertainment. Yesterday, I'd decided to turn my existence around for the better, and so far, I was failing.

An idea was forming in my head though. Instead of toying with wild immortals, who all knew by now not to mess with me, maybe I should try an activity that was a little more . . . humane. Yeah, I was gonna go fuck some humans up. A sadistic smirk appeared on my face. I wouldn't hurt anyone much. Just give them a little show, that's all.

I found the perfect place to begin this new hobby of mine, too. It was 1 am, and I'd located myself in a dark alleyway next to a pub known for its violent customers. This was the place where innocent girls got rapes, the average man got mugged then strangled to death, and I believe I'd even heard of a stray dog being skinned alive. I wondered if my creativity could top that last one. Then I remembered; I wasn't supposed to be hurting anyone permanently.

I wore nothing but a pair of jeans, and a ski cap. My feet and chest were bare. The men around this part of town would pick a fight over anything. I figured, why not give them a reason. I waited until the scent of an angry human man was strong enough so that I knew he'd be close enough to hear what I was about to do. I picked up an old garbage can and hurled it against the side of a brick building, not hard enough to make it go through. It was certainly loud enough to cause a commotion though.

"What the hell?" I heard a furious, gruff voice question aloud before walking into the alleyway, seemingly unafraid. When he saw me, an amused gleam appeared on his face.

"Ah, it looks like we've got another fag, eh?" he began circling me in a way that I suppose he meant to be intimidating. "Hey, Marty, look what I caught!" he growled out. I intensified my senses and realized that he was not alone. Three other guys emerged from around the corner, all dressed in similar attire. Long dark trench coats, and ski caps. Were they supposed to resemble the matrix?

"What's your name, eh barbie?" the one who I assumed to be the leader asked. He was the one who'd called for Marty. They all began doing that funny circling motion around me, as if it was this sacred ritual and they were offering me to the gods.

I rose my voice up to a girly pitch and replied "Well, all my boyfriends call me Princess, but Barbie's fine, too."

I was now facing the man who I thought to be Marty, and there was no longer a smile on his face as I spoke up again, in my normal voice. "Why don't you lovely fellows introduce yourself to me?"

The first guy who'd come into the alley spat on the ground. "You like to play games, don't you, you little fucker?" I cocked my head to the side, showing them some sarcastic confusion.

"Well I think after we show you how to treat your elders, you'll find that you won't be much of a player anymore," Marty sneered at me. I almost snorted. My elders. How ironic, I thought. These men must be all around the age of forty, so I guess it would make sense that I, looking to be in my mid-twenties, would appear younger than them whereas this was obviously not the case.

I yawned. "What do you ladies have in mind?" I asked.

"Hey!" one of them shouted at me. A scrawny one who was at least five years younger than the rest and clearly still trying to earn his place in the gang. "Figure out the odds, douche! There's four of us and one of you!"

I gave them an amused smile. "Then why don't you rally up some more guys, and then we'll be even." I almost gave myself a pat on the back. Pretty clever, if I do say so myself.

The leader of the group, who still so impolitely never introduced himself properly to me growled and whipped something out of his inside coat pocket. How charming. He had a revolver.

I smirked, infuriating them ever more. They were all pointing a gun at me at this point.

"Boss," one of them droned on boredly. "Can we just get this over with? I'm tired, and this queer's not much worth the hassle."

They all shrugged in agreeable indifference before Boss cocked his gun and shot it with remarkable precision and causality, as if he were telling an insult.

I rewired my frame of mind so that the bullet appeared to freeze and slow down in time. I watched it get a millimeter closer every second before I stepped toward it, opened my mouth and caught the bullet between my teeth. I smiled like the Cheshire cat, showing it to each one of them in turn. They were all gaping at me in terror, jaws dropped to the grimy pavement in shock. Then, I spit the bullet back out, aiming at Marty's temple and knocking him out. He wouldn't come to for a couple of hours.

They all began shooting at me, now. One bullet I flicked away with my finger, another I deflected off my knee, and several a slapped away with strands of the hair on my head. After I was bored of letting them bounce of me, I began simply dodging them. One backwards flip, one matrix dip to the floor, another between the legs. For the last bullet, I simply crushed it, mid-air, between my hands in a thunderous clap.

All but the bored one had been knocked out. The one who just wanted to kill the queer quickly to get it done with. He no longer wore that same dreary expression. He was scared out of his wits and wide awake with adrenaline.

"Go home," I said flatly. He ran, and that was that. I pushed my focus into each one of their heads and cleared their memory of the past five minutes. There was no need to arouse that kind of curiosity in the immortal world. It wasn't' that I minded causing problems for Gregorovich, but I did care for the entirety of the immortals, and I wasn't going to be the one to give up our secret to the humans.

JOANALIE

I sat straight up in my old bed, a horrible feeling coming over me. I had a sort of headache. Random pictures and sounds kept popping up in my head. I saw bullets, trench coats. I heard gruff laughter and I felt the amused mood behind this all. It frightened me. Like an out of body experience that I couldn't control.

For a few moments, I just rocked myself back and forth in the fetal position, waiting for scenes and noises and sensations to stop washing over me. It took a few minutes, but everything finally passed.

That's when I sensed something downstairs. I knew Devlin was awake in the guest room next to me, but my father was bustling around downstairs, and I had to go see what he was doing.

After Devlin and I had arrived yesterday, nothing was really answered. My dad gave us some water to drink, then he left until nightfall, and by then, we had to pretend that we were already 'asleep.' He didn't know what I was. I didn't know what had happened to Chicago. Everything was still a mystery.

My plan on heading downstairs to see what my dad was up to was interrupted by a hand snatching out from a doorway and pulling me into a room.

Devlin, I sighed.

He released me and closed the door behind him. "It's too late to go interrogate your father, Joanie. We'll get the answers tomorrow."

I rolled my eyes. "I just wanted to see what he was up to this late. This is the first time I've seen any part of my old in a long time, you know."

He nodded empathetically. "That's why I offered to come back with you, here. I knew you wanted this, and needed this," he breathed out, standing over me as I leaned against the wall. His face was getting closer to mine.

I placed a hand on his chest. "Not this, Devlin. What I needed and wanted was to see my family," I told him in a warning voice.

He grinned and pressed his body against mine. "That's not all, though."

I pushed him away again. "Please . . . don't do this, Devlin. I really can't handle it right now," I told him, almost pleaded.

He groaned before stepping back and plopping onto his bed. I went over and sat on the edge of it. "You know, it's not fair to make me feel bad about this."

He groaned again. "That what sucks so bad," he sighed, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me into him so that he was spooning me.

"Really?" I rolled my eyes. "You're so subtle."

He 'shh'd me. "I won't try anything. Just lay with me, please. Just for tonight."

He was begging, and I was a weak pushover right now, so I just nestled myself in comfortably and went into my trance for the remainder of the night.

I'd like to see you have better willpower, okay?

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