Saints of Youth

I was busy brushing my teeth when the bathroom mirror began to change, I saw the Saint’s reflection staring back at me and I could tell I was in for a long chat with this thing. I spat out the paste and turned to face him, he glared at me and then handed me a jar
.
“Here, put this on your face, I can’t possibly fathom why you go without daily moisturizer.”
I quirked my brow, inspecting the jar suspiciously, “Moisturizer? What the hell is with your skin fetish dude? I am not putting this shit on.”

Apparently when you say to a powerful being that you will not do something, they end up doing it, and it’s not very gentle.

“Ow! Fuck you’re peeling off my fuckin’ skin here!”
But the man didn’t say a word, instead his just smiled as he applied different cosmetics to my face, and no matter what I said or did I was stuck in place while he turned me into some androgynous male model.

“There, that wouldn’t have been difficult had you done it yourself.”

The way the creature spoke angered me, as if we were long lost fucking friends or something. I could feel the anger in me bubble but I decided to just let him win that one, but he will be answering my other questions.

“Now, tell me what the hell is going on or I am gonna go find fucking Mikey or some shit and have him tell me this was all a bad fucking dream.”

I went to walk out of my cramped bathroom had it not been for the hand outstretched before me.
“You’re not going anywhere, and yes I believe it is time to explain what I do.”

He gracefully floated to situate himself on my couch. “I believe I begin about a few months or so, when I first got summoned by the Powers.”

I quirked my eyebrow, leaning up against the wall and crossed my arms, “Powers?”

He smiled, reclining backwards as his hair fell into his face, giving him this child-like appearance. “Yes, the Powers.”

“And what did these “powers” say” I asked, I mean what are the supposed powers?

“They told me of a youth who was going to be led down the wrong path, they told me that I was the only one appointed to make the correction; then again I can clearly see why they chose me.” And with a flick of his wrist, he grinned and giggled.

“Wrong path? Are you talking about Mikey?”

He had gotten up from the couch and his eyes met mine, they pierced straight into me, and I backed away from his gaze.

“No Frank, Mikey was only a tool in the game. Of course, he isn’t as innocent as one assumes but I’d already told the Others that he was out of our hands, and you were of much more significance. “

I was still confused, first the Powers now the Others, and apparently I am a “chosen” one. And here I am worrying about tattoo money, yeah fat chance of all this going down well.

“Frank, I’m here to guide you, so I am to give you an option.”

“Option?” I asked clearly skeptical.

“You need to accept your youth before it is terminated.” He had sat up and stared directly into my eyes.

“Terminated? Can you be any more vague?” I was getting fed up with his bullshit by now, and if he didn’t tell me what was up I was going to kick him out of my life for good.

“Embedding ink into your skin will destroy what my dimension works so damn hard to achieve!”

I sighed inwardly, great to just top off my day I’ve got a creature that is against me getting tattoos. Just perfect isn’t it?

“Okay, sorry but you don’t understand. I’ve been waiting eighteen fucking years to get this done and you are not, I repeat not going to ruin this opportunity for me.”

The creature had smiled and said “I thought you’d say that.” And with grace and speed pinned me against a nearby wall.

“Luckily, I love it when humans try to persuade me to change my mind so I offer up a bargain. Either you automatically chose to sacrifice your youth for my dimension or you prove me to that you humans do not need youth. At all.”

I was still confused, “Sacrifice my youth? How does that work?”

“Simple”, he stated “I present you to my followers and we grind the youth out of you. It’s for the benefit of many people I swear.” The creature had this Cheshire cat smirk that stretched from ear to ear.

“I thought you were a Saint of some kind.” Cause okay, being ground up into some sort of anti aging powder definitely wasn’t on my “what-to-do-for-fun list”.

“I am a Saint, in my dimension of course. Who do you think caused humans to be obsessed with beauty when so very few possess it in its true form?”

“You mean you’re to blame for people obsessing over body image?” I crossed my arms as I realized I wasn’t pinned to the wall any more, when I tried to stretch he would quickly gaze at my body, sizing up in an analytical manner.

“Well it wasn’t my fault for the design of the human body to be so flawed.” He flipped his hair again and I saw a resemblance of feminine nature in his eyes and nose. He was by no means flawless, as I could see a few scars fading across his cheeks and neck.

“Really, I am lost, why do you want to grind me up?”

He laughed and pulled me down onto his lap and said “Get comfy, this story will be a while.”
So I cuddled into the couch, a cushion in my lap as he turned toward me, letting his tale begin.

“My dimension is severely younger than yours, at least in context it is. We never really used the concept of time similarly; we measured by the age of those surrounding us. Our leader, Naomi Cravot had begun her reign in the polar opposite of other dimensions of the time. She had turned towards our ability to remain and appear young for years, and to live long lives.”

“So basically, some chick decided your world would be ruled based upon beauty? That’s kinda shallow and definitely not feministic.”

Gerard (whom had scolded me before for not using his goddess given name) had given me a sharp look complete with glowering green eyes and had said “As I was saying.”

“As I was saying, Naomi had produced a world all around staying young, because most of our population did indeed grow old and she had found us a cure, other worlders. She’d pick the Saint, the one who’d be the savior had she not enough strength and to bring forth others for our dimension to stay powerful.”

“You’re saying your leader made other people kidnap others to fulfill their needs?” I asked, finding my attraction to his dimension weakening.

“In a way you are correct, but please let me go on.”

“Any ways, Naomi had succumbed to aging herself, and subsequently our last Saint had to use her left over power to keep us alive. I had been appointed Saint of Youth not too long ago, and we’re running things different now. You are allowed to state your case as long as you can make the appointed Saint change. You have a job to do now, and I’m on a time limit.”

“I looked up fearfully at Gerard and asked “How long?”

He shrugged his shoulders and said “Once you turn 18 I believe.”

My eyes had widened and the only thing I could think was oh shit