The Daily Struggles of an Immortal

by Kurtis Eckstein

  “Go!” I demanded. “Hurry! They’re getting away!”

  She started the engine, and threw it into gear. I pointed for her when she seemed confused about where to go. I was afraid we were going to lose them, but for some reason they slowed down briefly as if they were waiting for us to catch up…as if they were waiting for me to catch up.

  “Turn up here,” I said pointing, finally understanding that she wasn’t seeing what I was seeing. The black car always seemed to stay just ahead of us – just out of reach.

  We continued like that for at least half an hour, us racing after them in silence with me occasionally blurting out direction.

  Finally, we arrived at a warehouse outside of the city, the black vehicle disappearing the moment it turned onto the property. I looked around urgently, trying to find where it had gone. It was only then that I realized Freya had her headlights off – they had been off the entire time since she didn’t need the light to see in the dark.

  “Sam, what’s going on?” She asked seriously.

  I looked at her, finally accepting that what I had seen wasn’t going to come back. I need to focus on the present again, because it was only in the present that I would be able to help Lily.

  “I saw it,” I said quietly. “I saw what happened. I saw the whole thing. There were three of them, two guys and a girl. The white guy with orange hair has some kind of ability to make people lose consciousness. The black guy has an explosion ability – he’s the one who destroyed the door. And the white girl must have some kind of ability to control people with a kiss – she forced Lily’s body to walk right out of the house.”

  Freya stared at me in disbelief. “Astral trailing,” she whispered.

  “What?”

  “Astral trailing,” she repeated. “It’s like seeing the past, but different. I think you saw the leftover remnants of their astral forms, like tracking a scent in the air.” Her expression abruptly grew serious. “Either way, I need to drink your blood now, so I can see what’s happening inside the building with my third eye.”

  I was already leaning towards her, Freya’s mouth already growing wider.

  I was about to comment that I was reaching out with my second-sight too, trying to focus its direction to increase the distance I could see, but she sank her teeth into my neck cutting my voice off. Her forehead split at the same time, revealing her third eye. With Freya’s first loud gulp, it glowed brightly and began scanning the area, the slit dilating and constricting repeatedly.

  We both urgently took in the sight within the building, using our separate abilities to do so.

  Shit, there were a lot of people in there. I was expecting just the three, not like fifty.

  I found Lily right away – they already had her in some kind of glass box in the center of the warehouse. She was just standing there in the middle of it, staring off into space. The girl with black eyes and brown hair was close by…and that’s when I sensed it – I could feel a connection between them, like a thin invisible thread running from the girl’s mouth to Lily’s lips.

  The thread seemed extremely weak – so easily broken. I wanted to reach out and snap it, but I wasn’t sure I could touch it from where Freya was parked. Not to mention that, if the thread was the girl’s hold on Lily, then her waking up might tip them off that we were here.

  As for the other fifty people, about forty of them had guns, possibly indicating that only ten had lethal superpowers. The two guys I had seen earlier seemed to be running the show, which surprised me. I assumed they were just henchmen, but they were walking around like they were the ones in charge.

  As I took in the scene, one thing became clear. Whatever they planned on doing to Lily, they were going to film it.

  Which left me with only one reasonable conclusion. Just like they had done to my daughter – forcing me to watch her die in my arms – and possibly what they had done to my father with my mother, likewise they were going to do with Lily. Except I wasn’t supposed to be there in person.

  She was too dangerous to proceed as they had done before. Instead, they would film her death and probably send it to me anonymously after I’d spent days worrying about where she had disappeared to.

  My blood boiled, my astral form writhing around inside of me like a monster begging to be free.

  Soon. Soon I’d kill them all.

  Freya finished examining the scene and pulled away, noticing the homicidal look on my face. However, rather than being afraid like she was before, instead the determination set in her eyes and her expression darkened to match mine. She must have come to the same conclusion I had.

  “How many of those tentacles can you create at once?” She asked, her voice dripping with hatred as she began taking off her leather jacket and necklace.

  “Enough to take out the supers without guns,” I replied with just as much disdain.

  She nodded. “The glass looks like it’s bulletproof, and likely heat resistant. If you can kill the supers, then I can take my time with the ones with guns.”

  A sadistic smirk slipped onto my face. “I think I can break the girl’s hold on Lily, but we should save her for last. I don’t want Lily to have to watch what we’re about to do.”

  She nodded in agreement. “Let’s do this then.”

  We hurried out of the car, and Freya threw me over the fence before leaping over it herself. I discovered another use for my astral projections then, catching myself before I landed. I could have healed from landing from that height, especially since my bones didn’t break, but it was much quieter slowing myself down first.

  We then ran in sync, her keeping with my pace while I silently tested out my ability. Much to my surprise, I could create nineteen astral limbs and I could stretch them all the same length. I wasn’t great with distances, but I estimated they could all reach several hundred feet. Enough that I could start killing supers long before we were in sight.

  Just before we rounded a corner, I focused on the two guards at one of the side doors. Both had guns. Even before we appeared, I punctured both of them right through the lungs with enough force to lift them into the air. They struggled wildly – and silently, since their lungs had collapsed – before I gently set them down. I could see the life still draining from their wide eyes as we stepped over them.

  Good.

  I wasn’t in the mood to show anyone mercy. They could all die slowly as far as I was concerned. I was slow to anger, but get me angry, get me pissed, get me homicidal, and I’d show them just how much of a monster I could be. Especially now that I had a way to fight back for the first time in my life.

  We quietly opened the door and slid down a hallway aiming for the main room where Lily was being kept.

  I silently killed three more guys before we were at the final door. I pulled Freya close to me, whispering in her ear. “Do I have to worry about you dying?” I asked seriously.

  She shook her head. “I just fed, so very unlikely. I can heal from a lot of damage right after I’ve eaten, not to mention I’ve technically died before but came back to life when exposed to blood.” She paused, seeming to want to elaborate but knowing there wasn’t enough time. “Also, I plan on using my third eye on a few of them once we slay the majority.”

  I nodded in agreement. “Give me a second to kill the ones without guns, and then I’ll go for Lily while you take care of the rest.” She nodded in response and I got to work. I didn’t want to steal her fun, but I had nineteen weapons which turned out to be eleven more than I needed. There were nine people without guns and one of them was the girl keeping a hold on Lily, leaving eight of my invisible tentacles trailing lethal supers while the other eleven trailed people with guns closer to Lily.

  “Now,” I whispered, stabbing myself into all of them at once. All nineteen of my victims were thrust into the air, hanging there for a moment before I dropped them in heaps on the ground. I paused to take my time stabbing the two men, who had helped kidnap Lily, a few extra times. They didn’t scream, incapa
ble of doing so, but I knew they would have if I had left them with that capacity.

  Freya had already bolted through the door at the same time.

  There was a slight delay, everyone shocked by the abrupt and unexpected deaths of nineteen of their comrades. And then there was the first scream as Freya gutted one of the men with a clawed hand, followed immediately by gunfire.

  I was shocked to see Freya with hands twice as large as normal, and bone-like claws protruding from her fingers. It had never occurred to me that I wasn’t aware of her full capabilities, but I realized I could understand why she’d hide it. If she transformed entirely, she probably really would look like a true monster.

  Unexpectedly, I found myself becoming even more enthralled with her as I watched her attack her next victim, knowing she didn’t want to be a monster but would do anything to protect Lily.

  Only seconds behind, I bolted into the warehouse, heading straight for Lily. I had planned on leaving her captor for last, but that’s when I realized Lily had picked up a long knife and was actively thrusting it down towards her body.

  Four of my tentacles shot out at once, three of them immobilizing Lily the moment before the blade lodged itself in her gut. The fourth sliced through the thin thread connecting her to the girl like a hot knife through warm butter. There was no resistance, and the effect was instantaneous.

  Lily’s eyes grew wide in horror as her brain began to register everything around her, including the knife in her hands barely an inch from her stomach. After a moment, she locked eyes with me, seeing that I was running for her.

  I saw the fire in her eyes then, the realization of what was happening.

  She exploded like a super nova, stopping me in my tracks, her orange fire rapidly shifting to a bright white. The cage bolted down to the floor vibrated violently as the glass rapidly turned bright red, the weaknesses becoming apparent as her white fire burst from the joints in a matter of seconds.

  I heard her screaming then, slipping out of the cracks she had created – a shriek of anger.

  Homicidal anger.

  24: You Will Get Burned

  Suddenly I saw Lily’s hand appear at the edge of the cage, right next to her captor, pushing into the melting glass like it was a slime. Her fingers thrust through and she pulled it aside. The heat of her physical presence sent the whole section dripping quickly to the ground. Her black latex bra and underwear, all that was left from her work clothes, were completely unaffected by the heat.

  The girl with black eyes tried to escape, but I snagged her in a tentacle, curious now to see what Lily would do.

  She didn’t disappoint.

  Her explosion died down, but her body was so hot that it was bright white, her eyes glowing a vivid orange. I could feel the heat radiating from where I stood. The temperature in the entire warehouse felt like the inside of an oven. I noticed that the knife was now a bright red puddle of molten metal in the middle of the cage.

  The girl started screaming long before Lily reached her, her clothes bursting into flames just before Lily reached out with both hands up towards her face. There was a momentary burst of light, and then the girl’s head was gone. Just like that. Nothing left.

  I let go of the corpse’s body and it fell to the ground in a heap.

  Lily immediately turned on her heels to scan the room, but Freya had already slain almost everyone else. And the few still alive were maimed to the point of being harmless, suffering while they waited in horror for Freya to make her way back around to suck them dry.

  I ran up to Lily as the heat from her body died down. She rushed to meet me the rest of the way, her expression tense with worry. We slammed into each other with such force that it knocked the wind out of us both, neither of us wanting to slow down in our eagerness to reunite. I wrapped her in my arms and tentacles both in the most absolutely and protective embrace I was capable of, and she hugged me back just as tightly with her arms.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered urgently. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I’m sorry too,” she said desperately. “I’m sorry I asked you to leave. I’m sorry for hurting your feelings. I was just afraid.”

  “I know,” I said, holding her tighter. I already felt bad. It was making me feel worse knowing her fear had come true sooner than expected.

  She started sobbing. “All I could think about was your daughter.” Her face distorted in pain. “All I could think about is you holding me instead.”

  “I know,” I repeated, knowing I still needed to give her an out. “I’m sorry for putting you through this. And I understand if it’s too much for you.”

  She looked up at me then, her eyes full of tears. “What? No! It’s not too much for me. All I could think about is how it would affect you. I kept seeing your face, holding my dead body.” She sobbed again, burying her head in my chest. “I don’t want to leave you like that. I don’t want you to hurt like that again.”

  “Oh,” I said simply. I didn’t know what else to say. I thought she was confirming what I had thought, not confirming what Freya thought. After a second, I buried my face in her blonde hair, feeling my eyes sting.

  She was just worried about me all long, without even a thought for herself.

  After a few more seconds, I had to loosen my tentacles on her because I realized I was becoming heavily distracted by the shape of her body, and this wasn’t a good time. My astral sensitivity was just too powerful to ignore. Her latex underwear over her shapely butt was especially distracting. I could feel every detail and sensation a thousand times more powerful than if I was touching her with my hands.

  “How did you even find me?” Lily wondered with a sniffle.

  I didn’t answer right away. I had just looked up to see that Freya was finished, walking up to us now. It was the first time I had seen her actually covered in blood. Usually, she was surprisingly a clean eater when she was feeding off me. Granted, it was clear she had done a lot more than just feed. Her hands and forearms were especially bloody, dripping in it.

  She wasn’t smiling. Just the opposite. She looked very unhappy.

  Her mouth was a normal shape, as were her hands, but her third eye was still active – looking around intently.

  “I’ll explain later,” I whispered to Lily. I then directed my attention to Freya again. “What’s wrong?”

  She shook her head and held her finger up to her mouth, telling me to be quiet. Lily and I both opened an arm to her, allowing her to join our embrace. Neither of us seemed concerned about the blood as she wrapped her own arms around us.

  Freya spoke in a whisper then. “I can’t find a direct connection to the people stalking Sam, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t related.” She paused, her third eye still looking around, before continuing. “This operation is seemingly an unrelated business entirely – unofficial of course – where they kidnap people and film them being tortured. They post the live feed online to paying customers, which means we might still be on film if they have more cameras hidden.”

  I looked up automatically to see the destroyed video equipment.

  Freya followed my gaze. “Yes,” she whispered. “As soon as I realized, I stopped it. I don’t think you got on the live feed Sam. Just Lily.”

  “So, it’s completely unrelated?” I asked quietly in disbelief.

  “No, not exactly. The victims aren’t chosen randomly. Someone did have to pay to have Lily selected for the kidnapping, but the question is whether or not that’s related to you. Either way, we’ve got someone to track down and kill.”

  I nodded in agreement, meeting Lily’s gaze. Her expression was difficult to interpret. She wasn’t upset, but she wasn’t happy either. Her eyes seemed slightly shocked, but there was a lot more there too. Remnants of her anger, along with a rush from her kill and a fierce desire to protect those she loved. Again, not even a hint of concern for herself – only how this affected those she held close to her heart.

  Freya got our attention again. “But right now Lil
y, we need you and your fire.”

  “Oh?” She wondered.

  Freya nodded. “The easiest way to disguise our presence here is for you to burn it.” She paused, her eyes having a hint of that homicidal rage again. “Incinerate this whole damn place until there’s nothing left. If our enemy doesn’t know we’re involved, then it gives us an advantage. And even if they did know, no one knows about Sam’s true ability.”

  Lily nodded, that same determination in her now glowing eyes.

  I quickly interrupted. “But how are we going to find our target?”

  Freya blinked at me in surprise. “Oh. I have the password to one of their computers. One of the supers you killed was the one responsible for dealing with the transactions. Even though he was dead, his brain was still fresh enough for me to see traces of his recent memories. We can take it out to my car while Lily burns this place to a crisp.”

  My eyes widened in surprise, before I leaned forward and kissed her on the temple. “You’re amazing, you know that?” I looked at Lily. “Both of you are.”

  Freya and Lily exchanged a glance before kissing me at the same time – Lily on my lips, Freya on my cheek.

  Lily pulled away first. “Alright, let’s do this. I’ve got some frustration I need to let out.”

  I glanced down at her chest then, smirking as a thought occurred to me. “You know what Lily? Those implants are worth every penny. You turned a knife into a puddle and even liquefied fire-resistant glass.”

  She returned the smile. “Well, I’m not sure how fire-resistant it was. Steel and glass melt at similar temperatures, so I suppose it was somewhat resistant since it didn’t melt nearly as fast as the knife did. But truly fire-retardant glass melts about the same temperature as my implants – a temperature my body can’t reach.”

  “Jeez,” I exclaimed. “After seeing you vaporize a person’s head, I’m a little surprised that there’s anything you can’t melt.”

  Her smile widened, though her eyes darkened. “I can’t liquefy bone, but I can certainly blast the hell out of it until nothing but calcium dust is left.”