by C. S Luis
“You don’t have to,” Q said.
Michael glared at him in disbelief. I think we all did.
“You have every right to be angry and wary of me. What I did was unjust. I make no excuses for the wrongs I have caused you and your family.” Michael blinked.
“But I hope that you could allow me to earn your trust. And come to forgive me. You must understand I’ve been alone for far too long. And I’m intrigued by your close family and your warm bond.”
Michael became speechless.
“I know it must come as a surprise to you that someone like me would be intrigued by something so trivial. But I have no one.”
Suddenly, I knew far more than I had ever known about Q.
Q’s words left Michael far more surprised than I had ever seen him, and speechless but doubtful as well. I grabbed Michael’s hand.
"Take the crystal and keep it close," I said, folding his fingers over the cylindrical object.
"No, you mustn’t take it off," he said, still concerned by Q’s presence.
"It's the only way I can be near him."
I desperately wanted to be by Q’s side. I didn’t understand why I felt compelled to be near him. I felt strangely allured and intoxicated, and I didn’t understand any of it. Only that I wanted to be near him and I felt embarrassed by the strange desires to do so. So, it was very understandable that I couldn’t simply tell Michael that.
"Just keep it close to you, Michael, and stay at a distance but not too far." I smiled at him, looking over at Mr. Claypool and Mr. Vasquez.
It took a lot for him to agree with me, but he finally gave in to my wishes.
"Very well."
I smiled back, knowing he was doing all this for me, and wondering whether Q’s words had made some sort of dent in his thoughts of him. I think perhaps they had.
It was late and the school was now empty for the holidays, it was time to take advantage of the peace.
"Perhaps we should start the festivities," Michael announced as he smiled over at me, trying to ignore Q’s presence.
"It's getting late."
School had let out early so we could get started on the holidays with a party of our own.
"Everything is ready, sir," Mr. Claypool informed him.
"We set up a tree in the cafeteria," Michael said to me. I looked over at him.
"A Christmas tree?" I childishly asked.
"Of course," Michael answered, he was trying to put Q out of his mind. I could tell.
"With real presents," he added.
"Really?" I asked.
Michael nodded, I looked back at Q. But Q had wandered into the cafeteria and now wanted me to follow him. Michael moved as I pulled away, but I motioned him to stay at a distance and he nodded.
"Keep an eye on him," I heard Michael say to Mr. Claypool. The blonde Ed Harris lookalike assistant principal nodded then turned to Mr. Cortez and Mr. Vasquez. "You two—you're on duty."
"Now? I was just about to start enjoying myself." Mr. Cortez began to whine.
"Now, Mr. Cortez," Michael insisted.
"Going...but you should really watch how you talk to me."
Mr. Cortez lifted a bony finger at Michael, who glared at him. Mr. Cortez couldn’t even look at Michael.
"Come on, Mr. Vasquez, you can keep me company."
Mr. Vasquez only moved when Michael motioned him to and reluctantly followed Mr. Cortez. No one liked him, and Mr. Vasquez, although kind-hearted, was no exception. The two men looked ridiculous, especially Mr. Vasquez dragging his feet behind the shorter Mr. Cortez.
22
The Christmas Guest
I stood at the cafeteria entrance looking inside, in the distance was the Christmas tree wrapped in lights, lighting the laminated floors with its glow. The lights of the tree lit the cafeteria in a wondrous display of magic and the floor that surrounded the tree was covered in white flakes that were meant to replicate snow. Directly underneath the tree was an abundance of wrapped boxes of all sizes. A few tables were still set up while the rest were set aside against the wall of the cafeteria.
Bravely, I walked in looking about, nervously trembling and shaking as the lights of the tree washed upon my face.
"Would you honestly rather be here? Here…with them?" Q's voice firmly said, standing near the tree.
Immediately, he looked over at me. I felt my heart nervously pounding inside my chest when his purple eyes met mine from across the room.
He swiftly moved towards me as I foolishly stumbled back. My sudden actions disappointed him, and hesitating, he stopped in front of me. I stared at him, paralyzed. I was as afraid of him, as I was drawn.
"You fear me, don't you?” He looked saddened by the realization that perhaps I did fear him.
“I only missed you, my pet," he slowly said, forcing his pale lips to speak.
"Don't you? I only want to give you everything you desire." He looked around in distress and disappointment.
"But this? This is no place for us," he again said.
I took a deep breath and resentfully faced him. He lingered close to me, as if our space had become one. He had always been this way, coming within inches of me as if he wanted to breathe me in. His manners had always made me uncomfortable.
I felt the beating pulse of my heart inside my head. I bravely tried not to show that I was afraid or worried. Yet I think he knew it.
"This is my home, Q. You’re free to leave any time you desire," I challenged, trying to meet his eyes. He merely chuckled at my sad attempts to be bold.
"We are a unit, my pet. Haven't I already explained that? I will not leave your side no matter what…if this is what you want. Very well." He looked around.
"Although, I wish you would reconsider for the both of us."
"It never bothered you before," I challenged him.
"It was different then." He smiled, coming closer than I wanted him to.
"Different how?" I managed to say nervously, watching the side of his lip slightly curve and his eyes light up. Didn’t I know why? And I realized I did, in that moment, he smirked.
"I was looking for something important and now my search has ended. Hence, there is no reason to be here any longer."
His beautiful eyes were hypnotic and drawing me in.
“And I will not be kept from—her.”
I nervously moved away, he stared after me.
"Why are you afraid of me?" he asked, observing me.
"I'm not." I lied like a stupid fool.
"Then why do you pull away from me?"
He narrowed his eyes at me, then strolled to the center of the cafeteria with his hands behind his back and turned.
I couldn't answer. It was more than fear I sensed inside me, there was guilt too. Guilt that I couldn't deny or admit to myself, carving an ugly hole inside me, widening with every moment. Guilt, but for what? I knew the answer. If I did, why couldn't I face it?
"You’re still afraid, aren't you? After all I've said, after all I've promised. You’re afraid of me?" He asked, disappointed and sad by having read me correctly.
I didn’t answer, and quickly Q darted towards me.
"I will never hurt you, my pet. I can never…"
Almost immediately he was standing before again.
"You must believe that…you must. Don't you understand yet?"
"No, I don't—Why?—Why me?" I raised my voice, at which he stopped and didn't move, glaring at me, unsure of what I meant. Hadn’t I asked this before?
"I don't understand?" Q simply asked, which was strange coming from him. I don't think I had ever thought he would say such a thing.
"Why me? I'm just a girl, nothing more. Nothing more. Why do you want me?" I repeated.
Q moved swiftly, elevating like a towering fortress. His eyes glowing madly as if he were drugged and intoxicated by the mere question I had dared to ask.
"Oh, but you’re more than that, my pet, don't you see?" He stared deeply into my eyes.
‘
See what?’ I wanted to ask.
He looked crazed for the moment, ravaged and delirious, eager to be near me. He moved a hand forward but didn’t touch me. As if the mere touch was an aching pleasure.
I didn't understand his odd reaction, but I could sense the energy racing throughout his body before it was gone. He looked feverish and ecstatic. He forcibly pulled back, turning his face away so I couldn't see his eyes.
"I know things are not clear now, but they shall be. With time, they shall be clear. You will see that you are not just a mere girl as you say. And that you are far more important than you ever realized."
Q moved away to the tree, leaving me in wonder, leaving me to consider his words and his strange behavior.
For so long I had wondered about our connection and his interest in me. Of the day we had first met. The day I was meant to die and hadn't because of him. I thought of the way he looked deep into my eyes as if he were looking deep into my soul. How I felt I was a part of him even from the first time I laid my eyes on him. Strangely, I knew him even then, in a manner of speaking. I was aware of it, just as he was.
The truth was that I cared for him, I had never hated him, even after what had happened. My feelings were a mixture of fear and curiosity, and yet something deeper I dared not say. I wondered what he felt for me. What I meant to him, far more than what he had revealed. What was our purpose together? It had never been clear. Why was I his pet and why did I belong to him? I loved the very idea like a foolish child in love with a dream. I loved the fact that I was his, although I would deny it and blush at the very mention of the word pet whenever his lips would say it.
Which made me do what I did next. I moved toward him, and as he spun around to face me, I locked my lips to his without resisting any longer. Was it mere curiosity on my part or far more? I didn't understand. Yet in that moment, I didn't know why I had resisted him. Had he placed a spell on me again?
I wanted to feel his warmth and the possibility that I wanted him just as he wanted me. Whether or not it had been that, that made me so bold, I didn't know. I knew, as he did, that I wanted nothing else but to be with him.
So, I sank into his arms, curious to feel his emotions, but there were none. Curious to feel his arms around me, but I felt nothing. Curious to sense his love, but there was not any. His mind was blank; his lips and touch cold. If this was our purpose, why wasn't it there? Why wasn’t there any love or emotion or response to my affections for him?
As I pulled away from him, his beautiful eyes stared blankly at me, and his pale face seemed hollow and cruel. I didn't know what to say. Had I hoped to feel, to sense, or hear a single affection from his mind? Instead, there was nothing, not a sound, not a whisper, not a feeling. Had I been so blind to think he cared more, to think he could love me? To mistake his desires to have me by his side for love? A human emotion, was it not?
I moved back, he did nothing; not a single expression revealed what thoughts lurked in his dark mind. I felt an aching pain in my heart, I couldn't speak it.
Q moved away when I didn't speak. He faced the tree in silence; I sensed nothing coming from his mind. I felt foolish and embarrassed for acting without thought.
"I'm sorry," I said. I knew I had to say something. My face felt warm as I choked back a sob.
"I just…well…I thought," I foolishly uttered.
Q turned to face me, which made it more difficult to explain myself. Yet his beautiful face held no expression and no affection to the single unspoken kiss between us.
He gazed directly at me, his eyes as blank and cruel as before. Yet so beautiful and alluring, lit in a colorful display of bright purples. But his mind as empty of thought as it had been.
"I'm dying."
I froze, a few words hanging halfway from my lips as I stared at him in disbelief.
"I didn't want to alarm you, my pet," he again said with a line of concern on his face.
"What? No, you can't be!" I gasped as I realized my vision had been real.
I rushed to him. "You can't die. What do you mean die? Q, I don't understand. Why?" I sobbed.
He revealed a scar on the palm of his hand. I recognized the scar. I could clearly see the memory in his mind, a sacrifice he had made to save me.
"That is why I had to see you again," Q said. I fell into his arms and tightly held him, feeling his arms around me at last.
He pulled me away and gazed into my eyes. My tears brought a smile to his face.
"I don't want you to die. I won't let you," I foolishly said.
"You don't know how happy your words make me. But nothing can stop that now. He will come, definitely now that I have returned to your world. "
‘He,’ I thought knowing who he meant, knowing him from my nightmares and our last meeting in the pool that didn’t exist. ‘He,’ Death.
"Then you must go, Q. You must return to Demos. You must go. Before he comes!"
Q shook his head and cupped my cheek in his hand. I sensed the energy again; he seemed drawn to me. His eyes became heavy as he exhaled. He trembled when he touched me. Then a breath escaped him, his nostrils flared and he appeared merely intoxicated, more than before.
"My pet," Q finally said. "I will never leave you. Even to save my own life. I will never leave you."
"But, Q, you will die," I whispered and tightly held him.
23
John Slater’s Return
An old, baby blue Shelby Mustang pulled into the parking lot of Milton High and parked near the large blue doors of the school's side entrance. A tall, brawny, handsome man stepped out of the driver's side wearing a pair of dark shades. Honey brown hair slightly dangled on the side of his face as he smiled, greeting the building from where he stood.
He glanced up for a minute at the Romanesque architecture, perhaps wondering whether he would be welcomed again as he had in the past now that he had returned after a year.
John Slater slowly took a step forward, removing the shades that concealed his bright green eyes, and looked up at the building. He regretted the day he had left. Yet he knew he only regretted one thing, and that was leaving her. He hoped she would understand. Now that he had to return, with so many doubts and reasons for leaving, he wondered why he had returned at all. Whether they were all for her, or for his own demons. He could no longer be sure.
He regretted breaking his promises to take her. There had been nights when he thought of nothing but to return to her. But, surrounded by secrecy, he knew it was almost impossible. He feared his longings would bring dangers her way. He vowed he would always protect her. So he kept himself away for those reasons. But he couldn’t be kept away for too long. He was lost without her and he knew it. His own demons had started calling him.
He recalled Bryce’s instructions after the incident, “I want you to go back. The alien may have escaped but what lured it may still be near…eliminate any possible leads…”
But had it been his idea to leave.
His short stay as assistant principal a year earlier was a mere dent in his assignment. He felt guilty for lying to Claudia; he had never left The Company at all, it had all been a ploy to bring his new plan into existence. Another game. Would it work? It had to.
He was certain of one thing; it had not made him want her any less. Had he felt his devotion to The Company slipping, had Bryce? He wanted to end it for her. End this pursuit, this hunt. End The Man in Blue for good. Just be John, for her, someone who loved her.
On his return to Milton, he was faced with something else, something he wasn’t prepared to hear.
“I have another assignment for you,” Bryce merely said. The Man in White didn’t say another word about the alien. Although, they both knew why he had gone.
“I need you to start on the assignment-it’s priority above all,” John recalled.
The discovery of a Minder, a woman, had alerted his boss. And it was she Bryce wanted more than anything, including Project X. Women Minders were rare and John knew that. He had hunted th
em but had never come across any, only oddities. Humans with strange abilities like those that can manipulate fire and strange creatures like vampires. So, he could understand his boss’s interest, although not as much as he’d like to understand why. But it had never mattered until now, until after Claudia, because she was one, and he loved her. And he wanted to keep her safe from The Man in White.
He wanted to ask about Jack, why he had been on the assignment he was now getting. Why had he been pulled off it? That was yet another question. Bryce smiled, almost aware of the inquiries from his expression.
"It’s an easy assignment." Bryce mocked, echoing the very words of the first assignment.
He turned to the shelf near his desk, lifted a folder, and dropped it onto the desk. ‘Easy?’ John thought, that word again. Was this a joke? He wanted to ask but didn’t get a chance.
"I want you to go to Mexico."
"Mexico?" John asked, lifting the file.
“You’ve read the file…” Bryce said with a slim grin. Sure he had, after all, Bryce had sent him part of the assignment, but hadn’t his boss said he had more information regarding the project?
“Yes, of course—a woman Minder, that’s rare.”
But he wanted to ask what was really bothering him. Why had Jack been on the mission and why was he getting it now?
Was that the real question he meant to ask? No, of course not, “What does this have to do with Jack?” John finally asked.
Bryce didn’t look surprised.
“By now, you are aware I sent him to retrieve the Minder—” Bryce glared over at him. ‘Of course,’ he thought.
John opened the file; staring straight up at him was the photograph of a man he knew quite well.
"Jack Sanders has defected," The Man in White offered. His face remained calm, his tone firm and stern.
"What?" Had he heard him right, his old friend a deserter?
"We haven't heard from him and our sources and contacts indicate he has abandoned his mission."
“Bryce, are you certain? You know Jack, he usually turns up when we least expect it. He never plays by any rules but his own.”