No.
NO.
NO!
My physical vision blurred with tears, even as I held her lifeless body in my arms.
Agony yanked me forward, curling me into her as I sought for any way to make this stop. To bring her back.
But I had already had this vision of the future. In the last minute, this was my second time experiencing this agony. My second time watching those eclipsed stars die out.
What would I do to wake up from this nightmare? What would I give to save my love?
Anything.
My immortality.
My life.
Everything.
For her. Everything.
Even while my physical body stayed upright, I wrapped my entirety around my love, tugging her away, bringing her into me, pushing her into place…
And then, I left her behind.
Forever.
For the first time in my existence…I slept…
17: Consequential Decisions
Freya Rosetti
March 17, 2735 – Current Day – Noon
Freya had seen it happen.
In an instant, she saw it all in Lexi’s thoughts.
A man shouted out, “For the Sheriff!” prompting Lexi to whip around in horror, only for her to stare at a machine gun pointed right at her. She didn’t even have time to blink before a flash of blonde hair was shoving in front of her, along with a burst of bright white light blinding her simultaneously as gunfire ricocheted in her ears.
Pain erupted in Lexi’s arm, fire seared her face, and she was blasted back into the hallway.
Nine shots, eight of which missed their target, seven of them burying into another.
Lexi didn’t understand why the bullets didn’t hit her too, knowing a machine of that caliber should eat through half a dozen bodies lined up.
But Freya knew why.
At Lily’s maximum temperature, the metal would have liquified instantly upon entering her body, turning into molten lead seeping into her tissues. Even if the bullets hadn’t killed her, the raging inferno she produced uncontrollably would have continued ceaselessly until she died, with paramedics unable to do anything but watch her burn out from a distance.
And even without that problem, getting the liquid lead out of her body would be impossible.
That’s all it took.
One bullet, and there was no hope of saving her, never mind seven bullets.
Freya watched the fire die as the light in her soul blinked out of existence. Water poured from the ceiling from a sprinkler system that had done nothing prior to the source extinguishing on its own. She wasn’t sure if the fluid dripping onto her cheeks was water or tears, but she knew that her torn heart would never stop bleeding.
Not even after a thousand years.
She would bleed forever, a wound on her soul that would never heal.
Her eyes stared unseeing at the naked form of a broken spirit holding a lifeless body. The sight branded into her mind, a nightmare she would never forget.
At least, she had been unseeing until her third-eye, which was about to stop glowing, noticed a significant shift in that broken spirit.
Confusion.
Then panic.
Freya bolted to her feet as Sam screamed, horrified as he jerked away from Lily’s body, only to look down at his hands in absolute shock.
In a flash, he whipped around, his eyes catching a familiar face rushing towards him.
“Freya?!” Sam’s voice shouted, his hand grabbing at his throat as another wave of shock washed over his expression.
Freya froze then as she finally registered what was happening.
In her initial confusion, there was a spark of hope that was instantly smothered by her own horror.
As devastating as she knew it would be to lose Lily one day, she knew it might happen.
But never in a million years had she considered to prepare for the possibility that she might lose Sam instead…
“Lily,” Freya choked out, staring at Sam’s panicked expression.
She then dropped to her knees.
The world around her darkened.
The last thing she remembered was the floor rushing towards her face.
❖ ❖ ❖
Sam Archer
March 18, 2735 – 21 Hours Later – Morning
I groaned weakly as I turned my head to the right, finding something soft and warm resting against my cheek, nose, and lips. Groggily, I peeked through my eyelids, confused by what I was seeing at such a close distance. After a few seconds, I registered the sensation as smooth skin, with the plumpness against the side of my lips being someone else’s lips.
I pulled away slightly, my eyes widening in shock when I realized I was in bed with Heidi, her face practically right up against mine, her sleeping expression peaceful, though it was obvious she was emaciated again.
Then, all at once I registered a multitude of sensations throughout my body, with only a few standing out above the rest.
My chest felt strange though I couldn’t quite identify why, and there was a foreign sensation between my legs, along with the full length of my arm being pressed against silky smooth skin pulled tight over a bony frame.
Heidi was wearing a hospital gown backwards, the opening in the front, my arm pressed against her naked stomach and chest underneath, while her arms were wrapped around tightly, both of them having IV’s, a mess of tubing all around us.
I tried moving my legs, only to realize something was against my right foot. I glanced down past my flat chest to see Lexi’s head, half her face covered in thick gauze, while her visible eye had a dark circle underneath as she slept in a chair, using the bed as a pillow.
I then looked towards my left to see a startling sight.
My own body wearing unfamiliar clothes wrapped tightly in Freya’s arms on a cot, my head against her chest, with salt stains running down both of our cheeks. Both of the two were passed out cold, with Rose curled up in a chair at the foot of the foldout bed.
Since my right hand was held prisoner by Heidi, my fingers practically on her groin, I lifted my left hand to my forehead, trying to physically push away the confusion and fog in my mind.
Then, suddenly everything hit me at once, causing me to suck in a sharp breath.
Just as panic began to register in my thoughts, the world beginning to feel like it was warming up, I reached out towards my body in Freya’s arms, wrapping myself around the person within and giving them a gentle tug.
Just as easily as I had deposited her, I scooped her back up, feeling her pass through me like I was a tunnel of energy, as I gently pushed her back into place, returning her to how I had found her.
Returning her to where she had always existed since before birth.
Unlike my previous experiences trying to touch an astral form with my astral limbs, instead I was using my entire astral body to create a pathway, a bridge, to lead the other entity through me as I switched places.
As my second-sight traversed the short distance, I opened my eyes to find my face pressed against Freya’s chest, simultaneously hearing a gasp from where I had just come.
As fast as I could manage, pulling against Freya’s tight grasp, I forced myself to sit up to lock eyes with a vibrant orange gaze staring back at me. Her flat chest made her look a lot thinner and younger than I was used to seeing, but otherwise she seemed to be in perfect health.
The confusion on her face rapidly transitioned to agony as she unexpectedly sobbed my name.
“Sam!”
I quickly got up, leaving Freya’s passed-out form behind, as Lily began hyperventilating.
“Sam!” she repeated, causing Heidi and Rose to both stir.
I climbed into the bed on her left side, feeling her arm desperately wrap around my torso as I brought my face to hers.
“Why?” she sobbed, pressing her heated forehead against mine. “Why?!” she said louder. Angrier. “How could you do that to me?!”
She
was quickly becoming incoherent.
I tried to respond, only to realize that I was crying too, my voice too choked up to speak.
Heidi’s lavender eyes popped open then, seeming confused by all the sobbing for half a second, before her eyes widened as she focused on Lily.
“Sam?” she said urgently.
I pulled away to look at her through a teary lens, reaching out to wrap my arm around her thin back.
“Thank you,” I choked out, causing tears to spring into her eyes when she realized I had returned to my own body.
She immediately reached out and desperately grabbed a fistful of my shirt, her arm beginning to tremble. When she started sobbing too, her eyes squeezing shut like she was in physical pain, I tightened my one-arm embrace on her, finding both her and Lily pulling me down. I quickly supported my weight with a couple of astral limbs, finding both of their heads sobbing against my chest.
“Daddy?” a quiet voice whispered from behind me.
I wrapped an astral limb around Rose’s waist, prompting her to push forward and climb onto my back, wrapping her arms and legs around me like a monkey. Her tears quickly began soaking my hair as she buried her face against the back of my head.
I looked towards my right when another weight settled on the edge of the bed, meeting a grieved pair of red eyes looking from my face to Lily’s buried against my chest.
“I’m sorry,” I barely managed, causing her tormented gaze to focus on me.
She sobbed as a mixture of grief and anger crossed her expression, before agony settled in its place and she leaned forward to press her head against my temple, her hand settling on the top of Lily’s head.
We all just cried for a long time, with me finally apologizing repeatedly once I had collected myself a little. Because it was obvious everyone was upset, feeling various levels of sorrow, heartache, and fury over a decision that affected them all.
Lily was especially angry, because placing her in my body was like putting her in an eternal prison she could never escape, being reminded that I was dead every time she looked in the mirror…forever.
Just like I had been tormented for over a hundred years, knowing I couldn’t follow my previous wife in suicide to end my suffering, likewise, Lily would be forever trapped in a living hell, wishing she had just died instead of me.
Freya was angry for similar reasons, horrified by the idea that she’d have to look at my face and know that Lily was inside, a constant reminder that I was dead while Lily was locked away in a cell that Freya couldn’t save her from.
Needless to say, the last twenty-one hours had been hell for them all.
I apologized repeatedly, and explained through my sobs that I just couldn’t handle losing someone like that again.
It felt like that helped a little, though I doubted I would be forgiven so easily. They were both going to be angry for a while for making what was ironically a selfish decision in their eyes. Because I had tried to escape the pain of losing Lily by dying myself, leaving them all behind to deal with a screwed-up reality.
Lexi was the only one who didn’t wake up right away, though I found out later it was because she was on some pretty strong pain medicine for her burns. Heidi had dedicated all of her healing efforts towards me, trying to heal Lily’s dead body once she found out I was inside it.
Once we had all calmed down a little, I ended up sitting against the raised head-of-the-bed with Lily in my arms, her head against my chest. I had one leg hanging off the side so that Freya could sit in between my thighs, wanting to be as close as possible.
Rose then sat with her arms wrapped around her knees by Lily’s feet, while Heidi began explaining to me what happened. She was lying on Lily’s other side, her arm draped across Lily’s flat chest, a fistful of my shirt still in her grasp.
“I saw you naked, knelt down next to Freya,” she whispered. “Neither of you looked hurt though, so I quickly found my sister. I tried to start healing her, but she told me to help Lily.” Heidi grimaced as she recalled what happened next. “I didn’t see her anywhere though, so I called out to you to ask where Lily was.” She shivered then. “And…”
Lily spoke up when Heidi couldn’t continue for a moment, tightening her embrace on me. “And I told her I was Lily. I said you were in my body.”
Heidi shook her head at the memory. “I didn’t believe her at first. I mean, it’s crazy, right?” She met my gaze. “But when you turned towards me, you covered up your chest like you were subconsciously hiding your boobs. And your face was doing expressions I’d never seen you do before. And I couldn’t imagine why you would lie about something like that.” She paused, and we were all silent for a few long seconds before she continued. “You were dead,” she whispered. “I tried to heal you anyway, but you were dead.”
Lily chimed in again. “When the paramedics showed up, my body had a pulse even though it wasn’t breathing, so they brought you to the hospital.” She laughed humorlessly then. “Heidi started punching them when they wouldn’t listen to her and tried to pull her away.”
Freya spoke up. “That’s about when I woke up,” she whispered. “I guess I passed out when I realized what you’d done. But I made them take Heidi too, and told them she had to keep her hands on you at all times.”
Heidi mimicked Lily’s humorless laugh. “They were really confused, because we kept saying ‘he’ and ‘him.’ I’m pretty sure they thought we were all crazy.”
“Lexi called the CDS,” Freya added. “They had an emergency crew on-site to take control of the situation within fifteen minutes. Apparently, the terrorist wasn’t even trying to hide the gun, causing people to quietly hurry away in a rush, afraid that speaking up would get them shot. So, no one got hurt by Lily’s flames except him and Lexi, which made their crowd control job a lot easier.”
Lily spoke up again. “Freya tried to go with you to the hospital, but I begged her to stay with me.” She buried her head against my chest. “The paramedics gave me a blanket to cover over, but I was still naked in your body. I couldn’t handle…” Her voice cut off, as she sobbed again.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated.
Heidi continued. “They had to do emergency surgery that ultimately lasted ten hours. But I ended up fighting with the doctors because they didn’t want to let me go in the operating room with you, even though I tried telling them why I needed to.” She glanced at her sister then, still sleeping. “I guess Lexi told her boss what was going on, because the lady showed up at the hospital to help. She made them do the surgery with me holding onto you.”
“So you kept Lily’s body alive?” I wondered quietly.
Heidi grimaced, tears appearing in her lavender eyes as she shook her head. “I can’t bring back the dead.”
I gave her a confused look, glancing at Freya as if for confirmation. She was staring down at my stomach, unable to meet my gaze.
Heidi continued. “I don’t know why you came back to life, or why you stayed alive. I mean, you weren’t even breathing – not the whole time. They tried to intubate you, but your lungs were too badly damaged for that to do much. At first, I thought I was helping, but after the surgery they reported that your lungs were already back to normal after getting all the solidified metal out. And then you started breathing on your own about thirty minutes later.” She paused. “I can’t…I can’t focus my power like that.”
My brow furrowed, and I looked at Freya again.
“Freya,” I finally whispered.
She glanced up at me with a hesitant expression. “Sam, when I investigated your family, I discovered that your father was a normal regenerator like Heidi. He could heal a lot faster than her, but not instantly like you do. And not without eating. Not to mention, Lily fell asleep in your body.”
Heidi, of course, didn’t know that little secret about this not being the body I was born with, so she looked thoroughly confused.
But I knew exactly what Freya was telling me.
This body I was in had a s
uperpower that had the same limitations as Heidi, but when I took it over as an infant, I somehow eliminated those hindrances, removing the need to eat to regenerate, allowing me to recover even when there was only a skeleton left.
My thoughts flashed back to a conversation I had with Nick, when he inquired about how my superpower worked, suggesting that matter and energy had to come from somewhere.
Was the rapid healing ability inherently my own to begin with? Was I somehow pulling the material I needed to recover from some unknown location? Or even crazier, was I somehow creating it from nothing?
And did that mean I had begun to heal Lily’s body on my own? And, if so, then why hadn’t I just done that when I was a baby?
Unless of course, my infant body had been completely destroyed, leaving me without a body to repair. Still, I was fully confident that Heidi played a role in my recovery, because she was almost as emaciated as when she had healed her sister. And in fact, it was very probable that my ability wasn’t to naturally heal at all, but to instead enhance the abilities of the body I was in – or even the beneficial abilities being used on the body I was in – which meant I had enhanced Heidi’s superpower when she tried to use it on me.
In fact, that would also explain why I couldn’t heal my original body, which would mean it really was all her. Had Heidi not been around, then I might really be dead right now.
I reached down to pat her hand still holding onto my shirt. “Well, you look miserable, so I have no doubt you helped a ton. Thank you.”
Heidi nodded weakly. “I couldn’t…” She looked away. “I couldn’t lose you…”
I glanced at Freya in the corner of my vision, while catching sight of Lily’s expression in my second-sight. Both of them were staring into space, their eyes tight, neither of them reacting much to Heidi’s comment.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated, feeling horrible that I’d put them all through hell.
“Just don’t ever do that again,” Lily whispered, burying her head against me again. “I do not want to be a guy for the rest of my life.”
I laughed, though there wasn’t much amusement in it. “Yeah, I can understand that.”
The Sacrificial Love of an Immortal Page 25