Enemy through the Gates

by D T Dyllin

  “Watch the rerun of the evening news tonight.”

  “What?”

  “Watch the rerun of the evening news tonight, and then we’ll have something to discuss.” And with that I felt kind of a mental pop to let me know he was really gone. Weird. Or was it more weird how casually I was accepting this new creepy guy into my life? Or maybe I’d grown up with so much weird that one more thing didn’t really seem like a big deal.

  I had no idea what time it was, and I really didn’t care about the stupid evening news or Khol’s demand that I watch it. So I slid my eyes closed and wanted nothing more than to doze off again, so I could dream of Bryn. But just when I was on the precipice of dreamland, I heard my new T.V. click on. I sat up in bed with a start to see who had turned it on, and as I swung my head around I realized I was the only one in my room. It was with clear certainty I knew that somehow Khol was responsible, especially when I saw that the evening news was currently on display. “Why the hell does he want me to watch this?” I grumbled to myself, trying to focus on what was on the screen, my eyes still slightly blurry.

  A blonde woman news anchor was speaking. “And tonight we have a special treat… We have Senator Bill Wexington in our studio. As many of you know, he’s been touring our illustrious state the last couple of days trying to garner as many votes for the upcoming election as possible. And when he asked to stop by and chat with us we couldn’t have been happier.”

  The screen split, the female anchorwoman remained on the left side and on the right appeared an older man with silver hair and the title Senator Bill Wexington scrolled across the bottom of the screen. I slapped my hand over my mouth to stifle a scream. I knew him. I knew this man. Only when I had seen him he had been at least twenty years younger, but there was no mistaking who he was.

  As he began to talk, I saw a quick flash of the alien ‘under’ his skin. It was like seeing two men, one a human and one an alien taking up the same space. Their features were mingled together somehow, and yet they were separate. “Oh my God.” I whispered in horror. “How is this possible?”

  “Apparently your vision was one from the past. It has been many years since the creature has merged with the man,” Khol’s voice answered in my mind. “They are one now.”

  “But how? Why?” I stared at the screen unable to look away.

  “Your vision showed the how. Obviously it was important for you to see what you were shown. As you already know, Seers see all that pertains to the gates.”

  “But if that happened so long ago, why didn’t any other Seer have a vision pertaining to it when it actually happened?”

  “I can only offer you an educated guess on why no one else saw it when it happened. You are the strongest Seer to be born in a long time, as I’ve previously stated, for some reason maybe no one else had the power to see it. You are just now coming into your powers, so you were shown.”

  “Oh.” Yeah, that made sense, I guess. But there were so many other nagging questions. For one—“Why can no one else see what he really is then? I’m sure I’m not the only Seer who’s laid eyes on him in all this time.”

  “Yes, there is that as well.” Khol paused for a few heartbeats as I stared, mind reeling as I watched the T.V. What did this ‘alien’ want? Why had he laid low for all these years to only emerge now? Or had he? “There are many questions that I do not have the answers to, as of yet, my little Seer.”

  My little Seer? “So what do we do then?” I asked, choosing to ignore his little term of endearment, at least for the moment. I was certainly not his by any definition I was aware of.

  “We watch. We wait. We gather power. And then when things become clearer we make a move.”

  “Great. So basically we do nothing.” I fumbled for the T.V. remote and turned it off.

  Khol sighed in my mind. “Watching, waiting, and gathering power isn’t nothing.”

  “Whatever. I don’t care anyways,” I said, sliding back down in my bed and shutting my eyes. None of it meant anything without Bryn anyways.

  I heard a low growl echo through my mind. “Your childish woes are nothing compared to what we face. More than just you will be effected—this is my world too.” I didn’t respond and crossed my arms over my chest, hoping that by being linked to me, he would pick up on what my body language was saying.

  Another growl echoed through my mind. Huh. So it had worked. “Stop being so childish,” Khol snapped, anger evident in his voice.

  “Leave me alone,” I snapped back. I felt the mental pop signaling that he was gone from my mind, letting me heave a sigh of relief. I didn’t want to deal with anything right now, let alone crazy aliens who were up for Congress or some shit.

  I stared off into the dark, waiting for sleep to claim me again so I could be whisked off into Bryn’s imaginary arms. Unfortunately for me, Khol had other ideas.

  A low growl sounding outside of my head caused me to sit up and almost choke on my tongue as Khol, live and in the flesh, stalked towards my bed in the dark. His luminescent eyes glowed an eerie green, casting shadows on his angry face. “What are you doing here?” I gasped in shock. He said before he wasn’t going to hurt me but it was hard to remember that with the look he was currently wearing on his face.

  “Trying to make you understand something,” he said through clenched teeth. He stopped at the edge of my bed and glared down at me.

  “What? That you’re good at intimidating me? You’ve already made that point clear before.” Then I had a thought that made me relax slightly. “Wait, are you really here? Or just here like in the woods before?” Because he got here awfully quick.

  “Oh, I’m here, in the flesh this time. I wouldn’t be able to make the point that I’m going to otherwise.” His eyes glinted with something I couldn’t decipher. It’s really hard to read someone with green glowy eyes I was discovering.

  “Oh,” I gulped, nothing left to say. What kind of point did he have to make to me in the flesh? Was he going to smack me around? Threaten me? My mind was reeling with possibilities, compiling a list of all the horrible things he could do to me. But what he did do took me by complete surprise because it never would have made it on that list.

  He leaned down faster than I’d ever seen anyone move, even fully matured Guardians, and crushed his lips to mine. When I gasped with surprise, he took the opportunity to plunge his tongue into my mouth. The white-hot heat that his kiss caused to surge through my body was even more unexpected. I found myself kissing him back and shuddering at the sensations his hands caused as they skimmed down my body.

  I wanted—I wanted—Bryn. An image of him skittered across my mind and instantly cooled my heated skin. How could I be kissing someone else—or something else? I loved Bryn, and only him. “Stop!” I said shoving Khol away from me, although with the ease of which I did, I knew that he had let me. “What the hell was that?” I demanded, too angry to care how scary he was any more.

  His eyes met mine with heat, glowing even brighter, if that was even possible, and a satisfied smirk spread across his face. “I was teaching you a lesson.”

  “A lesson? Really. And what would that be? That you’re an asshole that forces unwanted attention on girls that are smaller and weaker than them?” I ground my teeth together so hard my jaw started to hurt.

  “No—that not only Bryn can stoke your fires. That you need to get out of this bed and start focusing on the bigger problems at hand. Your life hasn’t ended because he’s gone.”

  Stoke my fires? Who the hell talks that way? “Yeah, I have hormones, so what? And you’re a really good kisser—congratulations. I’m sure practically any hot guy could come in here and get some kind of reaction out of me. That doesn’t change the fact that I love Bryn, and will never want to be with anyone but him. Love means something to me and Bryn does it for me physically… and beyond.”

  Khol’s smirk didn’t even falter a little bit. “Bryn isn’t the one for you. But you’ll figure that out eventually, in your own time. As you
grow into your powers, you’ll find that you’ll crave… more.”

  More? Just the way that he said that made it sound like he was implying that he meant more than just sexually, but I had no idea what he was trying to suggest. “Whatever. Now that you tried to teach me a lesson… and failed, will you please leave so that I can go to sleep? Dream Bryn is waiting.”

  “I’ll leave and let you go to sleep—after you promise to get out of bed and resume your life starting tomorrow. Only then will I leave.” Khol crossed his thick muscular arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at me. I didn’t know him very well, but I could tell he meant business.

  “Fine. Whatever. I agree. So leave. Now.” Whatever. What was he going to do, come in the morning and drag me out of bed and force me to go to school? Yeah, right.

  He produced a newspaper seemingly out of thin air and tossed it to me. “There’s an article about our good friend Senator Bill Wexington in there. I thought you might want to read it.”

  I glanced down at the paper for a second and when I looked back up, Khol was gone. What the hell? Oh well, at least he was gone. I turned back to the paper and searched for the article he had mentioned, my curiosity too great to ignore it.

  When I was done reading the article I was even more confused. “So aliens are fans of gun control.” I muttered to myself. “So what?” Ugh. All the article had told me was that Senator Bill Wexington didn’t stand behind the Second Amendment of the Constitution. It wasn’t like he was making any highly suspicious suggestions for his campaign to get elected to Congress. I wasn’t a really political person, but I knew Senator Bill Wexington wasn’t the first, nor would he be the last politician to suggest gun control in some form.

  My phone beeped signaling a new text message. My heart sped up in anticipation; even though I knew that Bryn didn’t have his phone, I kept hoping that he’d find a way to contact me. So far I’d heard absolutely nothing from him, and even a text message at this point would make me jump for joy.

  I peered down at my phone and heaved a sigh of disappointment… the text was from Jenna. I hadn’t really talked to her since Bryn had been shipped away and I had sunk into the depths of despair, but I did grace her with responses to her text messages at least. I think she understood, mostly, that I wasn’t up to talking about everything that had happened. I opened my phone and read—“So who was the guy who wasn’t Bryn u were just making out w/ ???” My jaw dropped open. How the hell did she know? “IDK what ur talking about,” I responded.

  “LIAR!” stared back at me as her response. I didn’t know what to say. How did she know? A sick feeling settled into my stomach of the thought of Bryn ever finding out. He hadn’t even been gone a week yet and I had kissed someone else, or rather someone else had kissed me. Although I really didn’t think Bryn would see the distinction, especially because I had kissed him back—if only for a moment. My phone beeped again and I turned my eyes back to the glowing screen. “SPILL IT!”

  “IDK y u think that… but… yeah… no…” I hit send and hoped she would buy it.

  My phone beeped again almost immediately. “Squirrels r chatty & nosey. Stop lying. :/.” Damn Speakers! I always forget about her sneaky little spies. The image of a little voyeur squirrel hanging around outside my window and then running to Jenna to report any indiscretions on my part was absolutely horrifying.

  “. . . and crazy,” I typed back, and turned my phone off. I could picture Jenna sitting in her room steaming mad. I would probably have a full mailbox of angry texts when I turned my phone back on, but it was better than dealing with her now.

  I slumped back into bed, blinking my eyes into the darkness. I found myself feeling oddly vulnerable as if a whole army of squirrels could be hanging out in the tree across from my window watching me. I stumbled across my floor, and pulled down the shade, checking to make sure there weren’t any gaps for nosey rodents to peek through. Once satisfied, I flopped back into bed and closed my eyes, yearning for nothing more than to dream about Bryn.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “Rise and shine, my little Seer.” Khol’s raspy voice echoed through my mind.

  “No. Go away,” I grumbled, pulling my pillow over my head. But pillows only buffer against noise on the outside of your head, so there was no escape for me.

  “You agreed to get back to your life starting today if I left you alone last night. I did, and now you are.

  “I changed my mind.”

  “I can come in person to wake you up if you’d like.” I could hear the smile in his voice. I lay there for another couple of moments; I’m really not sure how long before I started to doze again. The threat of Khol coming in person temporarily forgotten—until my pillow was snatched from my grasp.

  “Hey!” I exclaimed, seeing Khol standing beside my bed with my pillow in his hands. His tall frame seemed to take up more room in the light of day, and his dark auburn hair looked like fire in the morning sun.

  His lips turned up into a slight smile as he looked at me. “Would you like me to help you shower as well?” The way that his creepy eyes slid over my body made me feel very self-conscious all of a sudden, and I pulled my covers up under my arms as a shield. I didn’t want him getting any ideas and trying to kiss me like he did last night.

  “Eww… how old are you anyways? You have to be at least in your mid twenties; I just turned eighteen. If you would have caught me a few days earlier, I’d be jailbait for you.”

  Khol’s smile faltered, but only slightly. “Seventeen is plenty old enough where I’m from. Besides I’m not human, your laws mean little to me.”

  “Yeah, about that. Are you ever going to tell me what you are?” Besides creepy that is.

  “As I’ve said, all in due time.”

  “Fine. Whatever. So I suppose that if I don’t get up and go to school today, you’re just going to harass me all day instead?”

  “Harass—no. But I’m sure we could find some very… entertaining… things for us to do to help you back on your way to recovery.” His eyes slid over me again letting me know exactly what he was thinking. “The way your power hums to me constantly, calling to me, it’s like a siren’s song, one that I yearn to answer with everything that I am.”

  My heart pounded in my chest as I stared at Kohl. There was no point in denying that his words excited me, or more aptly they revved my hormones, but that was beside the point. As a teenager that really wasn’t a huge accomplishment. “I love Bryn,” I snapped. “There will be no answering of my siren’s song by anyone but him.”

  Kohl moved so fast I could barely track him and I when my eyes found him again, he was kneeling beside me hand out stretched. “You have no reason to fear me, my little Seer.” He touched the side of my face briefly, leaving heat where his fingers had briefly skimmed my jaw line. “I will not force you to do anything you don’t truly desire to do. I’m well aware that your heart belongs to another. I am simply letting you know your options for when you realize that he isn’t the one for you.”

  “What about the kiss last night?” I whispered, hating how my body responded to his.

  “I regret having taken what should only be given freely, and for that I apologize. I simply needed to make a point, to show you that your life will go on without him.” He touched my face again before drawing back and standing once more. “I want you to be able to trust me.” His face became solemn and oh so sincere; it made me want to give my trust to him—this strange man that wasn’t even human.

  Staring at him, my gut clenched, and I knew that I could trust him, even if he did still scare me a little. “I don’t know why… but I do… trust you, that is.” I gave him a tentative smile.

  His answering smile was instant and bright, making him look so much more handsome and a lot less creepy. “Now go ready yourself for school, my little Seer. I’ll be watching.” And just like that he disappeared again.

  I heaved a huge sigh; relief washing over me that I knew would be short lived. It looked like Khol wasn’t g
oing to let me sink any farther into the depths of despair over Bryn. I glanced over at my open window, which Khol must have done, and saw a little grey squirrel perched on a branch in the big oak tree that sat across from my window. It eyed me curiously with its beady little eyes. And to think I used to like squirrels. “Get out of here!” I yelled as I stalked over towards my window. “Go tell Jenna to mind her own business and to get the hell out of mine!” I pulled the shades shut again, muting the light from the bright morning. I shook my head in disbelief. What had my world come to that I was hiding from squirrels now?

  Thirty minutes later I was standing outside my kitchen, listening to my mom scurrying around making breakfast, and the occasional rustle of the paper let me know my dad was also in there. I held so much resentment towards them, and I didn’t know if it would ever go away. I knew on some level that they were exactly the same people that I’ve always known, the same people that had raised me so lovingly, but they were also the people who were responsible for ripping Bryn from my life. There are so many different kinds of love in this world, and I guess when push comes to shove, the romantic soul-mate kind of love trumps anything else.

  I steeled my nerves and swept into the kitchen with a solemn face. All movement stopped as I felt both of my parents turn to stare at me. I could almost feel my mom’s relief at seeing me out of bed and somewhat normal, but I wasn’t going to make it that easy for them. I marched over to the pantry and grabbed a couple breakfast cookies and a bottle of water, stuffed them into my shoulder bag and careful not to acknowledge their presence, marched out the back door without so much as one word. Things would never be the same between us, I knew that, and in some weird way I suppose I was mourning the loss of my parents as well as Bryn. Because when all was said and done, I had made my choice, the only choice I could make, and when Bryn came for me in a year, I would leave with him no matter what.

  As I rounded the corner I saw Jenna, with rainbow colored hair now, waiting expectantly for me. No doubt her squirrel spy had filled her in. She wore a scowl on her face that deepened when she met my eyes. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on or not?”