Part 4 to Hunted, following on from Bang Bang Bang. I don't think Henrick liked me for what I did to Felix xP
Coral stormed into the building, the ends of her coat flapping angrily at her ankles. "What did that idiot half-brother of mine do now?"
Henrick looked up from the book he was reading to the older woman standing in the doorway. He didn't know Felix's half-sister very well. She and Felix didn't keep in touch very often, but she was the only family Felix had left. They had never been close, since she had moved out long before Felix had his accident and inherited Aiolos from their grandfather. She took him in as a teenager without any question though. Her daughter was quick to make friends with Henrick who was around her age. She'd moved to Australia a long time ago, and Henrick only kept in touch with her through emails.
"There was...an attack."
Coral sighed, moving to stand next to the slumbering form of Felix. He was hooked up to several machines that were beeping away. Physically, it seemed Felix was fine. His body had no direct injuries. His mind was just not inside his body. "Do they know about his...umm...thing?"
Henrick shook his head. A nurse at the hospital had been a 'scout'. The moment Felix had been rushed through the doors she had placed herself on Felix's case. She removed any evidence that there was anything abnormal about Felix's body that was directly linked to Aiolos from leaking out to the rest of the hospital. Her symbiont was two hundred years older than Aiolos. She knew what she was doing. It turned out that in releasing his powers to such a degree, Aiolos hadn't been compeltely sheilded from the onslaught. The symbiont was the one sporting the physical scars. In such a damaged state and with such a link to Felix, it was no wonder Felix was in a coma.
"Will he wake up?" she asked, concern now fully blown. She brushed her hand over Felix's pale face.
"I don't know."
"He was in a coma before. He said it was Aiolos that healed him. If Aiolos can't heal him now...he'll..." She swallowed hard, leaning down to place a kiss to her sibling's forehead. "He said his spine was damaged."
"The nurse said that if Aiolos starts to deteriorate anymore, then Felix's body will be unable to handle the stress that happened back then." He clutched the book tightly to his chest. If Aiolos started to die so would Felix. The thought terrified him. He didn't know what he would do without Felix. "He said he'd live with me until I died, and find someone to take Aiolos so that he could...he could..." Tears streaked down his face, rendering Henrick unable to finish what he was saying. He reached over and clutched the lifeless hand of his lover.
Coral looked away to give Henrick a few moments to himself. She looked at the window, watching as the rain ceaselessly attacked the window. It had been raining for days now. No one could understand why. It had been relentless since the day a mass-murderer had been caught. Felix said his grandfather had told him it had rained the entire time he was in a coma back when he was involved in a traffic accident. Nothing was controling his power, so it was just releasing the energy on its own.
She stayed with Henrick until it was time for visitors to leave. Henrick went back to an empty apartment every time the nurse told him to leave, and returned with each vising hour. This routine continued for weeks. He barely ate. Cadence started visiting to force feed him. She and her family tried their all to try and keep some semblance of life in the apartment the two men shared. Gethin visited Felix often. Coral and her daughter came on occassions, but no one spent more time there than Henrick.
One day, the nurse slipped inside while Henrick lay with his head on the bed. "Henrick?"
He didn't open his eyes to acknowledge her. She was a host though. She would know he wasn't sleeping.
"Aiolos is...communicating again."
He slowly lifted his head to look up at her. "What?"
She gave him a small smile and moved closer to the bed where Felix lay and glanced to the machines monitoring him. "He's weak, but he's starting to project his thoughts now. We should start seeing results any day now,"
"You mean Felix will wake up?"
"It'll be a while, but there will be signs that Aiolos is repairing him. He'll sing."
Henrick looked to the blank face of the sleeper. "Felix once said that Aiolos sang. I hear him humming in his sleep sometimes."
"It'll be faint, but if you're quiet, you'll hear him humming again."
Four days. At first, Henrick thought it was a sound outside, but looking to the face, the slight parting of lips, the way the throat moved; Felix was humming that odd sound he used to do when they were curled up in bed together. His heart leapt.
Five days, and Henrick was told that if he spoke to him, Felix would be able to hear him. He wouldn't remember it when he woke up, but he was no longer close to death.
Two months of lying in a hospital bed after confronting the killer, and Felix opened green eyes to stare up at a blank, white ceiling. There was a weight on his chest. Aching body was stiff as he tried to sit up to look down and see what was resting against him. Slowly, a smile slipped across his lips as he saw Henrick sleeping on him. Reaching over with the hand not hooked up to an I.V. Felix stroked his fingers through the soft hair growing from the younger man's head. The weather outside brightened, the two month long near-constant rainstorm finally giving up.
It was quiet inside his head. He'd been so used to the sounds of a thousand voices that it felt rather empty inside. Aiolos just laughed at him for such stupid thoughts of 'getting a roommate' to bring the noise level back up. He'd face death, and had won.
Again.
He now owed Aiolos his life twice.
But at least it meant he could be with Henrick again. Nudging the sleeper's shoulder, Felix beamed down at him when sleepy eyes were rubbed and focused upon him. There was a yell of relief, and Henrick threw his arms around Felix's shoulders.
"You're awake!"
"How long was I out?" he asked, rubbing Henrick's back.
"About two months," Henrick replied as he pulled back to look at Felix's face.
"Two months?" Felix raised a brow, then smirked slyly. "Well, looks like I've got a lot of sex to catch up with."
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Bang Bang Bang
Part 3 to Hunted, following on from Going Down In Flames. I am a very bad person xD
Would it ever stop?
He remembered Henrick asking it with such concern in his eyes. Ever since that day the voices all called out a singular name and Aiolos lurched in a way Felix hadn't felt in years he knew he was next. Whatever was picking off the hosts had him next on the list. In his fear and terror, Felix had let this information slip to Henrick. Panic swept through the younger male. Felix was confined to the apartment. Henrick barely even left - but he had to keep up appearances at his school. He couldn't just up and leave his job to keep Felix safe. He managed three weeks, but eventually he had to go to work.
Neither host nor symbiont was going to go down without a fight.
The voices had let up since the strain of it all was affecting Felix physically. If he were to suddenly collapse in pain with the sheer amount of chattering voices then he would be left completely and totally defenceless. But the others couldn't completely abandon the pair of them.
Felix didn't want to sit and wait for whatever was coming to come along and tear Aiolos from his back. Aiolos didn't want to die either. No one knew what happened when the symbionts were torn from their hosts, but their voices were silenced the moment it happened.
Henrick had locked him inside the apartment. Felix was sitting in the armchair when the shouting hit. CLOSE! So close! Comingcomingcoming. Words in a language he couldn't speak but every word he understood, Felix forced himself to stand on shaky legs. If it was going to happen today, then he was going to go down fighting, and Aiolos agreed with him.
Breaking the lock took longer than he thought it would. Hopefully no one would go and steal from the apartment while it was left unlocked. Staggering down and out into the world, Felix squinted his eyes as the sunlight hit. It was a sunny afternoon. Hardly weather for impending doom. That would have to be fixed.
But not yet.
Now was not the time to go wasting his energy on altering the weather to suit his mood.
Swallowing hard and scrunching his eyes shut, Felix willed himself to remain steady. Aiolos was doing his best to filter out the background noise of the others of voices to leave just his own and Felix's inside the human's head. Hand reached out to support himself against the wall of an alleyway. To people passing - of which there was barely any - Felix must have looked like some drunkard or drug addict suffering the ill-effects of their chosen choice of self destruction. Slumping against the wall, forehead met the cool surface of bricks.
A chime rang out near the entrance of the alleyway. Clear as day, but only the host could hear it.
"So that's how you're finding us," Felix choked out with a laugh.
The guy had been tailing him since he'd left the apartment building and wandered down the block. Felix had purposely lead the stranger here. No one around. No one else would get hurt in the exchange. When Henrick discovered him gone, he would either find Felix here recovering from the entire affair - or Felix would have a gaping, bloody hole in his back.
"You're different from the others before," the man said, slipping into the darkness of the alley. He didn't notice the clouds growing and looming grey and threatening overhead. "The others would have lived if the serpents had slithered out on their own accord. You. You're dead without it."
Felix scrapped his hand over the jagged edge of the bricks of the wall he was leaning against. He could feel static electricity running through his body. He was stronger than he was in high school. Older. Better attuned to his powers. St. Delacroix had done its job of teaching him. "So how do you know about us?"
"Humans that think they can live longer just because they have some worm attached to their spine. Think they're better than the rest. Living off other people's work while they live fat and happy." The man spat. "I could always see people for their inner selves - but you hosts are whores. You'll have humans bow down to you like Gods"
The chime rang out again, and Felix screamed as Aiolos contorted in pain inside him. Faintly, he recalled a pain of seeing black. Of rage and hate flooding him and doing its all to hurt, to hate, to rip, to infect. "So you're Gifted," Felix choked out, coughing a blood splatter on the bricks. Thunder gave a grumble in the air above.
The man cracked his knuckles. "I was called that once. I woke up one day, and saw the world for what it really was - with those serpents enjoying a free ride of pleasures that the human race could provide." He lifted a knife, blood staining the silver. "I killed my neighbour that day. Killed her like I'm going to kill you." He grinned evilly. "Both of you."
The wind picked up, dragging debris along the alleyway towards the killer. Felix prayed that Aiolos would release that hold he held over Felix's power completely. Building his strength over his own power had made it stronger. There was a well inside him that Felix had never even touched. Even if he died using every ounce of himself it would at least mean no one else would have to suffer at the hands of this man. This man that had scoured the entire planet in search of hosts and their symbiotes. Henrick would be broken, devestated; but he would understand. That whole 'needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one' bullcrap meant something here and now.
The man stalked closer. "I'd like to thank you for making this easy for me - presenting me with your whore-mark and everything."
Felix's fingers scratched over the bricks as he balled them into fists, nails digging into his palms. "I'm sorry, Hen..." he whispered to the air as he pushed away from the wall to turn to face the man full on.
The skies above were now menacingly dark, while just at the mouth of the alleyway there was still signs of sunlight. Thunder rumbled and lightning crackled in the air. The winds swept higher, harder, faster. Felix's mops of hair was thrown about in the winds, but he kepts his focus on the killer who was now starting to look rather uneasy.
"Wh-what!?" He stared open mouthed at the man before him with eyes bright white. Pure white, no pupils or colour within them, and they seemed to glow. To pulsate with an odd sort of power. "I thought you were different because of how attached to your snake you are, not before you're a freak!"
"No more a freak than you," Felix said, voice monotone. He couldn't feel the pain his body was in anymore. The storm raged through his entire being and projected out into the world. Lightning struck ground near the man's feet, causing him to jump away. "I am the last host you will ever see."
There was thunder, lightning, winds that could tear apart buildings. At the eye of the storm stood one single human with a creature coiled around his spine, keeping him alive since the age of ten. The ten year would have eventually killed himself with his own emotion fueled power had it not been for the kindness of his grandfather.
When someone finally came to inspect the freak weather that was appearing in a single area, they discovered only one body of a man with a knife held in his hand. He was badly wounded and looked as if he had come close to being struck by lightning several times judging by the burnt state of his clothes. When the police arrived, it turned out this man had been on a global killing spree. He awoke chained to a hospital bed and was talking jibberish about a man with white eyes using the weather to attack him. According to the nurse, he wouldn't survive to the end of the week. He died two days later.
Henrick found Felix slumped in a doorway of the apartment building completely drained. His head lolled to the side when Henrick went to touch him. The ambulance lights danced over the walls of the building the two men lived in. In all the years that Henrick had known him, Felix had never once visited the hospital. The symbiont kept him healthy. It simply wouldn't do to have a host in hospital where they would discover a race of beings that had lived in secret harmony with the human race for what could have only been thousands of years. Yet, there was nowhere else that Henrick could take him. For some reason his own healing powers just weren't having an effect over him.
Sitting in the hall outside the room Felix lay inside, Henrick looked up when the doctor walked out and told him: "I'm sorry, but he's in a coma."
Would it ever stop?
He remembered Henrick asking it with such concern in his eyes. Ever since that day the voices all called out a singular name and Aiolos lurched in a way Felix hadn't felt in years he knew he was next. Whatever was picking off the hosts had him next on the list. In his fear and terror, Felix had let this information slip to Henrick. Panic swept through the younger male. Felix was confined to the apartment. Henrick barely even left - but he had to keep up appearances at his school. He couldn't just up and leave his job to keep Felix safe. He managed three weeks, but eventually he had to go to work.
Neither host nor symbiont was going to go down without a fight.
The voices had let up since the strain of it all was affecting Felix physically. If he were to suddenly collapse in pain with the sheer amount of chattering voices then he would be left completely and totally defenceless. But the others couldn't completely abandon the pair of them.
Felix didn't want to sit and wait for whatever was coming to come along and tear Aiolos from his back. Aiolos didn't want to die either. No one knew what happened when the symbionts were torn from their hosts, but their voices were silenced the moment it happened.
Henrick had locked him inside the apartment. Felix was sitting in the armchair when the shouting hit. CLOSE! So close! Comingcomingcoming. Words in a language he couldn't speak but every word he understood, Felix forced himself to stand on shaky legs. If it was going to happen today, then he was going to go down fighting, and Aiolos agreed with him.
Breaking the lock took longer than he thought it would. Hopefully no one would go and steal from the apartment while it was left unlocked. Staggering down and out into the world, Felix squinted his eyes as the sunlight hit. It was a sunny afternoon. Hardly weather for impending doom. That would have to be fixed.
But not yet.
Now was not the time to go wasting his energy on altering the weather to suit his mood.
Swallowing hard and scrunching his eyes shut, Felix willed himself to remain steady. Aiolos was doing his best to filter out the background noise of the others of voices to leave just his own and Felix's inside the human's head. Hand reached out to support himself against the wall of an alleyway. To people passing - of which there was barely any - Felix must have looked like some drunkard or drug addict suffering the ill-effects of their chosen choice of self destruction. Slumping against the wall, forehead met the cool surface of bricks.
A chime rang out near the entrance of the alleyway. Clear as day, but only the host could hear it.
"So that's how you're finding us," Felix choked out with a laugh.
The guy had been tailing him since he'd left the apartment building and wandered down the block. Felix had purposely lead the stranger here. No one around. No one else would get hurt in the exchange. When Henrick discovered him gone, he would either find Felix here recovering from the entire affair - or Felix would have a gaping, bloody hole in his back.
"You're different from the others before," the man said, slipping into the darkness of the alley. He didn't notice the clouds growing and looming grey and threatening overhead. "The others would have lived if the serpents had slithered out on their own accord. You. You're dead without it."
Felix scrapped his hand over the jagged edge of the bricks of the wall he was leaning against. He could feel static electricity running through his body. He was stronger than he was in high school. Older. Better attuned to his powers. St. Delacroix had done its job of teaching him. "So how do you know about us?"
"Humans that think they can live longer just because they have some worm attached to their spine. Think they're better than the rest. Living off other people's work while they live fat and happy." The man spat. "I could always see people for their inner selves - but you hosts are whores. You'll have humans bow down to you like Gods"
The chime rang out again, and Felix screamed as Aiolos contorted in pain inside him. Faintly, he recalled a pain of seeing black. Of rage and hate flooding him and doing its all to hurt, to hate, to rip, to infect. "So you're Gifted," Felix choked out, coughing a blood splatter on the bricks. Thunder gave a grumble in the air above.
The man cracked his knuckles. "I was called that once. I woke up one day, and saw the world for what it really was - with those serpents enjoying a free ride of pleasures that the human race could provide." He lifted a knife, blood staining the silver. "I killed my neighbour that day. Killed her like I'm going to kill you." He grinned evilly. "Both of you."
The wind picked up, dragging debris along the alleyway towards the killer. Felix prayed that Aiolos would release that hold he held over Felix's power completely. Building his strength over his own power had made it stronger. There was a well inside him that Felix had never even touched. Even if he died using every ounce of himself it would at least mean no one else would have to suffer at the hands of this man. This man that had scoured the entire planet in search of hosts and their symbiotes. Henrick would be broken, devestated; but he would understand. That whole 'needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one' bullcrap meant something here and now.
The man stalked closer. "I'd like to thank you for making this easy for me - presenting me with your whore-mark and everything."
Felix's fingers scratched over the bricks as he balled them into fists, nails digging into his palms. "I'm sorry, Hen..." he whispered to the air as he pushed away from the wall to turn to face the man full on.
The skies above were now menacingly dark, while just at the mouth of the alleyway there was still signs of sunlight. Thunder rumbled and lightning crackled in the air. The winds swept higher, harder, faster. Felix's mops of hair was thrown about in the winds, but he kepts his focus on the killer who was now starting to look rather uneasy.
"Wh-what!?" He stared open mouthed at the man before him with eyes bright white. Pure white, no pupils or colour within them, and they seemed to glow. To pulsate with an odd sort of power. "I thought you were different because of how attached to your snake you are, not before you're a freak!"
"No more a freak than you," Felix said, voice monotone. He couldn't feel the pain his body was in anymore. The storm raged through his entire being and projected out into the world. Lightning struck ground near the man's feet, causing him to jump away. "I am the last host you will ever see."
There was thunder, lightning, winds that could tear apart buildings. At the eye of the storm stood one single human with a creature coiled around his spine, keeping him alive since the age of ten. The ten year would have eventually killed himself with his own emotion fueled power had it not been for the kindness of his grandfather.
When someone finally came to inspect the freak weather that was appearing in a single area, they discovered only one body of a man with a knife held in his hand. He was badly wounded and looked as if he had come close to being struck by lightning several times judging by the burnt state of his clothes. When the police arrived, it turned out this man had been on a global killing spree. He awoke chained to a hospital bed and was talking jibberish about a man with white eyes using the weather to attack him. According to the nurse, he wouldn't survive to the end of the week. He died two days later.
Henrick found Felix slumped in a doorway of the apartment building completely drained. His head lolled to the side when Henrick went to touch him. The ambulance lights danced over the walls of the building the two men lived in. In all the years that Henrick had known him, Felix had never once visited the hospital. The symbiont kept him healthy. It simply wouldn't do to have a host in hospital where they would discover a race of beings that had lived in secret harmony with the human race for what could have only been thousands of years. Yet, there was nowhere else that Henrick could take him. For some reason his own healing powers just weren't having an effect over him.
Sitting in the hall outside the room Felix lay inside, Henrick looked up when the doctor walked out and told him: "I'm sorry, but he's in a coma."
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