HAUNTED

24

She opened the door and he saw the blood, “what happened?”

“John’s gone,” she answered as she got the bandages and some of his miracle fast healing stuff.

“What do you mean?”

“Dead,” she sat by him on the bed, “do you mind I can’t with one hand. It really hurts.”

He took her hand, “how.”

“My blood.”

“But I…”

“Some things science can’t explain,” She loved his touch, “I think because of Egypt.”

“Egypt?” he asked, then remembered, “Great times. Weird times, never normal to begin with.” He smiled.

“Are you okay,” she watched him.

“Yeah, you?”

“I don’t know,” honest answer. He looked at her.

“Done,” he said without breaking the gaze. She stood up, “don’t leave,” she smiled back at him, walked round the bed to the other side. She lifted his arm and got comfy, he flinched.

“Careful the burn isn’t healing as fast as the rest.”

“Sorry,” she whispered. He kissed the crown of her head.

“How did you patch me up,” she was right here with him he was whole.

“World War One,” he understood that it was another one, “you died first.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” she said as she lifted herself from the bed to have a look at his burn, “how did this happen? Why?”

“I am a time machine,” he laughed and flinched.

“What did this to you,” she asked still serious.

“Human zombie puppet rabies beings,” he sighed, “Sam. By next week…” he went quiet when she lightly traced an already purpling bruise on his cheek with her thumb as she tenderly cupped his cheek in her hand. She noticed a few seconds later and sharply withdrew her hand, blinking furiously for a second. She got up and moved away. The bruise began to yellow. “We need to stop him. I don’t know how yet but Sam is responsible.”

“What if ‘us’ going after him is the push he needs to end the world? Are you hurt anywhere else,” she asked a safe distance from the threat he posed her.

“123,” he took breath.

“Do you remember all of them,” the lives 123, the same.

“No, do you?”

“Then how do you know they are 123?”

“Do you,” he insisted.

“Important bits like lessons and training for something.”

“Good… No,” he reached for her nightmares. He opened a page and read, “he had 123 in his hands, 123 marked him… I still don’t know who he is. He is too real to just be a dream.”

“Hey,” she grabbed the book from him angry. He smiled.

“No take backs,” he reached for the book and she moved away from him. He pounced on her. She fell back onto the rest of the bed. His weight landed lightly on hers, he flinched. Scared of reopening already quarter healed wounds he stopped moving. Their light laughter grew slowly quiet. Caught in the heat of a lost moment… Frozen by his proximity she dropped the book on the floor. Heart racing. …stupid dopamine… she thought.

He cleared his throat beginning to find it hard to breathe. Lifted himself off her and lay on his back. “We shouldn’t,” she took his hand as he spoke, squeezed it for a moment then let go… but he held on.

“What happens a week from now,” she asked pretending not to have heard.

“We need to stop Sam,” he let go and stood up.

“Hey slow down,” she ordered as she followed.

“I am fine. We need to leave. I don’t think we have a lot of time. He probably sees us as a threat,” he reached for a shirt. Fear settled as she stumbled back to the bed reached for her book and the time gismo stuffed them in her jacket pockets.

“I just had to run back in,” she mumbled, scared, heart racing, adrenaline pulsing, mind spinning. “Jacob,” he turned as he heard the tremor in her voice.

“This is what we were built for,” he reminded her.

She didn’t move. He wrapped his arms around her, warm comfort to hold her together just two seconds before she broke. “Scared?” he asked feeling the pressure, fear that they weren’t enough.

“Terrified,” his grip tightened he kissed the crown of her head as she responded.

“Me too,” with her right there he had a moment of safety. The second the bubble of them, ’which never was’, burst then he will be thrown back into a wild hustle, a maddening panic about the details, desperately hunting for answers that do not seem to exist… “I am hungry.”

“Can you worp.”

“Nope. Grab whatever we need while I juice up,” he didn’t let her go, she wouldn’t let him go either.

“I am sorry for all the hell I always put you through.”

“Dido,” he sighed …I never want to have to let you go… he thought.

“Jacob,” she said as she pulled away slightly, “worp now.”

“I can’t,” he pulled his eyebrows together, “need to charge up. Time travel takes up a lot of energy.”

“Try, something is wrong. We are running out of time,” the feeling in her gut rose to an almost aching pit in her stomach, a shot through her heart. He sighed, trying to build up energy he didn’t have. The ground thundered as Sam’s bomb broke through the bottom floor and scraped to a halt totally ruining Old John’s Old people couch. …5…

“I really can’t,” he said looking like he was barely standing. She could hear the clock ticking down in her head. Took a breath.

He cupped her cheek in his hand.

She kissed him. His wings burst out ruining the shirt he had just put on… 4… She just wanted to feel this and nothing else if they were to die now again. This warmth, this heart racing power making warmth… 3… The warmth she felt when he held her in his arms. The humanity he gave her all those lives ago. Just this… 2… indescribably hopeless force that the world had grown to name love. A thoughtless existence of warm pure energy. He pulled her closer… 1 …

BOOM!

… It would be cool if it just ended like that wouldn’t it… sigh… but there is more a lot more…a lot worse more…