Calypso-15

11.2 - Daniel's Reckoning

We drank heavily, two sailors strapped to a ship bound for wreckage. I, for one, was ready to suck Daniel off in the bathroom. For much of the night, it seemed that would be the case. The club was a small box of flashing neon lights with techno and hard-bass shaking our bones into mush. Daniel and I clung to each-other, two lonely people finding the respite of skin and breath belabored by alcohol. There wasn't much conversation, only dancing, jumping, and wobbling over to the bar to ask for another shot. We drank something sweet and smokey, and it made my brain feel like static. I wanted to impress Daniel, pretending my gag was a laugh of triumph, an invitation to continue dancing. My legs burned from the exercise, and Daniel's hands found a comfortable resting place on my hips.

"I'm gonna go say hi to my fr-eh-nd," he yelled finally, too tired to continue dancing. I let him go, screaming at the top of my lungs as yet another bass drop pumped through my bones. The music, alcohol and bodies churning around were my masters. Daniel returned to me, his grip colder. He held my hips to his super-hard abs- that he supposedly grew in couple minutes.

"Welcome," I turned around. "Back." It was not Daniel. It was not even another man. In a dark club that should have been the most likely culprit. Calypso wore a disapproving smile on her face. She danced with me, closing her eyes in a way that told me to alert no-one of her presence. Fear bubbled up, but she grinded her hips into mine in a way that made me blush. This quickly devolved into horror, that little mammalian part responsible for my safety activated. That instinctual terror of prey, I was that fucking rabbit caught in the snow. Too drunk. My world spun up and down, left and right. The cheap alcohol reared up in my stomach like an unbroken stallion. It was all very slow, yet I was slower. Daniel headed back, two more drinks in his hand. I yelled something, but a palm over my mouth silenced me. Too loud. Too crowded.

I struggled against her, hitting a metal chest plate, pushing against silicone tits. Sweat clouded my vision. The DJ yelled something about bygone times. Daniel turned to flee. She wrapped her hand around his neck. She squeezed, hard. His body emitted a terrible shudder, going completely rigid, then his muscles rippled almost as if he was having a seizure. No. No! She pulled him in, so close I could smell the fragrance he had put on, and threw his arm over her shoulder. His head lolled, and no one question as we walked out.

Calypso looked like the motherly friend, helping out two freaked out drunks. The next thing I remember is her throwing his limp body against the side of a building, deep in an alley. She pulled out a gun. I lurched away from her grip because she let me. I scrambled through my pockets. I couldn't think, I couldn't... that black box, just put it up to her? Touch her with it? The world spun again, and I finally threw up. Poor Daniel, sweet Daniel, what had I done? What was I thinking?

"My little Delilah, with her fucking scissors," Calypso snarled the words. She pointed the gun to him but stared at me. Her jaw trembled with crystalline rage.

"You've already killed him." Throwing up helped, my thoughts raced while my world bulged like a fish eye.

"I am not Samson, I have not long hair. I am not a man, nor am I flesh. Right now, I am his God."

I crawled towards Daniel, I didn't know why, maybe to help him, but my wrist was still not back up from the injury my father inflicted. No one to call. My purse was... Oh, I didn't bring one. The little black box was snuggly zipped away in a jacket pocket. I grabbed it. Keep her talking, Ada.

"Why are you doing this?" This gave Calypso pause and she looked to me, the murderous rage intermixed with bliss? Grief? I couldn't tell.

"Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this?"

"He's innocent," I placed my free hand on her leg, trembling. She turned towards back him.

"He's not," she said. "He intended to fuck you tonight, no matter whether you wanted it or not. He was plowing you with drinks, he has pills!"

I felt crazy. Over dinner, Daniel told me the pills were antibiotics, and that if I wanted to I could take them from him. He was not going to drug me with some doxycycline.

"Not everyone is out to kill me," I said angrily. "Stop this. Let him-"

"He thought you were in danger and turned to flee. Coward."

Calypso unloaded three bullets into him. His chest. His groin. His face. I let out a piercing scream, a banshee finding her nexus. The spray of blood hit me in the open mouth, and I continued screaming. The black box connected to Calypso. She shuddered and fell to one knee.

I stood. My legs were rubber. Had no one heard my screaming? Where were the cops?

"Oh, you..." her voice was intermixed with sounds from her voice box shutting down. It was like two bricks rubbing together, but her voice. Her voice persisted. "Precious thing." Her body convulsed. She shook like she was freezing to death.

"You think this is clever?" The voice-box was an octave lower now. I took a step away, intending to start running. I was just too drunk too move. The cops had to be here soon due to Daniel's wrist was blinking weakly, it would soon shut down as well. "My only vulnerability. The thing standing between me and eternal life." I looked at her shoes, large boots, shoelaces diving under baggy black pants. With a great struggle, Calypso stood back up. 

The box didn't work. Was that the intention? The great experiment? I watched this above myself, screaming at myself to run. White rabbit, bloodied.

"The thing about vulnerabilities is that they're a bitch to get rid of. But I did. One by one. Until there was you."

"He was just a boy," I heard myself whisper. No Daniel anymore, just a big red mushy void where there used to be a head. Calypso lifted a hand, and wiped off blood from the end of my lips.

"I knew you would betray me."

"This is not betrayal, Calypso."

"It's what betrayal to me!" Her voice regained its tone. The gun was still in one her hands, a finger on the trigger. I was the cause, justified or not, of an unimaginable pain inside her. She reached for me, an algorithm asking for the chance to love.

"Put the gun down, please" I said. It clattered against a building on the way down the alley.

"I give you one choice. Go now. I will wipe you from my memory and never engage with you again. I am a monster. I kill, and it fills me with a righteous purpose. I am the perversion of humanity, put together to complete your monstrosities efficiently, to obsess over every single little detail. Go!"

I tasted tears though I did not feel myself crying.

"But if you stay, I will never give you this choice again. You will never again be this close to killing me. And you will never again know a life without me. If you choose to escape me, I will hunt you down if it means my death. Go! Get out!"

"You didn't have to kill him," I finally had something to say. I did not run.

"Ha! Get out of here," she said, venomous.

"Admit it to me. You didn't have to kill him. There were other ways of punishing him, of punishing me."

"Life and death is all you mortals understand."

"If you don't admit it, I will leave."

"I told you I was a monster."

"I'm looking for logic, not self pity" I said coldly. "Admit to me that there are other ways of punishing me for touching another man."

"This isn't..."

"You're treating me like every other man I've ever met. I'm not stupid," I yelled. This finally broke her.

"There are many scenarios which would have accomplished the same message, I admit."

"Don't do this ever again. Not me. Not to any other infatuation of yours."

"Others?" She took a tentative step towards me. The adrenaline wore off. The alcohol was always going to have the final word.

"Shhh...," it said. I staggered into Calypso's arms, unable to hold myself up any longer. There were voices behind me, speaking in low tones about disposing of someone's body. I had the horrible suspicion it would be mine.