Newborn

Chapter 94: In Memoriam

Anne Halton

          

Mike received a call from a secretary at the Forseti Foundation.  She told Mike to come down to the Lair.  He’s nervous.  The call means that this is official business.  He doesn’t know what Forseti wants.  If this wasn’t important, Gail would have just called herself.

 After absorbing all of Legions pain, more energy is flowing through Mike’s body than he can entirely contain.  In the blink of an eye, he became one of the more powerful demons on Earth.  He knows that Forseti is going to want to control him now.

 Before opening the Lair’s door, Mike takes a deep breath.  He isn’t ready for what’s waiting for him.

 It was a summer night when Mike and Gail met.

 Mike was a little boy, just eight years old.

 It was late at night.  The coast guard had found him in the water after dark.  The woman who saw Mike go into the water thought he was just a stupid kid going for a late night swim.  Gail knew better.  She knew what he was and who he had been.  She knew how his last life had ended.

 Mike was just an eight year old boy at the time, it was hard to believe, but Gail knew the truth.  The little boy had walked into the ocean until he couldn’t stand and then surrendered his body to the waves in hope that they would take him away from this world forever.

 The coast guard had Mike in custody.  Gail showed them some papers saying that she was the social worker assigned to him and they released him into her custody.  She always had the right paper work.  She was a social worker, a member of Interpol, the CIA, CSIS, a postal worker, and, one time in the fifties, she was even a milk maid.

 Mike and Gail walked along the beach together.

 “Who are you?” he asked.

 “I’m Gail,” she said.

 “Why did you tell them you’re my social worker?  I don’t have a social worker or anything.”

 “Well, now you have me,” she told the little boy.  “And I’m going to be keeping an eye on you from now on.”

 “Are you a demon too?” Mike asked.

 “Yes.”

 Mike was scared.  The only demon he had ever really known was Algea.  He thought all demons were evil.  And, since he was a demon, he couldn’t live with himself.

 He ran for the ocean one more time.

 Gail turned to him.  She reached out her arm and, with her powers, commanded him to “Stop.”  He was frozen.  Then, with her psychic strength, she pulled his body back to her.“Sit,” she said and Mike’s body crumbled to the ground.  Gail sat down beside him.  “You’re being cruel.”

 Tears started running down Mike’s face.  He managed to turn his head to face Gail.  “I can’t live like this anymore.”

 “We don’t get to die like they do,” Gail said to him.  “We just come back again.”

 “But, I want it to stop.”

 Gail laughs.  “We can’t stop living any more than humans can stop themselves from dying.  It’s the nature of things.  We're governed by forces far beyond our control.”

 “God?”

 “I don’t know.  All I can say is that we’re like leaves in the wind.  We can’t control where we’re blown.  We just need to embrace it and let it take us where it may.”