A VERY DARK tale (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 33

Oengus.

Holding the guy with my power by his throat in the air, I saw Stacy falling. I didn't kill him but pressed onto his throat enough to make him lose his consciousness. My hands reached out for Stacy, and I caught her just in time before she hit the ground.

The wounds in my chest already started closing and healing. I could feel the cells of my skin and muscles regenerating with the inhuman speed. If shooting me would do the trick of killing me, I'd be long ago dead. But... I didn't just live over a thousand of years for nothing. Immortality had some perks, even if it was annoying at times.

As I felt Stacy in my arms, the incredible urge to hug her drew me to almost robotic motions. I sat down on the ground pulling her with me, and moved her onto my knees, placing her head on my shoulder and placing my forehead on hers.

Instantly, the tagging on my skin has sent electric current all over my body, spreading farther onto Stacy, morphing her body into mine. I had a feeling that we became the same living organism. I could sense her from the inside, all her emotions, or rather lack of them. She felt empty, only physically calling for my help. However, my own emotions went into a wild hike, suffocating me with its force.

I took a deep breath, gulping the air down. My hold on Stacy tightened as the overbearing ache almost squashed my insides. The pressure caused me to hiss through my teeth. The waves of pain rolled up and down targeting more and more of my body, going from my lungs to my stomach, from my bones to my heart.

I've stayed in the agony for two more minutes fighting until the pain simmered down and then permanently left my body. As if nothing happened I returned to my usual self, but before I could open my mouth and sigh with relief, another kind of sensation overtook me. It was a sweet kind of sensation. Almost joyful. Like how you feel after a long trip when you finally find yourself in your own bed at home, surrounded by comfort.

At first, I couldn't place the name of my current state. Only two words "satisfaction" and "calmness" came to my mind when I searched for the answer. I was hundred present satisfied like I've just accomplished a deal of a lifetime. I was calm like I knew no worry or trouble. And the worst part was the realization that I liked to be that way and would not be able to live without. I could only function without it.

I sighed with content and buried my face into Stacy's hair. She smelled like the wind and oxygen. Fresh and free. Maybe, it was a mistake to torture her for my own experiments. But when I have her now, here, with me, I couldn't suppress the thoughts that she belonged here. Not in a lovey – soppy kind of way, but as if she was a part of me, a good part of me that I loved and cherished despite that my demonic side dominated within me. And maybe she was. I didn't know for sure. The only thing I knew for sure was that she will stay by my side no matter what. I won't make a mistake like fifty years ago. Now my family was with her. Now she was my family. Sister, daughter, wife...Anything.

Stacy has stirred, and my hand shot up to her chest where the blood had stained her jacket and was still leaking out spreading swiftly in a red mess all over her clothes. The area of her skin underneath that was punctured started heating up. Soon, her entire body broke in fever. I pressed my hand with force into her flesh and felt her skin closing. It was slower than my own pace of healing, but it was happening nonetheless.

Like in a video in reverse, the tissue of her pierced organs grew together reconstructing themselves to the previous state. Her muscles and veins snapped together becoming whole again. And the last were the layers of her flesh, growing from the inside to the surface of her skin.