The Empty World | The Empty World Sequence [complete | rewriting]

Deleted Scenes: Three (Draft 2.5)

Morpheus shook his head. "Better than what?"

"Just remember it. If, in the future, one of us is hurting. Just say it to yourself: It gets better."

"It gets better," Morpheus repeated.

"So, what do you usually do here?" Julien's eyes looked from side to side. "Do you want to watch the sunset or something?"

Morpheus went a little slack-jawed at that. He reached for Julien's right hand with his left. "You really know me."

Julien smiled and held his hand.

"You're OK in sunlight?"

"These days."

They rose from the couch and went to sit under the tent's canopy.

"It's funny," Julien said as they sat down, "Since we met, you always seemed to know how to handle Vampyres."

"Like I had a teacher?" Morpheus asked.

"Yeah, but you grasped things she couldn't have taught you." Julien's face was in profile, but it looked like he was trying not to smile so much that he smiled wider.

"Lord," Morpheus whispered, "You're talking about making love."

Julien laughed. "Sorry. I used to think it irritating you couldn't talk dirty, but now I think I miss this."

"I can talk about sex," Morpheus insisted, "I'm ready...."

"But you want it to be meaningful?"

Exactly. "Yeah. I know I'm not a hedonist. I want to like and trust someone, at least."

"That's totally normal. I had a boyfriend when I was a junior in high school, but we didn't do much. I didn't even know what to do, then."

Morpheus nodded. "Mostly what I know comes from fantasies in Human dreams," he confessed.

"Oh my Gawd! The magical land where proper lubrication and rational numbers of limbs do not exist!"

Awkwardly, they both attempted to speak at the same time. Julien continued, "neither of which apply to you in real life," while Morpheus said:

"A lot of power plays and partners unattainable in real life."

They laughed.

"I warn you now, I'm much more domineering in general than in bed," Julien said.

"I can work with that."

It was a day and a half before they had sex. The remainder of the first day was spent getting used to sleeping next to each other. The day after that, Morpheus offered to let Julien drink some of his blood. That was an intense, physical, and intimate experience in itself that came with a mixture of pleasure and pain. But, it wasn't as intense, for Morpheus, as when they made love.

That was how he thought of it: loving someone with his body.

How could he love Julien at least a little bit? He somehow knew to ask, "Is this my preferred form or yours?"

"Both," Morpheus rasped, nearly too overwhelmed to speak. Right then, it was both.

"Not sure if I should tell you," Julien said, when they rested, "There's going to be a time when your body changes. The details are mostly still private to you, but you were kinda excited about it at the time."

Morpheus shifted into the form he'd taken when Julien first approached the mirage. It was his future body, but he had to concentrate a bit to maintain it. "I'm glad you told me."

"But, remember the first thing future me wanted you to know." That Julien was sorry.

Morpheus reminded himself of the second thing: It gets better.

Not before it would get worse, unfortunately. Their time alone in the mirage was ended with the musical tones of a mobile device. Morpheus didn't recognize what the noise was at first. Loren found the small electronic device in the crash-damaged ruins of Julien's suit.

"It's not mine," he said, but Julien gestured at the machine then lifted it near his right ear. He spoke to someone: "It's me...Of course, I'm alive...No. I'm safe...OK."

Julien stood there for a while, holding the little phone.

"They're coming for me," he said.

"All right." Morpheus began preparations to disassemble the mirage. He anchored the physical components to the time in which the pair of Vampyres were arriving to collect Julien. They had his same ability to shield their minds from telepathic talent, but Morpheus was able to see the probability of their arrival.

And despite their guard, Julien's mind was open enough to supply their names: Athené and Faye. They'd slept beneath the sand somewhere along their way; Faye's hair was coming back and the bodice of her dress was caked with sand.

The two Vampyres fell against each other in laughter when they saw the Djinn. Faye swung her hips from side to side as they sang: "...dat da dat da de dat da..."

"We've come for you, Master!" Athen said, falling to his knees and bowing as if in homage. He looked young, like he was barely legal, but his powerful presence said he was ancient. He'd probably seen Roman conquest without ability to time travel.

"Don't be an ass, Thené," Julien told him. His mental defenses were back up, but they'd been close once; that was obvious.

"Listen, Jules, I'd be happy to leave you here if it weren't for Joy."

"Joy?"

"Something's happened to her," Faye said.

Morpheus stood and watched Julien leave him without a goodbye.

Joy? What else could happen to her?

-----

As of 20 September 2016 this chapter is updated to the 3rd Draft.

The chapter was extensively rewritten. The same events happen and the same information is relayed, more or less. It's just I rearranged the order and reworded most description.

This chapter was already, previous to this edit, among the most edited and rewritten. It remains so. It just includes such a pivotal scene that I keep trying to improve how the scene is presented.