CHAPTER 2 #2
Then I did it again.
And again.
After about a dozen shocks, I set the machine down in resignation. I slowly peeled the pads off of the corpse and rubbed my unbandaged hand tiredly down my face.
For good measure, I waited another ten minutes for anything, any reaction, any sign of life. Eventually, Jinx flew down from my shoulder to sit curiously on the corpse’s unmoving chest.
There was nothing.
It... hadn’t worked.
I couldn’t deny that I was disappointed. Okay, understatement. But I was used to disappointment. It had followed me around throughout every stage of my life: high school, mage university, my assortment of part-time jobs, my family, my relationships…
And me? Well, I was just a sad little hopeless romantic who always fell far too quickly for the wrong guys.
As proven by my dating history which included – but wasn’t limited to – douchebag jocks, arrogant self-centered assholes, possessive controlling jerks, and snobby rich boys.
Just to name a few. Honestly, I had given up on the dating scene after too close of a run in with the possessive one.
My last ex, Ron, well, Byron. I had given up hope that I could ever find a smart, handsome, funny, kind man to love me. To want me.
I kept wondering if maybe I had always been the problem. Maybe I was too picky, too cynical, too high maintenance, just... too much.
On top of it all, I was socially awkward.
A magic nerd my whole life, even as a fully grown-ass adult.
I basically lived in my romantasy novels and spellbooks and experiments, secluding myself from the outside world like the recluse I was.
Except at my job, but that came with the territory as a professor.
I knew my appearance wasn’t at fault. Beneath the glasses, I was at least mildly attractive with classically handsome features and curly brown hair.
My skin was a little pasty from my time hibernating indoors like I was allergic to the sun, and I was leanly built; not muscular but not gangly.
My nose was a little too long and my ears stuck out a bit, but I wasn’t particularly vain, so those things didn’t matter to me all that much.
But still, my dates would always cringe when I brought out the nerd jokes or movie references or borderline obsessive interest in magic. It seemed it was my personality they all had a problem with.
I had come to learn the hard way that talking to people, dating, was too exhausting. So, why try when it always ended in painful disaster anyway?
Alice had told me not to think that way, optimistic as ever. That if I closed myself off to the possibilities, I’d never know what I might miss. But I couldn’t help it.
And this was the final nail in the coffin.
It was fitting to use such a pessimistic analogy. A love letter to my life.
With that, I let out a long, heavy sigh, and snuffed out the candles with a defeated wave of my hand.
“Get some rest, Jinx,” I told him. “Thanks, buddy.”
He gave me a sad little squeak before he flew away, his body fading into the shadows. With a final, longing look at the corpse, I turned and trudged up the stairs. I didn’t bother cleaning up the mess or trying to figure out what to do with the body tonight. I was suddenly too exhausted to care.
I set the mage-locks around the house and made my way to bed to change and burrow beneath the blankets like the pathetic, lonely fool that I was.
I was feeling especially bad for myself so I put on the saddest, most depressing song I could think of to be the soundtrack to my pity party.
The blackened ceiling held my vacant gaze for a long time before my brain shut off and I finally fell asleep.
***
My heart thudded violently as I jolted awake, eyes blinking rapidly against the darkness. Suddenly hyperaware of... something.
I clicked the button on the side of my phone to see the time and,
“God damnit, it’s two in the fucking morning.” I grumbled as I scrubbed my hand down my face and rubbed my tired eyes.
I froze when a soft echo sounded. With my ears straining, nothing followed, so I wrote it off as the house settling or the ghost wandering about.
It did like to do that at night. When I heard it again, louder and more pointed, my breath caught as my body grew stiff as a board.
The creak of slow, heavy footsteps on the old floorboards in the hallway caused my heart to begin racing.
Had someone broken in? I mentally panicked. What do I do? What do they want? I don’t have anything of value, I swear! I live off a teacher’s salary!
The whine of the bedroom door opening had me clutching the blankets to my chin. Those footsteps stalled for a second before picking back up.
In the darkness of the room, I couldn’t see anything. But I heard them. They were aiming for the bed. For me.
Shit, shit, shit…
The thin stream of moonlight leaking through my blackout curtains managed to illuminate the shadowed figure as they approached. Fear had me frozen in place. Damn my faulty fight-or-flight response! I didn’t move. I played dead. If I didn’t move, maybe they wouldn’t see me.
Wait, no, that was a thing with dinosaurs.
The figure stopped at the edge of my bed. The dark blob grew bigger as they leaned over me, their breaths heavy and labored.
I finally broke free of my petrification and reached for the nearest weapon I could get my hands on. My fingers wrapped around something on my nightstand and I swung it directly at the figure’s head like a baseball bat with all my might.
The thick metal made contact with the person’s skull with a satisfying crack.
There was a low grunt followed by a heavy thump, and I quickly lunged to flick on the bedside lamp.
That’s when I realized the lamp was missing.
No, not missing. It had clattered onto the floor.
Next to the body. I snagged my glasses, shoving them on my face, and grabbed my phone to turn on the flashlight revealing that the intruder was...
My mouth dropped open as I stared dumbly down at the floor.
My... corpse?
And he was... stark naked. Well, his body was still covered in those mud markings but other than that, naked as the day he was born.
“Oh. My. God.” I gasped as I jumped from bed to gawk down at the unconscious corpse, no... not a corpse. Not anymore. The unconscious man on my bedroom floor.
“Oh my god, oh my god. It worked... It... It actually worked!” I stammered.
He was sprawled face down and I had an admittedly tough time dragging my gaze from his fine ass as I grabbed my lamp and righted it to plug it back in.
The room immediately illuminated with warm orange light.
The shade was dented but I was genuinely surprised the bulb hadn’t cracked after using the object like a club.
My terror which had transformed into pure elation quickly grew into worry as my face fell.
I had hit him really hard. Like, really really hard.
“Shit. Did I kill him?” I fell to my knees beside him and hovered my hands over his head. Was that a lump? It did look swollen, but was that normal? “Please, please don’t be dead. Again.”
With a tight grip on the man’s shoulders, I flipped him onto his back and gave him a gentle shake. Okay, it may have looked like I was throttling him. But he had to wake up; I couldn’t have killed the corpse I just miraculously brought back to life!
A pained moan sounded and I immediately stopped shaking the body. His head fell back to the floor with a thud and another groan.
“Oh, shit, sorry.” I cringed. “Are you okay?”
Another unintelligible moan was the only response. I pulled the blanket from my bed and covered the man with it as he began to show further signs of life.
I gaped with stunned relief as his eyes gradually fluttered open.
They were milky white and unfocused as he stared at the ceiling. Then, like a cliché vampire emerging from his slumber, he sat straight up. The blanket fell and pooled around his lap, but he didn’t seem to realize I was sitting next to him as he continued to stare blankly forward, now at the wall.
Say something. Think. Something, anything! Stupid. Useless. Brain.
“Um,” I began hesitantly, “hi?”
Wow. Seriously? Couldn’t think of some better first words, Victor?
With comical slowness, he turned his head until his dead-eyed gaze settled on me.
“Wow,” I whispered in complete awe.
“W- Wo- Wow.” He stuttered. His voice was scratchy and raw, like his vocal cords were still unthawing. Well, they technically probably were.
My eyes widened. “Unholy shit.”
“Un- Holy sh- Shit”
“Okay, this is weird.” I clapped my hand over his opened mouth to stop him repeating what I said. Those hazy eyes widened slightly as they took in my face, as if he was just as surprised to see me as I was him.
I carefully extricated my hand from his mouth and sat back, re-crossing my legs.
I eyed him curiously, taking note of how the many cuts and bruises that had decorated his body had already healed and faded into soft pink scars.
His attached limbs seemed to be in working order as well, which was a relief.
After a few seconds, he mirrored me by crossing his legs beneath the maroon plaid blanket. The pale toes of his sewed-on leg wiggled from where they stuck out, so I reached over and covered them with the edge of the fabric.
He had to be cold, right? It was mid-October and I didn’t have heating in the upstairs of my century-old house.
I had forgotten to turn on the little space heater in the corner, so my bedroom was particularly chilly tonight.
He wasn’t shivering though, so maybe he was alright?
I was at least wearing a sweater and my Halloween themed pajama pants with little Jack-O-Lanterns and bats all over them.
“Are you... cold?” I asked him carefully.