Chapter Ten The Nova #2
The door was blocked by darkness. It filled the hallway, where I could no longer see the furnishings, the window by the stairs, the pictures on the walls. It was just a void.
From within the dark, three specks of light.
They didn’t blink, just grew slightly larger in approach, a slow stalking movement.
The memory of the beast’s form only made my mind swim with what would come through.
What limbs would present themselves first?
Would it be human shaped? Or beast? Or maybe even something my mind couldn’t comprehend yet.
Something never seen before. Something my nightmares couldn’t even conjure.
Closer and closer. I thought I heard steps.
I stood tall. Firm.
A dark form protruded. It hazed around the doorframe, creeping up the walls like smoke from a steady flame. It spilled through the floor, weaving itself between the grains of the floorboards themselves. A deep, dark stain like the silver oxide in my library.
From the darkness came familiarity. An outline of a man.
Then, like the clearing fog on a mirror, the shadows evaporated from the head to reveal skin.
The specks of light turn to two eyes and a black star marking his forehead. The white glow turned reflective, shaping into pearlescent irises. The skin was pale, ghostly and ghastly all at once. Yet his hair barely shifted from the black of the void.
A familiar inspiration to its chosen form’s resemblance.
“You wicked, irreverent beast!” I screamed. I couldn’t stop my approach. My bare feet hit the ground with as much conviction as my flight prior.
It was doing this on purpose. To wound me further. A sadistic creature.
My palms smacked against the chest. The thing was still. The man, I should say, was still. Though I wasn’t sure man was an accurate description.
“I rebuke you.” My voice wavered, cracking into a million pieces and held together by spite and passion. “How dare you!”
It finally blinked, a dark brow twitched.
Before I knew it, my finger was jabbing into his chest. “You will not use some vague resemblance to my husband to pretend you are not some beast.”
The eyes of the creature flicked to my hand, and he grabbed it. I heard a faint pop in my wrist.
It was time for my body to argue, to squirm and pull and escape his grasp.
It didn’t budge.
I swallowed hard, the long, clawlike fingers from before wrapping around my wrist. My fingers curled as if to scratch if it got close enough.
It started to use its face. Which was an odd statement as it was, but it truly seemed like it was learning how to use each muscle. There was a frightening edge to its looks. An uncanniness in its eyes, the face too symmetrical, features too rare.
The shadows began to reveal the rest of him, as if he was making it up as he went. First his neck, then his chest and abdomen. Down the middle of his chest, symmetrical inky blotches spread like tattoos.
I was right—he was making a body based on what he knew. But what he knew was very little. At least on a micro level, he couldn’t get it completely right.
I looked up; he was staring at me now.
The light eyes made me jump, and he let me, releasing me from his grip.
In my faltering, I failed to notice that he’d finished revealing his body, which prompted my eyes to squeeze shut before I opened them again—he was indecent, but no parts, no body hair. He only knew the shape of a man, not exactly the assets.
The blotchy tattoos spread to the rest of him, completely symmetrical and stark. Like ink that had been pressed between two pages. It rose and fell over the herculean muscles.
We may have stood there for lack of conversation, or perhaps he hadn’t learned our language yet.
Certainly he was still grasping at our biology, but somehow that made this creature of the unknown slightly less of a threat.
I doubted he would’ve gone through such effort if he planned on using me for nutrition.
I cleared my throat as I sat against the edge of the empty tub. I crossed my arms over my chest, racking my brain for how to start a conversation with something I wasn’t even sure could understand me in the first place.
I supposed I should start off with the basics.
I brought my hand to my chest, palm flat on the exposed skin above the neckline.
“Lu-ci-a.” I drew my name out, with extra enunciation.
“I’m aware.” His voice was deep, sincere. Lingerings of eerie whispers followed the words like a cologne.
“Oh.” I pursed my lips, crossing my arms tight again. “So you speak?”
“We’ve spoken before,” he said like a fact.
“Considering you just built your first human body in front of me, I highly doubt we have.” I tilted my head. “You’re not exactly subtle. I would have remembered.”
His body started to relax as he eased into his new skin. But it was like looking at a corpse. His chest didn’t rise and fall with each breath, he rarely blinked, his stance still as stone, not one waver.
“Your floor remembered,” he finally said.
A joke?
My arms fell from their position; I couldn’t even keep my jaw from dropping. I stood, eyes locked on the fiend. Before I knew it, I was approaching again.
“You are the reason my pets refuse to participate in the rituals.” I shot an accusatory finger his way, jabbing it into his chest again. “They’re frightened of you.”
He took the impact, and his body returned to a straightened posture.
His hand wrapped around my arm, now human, and of flesh instead of beast. Though the form behind him grew, the liquid-like shadows spilling into the room, creeping along the walls, even peeking from behind him as if to remind me that what I was looking at was simply a puppet, a mirage of his making.
This was no man I was dealing with, and perhaps it would be beneficial to remember that.
“What are you?” I spat the bitter words.
His eyes shifted, glancing between my left and right brow. I caught a slight glimpse of a smirk, just a curl of the lips before it disappeared again.
There was a contemplative pause, as if the beast was deciding how to explain himself.
“I am what holds the stars at arm’s length,” he said.
I wasn’t sure what he was trying to describe, or which way he meant it.
I could only manage a head shake and a scoff. “A bit egotistical, I’d say. Do you think of yourself as a god? Is that it?”
His eyebrow twitched, then he looked down at my chest.
My cheeks and ears burned. I wasn’t sure if it was from embarrassment or anger. How dare he? I could only make so many excuses for something that wasn’t human to begin with. I supposed men in any form were the same.
He pulled me by my arm upward, until I was on the tips of my toes and my shoulder was beginning to ache. He lifted his free hand toward my chest.
I brought my arm across to my shoulder.
He touched my waist, the hand firm on my side. The pads of his fingers dragged over the fabric, tracing the constellations decorating the garment. He traced over my abdomen, then to my hip.
He met my eyes, then tapped his finger where he stopped.
“This,” he said, as if it were self-explanatory.
“This?” I repeated, though unsure. Then some small relief and understanding when I saw what he was referencing. “Are you from out there?” I laughed.
He seemed confused at my remark.
“You’re pointing to stars,” I stated, looking down at the embroidery, “a map of constellations. A collection of stars locked together in gravity.”
“If that is how you understand it,” he said, letting go of me again. “I could say I’m like your companions.”
“You’re far too massive.” I took a step back. “I did not summon you.”
“Well, I’m here. Am I not?” he said. “I couldn’t pass through without your generous help.”
“Never have I summoned anything like you.”
“Is that what you think?”
“Oh, you figured out how to ask contemplative questions now, have you?”
There was that smirk again. Slight, subtle, and possibly out of annoyance.
“Do not mistake my careful composure for dullness.” He leaned in; I arched back. “I am no stranger to you, your language, or your habits,” he said, his steps shaky, “though adjustments are expected when shrinking into such puny, simple organisms.”
“I hope you catch on and adjust fast, then, or you may be left behind.” My backside bumped into the vanity as he continued to impose on my personal space.
His body cast a shadow, his figure looming, even in his human form. His eyes still a faint glow through the darkness, the mark on his forehead resembling a star. Just like the one on my chest.
He lowered his face, as if inspecting a bug on the pavement. His canine caught his bottom lip. When he tilted his head to the side, his lips were at my ear. There was a hiss, cold air licking my face.
I stilled, each breath struggling to fill my lungs. As if I was competing to be as calm and composed as he was.
“Are you making threats?” A spiteful whisper, placing extra emphasis on his next words. “Are you sure you want to test your luck?”
I could hear my own breathing in my ears, stars closing in on my peripheral vision.
Breathe. In, out.
“Maybe I will.” A shallow breath as I tilted my face toward his in the claustrophobic distance. “You seem to know all about testing the odds, don’t you?”
Behind my back, I gripped one of many bottles of perfume. Thank goodness for a well-made crystal.
“Here I was coming to reward you, nippy little thing.” His voice dropped, a hungry rumble in his throat.
I whipped my arm around to bludgeon him, the crystal coming into contact with his face.
The bottle shattered in my hand, but I was still gripping the shards.