Demigods (8 page)

Walking up to one of the palm trees, Playful seemed to know exactly what he wanted, and she ran quickly up to the coconuts at the top. Looking up at her, he began to get flashbacks.

"Try not to aim for my head this time," he told his furry helper as he held open the large sack, and was happy to find that the little, black monkey was not so lethal this time around.

One by one, Playful tossed down the coconuts, and her aim was as good as it had ever been, as they dropped right where he wanted them to, each and every time. She certainly made it look much easier than he did, when first he tried to gather a couple of them.

From one tree to the other, she jumped, until they had gathered at least a dozen of them, and this caused him to remember the night before, when the coconuts had gotten the best of him. Tonight would be different he decided, because he surely did not want to miss one moment with this beautiful woman.

Setting the sack in the sand, he found a seat beside it, and stared out over the vastness of the water before him. He wondered just how far it was to civilization, although he figured that it mattered little. He certainly didn't know how to build a boat, or even a rough raft, and even if he did, how would he know which way to go? Most of the Earth is covered with water, making it more likely that he would drift further out to sea, rather than finding land.

"Oh, well," he thought. If ever there was a bad situation to find himself in, this must definitely be the best of them.

For a while, he sat there, daydreaming about what it would be like to be with her in the real world. Of course, she would not be the same woman under such circumstances, but what if a boat came along, and rescued them both? Would she even choose to leave the island with him?

As more time passed, he began to wonder what was taking her so long, and Playful was beginning to pace about as though she should have returned by now. What if the rage beast that she spoke of had hurt her?

"Where is she, girl?" he asked of her furry companion, but she just continued to pace about, until she walked over to the cave entrance, and sat down, staring inside.

From time to time, she would glance back over her shoulder, as if he would go in there to find her, and eventually he began to think that it was what he was supposed to do.

Finally, he could not take it any longer, so he stood to his feet, and went to the cave. Pulling the torch from the sand, he poked it into the narrow entrance, but all he could see were damp, stone walls, that faded off into the darkness.

Taking a deep breath, he turned his body sideways, and slowly began to slip inside. There was not much room to move at first, yet about twenty feet in it opened up, and he was able to take a good look around.

At first, it looked like a small chamber, about ten feet in diameter, but as he took a step forward, he found that there was no floor. His heart beat quickly as he took a step back, having nearly fallen into the darkness, and he determined that he would have to be a little more cautious.

"Princess?" he called out to the emptiness, but his own echo was all that he received in return.

Lying down on his belly, he dangled the torch over the edge, though he could not see the bottom. What he did see, however, were plenty of holes in the side that he could use to climb down. This was the only way to go, so she must be down there somewhere.

He knew that he could not carry the torch, and climb down at the same time, so he decided to toss it down ahead of him. This would also give him a good idea as to how far he would be climbing.

Using its light for as long as he could, he laid it down, and hung his legs over the side, until he could find good footing. Inch by inch he began to lower himself, until the top of the ledge was up to his armpits.

Then he grabbed the torch, and hung it as low as he could, before gently tossing it into the darkness, which turned out to be the wrong choice.

The good news was that it was not too far to the bottom. The bad news was that the bottom was water, and the fizzle of the flame left him hanging over the edge of the small cliff in absolute darkness.

Suddenly he did not seem to be in paradise any more. Now he was in a nightmare, as he hung on with every ounce of strength that he had, and pondered what his next move might be.

One option was to climb back up to the top, and feel his way back out, but there was still the thought that she might be in trouble.

This left the second option, which was to continue to climb down, and hope to find her through the darkness. He could not live with the thought of leaving her behind, while this "rage beast" might not let him live if he continued.

"Here goes nothing," he said to himself, and then began to feel his way to the bottom. It was much easier than he thought it would be, as he found that the holes in the side were well suited for such a task, and soon he found himself tapping his toes in the cool water.

Setting his foot down, he was delighted to find that it was only about a foot deep, and for a moment, he stood there to clear his mind for the task at hand.

Slowly he began to feel his way around the chamber, until he finally found an opening. It was far smaller than he had imagined, but still large enough to crawl into, and fortunately above the water level.

"Princess," he yelled, yet still there came no answer, so he began to work his way into the small opening.

Inching his way through the darkness, he often swept his hand in front of his face to avoid smacking it upon an unexpected rock. For a while, the small tunnel traveled in the same direction, on an upward slope, and once again, he began to question the wisdom of his decision.

Suddenly he came to the conclusion that it had certainly been the wrong choice, as he reached his hand forward, and touched something that was not stone. It was hard like stone, and he could feel tiny, coarse hairs all over it, but what disturbed him the most was the fact that in was moving.

Quickly he pulled his hand back, and sat there on his hands and knees, as still and as quiet as he could. He could hear his own heart racing, and feel the sweat begin to escape his pores.

As if touching it was not frightening enough, he now felt the warmth of its breath brushing against his face, and the smell of it was as foul as decaying flesh. Carried with its breath, he could hear it growling, or hissing, or whatever that sound was that it was making, and just when he thought that he was going to relieve himself, he heard something else.

Softly, an ardent melody began to drift from the other side of the beast. It sounded like a flute, and its music seemed to sooth not only him, but also the rage itself. From its breath, and hideous growl, he could tell that it turned, and began to follow the sound down the small tunnel.

As he listened to it leaving, he noticed the feint, flickering light of a torch on the opposite side of it. It had an unusual shape as it scurried away, and he could not decide if it was moving more like an insect, or an animal. When it finally reached the light, it made a quick turn to the left, and then it was gone.

Now the tension left his body, and he found himself able to move once again. Slowly he began to make his way to the flickering light, happy to finally see a break in the darkness, and knowing that the princess must be up ahead. When he was about ten feet away from what appeared to be another chamber, the music stopped, and froze him where he was.

"Princess?" he called out, and for a brief moment he heard nothing.

Suddenly, a familiar face peeked down the narrow tunnel, smiling playfully at him.

"What on Earth would possess you to come down here without any light?" she asked him, but he decided to keep the torch in the water incident to himself

"I was coming to rescue you," he returned sarcastically, as he climbed out into the small chamber, and when he saw that there was only one other exit, he was relieved. This made it easier to keep an eye out for whatever that thing was.

"You are just so cute," she told him with an endearing pat on his stubbled cheek, and then she passed him by with the torch in one hand, and the basket under the other arm.

Without warning, she began to crawl out through the small tunnel, leaving him standing there by himself. It did not take him long to determine that it was best to keep as close to her as he possibly could.

Despite the fact that he could not see a thing in that direction, he continuously looked over his shoulder, hoping that they were not being followed. Sure, it was chivalrous to allow the lady to go first, but somehow he seemed to think that he made a more desirable lunch to whatever it was.

Reaching the first chamber, he watched, as she used the back of the torch as a tool, placing it into the holes to help her climb up, without dropping it. What a novel idea, he thought.

"Was that you back there?" he finally asked, as he made his way up behind her.

"Music soothes the savage beast," she replied as she helped him to the top, and he took that as a yes.

Sure, it was a silly question, since she was the only one down there, but he certainly did not see her go in with an instrument, and she did not seem to be carrying one at the moment. As odd as it seemed, it was not as unusual as the creature he had come face to face with.

Reaching the sandy beach, Playful quickly found her way to the princess' shoulder, delighted to see her companion's return. This, he thought, was an even more pleasant sight than before, considering what he had just been through, and once again, he felt at ease.

"You did very well down there," she said as she looked back at him, and he wondered what she was referring to. Was it the part where he dropped the torch into the water, leaving himself in total darkness, or when he nearly peed his pants in the face of terror?

"Will the crabs be part of dinner tonight?" he asked, attempting to redirect the topic.

Turning about, she began to walk backwards in the sand, still wearing her beautiful smile, and even in this manor, she exuded grace and radiance.

"I hope that you like it," she told him before continuing in the direction that led them back to the sanctuary.

A short time ago...

The IVs and the breathing apparatus were the first things to be removed. These were the things that kept Viper alive while she was in a state of stasis, but she was no longer unaware, and she needed them no more.

The electrodes that were positioned around her head, still trying to feed her information were the next items to be removed. They were obsolete, and offensive. They had been feeding her a lie, and now she had to deal with the truth, and though they were both ugly, one was real while the other was not.

The remainder of the things that were attached to her were monitoring her vitals, and there was an alarm that would sound should something go wrong. Nothing was wrong this time, and she gathered the wires in her left hand, and not because she was left-handed. She was very much ambidextrous, but the situation determined it.

With her right hand, she grasped the top of the tube, and planted both feet firmly on the glass for leverage. This was the position that she needed to be in, and now all she had to do was to wait.

Slowly she closed her eyes, knowing that her other senses would be far more important, and would be enhanced by doing so.

Her hearing was attuned to the sounds of every electronic device around her, and that included the things that were at the furthest reaches of the facility. Each had a frequency that was slightly different from all others, and she could hear them all. Now she only needed to await their silence.

It felt like forever as Viper sat there waiting, though finally what Charlie had promised her occurred.

It took only milliseconds before she flinched into action at the sound of the power going out, and instantly she launched herself from the glass prison that they had been torturing her in.

In one quick motion, she ripped off the remaining wires, and turned off the machine that they were connected to, which happened before her wet feet ever touched the floor.

Her damp feet however, were also a part of her calculation, and they slid directly over to the lab table where Charlie had left his lab coat, and she quickly grabbed it by its collar, and swung it onto herself.

Her foot pressed firmly against the table exactly as she knew it would, and she then pushed off of it in the opposite direction. This action landed her in the chair in front of the computer, completely covered, and for a moment, she smiled.

"
Three seconds was more than enough time, my prince
," she thought to herself as she waited for the generators to kick in.

*            *            *

"Then I did what I needed to do," Viper told him as she still stood shivering outside his doorway. "Will you please help me?"

Charlie stared at her for a moment, with his jaw dropped, before he found the courage to ask the obvious question.

"Did you kill anyone?"

"No!" she said in almost a shout, before turning slightly to leave as though offended by his statement, but she turned back, knowing that she needed him.

"They don't even know that I'm gone yet," she told him as tears began to gather within her pale, green eyes. "I made sure of that."

Dropping his gaze, he began to think of what the next logical step might be, though her action disrupted his thinking process.

"Why did they do this to me?" she screamed in just more than a whisper as she threw her arms around him, and began to cry on his shoulder.

"Why did they torture me?" she sobbed.

He could not help but to embrace her. Hours ago, she was trapped within their terrible maze, and now she had been prematurely thrown into the world. It was a world that would terrify anyone, considering her circumstances.

"I'll help you, Viper," Charlie said as he ran his hand down the back of her long, blonde hair, but as she quickly looked up at him, his tongue became numb.

"They gave me that name," she said in a scolding fashion. "Please don't call me that."

Gazing down into her eyes, she quickly glanced away at the floor, and gently he led her inside, and shut the door behind them.

"What should I call you then?" he said with a smile, trying to comfort her in any way that he could, but her sense of meekness comforted him more than he could have anticipated, as her eyes met his own once more.

"You pick a name," she said with a genuine smile.

He thought about it for a short moment, and though many ideas passed through his mind, one seemed to stick out more than the rest.

"Ok, Kitten," he called her as he smiled down upon her, and then removed himself from her embrace. "Welcome to my humble abode."

Glancing around as though cautious, and afraid of everything, she moved inside, trembling with every step as though to fear everything around her. It was her first day of true life, and Charlie understood this.

"Nothing is going to hurt you here" he assured her as he led her to the sofa, but even as she sat down upon it, she frantically glanced around as though something might jump out at her.

Sitting beside of her, she firmly grasped his leg with both of her hands, and stared wide-eyed into his own brown eyes.

"Why did they do this to me?" she implored, yet hardly could he find an appropriate answer.

"Because they really don't know what they’re doing," he finally answered as he recalled the debacle that was known as Mirage, "and they are slow to learn."

Charlie could not tell if she fully understood his answer as she continued to look around aimlessly, though finally she stared back up at him.

"I need things," she began to explain, "or they can kill me just as soon as they know that I am gone."

Before he could ask what she needed, or even why, she began to explain it to him.

"They have implanted a device in my lower back," she said as a tear ran down her soft cheek, and her expression was no less than terrified. "If I do not remove it before they are aware, they can simply push a button, and I will die."

At first he stuttered, but then cleared his throat.

"What do you need?"

"I need a very sharp blade, some peroxide, butterfly stitches, and some bandages," she said in a whisper as though afraid of what needed to be done, "and I will need your help."

His jaw dropped for a moment, for though they called him doc, hardly was it about the field of medicine. It would seem that she was asking him to perform surgery, and he was nowhere ready to do so.

"Can you do CPR?" Viper then asked, and he was glad to hear such a question. Although he had never been certified, it was something that he had learned as a child while in the Boy Scouts.

"Is that all that I'll have to do?" he asked with a feeling of relief, before realizing that she was telling him that she could be dying in front of his eyes.

"When I remove the device," she explained with a somber expression, "it will initiate a command that is built into my brain, and my heart will stop."

He did not like this idea one bit. Sure, he had learned CPR, though it seemed like ages ago, and he never had to actually use it. The idea of watching her die, and having her rely on such distant knowledge to bring her back, brought great fear to his heart.

"What if I fail?" he asked, yet the answer seemed rather obvious to her.

"If you fail," she replied with a comforting tone, "then I will still be better off than if you were not to try at all."

This did not make any sense to him at all. Either way, she would be dead, but she quickly found the words to help him understand.

"If you try and fail," she told him as she placed her soft hand upon his cheek, and caressed it gently with her thumb, "then I will go with at least the knowledge that you cared."

This made some sort of sense, but he still felt like death would suck for her, no matter how it came about.

"First we need to get you into a hotel room," he told her as he grabbed her up, and began to lead her back to the garage. "My home isn’t exactly the safest place for you to be."

The ride to the room was a quiet one, as they were both consumed by their own thoughts, though on occasion, he would glance over at her, and admire how beautiful she was. The fact that she was designed that way did not matter at all, because every beautiful woman has the unfair advantage of simply having the right genes brought together.

The fact that they would try to create the perfect assassin, while making her that desirable, however, he considered to be a very cruel joke to the entire male gender, but she was not at all like what he thought she would be like. Awakening early was obviously something they had not counted on, and the pain that he could see she felt was clearly a factor in how she now acted.

From time to time when he would glance over at her, she would look back at him, and although she would always smile, Charlie could see that it was feigned. She was trying to hide her confusion and fear, and it ripped at his very soul. He wondered how they could have done such a thing to her, despite the fact that he did not know the extent of it. Being the ones that created her did not make it right in any way.

Pulling into the lot of the cheap motel, he found a spot in front of the office, and put the car in park. He felt she deserved a nice hotel room after all that she had gone through, but he could not deny the logic of her decision to come here. It was very low visibility, without any cameras, or even the need to provide a valid driver's license. It was simply cash, and no questions.

"I'll only be a second," he politely told her before stepping from the car to secure a room. "Everything will be ok," he assured.

While he was away however, it was only the haunting of her tormented past that taunted her mind. Sure, it was a fictitious past, yet it felt as real as they come, and she would forever have to remember it.

She remembered the man that had raised her, and though she could never see his face, his eyes still ripped at every muscle that continued her beating heart. They were cold, calloused eyes, with never an emotion of kindness within them, and though she had often imagined her mother's and father's eyes staring lovingly back at her, his, behind his mask, where all she truly knew.

Now, even her hopes and dreams were shattered, as she came to terms with the fact that she never even had a mother or father who would have actually loved her. Now she had to come to terms with what she actually was, and at the core of it was not a freak of nature, but rather a freak of science and madmen.

She remembered how he had put her on the rack as a young child, and as she screamed out in agonizing pain, he would yell at her to deal with it. The world was pain, he would tell her, and she had either to put up with it, or attempt in vane to destroy the world.

In time she learned to ignore the pain, and not because he wanted her to, but rather because she had to, and she could also see that he enjoyed her tears. Pleasing him was never her desire, but often it had been the means to her own survival.

"They gave you room thirteen," he said with a grin as he climbed back into the car, revealing that he believed in such a thing as an unlucky number with his tone, "but he said that it was the best room that they had."

"It has a Jacuzzi," he added as he leaned over his right shoulder to back out. "Do you know what that is?"

This was the first time that he felt belittled by her, as her glare made him feel small enough to fit beneath the pedal that his foot now pressed against.

"I'm not stupid," she scolded loudly, with fervent eyes, but before he could stutter out an apology, she made him feel much better... in a way.

"I'm sorry, Charlie," she said as she turned her head to look out the window, and postured herself in a way that would more resemble a shattered child, than it would a grown woman. "It was wrong of me to yell."

He opened his mouth, yet nothing came out. He reached over to her as she gazed out the window, but it was like touching a manikin, for she moved not even with the slightest flinch.

"You are beautiful to me," he attempted to console, and his actions seemed to make a difference as she turned, and offered him a gentle, yet still timid smile.

"They made me that way," she soon frowned before turning away again.

How could he comfort someone in such turmoil? How could he fight everything that they had forced her to go through? The task seemed impossible, but still he felt compelled to try.

"You are beautiful on the inside, too," he told her, and he could instantly feel the tension release from her, and she slowly turned to throw him an endearing smile.

At this, he pulled the car in front of the room, before returning his attention to her again.

"It doesn't matter what the world thinks of you," he told her as he removed her long, golden locks from in front of her eyes, "because happiness is something that we create for ourselves."

She chuckled at this comment in such a beautiful, yet childish way.

"Even if your creator is not the usual one?" she inquired with a smile that allowed him solace.

For an instant, he wanted to reach over to her, and kiss her passionately, if only to convince her that she was far more than what they had been trying to create of her, but he froze when she placed her hand upon his cheek, and whispered softly to him, words that melted him.