Part 11 (1/2)

”What about it?”

”That was his last name; Chris. I remember now. I thought it was odd.”

”Do you remember his first name by chance?”

He thought for a moment or so and replied. ”Yesait was Ben. Ben Chris.”

Dear G.o.d, I thought. Benjamin brought me into the hospital that day.

My thoughts were spinning as I drove home. It was getting late, and I had to rush. I could feel myself changing again. As my thoughts raced as quickly as I sped, I wondered about Benjamin again. I must have been one of his suicide-save missions, yet it went horribly wrong. He was too late.

The transformation continued to get stronger and stronger. Please not now! I must get home before I fully change!

The bones in my hands and feet were starting to break, and I could feel my wings scratching underneath the skin of my back.

Let me just make it home, dear G.o.d. G.o.d? If there is even one!

I pulled up to my apartment complex, parked the car and got out.

I ran inside and up the stairs.

Once inside, I shut the blinds and locked the doors. My metamorphosis changed me within minutes. I felt the urge to escape and fly, but I trapped myself in, hoping to control it. The room spun, and yet my body was still and stiff. I could feel myself being closed in. I tried shutting my eyes, but I could see through my eyelids. I could see through the walls too. It was like I was encased in gla.s.s, yet I could see inside the whole building.

Something caught my eye in David's apartment. In a room in the back, there were pictures pasted on the walls. As I zoomed in closer, I was shocked at what I saw. The plastered photos were of me! Some were profile shots and others were of a more disturbing nature. I couldn't make it out that easily since the room was so dark, and the photos were in black and white, but I was certain they were all of me. The one that struck me the hardest was the one where I lay there on the beach. Dear G.o.d! I thought. It was David that been watching me this whole time, but why have all these alarming pictures of me? How long had he been doing this, and why was I seeing all this now?

”Because you had to figure that out for yourself,” a voice said from across the room.

I opened my eyes and saw a dark figure in the corner of my room. As he stepped into the moonlight peeking through the cracks of the blinds, I could see it was a man, yet something else entirely. It was like a projected image of a man. As the shadowed physique moved closer, I remained in shock. ”Dear G.o.d! David! What are you doing here?”

Suddenly, I couldn't move. It was like he had me strapped to the bed with his eyes. His eyes began to change into a brownish yellow, and his hair changed into a salt-and-pepper gray. His face melted and moved, then formed another face.

”Or would you prefer Dad?” He laughed. He had morphed and molded himself into my father.

”Stay away from me!”I shouted. ”Whoever the h.e.l.l you are?”

I crawled further back onto the bed, curling myself close against the wall. The room continued to spin. I could feel myself falling, yet I wasn't falling at all. Everything was falling apart around me.

His face kept morphing in the semi-darkness.

”Charlene.” He slithered his snake-like tongue around my body.

”Let me go you, b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”

”Come be with me,” he whispered.

”Dear G.o.d! Save me!” I screamed as his grip constricted my lungs. I could barely breathe. He was suffocating me.

As I struggled to free myself, the gla.s.s windows burst and shattered open.

”Let her go, Lucifer!”

”Benjamin!” I screamed.

The two wrestled each other as David loosened his grip and my body dropped in mid-air.

”Benjamin! Be careful!”

It was hard to see in the semi-dark room with s.n.a.t.c.hes of fluttering light, and then I heard skin slicing and blood splattering against the walls.

”Benjamin!” I called out again.

I got up quickly and turned on the light switch.

”G.o.d! No!”

I could see David hovering over Benjamin's body.

”What the h.e.l.l did you do to him?” I shouted.

I grabbed a piece of gla.s.s off the floor, cutting my hand as I held tight to the shard.

With all my might, I charged at David, slicing the shard into his stomach. I fell right through his evaporating body, and in that moment he was gone.

I crouched down over Benjamin.

”I wanted to tell youa” he said, coughing up black blood.

”Oh, G.o.d, Benawhat should I do?” I panicked, trying to pick up his body, but it was slowly forming into stone.

”You already did ita”

”Ben, please. What do you mean?”

He gave me a soulful smile and closed his eyes.

”Ben? Don't leave me! I love you!”

I held him close, clinging onto his cold, stone body, resting my face on his chest. I could no longer hear his heartbeat. Suddenly, his statuesque body began to disintegrate. Ash flew in the air, and as it settled, Benjamin's body had disappeared. He was now completely gone as I curled myself into the fetal position.

”Good-bye, my dear frienda” I said to him, sitting there crying in the pile of his ashes.