Flash 2000: All the Way Forward Part 2

Photo by julian mora on Unsplash

Warning: Mature activities – chapter 5 & 6

Chapter Four: A Musing

I shouldn’t ask, but I’ve lived with the memory of sending a child into a panic attack for seven years and now I find out why. Curiosity leads to many questions which are better off unasked. “Have you had sex yet Miss Singer?”

Tyla shakes her head.

“I don’t…” I close my eyes, damn seers. How to approach this. “The hands tied up and keeping you quiet are unusual actions, but not outside things I have done with consent. Do you think they may be within things you would accept with consent?”

The student gives me a timid smile. “I don’t know. What happened, what will happen, didn’t feel very consent-y for either of us.”

“Do you know where this will occur? Maybe we could avoid it? Delay the event?” I tap my desk. “You says it has to occur and we are the right sizes, but we should be these sizes for a while.”

“It’s the lecture hall.” Her whisper gets rough as she talks to her hands. “You have me tied on the podium with your necktie on the metal frame used to hold your laptop in place.”

For a second, I can see her tied up as described, my tie looped around the frame, her lips bruised as I hold my hand over her mouth and I pound into her.

Well, that is going to make using the podium difficult for a while. Can’t lecture sitting down.

“So no?”

“I really can’t drop out.” Tyla looks up at me earnestly. “The Sisters need me. They want me to finish school in three years, so I got to have this course this semester. There is no way around it.”

I rub my forehead thinking. “I can’t have you as my student.”

“I have to have this class.” She picked at her bag. “And this, that, has to, will happen.”

“Could I tutor you and have Professor Caskcut give you the tests and grade your papers?” I stand to control the leg bouncing. “Get you officially not my student.”

“And what excuse do you want, Danny?”

Her voice had changed and I look over. Her body is completely different, how it is held. Fear is gone from every limb. Left in it’s place is knowledge, heavy, infinite. Sexy, confident, lethal. Tyla’s gray eyes are white.

I gulp. A seer realized. Us mere mortal elementalists shouldn’t be rubbing elbows with the likes of them.

“What excuses do I have, Miss Singer?”

She laughs. “Well, most of the futures I’m your wife so we could be engaged, some we are just friends raising our little boy, your spouses like me, and others, well… Limited thread. But you asked for excuses, engagement for love at first sight, the administration loves that.” She tilts her head smiling, seeing something other than the here and now. “Your grandmother’s emerald engagement ring is beautiful. We could tell the administration about me having a vision but they don’t need to know what it is about. We can truthfully say it is interfering with my learning and to bring Leo in to help. My grades clearly indicate additional tutoring is needed. I may be able to encourage my Sisters to request special treatment, but they hate that. Still they will give in if you don’t like the other options. Still wife is the safest option. We tend to live the longest that way.”

“Wife?” I squeak. Not something I had ever considered, especially with a student. But the rest of it is concerting. “Safe? Live, as in other ways we die early?”

The woman in front of me smiles sadly. “War is coming, Danny. The Sisters are delaying it as long as they can. But the Union is dissolving.”

With those words, Tyla dissolves. Her head coming forward and hitting my desk, then her body slumping out the chair onto the floor.

“Fuck.” I rush around and open the door. “Taylor, call the healer.”

“What happened?” asks the teacher’s aide sending their familiar winging away. “Damn, I knew I should have reported it as soon as it happened.”

“What?” I shake my head, “Later. Help me get her out here.”

***

Chapter Five: A Malice

My eyes drop to Professor Hawkins tie as I enter the class for our review lecture before finals. “I thought you burned that.” I hiss quietly. It was The Tie of the vision. He had worn it two months ago and I let him know it was the One and he had immediately torn it off and stuffed it into the podium.

“Sorry, administration is visiting all the rooms today and I got ketchup on my other tie at lunch.”

“Ten-year.” I mutter, knowing he isn’t close yet, and my little issue with him isn’t helping. Him giving me his grandmother’s engagement ring, and us being officially engaged to get the other elemental Professor to fasttrack my training, had been completely unexpected and couldn’t have helped his standing with the administration either. When he gave me the ring, he said to call him Danny and I hadn’t been able to yet.

“Yeah, they like their uniform, now get up there, Singer.”

I mount the steps to the highest area. I really didn’t need to be here. Professor Caskcut had passed me with a 91% after a ton of work, scholarship in tact, but I really wanted to have the elements stick. They are the best attack magic, quick and decisive. Even if I never really master them myself, I do want to know how to defend against them best as I can.

At least Meghan isn’t ever going to be an issue for me again. After collapsing in Hawkins office, everything came out during the investigation into my injuries and she got expelled. I heard her family managed to get her into one of the European schools for next semester.

***

The review was torturous, especially with the necktie on after half a semester outside of uniform. I couldn’t believe how much of the material I needed to retouch. Was I that bad an instructor or they that bad at listening? Well, the test will tell. The room emptied slowly for the last time this semester. Students gave me first bumps and thanked me.

Brittany dropped off three gold origami cranes and Ryan dropped a smooth red stone with a charm clinging to it. I raised an eyebrow, and he said, “Heat charm, your office gets cold in the winter. Should work about a week if I did it right.”

And if he did it wrong, it could catch the office on fire. I don’t trust freshmen, especially those with the attention span that Ryan had, to get it completely right. I’ll add it to my fireplace at home. The entire living room is stone-lined and charmed to handle all but the most explosive elemental magic, a necessary in an elementalist home for when they get sick.

Tyla drifted down last. “Hey.” She said in her soft way.

“Hey.” I say back, looking for the scary defiant woman I had met for a few minutes in my office several months ago. I think I am going to look forward to watching Tyla grow into that woman. I see the firmness every now and again, the refusal to stay down no matter how many times she gets knocked down.

“You did good today.”

I blink at the compliment. “Thank you.” I smile a half-smile, smolder under control. She is still eighteen and it wouldn’t be fair, yet. I glance at the podium and her eyes follow mine.

“Some day soon.” She says to me, blushing lightly.

“We haven’t even kissed.” I whisper back, my voice dropping an octave without effort on my part. Since getting engaged, I haven’t chased anyone.

“And yet, somehow, I know exactly what you taste like.” Tyla’s shy smile changes into a small tease. “I dream of you often.”

I shake at those words. Dreams for her take on another dimension, literally. Makes me wonder how many of the dreams I had about her were shared.

“Surprise motherfuckers.” A voice screeches from the top of the lecture hall as a ball is tossed down from a fire exit.

I throw up an air shield around me and Tyla, and the ball crashes against it, releasing a pink gas. Unfortunately hardening the air to keep the gas on the other side sets off the heat charm in a blast, dispersing the gas throughout the room and sending us flying. I gasp for breath as the wind got knocked out of me.

Raising my head, I see Tyla nearby also struggling to breath. Damn woman is fine looking on her hands and knees. Rolling over, her eyes meet mine. “Oh, um, Danny…”

“Exactly.” I stand and walk over to her and pull her up, pinning her with my mouth against her lips. She might know what I taste like, but I needed to know what she tastes like.

Honey, hope, and ho.

She opens like a flower and drinks me like I’m whiskey shots. Her hands undo my tie and make quick work of my buttons. She starts working on my pants, but I’m not ready yet. She is too greedy.

I invade her space and she backs up and backs up until she hits something that doesn’t move. Seeing raise metal ridge around the edges, I grab the wayward hands and tie them up, then get busy on making sure she is ready for me.

“Good girl.” I growl, finding evidence she is more than ready. I throw the annoyances away and shove my fingers into her cunt, turning them over until I find the place that makes her legs start shaking uncontrollably. “Scream for me.”

“No, no,” she shakes her head side to side, “ten-year.”

“I don’t fucking care.”

“Must. We.” She lifts up on her tiptoes and widens her stance at the same time. “Please. Oh god.” She arches forward, her head slamming back wood. “Shh. Shh. Ah. Ah.”

Her cunt grips my fingers when I add a third. “Don’t hold back.”

She shakes her head side to side, biting her lip hard.

“Fine.” I pull my fingers out and unzip my pants, pulling out my penis. “You want this?” I rub it against her cunt.

Tyla nods vigorously. “Yes, yes, yes. Please.”

I lift her up and she wraps her legs around my back, and I glide in until I feel a barrier. Right. I should have expected that.

Keeping one hand on her ass, I lift the other to cover her mouth.

“I’m about to hurt you a little. But then it will feel real good. Bite down as hard as you want. Nod if you trust me.”

She nodded.

I felt her scream in my soul.

***

Chapter Six: A Misfire

It took two hours for the charm to wear off. When Meghan came by with some of her board relatives while we were still in the thick of the spell, our “depravities” on display for any coming through the doors.

Let me tell you, hair pulling is pretty awesome shit. Danny could do that all day and I wouldn’t care which hole he used.

Her relatives were shocked, shocked, they told us. How dare Professor Hawkins act that way with a student. The administration responded that while they would have preferred Mr. Hawkins hadn’t used the classroom after hours for such activities, they couldn’t find fault of his actions with his finance who he planned to marry over the winter holidays.

(We hadn’t planned it that soon, but the Sisters had, so, yeah, that happened.)

Danny got a slap on the wrist. Oh, no, he had to teach the 100 level courses again during the winter semester. Him and Caskcut usually alternate who gets stuck with them.

Meghan had been more careful with this spell and nothing could be traced back to her, at least legally. The Sisters had no problems knowing who, but free will meant some of the Seer thread powers could not be used in court.

Did Danny and me live a good long life? In many futures. In others, the war took a harsh toll on us and our children. Which one of the futures did I live in? All of them.

That is the blessing and curse of being a seer. The true singular universe exists for the normals all the way forward and back, but us seers, the shadows are lived within equally exhaustively.

Did Meghan have a good life? Not in a single one.

(words 2,101; first published 12/26/2023)

All the Way Forward Series

  1. All the Way Forward Series
    1. All the Way Forward Part 1 (chapters 1-3) (8/29/2021)
    2. All the Way Forward Part 2 (chapters 4-6) (10/21/2021)
    3. All the Way Back (chapters 1-3) (5/1/2022)

Flash: Innuk ‘n Me

I jumped over the edge, disappearing from sight, letting the bullets continue their straight line above my head while the shots echoed in the ravine. Praying my beat-up sneakers didn’t give up the ghost on the way down, I slid down the ravine wall which was more vertical than sloped. Normally I would be guiding the descent using my gloved hand while riding my skateboard, but this wasn’t a concrete skate park and I wasn’t dressed, so I grabbed a broad branch with a smaller branch handle and pressed it against the soil, stone, and vegetation for what little control it could offer me. I directed through a shale outcropping into a corpse of trees which would block me from overhead view, managing to come to a complete stop after the wickedest wallride of my life. The slope still was over 80 degrees, but I managed to be completely out of sight, and the shale actually curved a bit overhead.

“Where the fuck did she go?” a voice asked overhead.

Here we are little man, come get us.

Will you shut the fuck up! I wished I could shout at my inner rider. He can’t hear my thoughts any more than I can hear his. But he could project his voice into my head. Unfortunately for him to hear me, I have to speak out loud and I couldn’t risk that. I had enough trouble controlling my gasps for breath.

“Girl jumped.” The other chaser responded. His voice deeper than the other and had less of an accent. “Demon may have teleported her. Damn demons. Check to see if the phone trace is still up.”

So that how they found me. Well, that shouldn’t be an issue since I dropped that back when they first started chasing me.

“She’s back at the club.”

No she isn’t. She is here. Come get her.

Innuk, man, I am going to fucking lock you up for a year if you don’t shut the hell up. I am not going to let you out to kill these dudes. That just leads to more trouble.

“Fuck, call in our position and see if they can pick us up.”

The dark got darker as the moon set for the night before I heard a car come to take them away. In between Innuk begged, whined, and screamed. He hadn’t tasted blood in weeks. My fingers cramped holding back his claws, my mouth ached from holding back the teeth. I couldn’t stopped the forked tongue from darting out to smell the air and lick my lips. I waited another two hours even though the smell of the other humans had faded, waiting until Venus danced along the horizon, before hissing at him. “Be quiet and let me think.”

Up or down? Down. Innuk couldn’t teleport, and I didn’t know of any other possessors who could, but thank the nine hells that rumor never faded. I let him raise close to the surface. Tougher skin and claws would help the descent. My eyes changed to his, and the night didn’t brighten so much as became our natural environment.

I would need to kill some people to pay for tonight. I would need to get that done before leaving for a new home. Not enough time to do proper research, so the kill will be messy and easy to trace. Innuk will love it. I smile, letting our teeth become sharp.

(words 572; first published 3/28/2022)

Flash: Vision

Image from freedigitalphoto.net

“Whoa,” I say, my head spinning. Spots form in front of my eyes. I may have rocked and swayed, but hard to guess as the red, green, and blue swim and dance, circling, crossing, merging. Spiraling.

I sit hard. Ground or seat, I couldn’t tell. Black and yellow add to the party. A flash, once, twice. Not unlike some of the vision migraines I get, only clear lines instead of hazy holes.

Cinnamon. I smell cinnamon. My only connection to the world while the colors convalesce into skulls. “Pen, paper,” I say, the image finally firm.

Sound returns, and feeling in my fingers, as someone shoves the requested items into my hands. “Here you go Carla. Ballpoint, blue. It’s all I got. Pencil in your left hand.” I don’t recognize the voice, can’t even tell if it is male or female, but that is normal. “You are at a table, flat surface.”

And I draw. I can’t see what I’m drawing, but I draw. Until I’m done, I won’t see anything else. I have broken fingernails scratching what comes to me into my own flesh, lacking any other medium to use.

“You recognize that?” a different voice asks as I sketch the outline with both hands, pencil immediately followed by ink.

“No, no … wait … maybe.”

A quick pass of shading obtains a response. “Gotcha, you bastard. Duran?”

“Yeah, I know where that is, amber units, calling all amber units…”

The voice fades away. I keep drawing.

Two hours later, I see a cup of water and a sandwich beside the paper. Weirdly the yellow and green come through with the mix of pencil and ink. Looking at the police, I croak, “Any luck?”

“We got him, but the kid …” the officer doesn’t meet my eyes. They didn’t bring me in until 48 hours had passed. I wish they could use me sooner, sometimes. But this gift of mine isn’t kind. Going into whatever, wherever I go, leaves a mark. No, more like a hole. A void. I’m going to spend the next week under a suicide watch, so I’m glad for the kindness of not using psychics until all other options are closed.

I lift the stuffed rabbit from my lap, where it had fallen, and give it back to the uniform. After I stand, they put my manacles back on and return me to my cell.

(words 400; first published 9/4/2023)

Flash: Frozen to the Core

Photo from freedigitalphotos.net

She wouldn’t die. She refused to die like this.

She didn’t die.

Holy shit, she was still alive.

Flames raised Kristin’s arms, the heat pushing them up crookedly. Everything felt wrong, her core nearly frozen despite the blistering heat, but she managed a staggered step forward toward the people who just tried to burn her alive. Another step and she managed to crick her neck to raise her head so she could properly see the sickos.

The crowd dropped the empty gasoline canisters and scattered as Kristin figure how to move in a world of fire and flame.

Each of the mob carried a candle within them. A warm candle calling to her icy core like a light to a moth.

She would find all those who dared to murder her, their light of life giving them away.

Blow their candles out and consume their wax. Maybe that will make her warm again.

(words 153; first published 11/21/2023)

Flash: Naturally Nocturnal

Photo by Grace Kelly on Unsplash

Ugh, too early. Why is the day-moon so fucking bright?

I roll over in the covers more tangled than normal. I had spent the night running around the house like crazy. But everything got done and out the virtual door. I deserve at least five days in bed for that miracle.

I raise a hand to run through my hair.

Aaaaand paw meet fur.

Shit, not again.

(words 67, first published 9/14/2022  – from a picture prompt for a Facebook writing group. Aim is about 50 words)

Purrson Series

  1. Naturally Nocturnal (9/26/21)
  2. Purrson (10/2/22)
  3. Phylactery (12/4/22)