| He stood intranced for several minutes before he realised i was there with him ,holding my umbrela over his rain soaked frame.His name was Damion. He had no friends no umbrella and now no way to get home.Slowly he turned and looked up into my face, his dark brown eyes large and blank. "come on kid." said i "il give you a ride home." i steped out into the bus loop and preceded to cross into the teachers parking lot.My body then was old and stiff.My joints ached and my shoulders stooped noticably. With out word he followed me into my car ,which was almost as old as i ,but i cant complain .It came with the body. Slowly we pulled into traffic the buzz of a city was nothing new to me.But still i always seemed anxious while driving the crowded streets and highways into Balm Beach.Damion sat in the front passenger seat .his feet barely reaching the floor ,head barely above the dash. I couldnt help felling sad for him and happy for myself. The institute where he was stationed wasnt far a drive from the school we both attened.He seemed even duller when i put him out into the arms of his case workes than he did when i straped him into my car. "Soon..." i thought "Soon we will both be rid of our missery." At my house that night i studdied the charts. Mapped and graphed the stars i knew so well,and reorded my equations on my old and tired note pad.I didnt bother to grade the papers submited me from my 5th grade english class,nor did i bother to clean my decrepid kitchen with pealing wall paper and stacks of dirty dishes piled high on the counters."He was and oold man" they would say "he cared for nothing but stars and children." it was said before and will assuredly be said again.For tongiht would be my last night in this body way beyond its usefulness. I rose and staggering on my old mans feet moved shuffled towards my screned back porch."My the heavens look beautiful tonight " whispered to my old twany cat.He turned yellow slits of hate locked on me. the beast could tell i wasnt his master. I havnt been his master for 15 years.15 years of crippled old age.I cursed my self for picking such an old host ,tomorrow youth would be mine. I turned my attention back to the stars.A streak of vibrent blue scared the sky,then slowly jupiter rolled out from behind a cloud large and magnificant beside the moon. I sat the old man down beside his old cat.And as quitely as a breeze i opened the screen dor and rose up into the nights sky.I knew the air was cold, but i could not feel it .Faster i pushed myself,the shadow of my self ,the essence of what i used to be . House tops whized by downtown hurtled its self at me with large sky scrapers and office buildings and fancy hotels all alit with the holiday spirit.Down below people were still scampering about in the streets loud musci copuld be heard issueing out from late night clubs and pubs.New Years Eve . much celebrting occured that night .I never grasped the celebrating of a dying year even if the year was as uneventful as 1992. The Institute loomed ahead of me.Majesticaly i arched and began my acent .Damions body my prey.Empty of life it lay in a bed of cold neglect. The child had passed away in his sleep.His arm thrown carelesly over his head. he had been fairly healthy all of his short eventful life. I knew because i watched him, and with the help of the stars tracked his past back to the abusive parents, the now deseaced grand parentsand more recently to the Institute where he spent the last 3 years . Gently i wiped my transparent hand lkie the ribbling of a shadow across his stll warm forhead.The remnants of a dream woffed up towards me.I was Damion how he wanted to be alone on the beach with wind in his hair sand on his bare feet and magnificant wings.I closed my eyes and watched his deram pass behind my eye lids.He was running down the beach flexing his wings witing for the right breeze to leap into the sky.when one came he thrust himself into it and lifted up ,up up,over the sand over the ocean he was flying ,he smiled as he flapped his wings then glided on a smooth current . I smiled if it was his dreams to fly ,then i could do that for him.i placed my hand apon his chest.I was cold ,the skin almost stiff.I pressed my weight against it and slowly my hand slipped down through the flesh.His heart still warm and slightly beating quivered in my hands as i squeezed it.It beat franticaly like a butterfly againgt a window then the rythm slowly picked up and beat along with the rythm of my own heart. with my free hand i pinced his nostrils closed and pressed his jaws open.I began a chant and as i squeezed his heart i breathed the words of life into the body. The chest heaved once ...twice...and the nostrils flared as i released them. The body began to breath ,to breathe in my words.I felt myself being sucked in obsorbed into the body throught nose and mouth.I continued to chant .my thoughts melted into those stored in the slightly pulsing brain.A deep swirling pit of maddness engulfed me as his memories surged up and melded to mine. The eyes popped open and the mouth gapped wide deep rasping breath moiste against my face.Another force pushed from with in .I panicked and almost lost my grip on the thin thread of the bodys subconcious . A soft errie light glowed from with in the body and i knew a shadow of the childs soul still clung to the entrails of life.The other pressence wasnt as strong as mine and would surredly die before the night ended if i were to abort the mission. Still concious of the oposing force i gripped harder and renewed my chant louder and faster. I could feel my self being sucked in as the childs soul accepted me as its superior and held me lodged in place with in the body. I could feel the familliar tingling as my limbs merged with those of the child. I smilled deeply to myself and closed off my mind as i viewed endept the trials the body had endured.Next to me ,with in me the other soul watched to but remained dormant. |