His lips parted, and this time, it was his own voice that spoke, but the cadence was all wrong, a hollow and hungry echo. "Don't... go," he rasped, the words pulled from him like threads. The whisper slithered around the edges of his voice. "We want... more."
"You want more, fine... ill give you more, if"
I spat the words out, a desperate plan forming in the chaos of my terror. "But you have to let him go. Leave David. Just…take me instead."
The blue eyes blinked slowly, unnervingly. The puppet hand twitched. A long, unsettling moment passed.
"A...trade?" The voice, a sickening blend of David's and the entity's, echoed in the confined space. "An interesting proposition. But why should we...trade? He is almost empty. You are...fresh. Vibrant."
I swallowed, forcing down the bile rising in my throat. "Because…because I can give you more. David's almost gone. He can't sustain you for long. But I can. I know things. I can learn things for you. I can…I can take you back down."
That seemed to pique its interest. The blue light pulsed again, this time with a slower, more deliberate rhythm. "Back...down? To the Source?"
"Yes!" I cried, my voice cracking. "I can pilot the Triton. I can take you back to where you belong. To the others. But only if you leave David. He's suffering. He doesn't deserve this."
The silence that followed was even more oppressive than the wind and waves. I could feel the blue gaze scrutinizing me, probing, searching for deceit. My mind was a maelstrom of fear and half-formed ideas, and I prayed that it couldn't see through the cracks in my carefully constructed facade.
Finally, the lips, David's lips, stretched into a ghastly parody of a smile. "A tempting offer, indeed. A return to the Source. More...sustenance. More...knowledge."
A surge of nausea washed over me as I understood. It was considering it. It was negotiating.
"Very well," the voice rasped, laced with a triumphant, alien tone. "We accept. But be warned, human. Your offer is…binding. You will fulfill your promise. Or…" The light flared again, and for a brief, horrifying instant, I felt something brush against my mind, a cold, vast emptiness that threatened to swallow me whole. "...Or the consequences will be more…permanent."
when i heared the word permanent, i thought of my sister, Mie, but also thought of David, he is like my brother, we had a long history, it was hard to sacrifice him for my own self.
"guulp....its okay"
Mnhh the entity hummed, then the light that was on David's chest is taking a form of a man.
My breath caught "wow..." i thought, looked a the man in awe. the body has well defined muscles, had wide shoulders, a narrow waist. his skin is white as porcelain, with a jet black hair, eyes sharp as a phoenix but blue as the deep sea reflecting.
his wavy hair draped down his draped down his well sculpted body.
My breath caught again, a jagged, painful thing in my throat. The being before me was a contradiction, a nightmare clad in a dream. I had bargained with a parasite, a thing of cold hunger and borrowed life. I had not expected it to unfurl into… this. Into a sculpture of impossible perfection.
It stood, taking in its new form with a slow, deliberate grace. It flexed its pale hands, watching the muscles shift under the porcelain skin as if they were a fascinating new toy. Its gaze drifted from its own body to the crumpled form of David, who now lay still, the unholy blue light completely gone from his chest. He looked merely broken now, not possessed. A quiet snore, a rattling exhalation, escaped his lips. He was alive.
The being's attention then settled on me. The mirror-blue eyes held my reflection, trapping the image of a terrified woman in a drenched wetsuit, hair plastered to her skull, shivering on a dark, wet rock. It took a step forward, its bare feet making no sound. The movement was liquid, boneless, utterly inhuman.
The psychic whisper was gone. When it spoke, its voice was real, a low, melodic resonance that vibrated in the very air around us, as beautiful and chilling as its form.
"A good trade," it stated, the blood-red lips curving into a smile that held no warmth, only a terrifying satisfaction. "This form is… pleasing. The fire within you must be quite potent to have woven such a vessel."
It extended a hand, not to strike, but in a gesture of almost courtly invitation. "You have upheld your half of the bargain. You have not fled. You have not faltered. You are true to your word."
I couldn't move. I could only stare, mesmerized and horrified. My deal was with a predator, but I had envisioned a wolf or a shark. This was something else entirely, a venus flytrap that mimics a flower.
"He is free," I managed to choke out, my voice a raw croak. I glanced at David again, anchoring myself to the reason I was here. My sacrifice had to mean something. It had to be worth it.
"He is," the entity agreed smoothly. It was closer now, so close I could feel a strange cold radiating from its skin, a stark contrast to the 'fire' it coveted in me. It smelled of ozone and deep ocean water. "An empty, cooling shell. I have no more use for it. My focus is entirely on my new home."
It lifted its hand and gently, almost tenderly, brushed a stray strand of wet hair from my cheek. The touch was like ice, a jolt that shot through my entire nervous system. The blue eyes bored into mine, and I felt that psychic pressure again, but softer this time, more persuasive. A promise, not a threat.
Do not be afraid, the new voice echoed, but this time it was inside my head and outside, a dizzying harmony. The fire is not extinguished. It is simply… shared. You will not be a broken thing like him. You are strong. We will be strong together.
It leaned in, its perfect face just inches from mine. The beauty was an anesthetic, dulling the edges of my terror. It was going to fulfill the trade. It was going to take me. And as those blood-red lips descended towards mine, I knew my life as I knew it was over. I had saved my friend, but I had just invited the monster in to stay.
"before the trade, are you forgetting the promise you made" the creature, i mean he, looked at me "promise?....what promise?" he went closer to my direction, i took a step back but there was a cave wall behind me well shit i thought, i controlled my nerves.
"the sensation a gave me" he said " sensation?" then it hit, my body felt warmer. i looked away out of embarrassment
"your getting warmer" he said in curious, that made more hotter making my face and neck red.
then he embraced me, cooing his cold face in my neck his cold body deeply pressed against mine. it brought butterflies in my stomach, "this is...hard...." i was flustered almost forgetting about what he did to me and David.