Ace awoke with a fright, grabbing his neck, struggling to breathe, sweaty and disoriented, kicking off the bedsheets and tumbling off his bed and onto the ground. The Rock, a pulsating, glowing rock he had bought on impulse last week fell out of the bed with him, and he shouted in pain as it landed on his big toe.
Chewie, the always faithful golden retriever, too smart for his own good, opened the door with his mouth by turning the doorknob and barked as Ace squirmed all over the ground.
It was a normal morning in Ace’s small apartment.
Invictus, Ace’s overgrown bodyguard, started punching an invisible enemy in the room, the assailant non-existent. A grown man but with the mind of a golden retriever, he did not think to look for an intruder, and ran around the apartment, yelling that he could defeat anyone with the power of friendship.
“Stop, just be quiet,” Ace groaned.
Chewie wouldn’t stop barking until Ace gave him breakfast and told him in a soft tone that we use our inside voices.
He walked across the wooden floors and sat on his used green couch, in front of the television, holding The Rock, as Invictus sat next to him. Lately, he had become more physical than a singular voice in his head, and Ace had no idea why.
Some days he would be old, his skin wrinkled and pale, balding and shriveled. On other days Invictus would be young, with a blanket for a cape, and a plastic foam sword, and Ace could not piece together what his changing appearance had to do with anything.
Today Invictus was a teenager, with less armor, only on his kneecaps and outer elbows, wearing a blue shirt, a shield slung over his back, steel-toed boots, and brown pants.
“Are you okay,” he asked.
“I had a nightmare and the rock I left at Levi’s is somehow in my house. I never brought it here,” Ace replied. “This is weird. I don’t feel okay.”
“Maybe it missed you,” Invictus replied.
The Rock turned green.
“I don’t think that’s it,” Ace mumbled. “How did it get here?”
Ace rubbed The Rock, roughly the size of his head, and it changed colors on the different spots he touched it in, and it soothed him, a glowing stress ball.
“He said he’s magic,” Invictus replied.
Ace made a loud pssh noise and waved his hand flippantly at the suggestion.
It was improbable that a rock he had bought for three thousand dollars at a shady gift shop that was a portable rave had mystical powers! Everyone knows the only real magical objects are gods living inside fashion accessories!
Don’t be silly!
“Well since he’s magic you two can have fun while I get ready to head out,” Ace chuckled.
He set The Rock down on his coffee table and glanced awkwardly as Invictus’s cape changed to the same strobing light pattern, perfectly in sync with the same ones The Rock’s colors were changing to, and he sat still, communicating telepathically.
Ace quietly got up, walked away, and shut the bedroom door, feeling like he had walked in on something very personal.
He quickly ran into the shower before Chewie would notice and attempt to follow him inside again and tried to tell himself don’t think about it, you have enough problems in your life already.
Ace had many nightmares lately, but this one, he couldn’t remember. Lately, his dreams had been the usual; nightmares about when the dead rose, dreams about work, friends, his jogging partner, and sometimes, very specific events.
The first specific event was when Ace dreamed that he would spill coffee on his good shirt, the red one that matched his hair, before a job interview, and he would be late because his secondary ability was possibly always being late to everything.
He woke up, thinking nothing of it, he was sure it was nerves. It was hard for him at the time, alone in Paradis, before he adopted Chewie and sat at home all day, the curtains pulled and staring at his ceiling fan, drying out his eyes.
Ace chose the green shirt, and he wore it after drinking his coffee.
On his way up the steps into the Atlaan courthouse, for his interview as an administrative assistant, a woman who was doing a coffee run spilled her coffee all over Ace, and he was thankful that all the drinks were iced lattes.
The dreams continued, all slight inconveniences that would all come true, no matter how hard he tried to avoid them, and Ace was starting to think he had prophetic abilities. He started sleeping more often, trying to get the dreams to come to him, but it didn’t catch.
He even went to the doctor, and they told him he had only one ability.
Ace didn’t want to remember what dream it was, because he worried that it was something horrible that would come true, so he focused on scrubbing all the sweat off of his body, quickly, because he was late to meet up with his jogging partner.
He was already late, and his jogging partner knew he would always be late, so he told Ace a time ten minutes earlier than when he wanted to arrive, and he arrived, magically on time.
Every morning, Ace and his jogging partner would work off all their frustrations, anxiety, anger, and whatever was lingering by making their way through a park near his apartment.
The tinted red bark and wide brown leaves, the sounds of bugs and birds always calmed him, because he didn’t need to think about anything as he moved his muscles and focused on the sounds of their breathing, until they finally finished, deep inside of Roue Park.
Ace leaned onto a tree, as if it held all the answers to life’s questions, because today he tried his hardest to keep up with Levi, and he had done it. He didn’t slow down, and he didn’t stop, but in the process, he was sure that he had popped his left lung.
“Are you okay,” Levi asked.
“I don’t understand how you can do this every day, ” Ace replied. He stuck out his hand wildly in the air, and Levi understood, he held out his grey water bottle, and Ace greedily drank from it.
He wiped the water and sweat off of his face by using his worn-out work-out shirt that said Blink If You Want Me, leaned onto the tree, looking at Levi, whom he noticed was looking at him oddly.
“What is it,” Ace asked.
Levi pushed Ace into the tree and had his half-smirk and smile, getting up in his face, gripping the back of his hair, forcing him to look up.
“This must be so difficult for you, doing something without cheating for the first time,” Levi replied.
“You would know so much about cheating wouldn’t you,” Ace hissed.
“ I’m an expert.”
Ace wasn’t sure whether Levi was aroused or angry, because he seemed to have very few emotional ranges, and they seemed to range between aroused, hungry, mildly irritated, or amused.
He was still confused as Levi kissed the side of his neck and told him that he should be very careful, that he was due for a pounding.
“Levi stop, we’re in public,” Ace mumbled.
“So let’s go home,” he replied.
Ace immediately knew which house he meant, he knew it was Levi’s apartment, because Mary Jane was rarely home, and his dog could never open the door and jump on top of them when they made out, thinking they were playing.
He blinked, and they were inside Levi’s kitchen, with a top-of-the-line kitchen that Levi still didn’t know how to use quite right. He still ended up ordering take-out frequently, the plates collecting dust.
Ace wriggled out of Levi’s grasp as he tried to put his hands under his shirt, and the shirt was lost with it. He was exasperated, that lately, Levi was relentless.
“I said I’m not fucking you unless you leave her,” Ace said.
Levi let out a loud huff through his nostrils and threw the shirt on the ground, sexually frustrated, and jogging wasn’t helping fill the hole any longer. He grazed his fingers over the granite countertops and was careful with his word choice.
“We’ve been over this—”
“You can leave me or her,” Ace said.
“I want you.”
Ace scoffed, picked up his shirt from the floor, and made his way to his bedroom.
It wasn’t his bedroom, but it was the second guest room in the apartment, and he had been there so frequently, it was starting to feel like his own room. The cream carpet tickled his feet, and he was about to get undressed to take a shower when he remembered.
In the corner sat an old standing mirror, and whenever he looked at it, the feeling of a person staring right back, a heavy thing, was always upon him. Today it was much different and more intense, and Ace had tried many times to convince Levi to throw it away.
Levi entered the bedroom and was about to open his mouth with another repeated excuse when they both shivered. Levi stood in the doorway and knew the source, but still didn’t want to listen to reason.
“Levi, you need to get rid of that mirror.”
“I can’t, someone is alive in there, ” Levi insisted.
“I don’t care if Lush is inside that thing, can’t you at least put him in another room!?”
“He said he likes this one best…”
Ace was about to argue back but then he remembered.
The Rock.
“Levi, that rock is in my house, it's not here,” Ace said.
Levi grunted in disapproval and said he could keep it. He didn’t like it, it made him feel uncomfortable whenever he passed by the room.
“No, I don’t remember how I got it,” Ace said. “That's the problem!”
“Dude, you never remember anything.”
Ace raised his hands in exasperation and collapsed onto the bed, face-up, legs dangling off the side, too comfortable in a house that was not his, with a partner that was not his, making demands that were not his to make.
Ace ignored the feeling of someone staring at him again and was fed up.
The Rock appeared, sparkling, in a flash of light, blinking back and forth, red, white, blue, red, white, blue, signaling danger, but it was too late.
It sat, on the bed, flashing those three colors right next to Ace and the two men stared at it, disturbed by its sudden appearance. Ace wanted to talk about their relationship issues and the sudden appearance of The Rock now made it weird, but he didn’t know what to say.
He wanted a normal life and normal problems.
He ignored the sentient rock on the bed and turned to Levi.
“I don’t feel like we’re together sometimes,” Ace said.
The Rock turned green.
“Oh, sorry, did I come at a bad time?”
Ace turned his head to see a very familiar face on an unfamiliar body standing in front of the mirror he hated oh so much.
Ace’s eyes flickered black as he tried to register what was happening. He saw the short man’s mouth move, but the sound didn’t come out. He was talking to Levi, and when Ace sat up, he saw that he was dragging a dead body.
The dark-skinned man didn’t change much in appearance since the last time Ace had seen him a few years ago, but he looked quite exhausted with bags under his eyes and different colored fluids all over his arms and hands.
Chunks of his bone armor had broken off, leaving his chest exposed, and his top knot bun had come undone, unfurled around his head. In one hand he held his ribcage sword, the other, a corpse of a pale, black-haired man, only wearing pants, seeping iridescent blood from various cuts all over his body.
“Get out of my house before I kill you,” Levi said with a smile.
“Nice to see you again angry ghost man,” Chad replied. “This is your house? Are you guys married? I and Aurora are married!”
There was a heavy silence.
Chad noticed The Rock, and smiled, pointed at it, and was going to say something, but then noticed the mood.
“I guess that's a no. I can come back, but I got some important news,” he declared.
Chad held up the body of the pale man, barefoot, his jaw slack, and more shining blood fell onto the carpet. Ace’s eyes twitched as he noticed where the blood spilled, the grass seemed to grow, mushrooms, toadstools, and flowers as well.
“I don’t know who you are but I do know I own several guns,” Levi said calmly.
“You don’t remember me? I know Chase remembers me,” he said, pointing at Ace.
“My name is Ace,” he mumbled.
“You know this murderer,” Levi asked shrilly.
“ Yeah, we had a great time together, ” Chad said, making a disgusting face, raising his eyebrows, and winking. Levi backhanded him, and he grunted, hitting him so hard his head smacked into the wall, bruising his left cheek and he let go of the corpse’s hair.
“Kill him,” Ace shouted. “He should be dead! Candice is dead! He should be dead!”
“What is your problem,” Chad shouted.
“Get out of my house,” Levi roared.
“You need to listen,” Chad replied. “You need to find the woman that looks like him!”
“You couldn’t just bring a picture,” Ace asked.
“If I let go of him, he won’t stay dead, ” Chad explained.
Levi was silent, ignoring the pleas of a man who was only trying to do good. He picked up his body and threw him across the other side of the room, smacking him against another wall.
A light show of horror began as Levi caused a power surge throughout the entire building, all the light bulbs exploding. The digital clock on the brown dresser burst into flames, both their phones shattered and fried, and all the tenants in the building let out a collective groan, Levi’s weekly tantrum ruining their electronics.
Ace blinked, and in another second he was back, Levi’s shotgun in his hand, grabbed from his bedroom closet. Chad groaned, on the floor, his life flashing before his eyes until the corpse decided it had a few words to say as well.
“Where am I,” the dead man asked.
Ace shrieked, accidentally firing the gun into the wall, blowing bits of it all over Levi, blinding him in the eyes. Chad saw his chance, and ran, he ran right to the mirror, and vanished, leaving three people very very confused.
Lush’s face appeared in the mirror, and he tried to intervene, but it was too late.
Ace promptly turned and shot the mirror.
Light burst out, in hot, glowing shards, flinging across the room, sticking out of furniture, all the pieces of glass screaming at once, shaking the walls, splitting their eardrums. The resurrected man took the brunt of the attack, the glass pieces lacerating his skin, the glowing blood whipping around like spirals all over the walls, and he grunted in surprise as if it were a little pinch.
Levi’s eyes burned from the residue of the wall still in his eyes, the smoke from the spreading fire of the burning clock, and all he could make out was a figure opening the window near the dresser and jumping out the window.
Screams erupted from the street, as a man fell down onto the concrete, his blood spraying over the citizens going about their day. His body smacked onto it, hard, bones shattering, blood leaking out again.
People ran, and ran, because the grass around him spread, further and further, a miniature jungle, bushes, fragrant and gargantuan flowers, a large and gnarly tree at the base where he fell. His body twitched, his bones clicked together, the muscles tightened, and he stood up again, slightly irritated but grateful his head had survived the fall.
Ace looked out the window to see a dead man walk away, and swore he saw him look back, look back and stare right into eyes, into his soul, and mouth the words,
“Ewoh Ewoe beeu vouY”
“Levi, I’m scared,” Ace whimpered.
“It’s okay,” Levi sighed. “I’ve got you.”
He wrapped himself around Ace, in a giant bear hug, and kissed the top of his head, the room was now on fire, the yellow wallpaper burning and Ace coughed, he couldn’t breathe even though the window was open, and his throat started to itch.
“I won’t let anyone hurt you,” Levi mumbled. “That’s my job.”
Ace shivered as Levi grabbed his hair again, and was annoyed that he was now choosing this time to flirt, but tears flowed forth as it started to hurt. Levi pulled harder and harder, now grabbing Ace’s face, gripping hard, eyes vacant and dull.
“Did you fuck that guy,” he asked.
“No.”
“Liar.”
Levi grabbed his neck and choked him from behind. Ace grasped at the air wildly, his eyesight fading, and Levi gripped harder and harder, grunting and breathing, red in the face, shaking with rage, gripping tighter and tighter.
The flames were hotter and hotter, their skin fell off in thin flakes. Levi was dragging him down to Hell with him, Ace’s skin turning as blue as his eyes, gross noises, and drool coming out of his mouth in a feeble attempt to breathe.
“Don’t lie to me Acheus.”
Ace clawed frantically at Levi’s hands scratching, and kicking, but Levi now shook his body, he didn’t stop, even when Ace’s body was limp, even when the fire was burning his skin black, he wouldn’t stop.
“ I won’t let anyone else have you. ”
Levi took shallow, deep shudders, as Ace’s neck cracked, and it wasn’t a clean break. His skin was like the consistency of chicken that wasn’t cooked all the way. On the outside it seemed crispy, on the inside, it was still not done, the taste off-putting, the soft wet bone-cracking, the brown marrow exposed.
“He’s just another opportunist !”
The Rock turned red.
Something overtook Ace, something unnatural, and his eyes went from cerulean blue to pitch black. He clutched his neck, his broken neck, the bits of muscle hanging out, choking on the very words themselves as Levi held his head up by his hair.
“ vouy mout at weet I. ewoh ewoe beeu vouY”
Ace awoke with a fright, grabbing his neck, struggling to breathe, sweaty and disoriented, kicking off the bedsheets and tumbling off his bed and onto the ground. The Rock, a pulsating, glowing rock he had bought on impulse last week fell out of the bed with him, and he shouted in pain as it landed on his big toe.
Chewie, the always faithful golden retriever, too smart for his own good, opened the door with his mouth by turning the doorknob and barked as Ace squirmed all over the ground.
It was a normal morning in Ace’s small apartment.
