This is something of a departure for the Borrowed Time stories. Based on an idea suggested by a reader, it's less about the ongoing narrative and more about exploring Eris just a little. I hope you enjoy it.
This is a story which contains graphic violence. Don't read it if you are under age for that kind of thing, and don't read it if you don't like it!
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Daniel walked through the city like a frightened prey animal in the territory of a pack of dangerous predators. Trying his best to look inconspicuous, slightly huddled in on himself, trying not to make eye contact with anybody around him, trying not to be conspicuous. Everything about his body language screamed 'don't notice me, don't pay attention to me, don't consider the question of whether it's worth your while to rob me. I have nothing worth your notice, nothing worth the effort of stealing it.'
In other words, he was pretty typical of the people who, for one reason or another, have to be out on the streets in a bad part of town long after dark.
In Daniel's case it was only necessity that drove him out into the dark. The second of his three jobs was manning an all-night gas station in the aforementioned bad part of town. He worked seven till three, which meant he routinely had to walk home at a time when any self-respecting citizen would be tucked up in bed asleep.
Daniel was not, in general, a man possessed of a great deal of self-respect. He was not exactly a born loser, but close to it. He was one of those people who tended to struggle with life. He'd gotten through university, but only by dint of considerable effort. He managed to have friendships, even had a girlfriend or two along the way, but it never really felt natural. He had to constantly think about what to do, what to say, how best to respond to any given situation.
He'd graduated with a good degree in Philosophy, a subject he had chosen because he truly loved the subject and was good at it, only to find that a degree in Philosophy isn't something most employers regarded as valuable, no matter how good it was. So now he worked days in a shop and nights in a gas station, with a side-line in dog walking. Between the three he covered his quite small rent and food bills. Just.
His rent was small, of course, because he lived in the same bad part of town as the gas station. Within walking distance, even, which at least saved him a few bucks in bus fares every week.
Which is how he came to be walking the streets in the early hours. Truth be told, he used to rather like the city at this time of night. Very few people were around - he could often walk the whole of the three quarters of a mile or so to his apartment without seeing a single soul, sometimes without even seeing a single car passing by on the whole walk. When he did see one or the other, he would often speculate to himself about why they were out at this hour. Late shift workers like himself, perhaps? Or maybe driving out to the airport to make some early flight, jetting off to an exotic location thousands of miles away. It amused him to think that some anonymous passing car might be setting out on the first leg of a long trip to a fascinating destination.
Then one night, about three months after he started, he had suffered his first mugging. He'd lost thirty dollars and gained a couple of decent sized bruises. The night had lost a good deal of its allure after that. After the next two muggings it had lost any residual appeal, and now he walked home like a man being hunted. Which is exactly how he often thought of himself now. Little did he know that tonight, at least, he was more correct than he ever could have imagined.
A figure rounded a corner, a hundred yards or so ahead, and headed towards him. No, he corrected himself, it was two figures, one slightly behind the other. Daniel silently altered his path towards the edge of the curb, putting as much distance as possible between him and them. He faced the age-old dilemma of the frightened pedestrian - should he cross the road, thus drawing attention to himself and making himself look weak and afraid? Or should he continue on, pretending that nothing was wrong and he wasn't the least bit worried?
On they came... and on... and on... oh God, he thought miserably, I should have crossed the road. It's not too late... maybe I could run. I should run! But no... if they're really muggers then running would just make them chase me. Better to walk, just walk past. They must know you don't have money, they must see that, surely. They'll just ignore you.
His thoughts were still racing when he drew abreast of the pair. Keeping his eyes firmly ahead he walked past them, body tense, almost shaking with fear. No reaction. They just walked past. He risked a glance back, seeing them as they passed, waiting for them to turn.
They didn't. Daniel breathed a huge sigh of relief, his body relaxing, as he listened to their footsteps receding into the distance. Safe again... until the next time. He quickened his pace a little.
"You're next..."
Daniel jerked around, his heart racing. It was only a whisper, but it was clear as anything, direct into his right ear. The whisperer must have been only inches away! He hadn't heard anybody approaching, which meant they must have snuck up on him. Which meant they were dangerous.
There was nobody behind him.
He stared, his breath ragged. It was impossible! He turned, slowly, a complete three hundred and sixty degrees. Nobody.
He must have imagined it. He must have!
He started off again, still bewildered but instinctively wanting to keep moving.
The voice had been a woman's. Soft, feminine. A beautiful voice. A sexy voice. Not the kind of voice, it had to be said, that generally spoke to him. He must have imagined it. It was the only possible answer.
Only, he knew he hadn't.
Only a couple of hundred yards to his apartment now. A couple of hundred yards, that is, if he took the shortcut through the long alleyway that cut through to his building. He didn't like going through there, it was a dark quiet place, the kind of place where anything could happen. But if he avoided it he would have to walk down past the park, cut through, and walk back up again. And the park wasn't a good place to be around either.
"You're next..."
Jesus! His heart leapt as he spun again. There was no mistaking it, no lying to himself about it this time, there had been a voice! Clear as anything! He turned slowly, his heart thudding. It had definitely been whispered directly into his ear, that was simply impossible to doubt now. And yet... there was nobody there.
Fear gripped him. He was on the edge of pure panic. He looked around wildly, too fast to even see anybody if they were there. Was he being tormented by a ghost? A demon? Some invisible woman?
All he could think of was getting home as fast as possible. He fled, plunging into the alleyway. Shadows reached out and engulfed him. Moments later his footsteps receded into the distance, and he was gone from the street as if he had never been there.
He dodged past dumpsters and abandoned junk, his heart pounding wildly in his chest. Get a grip, he told himself, calm down! The worst thing you can do is stop thinking! Slow yourself! Think!
Gradually he slowed his pace. He was deep into the alley now, approaching the single light in the whole place - an ancient fixture hanging over the back door of some shop, a gun shop if he remembered rightly. Daniel was so liberal he was practically a clich??, he had hated guns since he was old enough to understand that in real life the people shot with them didn't come back alive again for the next movie. But right then he'd have traded every principle he had for a good Glock. Or a machine gun.
He walked through the pool of light. The bulb wasn't exactly an advertisement for electric lighting, he doubted it rated forty watts. In five seconds the circle of dimly lit concrete was passing behind him and the shadows reached for him again.
"You're next..."
He honestly thought he might scream when the voice came again. Only... only it was different this time. What was different? His mind raced. The same voice, so feminine, so alluring, yet somehow so sinister. Whispering right in his-
No. It hadn't been whispering in his ear, not this time. This time it had come from - from over there.
A pool of inky black shadow shifted, and a figure stepped out.
"I was beginning to think you'd never get here."
It was the voice from his mind, made real. He stared as she stepped forward.
He saw her face first. The face of an angel, the face of a porn star, the face of a beauty queen... no. The face any of those might aspire to. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, by far. The face was surrounded by a mane of long, blonde hair that shone as if it was illuminated by its own personal sunlight.
He stared. For that moment he forgot his fear, forgot the insanity of the last few minutes. Forgot everything but the most beautiful woman in the world as she stepped towards him. He felt the first stirrings of an erection.
She took another step, and the light began to reveal the outline of her body. He began to see something odd about her - like that face. Beautiful, yes... but he was looking up at it. Quite a bit up. Highlights of light shone out here and there across her body... yellow light on gleaming black. He could see her shoulders. Big, broad, rounded shoulders. Too broad. Too round. What...?
She took another step. The light showed her more fully now. Her body, oddly proportioned. Thick, bulging. Every inch of her was sheathed in black, he saw, from her toes to her neck. Something black, glossy, like perfectly polished latex.
It clung to her every curve, every last inch of her. Clung and revealed arms, legs, all sculpted out of pure muscle. My god, there mustn't be a pound of fat on her, he thought to himself.
As she took another slow step forward it dawned on him that she was almost a foot taller than he was. She was huge. And strong, so strong she must be. He opened his mouth to speak and realised he couldn't think of anything to say. Her presence was overwhelming. Ignoring her was an impossibility, reacting to her almost so.
She was beside him. A latex-covered arm went to his shoulders, resting on his spine. The other arm lifted and flexed. The shiny highlights of her suit shifted as her bicep swelled incredibly. "Hmmm, look at that," she whispered and her voice alone made him literally shiver. "Look at how big my muscles are. Isn't it beautiful?"
Daniel had never been particularly attracted to bodybuilder types, but he stared, fascinated. He'd never seen a woman with muscles so huge. Hell, he'd never seen a man with muscles so huge. He wondered what it must be like to have such physical power at your command. Somehow he doubted that this woman walked around at night frightened of muggers.
She pointed. "Now look at the wall, Daniel."
He obeyed. How could he not? The spot she pointed at was nothing but a perfectly ordinary wall. No graffiti, even. No sign, no marks, just plain old brick.
"Focus on it," she said. "Concentrate. Are you concentrating, Daniel?"
"Yes..." he whispered. He was concentrating, but he had no idea why. Was he missing something? He stared. The bricks were old, many of them discoloured, all of them crumbled away around the edges. A good deal of the mortar was flaked away. Surely she couldn't be complaining about the quality of the brickwork...
??He wondered whether he should say something. It was the last thought he ever had.
The arm at his spine convulsed, muscles swelling explosively under their perfect latex cover. Daniel launched forward, propelled by a power that could have shoved a car, a building, perhaps even a continent. His body slammed into the wall with incredible force; the entire front of his skull shattered, sending bone fragments into his brain. His ribcage caved in, shredding every organ in his torso.
His body clung to the wall for a long second. Then another. Then, with a squishy sound it slowly tore free and crumpled to the floor.
Eris stepped back, smiling down at the corpse. She was fascinated by the way most of the cells in it were still alive even as the organism that had been known as Daniel Reed was dead. Even that was changing, though, she thought, watching as individual cells throughout his body began to struggle and die, deprived of the oxygen which kept them alive.
She cast her focus outwards. Minds all around, almost all of them in that curious unaware awareness that the Humans called 'sleep'. Why did they do that, she wondered. It was so wasteful, so inefficient. Even now Cole lay in a city two thousand miles away, sleeping. Usually she would cuddle up with him and spend the night, feeling his soft little body snuggled against her own. She enjoyed that, usually, but she had to admit it could get a little boring. So, she had decided to nip out for a bit. A girl needed a little excitement now and again, after all! Anyway, if needs be she could be back in a fraction of a second. He could wake and she would be there before he even realised she had ever been gone.
For a moment she narrowed her focus to a single point and cast it out in that direction. Where... yes, there he was. Sleeping soundly. She looked at his dreams; he was dreaming of her. She smiled approvingly. The poor dear, he was becoming more addicted to her by the day and was only beginning to admit it to himself. What was he dreaming... she looked in. She was with him, naked but for some sort of harness around her hips. A large black imitation cock stood up from her crotch as she bent him over.
Oh, how interesting! She made a few mental notes and then drew her focus back to the here and now. Some of those around her were dreaming, too. She really must look into more Human dreams! If Cole's was anything to go by they were really quite interesting. But that was for the future.
She sent her awareness outwards, casting it through the nearby streets like a fisherman casting a line - and with the same intent.
There! Awake, aware, and moving. Who? She peeked into the mind. Not a worker, this one. Oh no! This one was some sort of criminal, a petty thief. Out looking for somebody to beat and rob.
Fancied himself a predator, did he? She smiled her achingly beautiful smile. He had no idea what a real predator was.
She cast a single thought to him, planting it directly into the nerve pathways of his ear.
One single thought. "You're next..."
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