Immortal

Bright Tina

Stretching out my hand, I felt the warmth and the scorching cold of the flow at the same time. The river absorbed me in the twinkling of an eye. I dissolved in its black waters.

My consciousness was disturbed by some bright light. The morning sun rays lit up a small room.

I blinked a few times. Was it our apartment? How was that possible? I was definitely confused. Alcohol had evaporated, and I was left with tons of questions and a headache. All the past memories were nothing but delirium under intoxication, and this realization made me feel somehow better.

I was still wearing yesterday's clothes. I was lying on the mattress, carefully covered with a blanket. My head was throbbing, my body ached, and my throat smarted with thirst. Jackson had thoughtfully put a glass of water and some pills on a plate near the mattress. As soon as I greedily swallowed the pills and gulped the water, Jackson entered the room.

He did not look angry but tired and worried. He sat down next to me.

"How are you?" he asked.

"Terrible! I feel ashamed. Don't ever let me drink so much!"

"Deal!" he smiled and patted me on the cheek.

"How did you find me?"

"That was some adventure. I went almost crazy when I didn't find you in the company of your friends. They reached that condition when they saw no difference between me and the bartender. I spent an hour wandering around the dance floor until I heard two security guards talking. They wanted to call an ambulance for the girl in the backyard. And it turned out that that girl was you. I didn't let them, but, apparently, I should have…" he shook his head.

"Why?"

"You were barely breathing. All night you were shuddering and screaming as if someone was strangling you in your dream."

"Rosy and Mickey are to blame. They refilled my drink when I wasn't looking. I fall for it every time. And why do they do this all the time? By the way, how are they?"

"I brought them home safe and sound against their will. I have no doubt that they will resent me for some time because I have kidnapped them from the strong embraces of senior students."

These two could have been up to anything if Jackson had not gotten there! And they would have regretted it.

"Okay, I'll go take a shower… I'm sorry about yesterday! This will never happen again!" I said, kissed Jackson on the cheek, and ran to the bathroom.

It was still filled with dense steam after Jackson’s shower. I wiped the steam off the mirror and looked at myself, being ready to see the outcome of yesterday's party. I saw an exhausted girl with dark circles under the eyes and messy hair as if birds were nesting there. The clothes were not that dirty except for stains from the garbage bin. Suddenly, a strange liquid on my hair caught my attention. It was not vomiting or dirt. I looked at my fingers with its traces. It was sticky and black, and the smell was the worst. My hair was dirty right in those places where that scary guy touched me.

"It wasn't a dream, right? Or at least not everything."

I tried to calm down and analyze the memories. Last night, I was drunk and a man covered in some liquid, came after me. You never know where Boston's hobos swarm. I had no valuable possessions, that's why he left. But alcohol intoxication caused hallucinations or I simply fell asleep and had a dream. That's it. It's simple!

I got undressed, stepped into the shower, and stood for a long time with my eyes closed under the streams of warm water. All these blockbusters about superheroes, horror stories, and mysticism were nothing but the embodiment of someone's sick imagination, and nothing like this could happen in real life. People with superpowers are created by those who have no desire to live within reality-of-life, who are trying to get out of the box at least with the help of books or movies. When we are young we all believe in fairy tales, like my sister Mary does. I have to come up with new stories for her, risking to turn her into a modern neurotic, who believes in aliens and ghosts. I was a realist and gave preference to real, true, and natural things. Any truth was much nicer than the most beautiful lie; that is why I probably chose to study law to carry the truth and protect its rights. I have been disappointed too many times in this life. I have chosen not to lie to myself and not to let myself believe someone else's lies.

Someone knocked on the door. Jackson wondered why I was staying so long in the shower.

"Already coming out!"

It was time to get out and get ready for an interview. It supposed to be my first one.

I glanced at my hands and, screaming, jumped off to the back wall of the bathroom. Feverishly washing off the sticky black substance, I almost went into hysterics when I realized that it only continued to spread through the body.

"No, no, no!" I kept repeating and heard some strange voice.

The black water was flowing down my body with thin trickles, and I burst into tears.

Someone opened the door.

"What's wrong?" Jackson stepped into the shower with clothes on and began to shake me, trying to bring me to my senses.

I was still in an emotional tantrum. What is happening? Am I going crazy? Have I hit my head?

Jackson switched off the water and wrapped me in a towel. Then he carefully pulled me out of the tub and carried to the kitchen. I did not resist and did not open my eyes. He put the kettle on the stove and began to set the breakfast on the table.

"Now you'll eat, and everything will go away," he was saying the things he did not understand.

I was glad that he did not ask what was happening to me because it was unlikely for me to find the answer to this question at the moment.

Tea with melissa had a calming effect on me. All this could be somehow explained. Being under the influence of a nightmare, I overreacted. After all, the liquid flowing down my body was nothing but the dirt from my hair. That's all! I ran my hand through my hair. It was clean. It was more than just a relief. I felt like I found out that I was cured of cancer.

Jackson put a bowl of my favorite cereals in front of me, but it did not look as good as usual because of nausea.

"You need to eat something even if you don't feel like it. Your body has lost a lot of fluid and needs recharging."

"Have you ever been told that you sound like you're reading a scientific article?"

"No. You are the first one!" he smiled and put a spoon of cereals in the mouth, purring with satisfaction.

My stomach dropped from hunger. I repeated Jackson's movements, making the same sound.