Immortal

Bright Tina

We were eventually announced the verdict in the late afternoon,

"Miss Black, You are absolutely healthy. We didn't find a hematoma after the hit. There's also no danger of blood clots. I'll prescribe you mild sedatives to reduce your anxiety and vitamins to improve your general health condition.

I was expecting to hear anything, I was ready for any diagnosis but not the one that I was absolutely healthy. I was not all right. That's for sure. The presence of a brain tumor would be the most logical explanation for this condition, but nothing like this was found.

We walked from the hospital to the parking lot in complete silence. Jackson did not even tease me. Suddenly, I felt a terrible pain but it seemed it was not mine. I saw the image of a man whom this pain belonged to. I tripped and fell down. But I didn't feel the hit. It seemed to me that I or the world stopped. The entire situation reminded me of some low-budget blockbuster when everything stopped moving: birds, leaves, people, whirls of garbage, just like it was right now. Hardly had I time to get surprised when a translucent image of a man appeared.

"Hello!" he uttered. His voice sounded like an echo.

"Hello! Who are you? Have you done this?" I waved at the deserted parking lot.

"I have no idea what you are talking about. I thought you would explain to me what was going on…"

But instead, I ran my hand over his silhouette, and it fell through as if it was a hologram.

"What are you doing?"

"I got it! This is someone's joke! You're a hologram. Rosy and Mickey are behind all of this! Those two troublemakers made me think I was going nuts!"

Turning away from the man, I stepped to Jackson who, apparently, was in collusion with my friends. How did they pull this off?

The parking lot got back to normal when I walked away from the hologram.

"You are traitor!" I dropped at Jackson.

"Excuse me?" Jackson began to blink and his eyebrows shot up.

"Did you make all this up to play a trick on me? What a stupid joke! I really thought I was going crazy!"

Jackson took my hands and said in a soothing voice,

"Calm down, babe! Everything will be all right! I don't know what you're talking about, but we will go back home, eat something, get some sleep, and you will be fine tomorrow. I promise!"

"Jackson, can you stop it now? The joke got out of hand!" I was losing my temper. People glanced back at us but I did not care.

"Darsy, what joke are you talking about? Get in the car, please!"

"I'm not going anywhere with you until you confess."

I squeezed Jackson's hand and looked him in the eye.

"Ouch! Darsy, what are you doing?"

I glanced at the hand he was trying to pull out from my grip. It was shrinking as if someone was sucking the blood out of it. I released his hand, wanted to say something, to apologize while Jackson writhed in pain but I could not. Instead, I just ran away. I was racing out myself until my lungs started to burn.

The day was dawning. The streets of Boston were filling with groups of people looking for entertainment. I was wandering through unfamiliar alleys, trying to avoid contact with people. I could not simply comprehend everything that happened a few hours after the party. It could not be just a hallucination, because Jackson got hurt by my touch, and it was already too real.

"I guess it's just a dream! Tomorrow, I'll wake up and everything will be ok. That's right!" only it was a bit hard to believe in, even after the words were spoken aloud.

"Wow, I didn't think it would be a girl!" it was apparently addressed to me, since I was sitting all alone in a dark alley, leaning against a brick wall.

I decided not to comment on the stranger's remark, hoping that he would leave. However, he was purposefully walking towards me. His hands were in his pockets, the movements clearly gave out laziness and relaxation. He was avoiding the lights, so it was impossible to see his appearance. But the one thing that really surprised me was complete silence – one could not hear the sound of his steps or any other sound at all. The entire alley was filled with garbage, broken bottles, packages, but not a single rustle of his movement was heard. And only when the man came closer, it became clear why. The stranger was literally floating in the air three-four inches above the ground.

Is this one of my hallucinations?" the question was rather rhetorical, but the stranger answered.

"Don't be afraid, dear! It'll be over in a minute anyway. I'll take that from you!"

"That?"

"Yes, that! Something that Charon has given you."

"WHO?"

Was it my imagination again, or did a goblin-like man, too twisted and thin to look like a man, utter the name of a mythical character? This guy hovered above the ground and had a greenish tinge of skin, his hair was long and swaying in some tact, although there was no wind outside.

"Is this some gang leader? He has a very strange nickname. Anyway, I assure you that I do not know anyone by that name, and he certainly gave me nothing for storage."

The strange creature laughed. Apparently, something I said sounded very funny.

"Do you really want to chat in the last few seconds of your life?" he spoke at last.

"Will you kill me?"

"Sure! I cannot get the power without killing you," the goblin shrugged his shoulders.

"What power? What are you talking about?"

The goblin's eyes narrowed, and he looked suspicious. He pulled his hands out of his pockets, and I was horrified. His fingers, fingernails, and hands were not human-like, and they resembled the paws of some dinosaur with long claws.

"Stop talking! Let's get over with it!"

He opened his mouth to reveal a serpentine tongue, and his hands, if one could call it that way, inexorably approached my neck. The shock passed and gave way to such a strong fear that I jumped to my feet and screamed.