Adrian arrived to Cameron's penthouse with a bewildered expression on his face. He hardly registered the arrival of Erika, and nevermind the comments of hospitality made by Cameron. Without another word, Adrian walked away from them all and blindly pushed through the hallways and entered into some furnished private room. He drew to the windows, gazing out at the skyline, as if longing to jump out of them. With what was circling through his head, who could blame him?
"Stop talking to me."
"Why? Didn't you notice Adrian? Those little pheromones of yours aren't working too well, are they? Infact, that maid hardly tossed you a glance."
"Shut up."
"Psst. Look at your shoulder."
"Be quiet," Adrian affirmed, but shakily drew a hand to his right shoulder. Tearing at some of the cloth, a fresh batch of reptilian, green scales gleamed out at his eyes. He gasped, stepping back, and tripped over himself.
"What have you done to me?!"
"Nothing you haven't wanted."
And suddenly it was all a blur, because the setting before Adrian's eyes melted away. In its place, that same, familiar rainforest. Infront of that same damned waterfall. Infront of that same damned person. But different. A woman with flowing red hair, entrancing green eyes, and a silk black dress. She walked with a confident strut toward Adrian, who stood transfixed.
He had smelled it before. That delictible combination of chocolate and mint, which conjured thoughts of ice-cream and brownies and velvety soft cream. But it had never hit[ him like this way before.
"Something wrong?" that haunting voice spoke, angelic and harmonic.
Adrian opened his mouth, but couldn't speak. Such feelings of lust were almost juvenile in their power.
She sighed with a vivacious smile.Does she have a name? he wondered vaguely.
"Erica," this mysterious beauty answered.
She turned around and sat down by the waterfall, gazing out into the distance.
"My dear Adrian," Erica sighed, crossing her legs. "Where to start? Maybe at the grueling process of turning you into a gentlemen? Or of injecting you with the self-confidence to turn heads? Perhaps even of converting that scientific curosity into sexual promiscuity."
She cocked her dainty head and looked back at him, her green eyes seeing right through him. Adrian stood, transfixed, almost paralyzed by her beauty. But he understood her words, and they cut him to the bone.
"You were small and helpless, and I uprighted you. And I took care of you, boy. I nurtured in you that winning, larger-than-life personality. I even kept parts of you that might add to the genuinty of your character. That uncouthness, for example."
Erica laughed, musical and pretty, but these attributes only hardened the words and made them more sharp. Unlike Alison, whose cool resolve and analytical tone almost prepared victims, Erica was of a different breed. A woman who surprised and stepped on hearts and got what she wanted at whatever cost.
"We were so close, too!" Erica yelled, and turned back to the waterfall in despair. "You were almost ready to finally serve your purpose. You think those ambitions of your for Illustra Inc. are of your doing?"
She smirked.
"I led you to believe that they were simply ambitions of power. But they served a greater goal. For me. To free me from this prison of a dimension."
And she waved her arm at the outlying lush greenery that Adrian was so undeniably attracted to.
"Oh, don't fool yourself, Adrian. This place isn't paradise. It's a hell. A spiritual hell, where you can look but cannot touch." And, to his surprise, her hand sifted through some of the water under her. When she withdrew it, no moisture was visible on her hand. Erica looked back at him, her vivid green eyes squinting up at him.
"You can't imagine the torture I've beared, watching you indulge in all of those carnal desires. Of living with others. Interacting. Breathing. Fucking. Being. No..instead, I observed from a distance, placating myself on the idea that I will one day be free, and my machinations will not be for naught."
Erica stood, tossing her red hair angrily. Even at a distance, Adrian smelled the heavenly scent of grapefruit and citric acid.
"Then you got bit by a fucking snake, and it all went to hell. Even when I had channeled my powers to you. And gave you the looks. You think that nose is yours? That mouth? That skin?"
She laughed derisively, and Adrian saw that, yes, she had perfect, milky, unblemished skin. Perfect, perfect, like his. The perfect woman.
"But my abilities cannot absorb animal toxins. They are of a different type, and even after years of learning, you couldn't figure that simple thing out!"
Erica crossed her arms, advancing upon him, a contemptuous glare on her pretty face.
"That snake poison neglected it all. And you were going to die. At least then, if I went down, you'd go down too. But no, that idiotic prick of a man Cameron jump-started things up! Now?! Nothing. You have nothing of me. Everything will soon disappear, and you'll be left as a shadow of a man you once were."
Erica sighed, withdrawing the embrace of her arms to rub at her temples.
"Morgan Victoria had the connections. The power. Your purpose was simple," she spat at him. "Infiltrate the circle. Manipulate the girl. Of course, Alison proved to be complicated. Yet that precise woman doesn't even know herself what kind of dark side she has, and only I could handle her. She would fall, and Morgan after her."
Erica stared up into his eyes, his face, which was frozen in complete admiration, but failed to convey the wild thoughts running through his head.
"I saw you, Adrian, in the beginning. A beacon within this world. I first laid eyes upon you there," and she whirled around, pointing at the middle of the water fall, which bellied a large pool.
"The water shined, grew, glimmered. I was sitting here, on this very rock, and I saw. I jumped in..I swam..to you. And ever since I've been suspended between these two worlds. Yours and this spiritual world. Getting glimpses of what you experience. Sometimes feeling things you felt."
Erica grinned ruefully.
"I admit, Adrian, I don't know how or why. But this connection has existed. Now? Barely. I'm disappearing from your thoughts. It has taken me an EXTREME amount of effort to bring you here. Why? Because it won't be me, it'll be you. You wanted to stay here, and you will stay here. I will take your place. If I can't be me, I will gladly be you."
She rolled her eyes.
"I was expecting to be ressurected. With the dark magicks at the disposal of this team, there would be a way. They would all help, given time. But time is running out, and I must do with what I can."
As Erica continued speaking, Adrian gradually became more aware of himself. Still transfixed, but less aware of the smell and the spellbinding effect her presence had. How did he feel? How could he even gather his thoughts? To learn your entire life was a lie? That you hadn't even been entirely living your own life? He felt dizzied, but through all of those turmulous thoughts, one clear feeling registered in his cerebrum: anger. Hell hath no fury like a primadonna scorned.
"You will make all of this waiting worth while, Adrian," Erica hissed, grabbing onto his throat. With surprising strength she threw him 20 feet in the air, and he landed on the ground with a "thump". No doubt this living embodiment of his projected self had his powers but to an accelerated, evolved level.
The sky rumbled. Distant thunder sounded. Rain began to hail from the heavens, dotting the landscape. But even clearer than this all, Adrian heard a familiar voice in his head. That old, comforting, wise voice of the man he had seen earlier before he had almost died.
"You brought her into your world. You can take her out."
And in the distance, as if this man was in a room full of crowded people. "Live, live, live, live, live, live...." but in an ancient tongue, millenia old.
Erica giggled and jumped up in the air. She threw her hands out, and the wind enveloped her, supported her. Suddenly, all the pores in her body seemed to illuminate with a fiery glow. Seconds later, a hailstorm of pure sunlight unleashed itself from her body and hailed towards Adrian. He lay there, almost petrified, with several voices murmuring in his head. He was swept up helplessly in the current, and felt the excruciating pain of being burned. Adrian's head twisted as he stared all around him -- seeing only pure, blinding yellow. The pain took his breath away.
"Listen to me. Concentrate on my voice. Hers is a physical world. You are above that, Adrian. You are blessed with spiritual strength. Tap into that energy!"
"Silence!" Erica yelled into the wind, as she stared with a sadistic gleam in her eyes at the helpless, writhing body of Adrian in the middle of her sun storm.
"I don't understand," Adrian murmured, miraculously alive, as the sun infiltrated his skin and scalded him to the core. He wanted it to end. End it all.
"Accept your mortality. Do not deny death. Welcome it. Use it. Master it, Adrian!"
He closed his eyes, only too happy to oblige. His whole life passed before his very eyes: images of dark bedrooms, of sweating bodies, of a triumphant Adrian holding an issue of People's Magazine with his face on the front cover -- only 15. A crowd of giggling girls begging him for his autograph. A sprawling mansion, his home in California, with fountains rivaling Buckingham and cute Playboy servants. Of love, from Catherine and Brad, as they celebrated his 21st birthday in some remote pub in Ireland. Adrian Lockhart had lived more in his few years than individuals would in their entire lifetimes. Life was to be respected. But so too was death.
Distant sounds in his head, "Open his mind, free his conscience, give him strength, strength, strength..."
Gradually, pain disappeared. So too did the sensation of touch, sight, sound, smell... the element of time itself became a mundane concept. Adrian stood, looking at the column of fire around him, and it just seemed so simple. Walk through it.
Adrian's will manifested itself and he fell out of the sun storm and to the ground. For Erica, this whole maneuver happened in the space of seconds.
"What the fuck?!" she yelled, those words so twisted on her pretty lips. Adrian looked around, so at peace, so calm. She has outlived herself, and she will be dealt with accordingly.
"Give him power, power, power..."
"You're a travesty unto this Earth, Erica Munroe, and you no longer belong."
She twisted her head and roared. From her hands she channeled two immense bolts of lightning and they crashed down upon Adrian, who stared at them. He cocked his head and drew forth his own hands. An etheral material, containing properties of the shroud and other...otherworldly elements, was created and drawn into the form of a scythe. With one fell swipe, the bolts split in half, and hit the ground on either side of him. Again, with a speed of only milliseconds in time. An almost unholy speed.
"Die, die, die, die, you sonofabitch!" she screamed, frustrated beyond belief, and unleashed all she had: bolts of lightning, a hailstorm of ice, an earthquake in the ground above them, and a pure beam of sun that slammed down from the sky. An Earth goddess, her powers at their utter peak.
"That's it?" Adrian asked simply, and closed his eyes. The world suddenly turned transparent, with the color dark blue and black infilitrating his entire view. But he could see it. See her. He felt himself disappear for a moment, and then reappear behind Erica. As she continued blasting down her earthly wraith, he slammed his hand into her chest. Not precisely the physical hand, but a spiritual one. It clawed and clawed until, finally, Erica's spirit was withdrawn. An opaque black color, reflecting her true self. It dangled helplessly from his hand. Again, Adrian moved, and he threw her spirit into the growing vortex of water in the basin. A growing light gobbled up the darkness.
And Adrian banished Erica from whence she came.
It ended. All of it. The surroundings melted away. The voices faded. "Give him purpose, purpose, purpose, purpose..."
Outside, spectators gasped as shattered glass flew down from the highest level of Cameron's penthouse. A falling body, eagle-spread, hailed down from the same floor.
A broken hallelujah.
