The Gift: Day 05

As the last of the broken bridge finally fell to the bottom of the canyon, Daniel walked over to the jagged ledge of blacktop and looked down. Roiling dust and smoke obscured his view. He hocked up a really sticky lunger and spat it into the smoky abyss. He watched it speed down and away from him in the faded light until it disappeared into one of the dangerous roils of the debris cloud. He could still hear metal framework twisting and snapping as rocks and boulders tumbled down the canyon walls.

"Well done," he turned to the crowd and addressed them. A strong gust of wind caused his white shirt to billow. He turned to the mayor, who was dressed only in his boxer shorts, and said, "You and the Public Works Office have done a fine job, Mayor Wendell."

Mayor Wendell smiled and absently nodded his head. His legendary expressions of small town aristocracy and superiority were nowhere to be found tonight. His gaunt, white face said everything Daniel needed to know. The lanky blowhard wouldn't be touting this as a victory in his next election. The most powerful man in Castleton Rock had been formally educated and brought into the light. More importantly, the man was humbled now.

Daniel laughed.

"Now listen here," he shouted, "'All of you go back to your homes and wait. I have some business to take care of out of town. If anyone so much as farts without permission, they'll join the remains of that bridge at the bottom of the canyon. Understand?"

"Yes," two thousand people chanted at once.

The crowd of townsfolk was packed in around him, most of them backed into the overpass tunnel of the interstate freeway. Their voices echoed through the canyon almost as loudly as the destruction of the bridge had done. Daniel knew he would have to freeze them, as he had done Julia the day before. It was easier to keep them that way than trying to control them all at once. Besides, he needed his full strength for his next task. Worrying about the people in Castleton Rock was last thing he wanted right now.

"Move," he raised his hands up and made a separating gesture. The crowd of half naked and zombified sex slaves slowly began to move to either side of him, making a clear passage for him to walk. Daniel walked past the sea of faces and felt a bit like Moses crossing the Red Sea. Like that salty water thousands of years ago, all these people were moving to his command, reverently making way.

He would leave by the highway out of the south end of town. The interstate highway was the only way to get out of Castleton Rock and head north now that the city bridge was gone. This was as Daniel wanted it to be. The town would have to be sealed off and protected. He would leave the southbound onramps open to traffic. When Jesse came for him, the fewer ways in to town the better.

Daniel smiled to himself, feeling bold and powerful in his black leather pants and fine white shirt, his shiny black boots clicking on the pavement.

"It's time," he thought to himself, "'It's time."

***

The sun was setting and the entire sky was on fire with hot reds, oranges and yellows.

From the moment they had kissed that morning until now, Jesse and Elena hadn't left each other. They hadn't bothered with condoms or even to check and see if anyone was watching them. They simply immersed themselves in each other and forgot about the world for as long as they could.

"This all seems so surreal," Elena told him as she traced his lips with one finger. In the hot light of the setting star, her body glowed with an avaricious luminescence. Jesse still could not take his eyes off her. Each of her breasts were evenly tanned and revealed no hint that she had ever worn a bikini in her life. A shade darker than her soft skin, her areolas spread out in perfect dollar-sized circles. Elena's nipples were long and beautifully erect, her sensitive nubs casting thin shadows across the smooth terrain of her bosom.

"Yes it does," Jesse propped himself up on one arm and momentarily took his gaze off her. He looked out at the ocean and smiled. It was the same feeling he had experience early when they had arrived that morning. So much had happened in the last few hours, and his mind was still running to catch up. In a way he felt somewhat like the ocean itself. His potential vast and hidden, only a small fraction of who he was could be seen from afar. The waves on the beach were perfect representations of his understanding. He could only go so far up the beach and then loose his momentum, slipping back. But that didn't stop him from trying again.

That was how he felt with Elena. He felt like he could try again. "There's something I need to tell you," Elena said softly.

Jesse looked to her as a cool breeze whispered over his naked body. He asked, "What is it?"

"Don't freak out on me, okay?" she looked at him, her eyes filled with bold courage and subtle uncertainty at the same time. The breeze caused some of her thick hair to blow in front of her face as she said, "I think I'm-"

Jesse waited for her to finish as she struggled with her words. "It's okay," he said and touched her face gently.

She smiled and kissed his fingers, "I'm in love with you."

A sudden exhilarating sensation swarmed through his body as he replayed the words over and over in his mind. The waves were beginning to touch their feet as the tide gradually came in. The funny thing about it was the normally frigid water that made up the Pacific Ocean felt warm somehow to them. Jesse didn't shiver as another wave snaked up to their feet, this time cresting at his calves. His nipples hardened and he smiled at Elena. He said, "1 love you too."

They came together and kissed as their white sheet began soak through with seawater. Glistening foam gathered around them as they kissed for what seemed like forever, their bodies pressed closely together. Elena grasped Jesse's buttocks and rolled him on top of her, wrapping her elegant legs around his waist. Their tongues slid together in a deliciously smooth caress that did more to express their erotic intentions than anything else. Gentle licks and rubbing from their open mouths set them afire in the surf.

For the first time in his life, Jesse felt complete. He felt truly and wholly complete. He held Elena, touched her and memorized every contour of her body. He drank her in as a man might do had he been lost in the desert. Jesse had been thirsty for so long, the awkward years of youth giving way to adulthood parching him as he dreamed of something more.

As they made love together, he realized that this fulfillment was perhaps the greatest gift of all. It required no control and no contemplation about right and wrong. It simply was what it was. The power in each thrust, each soulful kiss and cry of pleasure made him stronger than anything Madame Helena could have ever bestowed on him. And as he came to his climax, he was not hindered by worries of how long he had lasted with her or what he might rate as a lover. He simply buried his face in her chest and released.

It was that simple.

***

A few hours away, in the small coastal city where Jesse and Daniel had first received their gift, the people of Derridge were nowhere to be seen. The town was empty, hollowed out and devoid of life. To the casual passerby, it might seem they were victims of a mass abduction, or perhaps in hiding from a nameless evil. The town was deserted. Abandoned and left for dead, either in spirit or in the flesh made no difference. Something dark had woken here, roused from a long slumber.

Only Madame Helena, the withered old witch of a woman, remained. She sat on the front porch of her small shop in a white wicker rocking chair. She was wrapped in harsh black robes made from hearty sackcloth. There had been a time when she had hated the feeling of the material against her skin. In the early days, she still wanted to show her beauty and tempt the men around her. In those glorious days, before she learned the power of the gift, she had lusted after many things.

A lone figured approached her from the evening light, walking down the road. It was the boy, Daniel. He was filled with hate, anger and a malicious sexuality. He was hungry, as she had been before him. He wanted more. He wanted it all. And he was coming after her to get it. But she knew this would happen. True, she could not see the ultimate end result of this game, but she could see the events leading to the climax.

Helena had hoped the black boy Jesse would be the one to come to her. He was full of potential, and more so than Daniel he was strong at heart. She had wanted him, wanted his heart and his body. She had craved his mind from the moment she had met him, but she knew also that his heart belonged to another. How could she steal a heart that was not his?

"You return?" she asked the approaching figure.

"Yes," Daniel said and stood before her.

"What would you have of me?"

"I want what you have," he said evenly, "I want it permanently."

"That's a choice yet to be made."

"I need it, Madame."

"You cannot control it."

"I can. I will."

"So sure are you?"

"Give it to me now," he said.

Helena chuckled through her rotted teeth.

"Now, old woman."

"Old am I?" she cocked a bristled brow, "You know not of what you speak."

"Now."

"Do you know who I am, child?"

Daniel made to move on her, but she raised her hand and he froze. Daniel's eyes went wide. He couldn't move.

"I am eternal," Helena said and stood tall, letting her robes fall away. The wrinkled woman revealed herself to him, naked and worn out. Her tired body sagged down under the pull of gravity in a nauseous droop. She cackled and eyed him intensely. No, she would have preferred Jesse to this arrogant little fop. But he would do. He would have to do.

"Here, boy," she put her hand to his chest and rested her palm there, "Have a taste of what it is to carry such a burden."

Daniel felt white flame burn through his body, smoldering inside him. He couldn't scream or call out. He simply stood there as Helena began her work.

"The gift will choose," she said as her face began to change. The wrinkles disappeared into gold hue olive flesh as her wiry white hair fell out. Long black strands of shiny obsidian hair sprouted from her scalp and grew down to her shoulder caps in a shiny cascade. Her body coalesced and changed, her height returning to what it had been in her youth so many centuries ago. She stood there, six feet tall and balanced on two muscular legs dotted with golden dew.

"You'll see," she whispered. Her tired flesh was seared away in a sudden maelstrom of supernatural fire that seemed to burst from the air around her. Her breasts lifted and returned to their natural state, generous and pear shaped. They were plentiful and perfect, the nipples hard and areolas small. The dusty remains of her pubic hair fell away and were replaced by fine black strands in a triangular shape just above her slit. Her sex was rejuvenated, suddenly fertile and lush with sumptuous moisture.

She looked at Daniel, her face that of a regal Egyptian princess. A subtle aura hung about her exotic features as the flames of change died away and she was restored. She breathed deeply through lungs that no longer hurt. The sea breeze filled her to capacity and she looked into the sky with eyes that burned like the setting sun.

Helena laughed.

"And now," she reached into Daniel's mind and body, "It's time for you to learn..."

She kissed him deeply, her hands running over his body.

Daniel could something happening to him, as though he were somehow getting bigger. He could feel his body changing, a strange orgasmic rush of pleasure and pain that arced through his body like lightning. He shivered.

"...And time for you to be rewarded," Helena smiled as she broke her kiss with him.

A sudden burst of light engulfed Daniel. He was consumed by the fires of the gift in a single, violent display of otherworldly power. The gift tore at his body, ripping flesh away and searing his soul. He tried to scream but had no air with which to report. He was changing, becoming something more. At first he was filled with fear, but after a few eternal moments, he embraced the savagery of his transformation.

"That's right," the naked witch stood back, admiring her handiwork, "Become, my love."

The fires burned so hot the cement beneath Daniel's feet began to crack in loud pops and snaps.

"Burn, my love."

The pillar of fire reached high into the heavens, furious and beyond control now.

"Burn so bright."

Finally, Daniel found his voice. He screamed rapturously. Helena stepped into the inferno with him and touched his new body. Her sex was throbbing and ready for what she knew must follow. She placed a hand on his cock and rubbed it gently. She looked into the flames and saw needful eyes glowing back at her. She smiled.

"Take me," she whispered, "Take me and become."

Daniel smiled and did just that...

o be continued...