Claimed by a Goo Girl Ch. 03

"Because I didn't know! I've never seen anything like this before. Sentyne's evidently learned a few tricks over the centuries while he's been sealed away." The strain from holding the portal stable, distorted her voice.

"We've got the filch contained, can't we just toss it through and be done?"

"It doesn't work like that," she told me, looking frustratedly at the bundle of darkness contained by Lara's semi-translucent flesh. "An exchange is necessary. It doesn't want to go. The magic requires balanced scales. Jonas, there's no other way. A life unlived for a life undesired."

"I'll do it," Mikey announced unexpectedly from around the corner. His husky bearing sturdy, standing tall despite the fear in his eyes.

"No. Thank you friend, but it has to be me." I smiled at the two of them. "Besides, I might run into my father down there. Finally give him a piece of my mind, or my fist." With a strained laugh, I faced the portal. "Might be carpathic... Or is it cathartic? Sorry Mrs. B, I never could stay focused in senior english."

"But I-"

"Mikey. You have friends and family here. This is nothing more than another adventure for me." Bending over, I scooped up the orb that contained the filch, beady eyes looked nervously on the portal. "Consider it like I'm getting a choosing a change of career. Besides, I would probably end up as a forty something working at a grocery store anyway. This, at least, will give my life meaning."

"Whoever it is, they have to do it quickly, Cyprian's starting to smoke," Claire interjected. And he wasn't the only one, wisps of black smoke spilled from her porcelain white back like a pair of ominous ethereal wings.

I smiled thinly at my friend, giving him a half wave before turning my back on him for what I suspected to be the last time.

It wasn't until I was two feet from the portal that I realized how silent Lara had been during the whole discussion-slash-argument.

She probably thinks we're just gonna go together.

"Nope." She said the word aloud, surprising me. Bunching up on my chest, she jumped off of me, Newton's third law making me stumble a step or two backwards. While I regained my balance, she scooped the filch from my hands and oozed astonishingly fast towards the portal. The muscle fibers in my legs tensed, trying desperately to stop her from doing what she intended to do.

"Love you honey. I do this for me. Also, I approve of Claire, she seems to like you. You should go for it," she said these words just between the two of us, her final goodbye. Lara winked and blew me a kiss, her love emanating from our bond like tiny rays of sunshine. Her face stretching out from her central mass that held both her core and the filch. Her smile was sweet, reaching her eyes that held no trace of sorrow or regret. Time froze, bending to my will for only a moment as she hung suspended in the air. Then, as if to regain what it'd lost, the moment ended. Lara whipped through the portal, vanishing without a sound, taking the demon's minion with her as the portal winked out of existence.

No. Not again.

I fell to my knees on the concrete. Bones brittle, they felt like they were liable to shatter any moment as tears welled in my eyes. My shoulders drooped, hands falling uselessly to the dirt, my thoughts clinging tightly to the sensation of her slightly sticky embrace. My focus drifted, memories of her devotion intruding , eroding the lingering sensation in spite of my best efforts. Time ripping her from me one second at a time.

There was a muffled thump as a leather bound spine fell to concrete, Cyprian exhausted beyond his ability to keep himself afloat. It took maybe two heartbeats of silence before the sound of heartbreaking sobs echoed in the alleyway. And another two before I realized they weren't mine. Claire rushed forward and wrapped Mercury up into her arms, cradling the girl as she sobbed from equal parts sorrow and joy. Her tears jolted me from the shock, and despite my hurt, I began to think of her well-being.

We need to get her home.

Mikey emerged from around the corner and offered me a rolled up shirt and some shorts that he'd stashed in his shoulder bag. "I remembered what happened at the graveyard. And at the Professor's office." He thought hard for a moment, narrowing his eyes with realization. "You actually end up naked fairly often when you run into this sort of trouble."

"Thanks man." My voice came out hollow, mirroring the feeling in my chest. I donned the clothes with a numb hand, my motions awkwards from only being able to use one hand, still unwilling to consider what I held in the other.

"Jonas, I don't know what to do," Claire hissed at me, continuing to cradle the girl in her lap. "I'm no good at this comforting crap."

"You're doing fine. She's been through a lot, but it's over now. Only time and family will be able to help. We'll just hang with her until she's able to call someone to come pick her up." It felt weird to be directing Claire through this uncertainty after she'd been so on top of everything during the hunt. That proficiency however, was nowhere to be seen as she stiffly patted at the girl's back. I thought back to the triumph I'd felt after Lara and I'd thwarting the bank robbery. The feeling of victory was absent of this so-called win. But, looking at the crying girl and comparing how she'd seemed on the bridge, the pain lessened. A little. I didn't regret my actions, nor did I blame Lara for doing what she'd done.

I'd meant to do the same after all.

My mother's memory laid her hand on my shoulder and smiled at me, pride in her eyes for the good I'd done. I remembered how Lara doted on me and attempted a broken smile, tilting my head back as the tears spilled from my eyes. Laying my right hand on Claire's shoulder, I lent my support, openly weeping with Mercury, although my tears fell silently while hers spilled with anguished, gulping sobs.

We did it Lara, I thought to the aether.

But there was no response.

The silence, although expected, still rang painfully loud in my ears and my mind.

There was only one thing holding me together. One thing tying my popsicle stick psyche together like elmer glue in a school kid's craft project.

Held securely in my left fist, in the form of a navy blue orb, no larger than a milk cap, was my tiny seed of hope.

~ Four Months Later ~

Where my life had once been loneliness and masturbation, I now had a couple trustworthy friends watching my back. I mean, I still masturbate, that hasn't changed, but it was for a good cause. A selfless self-pleasuring, if you will. Claire continued to instruct me in the way of the hunter, although we were a little more casual about it now, more willing to stop and smell the roses, or take some classical dancing lessons. Both of which were actual examples. We'd begun a routine of visiting a donut shop right off campus, where we, but mainly she, consumed an entire batch of doughnuts, daily. And her sweet tooth showing no evidence of abating with time. It amazed me that she was able to keep such a trim figure considering the volume of empty calories she ate.

Mikey had grown more confident with time, coming out of his shell as Claire and I dragged him from place to place. He hooked up with a nice Satyr boy, and they seemed very sweet on each other. I was happy with them.

Personally, I was too consumed in my own projects to consider anyone else. This was intentional so that I wouldn't have much time to dwell on the absence of my better half. The one who'd hurt and saved me in equal measures. The one who's lack made me feel naked in more ways than one. The one who left me breathless, even just in memory. Who held me while I slept. The one I planned to spend the rest of my life with.

If only I can get this mother-fucking experiment to work. Inducing binary fission on a juvenile sentiaqua is slightly out of my expertise. But I learn a little more each day.

It was a coincidence that at that moment, while I sat on a campus park bench, nursing a coffee while watching Claire snarf on fluffy doughnut, musing over her absence, something was happening in my room. On a dumpster salvaged desk, in a small petri dish, laying next to a battered and stained sheaf of papers held together with a staple that'd been twice replaced, a blue orb, slightly bigger than a milk cap, began to wiggle. It wobbled twice, like a Schrodinger pokeball, both caught and not caught, before falling still. Then a pinhole sized gap opened in the middle and a small burble of liquid spat out, covering the orb in a thin layer of translucent blue goo. My seed of hope had finally bloomed.

~ End of the Book ~