NOVEL NEXT V2CH21 Everything Dies
“Here you go Mr. Garnet.” Gary, my regular waiter at this point, said before placing my order on the table.
“Thanks.”
Seeing that Gary kept standing over me seemingly waiting for something, “Can I help you with anything?”
While shuffling his feet, “Mr. Garnet, I don’t mean to assume anything, but with the tattoos and muscles you look like a guy who knows how to handle himself.”
With a shrug, “I’ve been in a scrape or two.”
“You see the thing is that I’m having some trouble with bullies and the teachers won’t do anything and I don’t want to bother my mom cause she works so hard and it was fine when it was just me but my girlfriend is becoming a target now and I just don’t know what to do.” Gary word vomited.
“Well, it depends on what you mean by “bullying” *finger quotes*. Are they just calling you names, are they taking things and pushing you around, or are you on the lookout for a shiv.”
With a series on rapid nods, “the second one, definitely the second.”
“Well keep everything you own on you at all times so the only way they can take something from you is to physically take something from you. As for shoving you around, ignore it and they either move on to a better target or escalate to a point the administration can’t ignore. If they taunt or insult you ignore it, who cares what those losers think. Also get all the evidence you can of what they’re doing.”
“What if none of those work?”
“Here’s a card for my friend, Jesse Cole. He’s with the FBI. There’s few in this entire city powerful enough to cause an FBI agent to ignore a situation if you have the evidence. While he can’t do something directly, he can put a lot of pressure on those who can.”
“Thanks.” Gary took the card and left me to my meal.
“Nice thing you did there for that kid.” A man from the booth one over called out.
Ah yes, my new friend made of ash, blood, and smoke. He had fiery red hair and a sharp beaklike nose. His eyes were the most noticeable feature though as they held millennium more years than the young tawny face they were set in.
“Yeah, I’m a regular mother Teresa.” I told the man accompanied by an eye roll.
In a monotone voice, “I don’t really care. I hear you’re the man capable of killing me, is that right?”
“It would be very painful.” I told the man.
“I’ve been through worse.”
“I find it hard to believe you’ve been through worse than having a core part of your being ripped out of you while still being alive. I’ve been through unreality and even I dread what that would feel like.” I said with a shudder.
“More things in heaven and earth, young Jessie. I have no doubt you know much more than I do about a myriad of topics, but this world is not one of them. You have only scratched the surface of what this world holds in your year here, I have experienced all that it holds. Well, I believe that at least, but many who know but a fraction of what I do also believe that.”
“Well, can I finish my pancakes and French fries first?” I asked.
“I’ve waited longer than man has mastered fire to die, I can wait another twenty minutes.”
***
“Before you kill me, do you mind if I tell you a story? I have left so many behind, but not the most important one to me, my beginning.” The humanoid phoenix asked.
“On one condition, you tell me the rest of those stories. I’m a collector.”
*Laughter*
“Very well.” the phoenix said with a smile.
***
I was always a fragile child. Which was unacceptable as son of the tribe’s leader. I was born with what is now known as osteogenesis imperfecta, hemophilia, and a myriad of other diseases. My mother was horrified when her baby was born shattered and bleeding. She was awed when that same baby started smoking and spouting cinders. She was ecstatic when her baby was without blemish.
My father, Raging Waterfall, saw my fire and envisioned my future as a great warrior. My mother, Calm River, only saw my broken state.
As I grew my father thought he could excise my weakness. He thought he could defy nature by breaking its balance. He thought I could gain nature’s gift without paying her price.
He succeeded in making me a skilled fighter but failed in making a warrior. I was good, great even, but no human is skilled enough to win every battle without taking even the slightest injury and even the lightest of touches could take me out of the fight. I tried with all my might to be the warrior he wanted but I could not even give my father an honorable death to find glory in my existence.
My father grew disappointed in me as time went on. My mother, who loved me for no other reason than that I was her child, tried to convince him of my worth but his mind was made up. He exiled me and told me that if I ever came back, he would find a way to truly kill me.
I never saw my mother again and that was only the first of my many losses. For you see my flame not only healed me, but it also stopped my aging. I never aged a day after my twenty fifth year.
I also learned the second price nature exacted; my flame could not be passed down. After the fifth of my children withered in front of me, I stopped having them. After their descendant grew so distant from anyone I truly loved, I stopped following them.
I became a fixed constant in an ever-changing world. I took up nearly every occupation there is. With time I learned to hide my fire so that I could take up more physical work without exposing myself as otherworldly. Which became increasingly necessary as humanity advanced.
I achieved everything there is to achieve, experienced everything to experience, and suffered everything there is to suffer. Until everything turned grey and lifeless around me. just as it will for you too, you have more to achieve, more to experience, and more to suffer, but you will all the same end up where I did.
***
And with that story time was over. He gave me the location of his journals and told me it was time.
The saddest part of it all was the fact that he was right, he felt nothing as I tore his ability away from him.
Being:
Body:
[Nascent Energy Vampire Progenitor]
Soul Tattoos:
[Celestial Weaving]
[Sand: Tier Three]
[Water: Tier Five]
[Faith: Tier One]
[Holy Water: Tier Three]
[Shadow: Tier Five]
[Necromancy: Tier Five]
[Rot: Tier ErRoR]
[Phoenix Fire: Tier Nine]
Special Abilities:
[Empowerment: Tier Nine]
[Emotional Empowerment: Tier One]
[Emotional Manipulation: Tier One]
Current Equipment:
Head:
[The Black Wasp Jackal’s Face]
[Vampire’s Hunger]
Earrings:
[]
Necklace:
[]
Clothes:
[Idle Hands]
Rings:
[The Mentalism Ring]
[Mena’s Book]
[Petrifying Ring]
[Olivia’s Friendship]
[Brash Ring]
Bracelets:
[]
Shoes:
[Comet Kicks]
Bracelets:
[]
Shoes:
[Comet Kicks]
Armaments:
[Beastly Heart]
[Murder Weapon]
Storage:
[Various Utility Artifacts]
[Various Articles Of Clothing]
[Death Dogtags]
[Leech Muscles]
[Leech Teeth]
[Chimeric Essence]