Infernum

Back at Alex’s house in Susanville, Alex and Hope sat cross-legged on his living room floor facing each other. “Alex, your ánimam will know what to do; you just need to give it permission to transfer the data. Just think to yourself, Acknowledged, to confirm the transfer when it asks,” Hope told Alex as her ribbons emerged from her back.

Alex bared his ánimam and it was not long before both sets of ribbons began to interweave together. Golden ribbons emerging from both of their backs filled the room as they interweaved with each other. The ribbons began to face each other and light began to flicker from one ribbon to another. Alex looked up and stared at the ribbons with a sparkle in his eye.

“What is that light? It is beautiful,” he asked as he stared up at the billions of particles of light speeding from one ribbon to another all around him.

“I already told you, Alex, nanites talk to each other with light; it’s the fastest communication possible over short distances,” Hope replied with an insipid textbook style answer.

As the last of the ribbons connected to each other, Alex had a strange sensation. He could now sense the presence of four people in his head. There was himself, of course, and then there was his ánimam, he was just beginning to get familiar with its optimistic and impulsive go-for-it personality. But Alex was also cognizant of two new consciousnesses. There was another ánimam with an obnoxious browbeat personality, and way in the back of his mind, he sensed Hope, with her overwhelming sense of self-righteousness and pride; she dominated over the two ánimams. Not only could he read her mind, but he could also feel every sensation in her body as if they were his own. He could feel the floor she was sitting on and the air she breathed. Lost in a sea of new sensations Alex reached up and placed his palm on the side of Hope’s face to ground himself to something tangible. He felt himself touch her face through the connection and was freaked out by the feeling, and yet it aroused him. He began to slide his hand down Hope’s face onto her neck toward her large breasts and felt his hand moving down as if it were his chest he was feeling. Alex could not feel any of Hope’s emotions just a sense of confusion as if either she had no feelings or she had no idea of Alex’s intentions. Could this be a physical connection only with no emotional ties? Alex thought. But just to be sure, he leaned forward and gently kissed Hope on the cheek.

“The ánimam’s will not let emotion through, Alex, think of it as a filter. It would take a very powerful emotion to break through; in fact, I don’t think it would even be possible,” Hope replied to Alex’s question in his head.

“This is incredible,” he said as he kissed her again and felt his own lips from Hope’s perspective.

“No one has ever used am ánimam connection like this before, not to this extent,” Hope said to him as she backed away from his wayward lips, trying to make sense of his odd behavior.

“We need to concentrate on the task at hand, Alex… I can’t afford any distractions now,” she said as Alex heard a familiar digital voice in his head.

“Sir, requesting permission to initiate data transfer,” Alex’s ánimam asked. Alex understood and acknowledged the voice in the affirmative as he attempted to repress his natural male urges. Hope was now beet red in the face as she realized what the physical sensations she felt in Alex were. She was disgusted at the thought of animal-like sex, that form of reproduction was all but alien to her and she was embarrassed to have been thought of that way in Alex’s mind.

Alex was smiling at Hope from ear to ear as she closed her eyes and his ánimam began the photonic transfer of knowledge into her mind. As the data began to flow rapidly, Hope and Alex relived Gabriel’s final moments on Earth. As the images filled their minds they wre taken back to Gabriel’s last night on Earth and watched helplessly through his eyes as his final moments unfolded as if they were there.

“Tell me what you know!” Gabriel shouted at the daemon. “Is it true?” he shouted again as he formed wings and flew upward to the beast’s eye level. The daemon stumbled backward a few steps.

“I no tell human,” the beast growled back at Gabriel.

“You will tell me everything, just like your twin did,” Gabriel said with a stern, adamant voice. “Do you want to go back?” he added in the same stern voice.

“You send … back!” the daemon roared.

Gabriel flew up to the beast’s face and with one fierce backhand, he struck it in the mouth, knocking its lower chin guard off its helmet.

“You don’t demand anything here, beast. You are no match for me… Your armor hasn’t even hardened yet,” Gabriel informed the daemon in a smug tone.

“It’s true … all of it,” the daemon confessed as he held his jaw.

Gabriel was speechless; frozen in his tracks, he could not move or speak while he absorbed the information, he had heard it before to his disbelief, but now it was confirmed.

“No, it can’t be true, it just can’t be,” he muttered. Unable to cope with what the daemon had just told him, Gabriel stopped everything. Gabriel stopped caring about his task, his battle, his life. And with this new information, how could he? Gabriel dropped his arms and did something no guard should ever do; he stopped fighting and gave up living his pointless life altogether.

The daemon saw its chance, and with one fierce swing of its clawed hand, he struck Gabriel on his side, tearing a hole in his flesh and causing him to fly through the air toward an unsuspecting man on the nearby hill. As the daemon unsuccessfully tried to get back up, Gabriel saw the man on the hill for the first time, it was Alex. It was then that Gabriel had a moment of clarity; he was too weak from his mortal wound to speak, but he knew what he had to do to ensure the survival of the only thing that did matter, his secret. The image in Hope’s mind began to fade as one last image came.

With his last bit of energy, Gabriel commanded his ánimam to break the laws of his people and perform an action never attempted by anyone before him. It was to leave his body and join with the only other human around … Alex.

Hope opened her eyes and looked at Alex who was still sitting across from her. Alex could sense a change in her body through the ribbons but could not tell what it was. She was angry with Gabriel and could not comprehend why he quit fighting and fell to the daemon on purpose. She did not understand what she had just seen; she just could not imagine what could have taken over him to make him act like that.

As Alex tried to dig deeper into her mind, she closed him off and broke the connection between them. Ribbons seemed to scatter throughout the room ubiquitously as they found their way back to Alex and Hope.

“What happened?” Alex asked as if he did not already know the answer. He looked over to Hope. “I am so sorry for your loss, Hope… I had no idea that he had committed suicide,” he said softly.

Hope looked at him strangely as if he had spoken gibberish. “What is suicide, Alex? I don’t understand,” she said.

“It is when you kill yourself, Hope,” Alex answered.

”Why? Why would anyone do that to themselves?” Hope asked with disbelief. Alex looked at her with understanding eyes.

“There are a lot of reasons, Hope, but despair is usually to blame,” Alex said.

“I need a moment, Alex … please,” Hope said as she rose from the living room floor and headed into the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

Alex walked aimlessly around his house for a while and then decided to fix something to eat while he waited for Hope, anything to get the taste of Gub-Gub out of his mouth. He thought to himself, Pasta sounds good, and went to the pantry to get some noodles. He opened the pantry door and reached in to grab a bag of fettuccini when his hand stopped just short. She is going to need more time than that, he thought to himself as his hand ventured away from the bag and toward the flour. He went to the fridge and got an egg then began to make pasta by hand, something he had not done since he was a child at his grandmother’s house. Deep in thought, it was no time at all before he was folding the dough for the last time.

An hour or so later, he had just finished making the fresh pasta when Hope emerged from the bedroom. She had a distant look on her face when she entered the dining room, just short of the kitchen.

“Are you okay?” Alex asked.

“I’ll be okay,” she replied apathetically.

“Are you sure?” Alex asked with genuine concern then added, “Are you hungry, Hope? I made pasta,” he said in a crude attempt to take her mind off things. Not even waiting for a reply, he fixed up a plate for Hope and set it on the table next to her as she started to sit down.

“Here Hope, try this,” Alex said, not knowing what else he could do for her. Hope sat down at the table without saying a word and then took a bite of Alex’s homemade pasta.

“This is good, Alex, why is it that you always seem to make food when I am in distress?” she asked as she looked up at him with a slight sign of liveliness.

“It’s an Earth thing I’m sure, we call it comfort food,” he replied with an earnest smile. Alex fixed himself a plate and sat down next to her.

“Alex,” Hope said softly.

“Yes Hope,” he replied.

“I am going to need a while to process all of this, so do you remember me telling you about your ánimam and how it would tell you about our past?”

“Sort of,” Alex answered.

“Why don’t you go into the other room and ask your ánimam to show you the Concordat?” Hope quietly suggested. “It will do the rest.”

“Sure, Hope, whatever you need,” Alex replied as he walked into the other room.