LONG FORGOT
Genre: Fantasy, Supernatural
Rating: PG -13
Summary: A young man is drawn by an old goddess’ soul.
These present times, she spends her days in routine, blending in with humanity. This was a different humanity from those who worshiped her, lay down their flesh and souls for her, at the beginning of time…
She still has her power, but it’s grown rusty from non-use. What would be the point? This is an age where the gods are substance, not beings. So, she simply exists, almost embarrassed by her present mediocrity, but for the eons her worshipers have been dust.
She still has an aura, a sheen of her former glory and an ancient transcendent beauty that is essence of what it is to be alluringly feminine.
Her skin is the color of burnt copper, her eyes so dark, they appear black. Her inky irises contrast with the blinding whites of her eyes. Her hair is ever shifting between none and too much. Right now, it was quite a lot. …Long varying, black, ropey, locks that reached just below her breasts. Her lips so full, they were the very definition of overripe.
She indulged in her beauty. Taking body and soul from many mortals, in her time, until the novelty wore thin.
She is like a ghost now…Merely existing, using what little powers she could still remember, to make herself fade. To move beneath notice. She still observed, but without amusement, nor any real interest.
It was just routine.
This day she sat in a diner, of all places, eating breakfast late into the night…
~~~~
“Dude! Did you see that chick?! She was totally into you…”
“Kids.” She thought… “Repeating what’s been thought and said over and over, throughout the ages, even in her time.”
She continued to eat her eggs.
“Yeah, yeah, sure…”
“And Josh, man…That’s just the beginning. Winning this game means more ass, more ass, more ass!!” Ken slapped and humped at an invisible ass in front of him, while the rest of the them laughed and punched him playfully.
“Chad, you know, I’ve got a girlfriend.”
“Yeah… that hottie, Darla.” Chad laughed.
Darla was a model perfect brunette, who’s popularity revolved around her involvement and excellence in everything, from being president of the student body to receiving acclaim in plays. Her ambition was frightening.
Chad continued “…I also know that doesn’t stop you from dicking around on her.”
“…True.” She thought. “But he had tried breaking up with her. No matter what he said, she’d force herself back into his life. He was weak, here. He disliked fighting women, even emotionally.”
But there was more there. She watched the boy.
…College-aged, handsome with the pretty, yet masculine look, the women of these times seem to love. Tanned skin, hazel eyes, dark brown hair, winning smile…Teen idol beauty. All pieces of this boy’s mask.
She could still feel the truth of people’s souls. Most did wear masks, like this one. Rare was the person free enough to confront their own true self and force others to do the same.
This boy was intensely lonely, trapped in a role that wasn’t him, by his looks, athletic gifts, and sheer luck. There was the depth of an ocean hidden within the shallows of a puddle.
His “dicking around” was simply another attempt at self-sabotaging his social slavery. This Darla, clung, despite his indiscretions, because he fit the surface role, no others could fill.
She sipped her coffee.
“Anything else, young lady?” Always at this place, she was a young girl… “I’ll have the chocolate cream pie.”
She offered with a smile.
Then there was the gentle brush…Despite her cloak, someone had peaked through.
Josh.
“…Hmm.” She thought.
His friends chattered all around him and he pretended to be engaged, successfully…but he was seeing her, watching her.
Not surprising. Occasionally, a person managed to punch through, when their desires were running high enough. But it was always lust…This time, there was only an intensely, sad, lonely, longing.
It was the first time, she had gotten that feeling from another in many centuries. And never from a human. It was always much more simple… awe, fear, lust.
This was fascinating, but also uncomfortable…She shifted in her booth and finished her pie, quickly. She left a large tip, for the waitress.
“…You get home safely.” The waitress, said. “Sia? Is it?”
“Yes.” She said nodding her head.
“Pretty name.” The waitress smiled.
Thinking about this boy, had weakened her defenses…The waitress was engaging with her.
“-Thank you.”
She slipped through the front door, ringing the bell on the way out.
Josh had peaked through and could see more than she would have imagined. He saw that she too was a slave to the whims of others. Though, she dodged them. That longing she felt, was the kiss of a kindred soul.
~~~~
She was far from the girls at his college, even the other black ones, with her long black locks and uncommon looks.
Something about her looked… not quite real. She was very pretty, he thought, but she had an aura of someone of renown, in hiding. Even her clothing didn’t match her. She was wearing a plain solid-t, blue jeans, and brown jacket contrasting with her ethereal beauty.
Ethereal...Yes, that was the word. He thought she’d look more at home in some heavily adorned gauzy gown.
He could never understand the desire to make a metaphor of a woman’s beauty, until the moment he lay eyes on this strange girl.
He had to know who she was.
His buddies continued to laugh, joke, and congratulate his game, while he was lost in these thoughts.
~~~~
She reached her remote home and turned on the television, desperate to dull her thoughts, to safely hide again…
~~~~
Josh took a chance. As they were about to leave, he approached her waitress.
“Hey, Ginger -Right?” He said glancing down at her name tag.
“Sure, hun.”
“That girl, who was just here… Does she come in here, a lot?”
His friends gave him odd looks.
“…Girl?” Ginger said, despite the fact that he had just seen the waitress talking to her.
“The one you were serving. I think she said her name was Sia.”
She shook her head. “Listen, kid. I serve a lot of people here…but I don’t remember any girls, except the ones, here in your party.”
“Guys, you know who I’m talking about, right?”
“Josh, we’ve been in here this whole time, by ourselves.”
Sarah put a hand to his head, feigning concern. “Are you okay, baby?”
Everyone laughed.
“I’m fine.” He said, but he frowned.
~~~~
Sia lay on her bed and dreamed. She never fully slept…As she was, her senses could never turn off enough for true sleep. But her mind did often sweep through her vast experiences.
The obelisks bore up for her…The flesh laid out for her. She absorbed their souls, until they died…Sometimes only killing them without taking their souls, depending on her cravings and the nature of the available sustenance. A good soul was difficult to find. She was a picky one.
The people received nothing in return, save her eternal presence. They made up the rewards they assumed she had given them, good weather and crops, healthy babies.
She had, had a companion then. Loe. He was another like her and they loved well, as humans do, through good and bad years. They made love while exchanging the vast amounts of energy they’d consumed in their many years of existence.
Then Loe fell out of favor with the people and disappeared. He left her and the people who had turned their backs on him. A few hundred years later, when they did the same to her, she too, left.
She remembered her early amusements when she truly was just a child, using, and playing with the humans she’d found. …And she found herself thinking of the boy.
~~~~
Josh found himself drifting often, in the following days, through classes, through practice, through sex with his girlfriend…
“…Why couldn’t anyone else remember her? How could they possibly not remember? Her presence was overwhelming…”
“Josh!!”
“-Whuh?”
“I knew, you weren’t listening…GAWD!!” Darla yelled, exasperatedly.
She stopped her manual attempts at arousing him and quickly got dressed.
“Where has your mind been??” She held up her hands, before he could answer.
“…Never mind, don’t answer. Listen, I know you have your other hoochies, but as long you don’t bring anything home to me…”
“WHAT?!” Now, it was his turn to get exasperated.
“Wait, wait… You know and you don’t CARE?!”
“Well, no. That’s what boys do…You have a dick, you like to stick it everywhere. Just wear a condom and don’t fuck with any nasty who-“
“Darla…” He said shaking his head. “You should care. You should want to leave me. Any woman would want to leave me.”
More wishful thinking.
“But we’re perfect together.” Darla said putting on her usual smile that stayed firmly below her nose. “Every married couple I know, cheats. We’ll just be open about ours.”
Josh, stood up and blinked a few times… “You are…unbelievable.”
Darla spun around giddily, thinking this was a compliment. So, Josh went with it.
“Listen, I’m gonna go for a run…” He leaned in and pecked her on the mouth.
“Sure, babes.” She said and went to peek into his tiny refrigerator.
~~~~
Sia was back at the diner…Eating the same meal she had a few days ago. She heard the door bell ring and reflexively reinforced her cloak.
It was the boy, Josh.
Despite her attempt to fade, again, he was staring at her, putting out curiosity and that longing…This time more protective of it…like a jealously guarded secret.
He slowly sat down, opposite her.
She continued to ignore him.
“I see you.”
She flitted her eyes up briefly… “Of course, you do.”
“…Why wouldn’t you?” She said flatly.
“Nobody else seems to.” He said, leaning forward, watching her closely. “…And if they do, they don’t remember.”
She frowned, giving her best “You’re crazy” look.
It didn’t work.
“Who…What are you?”
“What do I look like?”
“You look like a girl…but I don’t think…”
“-I am a girl.” She said, interrupting. “…And more. Like all of us.”
“You’re being intentionally vague to make yourself seem more like me…more like us, but I know you’re not.”
He slowly shook his head. “…Not even close.”
She put down her utensils.
“More than a jock, alright.” She thought.
There was still no fear coming from him, though there should be. This boy was unique.
“…So, you say.”
“Why do I see you, while others don’t?”
“-Why not?”
He didn’t respond…
She sighed lowering her head.
“I’ve been hiding for…a long time. It’s almost a relief that you can see me.”
“Why?”
“It is work, being what others want.” She said, staring evenly at him.
“Yes.” He said. “It is…-God, you’re beautiful.”
And there was the lust, pressing onto her like a heavy weight…He was too close. She shifted, trying to get away from it. She was too sensitive to this one’s thoughts.
“How do you do that?” He said, looking at her like she were some tricky puzzle.
She knew what he meant. “It’s who I am. I can’t change it.”
He was breathing heavily, sweating a bit…She was draining him, though she hadn’t done it intentionally.
“You shouldn’t be this close to me…”
“Are you doing this?” He said, his eyes getting heavy.
“Yes…” She said matter-a-factly. “I told you, you’re too close.”
She leaned in and whispered…“You’ll lose your soul.”
He blinked a few times and smiled… “-Okay” He said, nodding his head.
“…You can have it.” He passed out.
~~~~
He woke up in a strange place, in a living room on a couch.
She sat at the far end of the room, her eyes on the television, but not watching it. He lay still and continued to watch her.
She seemed confused.
She’d never lost control like that. Why didn’t she just leave him at the diner? This boy should not be here.
People sacrificed themselves all the time, in her time, but it was always for what they thought they might get in return. And what did he want? Escape, from his world completely, whether it meant losing his life or not. It did not matter. As long as it was for her or better yet, with her.
“Sia.”
She turned looking startled.
“You still want my soul?”
She frowned again…”I-I don’t want it.”
“Now that you’re up, you should leave…” She stood up and began to back into the kitchen…Now, she was beginning to feel faint.
“Ahh…” Josh felt like he just had a shot of pure euphoria injected into his arm.
“Please…” She leaned back on the counter for support.
He got up, intending to help her.
“-NO! STAY BACK!” She shouted. “-Please, just go.”
The glow that seemed to constantly be around her, dulled…
“Just take what you need, from me.” He said.
“I can’t control it.”
She collapsed into his arms. He felt better, physically, than he had at any point in his life, previously…But had he inadvertently killed this girl, this lovely creature, Sia, in the process?
~~~~
He checked her pulse. There was none…And yet she was breathing.
“Jesus…She was never alive.” He thought. “At least not in his sense of the word.”
He embraced her and held his breath…There was nothing. No euphoria, no draining.
He picked her up and carried her upstairs, finding her room. It was a large space taken up mostly by a canopied bed. He lay her there and then stood at the corner of the room, indecisive.
If he stayed, he might kill her…if that were possible. If he left, he’d never know if she was okay.
He decided to stay…But he went to the furthest corner of the house, from where she was.
~~~~
He sat on the couch in her living room and called Darla.
“Where the fuck have you been?!”
He sighed. “-Listen, I’m sorry Darla, but something came up.”
“-I bet it did.”
“No, it’s not-…” He gritted his teeth. “ I just wanted to let you know…I won’t be coming back tonight.”
Silence.
“I won’t be coming back to you, at all. Understand?”
“-Did you hear me-?” He repeated.
“Sure-Fine-Whatever.”
-click!-
He found the remote, surfed and landed on some mystery about a dead girl. He lay down and though he intended to stay awake, he drifted off to sleep.
His dreams, were unlike any he’d imagined.
~~~~
Three people ceremonially dressed in white, were lead to the center of three obelisks, there they lay on a large alter. …Priests? Prayed over them and left.
From beyond the horizon, a nude figure gracefully stepped into view…It was Sia. He licked his lips.
She was completely hairless but for her lush lashes and brows, but it was her…Still with her otherworldly beauty. She wore a jeweled belt and several earrings in one ear. She looked decidedly goddess-like.
As soon as she entered the center of the obelisks, she stretched and arched like a cat. A wry smile creased her lips. She stepped up to a prone man and helped him up…He immediately fell to his knees, weeping, and praying. She briefly touched him and he fell over, his eyes wide with fear, pleasure, or both. Her smile broadened.
He jerked awake.
She was sitting right across from him watching him sleep, intently.
“You know me.” She said flatly. “No mortal, should know me.”
He gripped the couch arms.
“And now…” She said, almost relieved. “… finally fear.”
She got up and walked over, sitting next to him on the couch.
“You see a monster who eats souls. That’s what I am. You should not kid yourself about this.”
He shook his head. “I don’t.”
She reached out and touched his face. He seemed to be relaxing, against his better judgement.
“You are… -perplexing to me.”
“You see me and now know me, like no other mortal has. And yet, you are reining in your fear.”
“…Why? You should fear me.”
Silence, but his mind answered. He did feel fear, but the scales overwhelming tipped toward that same irresistible desire he had been feeling since he saw her. It had only been intensifying, as time passed.
She leaned closer. “And you’ve offered your soul to me expecting nothing back.” She said narrowing her eyes.
“Now, that you know me, does that offer still stand?…You wish to be destroyed? Would you be honored to be devoured by me?” She intended to taunt, perhaps dissuading him.
Just the slightest tremble in her voice betrayed her emotion.
“My soul is already yours…You know that. You’ve taken.” He said, evenly. “-and you’ve given.”
She looked away, looking ashamed.
“I would never have lost such control over myself…”
“You…” She said, shaking her head.
“You’re just a boy…” She whispered, touching his lips with her fingertips.
“Sia-“
“I know…You need not explain. I’ve read every thought, every memory, every desire, in your head.”
“Then you know, how much I want you…I can’t help it.”
“You are beautiful, but it’s beyond that.” He said sorting through his feelings.
“You’ve been invading my every thought, since I first saw you…Have you played some trick…Cast a spell on me? ”
“No…I’ve been doing my best to shut you out.” She said shaking hear head.
“And yet.” She thought. “Here he was…” She could feel it, intense lust, the desire, that longing and something else… even drawing her to him.
He gripped her shoulders and kissed her. She drew back touching her lips. Trying reconcile her confusing emotions.
“I ca-“
“-I don’t care.”
He dove in for another kiss, more deeply this time.
She had used mortals for sex before she’d drained them. “Fine.” She thought. “If this is what he wants, then he shall have it and his death.”
His thoughts were shockingly similar and he was fine with that.
~~~~
She rocked against him. His face carried an expression that was part bliss, part awe. Every point where her bare skin touched his, was aflame with a pleasure he had never known, so, intense, he thought he might die from it.
He could only manage gasps and small snatches of breath. He reached up and touched her neck, her shoulders, her breasts, as if confirming she was real.
Her hands trailed up his chest over his face, across his lips… She rolled her hips more intensely, frowning, enjoying him.
“Mmm.”
His trembling hands fell to his sides…And then it was all too much, blinding white explosions, in succession, flooding in and out… A pleasure so intense, it was almost painful…A solitary tear rolled down his cheek.
He felt her go rigid, gasp, and fall against him.
He held her tight and inhaled.
She smelled like cloves.
~~~~
She awoke some time later.
She had slept for the first time, in centuries. His embrace was all too comfortable. This shook her to the core.
She shifted in his arms and whispered into his ear…”Forget.”
“No-.”
“Shhh…” She placed a finger to his lips. And focused.
“For-get.”
He passed out.
~~~~
He awoke in his bed, with Darla next to him. There was just the whisper of a pleasant dream, in the back of his mind. He felt this dream was important, so he tried to draw it forward…but it would not come.
It was like he’d misplaced something very dire importance and had no way of knowing what or where it is.
He felt stranded, lost.
~~~~
Sia was frightened of her swift attachment to this mortal, afraid of the certainty of his death, afraid of her own confusing feelings…
It had been so much easier, to simply exist.
“Why this boy?” She thought as she hastily packed.
She hoped she drew out enough of herself, that he would truly forget, because if not…He would seek her out, forsaking all else until he found her or until his death. Such was the nature of the bond, she’d inadvertently created.
It was time to move on.
Later that day, she boarded a train…
~~~~
Josh sat in class, letting the professor’s droning lecture pass through his ears without truly listening, his pen-tip frozen on his notebook.
“Psst!” Sarah, poked him.
He jumped.
“Jesus, you were in dream-land.” She whispered.
“I’m fine.” He said.
He blinked a few times, stretched and ran his hand across his face, smelled the distant sweet scent of cloves, and smiled…
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