A Mutant Lover - 1. Chapter 1

A Mutant Lover I

I think I was downing my forth coffee of the night. The small restaurant was starting to close, and the waitress was beyond pissed at me. I mean, six hours and the only thing I bought were those dreaded drinks. I wasn’t hungry. All I wanted to do was stare out the window and hope the rain wash away my broken pieces.

“I’m sorry buddy, it looks like he ain’t coming today,” said someone as he patted my back. I looked back and saw that it was the cook. He’s a nice guy and we’ve talked while I waited on previous Fridays. I knew deep down that he was right, but I didn’t want to admit it, I didn’t want to admit my fears.

“Yeah…” I said quietly as I stood up, “Good night…”

“Good night and good luck,” he said to me as I went out.

It was Friday, February 14. The night chill penetrated my coat and the air was filled with the smell of perfume and cologne, most of them cheap ones. Couples were streaming the pavement of New York City, lovers braving the elements together, and I was walking back home alone. The guy I’d been seeing for more than a year stood me up, not just on San Valentine’s day, but in OUR usual day as well.

My name is Ethan Phoenix, a 21 years old gay guy studying for my masters in anthropology concentrating in mythology in NY. I graduated high school at 16. I’m no genius but when you got nothing else to do but study people believe that anyway. My parents were old money, I was born out of tradition, and I was nothing more than one of their little social projects. They had no remorse in shunning me once I decided to come out. The only reason they didn’t kick me out was because the grandparents left the fortune in my name. So…no me, no money.

< -government’s officials still refuse to even announce the name of the terrorist group responsible for the multiples attacks worldwide. So far, we’ve manage to find out that it’s the same group responsible of the killing attempt of the President a couple of months ago.>

The world was in turmoil and the government wouldn't let us know who was responsible. Ever since 9-11, terrorist threats had gotten a new meaning – and people panicked. You couldn’t even say the word ‘bomb’ without someone screaming afterwards. It had gotten to the point where people were afraid of their own shadows. What pissed me off more was that my guy was one of them. Ever since the attack on the President he’s been on his toes. He cancelled many of our weekends and now he stood me up. I had never felt so angry and sad at the same time. I mean, I loved the guy, but it hurt me to see him when he was paranoid. Then again our relationship was anything but normal.

We'd meet every Friday afternoon in that restaurant and he'd come home with me for the weekend. We used to go out and have fun, but lately it felt more like a quick fuck. I’d barely seen him that last couple of months. At least he called me when he wasn’t coming before, but now this.

“Just go home, go to sleep, and give him some time…” I told myself trying to warm up by hugging myself.

________________________________________________________________________

< “Hey baby, missed me?” > It had been a month since that cold night and then he calls me. I didn’t know if I should be angry or relieved that he was ok.

“Did you?” I asked him. There was silence for a minute.

< “I guess I deserve that, I’m sorry. My job has been keeping me busy.” >

“Fuck,” I said angry, “You know the thing I hate the most is when people lie to me. What makes you think you can get away with it?”

< “I’m not lying.” >

“Like hell you aren’t! I spent a year as a TA in college and it never overtook me like this. I don’t think TA-ing in a private school can be more than that, no matter how special it is. Beside, you told me you had a friend TA-ing the same class.”

< “I’ve been busy!” >

“Yeah, but not with school work,” I said and sighed, “I know you have this other life that you don’t want me to even know about. I never minded before because it never got between us, it was worth the sacrifice… Three months ago you started to skip on me and last month you completely disappeared. I always feared what we have was just a weekend fuck for you. I wanted more but you never showed any interest, so I worked hard for what little we had.”

< “I… I-I don’t understand…” >

“Did you think I always had my weekends free? I spend sleepless night working and studying to make sure I could see you, just to fucking see you!” I said with tears starting to fall from my eyes.

< “I don’t get it… W-Why would you…?” >

“Cause I fucking love you, you dolt! I’m such an idiot I fell in love with a selfish bastard! So please…leave me alone…”

< “No, no, no, don’t you hang up, don’t you hang up. I’ll s-see you. We need to talk… face to face.” > I was about to answer when the sound of horns interrupted me. I went to the window and looked out to see a dozen dots in the sky approaching the city.

“Are we being attack…?”

< “You don’t know? When was the last time you saw TV or actually paid attention to what’s around you?” >

“Well sue me for being depressed and wanting to disappear from the face of the planet! Now what the heck is going on?”

< “Turn on the TV.” > I did what he said and the image of the President appeared.

< “…Fellow Americans after the recent victory using the sentinel project that cleaned the streets of the City of Angels of the mutant scuhhh… menace. We, the government, have decided to launch a surprise full clean up in New York, Huston, Chicago, and Seattle. The horns you hear are the announcement of the descent of our solution, our protectors, our defense, the Sentinels. There’s nowhere to hide mutants, you will all be eliminated.” >

“Mutants? Sentinels? What the hell is going on?” My nerves were rising. The noise from the horns was replaced by explosions.

< “Calm down and listen. Mutants are humans with a special gene that manifest as physical changes or special abilities.” >

“Abilities?” An explosion shook the building. “That still doesn’t explain why the fuck this is happening.”

< “Remember all those terrorist attacks? They were made by a group of mutants and the Sentinel project is the government retaliation. They will kill every mutant they find.” >

“All of them?” I asked surprise, that isn’t justice that’s mass murder. “Isn’t that a bit over the board?”

< “They’re using the public’s support on the war on terrorism to unleash a full attack on our nation, all under the excuse of preventing a mutant uprising.” >

“This is too much.” Another explosion, this one is nearer.

< “Do you… do you hate them? The mutants…?” >

“I… I don’t know, I’ve never met one before…” There was a loud crashing noise and the apartment shook so bad that I fell on the floor and dropped the phone. I could hear him calling me, yelling me to pick up the phone. I was about to do so when I heard my twelve year old neighbor scream for help.

“Wallace!!!” I screamed and ran out of my apartment, only to bump into the little blond boy.

“Please don’t leave me,” he was muttering over and over while he was holding on to me for dear life.

“What ha…?” I was going to ask when a low rumbling interrupted me. I looked through the open door of his apartment and saw a giant hand breaking through the wall. I picked up the boy and held him tighter as he started to cry. A hole in the middle of the robotic palm started to glow and that scared the shit out of me. I ran towards the stairs only to be knocked down by the force of an explosion behind us a couple of seconds later.

I looked back and saw both apartment destroyed. I picked Wally up again and went back to running. Going down the stairs we could hear all sorts of explosions and screams in the nearby buildings. Wally was holding me so tight he almost was chocking me. I could feel his body trembling and tears were falling from his blue eyes onto my neck where he had buried his face. I slowed down a little and rubbed his back and said, “Don’t worry, I won’t leave you.”

“You promise?”

“Yep.”

“No matter what?”

“Cross my heart and hope to die.”

“Thanks, you really are my best friend ever,” he said and his tears stopped.

“You too,” I said. It was sad really. His parents were new money whose avarices had yet to be satisfied. They had no remorse in saying to their son he was a mistake, the result of a ripped condom. The young skinny boy was home schooled and forbidden to go outside the apartment, he rarely felt the touch of the sun. It was through pure coincidence that we met and developed a friendship from the opened doorways of our apartments.

We lived on the 23rd floor so by the time we got to the lobby I was panting and I had to put Wally on the floor. The place was packed with people and he remained glue to me.

“Wallace Richard Jacobson, what are you doing here?!!!”

“Mother?” he asked looking around. The small pudgy woman with her blond hair tied in a bun was walking toward us with rage in her eyes and her husband trailing behind her.

“You’re supposed to remain in the apartment, not wandering around with strangers!” she yelled. Once again Mr. and Mrs. Jacobson have forgotten me.

“Mrs. Jacobson, I’m your next door neighbor.”

“I don’t care!” she yelled and then turned to her son. “You shameful little brat, you’re nothing but trouble!”

“But Mother we were attacked by one of those sentinels.”

“What?!!!” she yelled in a voice that silenced the lobby. Her sight fell on me, the rage turned into fear. “You’re one of those filthy mutants! Get away from us!”

“W-What? No, I-I’m…” I couldn’t even finish before I couldn’t see the fat woman dragging her struggling son through the crowd thickening around me. I soon found myself surrounded by angry glares and then I heard them.

“You move and we’ll see if you’re blood’s red mutie,” said a policeman that stepped closer to me.

“Richard, control your child!!!” I overheard the fat one scream over the dead silence of the crowd. Two more policemen appeared with their guns in hand. Their smirks sent chills to my bones, how could anyone be so… cold.

“One less for our country to worry about,” said the first one. I felt my heart racing as I witnessed the slight movement of their fingers. Mr. Jacobson cried out in pain and Wally came running from the crowd. He threw himself at me, and then the guns were fired. I closed my eyes as tight as I could. I could hear them firing more rounds and yet I felt no pain.

“I won’t let them hurt you Ethan,” said Wally hugging me tightly. I opened my eyes and saw some kind of bluish force field surrounding us. I let out a sigh, only to feel my heart rise to my throat as a giant metallic fist broke through the ceiling and hit the force field. Wally screamed and fell limp against me, he was barely conscious, and the force field faded.

“Wally! What happened?” I yelled picking the boy up.

“Run…” he said. I looked up the gaping hole to momentarily see cold glowing red eyes that quickly were replaced by the metallic fist. I just ran, as fast as I could, with Wally in my arms.

As we came out of the building we saw the giant humanoid robot leaning against the building, taking out his right arm from between the second and third floor. It looked at us and the red glow from his eyes sent a frightening jolt up my back. The metallic howling of its movements almost made me shit my pants.

“Oh, God…” Wally whispered. Somehow that gave me some movement in my legs and I started to run away from that thing.

And then it happened…A piercing pain from my back forced me to drop to my knees. Wally was next to me screaming my name but somehow he seemed far away. I winced in pain when I accidentally touched myself. I looked at my left hand and it was covered in blood, my blood. I slowly turned my head and saw one of the policemen, with a grin on his face and smoking gun in his hands. His glory was short lived. The robot stepped on him as it advanced toward us.

I tried to stand up, but I ended falling on my back and looking at the robot now standing above us. Wally was crying, shit, I was crying too. I was doomed no matter what, may it be because of the robot or from my bleeding, I didn’t think I'd live to see the next day. The robot’s eyes grew brighter and all of a sudden it was decapitated by a red beam. I felt relieved for a second only to realize the robot was now falling on us. Then everything turned white. My senses were diminishing. I barely noticed a face above mine, someone that was caressing my face.

“Ethan…” he called. His voice was one I recognized. “You’re going to be okay. I’ll make sure of it, I won’t leave you. Not now that I know how you feel…” I smiled weakly.

“I do love you, you know…” I whispered, and darkness overtook me.