Shift

This was written for Finish That Thought.

Hands trembling he opened the door to the cabin. The lights were out, but he could sense someone was there. Movement in the corner caught his attention and a vague shadow moved across the window.

 

 

“Come in, Harvey.”

 

 

There was no point in running. He stepped carefully inside, careful not to knock over the hoard of papers stacked inside the door.

 

 

“You’re really a pack rat, Harvey. I never would have known it from how impeccable you are in public.”

 

 

“Everyone needs a hobby.”

 

 

She laughed. “Collecting trash is a hobby?”

 

 

He didn’t answer. What could he say? Certainly not the truth, she would know that soon enough.

 

 

“Do you mind if I turn on the light?” He didn’t wait for her to answer, flipping the switch and bathing the room in a soft glow. If he’d been hoping to blind her with the sudden light, he was disappointed. He hadn’t been. He knew her… knew her eyes didn’t work like everyone else’s.

 

 

He stepped over to the window and looked out. The mountains were silhouetted against the moon. “I suppose the place is surrounded?”

 

 

Nova shrugged, “You know they wouldn’t send just me. I’m good… but they agency wants you dead.”

 

 

“And you?”

 

 

“I want you dead, too.”

 

 

“You didn’t always feel that way.” Harvey leaned against the wall and folded his arms. He looked her up and down, appraising her. She’d put on a little weight, but not much. Most of it was muscle.

 

 

“I’ve gotten wiser in my old age.”

 

 

That brought a laugh from him. “Old. Well, I suppose 273 years would constitute old by human standards…but in our world you’re still a child.”

 

 

“Perhaps, but a wiser child than you. Why did you do it Harvey?”

 

 

“Why not? Don’t you get tired of all the pretense? We walk around, pretending we’re gods, and we aren’t. So I balanced the scales.”

 

 

“You told the world of our existence. They didn’t believe you…”

 

 

“Some of them have.”

 

 

“And they’ve been dealt with. Painfully. Your girlfriend… what’s her name, Jessica? She screamed for you as she was dying. Took four days… I drained her blood myself.”

 

 

He turned pale. Stepping forward, he raised his hands and then put them down. Nova smirked, glancing outside. He looked too. They were no longer hiding in the shadows, but advancing towards the cabin.  “You would be dead before you ever touched me,” she said. Then she added, “You never should have left me.”

 

 

“I couldn’t stay,” he said. “And I can’t now, either.”

 

 

He picked up one of the papers stacked on the table. The front page showed a picture of a cathedral. “I learned a new trick.” Before she could stop him, he took her hand  and the cabin vanished.

 

 

Pulling from his grasp, she looked around the Cathedral. “Harvey… how?”

 

 

“It’s just a shift in perspective,” he said, pulling the stake from his jacket. It was fitting that she should die in the same place they had been wed.

 

Word Count: 500

@jezri1