Socket 1-3 - The Socket Greeny Saga (79 page)

And for the first time, there was pain in
his tired eyes. He was exhausted and spent. Fat with essence,
lethargic like a glutton eating for days. Or maybe the Paladins
gave him a fight after all. Or the grimmets were imperceptibly
pulling at his mind. Each moment that passed, he swayed just a bit
more, a bit steeper, and could fall over at any moment. But his
mind was still pressed tightly against Chute’s.

“Right naw,” he said, slurring, “I want you
to come closer.” He wiggled his fingers, beckoned me. I didn’t
move. If I could wait just a bit longer, he would slip, he would
drop his guard, his mind would falter, and I would pounce. Once
Chute was free, then we could talk. But Pike clenched his teeth and
pushed the point of the knife into her skin. A tear rolled down
Chute’s cheek. “Don’t fuck it up now, wonderboy. Get your ass over
here.”

I took a step. As my foot touched the stone,
Chute’s heart beat harder in my chest. And with each step that
followed, it beat louder. Her fear chilled my stomach. Pike opened
his hand, fingers reaching.

“Come closer.” He flicked his fingers.
“Come, come.”

The air did not stir.

And the grimmets watched, eyes on my
approach. Waiting, once again. As if they were on his team.

[Protect her,]
I thought to them.

I stopped one step away. Pike shook his arm,
almost begging for the last step.

“Let her go,” I said. “You have my word,
I’ll come to you.”

“You’re in no position to haggle, wonderboy.
I’ll stick this goddamn knife through the top of her skull. If you
have not noticed, I don’t give a fuck.”

“You’re terrified of dying.”

“On the contrary. I’m begging for it.” He
relaxed, his shoulders released their tension and his hand opened
softly. “Now, one more step.”

“Do not harm her.”

He grimaced. “I wouldn’t think of it.”

No moves left.

One step.

And his fingers reached for my face. “You
have something.”

Softly reaching for my ear.

“Something I need.”

And as his fingers neared my ear, the pain
lanced my earlobe again. Then there was warmth. There was a rush of
blood, of energy, into my earlobe. I was harboring an alien that
wanted out.

My ear exploded.

A powerful current rushed from the side of
my head, surging through his fingers. He shook like he’d grasped
high voltage, unable to let go. And then was blasted away, slammed
into the tree. The grimmets fluttered on impact. I fell back, then
grabbed Chute as Pike’s mind vanished, cradled her in my arms. She
was so cold. I huddled over her, surrounding her delicate mind.
Nothing would harm her now. No explosion, no psychic force,
nothing. Nothing.

Pike appeared plastered against the tree.
Something was inside him, just beneath the skin, transforming him,
stretching him. His cries were involuntary. His body looked
malleable.

The massive tree creaked. Fractures split
the trunk, the cracks exploding as the petrified wood succumbed to
the immeasurable force swelling inside Pike. The temperature
plummeted. He absorbed whatever heat, whatever force, whatever life
was left in the Preserve. The black hole of his existence pulled on
me and I hunkered down lower, tighter around Chute. Its force
sheered the outer layers of my mind. Leaves, branches and rocks
slid across the slab.

And then it stopped.

The air was still. Silent.

Pike was imbedded into the tree, his arms
out. His legs folded one over the other. His head had merged with
the trunk, his features barely visible. His lips moved like the
tree was about to speak.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

An expression of relief fell on him. He
closed his eyes. The madness left his presence. The being that was
identified as Pike faded from existence. And then as suddenly as
the storm had ended, it returned, like we were only sitting in the
eye of a hurricane and the backside of the storm approached.

It was a whine. The beginnings of an
explosion. All I could do was cover Chute, lower us to the
ground.

CCCCCRRRRRAAAKKK-BBOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The grimmet tree shattered.

Shards of wood blew over the trees,
stripping leaves from the branches, pelting my back, deflected only
by my mind. Grimmets were blown away like debris, smashing holes
through the trees, dispersed like cannonballs out of sight.

The ground erupted. The stone slab quaked
and split into upended chunks. We slid into the ground as it tilted
and debris showered from above. The ground rumbled.

Dust blotted out the sun. Rocks trickled
down and settled in the deep chasms. When silence returned, I
lightened my grip on Chute. Her heart was thumping. She looked at
me, squeezed a little tighter, and nodded. Then we embraced.
Squeezing so tightly, I might’ve pushed her inside me, merging our
bodies together like Pike had with the tree. I didn’t want to let
go.

But something was waiting for us. The
Preserve was not dead. Life had returned.

“Wait here,” I said.

She reluctantly nodded.

The top of the stone was angled upward. I
wanted to pull Chute out, to get her as far away from danger as
possible, maybe even to South Carolina. I pulled myself to the top
and stepped onto the only flat stone remaining.

The grimmet tree was gone.

There, standing on the smoking remains, was
a woman wearing flowing white clothes.

“You can come out, darling.”

L E G E N D

Light

The sky fluttered with leaves, some green,
others black. Smoke crept over the crumbled ground and the stump of
the grimmet tree smoldered. The grimmets were nowhere to be
seen.

Fetter laced her hands together with a
gentle smile. She bounced with a soft laughter at the sight of me
climbing out of the wreckage; the look on my face must’ve been
amusing.

She waved me closer. When I didn’t, she
stepped off the stump and slowly, yet nimbly, made her way a step
at a time through the rubble. Her lifeforce was weak, but her mind
was already reaching out and searching for a source of energy. For
essence. I surrounded Chute with my mind, hardened myself against
the upcoming pull of Fetter’s lethal thoughts.

She stopped near me and took a deep breath,
looked longingly at me, then peered down at Chute. “You can come
up, too, darling.”

Chute hesitated, but there was no reason to
hide, there was no protection down there. She took my hand and
pressed tightly against me, her cheek against my shoulder. Fetter
looked at our hands clasped tightly.

“Oh,” she said, touching her cheek, “that is
just precious. Young love is just so precious.” She reached out to
stroke my cheek. I turned away and she withdrew, a little hurt.
Then came the pressure.

Pike had consumed every bit of essence,
there was none left, none she could find, but her mind stretched
out, searching the ground and trees for anything with a heartbeat,
better yet a soul, to get her strength back. She was in a desert,
no water in sight. She continued to expand. Eventually, she would
find something. Once she did, she’d suck the life out of it with a
sweet smile.

She didn’t show desperation, but I felt her
mind searching Chute, searching for any weakness in my protection,
a crack in my shield, to plunge inside and slurp Chute’s essence
out like water.

“Very well, then,” she said, the pressure
letting up. “If you wish to delay the inevitable, we can move
forward.”

The leaves piled up around her feet and
began to move, swirling around her legs and then lifting over her
head. A funnel cloud moved upward, pulling dust and smoke into its
vortex like a water spout, pulling the clouds around it. The faint
colors of grimmets were high above, set free by the collapse of the
forcefield roof. They dotted the sky like colorful starlings,
circling widely around the funnel.

I pushed Chute behind me.

“Oh, come now, darling. I told you I
couldn’t die. I’ve been alive for eons, I know every trick there
is. Manumit didn’t recognize that single byte of data inside you
was me. Pike thought he could absorb me, like he could consume me
like a magic potion and become a god, but honestly, he had no idea
what he was doing.”

He was waiting for something. He was waiting
for the call.

“However, I do owe him, considerably, and
might have to reinstate his consciousness once I’m home. Maybe even
make him a partner. He could never replace Manumit, but with time
he just might make a suitable Mr. Fetter.”

“Pike did this?”

“Don’t blame him, darling. He was only doing
what any good predator would do. He wanted power, thought I was
vulnerable for a take over. Thought if he ate god he would become
god, but it doesn’t work that way.”

“Pivot didn’t know you were…”

She shook her head. “He had no idea I could
hide on a cellular level, I’m afraid. His efforts are to be
applauded, certainly. His plan was genius, a magnificent work of
art. But my dear lover forgot what he once was.” She took a deep
breath and sighed. “I’m going to miss him, but at least now it’s
over. I look forward to hunting him down, to be honest.”

She sat on a stone outcropping like she
needed to rest, but that was deceiving. She was gaining strength
and pulling on my mind, searching for a way inside. The funnel was
beginning to thicken, drawing more leaves, reaching higher into the
mist, ending in the sky where a black spot began to swirl.
A
wormhole.

“There was nothing you or Manumit could do
to stop me from escaping, darling. Even if Pike didn’t come for me,
I would’ve eventually consumed your body and mind.”

Fetter was inside me as I walked through the
desert, pulling on essence against my will. Fetter was the reason I
was absorbing from those around me, from Streeter and the people in
Tannerville. I couldn’t stop her.
I was becoming Fetter.

Until I met Scott.

“Although,” she said, “Manumit was quite
effective. Genius, really. A human-based mech. He was able to merge
your mind with the soul of your original being.” She looked at me,
studying. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t see that when we were back
home. It’s almost as if you became human, after all.”

Chute’s hand squeezed tighter. Her mind
struggled to comprehend everything that was happening, there was
little chance she would understand my true being. Not now. But it
hurt that she knew something about me wasn’t real. It hurt that she
didn’t know. There just wasn’t time to explain. All I could do was
squeeze back and protect her from the angelic predator sitting on
the rock, wringing her hands.

“Come, come, now. Let’s go home.” Fetter
held out her hand for help. “This is foolishness, all this waiting.
Give me the girl and we can go home. Your love for her is
admirable, but misplaced. You can have her and your young love will
flourish once we’re back.”

“You mean you’ll manufacture her.”

“It will feel as real as it feels right
now.”

Her perfect fingernails clawed at the
boulder she was sitting on. The funnel had not grown and the
wormhole was still small. She needed me to get it fully open. She
was stuck until she got stronger. Until I gave up. She needed
Chute. There was no more essence to draw from, not in the immediate
area. She would have to journey to get it. Deep wrinkles cut into
her stiff lips.

“If you think you can resist me, boy,” she
said, “you are mistaken.”

She stood. The funnel began to shrink,
pulling away from the wormhole, releasing the leaves caught in its
current. But the grimmets circled around the black hole in the sky,
the edges swirling as if they were holding it open. The psychic
pressure intensified. She was drawing on her reserves.

“I thought, perhaps, you would understand
your fate,” she said. “You belong to me, darling. Your father has
forsaken you, left you as a gift. You are strong, but you are no
match for me, not even at my weakest.”

Fetter’s mind clamped around us like jaws.
And began to squeeze.

Chute moaned. Her knees weakened and her
pulse slammed in her veins. Fear oozed from her in a pungent wave.
The warmth of her flesh, the beating of her heart, spread through
me. I reasserted my mind, tightened it like an impenetrable wall,
pushing back the psychic pressure. Chute felt the relief.

“You are quite a source of power there.” Her
nostrils flared, smelling us. “Do you think it’s enough?”

I looked up to the grimmets, searching for
Rudder, calling out. I needed their help. How long could I hold
out? And if anyone ventured out to assist us, they would only feed
Fetter until she eventually crushed me. But if I had to hold the
ground forever, then so be it. I would hold it forever.

But Chute won’t survive forever.

The funnel suddenly vanished and showered us
with sand and grit, bits of leaves fluttering around. Fetter threw
the full weight of her power around me. My mind began to crack as
the vise tightened. Chute was nearly limp, leaning against my back.
She threw her arm over my shoulder.

“Come now.” Fetter stepped closer. There was
nothing I could do to stop her from stroking my cheek this time,
her thin skin soft and innocent but scentless. “There’s no need to
struggle.”

“Get away from him.” Chute slapped her
hand.

Fetter stepped back, smiling. “You can’t
hide forever.”

Chute tried to go after Fetter again and I
stopped her. “You don’t understand,” she said. “You matter more to
the world than me! Let go of me and then crush her.”

“Don’t say that!” I shouted.

“I’m just a girl, but you… the whole world
depends on you.”

She didn’t know exactly what was going on,
she didn’t know what Fetter wanted from her, she only knew I was
protecting her. She believed the world needed me more than her, the
world would be better off with me protecting them. Maybe she drew
courage from me, the same way I was drawing strength from her. I
could take her essence, absorb her before Fetter could, grow
stronger and close the wormhole. I would have the strength to
reduce Fetter to a single byte of data again and lock her away. But
Chute would be the price for that.