They Called Me FIVE

LANCE

Sensations never left even after I wake up. I still feel the cackles of living energy at the tip of my skin. Shock hasn't abandon my limbs. I'm panting, I'm sweating furiously. My heartbeat is drumming against my chest.

That dream. That girl. That was Moon rose. So the blue rose she's been giving me was the same rose that man I possessed used to give her? Wait, am I a replacement for her long lost love? How helplessly heartsick is she?

Damn, I'm having goosebumps just thinking back on my dying moment. It felt so real my body can't forget how awful it is.

"What's wrong with you?" Dad asked.. He reached out and brush my hair. That's all he did. Then an electric current crack between us and I jumped. Dad stumbled in his feet. I looked down at my hands, see the black veins I saw in Magnus flowing at my own veins.

"Son, what's that?" Dad saw it too. Which means this is not my imagination.

"I don't – I don't know. Magnus also have this with him…Dad what's happening?" My nerves began to panic. I can't stop my fingers from shaking.

Dad held out his palms, in an attempt in trying to calm me down.

"Take a deep breath first. Don't worry, everything's alright." I thrust my wrist to his direction.

"You can actually say that after seeing this black slugs crawling in my skin?" Dad stopped moving. Then in a split second dashed out of my room.

"Dad?" I heard his footsteps receding into the basement. He went to fetch something. And I have a feeling it has something to do with this black alien sap residing in my skin. What are these things?

Blood of Magnus? I vaguely remembered touching his neck and he went down, suddenly weak and pale. Then this veins pop out of his neck. Does that mean…in addition to life force, I took his unworldly ability too?

Wait, that doesn't make any sense.

Dad came back with a glass bottle in hand. Like a bottle of gin strip out of its label and content. Only the cork on its lip remains. But what's inside reminds me of that ugly creepy clown from the sewer with menacing eyes and blood dripping from its shark like teeth.

"Dad what's that?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he shook the bottle and infuriate the creature inside. It trash and bared it's bigger than its face teeth at us.

"Lance, I want you to kill it." Dad said. "With your bare hands." And without warning he pop the cork and let the creature loose. At first, I was confident it can't come out of its prison bottle.

The creature is as big as a mouse with a clown menacing face. But I should've learned my lesson already. Expect the unexpected, is what people keep on reminding themselves. Whenever I hear those words I'm always possessed with the urge to splash a jug of juice straight to their faces. And then ask, 'You didn't expect that do you?'

Too bad I wasn't able to try it with someone. I wasn't able to victimize anyone. Turns out in this funky business, I became the victim. Of a sick very unexpected joke Dad orchestrated. The creature spin in circles, until its body deform and transform into a whirlpool of water. Only redder.

Its amazing to watch. I almost whistled. If only it didn't come out as twice as big as me and lashed its talons at my side I would've had fun staring in mocked delight.

"Dad, what the heck is this?!" I ducked at another strike of talons swishing in mid-air.

"Remember your training."

"Like how you smack me into a heap of swiss cheese? Great advice." The creature bobbed its body and bounce three times before it became a swirling spiral with a face of a snake, plus the creepy clown grin.

"Swiss cheese? I thought you hated cheese." Dad said as his arms crossed. Bluntly saying he's not gonna lend a hand in dealing with this monster he let loose.

"I do. That's why I compare my bruises and cuts with cheese." I quickly sidestepped when the creature whip its oversize feet to my side. I don't even know where it came from. Last time I see the clown has snake bouncing body. Now it evolves into an overgrown centipede with multiple arms and legs.

Some can grow long and whiz in the air like enhanced octopus's hands, others stay small but produce small red tennis balls. And it throws in my direction as if I'm playing baseball minus the costume and the bat.

"Dad, I could use some help here." I made a mistake of leaping into my bed and the creature thrash its long snaky red dripping arm to my bed. Splitting it into two. I sucked in my breath. Dad whistled. I shot him a look.

"You're the Eklektos. That creature is nothing against you." He told me. "Remember what I put you through. Make use of that life sucking power you have in your hands." And he grinned.

That's when it came to me, he's not worried about what happens to me. Whether I will die from the monster or have one part of my body gone missing. Because he knew it won't happen. Because he knew I can do this. I can defeat this thing. There's a proud blazing fire in my father's eyes that never died down. A fire that I always see whenever I'm passionate between trainings. When I'm bent on defeating him. When I don't give a damn to the bruises and cuts as long as I could decapitate him.

I chuckled. Seriously, is this how you care for your son? Plunge him into series of dangerous situations so you will see him grow stronger by his fights?

'Remember what I put you through. Make use of that life sucking power you have in your hands.'

Life sucking… A power sucking life force.

Maybe I got it wrong this whole time. Maybe instead of causing death, it devours any kinds of life forms that attempt to come near me. As a sort of defensive mechanism. Anything that I deem strange or wary about. Those cornfields… When I was in the car, I got a weird vibe coming from them.

Like there's a big part on them that doesn't sit right to me. Maybe that's the reason why this power decides to kill those cornfields. The Auf too, no questions asked, that one is downright horrible.

But what about Magnus? I'm sure there's nothing on him that I find strange. I was able to hang out with him normally. The creature spun its oversize centipede body and shot like spinning rocket towards me. I readied my fist, controlling the adrenaline rush to surge in my hand.

When the creature's shark like teeth made contact with my hair, I struck it squarely on the cheek. Not once, but thrice. Slimy green blood didn't stop dripping from its mouth. With a high knee kick I delivered to its imaginary stomach, it shriek and convulsed on my feet.

"Disgusting." And I brought my feet on its creepy clown face. No longer grinning. It evaporates into black ashen dust.