Nine Lives Aren’t Enough
Chapter 3: Rising Sprits.
Mike was overjoyed, and yet confused. How could Josh be standing here, for him to be able to hug him? Shouldn’t he be dead? Mike was almost ready to not care at all, and just enjoy it, but it just seemed too impossible. “Josh, how are you still alive? I was sure Ryker killed you in there…”
Josh looked at him for a second, as if deciding whether or not to answer him. Finally he sighed. “Remember how I said I was part god? Well, I really am. You can kill my body, but not my soul, and if you don’t kill my soul, I just regenerate my body back. Ryker did kill me, but I just reconstituted soon afterwards. Sorry for the scare.”
“S-sorry for the scare? That’s an understatement! I thought I had lost you!” Tears began welling up in Mike’s eyes, and he let go, turning away from him. “Couldn’t you have teleported both of us out of the room? Why did you have to let him kill you?”
“That’s a long story, and not one to tell right now. Just remember, I have a reason for everything I do, and you will just have to trust that my reason is a good one.” Josh sighed, and an obviously forced smile formed on his guilt ridden face. “Besides, we need to go see Ryker, if we don’t cheer him up, he will never come out of that room. Not to mention the blood and body pieces will start to stink horribly if they don’t get cleaned up.”
Mike wasn’t sure what scared him more. The fact that Josh could talk about it so calmly, or the fact that Josh seemed to know exactly what he is doing. Mike just weakly nodded, and the two of them headed back across the street to Josh’s house.
The house was quiet, as if everything inside was afraid to move, afraid to breathe, less Ryker destroy it. Mike and Josh quietly walked up the stairs, and Josh knocked on his door. It seemed like ages before Ryker shakily told them to come in. Josh unsealed the door, and they walked inside.
Mike stood in horror at the grisly scene in front of his eyes. The walls, floor and a good part of the ceiling seemed to be painted with blood, and littered with small chunks of what he could only assume to be flesh. He brought his hand to his mouth to keep from screaming, and Ryker noticed, and turned his head down to the floor in shame.
“You shouldn’t have tried that Josh. I told you… you can’t fix me. Stop trying, so I can stop hurting you.” Ryker’s voice was shaky, and he never lifted his eyes from the ground. Josh forced the smile back onto his face, and simply went over to him, placing his hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t worry about it. It was my fault. In fact, as long as you clean up this mess, we’ll call it even.” Ryker looked up at him, meeting his gaze, and slowly nodded. He went into the hall, opened a closet, and got out numerous cleaning supplies. He quickly walked back into his room, and started furiously cleaning, as Josh pushed Mike out of the room and downstairs.
“Is he going to be alright?” Mike looked back upstairs, where Ryker looked like he was about to come to tears. “He seems pretty shaken up about it. I know I would be.”
“Yeah, he’ll be fine. Not the first time this has happened, and since we failed last night, it won’t be the last. Just let him finish cleaning, and we can continue on with our lives. Oh, but I do need your help on something.” Josh grabbed a bag of arcane, demonic looking items, and set them on the table.
“I’m afraid to ask this, but with what? I may be good at magic, but that looks a little dark for me…” Indeed, the entire ensemble seemed to come very close to dark magic, and as he got closer, he felt the demonic energy within them shake up his soul. He shivered, and picked one up. He examined it closer. It was a brass cup, with an odd symbol on the bottom of the basin.
“Actually, I need your help with that cup. You see, to make a body requires… ingredients. I can easily make them, but I need someone else to help. Ryker usually does it, but he is… obviously unable to right now. What I need you to do is hold the cup under a wound I’m about to make on myself, and collect enough blood to fill the cup, then slam it upside down on the table.”
“W-what? That’s disgusting, not to mention it sounds painful! Why would you do something like this to yourself?” Mike dropped the cup in horror, cringing when he saw it land perfectly on its base, despite how Mike threw it. He turned back to Josh, who was just looking at him sadly, as if he had hoped Mike would say yes. Mike stood there, thinking for a moment, and finally nodded, and picked up the cup.
Josh smiled apologetically, then picked up a knife, slashed his wrist, and held it over the cup. Startled, Mike had to fight to keep it from tipping over. Soon the cup filled, and Mike slammed it upside down on the table. As he brought the cup back to Josh, he saw that the blood had solidified into a small, ruby colored stone. He repeated this for about 15 minutes, making about twenty of the odd stones.
“Blood stones, they are a really important part of making my new bodies. Don’t worry, this didn’t hurt me, I’m perfectly fine, but it needed to be done.” Josh healed the wound, and then swept the stones into a small black bag, before putting it all away. “Thanks again, without those I might not be able to come back after dying.”
“N-no problem. W-what about the other ingredients? Do they need to come from your body as well?” Mike watched as Josh started laughing, and shaking his head no. Josh went over to his kitchen and started making them both some ramen. Soon, they each had a steaming bowl, and were eating at the table.
“No, don’t worry, the rest of the ingredients are mainly soil, water, wood, and fire. None of which I need to gather right now, and none of which come from my own body.” Josh noisily slurped his Ramen, sending a spray of broth over the table, which he quickly cleaned up. “Sorry about that, when you first get into a new body, its often very hungry.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Footsteps are heard on the stairs, and Mike turns to find Ryker walking down, still wearing the same guilty, sad, and frustrated face. He got himself his own bowl of ramen from the leftovers, and sat down to quietly eat. “Are you okay Ryker? You aren’t too shaken up, are you?”
“Josh, how many times do I have to tell you to not try to fix me? You haven’t found a spell yet to do it, and every time you try, I end up killing you. Can’t you just leave it alone?” Mike silently looked to the ground. Every time? How many times has Josh done this? How many times has Ryker killed him for it? He looked at Josh, hoping for an answer that would ease his worry for him.
“I won’t stop until you are cured. I won’t let some stupid curse run your life. I want you to be able to run in the moonlight, to be happy all month, instead of just the days not close to a full moon. If I have to die a few times to do that, then so be it.” Josh put an expression on his face that clearly said that that was the end of that, and finished his ramen.
“Fine, but don’t get Mike involved. I could have killed him, and he can’t regenerate like you.” Ryker looked at Mike with sorrowful eyes, as if remembering charging, and how close he got to ripping into him. Mike forced a smile onto his face.
“Don’t worry. I may not be part god, but I still am a cat. I DO have 9 lives. I even get another every ten years. Right now I still have 7 lives. You don’t need to really worry about killing me.” Mike finishes his ramen, and looks away, hoping to hide the fright that came back with the memory of its origin.
“Still, I feel bad for attacking you. Next time Josh wants to try something, just stay out of it.” Ryker looks at his ramen, as if with disgust. He looks at the both of them again, as if thinking about some dastardly deed to get them back for trying to fix him. He then smiles, as if he found such a deed.
“You won’t hold it against me if I think that smile is incredibly creepy, will you?” Mike didn’t know why he smiled, after being so downtrodden and depressed. He slowly edged away from Ryker, and towards Josh, as if hoping that Josh would protect him. Josh seemed to pick up on this, for he looked Ryker square in the eyes.
“Yeah, why are you smiling? Is there something funny?” Josh and Ryker’s eyes seemed to spark at they met. For a while, neither of them moved or spoke, until Ryker grinned evilly, and pulled out a dark orb that looks like it is made of a black glass. He tossed it up and down, and Josh seemed frightened a little bit, for he was slowly backing away.
He never got away. Ryker pulled out another orb from his other pocket, and instantly smashed them onto Josh and Mike. The glass broke, and Mike could feel a powerful magic take hold of him. He closed his eyes, and had the horrible sensation of falling. When he opened his eyes, Ryker was giant! No, Ryker wasn’t giant, Mike and Josh had shrunk! Ryker grinned evilly again, and crushed another orb above them, letting the dust settle on them.
Mike had the sensation of his soul loosening from his body, a feeling best described as vertigo and light headedness combined. Ryker then smiled again, this time showing off his many teeth. “I just found a way to get you back for making me kill you. Now that you are bite sized, and protected from permanently dying, its time for me to have a little snack.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Josh backed away again, but due his low sized, Ryker hardly noticed. Ryker grabbed them both, one in each hand, and slowly lifted them up to his face. Another toothy grin was quickly flashed in their direction, before he slowly opened his mouth, and dropped them both inside.
