H.E.R.O. - Metamorphosis Page 15

We sat down to eat at the boys’ small dining table and spread out the variety of food Rael picked up. In the calm environment, I finally spent some time studying the mindviews of my friends.

  I was so close to the two of them that each of their mindviews was the size of perhaps a 60” television with me sitting only five feet away or so. In other words, they were quite large. The boys looked at me oddly, when I used my hand to move the mindviews in the air. At least they appeared to be floating in the air to me. The motion looked more like waving, or perhaps like one of the hi-tech movies with computer screens that you use your hand to push and drag the items around on the screen. Except to them there was no screen, so every time I did it, they gave me a strange look.

  For the most part there was just an image of what they saw and on occasion, thought. It was odd watching the image suddenly shift from the viewpoint of where they looked to something they visualized. Lance suddenly switched to thinking about colorful costumes he considered getting in the day or days ahead.

  Even though I was unusually hungry, the mindviews fascinated me more. I realized that I was hearing, smelling, and tasting through them as well. It really shocked me when I somehow made Rael’s mindview larger in my visual space and I tasted the food he was eating as though I ate it. Not only that, he enjoyed the taste, and I felt a wave of enjoyment as well.

  I mumbled, “Mmm. Wow.”

  Rael looked at me. Through his eyes I saw that I had a faraway look to my eyes, and my mouth hung open slightly. Doh, I’d rather not let this out yet. I had my fork in my hand, and realized one serious weakness of the mindviews. I couldn’t see out of my own eyes!

  I stabbed at food on my plate, trying to use Rael’s mindview to see. I felt humor coming from him. I could sense it was from his mindview, yet it flowed over me and made me feel the humor as well. I definitely looked silly, trying to get a bite onto the fork.

  Then the greatest challenge struck, getting the food into my mouth. I missed my mouth with the fork, dumping some of it onto the hospital gown. My natural reaction was to twist my head down to look, but somehow Rael’s mindview was stuck, and I saw through his eyes as he saw the entire goofy action.

  They both had seen what occurred, and they heartily laughed. I felt this double wave of amusement from them both such that I couldn’t help but laugh myself. I finally succeeded in pushing Rael’s mindview back to its former, and I assumed normal size. I saw on my own again. After picking up the bits with a sheepish grin on my face I said, “Wow, Captain McCain must have hit me really hard, I’m aiming off to where I think my head should be.…”

  They laughed again, and I felt the double wave of joy flow over me. I grinned, and couldn’t stop as I ate with a vengeance, now that I saw on my own again. I found that the food tasted good to me, as well as to both of them. I didn’t recall ever enjoying eating so much, apart from some desserts.

  We cleaned out everything on the table. I couldn’t believe we’d eaten so much food.

  I decided to do a test of this odd pass through of feelings. I stood up and walked behind Rael, and succeeded at mentally pulling his mindview large onto my visual space again. He tensed up slightly to see what I was going to do to him. I then proceeded to massage his shoulders. He relaxed under my hands, but I had to see through his eyes, which he then closed. For the first time in hours, my vision was black.

  His muscles were thicker and harder than before. I massaged them lightly, working at a feel-good type massage. He enjoyed the massage greatly, and he sighed with pleasure. I gasped as I felt the feeling pass through me. Wow! When they enjoy something, I do as well.

  I heard Lance’s mental voice say, Holy cow, she must enjoy giving a massage a lot. I wonder if she’s got some new sense that makes her hands extremely sensitive, or perhaps her skin overall. I’d give her a massage myself to test that, but I feel like I’m about to crush everything I touch. Darn fork already bent three times in just one meal. I broke her shoulder and arm too. Sigh…. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to hold someone again without crushing them to death. Enough Lance! It’s the price for the power. You can be a hero now, too darn bad if you can’t be all chummy with everyone. You can learn to hug without the squeeze at the end, or handshakes without closing your grip. Quit whining. Stupid fork.

  I was amused at Lance’s mental argument. I mentally pushed Rael’s mindview back to its normal size and position, and found I still felt the enjoyment almost to the same degree. My vision cleared, and while Rael’s mindview was generally black, I could now see Lance’s mindview, as well as see out of my own eyes again.

  I grinned at Lance and winked at him. I felt a sudden wave of happiness that I somehow knew was from his mindview. Wow, so little to make someone happy. He was like my big, happy dog, or something.

  Lance smiled, stood up and began taking the trays and cardboard rice containers to the trash and crushed them in his giant hands. He took great joy in smashing them into the tiniest package possible. I wouldn’t have thought the aluminum and plastic could get so small.

  Rael opened his eyes at the noise and watched Lance do the crushing. When done, Lance held up the tiny ball and grinned at us.

  Rael grinned, “Nice, you’ll make a great garbage collector.”

  Lance walked behind me to wash his hands. I realized how open the gown was in back when he turned around to dry his hands and got a pleasant surprise. Oh, great, this is a conundrum. If I suddenly move, he’ll suspect something strange is up. I felt him grin, but ever the gentleman, he then walked back around to the other side of the table.

  I figured I should call it a night, so I asked, “Hey, Rael … I need to clean up and crash for the night, mind driving me home? You picked me up at my place, remember?”

  His mental images flashed with various schemes to keep me here. “I think it would be smarter for all of us to stay together for a while. You’ve had some odd things happen tonight, and now you’re missing your mouth with the utensils.…”

  I rolled my eyes and said, “I … guess I could crash on the couch again. I don’t have any clothes here though.”

  Rael immediately thought of the clothes he had in the trunk of his car. He felt guilty, but wanted to see if he could get me to stay here without them.

  He said, “Or you could stay in one of our beds, we have big enough beds. No touching necessary.”

  Lance inhaled some of the water he’d been drinking. He coughed and said, “Nuh uh. I’m a danger to be around; if she slept with me in the same bed I could kill her in my sleep. I won’t have that on me, no thanks. Sorry Steph, not that I wouldn’t like to have you in my bed, it’s just not safe. Heck, I’ll be lucky if the bed survives the night. I’m willing to sleep on the floor and you can have my bed for the night, though.”

  Hmm, actually the couch would be fine for me, but I wonder what these mindviews see when someone is dreaming. That would be an interesting experiment.

  I said, “No, keep your bed, Lance. I’ll sleep with Rael. Err, in Rael’s bed, if I can borrow a shirt of his. I’d use one of yours, but you’re so damn huge.…”

  Lance flexed at us, though most of the impact was lost due to the hospital gown. Rael and I laughed at him. I said, “That might work better with a t-shirt or no shirt. It looks downright silly in a hospital gown.”

  He mumbled, “Yeah, yeah. Laugh at poor Lance.”

  I found myself massaging Rael’s shoulders again, and realized that he’d just been hoping I’d go back to doing it. Did I do that because I heard him think it and did it because I’m just standing here anyway, or did his thinking it cause me to do it? I couldn’t even tell. These mental links were odd. Either way, the enjoyment of giving him the massage through his mindview felt almost as good as getting one, so I wasn't complaining.

  He finally stood up and hugged me. He put his nose in my hair and took a deep breath. I couldn’t help but take a deep breath as he did, and felt his en
joyment at the hug and the aroma.

  He leaned back slightly and looked me in the eye with those catlike eyes. They looked so alien, and yet his mindview was so large that I could feel the caring he felt for me behind them. I felt an overwhelming urge to kiss him … and found myself doing so.

  He ran his hands along my bare back. I don’t believe I ever had a better kiss before that point. The sensation of his hands on my back, his lips on mine, and yet the additional sensation from his end of the kiss, and his body against mine almost overwhelmed me. I could have kissed him forever.

  Then, I realized that his new enhanced olfactory could smell my breath, and it was the same wonderful aroma of my hair, yet more powerful. The kiss only ended when I cut my lip on one of his fangs, and jerked back out of surprise.

  He lightly touched my lips with his finger and said, “I’m so sorry.” I watched through his eyes as the cut sealed over and all trace of the damage disappeared within seconds. The pain disappeared with the cut.

  His thoughts changed over to the taste of my blood on his tongue. He wondered why he didn’t feel the strong desire to bite me as he had Kim, the nurse. Perhaps it was because he was full from eating. Or perhaps something about my aroma kept him from wanting to hurt me. Either way, he was glad he didn’t feel the urge.

  He said, “If I’d known you wanted to kiss like that, I’d have done it a long time ago.”

  I blushed and looked down. I didn’t know what to say to that. I loved both Rael and Lance in a way. They were such longtime best friends of mine. I enjoyed flirting with them both, but I’d never really considered a serious relationship with either. They were just … best friends. Yet, so close to Rael, I wondered if they meant more to me than that. I decided to deflect rather than get into a conversation I didn’t know how to have.

  I winked at him, grinned and walked back to the bathroom. His mindview stayed open for the distance, and I watched through his eyes as he stared at me walk away. He grinned at the open-back view of the gown.

  He caught up to me, fast. I’m not certain how he moved so quickly, in fact. He squeezed me lightly on the shoulder, and pointed out the spare toothbrushes in a drawer.

  I asked, “Do you often have guests stay over that you need one-off brushes?”

  He laughed, “You were the last one to stay over, and that was for a movie night.” I saw from his mindview that he told the truth. For some reason it made me feel better.

  He continued, “By the way, you certainly don’t need to brush your teeth for good smelling breath. Your pleasant aroma comes from your mouth, too. I haven’t figured out why that would be, but it’s pretty cool. I’ll nab a shirt and hang it on the doorknob for you.”

  I saw the flash of a visual as he mentally planned to grab a shirt and return with it. I smiled at him and closed the door. The mindview worked through walls, as I watched through his eyes, he went into his room, changed into sweatpants, took out a shirt and came back to hang it on the door. Lance’s mindview showed him carefully pulling out comic books to look at costume designs.

  I washed up, though smell certainly wasn’t a problem. Oddly enough, I hadn’t had to use the facilities since the afternoon, and still felt no need. I shrugged, brushed my teeth, and changed into the shirt Rael left for me. It was nice knowing the shirt had a full back to it, and stretched to mid-thigh on me.

  I stopped out by Lance in the kitchen while Rael brushed his teeth. "Have a good night, Lance. I think today has been a great day for us."

  He replied, "Yeah, we actually made superdom. I'm so stoked! I'm really glad you're doing better, after all the injuries you had today. I'm really, really sorry about crushing your shoulder and arm."

  "I'm doing great now. Night." I kissed him on the cheek and walked back to Rael's bedroom.

  I saw Rael’s viewpoint as he watched the door, waiting for me to come into the room. I felt like I was some type of prey, and he a big cat waiting to pounce.

  I shut the bedroom door and walked toward the bed. I could barely see with only the light from the clock, yet Rael's mindview showed the room as bright as when the light was on. Interesting. He definitely has a far better sense of hearing, smell and sight than I do, possibly even taste from what I saw during the meal.

  I climbed in the far side of the bed from him and lay down. I looked over at him and grinned. I asked, “So … am I safe in here?”

  He said, “I’ll protect you.”

  “I meant from you.”

  “Oh. Well, yeah. I promise not to try anything.” He wished I’d slide over and spoon with him, imagining holding me against him. I felt this overwhelming urge to do it, and found that I’d slid over and pressed my back against him before I could clearly think about what I did.

  It surprised him greatly that I slid over to him, but felt extremely happy when I did. He slid his arm around my waist and kissed me on the head. My mind went crazy for a moment. I don’t recall wanting to do that. Did he make me do it? Was it the mind link?

  I was very tense for a moment, finally I decided that I was there, and might as well relax. It would look very odd to crawl over to him, and then immediately crawl away. He thought, Wow, I wanted her to slide over to me, and she did. Did I do that? I wonder if I have another power of some sort.

  That relieved me. Let him blame himself for it, and not ask me if I was doing something strange. Oh, like reading your mind, Rael. Yeah, that’d probably go over just great if you knew I was in your head, stealing your thoughts.

  I can't believe I just slid over here. Maybe I should move back. This feels so good having her against me. What? Her? Oh, man, I'm getting his thoughts. Yet ... I found that I enjoyed lying there like that immensely. I’m not certain if it was the comfort of having him hold me, or if it was his enjoyment of doing the holding. Probably both. This double sensation thing is both wonderful and frightening at the same time.

  The aroma of my own hair was so relaxing through Rael’s mindview. My aroma wasn’t overly special to myself, but his mindview stayed large in my visual space, and through it his senses came very clearly. I drifted off to sleep quickly, I felt so mentally drained.

  Chapter 16 - Heroes Must Help

  Lance's Perspective