Pulse of Heroes (33 page)

“But what do you do when people see you
around for twenty years and notice that you haven’t changed?”
Michelle asked.

“I usually change locations before I let
twenty years pass by,” he answered. How would that affect her life
Michelle quietly wondered to herself? But that thought scared her
and she decided to ask him about more pleasant things.

“Will you explain to me how you did that last
night, when you held my hand and I felt so…”

“Good?” Elliot laughed. “It’s ok for you to
feel good, I hope you know that?”

“It’s just that it feels like I’m floating. I
love it, it’s like nothing I ever felt before!” she blushed and
looked out the window. “What else can you do that we can’t do?”

“Well, you’ve seen, or shall I say witnessed,
that we can move so fast that human eyes cannot detect us. But it
takes a lot of practice to get good at it. I can only do it for
short distances and small amounts of time. It really drains every
bit of energy out of me if I try and overdo it.” Elliot told her
that it was those types of developed skills that set them apart
from average humans. They were definitely physically stronger, but
not immensely so. He guessed that their strength was that of maybe
seven men combined.

Michelle liked sitting next to such a
powerful man and slowly, without noticing it, her body slid in her
seat so that she could be closer to Elliot. He was like a magnet to
her. He told her that besides actual physical strength, and
agility, their perceptions were heightened. That meant that their
sight was superb and they were able to see in conditions that
humans would perceive as either being too bright or too dark.

“I detect colors even at night,” he told her.
“ When we choose to, we can fine tune our hearing and our sense of
smell to equal if not surpass that of the night creatures. We’re
able to lower and raise our body temperature to extremes, and we
can live without oxygen for longer amounts of time.”

“You guys are amazing. I wish I could be like
you,” she said dreamingly, and then immediately felt angry for
being a weakling, a human. Elliot felt sad for Michelle. He’d had
this same conversation before and it was always difficult for the
other person. There was always the realization of the weakness and
frailty of human life, and there was always a tinge of jealousy. He
liked that Michelle was comfortable expressing her envy up front,
otherwise it could sit there and fester underneath the surface
until one day it would all come out and by then it would have
changed into complete resentment.

“We feel pain. I am not made of steel. I have
a heart and a pulse just like any other human,” he said as a way to
relate to what Michelle was thinking. “And I do believe that I was
very close to death once.”

“What do you mean? I thought you guys are
immortal?” Michelle asked, alarmed.

“We are, in the sense that we don’t age and
die, but there are instances in which we have been killed. The
problem is that there aren’t enough of us to compile data about
what it is that kills us. It’s not like we’re going to experiment
on one another,” he chuckled. “But we do die if our heads are
severed from our bodies,” Michelle winced at the thought, “and I’m
pretty sure that fire with extreme heat is another way, because
that’s what almost killed me.” Elliot told her that there were many
times when his kind had been victim of various persecutions. And he
had found himself at the stake not once but twice.

“It came in waves, and it sprouted in
different places and at different times. Usually it followed some
great plague or natural disaster, and because we survived, we and
our families were naturally blamed.” From the look on his face it
was obvious that Elliot was thinking about painful memories. He
told Michelle that although he survived, some of his descendants
were burned at the stake, especially during the dark ages when
anyone who raised suspicion was accused of demonic possession or
witchcraft.

“I myself was the victim of a similar
torture; it was the worst thing I have ever felt. If I wasn’t found
when I was I think I would have actually died.” What Elliot
described to Michelle next sounded even worse than death. He was
fighting in some war and word had gotten around that he was a
daemon fighting in a plain soldier’s uniform. His enemies found a
way to sneak poison into his camp, but when he didn’t die from the
poison and instead just got drunk beyond belief, they used their
superior numbers and the element of surprise to overpower him. By
the time he sobered up he was gagged with his wrists wrapped
backwards around stone pillars and held in place by the thickest
metal chains.

“I couldn’t use my arms at all, and the iron
chain they had me in was so thick that it might as well been solid
plutonium. They had already set the place burning, and when my
clothes caught on fire they melted into my skin. I’ve never felt so
much pain in my life. And the whole time they were yelling at me to
tell them which Marid I was, or which one sent me here. It was
insanity mixed with insane pain.” Michelle winced in sympathy, her
eyes glossy and her lips quaking.

“I don’t remember much besides the pain, but
I do remember waking up in a mass grave surrounded by others who
had suffered the same fate as I did. Only they were free; they were
dead. I, on the other hand, had to lie there in complete and utter
agony and wait for my body to heal itself, for my cells to
regenerate. I have healed from stab wounds, bullet wounds, and
numerous other injuries, but there is nothing, nothing on earth
that is as painful as burning to death.” Elliot’s eyes were far
away in the distant past. His jaw tightened with agitation and his
entire body seemed taut with tension. Michelle wanted to protect
him from those awful memories. She wanted to make them all go away
and to make him feel better. She wanted to hold him or cradle him
or do something. She felt so useless sitting there in the seat next
to him as he described drowning in a sea of decomposing corpses
including women and children. Without thinking it through, Michelle
made a sudden movement to grab Elliot’s hand and held it tightly in
hers. Whether it was for his benefit or hers, it didn’t really
matter because it made Michelle feel better. Feeling his warm skin
against hers was a validation that he was there with her alive and
not suffering somewhere in the distant past. And what’s more,
Elliot didn’t pull back from her. He tightened his grip around her
fingers and kept driving while they held hands.

Elliot knew that what he had just told
Michelle would shock her. It was one of the worst memories of his
life and even though hundreds of years had passed, he still had
nightmares about it. He looked at the sun up above and calculated
that they were ahead of schedule. Michelle didn’t say anything
about his turning onto a different route; her mind was also
somewhere else. They drove up a steep mountain and eventually
parked in a beautiful area with picnic tables facing the ocean down
below. When Elliot opened the door for Michelle she didn’t say
anything. Maybe she wasn’t strong enough to deal with his past, he
thought to himself. And if that were the case he would have to
release her and let her live her life away from the madness that he
brought with him everywhere he went. He took Michelle’s hand and
walked her over to the ridge. The magnificent Pacific Ocean down
below was an awe-inspiring view. It was fresh and sunny and even
the breeze had droplets of sea in it. That was Elliot. Elliot was
the sea, coming and going, pulling and pushing, but remaining bound
to the earth. “It’s beautiful up here, but what about Devin?”
Michelle asked him.

“We’ve got time. I thought maybe this would
cheer you up. There is something about water that always pacifies
me. I’m sorry for telling you about that episode. It really is an
awful story.” Michelle didn’t say anything for a while but
eventually turned to look into Elliot’s eyes.

“How do you do it?”

“Do what?” he asked. Michelle returned her
gaze to the horizon.

“I can hardly look at the news because of all
the awful things that go on out there. It’s bad enough when natural
disasters strike and I see all the suffering, but when I see what
humans do to one another it makes me sick to my stomach. Even our
country goes to war, and people die. It makes me feel ashamed to be
a human. And to hear how we, they, have treated you… how come you
don’t hate all humanity? You’ve seen more than anyone.” Michelle
asked in frustration. Elliot shook his head and gently turned
Michelle so she was facing him.

“Because I see daily acts of beauty done by
regular human beings. Thousands of acts of generosity and kindness
that will never be reported on the nightly news.” He wiped a tear
away from her cheek. “When I told you about what happened, why did
you grab my hand and hold it?” Michelle looked at him and then
shifted her gaze shyly to the ground.

“I don’t know… I didn’t think about it. It
just felt right. I guess I thought maybe you needed it?” Elliot
gently raised Michelle’s face so she could look at him. She now had
multiple tears running down her cheeks and she was embarrassed
about them.

“It’s because of what you’ve done. No one
will know about that split second moment when your heart naturally
sought to comfort me. You’ll probably even forget about it
yourself. Think about the millions of acts of kindness that take
place every second somewhere out there. When they report the wars
on the news they won’t show you the soldiers playing with orphans
or helping people rebuild their homes. What you see is all
sensationalism, and it’s meant to swerve the viewer’s mind
politically. Turn that damned TV off, that’s what I say. We got
along fine without it for thousands of years. Seek your news
elsewhere, and you’ll find your way much closer to the truth. Do
you understand now?” Michelle nodded and wiped her tears away with
the bottom of her sleeve. She so wished he would take her in his
arms and hold her. But instead he grabbed her hand and pulled her
towards a small patch of vegetation. Trusting him, Michelle did not
protest. Elliot crouched in front of a small bush with tiny leaves
and flower buds. Placing his hand on the shrub, Elliot turned to
look east at the sun and his eyes began glowing. Michelle looked at
him curiously but he told her to look at the bush, not at him. A
few seconds later, she saw each and every one of the little flower
buds open up to reveal a violet bell shaped flower. It was a
beautiful sight, and Michelle looked at Elliot with marvel. Next,
Elliot pointed out to her a couple of small white butterflies
fluttering around other flowers. He looked at them and motioned
with his hands to indicate an invisible pathway for them from where
they were to where he crouched. The butterflies circled around in
the air a couple more times and then made their way to the newly
opened flowers. Michelle’s mouth dropped wide open and her eyes,
wide as they were, were smiling.

“It’s like magic,” she whispered.

Elliot smiled. “No not magic, Michelle. It’s
nature and I just helped it along.” He took her hand and they
walked back to the car.

“What makes a rainbow appear?” he asked, but
didn’t let her answer. “Long time ago people thought it was magic,
a gift from the Gods. We now understand through science that it’s
pure white light separated by millions of water droplets acting
like tiny prisms. Does that mean it’s any less awe-inspiring? Does
it disqualify the rainbow as a gift from the Gods?”

On the way back down the mountain Elliot told
Michelle about the railways and gravity cars that used to drive up
and down that same exact road in the early 1900’s. He had lost a
lot of money in the endeavor when fire destroyed the railways and
the station saloon twice. But Michelle wasn’t paying attention to
him. She was still stuck on the butterflies. “What?” he asked,
smiling over at Michelle when he saw a most peculiar expression on
her face.

“I want you to tell me everything. About how
things work and everything you’ve done,” she said in a hungry
voice.

“Whoa! Like a minute-by-minute report of the
last five thousand years? Michelle, I don’t even remember half of
it myself. And anyway why would you want to hear about such mundane
things? My brain is filled with useless facts and memories that
mean nothing to anyone anymore.”

“But they mean something to me,” Michelle
interjected.

“Well, what should I start with and what
should I omit or include?” Elliot asked, amused. Michelle thought
for a while and asked him to tell her how his abilities worked. And
Elliot told her that it was actually very simple if she understood
the laws of chemistry, physics, and nature.

Elliot and his kind were by no means above
the laws of nature. Their abilities worked within nature’s
framework and were mostly tied to electromagnetism,
Active-electro-perceptions and bio-electromagnetism. All these
dealt with the interactions of atoms and protons.

“We can sense things from the magnetic energy
they emit. This helped me greatly in my sailing skills because I
was able to sense the earth’s magnetic field and that was very
valuable for navigation.”

“Is that how you knew that I was hiding under
that bush?” Michelle still felt embarrassed about that day she hid
at
Hekademos
. Elliot told her that although he was angry at
the time he actually found the whole incident rather amusing.

“Especially when you crawled out in your huge
camouflage clothes.” Elliot laughed out loud and Michelle folded
her arms in defiance and looked out the window. He grabbed her hand
again. “I used Bio-electromagnetism to help your leg heal faster
that day. That’s the fancy word for talking with cells.” Michelle
was attentive again.

“Can you bring things back to life too? Like
a God or something?” Elliot’s face went white when Michelle spoke
those words. Did she know what he had done the whole time and just
wasn’t letting on? But when he didn’t say anything and she nudged
him, poking her finger into his shoulder, he realized that she
didn’t. It was just a natural question to ask after everything he
had just revealed to her.