Page 45 of Eat Me Alive
She gives me a funny look. “Just because you’ve been stalking my dreams doesn’t mean we’re BFF’s. What happened to good ol’ fate?”
“Don’t you think fate removes personal agency over your life?”
Her mouth drops open, looking around, “Don’t say that. A nameless god might strike us dead for having such controversial opinions.”
“What?”
“So, we don’t have a special, supernatural bond?”
“The Void can’t have any, unfortunately. However, the Terra can. This form can be your Provider.”
She is silently mulling this over. “You fucking with me?”
Not at all, but I’m not sure how to explain it to her without sounding like an arrogant—
“I think I know why. You think this mate-thing is beneath you.”
There’s a pounding in my temples that won’t go away. I do not know what to say, because—taking everything into consideration—she’s right. I’m a god—a monstrous one at that. I have no right to anyone the earth possesses. The thought makes the snakes in my gut curdle.
“Don’t worry.” She pats my arm awkwardly. “I will help you be humble.”
“That sounds like a threat.”
“It only does if you actually think you aren’t better than us subhumans. With that said, I am very familiar with people who have god complexes and have gained a tolerance.”
“It sounds to me you are going to let me continue and be arrogant.”
“No, it means I know exactly where this arrogance comes from.” She crosses her arms over her chest, raising her nose at me. “Which means I have an effective way of stopping it. Hypothetically. You’ve been hurt, in great pain that you built this Tower of Babel judging us.”
“That is cruel of you to break me down like this so early in our companionship.”I reply dryly, but in truth, her words dig deep.
“Right…So, how did Ingar find me?”
I am relieved at the abrupt segue of the conversation.“I do not know the specifics, but the Otherlands have evolved. They have a way of collecting your innermost thoughts through your devices.”
Slowly, she turned to stare at me. “For fucking real?”
“You might have searched something incriminating.”A smile spreads throughout my lips. “Mainly, having sex with plants.”I tease.
“I’ve never had sex with plants in my dreams!” she hisses guiltily.
Lies. I lighten the mood by chuckling, dragging her with me to the shallow part of the water, washing her. “I jest. You might have dreamt of the Void. The hunger. I believe those are hyperspecific topics that do not come up a lot in humans.”
“So it is true! Our devices are listening to us.” She’s giving me a strange look right now. “Shit, Sunny might just be right.”
“Pardon?”
“This is a romantic scifi-fantasy novel come to life. With these fated mates, illicit sexual encounters, strange lands…” She swallows thickly. “The only thing missing is the main antagonist.” Her eyes shift toward my direction.
“Being in this barren land sounds more tragic, no? Not romantic?”
“I really wish you would stop foreshadowing everything. It creeps me out.”
Her back is pressed up against me as we let the blackness swallow us. The starflies flutter across the sky, perching by the branches like sentries. The silence lingers, but intimacy—her warm, wet skin against mine—is a salacious beast. It is not wild and unhinged. It’s a slow trickling of poison, covering my body, soaking into my skin with the promise of breaking me into pieces.
My Terra form disintegrates until black smoke licks her skin.
“Do you remember me now?”
