Flashes

Three hours later. In a nearby hospital.

The white walls rushing past. Blood leaking everywhere. Nurses pushing down the halls.

Her mind flashing in and out of consciousness.

Never-ending.

Aria started to pass out. Her life flashing before he eyes.

The flashing lights. The white walls. The glassy shades. The marble floor.

Damon and Luna watched as the doctors rushed Aria toward the emergency room.

"Luna, did you get the Necronomicon?" asked Damon.

"No," replied Luna, her face down in disappointment.

Damon stood with his hands in his pockets, dry blood on his hooded robes, he watched as a nurse reached out to him.

"Sir, are you-"

He ushered her away, "no I'm fine, it's not my blood."

"Oh... Um... Ok..."

She walked away as Luna slowly leaned over, her head on his shoulder.

"Damon I have a question... I just couldn't believe it... Are you really Immortal?"

He turned his head to hers. Her head covered by the red hood, her dazzling green eyes, her stunning features, her golden hair.

She reached out, her finger touching his, they leaned in closer. He grabbed her hand. The two staring at each other. Their faces inches apart.

Damon turned away.

"Luna... I... I have been Immortal for a long time... It's... It's dangerous here... It's... It's dangerous anywhere... You could die..."

Luna sat back. She took his hand. At his face.

"It's fine... We should be safe here. I made a deal with Bryan. He said he wouldn't send anyone after us."

"But can we take his word?" questioned Damon.

"Yes! Bryan is very trustworthy. He's... I can just tell. He was earnest. I... I may not be smart reading people, but I can tell when someone is desperate or not. And he was desperate."

"What about me...?"

"What do you mean?"

Damon took his hand away from hers. He placed it on his lap.

"What do I look like to you? Lost... Bored... Tired..."

"I... I... I don't know... I have to think about it."

---

Ten minutes later

Luna and Damon watched Aria's operation from the room next door. They watched as the doctors operated on the operating table. As they body pulled her apart, cut her open. They watched as the doctors took out chunks of flesh, as they replaced it with other pieces of flesh. As they scooped her out, pulled her like gum, folded the flaps, and stitched her up.

Damon stared straight ahead through the one-way mirror. He didn't even blink an eye. One the other hand, Luna couldn't stand it. She was crying at the sight of her only friend dying and being reconstructed, bit by bit, piece by piece.

Creak...

The door to their watching room opened up. A nurse stepped in.

"Sir, Mam, you can't be here!"

Damon turned around. A nurse stood on the opposite end, her cap, her gown, she was confused and ready to call the cops, but before anything could happen Damon reached into his pocket and pulled out a badge. The badge of the Immortal Horses.

The nurse looked at it, the symbol, the horse, the pegasus. She immediately knew what it was, and what it entailed. She knew of its high-standing prestige and power.

She also knew what would happen if she went against the symbol. She knew exactly what would happen to her...

Death.

"I am so sorry! I will leave immediately," she shuddered, ducking out of the room.

The doctors started reattaching and stitching up the missing flesh to Aria's stomach.

Damon turned to the sick Luna, "you should watch. This is a moment that will never disappear. The feeling of losing someone. No matter how long, how long you live. Getting attached hurts more than being alone. This is what it feels like to be with you, and with Aria... It might have even driven me insane, but you Luna... I haven't gone crazy enough to still not get attached to you, to still not like you, but... I don't feel anything for you... I can't feel anything for you... I won't let myself..."

Luna looked up, tears rolling down her face. She listened to his perfectly calm voice, but when she looked up she saw that his face was an entirely different emotion. He looked sad, pulled, gripped against a rock and a hard place. He was showing an emotion he hadn't shown in a long long time.

"Damon..."

He started to get desperate.

"You Luna... You can survive this. Leave us. Aria and I started this knowing we would... No... We started this knowing she would die. You don't need to die with us. You can still join the Immortal Horses, you can become strong. For whatever goal, for whatever world you want to live, you can-"

"No, I... I was... I have nowhere to go... I was cast out from my family. I cast myself out. I lived on the streets, killed as a bounty hunter. I was used by people. Assaulted. Beaten. Abused. I was taken from my country, taken to this country. Then they forced me to learn English. They forced me to move, to go to places I had never seen before, to meet famous people, to kill famous people. They forced me to create. To be strong. I have moved around. From family to family. I never had a family of my own... I wanted to see sights, to see wonders, but... When I was finally free I never found any joy in any of it..."

Damon felt a pulse in his heart.

She continued, "I always had that lingering feeling. Like I was never good enough. That I wouldn't live up to my brothers. That there was something different about us. I went through so much, but... That week, with Aria, with you... That was the first time that I truly fell in love. With life. With you. And earlier. When you told me that you were immortal. I thought for just a second that it was all a lie, that I wasn't attracted to you. But how could I lie to myself? The moment I met you, the first time I fell in love with you, it was all because... This is my answer... What I saw in you... When we first met, even now... The reason I fell in love with you was because I thought we were the same."

Damon reached down. He picked up the healing Aria. He pulled her in close.

They kissed.

"I'm sorry."

---

In the Immortal Horses HQ building. The tenth-floor recreational hall.

"So this is the sixth guy?" asked a brown-haired man in rough jeans and a golden puffed-out jacket.

Miss Eiko wiped the blood and dirt from her rose-colored heels. Byran stood menacingly, his upper body naked and bloody, his lower body covered in a ripped-up red robe. he looked across the silver-lit room. He looked at all the passing people, at the passing stares, the awe in his presence.

Miss Eiko looked up, "you're a celebrity now Bryan-"

The brown-haired man interrupted her, "wait-wait-wait! Bryan... This guy's name is Bryan? That is not his name. He does not look like a Bryan."

Bryan quickly turned to the strange man making fun of him.

"First off my name's not actually Bryan, and..." He turned to Miss Eiko, "who's this guy?"

She pulled out a folded piece of paper and opened it up.

On the first page, she read the name of the guy next to her.

This guy is our fifteenth-ranked Witch. His name is-"

He interrupted again, "my name is Killa Kill, but my real name is Micheal, don't call me Micheal! But let's get right to the point, I'm a Blood Witch. And I'll be your assistant advisor from now on. My job is to watch you and report back to the other True Immortals. Yeah, it's something like that."

"You're not supposed to tell him that, Killa."

"Ooops. Hahaha!"

Miss Eiko sighed, "uhhggg... But I guess it doesn't really matter. Bryan's not that stupid. He would have figured it out sooner or later."

Bryan looked at Killa Kill. He looked at his fancy fit. The puffed-out golden jacket, the ripped jeans, the rough sneakers.

He was always moving, always stepping back and forth, never stable or secure.

Miss Eiko stepped up, "ok enough chit chat you, idiots. Time to show you around the building."

---

They walked through the building.

"What is this place?" asked Bryan confused by the elaborate and extreme layout of this office space.

Glass cubicles were spread across multiple levels. Everything was built on glass and steel, with escalators going up down, left and right, like a factory of workers and computers.

Miss Eiko pointed at all the workers in black suits, "Bryan I want to show you what the Immortal Horses really do."

Bryan walked across the smooth steel floor, his ripped-up robes dripping blood.

"What is all this... All these computers?"

"This is where we get the job done. Where we make deals with countries and armies. Where we send our forces out into the world. This is our control center..." Miss Eiko looked at her watch, she looked at the time, "I got somewhere to go so I'll skip right to the point. The Immortal Horses aren't just another organization sought on ruling the world. We learned that lesson a long time ago. So instead of ruling, we found it easier to regulate the world."

She turned to Killa Kill, "now Killa, I got places to be so clean Bryan up and get him a new outfit, get him anything he wants. Then take him around the place, show him around."

"Yessss... Mam!"