Haley Thistle
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Ransom the Shapeshifter: Part Two (rough draft)
🕑 Added 2023-04-22 20:00:01 +0000 UTCYou sat on the edge of the bed, adjusting the robe as it felt tight around your waist. Maybe your uniform, for all you knew it was someone else’s in that locker. You glanced around the room, feeling the darkness and the many boxes encroaching upon you.
The numbness in your limbs had gone into your fingers and toes now. You flexed your fingers, noticing a scar along the back of your hand. You had never had a scar there before. It looked, almost, like it was stabbed.
The last thing you can remember is going into the cryo chambers and handing your glasses off. You couldn’t remember anything else at all. And you certainly weren’t upon the Juniperus. You opened the bottle Ransom had given you, dumping out some of the pills into your hand. You studied them, making sure they were just normal pills. You took one, and sat still for a moment.
You closed your eyes, taking purposeful breaths.
The first time you met the Wizard was by accident. You had gotten separated from your troop, pushed down a ravine and somehow found yourself inside a cave. You were trying to contact the others when the entrance to the cave grew dark. The large figure of the Wizard stood there, dipping down inside then stretched out his arm towards you.
“Shit.” You held your head in your hands as the tingle became a prickle. You laid down on the bed, keeping your eyes closed. You stretched out your limbs, flexing your fingers. Everything was still and quiet, and the wind beating outside began to soften. You breathed, still waiting to see if those pills worked.
Ransom’s eyes came to you. He was handsome, weird, but in an intriguing sort of way. You thought of his hands, his long fingers and perfectly shaped nails. You began to relax, sinking back into the bed.
“Country road. Take me home.”
You opened your eyes wide at the singing. Above you on the ceiling you saw a shapeless morphing void. The cloak-like frame waved in a nonexistent breeze, and glowing eyes peered out from under the void-filled hood. A silvery hand reached out towards you.
You opened your mouth to exclaim but his hand covered it.
“We’ve met once before.” The wizard murmured. He dripped down closer from the ceiling, hovering just above you. “It’s not polite to scream at old friends. Especially one who saved your life.”
You shook your head, but the prickling became worse, and it turned painful as you moved.
“You didn’t take three, did you?” The wizard sighed. “Won’t work with just one.” he shifted, turning into a long, shadowed figure with no distinguishing characteristics. He sat down beside you on the bed, picking up the bottle of pills. The head turned back and glanced at you. There were no eyes on his face, but you could feel him staring.
“It has been a while.” He brushed back your hair away from your face. “Your cryo chamber didn’t go through the necessary steps to wake you. Your body is having to go through this process on its own. Poor thing.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Surely you know how the cryo chambers work?” The wizard scoffed.
“Not that! About how you think you saved my life!” Your lung filled with needles and you flopped back against the bed in pain.
“They really scrambled your brains, didn’t they?” The wizard kept his hand upon your face. “In that cave, I was the real danger. Someone else was waiting for you to make the wrong move.”
Sweat was pouring down your face, your body was cramping up like a crumpled ball of paper.
The wizard tapped two pills into his palm and placed them into an unseen mouth. He leaned over you, kissing you and prying open your mouth. His tongue fed you the pills, sliding them to your throat. His fingers stroked there, making you swallow like a dog.
“What-” you could barely get out the words.
“Rest,” the wizard whispered. “Just rest.” He sighed heavily then held his head between his hands.
You stretched out your hand, trying to grab him, but weakness took over, and a dulling warmth seeped into your joints making your arm fall with a dull thud upon the bed. Your eyes rolled back and you were suddenly back on board the Juniperius.
You were being forced into the cryo chamber, not properly placed back inside. You were fighting, struggling, hitting your hands against the door. Your limbs ached as the chamber activated, and outside there was screaming and yelling.
You were on another part of the ship, going through the lockers until someone walked in and saw you.
You were outside the Juniperus as it fueled, having just stepped off a junker ship that was refueling alongside it.
You were on board another ship, this time held down upon an operating table. You were dizzy, sick to your stomach, and they were watching you with intent eyes. Then the light shifted and you were staring out through a beam of light. You took a breath, examining yourself before looking back as a voice sang.
“Dark and dusty, painted on the sky. Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye.”
“How come you keep singing that song? You’ve never even been close to where that song is from.” You laughed.
“Says you,” the voice laughed. “You have no idea where or when I have been.”
“When?” You scoffed. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You ask a lot of questions for someone who should be grateful to be alive,” he laughed haughtily. His hand touched your face, smoothing over your skin and then running through your hair. “I thought you liked my singing anyways.”
“I never said anything against it,” your voice suddenly went soft.
He chuckled, leaning in and kissing you. “That’s what I thought, partner.”
You wretched and shot up like a shot, leaning over the bed and spewing like an awful geyser.
“Oh shit, I put the bucket on the wrong side,” the wizard groaned.
Your chest and mouth burned and you couldn’t catch a good enough breath. “Where am I? Am I still dreaming?”
The wizard stood and with a wave of his hand the wall opened to a large patchwork window. “Where do you think you are?”
You coughed and sat up, shielding your eyes from the light that was coming from outside. “The lighthouse,” you muttered. Your thoughts were scattered puzzle pieces trying to place themselves together.
“They really did a number on you,” he said as he circled around the bed. He snapped his fingers and the pile of sick you left evaporated. “More than just the brainwashing, they left a gift for me with you.”
You furrowed your brow. “What?”
He chuckled, turning to face the window. “They really knew what they were doing. Even leaving you without a word, they just had to wait for the chamber’s timer to go off and then you’d appear. They knew I wouldn’t harm you. But I was several steps ahead of them! I knew I couldn’t react.”
“I’m going to say this again,” you choked, “with everything I have left in me. What?”
The wizard turned, revealing green eyes set amongst the shadow. “Remember the cave where I saved you. Remember where this thread began. Once you recall that you can find your way back.”
“The cave? I don’t-” Something clicked into place. The first puzzle pieces fell together. You took a breath, swallowing even though your mouth tasted like acid. The wizard waved his hand and a cup and pitcher full of water appeared floating before him.
“I was separated from the group. I thought I saw a civilian in the cave,” you muttered. You touched your fingertips to your temple. “I wanted to help, but you told me not to.”
He poured a glass of water for you and offered it out. “Keep going.”
Taking the glass of water you immediately downed it. “You told me she was dangerous that she was-” You looked up in shock then pointed to the window. “That farmer out there. She’s the same girl I saw in the cave!”
The wizard clicked his tongue and wagged his finger. “Remember. She’s not a girl. Keep going, keep pulling that thread!” He urged, eager for what was coming.
“No, she was scared she was hiding she was…” You stopped, recalling seeing her arranging bones in the back of the cave. Her eyes were wild, she started to look less girl and more beastly.
“There were two wizards-” you strayed from thought as you tried forcing more puzzle pieces of your mind together.
The wizard scoffed. “Not exactly. But go on, you’re getting there.” He came close again, standing before you.
You hands gripped onto the edge of the bed. “She lunged at me, she looked like the wizard we had been following.” You glanced towards the window again. “But she’s out there…just a farmer.”
“What did I do to save you?” he asked.
You closed your eyes tight. “You threw…pebbles at her. No! Seeds. You threw sunflower seeds at her!”
The wizard chuckled, bowing his dark head down. “She has to count them all, then tend to them all. As long as she is busy reaping seeds, she cannot reap souls.”
“The farmer?” You balked. You then gasped, cupping your hand over your mouth.
“She’s an ancestor, you see. A little feral still, but I’ve taken her in, kept her safe, and taken the burden of her responsibilities upon my shoulders. But it was because of you I finally was able to get her somewhere safe.” he then sighed heavily. “You only called her wizard because of some of my own skills. But really, she is the powerful one among us.”
You remembered the farmer had hunched over the seeds the wizard had tossed, counting them one by one as her human countenance returned slowly to her. She looked excited, eager to pick up each seed and gently turn them over in her hand.
“I can’t plant them here,” she mumbled. “Not enough sun. The dirt is awful.” She looked at you, both of you standing still and petrified for a moment. The wizard then threw something at her again and a small bottle floated in the air in her place.
“Be quiet,” the wizard said to you with a snarling tone as he took the bottle. “Don’t make a sound.” he flicked his fingers from his eyes to yours in a threatening manner.
You shook your head, taking yourself out of your thoughts. “I was alluded as a hero for finding your hideout.”
The wizard chuckled. “Is that all you can recall?”
“No.” You rubbed your jaw and then towards the back of your neck where your head felt tender and tingled. “You kept showing up around the base. It was you but…not you.” You looked back up at the wizard seeing a small child holding a balloon. You rubbed your eyes and he was changed again, only this time a young janitor who used to clean your quarters.
You pointed to him. “Same eyes, Ransom,” you murmured. “Always the same eyes.”
He sighed, slouching against the broom in his hands. “Always had that issue, and my dear ancestor out there has been no help figuring out why. She just tells me to step away from her garden, don’t walk there, don’t do that, on and on and on about her garden.”
“You were keeping tabs on me at first.” You whispered under your breath. “But then you…you started befriending me.”
The wizard shrugged, turning himself back into Ransom in his oversized robe. “You weren’t what I expected. I wanted to get to know you.”
You nodded. “And that’s why they did what they did, isn’t it?” You took your hand from the back of your neck, seeing a touch of blood.
“I was always just your run of the mill outlaw. Now suddenly, I’m this big bad sinister force in the universe that must be hunted down at all cost.” Ransom sighed and tilted his head to his shoulder. “My infamy is all a mistake, mind you.”
You grunted as you stood up from bed, still completely naked. “You just said you took it from the farmer.”
Ransom waved his hand again and a robe appeared on your body. “Yes, but it was still an accident a petty criminal like me could never have become ‘the wizard’ if it wasn’t through mistaken identity. Mistake means accident doesn’t it?”
You looked into Ransom’s eyes, your head still spinning as puzzle pieces laid together and the thread pulled tighter along the timeline.
“Come now,” Ransom said. “You must be hungry after all this.” he held his hand out to you. “One good thing about having the farmer around is I always have fresh food at the wait.”
You took Ransom’s hand and you were suddenly in the kitchen. You had to bend over the kitchen table as it made you queasy right away.
“You can't teleport me like that. You know how it makes me feel!” You snapped, holding your hand over your mouth.
Ransom chuckled. “I do?”
He does! But how? You looked up from the table as Ransom started pulling things from the cabinets. “I’ve been here before,” you mumbled.
“Speak up, partner, can’t hear you?” Ransom held his hand over his ear.
You looked around the kitchen, getting faint memories of being here before, of being with Ransom while you made tea, argued over a meal, or just talked close to the warmth of the stove.
“I lived here,” you corrected yourself.
Ransom closed the doors and looked at you, his eyes holding that same strange glance they did when you first arrived off the ship. “A while ago, yes, you did.”
“A while?” You rubbed the back of your neck again as it tingled. “How long have I been gone?”
“Not sure. I sort of went on a bender. A rage bender.” He shrugged and turned to the stove. “Really lived up to that wizard persona y'all laid upon me.” He turned the stove on and a flame shot up and went through the vent.
“I thought you fixed that.” You said this without reservation, as if you had said it a thousand times over. You stopped at how easy it was, how ingrained into your soul it was. You stared at Ransom, and he smiled back.
“It’s coming back.” He reached out to you, cupping the back of your neck in his hand which was warm and heavy. It was a comfortable and familiar sensation that gave you the chills. “Don’t push too hard, just know it’ll get here.” He frowned as he felt along the back of your neck. “I can’t believe they did that to you.”
Lights screamed from above you as you were forced onto an operating room table. The memory made you flinch and so Ransom’s hand on the back of your neck moved to your back and he pulled you in close. Your head rested upon his shoulder, buried against the soft robe. You breathed in and was reminded that his scent was a mix of stale bed sheets, fireplace smoke, and some strange soap that was a mix of old lady and pine tree.
“Whatever it was they did I will fix it, and I will make sure they never do it again. Alright, partner?” He murmured with such a gentle voice.
You closed your eyes and relaxed, jumping as another bolt of fire boomed from the top of the stove.
After eating something, you sat with Ransom in the messy living room where you had first entered. Or well, entered when you left the ship. Ransom was quiet, sitting and looking at the fire while he finished his drink. The back of your neck wasn’t tingling as much, and all signs of it had left your hands and feet. It had been quiet as you were still processing, still coming through memories showing you bits and pieces of all that had happened between meeting Ransom till now.
“You said you went on a rage bender.” You broke the silence, causing Ransom to perk up and slightly sit up in his chair.
He looked back at you, letting out a heavy sigh. “Any ship that came by. Anything vaguely military that caught my attention. None of them made it.”
You sat erect and glanced towards the stained glass windows. “So the ship outside-”
“All part of their plan, I assume. They kept you in the cryochamber, but kept you off the logs, kept all signs of you missing. They made up the last call, faked the crash. The Juniperus is an old as fuck ship, probably one they could do away with.” He looked at you and smirked.
“You think they boobie trapped me?” You asked.
Ransom chuckled. “I know they did.I think you damaged it in the garden though, that’s why it gave you that shock. But who knows. Perhaps being kept two months in cryo didn’t help things.”
“What do we do now then?” You asked.
Ransom stood, reaching for lumber and chucking it into the fire. “We’ll move on. We’ll live. Hopefully your memory will return and you can-” He looked around the room. “Help me take care of things.”
You followed his gaze around the mess. Yes, the mess. You’d noted it before and how it seemed so strange. Now you realized it was because you made him keep it clean, as he didn’t take care of these things. You looked back at him, narrowing his eyes and he turned away with a look of guilt.
“You don’t remember yet, it’s fine.” Ransom pulled out the kettle and refreshed his drink, actively avoiding eye contact for the next while.
Time went by a little slowly. So much was going through your head it was as if years were happening each day. You lost track of time easily, and Ransom had to show you about. Sometimes, you were put to work in the garden with the farmer, who seemed more annoyed to have you there than like you were any sort of help.
One day you woke in bed next to Ransom, peering at him while he slept like a rock beside you. His form flickered time and again, showing the shadowy figure, the cloaked shape, Ransom again, and then some sort of scaly lizard thing. Each one was him, each one you had seen. You reached out, touching his chest and he stirred.
“What is it?” he grumbled. “Why’d you wake me.”
You rose up on your elbow, giving him a soft kiss.
“Your breath is awful,” he replied.
You recoiled in shock and embarrassment. “Oh.” You cupped your hand around your mouth. “I’m sorry.”
Ransom sat up, smoothing back his hair. He moved your hand, tugging your wrist to bring you back in close. He kissed you, firmly, not caring for whatever bad breath there was.
“It’s the morning,” he whispered against your lips. “It comes with the territory.”
You recalled a morning much like this one, but it was at the military base. Ransom had snuck his way in again, charming some of the staff to believe he belonged there. He had stayed the night, charming you just as much as anyone. That morning when you woke up beside him, you had a question for him.
“Why are you so interested in me?” You asked.
Ransom groaned. “It’s the morning, why do you have to ask so many questions?”
“I want to know. You have to tell me at some point,” you instead, rolling onto your side so you could have a better look at him.
Ransom chuckled. “Maybe it’s so you’ll keep your mouth shut.”
“I know it’s not that.” You climbed on top of him, pinning him down to the bed. “Maybe at first. But I can tell there’s something different with you.”
Ransom pouted. “If you want to find out, you’ll have to come home with me.” He brushed his hand up your body then cupped your cheek. “That’s the only way.”
You did. You followed him here to the lighthouse, and it’s where you stayed until you were found.
You looked into Ransom’s eyes now, seeing relief, seeing a relaxation that hadn’t been there when you came back.
“Why are you so interested in me?” You asked him again.
Ransom huffed. “Surely you remember by now, partner.”
You shook your head. It had to come from his lips, or it wouldn’t be real again. “You have to tell me. Then I’ll remember.”
“That’s all it takes, huh?” He scoffed. His eyes flicked over you taking you in then he got a weird little smile on his face. His fingers brushed along your cheek, then swept under your chin, tilting it up.
“You’re stalling,” you said with a smirk.
Ransom grimaced, showing teeth. “Am not!” His fingers around your chin tightened and shook your head. “I’m just trying to remember exactly what I said last time. May not trigger your memory again if I get it wrong.”
You giggled. “Getting it exact isn’t the trick.”
He huffed and looked into your eyes again. His grip loosened enough to where it was tender again. He breathed in deep, letting it out just as deliberately. He then smiled, a slight laugh escaping his lips that made you tingle, but in a good way.
“Why are you so interested?” I asked again.
“Well,” he murmured. “I guess it would be because I love you.”
Your whole body surged and you grabbed him up in your arms. That was it, that was what you wanted to hear. Ransom held you back equally as tight, tighter even. He had lost you once, this was a moment he was never sure he would get back.
“Will you sing me that song?” You murmured into his shoulder.
He scoffed. “It’s no fun when I have to.”
“Please?”
Ransom let out an exasperated sigh. He stroked your hair and back, slightly swinging back and forth as he hummed. The song rumbled in his chest, rising up until he began making half hearted words.
“Country roads, take me home. To the place I belong-” he mumbled the words he couldn’t remember, but it made you smile anyways. “All my memories gather 'round her.Miner's lady, stranger to blue water. Dark and dusty, painted on the sky. Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye.”
It wasn’t exactly a country road that brought her. Not by a long shot. But the words resonated, bringing you home altogether. Ransom’s embrace, his slightly off key singing, it was the final stretch of the thread you were following. Clinging to him your heart beat with fresh renewal.
Ransom stopped singing momentarily to drag you down into bed, pressing himself over top of you. “We’ve a lot to make up for,” he said with a smarmy grin. “What do you say?”
You gave him a look, cocking up an eyebrow. “I do better with a full stomach.”
“You’re not fun,” Ransom pouted, laying upon you and holding you and snuggling up close.
The memories were still jumbled, some pieces to the puzzle were still missing. But this was home, this was life now. The shapeshifting villain, and the former space hero. But, that was going to have to be a song for another day.
