Page 24 of Prometheus Burning

This… had to be some kind of dream, right? No. That didn’t feel accurate. Even without pinching my arm. But if it wasn’t a dream, what the fuck was this?

“I know this is crazy, but…” His voice trailed off and hand gently tightened around mine. His fingers rested against me and tingled my skin as though from the touch of human flesh. As if on sudden reflex, I jerked back against my seat and looked over to my right.

Jamie’s eyes, those blue eyes I knew so well, widened to match mine. My grip strengthened around the steering wheel.

Jamie pressed his back against the passenger seat, eyes softening. His arm gingerly outstretched toward me. He didn’t much resemble the corpse at the funeral eight months ago. Dead as he should have been, this Jamie vibrated with life. A massive glow shone over his being, and the edges around his body sparkled with a golden light.

However, they were clearly one in the same. This Jamie, like the dead guy, had a more refined jaw than the teenage Jamie I remembered. And he had filled out into an adult body. His blond hair curled in various directions, the same as it would have back at Stony Point.

“What the fuck…” I breathed.

I wondered if I could touch him as he had touched me, and a flash of heat crawled over my skin.

Shit. He reads my thoughts…

He let out an audible breath and cleared his throat, shifting in the seat.

“Hi,” he said, clearly changing subjects before the awkwardness had time to set in even more than it already had.

“Uh… hi.” I mirrored his actions and shifted in my own seat.

“Uh… it’s been a long time.” He smiled sheepishly. “Epic way to finally catch up, huh?”

“Yeah… real epic.”

“So, uh, how’s the family?” The trademark Jamie, goofy grin wrapped across his face.

I stared at him, a dumb look plastered to my lips, limbs frozen in place.

“Umm. They’re good,” I finally spat out. “Real good.” An imaginary set of ellipsis danced between us before I added, “Yours?”

“They’re… alive.”

“Alive tends to be a good thing.” My thickly sardonic words served as my shield against whatever the hell was even happening right now. I scratched my arm, hoping for some kind of distraction. “For some people being alive is good, I guess.”

“Pfft. Yeah. For others… it’s overrated.” A twang of the old Jamie joking voice filled my ears. Haunting me the way it chilled your bones to hear your ex-boyfriend after so many years. Like it was so out of place and foreign. Even if he hadn’t been dead.

“Yeah… overrated…” I gripped my steering wheeling once more, ready for this trippy goddamn experience to be over. “Jamie. What in the actual fuck are you doing here?”

“I already told you.”

“To save me?” I threw my hands in the air. “Christ! No offense, but, umm… I know how you died.”

“Okay.”

“Okay and… someone in your position… you wouldn’t be the guy to know whether or not I needed saving.”

“Oh?” He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

“Besides, even if I wanted to be saved… why the hell would you be the guy to do it?” I blurted, heat pulsing through my veins. I became a living version of the Prometheus Strangling the Vulture Demon sculpture, forever alive, eternally tormented by my inner demons. My blood was rampant with fire from the combination of shock and confusion swirling through my brain.

“You weren’t there for me before,” I continued. “Fifteen years ago. When I needed you the most. You abandoned me.”

I waited for him to respond. A thick silence surrounded us so deeply, I could almost feel the familiar wall reminiscent of when we dated. But, here’s a fucking shocker, he said absolutely nothing.

“No one can save me.” Hot tears streamed down my face. “Least of all you.”

With that, I heaved the car door open, slammed the metal shut behind me, and raced against pellets of rain that beat against my entire being. By the time I got to my front porch and reached the awning, I was drenched.

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