Parasitic

Prologue

My right eye is throbbing painfully. Tired, so tired, feet so heavy. So heavy, but I lift my head up when they drag him out if a Persona Boot Capsule. He's murmuring something under his breath, "we are, we are the army of the...the lord…you'll see..

I want to smile, but can't; too many fresh cuts across my face. Too painful. It's an old joke, I think, we'd shared in what feels like yesterday.

With some effort, I glance to my right. He's there, being pinned to a large cross. Dark brown hair falling over those startling emeralds. Gasping slightly as the fasten the spiked handcuffs to his wrists. Somewhere at the back of my mind the slow tune of a song of past ages gone by, echoes.

 "Everybody wants love, 

but it's not enough

 His brown shirt's a bit torn to the left, just like me, just a little bit torn. I'd wanted to...I wanted to…

Jesse finally holds his head up and smiles at the crowd beyond the transparent curtains. Then his smile picks up to the left side corner as he turns towards me.

But the silence is just too strong

As the bloom of a rose is sharp and long

Shells of silver (silver)

My heart catches...with something that's there for a while as I part my lips to say something, anything, before the show of our execution starts, but no words come out.

 To have a good heart, 

but it's not enough.

 Then the smile on his face blurs and loses it's touch of familiar irony. I'm hanging on a cross next to him, just like that biblical figure, what was his name...? All of that reading...where did it go? All to waste, the crowd cheers as the glossy transparent curtains part and we're raised up, higher and higher. It's all blurry now, too late, they'd already inserted the anaesthetic into my bloodstream.

And the warmth of the night moves in

There's a howling that stays beneath my skin

"It's MAY 2036." The voice from the concealed speakers resonates through the hall.

No. 

 So I try to stay warm and moving

But the silence is just too strong

Jesse's voice, hoarse, far away; whispering something, but all I can hear is that haunting song. Playing at the back of the room where we first met.

It's 2230, New Years Celebrations

And I'm where I was six years ago. That farm where we were bred. The farm, the farm, this is so much like the farm..

As the closer we get to the grave

This feels strange

As the closer we get to the grave" - Shells of Silver (The Japanese Popstars)