(Art by myself)
Year: 1928
The ‘three’ of them had moved back downstairs, so Anastasia--and Matthias--wouldn’t get sick from the cold. They sat a few pews back from the front, roughly two feet between Alistair and the man in Anastasia’s body, speaking to him. It was odd to see a small girl sitting like a grown man. It wasn’t too much different from the proper way she herself sat, but now it had a masculine touch to it.
“She was a little older than seven when she stumbled across me, clutching a raggedy crow toy to her body as she shook. Her fear lasted but a few moments, though.” He chuckled. “She got excited and called me a dragon. It was rather amusing.”
“So, you are dragon-like?”
“Alistair, dragons are demon-like. They devolved from our blood. We were the original sky beasts, not those ridiculous winged lizards. Also, we have not gone extinct like they have.”
Alistair was clearly impressed. He would need to remember to write this all down later. Who would have known that dragons descended from demons?
“Her whole attitude changed after she got a good look at me. Fear turned into awe, and excitement. And curiosity--never had I met such an inquisitive human child like her. Not in my presence, anyway. First, what I was. Then how I got there, why I had giant metal rods stuck in my body. Then about birds, of all things. But she surprised me as she talked on. She asked, if her father had chained me there. And she asked like she already knew the answer. Such wisdom from a human child was foreign to me...and intriguing.
“So we continued to exchange words, and I quickly learned her father was less than ideal. He ran some sort of research laboratory, but he did not practice the modern medicine. He mixed science with practices of the occult, and black magic. His work consumed him, and he had little time for a child. Ana was just handed off to tutors and other ‘scientists’ while he worked.”
“Where was her mother?”
“Ana was told her mother perished during the delivery.”
“I see…”
“But when he did actually interact with her, it was as if she belonged to someone else. He was very cold and harsh with her. Of course the girl was rebellious, she was the only child there. And nobody spent time with her to make friends. It was all academics, business. What sort of childhood is that?” Ana’s chest heaved as Matthias sighed, closing her eyes.
“...So instead, Ana befriended the other ‘creatures’ her father kept. Everything from animals to shadows, demons to fairies. Her lack of fear of me made sense, what with all the other beasts she’d seen on a daily basis. It was this lack of fear that put her in danger.”
Ana’s eyes opened again, and glanced to her right arm. “...about two years later, there came a day that she didn’t come to visit me. Using what little strength I’d had, I searched her out through means of astral projection. I found her on a cot, bleeding out from a stump where her arm should have been.” He paused for Alistair’s reaction; his arms tensing and his eyes filled with shock. “She’d tried to pet a very restless...thing. It was one of her father’s many ‘splicing’ experiments. When she tried to touch it, it bit off her arm from the bicep down….she was dying.”
There was a look of hurt in Ana’s eyes as Matthias recalled the memory. “For the first time in many centuries, I was scared. I couldn’t see this girl’s life cut so short. Maybe I was really being selfish, because I would be alone again if she died...but I couldn’t just watch her bleed out while her father did nothing to save her. He was just going to let her die. I couldn’t accept that. So, I gave her father an idea.”
Alistair’s brow furrowed together in confusion. “You gave him an idea? I don’t understand.”
Ana’s face turned so Matthias could look at him. “You can clearly tell I am very old, and gifted. As well as reading minds and astral projection of my soul, I can plant thoughts and manipulate the minds of most living things--humans especially. So, I gave him the idea to use me as his next experiment.”
His eyes widened, and Alistair’s jaw quite nearly dropped. Matthias knew he had figured it out, and continued.
“After the idea was in his head, I waited for her father to find me again. We...chatted, for a bit. He agreed to let me use a smaller form in exchange for turning my body over to him. I put up no resistance, and never once attempted escape. I couldn’t leave her...and I think her father knew that. So, after we had made our deal, he took one of my arms for Ana. It was the first time he’d used a human in one of his ‘chimeras’ as he called them, and the sick bastard was eager to see the results. As you can see, the operation was successful.”
Ana’s arm moved to lift up the tattered sleeve on her opposite arm to reveal a scar that wrapped all around her bicep. “Ana opened her eyes two days later. She was a sight to behold when she visited me again. My arm looked so big on her, knuckles nearly dragging along the floor at her side. Her visits were much shorter then, now that she had something her father wanted. When he wasn’t running tests on her, I did my best to help her get used to my arm and the strength that came with it. But those days didn’t last very long either.”
The sleeve was dropped, and a sad expression took her eyes. “My arm and her body were in a battle for control, and Ana was losing. About four months in she fell deathly ill, and was bed ridden once again. But instead of removing the toxic limb that was slowly killing his daughter, her father thought instead to amputate her other arm, and replace it with mine again. As it had happened the last time, her eyes opened a few days later. And as last time, she was okay for a little while. But you can’t have the good without the bad.”
“She got sick again, yes?”
Matthias nodded. “So he took her legs next. By then Ana was wheelchair bound unless he was running tests on her. She visited me but once or twice a week then. That light that I’d admired was gone. She was vacant, and miserable. Over time she grew to hate her father, as did I. Oh how badly I wanted to make him pay for what he’d done to her. But even with all that, he still wasn’t satisfied.”
“But what else could he ... ” Her trailed off as his mind filled in the blanks for him. At Alistair’s silence, Matthias nodded again.
“You are correct. He had found his big breakthrough, and he wanted to take it as far as he could go. So over the course of a few weeks, he had a series of surgeries where he took out her vital organs one by one, replacing them with mine. Her lungs, her stomach, her kidneys, her liver, her heart ... whatever he could find, he took away. While Ana had the benefit of going under, I was simply tore into and taken apart piece by piece. At least I could heal the damage and regrow what I needed over time--but it got to the point that my blood couldn’t keep up with her father’s greed. I became weak, mangled and clutching to life as much as I could. For the first time in my life, I actually wondered if I might die. I couldn’t go to her side anymore, even in spirit. I could only listen to her broken thoughts, as her senses were saturated in medications and a dark haze of perverted black science. The days blurred together for both of us.”
Alistair’s heart ached as he continued to listen. Anastasia had to have been only ten or eleven years old when all of this was happening. To be so young and undergo such physical and mental strain--and Matthias, to be cut up and picked apart like a slab of meat? Alistair couldn’t even begin to understand how much pain the two of them must have been in.
“I wanted, so badly, to end her suffering. I had to get her out, but I was too weak to break free. I thought, if i could just buy enough time, I could get my strength back and take her away from there. I could keep her safe, help her get accustomed to her new body ...”
The demon’s voice dropped, and grew dark in tone. “But I never got the chance. Her father had one last surgery planned, to fix all the ‘problems’ he was having with her. I know because I heard him thinking it. He was going to drain us both of all our blood, and replace her brain with my own.”
Alistair could feel his heart drop to the pit of his stomach. “But that would--”
“Kill us, essentially. You are correct. So in one last act of desperation…”
“You made a vow to bind yourself to her.”
Matthias nodded. “I caught her just in time. Through our minds we made the vow, and my life was bound to her’s. This of course, came at a price. Because I did not have the strength to physically go to her, I had to abandon my body so our souls could come together in one body--Her body.”
“So now, you are forced to stay together …”
He nodded. “Yes. And if our souls are ever disconnected from one another, we will both die. This means I can never have a body of my own again. And Ana must share her body with a demon. No exorcism, nor spell, nor ritual can change this.”
Alistair stared down at his feet, soaking in all that he’d learned. This, was unlike anything he had come across. To be fused together, and forced to share a body together? A human and a demon? He never would have even thought it possible! Yet here they were, together, telling their tragic story. He could feel tears stinging the back of his eyes, but he blinked them back.
“...What became of her father?”
The demon was silent for a moment. “.....Nothing in that miserable place was left alive.”
Alistair swallowed hard. “I see.”
“...You are an interesting creature, Alistair. Your sorrow is genuine, and void of pity. You truly care for her.”
“...I do. And I will do everything in my power to help her through this. And with your help, we can help her achieve her full potential.”
A soft smile graced her features. “Then I was correct to sit back and observe. I’m pleased to see my instincts were right about you.” It took but a blink, and Anastasia was standing in front of Alistair. He wondered if it was this startling to others when he did the same thing. Her body leaned forward, until her and Alistair’s forehead touched. Matthias closed her eyes, the smile still there.
“... Please continue to be good to her. She deserves to be happy …” With that, her body became limp and she fell into Alistair’s arms. He looked over her with a wave of worry, but quickly relaxed as he saw she was simply asleep. Matthias must have been the only thing keeping her conscious. Alistair was going to make sure she would get plenty of rest back at HQ. He stood up, cradling Anastasia’s body to his as he looked down at her.
“Don’t worry, I will. That is a promise I make to you both.”
Making a mental note to send a cleanup crew out there to make the church presentable for mass again, Alistair turned to walk down the center aisle of the church and out to his car. It was time to go home.
