Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Wednesday Brief: Take Flight Part 6

 
Hi again! Welcome back to the Wednesday Briefer's flash fiction day. There is quite a few authors taking part this week too! As usual, the goal is to write a 500 to 1000 word flash story/update based on prompts sent from the lovely and ever dependable Julie Hayes.

So, this week we have another installment of Birch and Sayer's story. The prompt I chose was "crazy in love..." and I hope you liked it.
 
Take Flight Part 6


“Fuck!” His leg barely moved as Birch tried to jerk away from Sayer.

“Careful!”

His stomach heaved. Birch swallowed desperately but the pain was too much. Bile rose, and he vomited sideways. His eyes slammed shut when his stomach rebelled against his control; seeing it was always worse.

This is not what he wanted to do when he saw Sayer again. Humiliation rivaled the taste in his mouth for bitterness. Now he’d ruined the bed and made a disgusting mess.

Birch flopped onto his back. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. His heart was thumping hard, and he could feel it through his whole body. He was afraid to move in case he got sick again.

“It’s okay.”

“How can you say that?” Birch opened his eyes. “The bed is a me—”

There was nothing there. The acrid taste in his mouth and the pain in his chest and stomach proved he’d just thrown up, but the mess he expected wasn’t there. Sayer was sitting on the edge of the bed, his arms extended.

A breeze swept through the room and, in a bizarre and sickening sight, Birch watched as the vomit flew across the room and out a door.

“There, all gone.”

“That was surreal.” Birch stared at Sayer.

“I told you I am fae. Some of the stories you used to read are true, some aren’t. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about that later, Birch. I’m sorry if you feel like I’m forcing you into this, but I can’t have you hurt. Please let me help you.”

Birch shook his head, then moaned at the pain lancing through his temples. “Take me to a hospital. People break legs all the time. They’ll put me in a cast and give me some meds.” He looked around suddenly. The pain must be making him stupid. “Where are we?”

Sayer took a deep breath. “I brought you to my home. This is not the Earth you know.”

“This is not the Earth I know,” Birch repeated. “Seriously?” The nausea and pain were not going away, if anything they were growing, and Birch was damn tired of Sayer’s mysterious crap.

“What do I have to do to get you to take me home?” He rubbed his palm against his forehead, desperate for everything to go away.

Sayer sighed. “We have to exchange souls. That’s not why I want you to do this, though. Damn it, Birch, I love you! I always have!”

“You have a fine fucking way of showing it, disappearing like that,” Birch snapped. “I’ve been alone, Sayer.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “If there had been any other way ….”

His voice trailed off under Birch’s stare. The taller man was still strong but his face had an angularity he’d never seen before. Everything about him was sharper, more vivid. Birch could have chalked that up to growing up, but not the wings. No … the wings he could not explain.

Even that changed face couldn’t hide the pain Sayer was in too, even if it wasn’t physical. His hands shook, until he noticed Birch looking at them, and then he clenched them into fists and tucked them against his thighs.

“Please, Birch. You are my beloved. We belong together. Everyone thinks I’m crazy, for letting you grow up in the human Earth, for leaving you at college alone … for believing you are my beloved in the first place. It is unheard of for a ruler of the fae to share souls with a human.

“But I don’t care,” Sayer said fiercely. He slid down to his knees beside the bed, reaching for Birch’s hand. “I am crazy in love with you. I will spend all our long life together making this up to you. Just … say you love me too.”

Sayer was sincere. Birch knew that. There was a hole inside that could only be filled by this man and four years of trying to fill it with someone or something else had proved it. He was tired of hurting.

“If we do this … If,” Birch said, “I do this soul exchange, what does that mean for me as a human?”

“What do you mean?” Sayer’s hand tightened on his.

“Will I become fae?” He had no real idea what Sayer really was yet either and that was scary too.

“No. To be honest, though, I’m not sure of what exactly happens. It has been a long time since someone who exchanged souls with a human found them as an adult. Usually they are brought over as infants; living here brings its own changes.”

“So you don’t really know?” Birch slumped against the soft pillows under his head.

“I’m sorry,” Sayer said. “But Haverlseen cannot help you until we do this. Please, Birch.”

***

Sayer waited. His beloved was pale, two spots of color high on his cheeks the only sign left of Birch’s temper. Sayer rubbed his thumb over the rough hand he held cradled in his.

“I’ll do anything,” he said.

“Do I have to stay here?”

Sayer’s heart froze. “You want to leave me? Even if we do the exchange?” Sayer’s voice shook.

Birch opened his eyes. “No, I’m not saying that, but I have a job back home and it’s something I love. I worked hard for my degree. You lived in the human Earth before,” he paused, giving his head a little shake and then winced, “so why can’t we go back?”

“It’s not that simple. That is why I wasn’t there, part of the reason anyway, when you went to college. We lost my parents and I am now the ruler of the fae. I cannot just leave.”

“So I’ll be stuck here?”

Sayer took a deep breath. “We could work out a compromise.”

“You’d do that for me?”

“I’d do anything for you.”

Birch’s mouth stretched into a small smirk. “That’s right, you’re crazy in love with me.”

Sayer groaned. “I knew that was going to come back to bite me in the ass.”

TBC

Now on to the others! Chop, chop!! *grins*



 

6 comments:

  1. Gee, wish I could clean up yucky messes that fast!
    Love the way you worked in crazy in love as a bite back in the ass comment - made me chuckle.
    Tweeted.

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    1. Me too! LOL. Thanks. It just seemed so over the top, I couldn't leave it in without some mocking. :P Thanks for the tweet!

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  2. I second Victoria. If only I'd had that gift when the kids were small, not to mention the cats *sigh * This was a sweet chapter. Birch is so stubborn, although I can't blame him

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    1. LOL. Yes, for some reason cat throw up is soooo much worse! Always gags me. People, not so much. Then again, I've had about 10 patients throw up on me, plus my kids, my nieces and nephews, my friend's kids... at various times/stages. Such is life, lol. Thanks so much for commenting, Nephy!

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  3. Yeah Wednesday again. Hump day is sooo much fun with new chapters to explore. The future for these two is going to be interesting.

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    1. Yep! This week was a bit of a tease... not much by way of plot progression but I'm setting up for a big week next Wednesday. Thanks for reading Dawn!

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