This story may contain adult situations, language and behavior and is intended for adults over the age of 18, or what is legal where you live. I do not own the rights to any Marvel character mentioned within, but I do hold the rights to the characters I have invented for this story. This is a work of fiction and should be viewed as such. All characters are works of fiction, and any relationship to real people is strictly coincidental.
Sam shot up in bed, gasping and covered in sweat and darted his head left and right looking for the nightmarish creatures that had haunted his dreams and he would have sworn followed him into the waking world. For a few brief moments, he was lost in that land between sleep and life and was convinced they were still after him.
As he came to reality and his pulse slowed, he began to take notice of his suroundings and noticed he was safe in his bed with his latest conquest snoring softly next to him. Having been beyond drunk when he brought the boy home, he dared a glance at his naked body and cringed as he saw what was beneath the blanket. Let's just say the 9 was more of a 4.
Sam leaned over, pulled up his boxers, and crept out of his room, closing his bedroom door as softly as possible to keep the 'troll' from waking.
Assured the house was silent, he crept downstairs and wandered into the kitchen to chug some OJ when he noticed a light on in his roommate's room.
"FUCK!" he whispered, silently to himself, "Ryan is NEVER gonna let me live this down!"
Ryan and Sam had been best friends since they were in grade school, and had continued on through high school and college. When both had graduated and had thankfully gotten jobs AND in the same area, both had agreed that the best thing they could do was to move in together since they would never find better roommates than each other. Thus, they had lived in relative peace with each other for the past 2 years. Granted, there were times when they argued over who had ordered WHAT porno on cable and who had to pay for it since Comcast was discreet enough to show just the charge and not whether it was for 'Backdoor Sluts 9' or 'Debbie Does New York'.
They did have ONE rule, though ... if the one roommate caught the other bringing a 'drunk goggles' hookup home, they were allowed free shit talking rights for the next week, and since Sam had ruthlessly dogged Ryan for his girl from last Saturday, he KNEW he was in for a bunch of shit -- if Ryan had seen.
Sam, ever the optimist, hoped Ryan had missed it, as he slowly opened the fridge, took a long swig from the orange juice bottle, replaced it, and tried to, again, silently creep back upstairs and hopefully push the troll out the window before morning.
He had made it almost upstairs before Ryan swung his door open, leaned out and yelled, "You don't even KNOW the shit you have in store for you, FUCKER!"
"SHIT!" Sam muttered under his breath before leaning over the bannister and fiercely whispering, "Keep it down! I don't want it waking up yet!"
"WHAT?" Ryan yelled, "I CAN'T HEAR YOU, SAM! WHY SHOULD I KEEP IT DOWN? DOES MR. HUTT SLEEP LIGHTLY?!"
"Fuck you!" Sam yelled as loud as he dared, "Don't wake him up ... I can't deal with this right now ... I had one of those dreams again!"
Ryan immediately lost his smirk and looked at his friend with a worried expression.
"What happend this time?" he asked urgently, "Did you go past what you saw last time?"
Sam was taken aback by his friend's serious demeanor and stammered out, "Kind of ... why, what's wrong?"
Sam had barely blinked an eye before it seemed Ryan had raced up the stairs, grabbed his arm and was looking deep into his eyes.
"What did you see?" Ryan asked.
"I ... I ... don't know," Sam stammered while trying to shake off Ryan's grip, "Let go of me, dude, you're hurting me."
"What did you SEE?!" Ryan inquired again, much louder this time.
Sam glanced up into Ryan's eyes and saw a mixture of emotion that terrified him. Rage beyond belief filled the normally kind, loving eyes of his best friend, and Sam tried to back off, but Ryan's grip on him was like a vice.
"Ryan, please ... stop, let me go ... what's wrong?" Sam asked in a frghtened voice.
Ryan's eyes glowed bright gold for a second before they reverted to their normal blue, and Ryan shook his head, as if coming out of a trance and let go of Sam's arm.
"I ... I .. I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me," Ryan replied, as he turned away with a look of horror and sadness on his face, "Sorry, Sam, I've just had a lot on my mind lately ... I didn't mean to scare you ... go back to bed."
"You ok, buddy?" Sam asked, as he placed a hand on Ryan's shoulder.
"FINE!" Ryan yelled, as he shrugged off Sam's hand, "It's been a long day ... let's just both go to sleep, ok?"
Ryan turned his head over his shoulder and grimaced at Sam, "Trust me, " he murmured, "We need some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow, ok?"
Sam tried to act happy and replied, warily, "Yeah, sure ... ok ... see you tomorrow."
"Thanks, bro," Ryan replied, before stalking off back to his room, closing the door, and leaving Sam in nearly perfect darkness.
Sam spent the next few moments speechless and almost in shock, as he relived what happened between him and his best friend. After thinking it through, he decided that Ryan must have just had a bit too much to drink and was speaking through the vodka, and not his mind, and he shook his head as he finished ascending the last of the stairs.
"We've ALL been in that place where we've had too much to NOT be ourselves," he thought to himself, "Let him get some sleep, and he'll be fine in the morning."
Sam finished the hike up the last few stairs and slid his way silently back into his room, stripped, and slipped back under the covers next to the troll. He briefly contemplated making his 7th place trophy get up and leave, but he suddenly found himself tired as hell and not willing to be THAT much of a bastard tonight, so he would kick him out tomorrow. At least the dude HAD given him an AMAZING blowjob ... that had to count somewhat in his favor.
Sleep came suddenly to Sam, and as he rolled over, facing away from the man in his bed, he instantly passed into the dreamscape.
Only to be awoken, what seemed like moments later, to a fire alarm and being choked by smoke.
Sam tried to take his bearings but his entire room was filled with inky black smoke, and as he started to cough out the poison filling his lungs, he instinctively threw himself off the bed and onto the floor, hoping for some fresh air to fill his aching lungs.
The air there was sweeter and gave him some sustenance as he hacked and coughed out the crap he had just been inhaling. Scared out of his mind, he yelled out to, so-and-so on the bed to wake up and come down to the floor where he could breathe. No answer.
"SHIT!" Sam cursed, he couldn't just leave him there, so, taking a deep breath, he stood up into the cloud, and reached over the bed to find his fuck buddy, and drag him to safety.
"He's gonna owe me a MAJOR blowjob for this!" Sam though, as he groped around the sheets, but as the seconds waned by and no one was to be found, and he had to retreat back to the safety of the floor, Sam got angry.
"So, the fucker knew something was wrong and just left me?! What a piece of shit!"
Sam would have reveled there longer in his anger, if not for the fact that the fire finally reached his room and blew the door open. The moment it did, the flame, hungry for a new oxygen source burst into and through the room, lighting every combustible material aflame, including Sam.
As he burned in agony, Sam saw the window out of the corner of his eye, stood up and leaped though it, despite his room being on the second story of the house. As he burst through, the fire seemed to follow and carress him, and as he fell to the ground, he assumed he'd either land dead or so disfigured, no man would ever want him.
That was his last thought before the grass met his face, and he was knocked into oblivion.
"Sam ... Sam ... can you hear my voice?"
Sam used all of his strength to raise his left eyelid one centimeter, barely glimpsing the face of a concerned man, before he lost his will and tumbled back into dreamland.
"Sam, SAM!" Ryan's voice cried out, and Sam's eyes flew open to see Ryan's wavering figure standing over him.
"Sam!" Ryan exclaimed as tears began to fall down his face, "We thought we lost you! Oh my God, you're back!"
"Yeah ..." Sam whispered through cracked, blackened lips, "I'm here ..."
"Thank God! I was so worried!"
"What happened?" Sam managed between gasping breaths, "How did we get out alive? It's all fuzzy ..."
"Rest now, " Ryan soothed, "You were badly injured, and you need to heal. The nurse can give you something to help you sleep, now that you're fully awake."
"No, NO, I don't want to ... want to ..." but Sam couldn't finish his sentence before the medicine hit him, and he was welcomed back into the gentle blanket of darkness.
Ryan waited until his friend was asleep and snoring softly, before he turned away and walked over to the man in the wheelchair who was silently observing in the background.
"Is he safe now?" Ryan asked.
The man in the wheelchair sat and grimaced for a moment in deep thought before responding, "Yes, his mind is at rest, and his body will heal as well."
Ryan turned back to look at Sam, with sorrow on his face, before saying, "He doesn't deserve this, you know. He's innocent of our crimes."
"Yes," the wheelchair man replied, "I know, but we have no one else to turn to. This sickens me more than you can imagine ..."
"Me as well, old friend," Ryan said as his appearance began to waver and shift as the illusion wore off and he regained his normal stature and appearance.
The man who had been 'Ryan' picked up his helmet and put it back on his head before saying, "That is one of the last times I let you into my mind, Charles ... it was a favor not lightly given, nor one I will allow again."
Charles, sat back in his chair, exhausted over his mental exertions, and said, "I would not have asked, Erik, had I not thought it crucial to our survival."
Magneto leaned over the young man who was comatose on the hospital bed, "Will he be able to help us, and are we right to help unleash this demon?"
"I can only hope so," Charles said, "But God help us if we are wrong."
"What happens if we ARE wrong?" Erik asked.
Charles rolled forward and glanced at Sam lying in bed, "Then only the strong will survive, and I'm not sure that anyone on earth, mutant or human, will be strong enough to meet that criteria."
"Well HE should be strong enough," Magneto said.
"Yes, yes he should be," Charles agreed, "And that's what I'm worried about."
That's it for part 1 ... if you read my first phoenix reborn story, this one might make a bit more sense, but if you didn't and are starting here, I hope you like it.
Feedback is always welcome at ender2155@gmail.com !
"Stop, dude, my arm is numb!"