Page 53

A soft light began to glow from Jamie’s hand, the same icy blue his eyes always had. A warmth filled Jesse’s heart, and for a moment, it felt… comforting. Natural.

But then, the very next second, it was cut through with a sharp, searing pain, and a gasp was drawn from Jesse’s mouth before he could stop it, as he reached up to clutch at his chest.

Jamie pulled his hand back at once. “It’s… it’s true,” he exclaimed. “There is some kind of energy in your chest!”

Jesse’s eyes widened in shock, though he tried really hard to stay calm at these words. Jamie shouldn’t feel even worse than he already did. But oh god, what had been a vague theory only minutes ago, was actually true?!

“What – what do we do?!” Jesse rasped. The burning beneath his ribs was now beginning to fade, but his heart was still beating way too fast, making it a little bit harder to breathe. “How do we c-cure something like that?!”

Jamie bit his lip, starting to look panicked himself. “I don’t know! I… I’m so sorry!”

Damn it, Jesse needed to calm down, right now.

It wasn’t going to help if they both lost it like this.

“W-well,” he began, struggling to find the right words.

“At least… at least we finally know what it is, okay? That’s great progress!

Figuring out a diagnosis is often half the battle.

Now we know what’s wrong, so that’s good.

I’m simply not compatible with your powers, that’s all!

Jamie, you did fantastic! You figured it out!

You found it! Now we can take a deep breath, calm down, and think about what to do next. Okay?”

“…R-right,” Jamie nodded, taking a deep breath as directed, and seeming to calm a little. “Right, okay. We’ll handle this, together.”

“Yeah,” Jesse nodded. “Together.”

He thought for a few moments, his mind racing as he tried to come up with some kind of solution.

There had to be a way to cure him, to rid himself of these powers so he could function healthily again.

Still, this wasn’t just some ordinary illness or a parasite or anything.

If it had been that, there would’ve been some kind of treatment or medicine; Jesse had learned a lot about it in his studies after all.

Hell, parasites could simply be killed with the right drug!

But, this would be different, because it wasn’t an actual physical organism, it was a power.

Powers couldn’t be ‘killed.’ Nothing he’d learned was going to help them here.

…What if he was just overthinking things?

In the end, the power had been transferred into him, which meant…

“Can’t you… just try to take it back?” Jesse asked.

“I mean, it must have happened that day when we first had sex, since that’s when the trouble began.

You didn’t have any control over your powers back then—you didn’t even know you had them—but things have changed now, haven’t they?

You have so much more control over what you can do! ”

Jamie gave him a very uncertain look. “I – I could try, maybe.”

“Okay,” Jesse said, sitting up more fully to prepare for what was about to happen. “Okay, just go ahead and do it.”

“R-right now?!” Jamie stared. “But I don’t even know if I can!”

“We’ll never know until we try,” Jesse told him. “And it’s not like you’d be able to practice something like this anyway.”

Jamie hesitated a few moments longer, but eventually gave in. “Alright, hold still; I’ll try.”

Jesse braced himself as Jamie put a hand over his heart once more. There was fear in Jamie’s eyes, as if he was expecting to hurt Jesse again—and to be honest, considering what had happened when Jamie had only been trying to sense it, Jesse didn’t expect anything less.

The icy blue light enveloped Jamie’s hand, as it had done before, and the warmth returned to Jesse’s heart.

He took in a deep breath, bracing himself for the rest.

But nothing could have prepared him for the intense, searing pain that almost immediately overtook him. A scream was pulled from his mouth before he could help himself, as light burst in the corner of his eyes and his every muscle seemed to tighten and ache.

It felt like his heart was being torn to shreds.

“Jesse!” Jamie pulled his hand away with a sharp gasp, and the pain stopped at once. “Fuck, are you alright?!”

No.

No, he wasn’t.

But he couldn’t get the word out.

He couldn’t say anything, the pain too difficult to talk through.

He couldn’t even stay upright, instead falling back against the couch as he gasped in for what little breath he could get, his heart pounding painfully against his ribs as if each racing beat was another knife stabbing into his chest.

“What should I do?” Jamie cried anxiously, horror and guilt staining his tone. “Should I call—no, I can’t even call an ambulance!”

Jesse took in a deep breath, pushing himself to sit back up a little and forcing himself to speak. “I’m f-fine…”

“No, you’re not!” Jamie exclaimed, his eyes wide and his face sheet white. “I’ve never heard you scream like that before! I did— I only made it worse!”

“Not… not your fault,” Jesse panted. “I can—” He tried to reach out to Jamie, to put a hand reassuringly on his knee, but a sudden wave of dizziness came over him, and he fell against Jamie instead, too weak and disoriented to keep himself up.

Jamie yelped a little as he struggled under the sudden weight. But then he managed to guide Jesse down onto the couch, and once Jesse was lying flat, Jamie settled at the foot end, deep worry staining his features.

“I should have… expected this,” he said quietly, rubbing a tear from the corner of his eye. “I should have known some of the power transferred into you, I should have sensed it sooner. I should’ve realized what was happening.”

“Jamie, please, ” Jesse sighed, his voice admittedly a lot weaker than he would’ve liked it.

He wanted to reach out to where Jamie sat—knees pulled up and arms wrapped around them—but he couldn’t.

“You’re… running in circles. You had no way of knowing you had powers back then, or what really happened, and there’s still so much ab out yourself that you don’t remember even now.

How could you have known any better? You aren’t to blame here. ”

Jamie tilted his head and looked at Jesse, his teary eyes widening ever so slightly, as his face set in determination. “Then, that’s the answer,” he said. “I have to learn more. Practice more. Remember more. Only then will I be able to truly help you.”

“But you already work so hard,” Jesse sighed, rubbing at his forehead as a headache formed behind his eyes.

“The last thing I want is to put an even bigger burden on you than I already have.” He draped his arm over his face to cover it from the light overhead.

“It would be so much simpler if we could just… block it all out, and pretend none of it’s happening. ”

Jamie sat up straighter, as if he’d just been struck by lightning.

“D-did I say something wrong?” Jesse asked, peeking at Jamie from under his arm.

“No but… What if I tried exactly that? Just for the time being, until I remember how to remove it?”

At first, Jesse didn’t understand what he meant. But then he was hit by realization, and he slowly sat up a little himself. “You mean, try to lock the powers in?”

“Yeah,” Jamie nodded. “I could try to… seal them away, like I do with mine!”

“Jamie, that’s – that’s a brilliant idea!”

Jamie smiled a bit, though he still looked far more guilty than Jesse would have liked. But they could work through that later, once they’d dealt with all this and had the chance to really talk.

“Okay,” Jamie said. “Let’s try to make you a safe form.”