Mr. Right

I was furious the next day at school. I needed to talk to James immediately, so I began to search the school grounds for him. I looked everywhere; I even called out his name when I started to get frustrated.

“Did you lose your love?” some of the swim jocks joked when they heard me call for him. I ignored them, and just kept on looking for him.

“What are you looking for?” Lorie asked me. I was under the school bleachers in the gym, still searching.

“James.” I told her, getting out from the benches. “I can’t find him anywhere.”

“Why? Do you need to talk to him?”

“Yeah. Something happened to us last night and I need to talk to him about it.”

“What happened?” she asked. We were headed towards our first period class as we heard the bell ring.

“Nothing that concerns you.” I replied, and walked off.

“Spencer!” I heard her call out, but I ignored her and walked into class.

Since I had about five classes with James, I thought he would show up for them. But he didn’t. By lunch I had gotten worried, and I didn’t eat a bite. Sarah and Lorie tried to get me to talk about what happened, but I told them they wouldn’t understand. “It’s a guy thing.” I told them, thinking the same excuse they give me so many times would work. It did, and they left it at that. I looked at the empty science stool next to me in Chemistry; I didn’t want it to be empty. I wanted it to be filled, and have James pester me with his kicks and pencil pocking.

“Spencer!” I heard Mr. Reed’s voice, and that brought me back from my day dreaming of James. “Since your partner is not here today, will you please tell us what you two are doing for your project?”

“Um, yes. Sorry.” I quickly said, trying to get my head cleared from James. “We are doing…um…” crap, I couldn’t remember what we were doing. I tried to think of it, but I couldn’t. Just then a flashback from my nightmare brought back my memory. “Fire.” I burst out, and the other students laughed.

“Fire?” Mr. Reed asked. “You know, that has already been invented.”

“Yes, I know. But we are doing something different with fire. We are going to make color fire.”

“Oh. Well that should be interesting to see. I will allow it.” he said, putting down our project on the paper in front of him. I then went back to my daydreaming and thought of nothing else for the rest of the day.

“Spencer!” I heard Lorie cry out. I looked down the long hallway, and saw her running towards me. It was the end of the day, and I was just about to go home when she called. “Spencer, I found out what happened to James.”

“What?” I yelled.

“He came to school around third period, but he fainted. He was in the nurse’s office all day. If we hurry, you might still be able to talk to him.”

I smiled inside, and pulled Lorie down the crowed halls to the nurse’s office. When we got there, I saw that she was just packing up for the day. “Is James Moore still here?” I asked her.

“I’m sorry, honey.” she told me, giving me a frown. He left right before lunch.”

“Did he go home?”

“No. actually, the school had to call the ambulance.”

“WHAT?” both Lorie and I gasped.

“Is he okay?”

“We do not know. The hospital called us soon after he arrived, and said they will call again when he is out of surgery.”

‘Surgery!’ my mind gasped. ‘No this can not be.’ I started to feel light headed, and asking if I could sit down. She allowed me to sit, and went to get me a cold compress. “Please, could you tell me why the school called the ambulance?”

“Well, I am not supposed to say.” she replied, looking worried. “But…since I know that you two are a couple, I will tell you.” she smiled. I smiled back and listened to what she had to say, and allowing her to call me and James a couple. “When he arrived this morning he fainted, and the janitor carried him here. Then around eleven or so, he woke up. I took his temperature, and saw that it was a hundred degrees higher than his normal body temperature. He was also sweating like crazy, but what really sent him to the hospital was the bleeding. It seemed like he was bleeding from every pore in his body. I quickly called 911, and the next thing I knew he was being rushed over to St. Mary’s.”

“Thank you.” I smiled up at her, feeling kind of better. I thanked her again for the compress, and I asked Sarah to drive me over to St. Mary’s Hospital.

“I’m coming too.” Lorie cried, following me out into the junior parking lot. I didn’t mind if the girls tagged along with me. After all, James was their friend too.

“May I help you?” the young woman at the front desk of the emergency room asked us.

“We are looking for James Moore.” I told her, speaking up for all of us. “We heard that he is at this hospital.”

The woman smiled at me, and put James’s name into her computer. “He is still here.” she told us, looking over James’s information. “He arrived here shortly after noon, and is still in surgery.”

I sighed, leaning my head on the counter. “Thank you.” I heard Lorie say, and my friends lead me into the waiting room. “Could you please tell the doctor who is operating on James, that his friends and family are here?”

“Sure.” she smiled, and we went into the waiting room.

“I feel sick.” I groaned, clutching my stomach. I leaned over and felt like I was going to throw up. Sarah saw that I didn’t look good, and told me to lie on my stomach. I did and it kind of did the trick.

“What’s wrong with you anyways?” she asked me, looking down.

“I don’t know.” I replied. I didn't know why i was sick, maybe it was from all the worrying and stress I built up during the day.

“Maybe you got those cuts infected.” she said, looking at one of my deep cuts on my cheeks. “How did you get those anyways? Did you and James get in a fight?”

“No they did not.” Lorie answered. “Did you?”

“No, I got them…” I didn’t really know what to say. I didn’t even know if they would believe me---Sarah might. “I don’t really know how I got them.” I finally told them. “I just woke up this morning, and saw they were there.”

“Right.” she didn’t believe me, but I couldn’t tell her the truth.

“Mr. Moore?” I heard someone say. I looked up from where I was lying, and saw a doctor had stepped into the waiting room.

“Yes,” I called out, getting up and walking over to him.

“Hello. Um… are you all family of James?” he asked.

“No we are his friends.” Lorie replied.

“Well, I am sorry, but I cannot give out any information unless you are family.” the doctor said.

We all hung our heads. It seemed now that we were never going to find out if James was still alive. As I looked at my friends, a stupid idea came into my head. “What about lovers?” I asked. I felt stupid asking him that, and I didn’t really want to ask it. But if it was the only way to see him…then I had to.

“Lovers? You mean, like a boyfriend or girlfriend?” the doctor asked.

“Yeah. If one of us was James’s boyfriend or girlfriend, could we see him?”

“Yes, but I don’t think any one of you are his lover.”

“I am.” I replied, and I could tell that all three pairs of eyes were on me.

“Spencer?” Lorie gasped, thinking that it was true. I gave her a sideways glance and winked. She then smiled and calmed down. She knew that he was for her, but she did not make her move yet. So I decided to take a step forward, and say he was my boyfriend.

“Are you to really lovers?” the doctor asked me.

“Yes, Sir.” I replied. “We have been dating since the beginning of the last school year.”

“That’s right.” Lorie joined in on the lie. “They are madly in love. I didn’t really want to tell you this Spencer. But…he wanted me to give you this.” she was a really good actress, and took off her class ring. “He said it was a promise ring for you.” Fake tears started to stream from her face, and she gave off a fake sniffle.

I gasped at the sight. I had seen it before, but I needed to act along and pretend I never saw it. “That was so sweet of him.” I took the ring from her and placed it on my ring finger (we had the same ring size, which was weird in a way).

“You are to be married?”

“Yes.” Sarah replied, now getting what we were doing and joined in. “But only after Spencer has graduated in two years.”

“Well then, you may see him---being that you are engaged to the patient.” I smiled and thanked the doctor. “But only you can see him. Your friends need to wait a few more days to see him.”

Sarah and Lorie nodded, and we said our goodbyes. After that, I headed off with the doctor to the recovery room where James was. “How is he?” I asked, falling behind him in his footsteps.

“He was badly wounded when he arrived.” the doctor began. “He had a fever of one hundred and eighty, and was sweating up a storm. I didn’t even think he would survive. He was also badly burned, we had to remove the dead skin and tissue from his chest, back, and right arm. He also had deep cuts around his heart, like someone was trying to cut out his heart. He also had them on his legs, and around his buttocks. We were able to close up the cuts just in time. We also thought he needed to have his face restructured, but he won’t need to. Although, there were some heavy cuts and bruises on his face as well. We also had to cover up his left eye, so it can heal. But after he is released, he might have to wear an eye patch for a while.”

As the doctor told me everything that was wrong with James, I couldn’t help but cry. I knew that the demon did this to him, but I could never tell him what happened. If I did, I might end up in a mental institution or something. We made our way down the long corridors of the hospital to the recovery room. I didn’t know what I was going to say to James when I arrived, but I had to think of something fast. When we reached the end of the hall, the doctor stopped and opened the door. I looked inside, and I saw James sleeping in the medical bed inside. I thanked the doc and slowly walked inside. From what the doctor told me, it sounded like he was badly injured. But when I looked down at his sleeping form, it looked far worse. The whole left side of his head was covered with bandages, and also from his shoulders down. A monitor was seated right beside him, and I could hear his heart beating on the machine. He was sound asleep, and I smiled as I listened to his breathing. There was a chair on the other side of his bed and I planted my bottom in it. I gave James a soft smile, and held his hand.

I looked at the clock that was hanging above the bathroom door, and sighed. It was nearing the time for all visitors to go home. But I didn’t want to leave just yet, i had been here for four hours. I wanted to be here when he woke up. I wanted to see if he was going to be okay. And I wanted to stay by his side, just in case that demon showed up again to kill James. I looked up as one of the nurses came in. She informed me that visiting hours were up, and I didn’t argue. I decided to come back tomorrow after school, and visit him till visiting hours expired again. Before I left, I took one last glance at James and caressed his face. It was soft and slightly warm, and I could tell that he still had life in him. Leaning over, I softly placed a peck on James’s cheek, and I heard him groan.

“Spencer.” he moaned, just now waking from his life threatening struggle.

“James?” I gasped, seeing his good eye open, and he looked up at me. I smiled brightly at him, but his face fell and turned away. “What’s wrong?” I asked, worried that I might had done something wrong.

James shook his head. “It’s nothing. Could I please have a few more minutes with my visitor?” he asked the nurse. She nodded, and said I could stay for fifteen more minutes. “What are you doing here?” James asked, after the nurse left.

“I wanted to see if you were alright.” I told him, sitting back in the chair.

“Really?” I nodded, and a small smile came across his face. “But I thought you hated me.”

“I do.” I cried. “But I couldn’t stop thinking about you last night. I was so worried.”

“Yeah, well…this is what I get for disobeying my master.” James sighed, staring down at his body.

“Your master?” I asked, thinking about the demon.

“Yes. The demon you saw was my master, and I ran away from him. He caught me last night, and tortured me. Then when you came he decided to torture you as well. But when you vanished, he was furious and took his rage out on me.”

“I’m sorry; it was my fault that you are like this.”

“No it’s not.” James shook his head slightly. “It was mine. I called you down. I wanted you to help me, to save me. But I only made things worse.”

“You called me down to that place?” James nodded, and looked down. “Then it was all real.” I said, more to myself this time. I ran my fingers down the side of my cheek, and could feel the scars and scabs from the demon’s nails.

“Yes it was.” James replied. “It was real.”

“Then, was that hell?” I asked.

James nodded slightly. “Yes it was. Well, one of the seven layers anyways.”

“Oh, God.” I cried, fearing for my own life. “I am so sorry.”

“Don’t be,” James sighed. "I should have told you who I was when we met. It is my entire fault.”

“Well, who are you?” I asked.

James stared at me for a moment or two and sighed. Taking a deep breath, he began to tell me his story. “Do you remember how you asked me a few days ago, what I was?” I shook my head. “And I told you I was not from this world. Well, I am not. But I am from this planet.” I gave him a questionable look, and he softly smiled at me. “I lived during the Pilgrims came to Plymouth Rock.” he told me. “And when I was your age, I was very sick. I had mercury poisoning, and I was dying---fast. The doctors could not cure me, and I didn’t want to die. So I made a deal with the demon you saw last night---my soul, for him to take away the sickness. His name is Renatus and I am his slave. I have been his for the past four hundred years, but just recently…I escaped.”

“How did you escape?” I asked.

“Well, when you performed that Mr. Right spell, a hole between the three worlds opened up.”

“The three worlds?”

James nodded. “Yes. Heaven, this world, and hell. A hole opens up each time someone does a spell, and that was when I made my escape and came here. I heard that list you made for Lorie, so I used a bit of magic I knew, and changed my features a bit.”

“So those are not your real looks?”

“No. I actually forgot what I looked like. I had changed my looks so much, that I forgot all together. One day you might see what I truely look like.” he smiled. I gave him a weak smile back. I didn’t really want to see what he really looked like, for all I knew he looked like my great grandfather. We stayed quiet for a while. I didn’t know what say next, and I knew that James was trying to catch his breath.

“So, you are not anyone’s Mr. Right then.” I asked, breaking the silence.

“No. I am not anyone’s Mr. Right.” James sighed, looking at me. “I’m yours.” he smiled.

“But you just said---”

James laughed lightly, only to hiss in pain as his sides began to hurt. “I told you that I am yours, and no one else’s.” he smiled. “I was sent here by the spell.” I gave him a confused look and, and he sighed. “Sometimes, spells choose people to fulfill them. I don’t know why, but they just do. Yet I am still not free.” He looked down at his mangled body. I felt sorry for him now. He had spent all of his life in pain, and just when he was in reach of freedom…he fell far from it. Sighing, I stood up and leaned over his bed and kissed him. “Was that a pity kiss?”

I shook my head. “You know. I don’t even know.” I told him truthfully. A part of me thought that was a pity kiss, but another part of me thought differently. A part wanted to hold him, protect him, and even love him. But he didn’t know what to think. I hated James for what he did to me, yet deep down I think I loved him too. “You know. I wanted to come to your rescue from those chains.” I smiled, pushing a few strands of hair out of his eye. “But, I failed.”

“No, not really.” James replied, holding my hand in his. “You came, and tried to protect me. If you hadn’t come, then I knew we weren’t connected. And if that happened, he would have tortured me forever. For me, you coming and trying to save me was a big accomplishment.”He smiled and kissed the back of my hand. I smiled and leaned down to kiss him again, this time I lingered a bit longer at his lips.

As we kissed, I heard the nurse walk back in. James sighed as he broke the kiss, our fifteen minutes were up. I smiled at the nurse and told her that I was just leaving, but not before I gave James another kiss. “Goodnight.” I softly spoke, my head gently resting against James’s cheek. I gave him one more peck on the cheek and waved good-bye.

“Spencer!” I heard James called as I walked out of the room. I stopped and leaned against the door frame. He smiled at me and I smiled back. “I love you.” he said, his smile getting bigger as he said it.

My smile got bigger too, but I didn’t know if I should say it back to him. I had never been in love before, and this was the first time I had been. As I stared down at James, I remembered everything from the night before, and tears began to fall from my eyes. “I love you too.” I choked on my tears. I left the hospital, thinking about what I had said to James. ‘Do I really love James?’ I thought. That was the whole thing that I could think of as I walked home. Once I climbed the steps to my house, it dawned on me. I was in love with James. I was a fool not to see it before. But with all those times he teased and pleasured me, I secretly loved it. Yet as I got ready for bed, another thought came into my mind---a scary thought to me more likely. I knew that what he did to me was out of love, for him. But for me, was it really out of love or lust that made me love James?