T5A
by AB
Chapter 7
Kendra and Maria
"I am going to tell you of my life." Triton felt his jaw slack.
"Wh…at part of it?" Triton stuttered, not sure if he should believe his ears.
"All of it. Every detail." Replied Andreas in barely above a hushed whisper.
Triton's jaw slacked further agape.
"Why? I mean…it's very sudden." asked Triton regaining his composure.
"I will die…one day and I want someone to know me, my life and all that is important to me so that when I'm gone someone, even for a few years will remember me." Andreas explained. "For as long as I live you and I are friends, I'm sick of being alone all the fucking time."
"You may outlive me by centuries, it's probably you who's going to be remembering me." Responded Triton.
Andreas did not reply.
A moment's silence later, Triton looked at him and nodded.
"Okay, but I want to write down all that you tell me."
"You like writing, then?" Asked Andreas, realising he had not this far made any effort to know his friend.
Triton nodded. "I want to be an author and an archaeologist one day."
"I've been keeping diaries since the beginning but okay I guess."
"Where are they? I haven't seen anything in George's place." Triton remarked.
"All Immortals keep their money and valuables in Switzerland, there's a storage facility in there somewhere since before it was Switzerland."
"Operated by who? Other Immortals?" Asked Triton, grabbing his tablet and opening a word file.
"No, mortals who know nothing, make good money and know not to ask questions, I'm guessing. It was setup by an Immortal though, one now long since dead."
"How do you know?" Triton inquired, while creating new folders and files.
"I killed him, of course." Replied Andreas. "I will start from the end and make my way to the start." Triton looked at him confounded.
"How can you start from the end?"
"I'll start from the now and work my way back in time." Andreas elaborated.
"Well, I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Triton sat cross legged on the bed while Andreas lay on his back, hands behind his head.
"How do you want to do this?" Queried Triton.
"I'll be giving you information in batches, so you can process, adjust and so it doesn't get boring." There was another reason, he did not tell Triton.
"The 1950s and 1960s were a fascinating time to be roaming Europe, not the first time it's been ravaged by war, by far but perhaps the first time one could see it being rebuilt so much so fast. People were still afraid of the war that had just ended but hopeful of the future." Andreas shook his head with a scornful chuckle. "Humanity after every war and yet…" He paused for a moment looking at Triton lost deep in thought of his writing Andreas recounting of his life. He smiled, quick yet warm.
"So many countries affected…I remember walking from Rome going to Florence once in 1954, dawn of spring and nature awakened from winter's slumber. So much poverty existed people would use horse driven carts to move around before they could afford cars. So, I was walking along a road going to Firenze when I heard horse hooves coming behind me. A family of four. Father, mother, son and daughter. Kids in their teens. I remember them well. Mother was in her mid-thirties, father slightly older. She had seen better times yet she was still beautiful with her long black hair and deep blue eyes..." He sighed closing his eyes for a few.
"What is it?"
"This will be a story to you, perhaps something you'd see in a movie or a series but to me…I am reliving it all." A pause, pained. "She died two winters later and not the first friend I ever lost. Or the last."
"What…how? Did she?"
"Tuberculosis. The boy had taken from his father, thirteen and eager to put the war behind him and be a child, only he no longer was a child, in the cusp of change and he had to take up duties and chores meant for adults, to help his widowed father support them. I remember him well, tall, lanky with brunette curly hair and green eyes. Mario was his name and Agnela was his sister's name. She was fifteen at the time, at the prime of her teenagerhood, her body changing to that of a woman's. She was…beautiful."
Triton giggled at Andreas' dreamy tone of voice.
"What?"
"Admit it…you sexed her up." More giggles.
An evil grin adorned Andreas' face. "Oh, I sexed up both of them up."
Triton choked on his saliva with Andreas bursting into laughter. "Ha! Made you choke!" Triton kicked his shoulder playfully. "What? Not at the same time, obviously."
"But you like girls!" Triton couldn't stop laughing.
"Yeah, so? I never said I don't like boys." Andreas grinned mischievously.
"What made you leave Florence?" Asked Triton, after regaining his calm.
"What else…I met them in 1954 and four years later, Mario now seventeen, Agnela, nineteen and I looked not a day older…so I had to move again." Andreas had stood up, putting on his night clothes. "So, I left taking to northern and western Europe through France, Belgium, Netherlands and Norway. From there to the UK via ferry. It was in London I found George again."
"What had happened?"
"The Second World War. More on that next time."
"When did you find out about Grove?"
We started hearing rumours amongst the Immortals a few months later while still in London. He found us almost two years later, in West Germany." Andreas sat on the bed leaning back on his hands.
We got back to Greece mid-1970, during the military Junta and spent the next ten years moving from city to city until the early nineties when for a short period of time we went our separate ways. I was moved in with him by children's welfare a few short weeks before I met you."
Triton chuckled. "'for a short period of time…a span of time almost more than I have been alive…early nineties to 2017…"
Andreas smiled bitterly. "What's fourteen years to a few centuries."
"Now give me every detail, everything you can remember. How was life in Greece in the seventies? Fifties? What can you remember from west Europe after the second War?" Triton demanded, excited.
"I am tired, I will tell you all tomorrow, I promise." A knock came on the door.
"Yeah?" Triton gave permission to enter by form of a question.
Paul entered the room. "I've made arrangements for you to live with Kendra. A fellow Watcher, social worker, friend of mine and certified foster parent.
"I will continue to evade your Order." Replied Andreas, steadfast in his conviction to not be watched or followed. Triton noticed he did not reject his father's plans.
"Okay." Paul laughed, "Kendra has an adopted daughter aged seventeen, named Artemis and a younger biological son aged twelve named Mathew. She is not married."
"Okay."
"What? No retort from you on how you will have to move eventually so that mortals don't realise you're not growing up?" Triton exclaimed.
"No, although I may have to." Andreas smiled.
"No."
"What happens if in three years everyone, your friends, Artemis, Mathew, everyone are three years older and I have not changed a bit? If not three years five or more?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, if it's three years I get to have you as my friend then it's three years." Replied Triton resolute.
A short laugh escaped Andreas' lips. "Okay, Mr. Stubborn."
"You have no idea." Paul quipped making them all laugh.
"So, when do I move in with Kendra?" Asked Andreas.
"In two days, after George's funeral." Came Paul's somber reply.
"Ah…" Andreas' face darkened. "Will Maria and the kids be there?"
Paul looked away taking a deep breath. "Maria will be there, the kids…"
"What of them?" Andreas could feel the skin on his nape prickle, followed by a shiver down his spine. "Answer me already!"
"The Immortal who killed George…" Paul's voice broke. "He killed them both."
"Was it fast?" Asked Andreas, after regaining his ability to speak. His face as well as Triton's had lost all vibrancy.
"Yes." Paul nodded.
"That's something. Is there any indication their deaths may not have been caused by the Immortal who killed George?"
"No." Paul shook his head.
"Any reasons an Immortal would have had killing two innocent mortal boys?"
"No." Replied Paul after a moment's hesitation.
"Will Maria be in the funeral?" Andreas studied Paul's face intensely before continuing.
"She will be there." Paul confirmed. "She was the one who asked George be buried there temporarily."
"temporarily?" Andreas' brow furrowed.
"I do not know, she did not tell me. You will have to ask her about it."
"Okay."
Paul kissed and hugged his son goodnight, leaving the room and closing the door behind him.
"That's something?" Triton asked once his father had left, standing up and lying back on the bed after, the room now almost dark.
"Oh, don't you worry he will pay. I will make whoever did this suffer."
"But, that's something?"
"Yes, of course it would be better if they were still alive, but it is something it was quick rather than slow. I have seen way too many friends suffer, too many innocents dying slow agonizing deaths. That's something." Andreas turned on his side, facing Triton.
"Does this change your mind?"
"Of me telling you my life? No, on the contrary it only intensifies my desire to do so." Triton tried to smile, turning off the nightstand light.
On his side Andreas leaned in across the chasm between them placing a kiss on Triton's cheek. "Thank you, for your friendship." He smiled in the dark.
"Damn you, you know how to kiss…even on a cheek." Triton whispered launching himself on Andreas' lips. Andreas kissed him back, hormones now dictating moves and decorum.
Andreas pressed his hands against Triton's supple, smooth chest, frantically searching for the end of the PJs top, eager to move under it. Once under it they proceeded to tease the boy's nipples and caress his lean torso.
Triton moaned, moving his hands, eagerly, under Andreas' top pressing on his abdomen muscles.
Andreas opened his lips keen on exploring his friend's mouth. Triton responded with uncharacteristic eagerness opening his lips and tongue jolting out to meet the invader.
Their tongues commencing joyous battle while Andreas moved his hand between Triton's legs.
Triton felt an involuntary urge to open them more and shove his hips forward.
Pulling back for breath Triton moaned, softly. "God, this feels good. You are…good with your hands." Andreas pressed their lips locked together. Kiss after sloppy kiss, their hands fast around each other's erect dicks.
"Well…" Andreas groaned. "I have had some practice on the matter…at hand." Changing between slow and fast stroking tempo.
"Oh gawd…" Triton mewled rapidly shoving his hips back and forth, semen erupting from his lower head and fireworks from his top head. His eyes closed and his lips still busy with their merry dance with Andreas'.
A few seconds later Andreas spilled his boy butter all over Triton's hand panting and sweating.
"Oh, dear lords this was amazing!" Triton whispered much excited.
Andreas said nothing, spooning up to him half naked.
Triton wrapped his hands and legs around him. "Perhaps, one day soon I shall make you choke as well." He whispered in Andreas' ear.
Andreas chuckled softly. "It may prove to be difficult to do considering I have no gag reflex." He heard his friend cough for the second time in the night.
The day next and the day after went by quick as detailing Andreas' life consumed their free time left after homework and chores.
"Boys! Are you ready? It is time to depart for the funeral." Paul entered the room. Both boys sat on Triton's bed, clothed in their black satin suits. Triton placed the tablet on the bed.
"We are ready, and finally we finished with most of the twentieth century."
They exited the flat, heading for the elevator. "It seems you find great joy in writing, son?" Paul questioned. Andreas eyed the man, he seemed in joy rather than disappointment.
"Yeah, I've been reading up on creative writing and literature programs." Said an enthusiastic Triton, grinning from ear to ear. As well as Archeology, of course."
"Of course." Paul chuckled. "You have been set on those two for a while now. I've been thinking come summer we could go and have a tour of the best universities in Greece, Europe and the States for what you want to do?" Triton almost glomped him.
"You do not want your son to be a cop?" Asked Andreas, not in accusation but in surprise.
"I want him to do something that'll make him happy. I am not one of those fathers who want their children to follow them into the profession." Paul shrugged, Triton giggled at his father's reaction.
"Apparently not." Andreas smiled.
"And what will you call this book?" Inquired Paul.
"I was thinking maybe doing it in more than one books, like a series. There's just so much information."
"You have no idea." Andreas thought to himself.
"How old are you Andreas? We still have no idea." Paul inquired.
Andreas looked at him then Triton for a moment. "Old." Triton replied for him poking his tongue out at his friend.
"I am quite old." Andreas confirmed, entering the car's back seat.
"How can you remember all of it?" Paul continued.
"I have an interesting memory."
"You can't possibly remember all of it? I mean even a few centuries of life…I can't remember what I ate yesterday, or the names of my lovers when I was a teenager." Paul continued.
"He has Hyperthymesia." Triton asserted. "He can remember everything from ever." They left the driveway.
"During the last decade, I found an Immortal who was kind enough to run some tests for that and told me what it was…pity I had to separate his head from his shoulders when he realised how old I was and got greedy over my quickening…"
"How did he realise it?"
"Fucker drugged me and asked." Andreas shrugged. "As he found out, killing me is not that easy, drugged or not drugged. In fact, had he not studied medicine he'd have found out it's not as easy to drug me to begin with."
"Why is that?" Paul ensued.
Andreas looked outside the window of the car. "That's a very long story."
"How long?"
"Dad…" Paul scoffed but said nothing.
Fifteen minutes later Paul parked in the cemetery.
They walked in under the white marble entrance and to the left going to where the coffins were kept in rooms for the friends and family to gather before the funeral.
"Maria…" Andreas saw her standing above George's coffin. He started walking towards her.
"I know this look, this sudden straightening of your neck and head." Triton asserted in a low voice so that only his father and Andreas would hear him. "Another Immortal is nearby, yes?"
Andreas nodded. "We each have a different sensation we give out to other Immortals, based on personality, age, knowledge, skill and so on. This one is…weird, like two different peo…" He was cut short.
"Andronicus, is it? I have not seen you in such a long time." A female voice came behind him.
"Eva? It has been a long. It's Andreas now." Andreas turned round, his voice calm and gentle.
Eva smiled, giving him a hug which he reciprocated.
"Pray tell, what are you still doing in Greece?" She joked.
"I've been back for a few decades, now." He replied, Triton detecting the slightest irritation in his voice.
"I'd thought you'd have travelled around some." It was obvious to Paul, Eva was trying to make conversation.
"I have."
"You did always love your secrecy."
"It's kept me alive so far."
"Are you alive or are you living?"
"What's the difference? You know how our life can be." Andreas almost snapped.
She scrutinized him closely, with pained eyes. "I know. Live while you can, dear. George must have taught you something, you have known each other for far too long not to." He turned his face from her, to George's coffin.
"George did always enjoy life. I'm trying too, but I can't always let go of this morbid feeling that everyone I meet will die."
"Every living thing dies, Andreas, Andronicus or whatever your name, really, is. Immortals die too. For all you know Groves might take your head."
"What?" Andreas' head snapped back at her.
"We'll talk later." Eva walked off to the small room with George's coffin. Andreas followed her after a pause.
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