Ecesis | Peter Parker

15- Alger's Awakening

Darkness. I couldn't feel anything but I felt everything. A sharp excruciating pain lingered throughout me, but it was numb.

Was this the afterlife? My eternal rest consisted of a weird bearable yet unbearable pain with a smog like darkness that loomed over?

I expected something better.

"Hello, Alger Booth." A nasally voice boomed. "Have we finally come to our senses?"

The voice sounded familiar but I couldn't place it with anybody. I heard them groan in frustration.

"We're in your head, Alger. I was hoping you'd be smart enough to establish that. Here, let me clear the scene and give you something to work with."

The darkness was blown away, like wind moving clouds in the sky, and everything was blindingly white.
The pain ceased and all the sudden I could breathe again. I could feel the cool surface I was laying upon.
It felt like my soul finally went back inside my body.

I sat up and glanced down at myself. I still had on my suit and the hole from the lightning and the gaping wound in my stomach was still there as well.

I sensed nothing. All that I could hear was the voice.
The unknown light became brighter and I squeezed my eyes shut and covered them with my right hand.

"What's the matter? Can't handle all of my angelic beauty at once?"

I now recognized the voice.

Ansel.

I removed my hand and looked up. He was standing there, arms crossed, with a smug expression on his face that I wanted to slap off.

"Surprised?" He laughed, "Figured you would be."

"You're supposed to be dead!" I spatted.

"And so are you."

"This must be a dream."

"No, it's completely real. All of this is happening right now in your tiny little mind."

I stood to my feet. I glanced down when I still couldn't sense any vibrations. "I saw you get stabbed! I watched you die!" I yelled at him.

He began to pace around me. I couldn't feel his steps. "Killed by my twin sister, yes, I know. The blade was dipped in poison if you don't recall."

"Then how are you here?"

"I'm here because I am an almost fifteen year old boy that deserves a second chance. I couldn't let my amazing abilities go to such waste! So, I had to find myself a new outlet."

"...What are you saying?"

He stopped pacing around in front of me and groaned in annoyance. "Are you seriously this stupid?! Good thing your intelligence won't interfere with mine once I'm through."

I came to realization. "You're planning to kill me again."

He shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal. "A life is a life, Alger Booth. And in this case, mine is far more important than yours."

"I won't let you lay a hand on me again." I told him sternly.

He erupted in laughter. He held his hand to his stomach and gasped for breath as he hunched over while giggling in an annoying high pitch. His appearance did not match his voice whatsoever. "Oh, you don't have to worry about that." He cleared his throat. "I technically no longer have a hand to even use, for I am dead."

I stared at him in confusion. He scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"My word HYDRA really did you dirty by not teaching you what common sense is. I am the universe's strongest telepath, you idiot! I placed my subconscious mind into yours so that, when you died, I could take over and have your body!" He screamed at me like an angry child trying to prove a point.