James tossed and turned in his sleep. He couldn't get comfortable as he rolled around in his bedsheets, now made damp by sweat. It felt like there was a massive weight on his body, forcing his heart to pound and his chest to tingle. Opening his eyes, he looked over at the alarm clock, which read 2:45 am in a bright red hue.
He tried ignoring the feeling of unease, but it only grew. He was about to get up and get a glass of water only when he tried to move, he found he was locked in place. His arms and legs became frozen and refused to respond to his commands. He didn't panic, this would not have been the first time he experienced sleep paralysis. His calm soon turned to fear when, standing in his room not 5 feet away, he noticed a dark figure moving through the room.
James squinted his eyes in the darkness to determine if he was really seeing what he thought he was. All doubt vanished as the shadowy being crept closer to the bed. James tried to get his body to move, but all attempts to escape failed. It was now right next to him and James' eyes were wide with the fear of what may come next. The figure looked down at one of his exposed feet peeking through the covers and reached its hand out towards it.
Instead of grabbing James’s foot and dragging him out of bed the being just took hold of his blanket and covered his exposed foot with it. James’s face went from horrified to puzzled.
“Nice little place you got here,” The creature spoke in a calm and soothing tone.
There was a moment of silence as James processed what just happened. He looked the figure over, it had the outline of a human's body but that was it. There were no facial features either just a tall, black silhouette.
It gave James a wave in front of his face “Hello, anyone home?”
After staring back in silence for a moment longer James replied with an awkward, “What?”
“Oh, so you can hear me.” The figure quipped. “That’s good cause for a moment I was worried I accidentally turned you into a vegetable.”
James' voice cracked with fear, “Uh, who are you?”
The figure chuckled, “Don’t worry about that. I’m no one of any consequence," The being sat down on the bed next to him and pointed at his face, "what’s more important is who you are.”
With his eyes widening James asked, “What do you mean?”
“I know what you were about to do James, I'm here to keep you from making the worst mistake of your life.”
"Mistake?" James mumbled under his breath, "what are you talking about?"
“Oh, do you need me to refresh your memory? Did you, or did you not, almost hurl yourself off a cliff not 12 hours ago?”
“What?” James barked out, “How did you even know that? What are you?”
The figure started prancing around the room, it clearly had a flair for the dramatic, “Think of me as a friend, a friend who can help you get the thing you want most in the world.”
James let out a snicker, he was not convinced, "No, no, no, you’re just some weird figment of my imagination or something. This is just an odd dream and I’m going to wake up any moment and laugh about how absurd it all was.
The figure danced over and pinched James on the shoulder.
“Ow!"
“Sorry friend but this isn’t a dream. I have been watching you for a while. I wasn’t going to reveal myself to you just yet but after what happened yesterday I figured I needed to move quickly. I want to make a deal with you.”
James sat there processing the surreal exchange he was having. An odd, otherworldly figure has appeared in his room stating it wants to make a deal?
“Are you some kind of devil?” James asked bluntly.
The figure laughed uproariously. “No, no, I’m no devil. I’m just a friend who sees what you’re going through and wants to offer a helping hand.”
“Right," he jeered, "and so you chose this appearance to try and put me at ease? No offense but you look like every child’s worst nightmare."
The figure looked itself up and down, “Are you trying to body-shame me?”
It sauntered back over and sat back down on the bed, “Look kid, I don’t have a physical form. This is all just being projected into your brain for your own sake. Have you ever tried speaking to someone who can't see you? They think they are going nuts.”
“Hold on, if you don't have a body then how did you pinch me?”
It slid a finger across James' forehead, “I know how your tiny little meat sack of a mind works and I can make you feel just about anything I want. For example, is it getting warmer in here?”
Suddenly, James felt like he was burning up! Like his blood was on fire, "Ahh!" he cried out.
The figure snapped its fingers and the burning sensation vanished.
“So, what do you want with me?” James asked bluntly.
The being let out a long sigh, “It's complicated but I can try to summarize it. You and I want the same thing, to change this world for the better. The thing is neither of us can do that without each other's help.”
James thought about what he was saying. He still was not convinced that all this was really happening but he decided to play along, “Why choose me? Isn’t there someone much more powerful like a superhero you could team up with?”
“Actually no,” the figure replied despondently. “I can only bind myself to a person that has the same kind of, how do I say this, life force as mine. Every person has a signature and ours have to be compatible for the symbiosis to take hold.”
"So there is no one else you can be bothering for this?"
The figure nodded its head no."
“So, what do I get if I do bind with you? You said that we can give each other what we want. How would that work?”
It placed a hand on James' chest and sent a wave of empowering sensations through his body, “I can give you the ability to do incredible things. In time, you will have powers no hero on this planet could ever dream of obtaining.”
It removed its hand from him and let James catch his breath, “But why do you want to help me save this world? What investment do you have in it?”
“Honestly, my people forbid engaging with other species. The thing is, I always enjoyed being around creatures like you much more than I do my own kind. I have seen firsthand the pain that greed and power run amuck can cause. All I want is to help save your planet from that kind of fate.”
“And what’s the catch?” James asked cautiously. He knew deals like this always had some kind of fine print.
“No catch, I get what I want, you get what you want. Nothing I said is a lie on this I swear," The figure moved in closer and put out his hand for a shake, "sound good to you?”
James hesitated, none of this seemed real and even if it was it all sounded crazy. At the same time, it was the answer to his dreams. All things considered, he decided to give it a shot after all what did he have left to lose? Before he could agree, there was one more thing he needed to know, "what's your name?"
The figure chuckled. It felt humored by how much stock humans put in a person's name, "Kazav,” it replied as disarmingly as possible.
“Nice to meet you,” James remarked cautiously, “And you swear that nothing bad will happen if we do this?”
“I swear,” The figure announced as he held its hand to its chest.
James' movement was restored and he sat up in his bed looking out at the dark hand being held out in front of him. After considering things once more he extended his own hand out and brought it over to Kazav’s. Finally, he closed his grip and shook.
“Excellent!” Kazav shouted excitedly. He then began to glow and get brighter casting beams of blinding light across the room.
James' arm began to burn and tingle like a million needles were passing through it and racing into his heart. Kazav started disappearing as he transferred himself into James through the handshake they shared. Reality began to bend and distort. James' vision blurred and an immense ringing pierced into his skull. The climax of the moment overwhelmed him. One last massive flash of light burst out as Kazav completed his transfer. Overwhelmed, James fell back into his bed as he passed out from the intensity of the experience.
The room was once again peaceful with no other sounds to be heard other than the ticking of the clock and James' intermittent snoring. All it seemed, was back to normal.
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