I hesitate as I realize that the rest of the horsemen are around until the end of time. Is this curse really the only reason I continue to age, am hurt like a human, and am so weak? If we fix whatever has made me more human, will I live as long as Torin?
“Something to worry about another day,” I reply, but the look on Torin’s face tells me that today is that day.
I’m freed from more questions when the screen on the seat in front of us starts telling us what to do in an emergency. Torin is entranced by it, and then when it’s over, he turns to me and goes, “I would definitely put on your oxygen mask before putting on my own, even if she says otherwise.”
“Thanks, Torin,” I say as he beams. If he were a dog, his tail would be wagging so hard right now. It’s so ridiculous, yet I can’t help but smile.
The plane begins to move and Torin glances over at me. “Are my testicles safe from the plane?”
“Possibly.”
“Good, because I only want you to have them.”
“That’s not as romantic as you seem to think it is.”
Torin just laughs, and as the plane lifts off the ground, he drags me halfway into his seat so he can look down at the world and hold me tightly at the same time.
He leans a bit, taking it all in. “This place is just so different from mine.”
“Yours is very beautiful,” I say.
“It used to be. Now it suffers so much because of me?—”
“No, because of me,” I interrupt.
Torin’s attention snaps over to me. “Don’t say that again or I won’t join the mile-high club with you.”
“We’re not joining the mile-high club,” I inform him. He seems highly disgruntled by this and returns to staring out the window. “I want to fix your world… I… I bet some people would join it… if you wanted them to. I know you don’t have the tech we do, but a lot of people would love that. And with how good Mickey’s crew is at fixing things, I bet they could add some tech to it.”
“Maybe. But right now, I like it just being us.”
“And Mickey.”
“He’s not a real human. He is an alien. Like the ones that probe people in the sex books you like to read with tentacles and stuff. Impregnate them with their eggs.”
“I would totally impregnate Riley with my eggs if I had any,” Mickey mumbles.
I refuse to engage as I die of shame right here in the middle seat of a plane.
“I could lay eggs in you if you’d like,” Torin whispers in my ear.
I shove him back and he cackles, pleased with himself.
“You’re right, this isn’t as scary as I thought it’d be because you’re with me.”
“Good, I’m glad.”
Then I watch while he whips out an extremely graphic comic book like he’s going to read hardcore porn withveryexplicit pictures right here on the plane where anyone can see. The size of the dick in its full glory as it enters that graphically on-display hole makes my very soul leave my body.
I quickly cover the picture with my hands when the flight attendant strolls by. “Torin! What are you doing? You can’t read that here. This is like a… ‘read in the privacy of your bedroom’ book,” I hiss.
“I asked Mickey and he said it’s not illegal,” he says as he tries to pull it from me, and in doing so, he’s flashing it above his head for all to see.
“Torin, how are you not embarrassed?”
“Gods of love do not get embarrassed by sex.”
I try to strong-arm the book out of his hand while the flight attendant hurries over, thinking we have an issue when the only issue is that Torin is trying to kill me with mortification.
