Bring Me to Life

Prologue:

The Summoning

We begin our story with a teenager known as Cyrus sitting at his desk late into the night. His features include long brown hair, just enough to hang playfully in his eyes, which were hazel, and very little acne for his age. If he were to stand he'd be close to the half way marker between six and seven feet, but as said before, he is still sitting huddled over a piece of paper, pencils all around. He wore only a pair of denim jeans, going shirtless in the heat of the summer night, revealing his fit physique.

What is he working on? Well, Cyrus is an artist, and a very talented one at that. He's been able to draw masterpieces in only a few hours' time, but they always end up in one of his many 'private' folders, ones that only he and his creations are allowed to see within. A bit of irony in that last sentence…not following? Well, let's get back to the boy.

Cyrus stood for what seemed like the first time in many days and rubbed his eyes to get some liquid back in them. He stretched and cracked his joints while looking at his work. It was a simple picture of a girl. She was around the age of sixteen by what could be told, and had the air of rebel around her. She had her hair in a modern Asian girl style with two strands hanging in front of her face. Her eyes were narrow and gave her an exotic, but neutral look.

While her face might have been Asian, the rest screamed American. She wore a grey belly-shirt with interchanging colors on the sleeves over a fishnet shirt. Around the girl's neck was a flat skull pendent hanging just above her chest of which he'd given a medium amount of. He also added to the style by giving her a black, spiked collar. Her shorts reached to her shins and had a chain, along with a pair of suspenders purely for looks and not use. With a smile he had added the g-string straps coming up from those pants. Lastly he gave her a pair of skateboard shoes, not that he knew anything about the sport but he figured she might as well fit in.

Cyrus looked at his picture a bit less like a critic and more like an artist. He would be the first to say that she was sexy. He would describe her as the beauty of the gothic skate-park. He went back to his seat and contemplated what he should do next. Normally, he'd color his art, sign it, and then file it away. But…this one was special. He'd only produced something as beautiful as this a few times before. Those he'd given a chance for the world to see, but…they hadn't responded very well.

He looked again at the girl and thought some more on the subject. Did he really want to show her to the world? He could picture his friends' reactions; they'd love her, lust for her, and those that couldn't lust would find her to be one of the cool kids to hang out with. To say the least, his friends would want more than just her and he'd have to show the other works as well.

Though his mother would be…less enthusiastic. She'd wonder what he needed in doodling and making fantasy girls. Then she'd bring him to church and tell the priest to cleanse her child of 'the devil's taint.' The priest would probably not care at all about the picture; he didn't seem to care for much really.

Cyrus sat yet again and grabbed his colored pencils. To Hell with his mother and her religious paranoia; he'd finish her. He'd bring her into the world's view. But these things need planning. Coloration could ruin the entire picture if not done right. He selected his colors carefully. She was his gothic goddess of the skate-ramp and she needed to look like one. He decided on black, purple, and a light tan for her skin. He got to work right away, beginning with her clothing.

Her pants became purple with black trim, along with black side and front pockets. Her sneakers he styled black and white, because seriously, no one was really going to pay much attention to her shoes to care. Next he moved to her shirt, making the main fabric grey and switching to purple on the changing parts of her sleeves. He arrived at her face and decided she'd look good with some purple hair, giving her a punk look while staying with the scheme. He gave her some black knuckle gloves with the fingers cut out to add to her rocker look. He finished by coloring her skin lightly with the sand pencil before looking at it again.

After making one or two shading effects he deemed her perfect. He smiled for a second before moving to his wooden case, which resembled a mini chest. Opening the case he removed his special ultra-fine sharpie from the red velvet. The marker had a certain special quality to it. Something that made whatever drawing signed with it, even more special and 'realistic' we'll say.

Cyrus uncapped the marker and hovered above the picture as he had one last thought of doubt.

'Should I really be doing this?' he thought to himself. He shook his head and signed the page: Cyrus Roth.

What happened next was truly magical. The lettering began to glow in the semi-darkness created by the single lamp, and there was a fluttering of many papers as a mystical wind swept through the room. Despite the excitement of the event, Cyrus still cursed himself for not remembering to weigh everything down. The picture began to spin in the air as arcane whispers moved around the room like incense smoke.

Cyrus always loved the little bit of magic he possessed. It made him feel both powerful and important. Special even. The paper spun and began to glow to the point of blinding and he had to shield his eyes to keep from losing his sight. When the magic faded from the room, and the light waned he opened his eyes as he lowered his arm and he saw his creation standing before him with a raised eyebrow.

"Who are you?" the girl asked in a blunt voice. Cyrus smiled and moved forward with an extended hand.

"The name's Cyrus Roth." He said shaking her hand. "And you must be Gaz Membrane. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"That's nice, where am I?" she asked uncaringly. She looked around the room, which was really just a furnished basement with blankets for walls.

"China," he replied making observations on her size, making sure she didn't come out too thin or too tall.

"You don't look Asian," she said looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "Wow you're tall."

"I get that and I'm not Asian." He smiled smiling at how she seemed to come out right. "You're in China, Maine. Well you seem to have come out correctly. I'd say about, oh 5'7" and," he picked her up and she stiffened up. "Around a hundred pounds."

Gaz shook for a second after he put her down before slapping him across the face. "Don't pick me up! I hate it when people do that! And what's with the whole 'coming out correctly' thing?!"

"Well, I'm just making sure you didn't come out only 2D instead of 3D." Cyrus explained as if it was obvious. He pulled at her sleeve and nodded when it lifted from her skin. "Good, no bonds to your clothes. Your not stuck in those clothes. Very nice."

"Dude, you're freaking me out now. Either tell me what's going on and how I got here or I'm leaving." The goth said folding her arms over her chest. Cyrus held up his hands in surrender.

"Okay, okay, let me explain." He motioned for her to sit down on the couch as he sat on the coffee table that was in front of said couch. "Your character design was taken from a TV show called Invader Zim."

"Character design?" she questioned, then she paused, "What does Zim have to do with this?"

"Well…this is where it gets a little difficult." He said rubbing the back of his neck. "Zim, Dib, you, and everyone you remember is fiction."

"Uh-huh, sure. So, what about you? Are you fiction?" she asked not really sounding convinced.

"No I'm real. I was able to bring you into reality by a bit of old magic I've got." He explained though he noted she still didn't seem very convinced despite the fact that she was there for the summoning.

"And how do you know you're not part of some fictional story?" she asked trying to confuse him.

"Trust me Gaz," he said leaning forward, smirking, "I'm not. I thought of that when I did this the first time."

"And exactly how many times have you tried to make me?" she questioned, looking the boy over.

"You're the first Gaz I've made, but trust me, I've made a lot of living and non-living creations. But that's off topic. I bet you're wondering how you know everything you know?" he said with a smirk, which disappeared when she replied.

"Not really, but you can go ahead since you like talking so much." She leaned back and got comfortable. "Go on."

"Well now you've taken the fun out of it," he said standing and walking around the room beginning to pick up what had been thrown around the room by the summoning. Gaz watched him for a moment before getting up with a sigh and helping collect the many papers strewn about.

"Whoa," she said looking at a picture of a dragon that had very great detail. "You did this?" Cyrus lifted his head and smiled.

"Some early work a long time ago." He looked around and seemed to be reminiscing. He shook himself before going back to his task.

"So why did you do it?" the girl asked looking at him. He seemed confused by her question so she continued. "Why did you bring me to life…not that I believe you of course."

"Of course," he chuckled.

"You didn't do it for some perverted reason did you?" she asked like a threat. Cyrus laughed and it annoyed her. "It's not funny!"

"Oh, sorry." He seemed to calm down a bit. "It's just, if I wanted you to be a sex kitten, Gaz, it would have been more obvious and you'd probably be wearing less clothing."

Gaz blushed at that and Cyrus couldn't help but think how it was cute the way she turned her head to hide it. Then, he returned to her first question.

"I brought you here for a lot of reasons," he began seriously and Gaz turned to listen, "Mostly, I wanted a good friend. Someone I could hang out with, you know? Most of my friends, they don't really get me sometimes. So I just, wanted someone like me. I thought you'd be like that too."

Gaz didn't answer but went back to picking up the mess. He watched her for a moment in silence before turning back the floor. Cyrus had just begun to grab for the papers when he heard a faint whisper. "I am like that." He looked to her and gave her a smile, which she returned kindly.

Time Jump

"So what's to say that time actually exists?" Gaz asked as they lounged on the couch going back and forth with philosophy questions. The two had finished picking up the room and were relaxing a bit. Out of sheer luck, they both liked to ask hard questions. Actually, Cyrus enjoyed the questions; Gaz just liked messing with people.

"Well," Cyrus began fidgeting with his newly donned shirt, "We believe that time has a value in the world so it does. Much like paper money." Gaz rolled her eyes at him for bringing up the first topic…again.

"Don't even start with that again," she said laughing slightly. "But seriously, who are we to say that time…"

Cyrus covered her mouth quickly and seemed to strain to hear something so Gaz listened as well. It was the sound of tires on pavement. A sound that was just loud enough to hear over talking but soft enough for Gaz to hear Cyrus' heart race.

"Shit!" the male cried springing to his feet. Gaz stood as well wondering what was wrong and why he was running around. "Where is it? Where is it?!" he said to himself.

"What are you looking for?" she asked.

"It's kind of like a Frisbee shaped thing that's dark blue and…" Gaz picked up the object and looked at it oddly. "That!" he grabbed it before quickly throwing it through the separating curtains and over of his bed where it hovered and continued to spin. There was the sound of footsteps on the outside stairs and Cyrus jumped for his work light, switching it off.

"Cyrus?…" she stumbled in the dark for a second before a hand covered her mouth and she was shushed. They both listened as the upstairs door opened and closed loudly. Gaz's eyes adjusted to the darkness and found that it was Cyrus who'd covered her mouth and was following the footsteps walk on the floor above. When the footsteps stopped they waited another five or so minutes before Cyrus removed his hand.

"Sorry," he whispered apologetically, "My mom works late and she's really strict about some things. Like having a girl in my room when she's not around. I think it might be the religion in her."

"So what now?" she asked as he moved to the bed and took the disk he'd thrown. "What is that anyway?"

"It's a holographic projector." He explained placing the object into his desk drawer. "Some times my mom comes down to check on me and if I don't want her to think I'm awake, this makes the illusion of me sleeping in bed."

"You guys have those now?" she asked amazed. He shook his head and said he drew it and brought it to reality. "So what are we going to do now?"

"Well," he looked to the clock that read midnight, "I'm going to sleep, I've been up since six. You should probably do the same."

"Uh," she began, looking at the bed. The rather thin bed as well, barley enough for him she was willing to bet. "Where am I going to sleep?"

"In the bed," he replied taking a blanket from the top and moving to the couch. "I can sleep just about anywhere. And, it's only fair since you're the girl." She was about to make a remark when he threw a large grey shirt at her head. "You can use that as a nightgown if it suits you."

Gaz mumbled to herself as she moved to the other side of curtain to undress. "Here take this," she said poking her head out with the holograph maker in one hand. "It's a little weird to undress in front of you.

"It's not really me you know," he said taking the device and feeling a little silly because of the 'So what' look she was giving him.

After placing the device on the coffee table, Cyrus turned and with shock saw the silhouette of Gaz in the process of undressing against the pale yellow curtain. He turned his head away reflexively and not wanting to be called a pervert by someone he was potentially going to housing for a very long time.

Almost without knowing it, his head turned to face the shadow again as she was slipping out of her shorts. He knew it was wrong to watch but she had a hypnotizing figure. He cursed and praised himself at the same time for reaching such excellent quality.

Watching her raise the shirt over herself, Cyrus welcomed the fact that her scent filled the room. An erotic mix of autumn leaves and winter air drifting through the room like subtle incense. Realizing that she was almost finished changing he quickly undressed to his underwear and covered up on the couch.

Gaz draped the plain tee shirt over herself and was surprised to find it went to about mid-thigh. When she looked through the hanging blankets, she found Cyrus lying on the couch, already beginning to go to sleep.

"Night Cyrus," she said, and she thought she heard him mumble a 'goodnight' as well. She laid down on the oddly soft mattress and found herself strangely tired, making it easy for her to fall into sleep.