by P. S. Power
"I guess..." She gave him a weak smile and was clearly not saying something. Looking around, he could see that one. Berating a man in a hospital bed seemed like a thing he'd want to avoid if it were him in the other position.
"I'll try to do better. It is a little hard right now." With a wave he indicated his middle. It hurt, he imagined, but not that much. Ty really thought it would have been worse.
Lisa gave a small chuckle, and sat, which surprised him. He'd actually figured that she was planning to come in for about five minutes, then would be ducking out. They'd only met once after all. All that time Eve had needled her using him, so it probably wasn't a happy memory for her.
"Well, I can't blame you for that one. I try to do that myself, in theory. Judge each person as an individual. Except the Greater Demons." She shook her head. "You know, with most people, when I say that, they just nod along. We all get that one, but you don't do you? Humans don't believe in them really. I was taught to avoid them, as a real thing, from childhood. One of the first things I remember learning was that you never dealt with demons. I think that a lot of people, Humans, don't understand how real that kind of thing is for some of the other groups. Now I have them all around me, and even though most of them have been fine, I... I'm afraid of them." She sounded like it, and looked around like it would summon one of them.
Ty smiled though, trying not to be an asshole about it all.
"Well, that sounds hard. Just, you know, I'm kind of afraid of women. The better looking they are the worse it is. But my fear isn't real. Some women have done some horrible things, but most don't. Because of that I need to trust that they aren't all horrible. It's a bit of the same thing, isn't it? Some Greater Demons are probably monsters or insane, but some of them seem kind of like regular people. Manipulative ones maybe, and evil inside by nature, but a lot of regular Humans are kind of like that, too." Like women, though he didn't point that out. Men had their moments that way as well, he supposed.
The fact was, Ty couldn't think of a single episode in his life where that had happened, but then again, he also couldn't really show any places where women had. Not as a group. That probably meant he was being kind of an asshole on the topic, thanks to being shot by that kind of person. It made it seem like all of that group was going to support the actions that got him hurt and wrecked the place he worked, but that probably wouldn't be the case.
People weren't, in general, evil.
Lisa sighed, seemed slightly put upon, then rolled her eyes.
"I know. Zack is a good guy. I was so scared of him that I treated him like crap for a long time, and he never held that against me. All he's been is kind. Some of the others haven't really hurt me too much, but where they go, things break. People die..."
Which would be honest enough, he realized when she covered about ten people she'd known who had died. Including one of them that had just been a boy.
She looked around again, and leaned in, the metal frame chair she was in creaking under her slight weight.
"Zack killed a boy. For trying to compel Lyn into having sex with him. That's illegal, but the boy was only fifteen. He just punched him in the head. So hard that it vanished. That's what Bob told me. The old Ambassador. Except... Well, he wasn't one. He was a Greater Demon that had killed my mentor, and taken his place, for years. I... It's so hard to trust anyone now. Even people like you. How do I know that you aren't one of them? Everyone I know seems to be."
Tyler didn't have an answer for her, "all I can do is say that I'm not. I mean, are you one?"
That got a strange answer, with the woman, her hand pale and soft looking, was waved a few times, and the topic changed, like he was being silly. That was suspicious, so he interrupted her.
It was rude, but hey, she was dodging the question, wasn't she?
"Wait. You didn't answer, are you a Greater Demon? I know that they can change shape. That's what the one did to take Bob's place, right? You can't tell by looking at a person, can you?"
The woman made a silly face, sighed and shook her head.
"That's... Of course I am. You caught me, didn't you? What a good little Human you are! Very clever. Not that I didn't leave ten thousand signs for you to follow, but even given that most of you would have missed it. You aren't a normal boy though, are you, Tyler Gartner? The truth is I was hoping that The Rotted would come by to see you, so I could ambush her. Now I suppose you're going to tell on me, aren't you?"
The thought did cross his mind.
"Well, I would, but I don't really know how to get in touch with her. Why... Why do you keep coming to me for this? I've met her maybe twice in my life. Even if she's been around, like you claimed before, how would I know? Like you just pointed out, Humans miss that stuff, don't we? I can see how that would happen. If you look like Lisa, how can you not be? That wasn't even a thing that could happen as far as I knew, even a few weeks ago." Greater Demons weren't one of the groups that had come forward to the public.
The Demon, if it wasn't really the Mage Ambassador being a pill and making fun of him, reached toward him and touched his arm, holding her bare flesh against his. Drinking in everything he was, or had ever been. It was a neat trick, but a bit of an unfair one really.
She chuckled softly though, and shook her head at him while holding a slightly sexy smile.
"Oh, you. I'd mock you over being so slow and stupid, but it really is just part of what you are. You can't help it. Well, that isn't exactly true. You, like all people, have the ability to try to reach beyond what you were created to be. The pure fact is, most people will never bother making the attempt. That's the crippling part of your kind. The lack of understanding, as far as reality goes. I mean, you just sat here discussing gender issues with me, as if any of that is real?"
It was tempting for him to hold back and pretend he secretly knew what the fuck she was talking about but couldn't really, being to curious about what she might be saying.
"I have to admit I don't know what you mean. Men and women are really the same? I thought that..."
"No, pumpkin. Men and women are very different. That's the thing. Yes, you can reach beyond what you are, but only if you can learn what that is. Men and women can't change however, because they're all blind to their own roles in the greater scheme. Now, an individual might be able too, if he, or she, were willing to see what they really were. For the fifteen minutes, before the rest of the world comes for them, trying to stamp them out for being different. People, Humans, truly hate the enlightened."
Ty was silent for a while, just sitting and thinking about the whole thing. When he finally spoke, his voice cracked a tiny bit.
"Sooo... You're saying that all of this man versus women thing is useless? That there's no point to it at all?"
"Pretty much! Men have to fill their roles in the world, protecting women, being the provider and grinding themselves against the world to save the women. Women have to try to find the best mate, protect their children and use men up to do it. Neither group has a choice, because it's part of what Humans are. It isn't even wrong. It's so strongly inbuilt that even having told you this you may not be able to understand it all. Then, you also might get it. You know what I am now, and that I won't lie about these things to you. Greater Demon means being honest, after all. At least with ourselves. Even us insane ones. We say insane, but compared to Humans we're perhaps a bit... Quirky. Like my inability to let go of what I once owned, until I'm ready."
He nodded. Not because he understood what she'd really been saying, but because that's what you did in conversation, to keep people talking, and not rending your flesh from your bones or whatever she had planned for him.
Scrambling, Tyler tried to work the whole thing out, keeping the talking going, stalling the time of his own death.
"So, men are kind of slaves? I thought they ran the world? Is that wrong?"
The forty-odd year old looking lady, who actually had makeup on now, as compared to the other day, let her head tilt a bit to
the side. It was a subtle movement, but it told him that she was thinking, or at least trying to guide him into thinking that.
"No. It isn't slavery to do what you're built for. Men are the workers of the Human world, and always have been. The builders, creators, and protectors. The hunters and guards. Father means warrior, too, in a lot of real ways. Boy means future husband. On the other hand, woman means protected being. The life giver. The one that cares for the children. The taker. The user. This doesn't make them the masters of the world however, since if you paid attention to what I just said, they clearly can't exist and survive without men. Not until they find a way to replace them completely. A caste of worker robots perhaps? Automated providers that will do all the things they won't, without asking for anything in return?"
It was a lot of information, and didn't sound like the world he knew at all. Then, while it was probably all true, it might not be his truth. It could be that the Greater Demon was confusing him, with bits of information that he wasn't really going to be able to see or understand.
Still, he tried to keep things going, wanting to live.
"I... So, men are... Um, driven to get sex, love and attention from women, and women... I don't know what they want."
Laughing, a soft hand going over her mouth, the Demon explained, like a mother might if she were talking to her own child.
"Think. Use that brain in your head, kiddo. Women are the ones that have the children. They're physically weaker, and know that men want sex on a level that is baffling and hard for them to understand, but which gives them control in many, many ways. Women want security. More than anything else. Keep that in mind, and you'll have the key to how they're going to react at any given point. Where men want the prettiest, healthiest, woman, who will bear children well for them, women want to be protected from the world."
"Um... So, the biggest, most powerful guy?"
"Right! The aggressive bad boy? The one that can stop the mastodon, or the other men in the tribe that might try to harm her or her little ones. Or the rich man, who has a lot of resources and can hire minions. Or, at times, even the high status male, who may not have obvious wealth, but who can control the environment in some other way that has benefits to them. If you learn to look for those things, you'll know what women are going to do in almost every part of their lives."
Men too, given that.
He paused, and looked at the wall of the hospital room. It was a bland and smooth thing, with no art on it, being a white color that was nearly a soft blue under the lights above him. Lisa didn't shift, just watching him closely for some reason, as if waiting for him to make connections based on the tidbits that he'd been given.
"So, men will always try to protect women? At least that's the set point? Women will always try to get the best protective detail for themselves that they can?" It was just repeating what was said, but that was part of good stalling tactics.
Tyler hoped.
Lisa the Demon gave him a shrug.
"There's more to it than that, but if you can get that much, you should be able to get the rest. Think about it. If you can see your part in all of this, you can have a choice as to what you eventually do. After all, you can't have children anyway, so removing that kind of thought from your worldview will only add to your ability to enjoy yourself."
"I can't have kids?" That was news to him.
Lisa stood up, her face twisting a bit into a wicked seeming grin.
"Of course not. After all, Tyler Gartner. Clerk. You aren't alive. Only the living can reproduce. Now, on that cheery note, I'll make my leave. If you want to know why you aren't alive, well, you might want to speak to The Rotted about that, don't you think?"
She started to head for the door, but he spoke anyway, since dumping that on him wasn't fair at all, was it? Especially if it was true, which it wasn't. After all, if he were dead, he couldn't have moved around. Except that Vampires did that all the time.
"Why are you fighting with her anyway?" It probably wasn't going to be something anyone would tell him, but it wouldn't hurt to have information, if he could get it.
Lisa turned, and looked at him blankly for several seconds before responding. When it happened the words were dark, and a bit sad.
"She stole something from me once. A prize that had been mine, that she had no right to. So now I'm going to take everything away from her. Piece by piece I will dismantle her entire world, then destroy her so completely that no one will ever remember that she existed at all."
"Oh." That was all he got to say before she left, using the door like a regular person.
What he didn't know at all was what he had to do with it.
She'd said several things to him that he really needed to consider. It was hard. That part surprised him a little bit. After all, he'd just been told that he wasn't alive, had no heartbeat, and that a Greater Demon that he didn't really know had been around in his life for years. That wasn't normal. The ideas just wouldn't stick in his head for some reason however. It was like he was dreaming, and the information just couldn't hold in place when he woke up.
Actually, after a bit, he decided that was what had actually taken place. The Storm hadn't been there with him, telling him those things. Not really. His confused mind had simply made it up for some reason. Boredom, most likely. He didn't even have a television in his room. That probably indicated he was in the ghetto section of the hospital, he bet. A thing that was probably good, in the end. After that night he'd get to go home, and paying an extra hundred dollars a day just for something to do wasn't a good trade off for a poor guy like him.
The nurse came back in, a while later, and made sure he had food. He didn't eat most of it, since they'd brought him Jello and ice cream. Both were things that weren't in his diet. There was applesauce too, so he had that, and tried not to whine about not having enough. For some reason Tyler really didn't feel hungry anyway. Only he did, at the same time. A constant gnawing that was always there, but couldn't be fixed by having fruit.
The night was a bit restless, but there were no more dreams of Greater Demons coming to tell him uncomfortable truths, and in the morning they let him go. He hadn't really made any plans as far as getting back home went, figuring that his mom might come to get him. She hadn't been around the whole time, which made him wonder if anyone had even told her about the shooting. If not... Well, the time to let her know about it was after he was back home and mostly fine then. That didn't get him to where he needed to go however.
To his surprise, Zack was at the front desk when he was wheeled past. The hospital was insisting on his riding in a chair, even though they weren't letting him borrow it. It really didn't make sense to him, since, if he was ready to walk on his own, why not let him? They claimed it was all about rules they had. Left over things from the last century, that mainly had to do with liability insurance.
His boss, looking cute, pale skinned and slightly Japanese, winked at him warmly.
"Hey Ty. I figured it would be easier for you to get home with me than to call a cab. Cheaper, too. I hear Judy Swan is coming in to take care of you? That's good. I was going to do it myself, but she's a good person. You should try to make friends with her." There was a pat to his shoulder, as the world shifted, ending them both in Calley's living room. His now, too. There was no one else there however.
It was just him, Zack, and the now stolen wheelchair.
"One sec." Zack moved a bit, took him under the arms and lifted him like a small child, out of the chair. The physics of it didn't work, but there he was almost floating over to the the sofa. Then the thin Demon turned back, touched the chair and vanished. A few seconds later he was back. "That way we won't be charged for it. You don't really need it anyway. You're almost better already. You would be, if they hadn't cut you up like they did."
That got him to look down at his middle. The pain wasn't that bad, but he had to figure that was due to the drugs. Not that he remembered getting any of those really. Some pills, but the goo
d kind came in shots, which didn't do anything to him, since his blood wasn't moving much in his veins. As he did it, Zack shook his head a little.
"No. It's like The Storm said. You aren't alive. You haven't been the whole time I've known you. I can work out how it happened, but I think you'll be better off getting the story from Anne. The Rotted? I haven't been able to get in touch with her for a few days. That can happen however, so don't let it worry you." He smiled, like telling people they were dead was a normal thing to do.
"I... I can't really be dead. I mean, the heart thing, but..." His brain tried to shut down again on the topic, even as Tyler desperately clung to the whole thing. In the end it didn't really work.
"Look, you can't really do this right now, which is why you need to talk to Anne about it. For now, just know that you pretty much aren't going to need six weeks off work like a regular lazy Human. Really, you should walk over later, and yell at some feminist radicals with me and Kait. They're coming in for their first day of work in a few hours. That was your idea, so it's only fair that you suffer for it. Not that it's a horrible plan. We get free work, and you get Richard Swerlin owing you a favor. Plus this way we can torture them a bit for annoying us." He sighed and looked away, then back at the seated Tyler.
It was a telling thing, but what it said was too hard for him to think of at the moment. Zack grinned though, after a bit.
"Darla thinks that I should have them all killed for harming one of my valuable employees like that. I did mention to her that not all of them were really in on it, so I should be killing them for harming my valuable books, but I think she likes you, in particular. That part will be up to you though, since you're the head of the Coalition of Nations, and it's your word and agreement that got them free from Human custody. I do think that we should set something up. Otherwise they'll think it's all right to annoy me, and I really can't have that. Think of something good, will you?"