Silent Ground: Part 1

by Quil Carter

  When he emerged, Kel and Kheva were sitting in the living room, Kel was on the chocolate microfiber couch, and Kheva was on a black easy chair, his tea resting on his knee.

  “You look so handsome!” Kel exclaimed as Sasha walked into the living room. He grinned at Sasha and raised his coffee mug to him. “Good enough to eat.”

  Oh great, they’re cannibals too. Sasha couldn’t hold back the laugh at his own inner monologue. It was really all he could do, the events of this day were so bizarre, so life-changing, and the place he’d wound up so fucking out there… the only thing left for him to do was make these jokes inside of his head.

  “We’re not cannibals.”

  Sasha froze. He stared down at Kel, his eyes wide, and before he could stop it, the shock of Kel’s words had the coffee cup slipping out of his hand and falling towards the floor.

  Before Sasha had time to react, there was a flash of movement. He looked down and saw Kel slide towards him on his knees, his arm outstretched to catch the coffee cup about to smash against the wood floor.

  And with an oddly flawless ease, Kel caught the cup, his fingers wrapped around the bottom of it like a spider.

  Not a drop had spilled.

  Sasha stared at him, his mouth open and his green eyes wide.

  “What are you?” he whispered.

  And this time… Kheva answered.

  “Nightcrawlers,” he said simply. Sasha looked over at him and saw the man tent his hands, his legs crossed and his coffee mug resting on a black side table to his left. “What we were before I came up with that name, I don’t know. But that is what you will call us.”

  The name he’d been calling Sasha this entire time? “What are…we?” He stepped back as Kel righted himself, but the man was smart enough to put Sasha’s coffee cup on the table, and not in his hand.

  Kheva seemed amused at the question. He motioned to the couch, where Kel was now also sitting, and Sasha obediently took a seat beside him. “What you are, is entirely different from what I am. Just like what Kel is, is different than what I am. I’m at a higher level, you… you haven’t even cut your baby teeth yet.”

  “You two can… read thoughts?” Sasha asked. “Can I?”

  “It’s not that simple,” Kheva replied. “You cannot read anyone’s thoughts quite yet. Only ours when you’re intuned with us. However, Kel isn’t permitted inside of my mind, and neither are you.” He glanced over at Kel who was busy drinking his tea, cupping the mug with both hands. “We’re all linked. Our bonds stronger than that of any relationship.” Sasha gave him a confused look, Kheva acknowledged it and continued. “Think of it this way… every human in this world operates on a different frequency. But us? We can tune into each other, and when we do,” Kheva smirked, “it’s like puzzle pieces coming together. We’re meant to be near each other, and meant to be together.”

  “Meant to be together?” Sasha repeated. “Like… boyfriends?”

  Kel laughed at this, Kheva kept on smirking.

  “What a throwaway term. What we have has no words,” Kheva replied. “You will see, nightcrawler. It may take a while, since you do seem stubborn… but you’ll see.”

  That was… a kind of creepy thing to say.

  Sasha’s eyes widened and suddenly the horror of what Kheva had divulged hit him. He could read his fucking thoughts. All the time?

  “Not all the time,” Kheva responded. He took another sip of his tea. “We have to mentally tune ourselves to the other. Rest assured, I feel no need to be driven to madness by constantly being barraged by your teenage angst; I’ll be withdrawing by bedtime.”

  Sasha looked at him flatly. “Thanks, I guess.” He nervously itched the back of his neck again, not sure of what to make of everything else he’d heard. “How are we connected?” he asked. “And why? What’s with the headaches? And… and their cure?”

  “So many questions,” Kheva murmured. He shook his head back and forth slowly. “You will be here for quite a while, and we have lots of time to teach you.” He rose and held out his hand. Sasha didn’t know what he wanted, until Kheva reached down and took his coffee mug.

  Sasha turned as Kheva walked past him. “You seem like a nice boy right now, Sasha, but your mind is a wreck,” he said. Then he turned around, and Sasha saw a shine come to his strange-coloured eyes.

  “Stand up,” Kheva said sharply.

  Sasha stared at him for a moment, but when he realized he was speaking to him and not Kel, he jumped to his feet.

  Kheva nodded at this. He put the coffee cup down, and the smile came back. “You will not like me, nightcrawler,” he said. He walked over to the puzzled Sasha, his head tilted to the side as if his smirk was weighing his head down. “But I don’t require you to like me…” Kheva reached out and traced a hand down Sasha’s cheek. “I will require you to love me.”

  Sasha recoiled from the touch, more out of shock than anything. “That’s… a real weird thing to say,” he said slowly. “I… I don’t even know you guys. I didn’t even know you were gay before that… comment.”

  Kheva, his eyes fixed and staring, reached his hand up a second time, and when he extended it towards Sasha’s face, those eyes glared him down as if daring for Sasha to flinch away again.

  “Gay?” he murmured. “We are what we are, Sasha. Why affix such labels?” Kheva leaned towards Sasha, and Sasha froze in shock, his chest and body clenched up tight like he was a mouse being sniffed by a cat. He stiffened when Kheva kissed the corner of his lips and took in a shocked breath.

  I shouldn’t be here.

  “But you are,” Kheva whispered, and another kiss was gently laid on Sasha’s cheek.

  Then those lips shifted… and pressed up against Sasha’s own.

  That was it, that was all Sasha could take. With a gasp, Sasha jolted back, and out of reflex, he put a hand on Kheva’s chest and pushed him away.

  Sasha then wiped his mouth, and when he looked up to see what Kheva was doing, he saw a flash of hostility light up the man’s face.

  It was a look that seemed to suit him well. Kheva’s strange green-gold eyes turned glaring, two hardened stones that had been polished to shining, and his pale face lent such a stark contrast of white versus vibrant colour, it was as if it had been framed for an art exhibit.

  But this was not a beautiful display for the masses to admire… this was more some harbinger to an apocalypse. Kheva… did not look like a man you wanted to see pissed off.

  He looked downright dangerous.

  I’m a fucking idiot.

  I’m a complete fucking idiot.

  There was a flicker of movement by Sasha’s shoulder. He spun around to see what it was, sure that something had been summoned to kill him for daring to reject that kiss, but saw that it was only Kel holding a fuzzy blanket and a pillow.

  The man handed it to Sasha, and the moment he took it, Kel grabbed him by his arm.

  And started dragging him towards the glass door.

  “Where – what are you doing?” Sasha cried, panic clinging to his tones. The racing heart from Kheva’s nefarious kiss threw itself against his ribcage, and with every blow he felt the breath leave his lungs. “Kheva? I’m – I’m sorry. Tell him to let me go.”

  But Kheva only stood there, his face a slab of stone and his pink lips pale from him pursing them. He watched as Kel dragged Sasha towards the glass door, unmoving and uncaring.

  “Come up to the bedroom when you’re done, Keluva,” Kheva called, his voice strangely nonchalant.

  What the hell had just happened?

  Sasha tried to pull away from Kel, but his grip was firm. He dragged Sasha to the door, and after opening it, Kel pushed him onto the deck. Sasha stumbled but didn’t fall, he turned around, pillow in hand and the blanket now at his feet, and watched as Kel closed the door.

  “You want to sleep indoors, you need to earn it,” Kel said with a smile, then he waved. “Have a good night, Sashy. You have a long day tomorrow but I’m really glad you’re her
e. We’re going to have a lot of fun.”

  Kel lowered his hand and grabbed a metal rod that was attached to the curtain rollers. He then slid it to the right, a curtain of crimson following behind him. The porch became dark from the curtains blocking out the interior lighting, and as the silence descended on Sasha, nighttime outside in the middle of nowhere made itself known in the form of crickets chirping and frogs croaking all around him.

  All Sasha could do was stare, the suddenness of what had just happened rendering him speechless. One second he was drinking tea with them and talking, and now he was outside with the door locked? Supposedly being forced to sleep outside?

  What… the fuck had he gotten himself into?

  Sasha looked around the property, shadows of structures in the distance. He laid down on an outdoor lounge chair and wrapped the blanket around him. There was a hope that maybe they’d come back and get him, that perhaps this was a joke or a test or something, but about a half an hour later that hope was dashed when the generator, a quiet whir in the distance, shut off.

  And every light, even the porch light, shut off. Sasha was alone in the lonely darkness outside, nothing between him and three hundred and sixty degrees of woods but a thin field of yellow grass and a small lake. He had no protection out here, not even the serval was outside with him, at best he might be able to squeeze through the cat door, but the monsters outside seemed to be nothing compared to the one inside.

  Sasha tried to stop his thoughts but there was no use. How can a mind be trained to censor itself? There wasn’t a person on the planet who didn’t think things that they’d never say out loud. Did he really have to do that?

  And…

  Sasha closed his eyes and swore under his breath.

  … what was with the creeping into his mind anyway? This was just… fucked up, this whole situation. It was becoming glaringly obvious that these people were out of their minds, but even though Sasha knew this, he didn’t want to run away. The fact of the matter was… they knew who he was, and he was something special. They understood him when his own family had called him insane, a danger to himself and the people he loved the most. He couldn’t just throw that away.

  “And even if I did… I’d be on the floor writhing in agony within a couple days,” Sasha whispered to himself as he sat down on a patio lounger outside. He felt a lump form in his throat just thinking about the situation he was in. “It might be dangerous but… maybe it only was because I didn’t know their rules. Once I figure them out, I’ll be okay. Kheva… maybe the kissing is some weird Nightcrawler custom. I can be okay with that.”

  Right? Sasha wasn’t sure if he believed his own words. He’d never kissed someone before, he kind of wanted to save his first kiss for his first boyfriend. Make it special.

  Perhaps that was just Disney wishful thinking… and it wasn’t a big deal.

  Maybe I just hurt his feelings? He had done a lot for me tonight. I should’ve let him kiss me.

  I’ll apologize tomorrow and take my punishment tonight.

  Sasha’s stomach gave a queasy and unhappy lurch. It was churning like he was making ice cream, but instead of ice cream it was just stomach bile and fear. It was obvious just from the visceral reactions that Sasha didn’t believe his own words, but he tried to pin it on not eating dinner.

  “I think I might’ve gotten into something a lot bigger than I originally thought,” Sasha whispered. He tightened the fuzzy blanket around his body and gazed out into the moonlit field, the railing around the balcony making it look as if he was looking through jail bars.

  And though there was nothing but forest and sky around him, with crickets chirping, and in the distance, frogs croaking, it felt like he was locked inside of a small cell, with a mysterious, and possibly extremely dangerous man on the other side, the key twirling around on his long and slender feeling.

  “Yeah…” Sasha said under his breath. He closed his eyes and let his head fill with the sounds of the night. “…I’ve bit off more than I can chew.”

  CHAPTER 9

  Sasha was fast asleep when he heard the sliding door open. It had been a long night of continuously waking up and lying in terror because he thought he’d heard something. What was worse, was that the crickets that were chirping their music in the field that surrounded him, would randomly stop chirping and remain dead silent… as if something out there was spooking them. That was fucking terrifying, and whenever Sasha was awake and it happened, he laid on the patio lounger in stunned paralysis, his eyes strained and fixed on the silver-hued field, just waiting to see a towering silhouette of a bear, or a wolf, or cougar.

  The icing on the cake was when Jye slipped through the cat door. Sasha had yelped from fear when he’d heard the sudden noise, and the cat had scampered away in fright. Afterwards, he’d found himself calmer knowing the cat was outside, and had an easier time falling asleep.

  Now it was morning. It was chilly outside and there was a thin layer of dew on the fuzzy green blanket. It had kept him warm, and it was big enough that Sasha could wrap some of it around the back of his head so it encapsulated almost all of him.

  “Good morning, Sashy!” Kel said, his voice a thrum of excitement. He was wearing a blue t-shirt with two black stripes going up the sleeves and along the torso, and a pair of cargo pants. “You woke up a lot last night.” He stepped back and waved Sasha inside.

  Sasha rubbed his eyes. He was still feeling half-asleep and groggy. Usually if he’d had a bad night he’d take an afternoon nap, one of the fringe benefits of being a loser with no job and no life, but something told him that there were no nap times at Ciel Lake.

  He yawned, before something occurred to him. “So, you can sense when I wake up?”

  Kel shook his head. “Master and I untuned ourselves from your mind last night. I watched you through the window, you were up several times when I was looking.”

  He was watching me? Sasha immediately brushed off the eerie feeling Kel’s admission brought, and instead focused on the fact that those two were no longer rooting around in his mind. “Yeah, it’s… kind of scary outside,” Sasha said. He walked into the house and looked to the kitchen when he smelled pancakes and frying meat. A groan of anticipation fell from his lips when he saw golden pancakes being fried on an electric griddle, and beside it breakfast sausage and sunny side up eggs.

  Sasha’s mouth filled with saliva. No matter what he had to do, he was going to have some of that breakfast. He couldn’t fuck it up like he did last night and get himself kicked out or on the shit list. There had been no dinner for him last night, just a few sips of tea and a heavy dose of discipline, his stomach was going to start eating itself alive as soon as it woke up too.

  So, he had to suck up and play nice. “I’d… really like to sleep inside tonight,” he said, making his voice as submissive as possible. “How can I earn it?”

  Kel picked up a flipper that was resting beside the griddle and spun it around in his hand. “You really want to earn it?” Kel looked over at Sasha, and the corner of his mouth rose. “Earn your place?”

  Sasha didn’t trust that smirk on his face, but he didn’t trust anything about Kel or Kheva so that wasn’t anything new. “Yeah,” Sasha said. “I want to contribute, like I said last night. And I want to learn who I am, and how I can…” Sasha’s voice trailed when he realized he was about to say something much too personal to share. He flushed, feeling his ears go hot, and let the words become lost in the sizzling of the frying pan.

  “Finish your sentence.”

  Sasha’s head jerked up and turned towards the set of stairs. Kheva was walking down them, dressed in black jeans and a dark red button-down with short sleeves. This was the first time Sasha had seen him dressed so casual, but his choice of clothing took nothing away from the stern, no bullshit look he had about him.

  Or that glare. Sasha looked away as Kheva’s eyes burrowed into him. There was no inquisitive curiosity in them, they glared at Sasha like they were trying to reach i
nto his brain to pull out the information. And if Kel hadn’t divulged that they’d, what he called untuned themselves from Sasha’s mind, Sasha would’ve thought he was.

  Sasha sighed and nervously ran his hand over his forehead and hair. “Just… how I can… not hate my life and want to die. How’s that?” he said, the burning in his ears giving an enthusiastic throb. “You… you were in there, you know how miserable I am.”

  “Yes, I know,” Kheva responded. He was given a plate of food by Kel and he walked to the kitchen table and sat down at the head. “Your uncle and best friend think you’re insane, even with proof of our existence. It seems to be that they enjoy controlling you more than they enjoy your company.”

  Well, that stung, and it stung because it was true, all of it was true. “They’re all I had,” Sasha said, trying to mentally force the burning from his eyes. Things had once been great between the three of them… then he started having the migraines, followed by that whispered voice.

  Everything went downhill after that. His uncle and best friend started becoming Mom and Dad instead, and the more time that passed… the worse it got. “I don’t have any other family, or friends. Seeing them not believe me, calling me crazy, not listening even when I fucking had proof of you two. And… sending me to a psychiatric facility? I’m… I’m not fucking crazy.”

  “No, Sasha. You’re not,” Kheva said simply.

  For some reason, hearing Kheva say that, with such resolution in his voice, almost had relieved tears come to Sasha’s eyes. He never realized how much it meant to him for someone to say that, and for Sasha himself to finally have it proven.

  He wasn’t fucking crazy.

  Sasha looked up and saw Kel come towards the kitchen table, a plate of food in his hand. Sasha’s heart leapt, anticipating that it was his. His mouth started to water again, and the emotions lingering from his previous train of thought were banished in favour for focusing on eating.

  But then Kel sat down opposite to Sasha and began to eat. Sasha tried to hide the disappointment, but when he looked to the griddle placed on the kitchen island, and saw nothing remaining, he really did feel like bursting into tears.