by Quil Carter
Sasha stared at Rob. “I’m not meaning to do this at all.”
Rob chuckled. “Nightcrawlers minds are powerful.” He reached over and tapped the top of Sasha’s head. “You can do a lot of things, without even realizing it. You want to get back at Kheva for hurting you, and without realizing it, you started doing just that.”
By… stealing an extremely personal, fucked up memory of Kheva when he was a kid?
Another rolling, yet low, chuckle. “Kheva doesn’t have many weak spots, Sasha,” he said. “You did what you had to do, that’s all there is to it.”
“How do I hide these memories from Kheva? How does my brain know when to put my thoughts in the Dead Zone?”
“Oh, that’s my job, my friend,” Rob said casually. He scratched the serval on the head. “I hide out inside of you, I’m not detected here, unlike when I try and go back to where I belong. My own body. I file away those naughty little thoughts you have, and Kheva is none the wiser.” His blue eyes flickered up, and he smiled. “We make quite the team, my friend. Quite the amazing team.”
“You file away the thoughts…” Sasha’s expression became confused. “How? Where is this Dead Zone?”
“Right out in the open,” was Rob’s response. “See, Sasha, it’s easier for your brain to make intangible things, tangible. That is why Kheva told you to make Silent Ground into a physical place so it’s easier for you to get to. The human side of your nightcrawler brain yearns to understand what is happening to it, and so, it turns powers unseen to the human mind and eye, into something it can process and understand. As such…” Rob’s eyes shifted and locked on a corner of Sasha’s room. Sasha looked as well, and saw a strangely dark area, tucked into a corner. “That is your little Dead Zone. I’ll put everything in there, where no one can find it.”
“Why do you want those memories?” Sasha asked. He felt sick just remembering them. What had happened to Kheva was just horrible on so many levels, and just fucking heartbreaking.
“They’re valuable to me,” Rob said, his tone lowering. “And if you ever want to go home to Jobe and your Uncle Lex… you’ll continue allowing me to collect them.”
Jobe and Uncle Lex…
Oh fuck, they must be so worried about me.
“They are,” Rob said soberly. “Jobe is terrified that you’re dead, all I hear him say over and over is ‘just please be alive, just please be alive.’ Lex is even worse, it’s Jobe that is comforting him. He’s beside himself with guilt, drinking every night and popping Xanax. They’re leaning on each other for support.”
Sasha felt as if Rob had stabbed him with a fillet knife and had gut him from navel to sternum. The despair he was feeling over this news was crushing. It had been weeks now… and he’d simply vanished into thin air.
“I have to contact them somehow,” Sasha whispered, his hand cupping his mouth. “I have to let them know I’m okay.” His eyes shot to Rob’s, and their gazes locked. “You can, you’re powerful enough to get into their heads, for fuck sakes, teach me how. Help me tell them I’m okay!”
Rob’s thin lips upturned in a smirk. “You’re making it seem like you want to stay here, Sasha,” he said. “You’re hesitant to help me bring down a man that has allowed you to be raped, tortured, starved, and beaten mercilessly… a man who has ripped me from my family, my boyfriend, a man who stole me from my old life for his own twisted gain.” He leaned over, and Sasha was once again taken aback by how strange it was having this man be in the body that he knew was Kel’s. “Do you even want to go home?”
“Of course I do!” Sasha snapped. “I can’t let them worry, I’m – I’m not fucking worth that.”
Rob leaned back and spread his hands. “Then what’s the problem, Sasha?” He crossed those arms and smirked like a man who knew he was in a choice position. “Bring down the monster.”
Bring down the monster…
Then what? What about my headaches? What about my training?
As if Rob had been waiting for such a question, the answer itself was implanted into his subconscious.
‘We’re not the only ones,’ Rob said, and suddenly the room around Sasha began to melt into itself. ‘We’ll take care of you. We’ll train you. Don’t worry, little nightcrawler. You’re bringing down a man who has raped, murdered, and tortured. You’re bringing down the embodiment of the Devil himself.’
Then, in the darkness, Sasha heard a scream. It was a familiar scream, one that had filled his chest with an icy nausea.
The scream of young Kheva underneath the man who had bought him.
And it was soon met by the satisfied chuckle of Rob.
Sasha’s eyes snapped open to darkness and he inhaled a startled gasp. He was back in reality, his naked body enclosed tightly in something soft and warm.
“Calm down,” Kheva mumbled. The warmth that surrounded him shifted, then a hand rested on top of his head and began to stroke his hair. “Go back to sleep, you won’t have any more nightmares.”
Sasha turned, and as his eyes adjusted, he saw the outline of Kheva. It was still pitch black outside, and the moon was hidden. “It was a… pretty bad fucking nightmare,” Sasha whispered.
“I’ll keep watch,” Kheva said. His voice was always so controlled, each tone on a short leash with no room for variation. “If you have a nightmare, I’ll get rid of it.”
Even though Sasha could only see Kheva’s outline, he stared at him. “You can… do that?”
“We can sense discomfort in each other, even while sleeping,” Kheva said. “If I do, I’ll calm your mind and put you back to sleep.”
Sasha continued his fixed gaze, confused, tired, and still sore from the evening’s events. “You’ll do that for… me?” he said slowly. This was a side he’d never seen on Kheva, or if he had, it was veil for some sort of malicious intent.
“You belong to me,” Kheva said matter-of-fact. “It’s my job to train you, and it is my job to protect you, even if I must protect you from yourself.” He pulled the covers up so they were tucked over Sasha’s shoulder. “Go back to sleep.”
The room returned to silence after that, but Sasha’s eyes remained open. He would be outright lying if he said he didn’t feel safe in that moment, a lot safer with Kheva than he was in Silent Ground with Rob.
‘Kheva’s manipulating you,’ Rob growled inside of his head. ‘Don’t fall for his tricks. Remember what he did to you for fuck sakes!’
Sasha let out a breath, then. And when Kheva continued to stroke back his hair, his touch gentle and his naked body warm, Sasha’s eyes closed. He relaxed and allowed himself to succumb to the comfort the Master was giving him; a comfort that had been in short supply over the past two weeks.
And even though the voice inside of his head hissed his insults, Sasha, still lying on his side with Kheva’s arm underneath his head, snuggled up to Kheva and put an arm over his chest. He knew it was wrong, he knew he was weak to do this to such a dangerous man, a man who’d treated him so horribly, but… he needed it.
He badly needed it.
The next morning Sasha woke up in the warm king size bed alone. It was, in all respects, the single most comfortable bed that Sasha had ever slept in. The mattress was squishy and soft, but on top of that, there was an extra layer of comfort from a mattress pad underneath the flannel fitted sheet.
He could spend an eternity in this bed and never want to leave, it was just a world different from sleeping on the outside lounger.
“You’ve slept long enough, nightcrawler, it’s time to get up,” Kheva’s voice suddenly sounded.
Sasha looked up from his whirlpool of blankets and saw Kheva, dressed in a fitted grey sleeveless shirt and black cargo pants, walk out of the en-suite bathroom. His black hair was damp and the wet had made it long enough to fall over his forehead, and he was freshly shaven but for faint sideburns on his temples.
The Master was quite built too. Sasha had never really noticed before just how muscular he and Kel both were. It wasn’t the ov
erly muscled build that weightlifters had, but one that showed they got their figure from hard labour and days spend outside.
Admittedly, there was a bit of hope that Sasha would one day look that good. He was pale and scrawny from many years of being a house hermit, and not only that, he got sick easily from his immune system never having the chance to strengthen.
“You’re not going to get muscles lying in bed all day,” Kheva said, obviously tuned right into Sasha’s mind. “But with the work I have planned for you, it’ll happen eventually.” Kheva picked up a silver flask, this one slightly different from the ones they used last night. “Sit up, you have new instructions and I will not tell you while you’re in bed.”
“Okay,” Sasha said. He yawned and shifted himself into the sitting position, then with a long stretch that had his joints popping, he rose and sat on the foot of the bed, near where Kheva was standing.
Kheva handed him the silver flask. “Three times a day, at ten o’clock in the morning, five in the afternoon, and ten o’clock at night, you’re going to sit on the living room couch, and do what needs to be done to ejaculate into the flask. You’ll put it in the fridge until the next time and every four days you’ll freeze them in the ice cube tray and put it into the bag.” Sasha stared at the flask, both eyebrows raised. “Every three days I’ll be taking your blood through the syringe. This will be done until the stock is replenished. It’s nine-thirty now, get up, get changed, and obey.”
And with that, Kheva turned and headed towards the door.
Was he… serious? In the living room?
“Can I just––” Sasha was about to ask if he could do it in the bedroom, some place private, but he remembered Kheva’s words last night: that his life would be easier if he behaved himself. These instructions were an obvious test, and Sasha was only several words away from failing it.
Kheva turned around, and stared at Sasha as his words faded.
“Never mind, Master Kheva, I’ll be down in a moment,” Sasha said, and he got up off of the bed and smiled at the Master in the doorway.
Kheva stared for a moment longer, then with a slight nod, he turned and exited the bedroom.
Sasha breathed a sigh of relief. That was close. The last thing he wanted to do was make Kheva mad, especially this near to the talk they’d had the previous night.
But of course, these thoughts dragged behind them intense feelings of self-hatred. Here Sasha was telling himself that he had to blindly obey Kheva, obey him without question. Here Sasha was, chastising himself for daring to have a shred of pride in front of the Master Nightcrawler.
There wasn’t anything he could do about it now, it was what it was. And with that thought in his mind, Sasha jumped into the shower and scrubbed himself clean. After he was finished blow drying his hair, he went out into the chilly bedroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and found a pile of folded clothes that had been placed on Kel’s dresser. It had been Kel’s routine to leave clothes there for him, since Sasha had literally come here with only the clothes on his back, so he dressed and began heading for the door.
Oh wait…
I’m forgetting something.
Sasha clenched his scalp with both hands and groaned. He’d completely forgotten about his new orders.
And now it was time…
A sour feeling was added to the nervousness when Sasha was reminded of the events of last night. Kel had… brutalized him. He didn’t even want to see the half-sane nightcrawler, not after what he’d done to him.
And he most certainly didn’t want to give him a reason to do it again…
But, fuck, he didn’t have a choice. When it came down to it… he didn’t have a fucking choice. Sasha was determined to turn around his experience here so far. He’d accepted with a hard swallow that defying Kheva would only have you end up brutalized, so there really was nothing more to say on the matter.
If I’m good… Kheva will protect me.
Kheva already said that I can come to him for comfort, he’d said… so many nice things to me last night. If I’m good, I bet he won’t let Kel rape me.
Sasha wasn’t even sure he believed his own words, but the desperation he was feeling in that moment, forced him to at least etch them in stone.
What else could he do?
Sasha grabbed the silver flask, and with a sigh, he walked out of the bedroom. He stared at the flask as he made his way to the stairs, tipping the empty silver container back and forth.
He glanced out the window on his way, and saw that it was overcast outside. That made sense, Kel had given him a long sleeve greyish-blue shirt to wear, one with thick fabric, blue jeans, soft black socks that felt brand-new, and red briefs with a white elastic band.
It would be a moment of celebration the day Kheva let him go clothes shopping. Hell, it would be an explosive day when Kheva let him have his own dresser, or allowed him to eat on his own. There may be a lot of things fucked up at Ciel Lake, but one thing was for sure, Sasha really did appreciate the little things now. Things that he once didn’t care about, made him happy now, and even though he was miserable here a lot of the time, he did treasure those small victories.
Sasha thought of this as he made his way down the stairs, but half-way down… he paused.
He could hear voices on the main level, which wasn’t odd, but––one of those voices was new.
It didn’t belong to Kel, or Kheva…
Company?
Sasha had always had anxiety over company coming to visit, but the shock of this had him so rattled even he was surprised. It had only been the three of them for weeks now, and besides that brief visit into town, Kel and Kheva had been the only people he’d seen and spoken to.
Well, besides the head voice.
Sasha’s insides curled and churned, swiftly filling his stomach with wiggling larvae that would soon become a swarm of butterflies and moths. His old friend anxiety was back with vengeance, and he seemed determined to remind Sasha just who he was, and what it was he controlled.
Usually when company came to his apartment, he had notice, time to mentally prepare… this had just been unceremoniously dropped on his lap. And what was worse? Sasha had no idea who this person was. Who had come from far far away to knock on the door of the most powerful man in the world? It must be someone important… but fuck, what did it matter? It was someone new and Sasha hated that. He needed to know when his day-to-day routine was going to change.
Oh god, what was he supposed to do?
Sasha knew the answer, and it absolutely gutted him.
He had
to continue down the damn stairs.
Then, a snake made of nausea slithered up his spine. He looked down at the silver flask with his green eyes bulging from their sockets.
No fucking way…
Sasha closed his eyes for a second, trying to force down the needle pricks of anxiety being currently pushed into him. He inhaled a deep breath, and decided to take this one traumatic event at a time.
I’m sure Kheva will… stop me… he’ll come into my head and tell me to just… sit and behave.
Sasha’s eyes opened, he exhaled the breath that had filled his lungs to stretching––and continued down the polished wooden stairs.
Halfway down, Sasha spotted the intruder. He froze in the middle of the flight of stairs, like the jarring reality of there being someone else in this house had stopped the flow of time, and watched the strange man.
He had blond hair that was combed to the side, making the golden locks fall low enough to brush the bottom of his eyes, and a slim figure with the same muscular build that both Kheva and Kel had. Sasha couldn’t see him well from the angle he was at, but he was leaning forward on the black easy chair, Kheva’s chair, and in his hand, was a cup of what looked like coffee.
Sasha still couldn’t move, his legs dead weights that had become one with the wooden stairs. He reminded himself of his uncle’s shy cat Jockster, peering down at the unexpected company with an inquisi
tive, yet wary, look, and a braced stance that was waiting for even the slightest excuse to run back up the stairs.
“–– Just last week actually,” Sasha heard the man say. He hadn’t heard what the question was, but he could hear Kheva’s gravelly voice coming from possibly the kitchen. “Heller bitched my ear off the entire evening about how much of a pain in the ass it was to get.”
As the man spoke, Sasha became aware of his relaxed body language, and a seemingly at-ease sheen in what looked like dark-coloured eyes. He was Kheva’s friend, that much was sure. Was he another nightcrawler?
A jolt of adrenaline went through him. Could he find this out himself? Sasha edged himself to the side of the stairwell, his feet on a stair that was just below the ceiling of the main floor, and with a push of the mental power he was only beginning to learn how to wield, he tapped into his nightcrawler abilities and searched for the mysterious man’s beacon.
“What time is it?” Sasha heard the man ask.
“It’s ten-ten.”
Ten-ten? Oh fuck!
And just like that, with a cold wash of dread, Sasha pulled himself out, the colours of reality returning swiftly to the world around him.
But not as swiftly as the anxiety.
Jesus fucking Christ–– this is a test. This is a fucking test.
He’s not going to make me… in front of…
Ah, fuck.
Sasha closed his eyes tight and swore, then, knowing that he had no choice but, deep down, hoping Kheva would stop him, he uprooted his heavy legs and continued his descent to the main floor of the house.
The man with the blond hair spotted him, and a smirk was immediately gifted. “And who do we have here?” he said with an inquisitive shine in his eyes. Sasha was taken aback when he made eye contact with him. He could see the man’s beacon inside of his mind, that sense of the person’s being. It was getting easier to see now, and it could only mean one thing: