Prince in the Tower

by Stephan Morse

  I walked back to the door, again, with more energy than before. As my hand came up to touch the framing, Nathan gave a parting shot.

  “I’m not a monster,” Nathan said in his drifting tone.

  I smiled and responded, “I am.”

  14

  I Am The Monster

  Nathan stayed behind. It was safer that way, but I closed the door and locked it behind me. Maybe that’d keep any of Spike’s leftover gang from busting in.

  I moved slower than I wanted. The jail had all sorts of doors but most were left open or had been damaged. Wolves had gone on a rampage at some point. Concrete was torn and claw marks displayed. Blood lined some walls in long smears.

  The dirt bothered me. I considered going for the cleaning supplies and making this place better. Having my home messy, however misguided that belief was, disgusted me. It was criminal to live in such squalor.

  My senses continued reporting random facets. I knew about a man two corners away before he even heard me coming. Figuring out if a door was unlocked only took a moment.

  “Bring him in,” the Warden said, half a dozen floors away.

  The inmate from before came around a corner. He dove for me with the blade out, like an idiot. With two quick motions the weapon twisted around, stabbed him in the gut, and I pushed him away. The man slammed into the wall and bones broke.

  “I’m already on my way,” I grumbled.

  My current concern was leaving his guards alive. Atlas Island may be a layer of Hell, but it served a purpose. Many of the inmates might go absolutely insane if they found out races beyond the big four existed.

  And Daniel would probably frown on me killing too many people.

  I paused near the showers and rubbed my face. The idea of murdering someone came too easily now. There were lots of arguments for removing problems forever.

  I’d done it before. Kahina’s bodyguard duties required lots of deaths. But before that. The past hit me again.

  Daniel told me what to do through a phone. “They all need to be removed. They can’t be allowed to continue doing what they have.”

  My target must have heard Daniel because he screamed, “I have a family!”

  He squirmed and flailed long tentacles at me. They were like octopuses. They attempted to find purchase but the man had no strength left. He was already bleeding out.

  The children inside, however, were still very much alive. They were innocent babies, if monsters that’d eaten human flesh could be called innocent. Their own mother had been the first victim according to my research.

  “You have to. If word gets out that creatures like this are still around, it will be bad. They’ll crack down. They’ll push the blood test law through.”

  I closed my eyes. Kids were kids. They hadn’t had a chance to make a decision or a poor choice. What would have happened if I gave in and mauled someone for a stupid children’s meal?

  “They’re not part of this!” he shouted.

  “You know what you have to do,” Daniel said through the phone. “And if you can’t, I have to. I’m two hours away if I drive fast.”

  The man shouted again, his weak arms flailing against my own. I tightened my grip and didn’t look as his life ended that much quicker.

  Then it was the children. Monsters like he was, with tentacles instead of arms. The only mercy I had was making sure the process went quickly. It made my stomach twist. Rachel would disown me if she ever found out.

  By the time Daniel arrived they were cinders. The house had been razed to the ground and I lay against bricks, huffing from exhaustion. Guilt didn’t plague me. I told myself repeatedly it was better them than my small family.

  Daniel stepped out of a slick car, folded up those stupid sunglasses and walked over slowly. There were three guns on him. His car had even more hidden away.

  “Are they all taken care of?” he asked.

  I said nothing. The nature of our agreement had so many complexities. Killing the father in cold blood hadn’t bothered me.

  “I know you don’t like this kind of work,” Daniel said. “But it’s necessary.”

  My nose sniffed. The dry air and warm embers pleased me. It served as a bitter offset to the fact that somewhere in these ashes were three dead bodies. Rain poured down softly, clearing my mind.

  Past memories floated away. I stood in the prison showers running cold water over myself. My clothes soaked. Layers of grime from days in the cot sloughed off.

  I’d have to stay human and find my way to Leo. From there it would be getting them back to safety. There were probably boats or escape vessels on the island.

  Then I’d have to kill the giant sea serpent. That’s what I was, a monster who killed monsters. How many people were used to quell it over the years? For all my murders, I’d never eaten people.

  Pink Meat. All meats are the same. With enough fire. Little difference.

  My other voice kicked into high gear. Internal thoughts were separate from actions. I had to remind myself that the choice to become a real horror lay in my own actions. I could still tell the difference.

  Fingers cut through the air. Men shuffled through. I turned around in time to see men with guns pointed at me. Daniel had been right, they didn’t use flashlights or red dots.

  “Prisoner, we need you to come with us,” a man said. He walked up slowly with one arm out and handcuffs.

  “Mind if I finish?” I asked.

  My clothes were still sopping. The guards shuffled. One lifted his gun a bit higher, which was stupid. If I’d have been a vampire, it might have been possible use that moment, tear the gun away, and open fire on the others.

  I didn’t like shooting guns.

  “No. Now.”

  “Okay.” I closed my eyes and reached for the water faucet. The guys fanned out behind me getting better lines of sight. Their footsteps gave me a headache.

  They could riddle me with bullets. It would take a few seconds to transform. This room would be a wreck and my body cramped. Every option sucked.

  They bolted me in the cuffs. I measured my options once again. Being escorted to Warden Bennett fit into my current needs. If he turned hostile along with all these guards, life would get tougher. My shoulders bunched upon that thought.

  All possible escape routes would put my health at risk. I still needed more time to let my messed up mind run its course. That was the message I got from Muni. Well, that was how I chose to view it.

  They dragged me up the stairs. I feigned being exhausted despite having mostly healed during the shower. The escorts were forced to put a little more effort into dragging me along and slowed their step.

  We took a more direct route than the one I’d been traveling. They held all the keycards and stepped right past the mess of this entire prison.

  A dozen hallways and twists later, our glorious leader banged on a thick door. I’d zoned out in order to focus on Leo, who still ran with Stacy in the woods. They were hiding in a tree.

  “Warden Bennett!”

  I widened my eyes and attempted to focus. The guard’s voice had been loud enough to jerk me back to the moment.

  “Come in,” a soft voice said from inside.

  The Warden’s perspective still struck me as mixed. He believed me to be something I wasn’t. But that something was actually closer to the truth than being a simple ex-bounder.

  These last few years, with my suppressed memories, had been a form of sojourn. That is, I was undercover, even from myself. I worked like a Western Sector asset would, Muni being a prime example. We fit roles in keeping these other races hidden from the world at large.

  It made me wonder if talking to Ms. Sauter about possible legal recourse had been a good idea. Daniel could have found an answer, but he might also have found it easier keep me as a semi-secret asset against less wholesome creatures.

  The guards took off my cuffs, left, and closed the door behind them. It clicked shut. Warden Bennett did not turn around. He stood on the other si
de of a desk with both hands clasped behind his back.

  “Mr. Fields. Or would you prefer your inmate designation? Or perhaps something more home grown?”

  “Jay. I’ve only met one person able to say my real name,” I responded.

  The Warden said nothing to my declaration. He stared out a wall to wall window in this narrow office. It faced east. There were no signs of a sunrise that might make him comatose. Only the moon above shed any light, lapping upon ocean waves.

  “You’re not the first obscure race I’ve met,” he said.

  The silence stretched on until I responded, “Okay.”

  “I knew you weren’t human from the first time we spoke. Humans taste of fear, even when they’re being brave. Except those considered sociopathic, which is a, needed, disorder. But even their hearts stutter and skin clams. You did neither. You weren’t afraid of me.”

  He remembered that first day vividly, apparently. I didn’t. They’d had me heavily sedated. The only reason I could find for not falling asleep was airsickness at the helicopter, and having been out for a number of days prior.

  “It was the drugs,” I responded.

  “And hitting you felt like hitting a wall of lead. Wholly unpleasant. I had to reset my bones three times. It was effective in creating the appearance of an uncivilized barbarian.”

  That hadn’t been my aim at all but had been useful. Warden Bennett seemed to classify people into three categories. Those inside of society, those outside in need of culling, and the undecided few needing a push either way.

  Undercover Western Sector agents, as he thought of me, were in the first group.

  “But here we are,” he said.

  This is why vampires annoyed me. They liked to remunerate about events that led them to some special moment. They did so slowly. Not that I’d been one to talk with my memory all screwed up. I’d been dwelling on the past far more than I ever wanted to.

  “Now what?” I asked, once again breaking the silence.

  “Do you know what a sojourn is, Mr. Fields?”

  “A journey,” I answered, quicker this time. Stretching the silence meant longer to move onto whatever point the Warden wanted to make.

  “Inaccurate. Sojourn means a temporary stay. In a way, everyone who passes through here is on their own sojourn. You might be too young to know its history but we use it as a code word. A belief that at the end of this, temporary stay, we might be able to return to whence we came.”

  I stayed silent. The old distant Warden Bennett had been easier to deal with because he asked lesson questions. He still loved to give a speech but currently he came off as resigned. That was the only description I could attach to how he stood at the window without moving.

  “Not all are so fortunate. Many perish. In some cases, because they’ve never had a home to return to. Do you understand what I mean?”

  “Yeah,” I said quietly. In all my memories the idea of home, a place to call mine and only mine, was paramount.

  “Home is a powerful concept. Home means safety. Loved ones. It is where we rest ourselves. Without a real home to return to, rehabilitation is impossible.”

  My head swam. For a moment I saw happier times. Bottom Pit, Roy and his family, the waitresses, and even a certain Boss Wylde. That struck me as confusingly out of place. I hadn’t thought about her much since we parted ways in that warehouse.

  “I agree,” I admitted.

  “My brothers and I have been away from home a very long time. On our own sojourn. One that felt unending. Yet here you are, and the charge that kept us away from our loved ones stirs. Ever hungry despite the precautions. Stronger, despite time’s passing.”

  There were multiple insinuations buried in his statements. He signed up to guard a monster, not run a prison. The monster was strong despite the passage of possibly hundreds of years. It liked food, which was probably what these quellings were for. I hadn’t actually felt it being fed yet.

  More understanding dawned on me. “You’ve been drugging the people who get fed to that serpent.”

  He turned slightly and unclasped his hands. They tightened into balled fists. A few tense breaths passed as Bennett reined himself in.

  “Hardly people. And they’ve been feeding each other to the beast like savages. The dregs of society maintain some order by casting lots. Didn’t Simms tell you about this?”

  Simms hadn’t spoken of the other side. He hadn’t said a damned thing about them deciding lots. Agent Brand’s conversation with Warden Bennett was how I knew.

  I said nothing. Warden Bennett stepped closer to the window and pressed a hand against the glass.

  “It doesn’t matter. For over seven hundred years I’ve had this charge. We were told it’d be a simple journey. To guard the beast until they found a way to kill it for good. Then my brothers and I could go home. To end our sojourn and be released, having upheld the greater good.”

  His shadow bothered me. I struggled to figure out why as the Warden rambled on. We’d been talking for too long and I needed to leave.

  “We’d go home to our families. Only they’re dust and I remain. They chose the sun.”

  My eyebrows wrinkled. That didn’t line up with the rest of my knowledge. He kept speaking of his brothers as if they were alive, but he’d just said only he remained.

  “I’ve long wondered if perhaps we were lied to. That they knew there’d be no way to defeat the monster. Not without an utterly inhumane weapon that would have to rival the gods in power.”

  I could shake the two guards off, pick up the table and bash someone with it. That’d get me shot though, and if one of these people was a Hunter Born like Daniel, being shot would hurt even more than normal.

  “Why the confession?” I asked.

  “All journeys must end, Mr. Fields. As with many of our guests, confession assists in rehabilitation. Bottling up emotions is counterproductive.”

  My eyes fluttered in annoyance.

  “Return to your cell. Don’t be a fool like me.” His head hung and shook. I watched thin tightened shoulders for signs of aggression, but he had none. “Everything for the peace. What a lie.”

  It finally registered why his shadow bothered me. In truth there were dozens of reasons but most of his statements weren’t worth mulling over.

  “I’ve got a question.”

  Warden Bennett sighed and turned around for the first time in our entire conversation. He stepped out from behind the table and I got a good long glimpse of his shadow. There were no faces in it, and I slowly realized there never had been.

  “Why don’t you have one of those creatures in your shadow? A Night Shade?”

  That’s what Daniel had called them. He said the name came from me, but I hadn’t sorted that part in my memories yet.

  “The Night Shades?” His lips tightened as he slowly blinked. “I suppose your gift allows you to see them. Very well, I have never bound with one. I haven’t seen a sunrise in almost six hundred years. As they are limited, the Shade I would have been twinned with went to another out in the world.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means if I stand here much longer, the sun will send me home.”

  That sounded final. It reminded me of Nathan’s potential drug overdose downstairs. He could be checking out right now. These people around me were choosing to give up because they had nothing left to fight for but the thoughts in their heads.

  The difference between us was simpler than I thought. I had too many people who counted on me. They were my reason to keep going.

  “Are you?”

  “Am I what?”

  “Are you going to stand there until morning?” I asked.

  “It is hardly your business.”

  He slowly pressed a button on the table. A buzzer sounded and immediately two men bearing guns and dressed in in full armor swept into the room. They checked the corners, then lowered their weapons.

  “Once again, go back to your cell. Rest, and pray your handl
er chooses to pull you out before my men follow their orders,” Warden Bennett said. He nodded. “Mind your manners.”

  That ended my meeting with Warden Bennett. He warned me to stay in my position. He acted like my part in all of this had ended.

  It hadn’t.

  They walked me to the general cells, shoved me through a thick gateway, and had me turn around to remove the cuffs. There were a few dozen individuals scattered in pockets. Some took note of me. Others huddled on their cots and mumbled.

  Those who remained felt human. None of the wolves or vampires were still present. It was a shame, I felt a good fight would help clear my mind of weeks’ worth of nonsense.

  A book sat casually on my cot. I eyed it, trying to figure out what the trick was. Picking it up revealed nothing, but the surface felt familiar. Etched lettering and a title that took me time to recall.

  The Iliad had arrived to Atlas Island. A banned book reached a place it shouldn’t have. A passage inside had been highlighted for me. It said, ‘Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.’

  A message from Father Tom. He was still alive, had escaped the Western Sector roundup of their compound, and knew where I was. Or did he merely suspect me for not being loyal enough? Those were questions for another time. I had to conserve energy and make it into the woods.

  What I really wanted, was to hit someone.

  “Where is she?” a sharp accented voice shouted. The words pierced my skull and crawled inside while my eyelids fluttered in annoyance.

  “I’m talking to you! Don’t think I haven’t noticed you twice now. You smell like her twisted creations. You reek of them.” Her tone turned sour.

  I turned around. Agent Brand, the tiny woman who’d threatened to beat me senseless with her graceful and annoying twins, stood across the rails from my cell. Her face became a scowl, while the two human looking cat people stared on with passive expressions.

  My head tilted back and I stared at the concrete ceiling.

  “Oh, thank the gods,” I said.