The Progeny

by Shelley Crowley

  Who would call their kids Poppy and Daisy?

  It wasn’t until Nico called for all of them to gather in the dining room for dinner when Alexander reappeared. He had wasted the day wandering and sobbing and staring and just… waiting. Waiting for something as the relentless humming of restless energy coursed through his body. Alexander had rarely stood still his entire life. He had always wanted to be doing something. Even when he had been rejected from the army after being written off as too weak, it had only made him more determined. More determined to do something. Something for his country. Something for his family. It had felt like a kick in the teeth when he stood by the window of his house, watching Elizabeth nursing their baby boy and realising, if he hadn’t had been so restless- if he hadn’t had been so desperate to prove himself a hero- he would have been there. Elizabeth had always told him that he was everything in her eyes. He had beaten himself up physically and emotionally in those early months of his new vampire life. If he had just believed her, and if that had just been enough for him, he could have been their hero.

  Alexander was one of the first ones in the dining room and had a pick of the chairs. He chose the one he usually took and waited for the rest of the Cured to come and his steaming meal to be slid under his nose. He wondered whether he’d be brave enough to take a bite this time after the hamburger incident. Nico wasn’t there yet and Alexander kept his head down. It wasn’t until the chair beside him was scraped back when he looked up. His heart thudded as Seb sank down beside him. His green eyes flickered to him and he gave a wan sort of smile.

  Nico was now in his seat at the head of the table and Alexander gave a start at his sudden appearance. He was usually so attuned to the click of his masculine heels that he could sense his presence even before he entered a room. Not that Alexander had seen that much of him around the mansion anyway. He spent most of his time in his office or in his elusive lab in the west wing, a place Alexander hadn’t ventured anywhere near. The further away from the guy, the better.

  But now it just seemed like he had appeared at the table out of thin air - and it unnerved Alexander. He got the sudden rushing feeling that he was failing.

  He looked around the room at the other filled seats and noticed that half of the Cured were now out of their boring black clothing and were kitted out in more colourful attire. Sleeve was now wearing a loose white vest that just made him look even more like a surfer, and Jennifer looked irritatingly beautiful in a flowery playsuit. A hum of heavy metal music came from the earphones lodged in Slenderman’s ears. He was bobbing up and down in his own little world, completely closed off from the rest of them.

  Dammit, I should have asked for an iPod. Alexander scowled at the table.

  When the women in their old fashioned black and white maid uniforms swooped in and slid their meals before them, Alexander noticed another change. Some of the meals were different. Daisy had fish instead of pork. Sleeve and Mr. Muscle had mountains of broccoli, and Rusty had mashed potatoes instead of new potatoes. Sleeve and Mr. Muscle also had their own protein shakes with them. Nico was really trying to go all out in making this place better, wasn’t he?

  “I hope you all were satisfied with what I was able to get for you,” said Nico, slicing up his pork. “I know it wasn’t everything. But I tried my best.”

  You mean your little minions tried.

  “I asked for a belt and I didn’t get one,” said Dreadlocks in a conversational tone. “I thought it wouldn’t be very hard to get a belt. I have narrow hips, you see.”

  Alexander watched him as he wrestled with his dreadlocks, swatting them out of his food as he bent forwards a little. “And a band for my dreads,” he added, irritation tightening his tone.

  “Yeah, I asked for a scarf and gloves,” Shrooms chimed in. It was the first time Alexander had heard her talk. Her voice was more high-pitched than he had imagined. It made her sound almost sweet. And with the magic of make-up, she looked kind of sweet, too. “I got the gloves but… no scarf.”

  Jennifer nodded, swallowing a mouthful. “I didn’t get my straighteners.”

  And I didn’t get my scissors…

  Alexander scowled at his untouched meal, piecing everything together. His hand clenched into a fist on the table, so tight it made his bicep burn. “It’s because he doesn’t trust us,” he said, his voice low and venomous.

  He felt everyone turn to him. Seb was a blurry figure in the corner of his eye as Alexander fixed his glare on Nico. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

  Nico gulped, his benevolent calm scraped back to reveal panic. “I simply just got what I could,” he said, a nervous laugh seeping into his voice. He straightened up in an attempt to look more collected.

  “Really?” asked Alexander. “You couldn’t find a scarf?”

  “I’ll get my men back out looking-”

  “No, you won’t,” Alexander cut through sharply.

  “What do you mean, he doesn’t trust us?” It was Dreadlocks. Nico blanched with fear and Alexander grinned, sinister and wicked.

  “He’s scared in case we try to off ourselves. Or him,” said Alexander, sending Nico a sharp glare. The Cured looked confused. “No belt for you in case you try to hang yourself. Same for you with the scarf,” Alexander gestured wildly. “And oh, can’t let you self-harm with your straighteners, and better make sure I don’t slit my throat with a pair of scissors! Isn’t that right, Nico?” Alexander had risen to his feet. He hadn’t even realised until he was staring down at Nico from across the room.

  “No, Alexander, you have it all wrong,” Nico stammered, clearly flustered. “Sit down.”

  “That’s what you got from our little sessions, wasn’t it?!” Alexander continued, snarling. Everyone else in the room had dwindled into nothingness. It was just him and Nico surrounded by a blaze of fiery red fury. “You’ve finally realised what you’ve done! That you haven’t saved us. You haven’t cured us. You’ve ruined us all! You can’t even trust us with our own lives! The lives you have so graciously given back to us. You should have given up, doctor, just like the rest of them did. You’re not the smart one. You’re the weak one. Determination and obsession doesn’t lead to genius. It leads to madness.” A lump lodged in his throat making his last words come out brittle. “And you brought us all down with you.”

  Alexander’s chest was heaving as the room slowly came back into focus. The world pulsed around the two of them like war drums. The red haze lifted - a bloody fog dispersing - uncovering fourteen startled faces. Alexander stayed. His hands in tight fists by his sides and his muscles coiled like springs. No one uttered a word. Even Daisy who always seemed to have something to say was speechless. She just turned to Nico with a pleading, searching look that said, ‘Is this true?’ To which Nico merely closed his eyes in defeat, making a harrowingly painful sound rip out of Daisy before she covered her face with her hands.

  Alexander’s gaze roved his audience as his anger defused into something lighter but equally as unwelcomed. He felt the loss of hope run off him in rivulets, down the contours of his body, passing every nook and leaving him completely open. Dry and exposed and raw.

  His eyelids grew heavy. He felt like he was going to pass out from exhaustion. Snowflake was looking at him from across the table, his pale gaze appraising before his white eyebrow quirked up in a way that said, ‘It was about time someone said it’.

  Alexander almost gagged at the thickening in his throat. He had not been one to care about people who were barely anything more than strangers after he had been Turned. But as he stood there, his eyes settling on each one of the Cured, he could see the devastation slackening their features. Even Slenderman had pulled out his earphones and was mournfully staring at his plate. Gollum, on the end of the table, had her knife half-embedded in her pork and it was as if she was caught in freeze-frame. No twitches. No eerie mumblings. Nothing. Just empty.

  Seb’s gaze was hot on Alexander’s cheek but he refused to look down. He couldn’t bear to see his
friend mirror the pain and horror and helplessness of the rest of the table.

  The sound of Alexander’s chair scraping back made Nico flinch. But he didn’t argue when Alexander left. Alexander could feel himself moving but his mind was detached from his body. Settling down on the flagged stone steps of the patio, he rested his chin on his knees and pressed his lips into a thin line as they began to wobble with brewing tears.

  He had wanted to be wrong. Part of him had wanted Nico to be able to succeed. Because if he succeeded, he could be fully human. Alexander gasped a laugh at his train of thought. Here he was wishing to be human when a few days ago, the news that his humanity had been returned had almost crippled him. But now he felt like he could master being human again. Now that he had someone who could be by his side. Someone who he could age with as his sister went off dealing with ancient vampire business. He could picture a life with Seb, because he had not left him out in the cold after his stupid mistake this morning. He had sat by his side at dinner like it was a peace offering.

  But he couldn’t have that life with Seb if Nico didn’t master a way to shed him of the ugly, squishy bits that came free with his cure. And from the look on his face as Alexander called out his failure in front of everyone showed him that the irritatingly optimistic man wasn’t so optimistic after all.

  Nico was making this place as comfortable as possible for them because he knew they were never leaving. He could never unleash fourteen basket cases out into the world.

  “That was quite a speech.”

  Alexander flinched when Seb sank down beside him. He had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he hadn’t heard him coming. No longer the predator, Alexander couldn’t help but feel like the prey.

  “I have the knack for making a scene, huh?” Alexander quipped, but it lacked his usual easy mirth.

  Seb smiled and offered him a pack of chewing gum. “Gum?”

  Alexander accepted, and he pushed one into his open palm. “You asked him for gum?”

  “I asked him for cigarettes. He gave me nicotine gum,” said Seb.

  Alexander chucked the gum into his mouth and chewed. “What an arsehole. Uh, I’d kill for a cig right now. Well, I guess now that our lungs are working again, we’d better not abuse them.”

  Seb’s head tilted slightly in agreement and looked to the lawn.

  “Did I miss much after I left?” Alexander asked after a moment.

  “Simon got a couple of rounds in. It seems like he is about as intimidated by Nico as you are.”

  Alexander smiled, his gaze on his feet. “There’s nothing intimidating about a puppet.”

  “He’s still adamant that he hasn’t given up on us - that his therapy sessions were just the start. He’s working on a drug-”

  Alexander barked a laugh. “Oh, of course that’s Mr. Doctor Man’s solution. Let’s dose them up on meds so I don’t have to deal with all this back-chat. He’s probably planning on turning us into those poor sods in the mental homes who spend their days drooling into the carpet.”

  “Maybe meds could work,” said Seb, sounding resigned.

  Alexander gulped hard, knowing that he was right. He was no different than the patients in the special padded rooms. “My sanity is on a knife’s edge, Seb.”

  He felt Seb look at him and he squeezed his eyes shut at the sensation. “I saw my wife this morning.” The confession came out as a rushed gasp.

  “What?”

  Alexander nodded frantically, tears burning behind his closed eyelids. “I saw her. In my bathroom. As clear as day. She was reaching out to me and then-” A sob broke out of him. “And then she was gone.” He opened his eyes and stared up at the winter sun that was now dipping behind the bare trees. “And then that anxiety attack I had when I heard the documentary. I feel like my past is catching up with me and taking vengeance for all those years that I have blocked it out. Blocked them out. I should have died that night. It should have ended there but I was too scared.”

  “You just have Survivor’s Guilt, Alex. Many people suffer from it after war.” Seb’s voice was soft and encouraging but Alexander shook his head, fending off his words.

  “No, it’s not. Survivors get to go home. I wasn’t even granted that. I was a coward. I couldn’t even die for my country. Even though I knew it meant I couldn’t go back home, I decided to abandon my family. I left them... but I was still there.

  “My dad left me and my mum. I never knew him but I hated him. It’s a weird feeling – hating someone you don’t know. It’s like hating a ghost. A part of you thinks it’s stupid but another part feels that you’ll be empty without it. And I did the same to Nathaniel. And there’s no doubt he hated me, too. Even after all the nice things Elizabeth would have said about me, he hated me.”

  A long silence hung over them. It was a peaceful silence that Alexander drank in. He knew that Seb was only trying to help. But he didn’t deserve the help he was offering.

  “Sometimes,” Seb started, his voice low and grave. The intensity of it drew Alexander’s attention to him. He was staring down at his hands that were palms up between his parted knees. They were shaking “I look down at my hands and see them covered in blood.” His green eyes roved his pristine palms, wide and vacant. “Like I’ve just dunked them in a vat of it. I used to try and wash it off but it wouldn’t scrub away. Now… I just stare until it fades.”

  “Really?” Alexander breathed, and hoped Seb wouldn’t take offence to the relief in his voice.

  His lip quirked up in a weary smile. “Yeah. You’re not the only one going crazy.”

  “What about the others?”

  “It seemed to strike a chord, what you said. But with some, I don’t think it’s hit them yet. But it will.” He seemed certain as he sighed and bowed his head. “You can’t save someone from themselves.”

  The idea was so bleak it sent chills up Alexander’s, now protruding, spine. “I’m sorry I kissed you.”

  Seb’s eyes met his, wide and shimmering. His thick black lashes were clumped together. “Don’t be,” he said, the red rings around his eyes becoming more vibrant. “I’m sorry I pushed you away.” His lips formed that frown of his. “I just… I’ve spent so much time with this disgusting ball of hate inside me that… I find it hard to think that there is a possibility that I’d be able to experience the… other thing.”

  Alexander’s heart swelled as Seb blushed and looked away. Playing coy, he asked, “What other thing?”

  Seeing right through his feigned innocence, Seb sent him a mock scathing look. “You know what other thing.”

  Alexander did. And he thought that it came only once in a life time. The real thing, that is. Not just the forced, unnatural kind that you willed yourself to believe in. And he had felt the real thing once already. But as he watched Seb as he flustered and pretended to be focusing on something in the distance, Alexander felt those butterflies again at the possibility that his theory may have been completely off.

  As if on cue, the speaker overhead cut the silence with scratchy static before Nico’s disembodied voice channelled through. Alexander and Seb both watched each other as they listened to the announcement.

  “Hello all, my sincerest apologise for what happened at dinner. May I please speak with Alexander alone? My office door is open.” He clicked off.

  Seb’s eyes stayed stuck on Alexander as he processed what had just been said. Was he in trouble now? It sure felt like it.

  Seb’s mouth opened and closed like a fish as Alexander got to his feet. He sent Seb a queasy smile and took off into the house.

  You really do have the worst timing, Doctor Dipshit.

  Alexander rapped his knuckles on the door of Nico’s office.

  “Come in, Alexander.”

  Alexander opened the door. Yeah, you knew it was me because you get no visitors, do you? Everyone hates you. Even Daisy now. How does it feel?

  Alexander had been hoping to look upon the dreary, helpless Nico he had seen in the dining room.
He was disappointed.

  The doctor was sitting behind his huge wooden desk looking so prim and proper it made Alexander’s heart sink to his feet.

  “Alexander,” Nico chirped, gesturing to the sofas. “Take a seat.”

  Hesitantly, he did. “Are you mad at me for exposing you?”

  Nico sent him a pinched smile that was obviously hiding scorn. “I knew it would happen sooner or later. It seemed you had me all figured out from the start.”

  Alexander shrugged, unapologetic. He discreetly took out his chewing gum and pressed it into the underside of the sofa’s arm.

  Nico expelled an emptying sigh. “And now it seems like you have opened a can of worms for me. But it is a mess that I will clean up promptly.”

  Alexander sent him a dubious look. “You are really going to continue this play? After I’ve just outed you? You’re going to go straight back to pretending like this was all part of the plan?”

  “Oh no, not at all.” Nico shook his head, pulling a face as if the notion was preposterous. “You have peeked behind the curtain and seen the ugly truth. You, and all of the Cured, are not the perfect specimens I was hoping for. That much is clear now. I was trying to protect you. I figured if you knew the truth, it would tempt fate. That is also why I altered the items on your lists.”

  You can’t save someone from themselves. Seb’s words rang in Alexander’s ears.

  “You sound like you are building up to reveal a plan,” said Alexander.

  Nico’s grey eyes sparkled and he opened a drawer in his desk. He pulled out a bottle of pills and sat them on the desk before him. Alexander’s eyebrow quirked up, questioning.

  “I’ve prescribed Zoloft for each of you. I thought maybe you’d like to try it out first. You’ve seemed to be awfully agitated recently.”

  Oh, how kind of you to notice.

  He eyed the bottle suspiciously before flitting his gaze to Nico, sitting there with his easy smile and school boy cardigan. This guy is prescribing me drugs.