Whisper

by P. S. Power

  Mitchel looked at the two of them and shrugged, his lean shoulders moving flexibly, making his jacket move. Shifting in a way that seemed more alive in some fashion than Oaks had.

  “He has a real point, Tiff. When the boot is on your face it’s a lot harder to assume that the foot inside of it belongs to a good person. Just because you’re used to doing the stomping doesn’t make the police the good guys in our world. Oaks just had his home invaded by thugs that trashed his stuff and kicked him out in the middle of the night. Liam here just had the same basic thing happen to him. Worse, I’ve heard of at least half a dozen similar things in the last month. Why shouldn’t it be mentioned?”

  The words got the woman to make a tight face and then glare at first Mitch and then Liam. When she was finished, she took several large swallows of her cold coffee. Then she made a face that seemed as if she wanted to pull her small tube weapon again.

  “It shouldn’t be mentioned because I don’t want Oaks getting pissed and trashing my house, that’s why. Let’s not turn this into an us versus them thing, alright? It’s bad enough I have to try and find a pig in the middle of the night. I don’t suppose you know of a twenty-four hour butcher?”

  The words meant nothing to Liam, so he didn’t answer, just taking a careful breath. The air was still less than pleasant, though the reeking stink of the room had lessened a whole lot, after Oaks had left. Still, it reminded him that taking a shower might not be a poor idea. Without asking if it was the right thing to do, Liam left the room, simply heading up the stairs to his room, since that was where his other clothing was kept.

  The whole operation didn’t take a long time, only about half an hour, to work out how to use the new shower, found in the bathroom just like it had been at his real home. He had a toothbrush and there was paste there for that kind of thing. He had to use the soap that Brenner had, which was a bit like flowers, but he didn't mind.

  When he was dressed again, this time in green loose clothing, still with no shoes or foot coverings, even if everyone else had them, it seemed, he headed back down the stairs.

  The windows had all been opened, allowing the space to cool a bit. It was pleasant on his skin, though the others looked a little chilly. Mitchel was wrapping his arms over one another and Brenner had a warm looking coat on, with some kind of hand coverings and a hat. She looked at Liam and made a tight face.

  “Okay. You were showering, not just sulking? Good to know. I need to go out for a while, to try and get that pig. As amazing as it sounds, I actually did find a twenty-four hour butcher. How are we doing this? We can all go, except that Rob is still healing in the other room. I can’t cart around a full pig on my own.” She looked at each of them.

  It was the taller man, the normal seeming one who wasn’t yellow, who smiled then.

  “I’ll hold out here, in case anyone else comes. Frankenstein, would you be willing to help us in this? It isn’t your job of course, this being official work for the keepers of the accord.” The words stopped then, the man simply smiling at him, gently.

  Brenner didn’t do that, staring at him. As if he might be about to do something wrong. What that would be, Liam didn't understand. He hadn’t been about to speak about the police again or anything. It was clear that Brenner knew all about that topic already and didn’t need him to teach her about how bad they were. To her they simply didn’t seem that way, which was a new concept to him.

  They were talking about the same thing and had two different ways of seeing it. The trouble was determining who was wrong, in a case like that. He had less information, so it might be him. All of what he knew said the same thing though. That the police were bad men that harmed you. It didn’t seem a thing that could be easily reconciled. Even if they went around acting from fear instead of anger or hatred, it was hard to see as being possible that they were somehow good people.

  “I can help move this pig? Pigs say oink.” He shrugged then, knowing that wasn’t all he had on the subject. “They’re also made of bacon? I don’t know anything else about them.”

  Moving toward the front door, she stopped and turned to him.

  “You need a coat. A hat as well…”

  Liam smiled then, knowing how to do that. Mary had taught him.

  “This isn’t very cold for me. I’ll be fine, that way.” The gravel in the driveway would hurt his feet a bit when he walked on it. That couldn’t be helped and the pain would fade, soon enough.

  They left then, Brenner not speaking to him until they’d been driving for some minutes.

  “Sorry about earlier. I shouldn’t have gotten after you for that. A lot of the alternative group members don’t have an easy time with law enforcement. It’s too easy to forget that, when you normally see the other side. I mean, sure, if you look at it from the civilian perspective, the cops are mainly assholes. When someone is pointing a gun at you and screaming that they’ll kill you if you don’t do exactly what they want… Well, that would set a lot of people off. It’s not the best way of doing things, but it’s how they’re all trained, at least here in the states. To them it’s just doing their job. I tend to see it that way, too. I mean, FBI training is a bit different, but I’ve been around locals a lot. Enough to kind of side with them most of the time. You see death threats and screaming abuse. I see scared men and women who think that every person in the world is about to shoot them.”

  The words were probably correct, except that Liam didn’t know what a gun was for certain.

  “That… The tube weapons that make holes? Guns?”

  From the driver’s seat there was a slow nod.

  “God, I keep forgetting how little you know about some things. That’s right. Those are guns. Side arms. They have other names as well, based on caliber and who made them.”

  Liam tilted his head then.

  “I don’t have one of those. Oaks didn’t have one, not that I saw. The police couldn’t have been afraid of that, if we don’t have that kind of thing.”

  Tiff smiled then.

  “Oh yes they can. They really can. In Oaks case he wouldn’t need that kind of thing, one on one with a cop, either. He’s big but fast enough that he could take their weapon and beat them to death with it before they could do more than scream in pain. On some level they get that, so probably brought half a dozen armed buddies and acted extra aggressive, trying to cow him into not taking action. With you… Well, your people are known to be incredibly tough and strong. I didn’t really get how much so, but that doesn’t mean Simpson didn’t get it. So, same deal. He went in screaming and making death threats, trying to trick you into thinking you couldn’t win.”

  “Win what? My mother? Keeping her from being beaten and kidnapped?”

  That had to be wrong and he was just asking for clarification. Instead of giving it, Brenner snorted and stopped at a red light.

  “Something like that. Men like Simpson live their lives afraid that they’re going to meet some other guy with a better right hook, a steadier gun hand or a bigger dick that will slap them around and take their lunch money or girlfriend. It’s a low-level thing, but there for them, in everything that kind of person does. Most cops are like that, really. They put on this big façade to save face, but feel fear deep down, all the time. In a way, it helps keep them safe, really.” She drove for a while, not saying anything, until they pulled over to the right, where there was a row of shops.

  Only two of them were open it seemed, if the lights being on were any indication of that. They both had signs that glowed and said they were open. One of them proclaimed itself to be the butcher’s shop, even, meaning they were probably in the right place.

  As she parked, right in front of the store, Brenner took a deep breath.

  “The thing is, Simpson and the gang, they were told that you might be half crazed and more than they could handle. That even not knowing how to fight at all, you could probably just walk through them, slapping them all down with your bare hands. Lethally. They don’t have any other
way to cope with things, so they tried to act like they were in charge. We should have just walked up to the door and served some papers first, to be honest. They just didn’t have the range for that kind of thing, being too afraid of you.”

  That part was news to Liam. He’d thought that Simpson was afraid of himself and possibly that the other men might fucking kill him, if he did the wrong thing. That they were afraid of Liam didn't make sense at all. Even with what Brenner had just said. He simply wasn’t the problem and never had been.

  “I just sat there.” He didn't know if that would make any sense to the woman. Before he could go on, telling her that he’d done it not knowing what to do, having never even seen anger or felt fear before, she nodded.

  “I know. The hard part is that, on some level, they all know it too. They were afraid of you. They probably still are. It came at them on a deep level that doesn’t make a lot of sense to their conscious minds. Then, on a deep level at least a few of them were left feeling terrified of you. They nearly failed, because of that.”

  Then, not explaining the complicated meaning behind that at all, they both got out and went to find a pig. Brenner had been right about that one. She wouldn’t have been able to carry it by herself.

  Chapter eight

  Oaks, once placated, seemed to be willing to take care of himself. A thing that Liam had to think of as being an excellent turn of events. After all, he didn’t know how to prepare food past taking a handful of nuts from a can or eating berries from a plastic carton of such taken from the refrigerator.

  That, and now, thanks to the last time he’d eaten, the ability to take bites of donut while holding it with a cloth made of paper. A napkin. That was a thing that he’d had to look up, since it honestly hadn’t come up for him before that part of his life.

  The troll moved off into the woods, having met them at the car, sniffing the SUV, even if the carcass of the pig in the back didn’t seem to have that strong of an odor to it. Not that he was able to tell, even having ridden with the dead, nearly whole, beast for half an hour.

  It had been his job to load the thing, since it weighed over a hundred pounds, even with it’s insides taken out. Brenner had tried to lift it first, failing at the task, since it was a bit bulky and heavy for her. It should have been similar for Liam, though it didn’t end up being that way. His strength didn't change the rules of physics of course, so he was off balance while he carried the thing to put into the back of the yellow vehicle. The interesting part there was that his large feet allowed him to carry far more than he would have been able to otherwise, given his physical capacity that way. They kept him from tipping over where tiny human feet would have.

  Meaning that, for the first time, he understood why his feet were so huge. They looked awkward and almost flapping when he walked but he could feel the difference now as he moved onto the gravel of the walkway. Not that he was carrying anything at the moment.

  Oaks did that part for them, seeming eager to take his feast away from them. There was no offer to share or anything along those lines. The ripe individual just walked into the woods, where the scent of smoke already rose from. No light showed through from the flames, however.

  As soon as Oaks vanished, the red-headed FBI Agent moved in and patted Liam on the shoulder.

  “Thanks. I know that it isn’t your job to help me get animals in the middle of the night like this. You should be in bed. Then, we both should be…”

  They moved toward the house, walking to the front door, and were inside, after the use of a house key by the woman before he answered that one.

  Whispering, he leaned toward her a bit.

  “Except that I don’t sleep or even rest much. It’s not a hardship for me to go and see new things. Did you know that pigs were made of meat? I mean, coming from animals and not just packages?” It made sense, that being what meat was. The truth of the matter for him was that Liam had never thought about it all that much. Most of the time he didn't eat that kind of substance so it wasn’t a thing he’d put a lot of thought into.

  Really, after the first few times, when it had been established that it left him feeling ill, Mary had kept that kind of thing out of his diet altogether.

  For some reason, Brenner smiled, chuckled softly and patted his shoulder again. She was around his own size, actually being slightly taller than he was. Not a lot. He was heavier and even looked it, though not by much. They were both thin, as it turned out.

  Once inside, he noticed that Robert was up and around, wearing a shirt again, that showed a hole in it that had a white bandage underneath. No blood was visible, though a faint glow was, still. The small man with the pointed ears waved at him.

  “Doctor. I wanted to thank you again, before taking off. I’ll get those replacement supplies as soon as possible.” After those words were out, the small man bobbed a bit and then looked hard at the other man who was there.

  Mitchel. The rather ordinary seeming man nodded then.

  “Let me get you home, Rob? Thanks Tiffany. Liam. I know that just showing up is a pain. Unfortunately, it’s just so hard to get people to fill out forms about when they plan to attack our people. I keep talking the idea up, but so far no takers.” He smiled about the joke.

  As if it wasn’t a brilliant idea. It truly was, since that would allow them to have the needed tools and even people on hand at the right times. More than that, they could be even better prepared if the nature of the attack was going to be mentioned first.

  Even he understood that wasn’t going to be happening, of course. Things simply took place, often without more than a few moments notice. Plus, bad people that wanted to take the rent money might not think that warning someone first was a good plan of action. They’d be correct in that assumption, as well, so Liam could understand why it hadn’t gained a lot of positive attention as a plan so far.

  No one else spoke on the idea, which probably meant that he was supposed to simply smile a bit about the idea. He tried that, not knowing if he was getting the look right, yet. Brenner chuckled a bit. Robert, for his part simply started toward the door. Probably wanting to get back to his own home.

  That thought left Liam feeling a little lonely and sad for a moment. Missing his mother. That turned to worry, as the other men left, driving away after a few moments of speaking their good byes.

  Tiff took a breath as soon as they turned off onto the street. Driving toward town, instead of away from it. The vehicle they used, a smaller thing than what Brenner had, vanished as they turned behind some trees and bushes at the edge of the driveway. As soon as they were away, she pulled him back, by the shoulder, into the house.

  “That should end the events of the night. Notice the qualifier there? Should. Not will. It’s a week night though and even the supernatural community in the area is going to mainly be in bed by this hour. Not the vampires, naturally, but most everyone else. They sleep days.”

  He nodded, not knowing anything about that kind of thing at all.

  Still, he whispered at the woman, which had her asking him to repeat himself. Twice.

  “You have books on the people who may visit? I should read them. If that’s allowed.” Learning was important and his mother had tasked him with doing that. So far, the day had been good that way.

  He’d learned how to sew people up, that magic existed and that there were shops where dead pigs could be purchased late at night. That last one was special, from the way Brenner had spoken on the topic. No one would expect that kind of thing to happen, in a city that wasn’t all that big. The larger places, such as New York or Chicago probably had many all-night butchers.

  The town they were near was small for that. In fact, most stores had been closed, even the ones right next to where they’d purchased the pig. That had been done with a plastic card, which was the same thing that Brenner had used earlier to purchase the shoe making things, which would be delivered to them in a few days. Three or less, from what he’d been promised. Told anyway.

&
nbsp; Liam had also learned much about the law and seen people naked, if only on the computer.

  Gaining knowledge of a world that he hadn’t even heard of before two days ago seemed important to him, however. It was clear that, while she meant well, Mary had kept him from gaining a lot of information that he really needed. Probably in order to protect him from things like violence. Still, he knew what death was and had read about it at the hands of one like himself. A promethean. The book had been titled that, in part. Frankenstein: or the New Promethean.

  Learning about what he was would, he didn’t doubt, take a very long time. Months even. Maybe even as long as he’d been alive already. Trying to seem polite, since that was a very good thing to do, according to both Mary and several cartoons he’d seen, Liam watched the woman, his face relaxed so it wouldn’t seem like he expected anything. She’d mentioned the books to him in the first place and said that he could read them. That things might be different than he thought was simply possible.

  Everything in the world outside of his house was, it seemed.

  Brenner just made a face, a thing that looked engaged and not mean or angry and nodded.

  “I’ll show you where they are. Really, that would be a good thing for you to do during the day. I don’t think I can take you to work with me again. Finding a babysitter for you is out as well. Which is child neglect or would be for most kids your age. I have no real clue what to do for that. I can’t just take time off, either. Not with everything that’s been going on in the last weeks. So… yeah. You can read while I’m doing that.” She didn't seem convinced that it could work that way.

  As if he might do something else. What that was supposed to be, Liam didn't know. Probably helping Mary by learning more of the law. No one online had mentioned that being forbidden. Many seemed to not have learned much about it however, compared to most topics.