Chapter 17
The Director was eating dinner with them again. Niko sat next to Ben, and Ari was across from her, sandwiched between Duc and Malik.
As usual they wore all black with a dash of red, necklace, tie, shoelaces, and a handkerchief. She felt very conspicuous in a strapless red dress with a black sash nestled beneath her breasts. The hem of it barely brushed the tops of her knees and when she came in she’d felt all the boys’ eyes on her as if it was a physical weight.
She tried not to pick at the tape covering the crook of her elbow. Ben had drawn some of her blood earlier, several vials of it and she couldn’t believe he needed that much for a few little tests.
The soft orchestra of utensils and glasses was interrupted momentarily as the Director spoke.
“The Council wants to use our hotel to host a ceremony later this month.” She brought a glass to her mouth, grey eyes gazing at them sharply over the rim. “I hope unlike last year there will be no unruly disruptions to mar the event.”
“All we want is to fight Slithers outside the city instead of waiting for them to come to us,” Malik said softly. “Isn’t that why we were created and what the Circles are for?”
This had the smell of an old argument, one that was still unresolved.
“You’ll be leaving the city unprotected, utterly vulnerable to Slithers who grow bolder every year.” The Director’s lips pressed together in a thin line.
“Maybe if we didn’t take away their only means of defending themselves like some kind of parasite every time we went Outside we would have eliminated every Slither in the world right now.”
The Director gave an inelegant little laugh and fury sparked behind his glasses. She smiled at him over the rim of her glass. “You of all people should know why that will never happen.”
“You know what?” He shoved his chair back abruptly but before he could rise, Ari caught his shoulder in a firm grip. Her face was expressionless but Niko heard a distinct note of fear in her voice as she spoke. “Don’t.”
For a moment Malik didn’t move. No one did and Niko could feel the rapid pounding of her pulse just under her skin. Ben’s hand was on her thigh, not an opportunistic gesture, but to keep her in place, she had risen slightly as well and his grip was as tight as Ari’s.
The stillness was broken when Malik shook off her hand. He stalked out of the dining room yanking viciously at his tie. The door shut with an ominous sounding boom and Niko quickly made up her mind. She shoved her chair back before hurrying after him.
Malik’s red tie lay discarded on the hallway floor like a dead snake. She didn’t have to search hard for him, all she had to do was follow the noise coming from a particular room.
Niko stood in the open doorway, unflinching as a chair sailed across the room and crashed into the wall beside her. It tumbled to the floor, a leg snapping off in the process. She stepped inside.
Malik had trashed the room. Nothing was in its place, the desk was overturned and the chairs thrown and broken knick-knacks scattered everywhere. He’d snatched off the sheets and a pall of dust floated about the room. Niko closed the door behind her and picked her way over the debris to where he stood, chest heaving and glasses slightly askew. She reached out to fix them and he jerked his head back.
He moved away from her digging, roughly into his pockets. He pulled out a small container; the same one Ben had given to him her first night killing Slithers with the group. Like he had then he shook out a few pieces into his mouth making a face as he swallowed them dry.
When he finally looked at her the rage that had made him destroy a room was no longer there. He sighed. “Sorry, I just ...” At lost for anything further to say he pulled her close wrapping his arms around her. He pressed his nose to her hair that she was now letting grow out instead of shaving every two weeks. It still felt a little weird sometimes when she ran her hand over her head and encountered tight curls instead of scalp.
“I hate this place sometimes,” he said softly, “It’s like a cage. No matter how large and beautiful it is we’re all just prisoners if we can’t leave when we choose.” He sighed. “I won’t be here for long.”
She lifted her head from his chest. “You’re leaving.”
“Kinda.” He pulled away from her leaving a cold empty space between them. He ran a hand through his hair and his locks twisted around his fingers like vines. “I’m dying, I guess.”
“You... guess?” She repeated slowly. She never figured death as something one could be unsure about.
Malik sat down with his back against the bed flipping the container over and over between his thumb and forefinger. “It’s complicated. I shouldn’t have mentioned it, it’ll scare you.”
Now she felt mildly insulted. She crouched down before him. “I’m an Outsider, I’ve killed Slithers. There isn’t much that scares me.”
He laughed once. “You’re probably right.” He closed his eyes and took a long slow breath. “I’m turning into a Slither.”
Niko went still. It was one of the more popular theories when it wasn’t being used to scare little ones but she always considered it as fanciful as the others that included divine curses and magical beings.
“Please say something,” Malik said his eyes were still closed. “You’re so quiet sometimes it’s like you’re not even here, like I’m all alone.”
“You don’t look like a Slither.” She said and the corners of his mouth curled up into a tiny smile. He raised the hand holding the small container and shook it. The pills rattled inside.
“That’s courtesy of these little things.” He said opening his eyes. He kept his eyes not on her but the container in his hands. “Sometimes I wonder if they’re really working or if it’s just a placebo to keep me from going crazy.”
He tossed the container across the room where it was lost amongst the rest of the debris.
She examined his body furtively; there was nothing particularly unusual about him just a lean body dressed in black. There was nothing unnaturally long about his nails or unusually sharp about his teeth and unlike Duc and Ben she’s never seen his eyes flicker. If he hadn’t told her, Niko doubted she would have guessed by merely looking at him and even now a part of her was still doubtful.
Malik looked up and something in her eye must have revealed what she was thinking because he carefully began to roll back his sleeve. Niko found that she was holding her breath as dark brown skin was slowly being revealed inch by inch. With each new expanse she expected to see a scar of some sort of deformity that offered irrevocable proof that he would eventually turn into a monster. When he finished his sleeve was shortened all the way up his bicep but all she saw was smooth unmarked skin.
Then he picked up a broken piece of furniture and with the sharp end swiftly gouged into his flesh. Niko gasped slightly rocking backward from the violence of it.
Blood welled up from the gash spilling down his extended arm before dripping to the floor with the soft pitter-patter of a light rainfall. He didn’t try to staunch the bleeding only watched her with a rueful smile. “Now do you see?” His voice was low, nearly a whisper.
And Niko did see. The blood seeping out of his wound was not the bright red color she often saw living outside of the city, but the shiny black of Slither blood and with it came the scent of sulfur.
She breathed shallowly as the thick rotting smell filled the room.
Neither of them moved or said a word, the pit-pat of his strange blood the only sound between them. Malik watched his arm bleed impassively as if it wasn’t a part of him, like it was some dead thing he could simply toss across the room like he had everything else.
Niko reached across her stomach to grip her elbow. “You should get that bandaged,” she said eventually.
“This won’t kill me,” he said, then uttered a sardonic laugh but he got up anyway keeping his thumb pressed against the inside of his upper arm.
She started out walking ahead of him as they moved toward the lab but now that
she knew his secret she couldn’t shake the prickly feeling that he was going to turn into a Slither right that moment and attack her from behind.
She casually dropped back until she was walking beside him. He canted his eyes at her giving her a knowing look that said he hadn’t been fooled. He walked with his arm pressed against his chest where his shirt slowly began to soak up the blood.
“How long do you have?” She asked in a quiet voice.
He jerked his shoulders up and down. “A week, a couple of months, a year, no one really knows. The one thing they’re certain of is that as long as I’m still ... functioning, they want me to stay in the city.”
She and Malik pushed their way through the lab doors. “I think there are a few MRG packets in a drawer somewhere,” she said leaving him to go search.
It had taken her a while but Niko had eventually learned that MRG was the acronym they had shortened the unwieldy Multipurpose-recovery-gel, pronouncing it like merge.
She found a packet and ripped it open pressing the dark blue square against his skin. It began to work immediately fading from dark blue to grey and eventually white as it healed the self-inflicted wound and sealed away the monster within.
He picked at the gel tearing it away in long white strips. “I’m lasting longer than the others,” he said absently, “I guess that’s a good thing but now---”
“Wait.” Niko interjected, taking a step back. “There are more of you?” She instantly regretted her choice of word as she caught the hurt look that passed across his face. It made sense that there would be, in the conversation she’d overheard between Duc and Ben he hadn’t just been talking about Malik but himself as well. Did that mean all of them had Slither blood running through their veins? Did she?
He finished peeling away the last of the MRG and touched her arm running his fingers down it until he reached the crook of her elbow where a swab of cotton had been taped. He tugged it off revealing the bandage’s bloody underside. Her blood was red.
Malik folded the bandage stuffing it into his pocket like a souvenir. “Ben is trying to figure out what causes it and possibly reverse it. I don’t think he’s making much progress; we’re trying to keep this from the Council as well. Maybe he’ll have better luck with you. You’re different than the rest of us.” He said. “You’re special. I doubt you’ll have the same worries as all of us--- well some of us anyway.”
She reached out and hugged him.
He stiffened before slowly wrapping his arms around her. His shirt smelled like sulfur and was still damp with spilled blood--- his blood.
The lab doors opened.
“There you guys are.” Duc said as he skidded to a stop, red shoelaces flapping. He didn’t seem particularly pleased with their position and sent a frown Malik’s way before continuing. “The Director wants you back at the table, says you’ve held up dinner long enough.”
Malik broke away from her and perhaps some of his melancholy had dissipated for he shrugged amicably. “The Director always gets what she wants eventually,” he said softly before they followed Duc back to the dining room.
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