New Manhattan

by Charlotte Amelia Poe

  Matthew was never going to leave this base, he decided, breaking off another square with his teeth. They’d never take him alive.

  “Gabe!” Sofia yells, and launches herself at Gabe, who is followed by a redheaded woman, shorter than Matthew, but somehow more vibrant, more alive. She raises an eyebrow in his direction, and he smiles at her around a mouthful of chocolate, swallowing hard.

  “Hi,” he waves, and then worried he’s overstepped some kind of boundary, instantly regrets everything. “I’m Matthew?”

  The woman smiles then, a little sadly, Matthew thinks, and nods.

  “I’m Aubrey,” she introduces herself. She closes her eyes for a second. “My apologies, I have a slight headache.”

  Gabe pulls up a chair beside Matthew, and Sofia climbs onto his lap.

  “Matthew isn’t very good at Legos,” she whispers into Gabe’s ear, loud enough for everyone in the kitchen to hear. Matthew bites back a grin, and Gabe ruffles Sofia’s hair.

  “They don’t have Legos where Matthew comes from,” Gabe explains.

  “Well, they should,” Sofia pouts.

  “Yes, they should,” Gabe agrees. Aubrey sinks into a small armchair a few feet away, resting her elbow on the arm to prop her head up. “You okay, Aubrey?”

  “Times like this I wish painkillers worked on me,” she says, grimacing.

  Matthew looks at Gabe in askance, because Aubrey looks human.

  “Matthew, this is Aubrey, and she’s our cautionary tale,” Gabe grins.

  “Hey,” Aubrey protests weakly.

  “No, this is important, because Matty here was about to get himself Split when I found him,” Gabe says. Aubrey opens her eyes briefly to focus on Matthew.

  “Is that so?” She asks. Matthew can’t help but nod.

  “Damn right, this punk thought it would be a good idea to poke around the old library. Lookin’ for food, he says,” Gabe says the last sentence as though he doesn’t believe a word of it. Matthew privately thinks he’s right not to.

  “So, you’re… Split?” Matthew asks Aubrey, who fixes her gaze on him again briefly before closing her eyes.

  “Yes,” she says simply. “I was at the epicentre of the original Time Bomb.”

  “Didn’t get to the dome in time,” Gabe supplies.

  “The Time Bomb?” Matthew asks, baffled.

  “You never wondered? Why you live in domes? Why you can’t leave them without the time energy infectin’ you? That never crossed your mind?” Gabe says, a little harshly.

  “I’m sorry – I never – ”

  “Gabriel is just in a mood, ignore him,” Aubrey says. Matthew quirks an eyebrow at the mention of Gabriel.

  “I ain’t moody, I’m just sayin’. What do they teach kids in schools these days?” Gabe asks rhetorically.

  “Ah, Gabriel, you should know better than that.” A voice from the doorway chips in. Matthew looks over and can’t help it when his jaw drops.

  A man stands there, casually leaning on the frame of the door, and Matthew shouldn’t stare, but his skin – where Gabe’s is washed out and pale, the man’s skin is dark as onyx and shines in the dim light of the room. His eyes are the same as Gabe’s – white except for the irises, and Matthew can see the glint of sharp tooth pushing against the man’s bottom lip, but that’s where the similarities end. This man is a Shade, but a Shade unlike Matthew’s ever heard of.

  “Pick your jaw off the ground there, runt,” the man says, and Matthew bristles slightly. The man may be beautiful, but that doesn’t give him permission to call Matthew names (probably, I mean, Matthew could be persuaded). The man grins as Matthew attempts to make his face entirely neutral.

  “I’m Caleb,” the man – Caleb – says. “And you, are the prophesied boyfriend.”

  “What?” Matthew is caught off guard. Boyfriend? What now?

  “Oops, sorry, slip of the tongue. You’re Matthew though, right?” Caleb asks.

  “Yeah,” Matthew says.

  Caleb looks him up and down.

  “Yeah, I think you’ll be just fine,” he says.

  “Caleb, please,” Gabe says, voice on the edge of pleading, as Sofia stands on his lap to wave at Caleb over his shoulder. “Babydoll, can you get down? You’re heavier than you look.”

  “You should never insult a lady’s weight,” Aubrey says wearily from the corner.

  “Quite right,” Caleb agrees, “you’re fine, Sofia, you can stamp on him if you like.”

  “Why do I even live here if everyone hates me?” Gabe complains, as Sofia starts jumping up and down on his thighs. “Ack – careful babydoll, some parts of me are more delicate than others!”

  Matthew snickers. Gabe sends him a death glare.

  “You want a go, Matty?”

  “On you?” Matthew asks innocently.

  “Oh boy,” Caleb says, and whistles. “I see what we got going on here.”

  “There is nothing going on here,” Gabe says, wrestling Sofia into a seated position.

  “To answer your question,” Aubrey says quietly, “you live here because you’re in charge.”

  “I do not recall being asked about this,” Gabe says.

  “There was a vote,” Caleb says.

  “I voted for you!” Sofia grins wide.

  “I abstained, because you’re all idiots,” Aubrey says. “Except for Sofia, who is too young to run a base like this.”

  “I made you a badge that said ‘leader’ on it, remember?” Sofia says. “I’ll find it!” She makes to scramble off, but Gabe holds her still.

  “It’s okay, babydoll, I believe you,” he says.

  Matthew can’t stop grinning.

  “You’re in charge, seriously?” He asks.

  Gabe shakes his hair out of his face like he’s real offended.

  “You questionin’ my authority?” He asks.

  “Who isn’t?” Caleb retorts. “Anyway, he’s only in charge when Tee isn’t here.”

  “TJ. He’s a proper grownup,” Gabe explains. “He’s – where the f – fudge is he, Caleb?”

  “New London. Something about their government going wonky. I don’t know, man, he talks and I nod.”

  “True love, right there,” Gabe says snarkily.

  “Hey, two hundred and fifty years and counting, Gabriel. Don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it.”

  “Love is for children,” Aubrey sighs.

  “Well then it’s perfect for Gabriel, given that he’s never grown out of his teenage angst phase.”

  Making sure Sofia isn’t looking, Gabe quickly flips Caleb off. Caleb grins, and Matthew is once again blown away by the white of his teeth against the dark of his skin, regardless of the very pointy fangs.

  “Your boy’s makin’ moon eyes at me, Gabriel.”

  “Shut. Up.”

  “I’m a married man, you should know,” Caleb says, showing off the gold band on his left ring finger.

  “Matthew thinks you’re pretty,” Sofia says simply.

  Gabe grumbles under his breath.

  Sofia pats him on the cheek.

  “It’s okay, Gabe-y Gabe, Matthew thinks you’re pretty too.”

  *

  “So, they’re cycling through IPs too quickly for me to ping them, let alone grab root. I don’t want to say they’ve never done this before, but – they’ve never done this before.”

  Another Shade had joined them in the living room, and Matthew, stomach full for the first time he could remember, was listening vaguely to the conversation. A lot of it went over his head, and the Shade, Nathan, talked fast and energetically, as though trying to keep up with his own thoughts.

  “So you have no idea what they’re planning, if they’re planning anything?” Gabe asks.

  “Nope,” Nathan says, popping the ‘p’.

  “And you’ve tried raising other outposts to see if they can break through?” Caleb says.

  “Obviously,” Nathan responds. “Too much time interference. Seems the dome is putting out a he
ll of a lot of energy at the moment, it’s amazing your boy here isn’t smushed across the continuum, Gabriel.”

  “He’s not important right now,” Gabe says, and Matthew frowns slightly. Gabe seems to notice and nudges Matthew’s foot with his own. “I mean, what’s important is what they’re planning. Which you have been really fuckin’ helpful with.”

  “Yup,” Nathan says, popping the ‘p’ again. “I live to serve.”

  “I really actively dislike you,” Gabe sighs.

  “You have a lot of hate inside you Gabriel. You should try yoga. Or maybe you’re just hungry. You look hungry. Caleb, don’t you think he looks hungry?”

  “Leave Gabriel alone, Nathan,” Aubrey reprimands from the other side of the room, her voice pained, her eyes tight shut.

  “I’m just saying he looks hungry. Like maybe he brought home a Happy Meal because he was hungry. Just thinking aloud here, but you know me, I put two and two together and make – fucking ouch! Gabriel!” Nathan yelps as Gabe leans across and punches him with his metal arm.

  “Matthew isn’t a Happy Meal,” Gabe says tightly. “He’s a person.”

  “You say potato, I say potato. We both say potato the same way, because we’re from the same general area. But you get my point. If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck and it… what other things do ducks do? You can eat ducks.”

  “I like ducks,” Sofia pipes up.

  “Babydoll, what did I say about you earwigging our conversations?” Gabe says gently. Sofia sighs.

  “Not to earwig. ‘Cos I’m little.”

  “That’s right. Sometimes we say silly things and you’re not ‘sposed to hear ‘em.”

  “Matthew’s little and you’re letting him listen,” Sofia points out.

  Matthew splutters indignantly.

  “No, Matty’s short. Not little. He’s taller than Aubrey,” Gabe explains. Sofia raises an eyebrow in a way Matthew didn’t think four year olds could, and looks deeply sceptical.

  “But I’m older than him,” Sofia says.

  “Darlin’, you know that doesn’t count,” Gabe says, and Sofia’s bottom lip starts to wobble ominously. “Hey, hey, are you tired? Bed time?”

  “Not tired,” Sofia says around a yawn. Gabe gets up, nudging Matthew slightly in a way that can’t be accidental, and scoops Sofia up in his arms.

  “Come on, I’ll read your favourite.”

  “About the princess in the castle?”

  “About the princess in the castle,” Gabe promises.

  “’kay,” Sofia snuffles, and snuggles into Gabe’s grasp. Gabe nods to everyone, before carrying her out of the room.

  There’s a beat of silence, before Nathan turns to Matthew.

  “So, are you going to let him bite you?”

  Matthew frowns, confused.

  “I hadn’t planned on it?” He replies.

  “Okay, cool, except, ya know, he looks like shit. I mean, he always looks like shit, but more so. And Romanoff – ” Nathan gestures to Aubrey, “doesn’t really look up to it.”

  “What do you mean?” Matthew asks.

  Aubrey sighs deeply.

  “Normally they feed off me. The perks of being Split. I, or my body, refreshes, every six minutes, give or take a few seconds. Whatever happens to me, six minutes later I’ll be back to how I was before, the same state I was in the very second I was Split.”

  “Wax on, wax off,” Nathan supplies.

  “And that’s – you’re okay with it?” Matthew asks Aubrey, concerned.

  “If it wasn’t me, it’d be somebody else. Perhaps somebody like you, human, mortal. If it’s me, there’s no risk. It hardly even hurts.”

  “That’s fucked up,” Matthew blurts out, before he can stop himself. He’s aware that he’s in the lions’ den, but it’s never felt as real as it does right now.

  “It’s something we try to avoid,” Caleb says calmly. “The older we get, the less we need it – but when we’re injured, it takes up a lot of energy. We do heal, but it leaves us weak.”

  “Which we kinda don’t like, as I’d imagine you’d understand,” Nathan says.

  “What Nathan is asking, in his rather juvenile way, is whether you’d rather Gabriel fed off of me, or – you?” Aubrey says.

  “Why would he feed off of me?” Matthew asks, trying to ignore the small tingle in his gut that shouts both danger and something far more intimate.

  “He likes you. In fact he likes you so much he’ll probably insist on not feeding off of you. Because he doesn’t want to hurt you. But you know it’d bother you, him coming to me. Blood is intimate, possibly the most intimate thing to Shades. He’d want to share that with you. But he’ll deny himself it at the same time to keep you safe. He’ll never force you. Never expect it of you. But the want – that’ll always be there. And for you, it’s whether you can handle knowing that he’s sharing some part of that with me instead of you,” Aubrey explains patiently.

  “I barely know him, I don’t – I only met him today,” Matthew protests.

  “But you feel it, don’t you? That tug, that irrational knowledge that you can’t leave him. Because that’s how time works. You can’t feel it, not in the way that we can, but it’s still in you, fate, working its machinations, pulling at your strings, binding you together. People used to think time ran along a straight line, but I’ve seen it, I’ve walked past myself in the street, seen myself as a child, and it’s all happening at once, right now, and you feel it because time overlaps, seeps through, and you and Gabriel are destined to be together.”

  “Soul mate shit, right there,” Nathan says.

  “He’s let you in on his most precious secret, the one thing that he could never bear to lose,” Caleb says.

  “What?”

  “Sofia.”

  *

  Matthew was watching Gabe make up a bed for him, a monster of a thing which looked too fluffy by half. Matthew was used to the bare bones of wood and itchy blankets. He had no idea how he would ever fall asleep on something that looked so soft.

  At the back of his mind itched the words Nathan had said. As Gabe plumps up the pillows, he looks as domestic and human as anybody Matthew has ever met. He turns to smile at Matthew and those fangs, sharpened to points, are evident more than ever.

  Matthew understands now what Gabe meant about uncanny valley – how Gabe toes the line between human and not – something in between that should be unsettling, and some part of Matthew bristles with discomfort, but mostly, Matthew feels want.

  Gabe flops down on the bed, starfishing out and popping his joints. He smiles at Matthew again, and Matthew smiles back. His white hair fans out behind his head, and he doesn’t look like a monster, not really, his eyes watching Matthew watching him, and then he quirks an eyebrow at Matthew, and pulls his bottom lip in behind his fangs.

  “Matty, I can hear you thinkin’ from over here,” he says and Matthew is thankful that for Gabe’s many gifts, telepathy isn’t one of them. “Come, sit.”

  Gabe pats the bed beside him, and gathers himself up into a sitting position, leaning back on his palms. Matthew sits tenderly with a good distance between them, afraid yet not, the pull in his gut begging him to nudge a little closer.

  “Nathan said something,” Matthew says instead, because it’s bothering him, “about Aubrey. How you – you feed off of her. How you’re gonna feed off of her. And – ” he closes his eyes and grits his teeth around the next few words, “how that should bother me.”

  Gabe hums thoughtfully.

  “Well, it would help me to heal if I could feed off of Aubrey, Matty. You did shoot me after all.”

  Matthew can’t imagine being Aubrey, being something to be used, to be passed around and hurt.

  “Doesn’t it bother you? Doesn’t it bother her?” He asks. Gabe shuffles closer to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

  “Matty, we don’t get a lotta volunteers. Trust me when I say Aubrey doesn’t do anything she don’t want to. She’s po
werful, more than I think she realises. If she didn’t wanna be here, she wouldn’t be.”

  Matthew is quiet for a moment. He bites his lip in thought.

  “Are you going to then – feed off of her? Tonight?” He asks, stomach churning. He knows he has no claim to Gabe, no right to police Gabe’s actions, that they’ve only just met and to demand anything would be foolish at best, and yet – there’s a part of him screaming inside at the image of Gabe sweeping Aubrey’s hair away from her neck, grazing teeth across pale skin, holding her as she swoons against him. Would they do it on a bed? Probably. Aubrey was right – blood is intimate. The act of taking it, or giving it. He shouldn’t want to offer himself, but there’s a part of him that knows that if he doesn’t, Gabe will never ask, and there’ll be something lost between them forever.

  “You could, I mean, it could be me,” he says, “I did shoot you, after all.”

  Gabe takes his hand from Matthew’s shoulder, and shifts on the bed beside Matthew. He takes a deep breath, and now Matthew knows that it’s just another part of Gabe that doesn’t make sense – breathing – he wants to run. But he also wants to stay, and spend a life time solving the mystery that makes up the impossible man beside him.

  “Your heart’s beating so fast,” Gabe murmurs, and he’s closer now, and though there’s no body heat or breath or anything to give him away, Matthew is certain that he is close, so close to Matthew, close enough to bite, close enough to kill. “Matthew – ”

  Gabe puts out his metal hand to Matthew’s cheek and uses the motion to guide Matthew to face him, Matthew barely aware of moving his body. He follows the touch of the cold of Gabe’s hand, leaning into it, and closes his eyes. Gabe’s thumb strokes down the length of his cheekbone, before coming to rest on his chin, cupping his face gently.

  “Look at you,” Gabe all but whispers, and Matthew opens his eyes, and meets the pale of Gabe’s. Matthew tries to imagine the colour that was once there, but it feels wrong. This is Gabe, this alabaster creation, a mimicry of humanity, and yet, somehow, still soft despite hard edges. “I should tell you to run but you never would,” Gabe sighs.

  Matthew feels like he’s breathing for the two of them. He wants to move, but he’s trapped, a willing victim. He needs Gabe to kiss him, needs to know that Gabe is real, that this is more than just some imagined fancy.