by Quil Carter
Jobe… Jobe push him away. Push him away and tell him to fuck off.
Jobe… please.
The memory progressed with Sasha a helpless passenger, and he watched with ice packed tightly into his stomach as they made out on the couch. He bellowed, even though he didn’t have physical lips to make a sound, and struggled to try and free himself from this memory he was trapped in. But it was no use––he would stay until Gabriel let him out.
And it was only going to get worse. Sasha was now watching them remove each other’s clothes with clumsy fingers. Jobe then took up all of Lex’s vision, naked and erect, and then… and then Lex got down on his knees and put Jobe’s cock into his mouth.
No. Fucking NO!
How could they? How the fuck could they? Sasha tried once again to scream, to break himself out of this horrible nightmare. The despair was so thick, it was as if it had its own physical form. Sasha felt consumed by it, the only emotion stronger than that was the gut-wrenching feeling of betrayal.
By the time Lex’s memories had him and Jobe both in Lex’s bedroom, Sasha was numb. Like someone being put through the most depraved of torture, his mind had seemed to have shut down on itself. Sasha was nothing but a crumpled heap of despair, but still the memory carried on.
“You’re so cute,” he heard Lex say, then he kissed Jobe’s neck, and their lips met again. “I’ve always known you were many things, but cute?” Lex dug around in the side table, and drew out a bottle of clear lube.
I don’t want to see this, Sasha pleaded. I don’t want to see this.
There was a grunt, then a heat against Lex’s cock and movement from Jobe’s eager ass. Sasha’s desperation flared when he felt the pressure of Lex trying to enter his best friend. They were going to fuck. While Sasha was a veritable prisoner to them, and they knew he was getting raped, tortured––they were having sex.
I can’t see this. Jobe gasped and released a groan, Lex had broken in.
I can’t see this.
Lex’s hips began to move.
I CAN’T SEE THIS! Sasha released a scream of agony, and with one desperate push, he threw all of himself against these moving memories around him.
And like new Velcro being separated for the first time, Sasha tore himself free of this mental nightmare, and his eyes snapped open to reality.
“Sasha!” Jobe cried. “What’s wrong with him? What the fuck happened?”
Sasha was on his knees gasping, his bulging eyes staring at the ground. The images of what he’d just experienced were front and center in his mind; the feelings, the smells, everything. Everything.
“Sasha?” Lex’s hands were on Sasha’s shoulders. “It’s okay. Do you think he’s back?” he said to Jobe. “Maybe this means he’s back? I don’t know what the fuck happened, he was just gone. He was out of this––”
“You’re so cute––I’ve always known you were many things, but cute?”
Sasha released another scream and grabbed onto his head. He clenched his scalp and mentally tried to force the memories out of his brain.
But he couldn’t, and Sasha knew he’d never forget what he’d seen. They would remain seared in his brain like a cow brand, forever a prominent scar no matter how much time passed.
Jobe and Lex had had sex. They’d fucked; they were sleeping together. His uncle, his best friend.
When Sasha felt Lex’s hands on him again––he lost it.
“Get the fuck away from me!” he whirled around and screamed, the words coming with such force he felt pressure behind his eyes. “Don’t you ever fucking come near me again! How the fuck could you!?”
Jobe and Lex stared at Sasha in shock. “Sasha, calm down,” Jobe said, both hands raised in front of him. “I think we should give him some Xanax… all of this had to be hard on him.”
“FUCK YOU” Sasha screamed. “You fucking slept together? You two fucking had sex while I was gone? How could you?”
At the same time, their expressions dropped, and both eyes, brown and green, widened.
That was all the confirmation Sasha needed. He took a step back, his head shaking back and forth and his jaw locked. “I never want to see you again,” he said, his body beginning to shake from the caustic adrenaline that had replaced his blood. Never in his life had he felt this amount of anger, a rage so pure and undiluted, he feared in that moment that the mental energy he felt so bright and powerful around him, would kill them both. “Don’t you ever fucking come near me again.”
Sasha turned, and as Lex and Jobe cried after him, he broke into a run.
There were many more things he wanted to say to them, so many things, but this wasn’t the time… he had to save his family.
His real family.
Sasha ran through his apartment entrance, sped down the hall and through the living room. When he got to the door, darkness descended on his eyes upon witnessing Caelum and Nate dragging a barely conscious Kel into the back of Kheva’s truck, blood splatters a foot away from an obvious struggle.
Sasha saw red.
“Get away from him!” Sasha snarled, the rage a white fire that was making his body light as a feather. He stalked down the steps, his lips peeled back like a snarling dog, and both Caelum and Nate, still restraining Kel, looked over at him.
Caelum chuckled. Oh, how Sasha hated that fucking laugh. “Go back to your home, princess,” he said, his words jovial poison. “Don’t make Daddy give you a––”
Nate’s eyes suddenly bulged, and his hands flew up to his head. He released a shrieked scream, dropping Kel. But as he collapsed onto the ground, his hands clenching his hair and his feet kicking, Caelum did nothing but glance Nate’s way and shrug.
“You think I give a fuck about that wiener kid?” Caelum snorted. “Kill him, see if I care.”
But Sasha was still walking towards him, and though Nate writhed and twisted on the ground like a bug hit with a can of Raid, both of Sasha’s eyes were focused on Caelum.
Caelum smirked. “Oh? Are we gonna play?” he said playfully. “Sure, sweetness. We’ll––”
Sasha reached into his jacket, and the same moment that the head-splitting pain hit him, he pulled out Lex’s hand gun and aimed it at Caelum.
But nothing happened––because Sasha’s body suddenly froze.
“You’re about to shoot my boyfriend?” a voice was heard to Sasha’s right, but his movements had ceased, he couldn’t even turn to see who’d spoke. “That’s not wise, not wise at all.”
Caelum’s face lit up. “Hello, my sweetness,” he said with a weirdly quirky smile. “Come to rescue me again?” Caelum’s light blue eyes followed a figure, until a man with blond hair stepped into Sasha’s vision.
A man similar in age, with oddly piercing green eyes that were currently glaring Sasha down. “When do I not fucking rescue you?” the man said, not taking his eyes off of Sasha. “More Russian rejects?”
“Indeed, sweet boy.”
“I suppose you want me to kill him?”
“You know I’d love you for it,” said Caelum with that same strange smile.
“No!” Lex and Jobe could be heard screaming, but wherever they were, they were not coming to Sasha’s rescue.
The blond-haired man’s lower lip tightened, along with his chin. His eyes remained on Sasha, sizing him up for reasons unknown.
Then, to Sasha’s mutual shock and relief, the man turned from Sasha and walked towards the truck. “I’m letting him live,” he said, “for the sole reason that you can quite frankly go fuck yourself.” Caelum’s grin disappeared, and he shot a venomous look in the man’s direction.
“You’re a vengeful bitch, love. You used to be so nice too.”
“If you wanted me to stay nice, you should’ve treated me better.” The blond-haired man’s green eyes then shifted over to his glaring boyfriend. “Get in the truck, I want the new one too. Pick up Nate.”
“NO!” Lex screamed behind him. “Leave him here! You fucking leave him here.”
Shut up, Uncle Lex. Shut the fuck up, or they’ll kill you both!
Fuck, what now? Sasha’s eyes turned to the truck, Kheva was inside, and now Kel was too. Keluva Swift was lying beside the beaten senseless Kheva, his arms wrapped protectively around his master.
Did he… go in there voluntarily?
Sasha’s throat bulged, tight enough to make him unable to swallow. Of course, he did, Kel would never leave his master.
And it looks like I won’t be leaving them either.
Just don’t fucking hurt my uncle. Don’t hurt Jobe…
No other conscious thoughts entered Sasha’s brain. Soon after, Sasha’s eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell to the pavement.
CHAPTER 37
It was a long time before Sasha felt consciousness. But it wasn’t the expanse of mindless dark that told him he’d been unconscious for an extended period. No, it was the lucid, half-asleep, half-awake state that he’d found himself in; vaguely aware of his surroundings. Like trying to look at the lake floor through muddy water, but unable to do anything but stare with glassy, unfocused eyes.
Around him… he saw many faces; some he recognized, some he didn’t. Caelum came the most, his icy-blue eyes peering down at him with various facial expressions, usually that quirked grin that held no semblance of sanity, but other times when he came he was scowling, holding a cigarette in his mouth as he tapped Sasha with his foot. It was like that nightcrawler, or whatever he was, was two people, one crazed, the other always scowling.
Caelum and the others came to him physically, and that was bad enough, but what was worse… was the mental intruders he had to deal with.
But these were not nightcrawlers, Sasha realized some time in his haze, that the men who’d kidnapped them: Caelum, the blond one, and a black-haired man named Johan, and another with short auburn hair, were all a part of this first generation––and they didn’t have the mental abilities that Kheva, Kel, and Sasha had. At least not to the extent that they did.
Caelum seemed to be the most powerful. He had entered Sasha’s thoughts while he was in that dazed state, like how he’d torn apart Kheva’s memories. But the others, they seemed limited.
All except Rob.
Not Kel––Rob.
“Poor fucked up little nightcrawler,” Sasha heard Caelum murmur. “You really have no idea what true suffering is.” A hand appeared, and rested itself on Sasha’s cheek. “You think social anxiety and not being understood is something to get all depressed and angsty about? No, no, you really have no clue how bad things can get.” Sasha’s head was tilted up, and he saw Caelum’s cold blue eyes staring back down at him, the quirky smile gone. “I suppose you must’ve been through some horror as a kid to create that Dead Zone though. But you don’t even remember that far back, do you?”
Then Caelum’s face darkened. “Fuck, I hate your breed,” he hissed, pinching Sasha’s chin with his hands. “You little rejects, you shouldn’t even exist. I do, however, love what memories you hold of our King Fuck-up Gabriel Madden. I really – really, missed the screams that I can draw from him. He’s just so easily infiltrated now.”
The screams…
Sasha’s eyes became wide. In his foggy recollections, he’d forgotten. How the fuck could he forget?
Kheva swearing, screaming threats so loud they broke his throat. The sounds coming from the next room had Sasha wishing for the strength to claw his own ears off… he knew they were violating him. Sasha knew that sound; he knew that sound well.
I need to save him… I have to save my master.
Above him, a low chuckle belonging to a man Sasha knew well. “He’s no longer your master,” Rob said with a growl in his throat. “I’m your master now.” Sasha’s eyes rose, and glaring down at him was the monster in the broken body of Keluva Swift. A man who wouldn’t have gained power if it wasn’t for Sasha.
All of this was his fault, but yet, there’s nothing he could do about it.
“Isn’t it amazing how traumatic memories can be used against you nightcrawlers? It’s like uncovering your personal kryptonite,” Rob chuckled. “Your Dead Zone was the perfect place to hide such horrific transgressions. Funny, since the Dead Zone was created so violated little kidlets could hide from their abusers.”
“Baby… the cat wants to go outside,” Sasha heard Nate call. “Can you lend me a hand with him?”
“Sure, buttercup,” Rob called back. Then Sasha felt a hand on his head. “See you soon, very soon.”
Sasha closed his eyes, and drew up the only solace that he had, his Dead Zone, where Rob, Caelum, and the others couldn’t find him. The reason why he had such a thing was disturbing, but Sasha couldn’t remember that far back. If his own father had done what Gabriel’s owners had done… Sasha had no memories of it.
So, he stayed inside of his dark oasis. A faint comfort, but at least he was alone inside of it.
But on the same hand, it was an empty loneliness. There was no Kel, no Kheva, the two men who’d occupied so much of his mind, were either lost, or actively being tortured.
Rob and Caelum left, and Sasha went back to his dazed state. He sat inside the hazy bog and there he dwelled in nothingness.
Then… he heard yelling. Not the dim recollections of Kheva’s torture… but fighting.
“I can do whatever the fuck I want. You broke up with me, remember? I’ll fuck who I please, and you’ll shut up and deal with it.”
“You didn’t fuck him, you raped him, and you told me you wouldn’t do that shit.”
“You’re such a fucking goody-goody, Silas. Jesus fucking christ! Wah-wah-wah.”
“Fuck you!”
A glass broke, then swearing.
“Hey, get the fuck back here. You have a job here you’re doing, you little shit.”
“Go fuck yourself.” And a door slammed after that.
Then the haze on Sasha’s mind began to lift.
It was… it was vanishing, like a thick wool blanket had been lifted up off of his head and the cold air was hitting it.
Sasha blinked, then shifted in his spot. He looked around, aware now that he was locked inside of a dark bedroom, and tried to move to the sitting position. His arms were bound, as were his legs, and not only that, his muscles were sore; it was obvious he’d been in that dazed state for days now.
What had happened? Sasha drew up the control panel and watched the room around him become tinted, then he pushed his abilities forward to find the other nightcrawlers inside of the house, and beyond.
The boyfriend… that’s who it was. Caelum’s boyfriend, named Silas apparently, had left him again, and Sasha would bet it was that damn blond-haired man who’d been putting him under that locked-in daze.
Yeah, Caelum was still there, pacing around back and forth; Rob… the brilliant beacon of Rob was sitting on the couch with the dim flare of Nate, and three people…
Sasha tried to stuff down the anger. In the room beside his, were three beacons, one lying on the bed, one on top of him, and the third watching.
Johan, and the auburn-haired man, were assaulting Kheva. Sasha could hear no noise however, a fact that was disturbing, more disturbing than when Sasha had recalled him screaming and yelling.
Sasha squinted his eyes, there was an ache in the back of his head, but not bad enough to constitute a migraine. That meant that it hadn’t been longer than three days, unless they’d been feeding him blood, which Sasha doubted that they would.
Even though his mind was back, he was still bound, unable to make any sort of escape. It was no use trying to infiltrate Caelum’s beacon, or the others; if they hadn’t built up a resistance to him, they would sense Sasha’s probing and come into the room to beat the shit out of him, or worse.
Was this it? Was he fucked then? Sasha closed his eyes and mentally stood in front of the intangible control panel that was laid out in front of him, there were so many things he could do, and yet, these kidnappers had made sure he was absolutely useless.
Or perha
ps not…
Sasha reached out to Kheva’s beacon, and flinched when he saw just how bad it was. It was electrically charged, static, like a thousand hypodermic needles were sticking out of it ready to stab all those who came near.
But Sasha didn’t care, he reached out to it, and attempted to calm it down, if only to help soothe the pain.
Then, the vacuum. Sasha gasped as he was yanked from the control panel in his mind, and thrown backwards into the aura of frantic chaos that was his master.
He was expecting to see Silent Ground, Kheva’s Silent Ground, but to his confusion, all he could feel surrounding him was the man himself––Sasha was encompassed with the life energy of Kheva, like the Master Nightcrawler was trying to swallow him whole.
Automatically, Sasha jerked back with a gasp, but like Kheva’s essence were thick vines, he was caught in the Master’s grasp, the tips of Kheva’s tendrils diving deep into his mind. It was a disturbing feeling, like Sasha’s mind had been enslaved, and swiftly, he lost control of his nightcrawler abilities, and soon the physical world around him went dark.
And then… it lit up.
The glowing orbs of nightcrawlers, the same ones that Sasha had just seen, appeared again in their brilliant light, including Kheva still being raped by Johan and the other one. But no sooner had he saw them, Sasha was suddenly plunged further, into a rolling sea of dim beacons. There were so many of them they all merged into one continuous ocean of dark, no longer individuals but one massive collection.
Then Kheva stopped. Sasha looked around, trying to figure out why Kheva was no longer throwing them forward, but there was nothing around him but the grey orbs of the humans. He was expecting to see nightcrawlers, Sterling or Nik perhaps, but there was… nothing.
And to further his confusion, Kheva then detached himself from Sasha’s mind and ripped himself so hard out of Sasha, that he audibly gasped.
It was quiet after that, until a single scream from Kheva broke the stale air… followed by choking sobs.
Did he run out of energy? Sasha looked towards the wall that he knew was shared with the other bedroom, and tried to reach out to Kheva again… but this time, there was a forceful push, like a door being slammed on his face.