by Quil Carter
And I rode that elevator all the way to the top floor, to Silas’s apartment floor.
I entered quietly, there was no one else around. Silas’s door was closed however.
The blond spider had chased all other insects from his web, and now he dwells miserable inside of his silken cocoon, curled up in on himself and surrounded by his own self-made suffering.
I knew the routine. I knew it so well my lips moved as I crossed the empty living room towards his closed door. When Silas was in his depressed state, we rallied around him.
We loved him. We spoiled him with attention. We slipped on our kid gloves and handled him with care like he was some priceless artifact. Petting, soothing, sucking up; we lay naked on the bed beside him with our honeyed words, eager to please him in every and all ways possible.
Can I compliment you, Master Silas?
Can I praise you, Master Silas?
Can I reassure you?
Love you?
Will you fuck me, Master Silas? Will you let me suck your cock? Every one of us so thirsts for your approval; we’ll fight over your cum like you’re squirting diamonds and pearls. And, oh, how we soak up your praise like you’d engineered sponges; we’ll absorb your abuse; we’ll beg you for more. We’ll manufacture ourselves a new past, so your feelings won’t be hurt and you’ll never have to feel the consequences of your actions.
But no more.
No, no more.
Oh, I’m quite done with all of this.
I reached into my pocket and grabbed the balled-up Ziploc bag, then I opened the door to Silas’s bedroom.
There he was, a small sleeping demigod lost in a sea of crimson sheets and black blankets. He was alone, this man who looks so innocent while he rests, but once those eyes open and you see the flashing green…
And, yes, the emerald is bad enough… however, it’s not the colour that you should fear.
It’s the black.
Silas’s eyes opened.
They flickered up to me, widened, then narrowed.
“What are you doing here?” he said in a gravelled whisper. He tried to shift himself to standing, but paused from surprise when I kneeled on the bed.
I leaned over Silas, and as if I was a repelling magnet, he leaned back. He stared at me with glaring embers, but no sneered words appeared on his lips.
Then I smiled.
“I’m fixing you, love,” I said gently.
Then I raised my pinched finger, and flicked the white powder into his nose.
And as he recoiled away, his hand cupping his nose while releasing a startled yell, I said to him calmly:
“Your mental abilities no longer work. Your altered touch… no longer works.”
Silas’s face twisted into a sneer. “What are you talking about?” he snarled. “Oh, have we lost our minds–”
“Shut the fuck up, Silas.”
His words disappeared like phantoms being called back to Hades. The king said nothing more, he stared at me with a look of horror. I wondered just how much awareness he had now. I know when I was taking my evening pills, I was completely fucked beyond reason. But Silas had received a minimal amount; I hoped his mind was more trapped inside of a cage than submerged in water.
How strong is this drug, poor miserable king?
I raised my hand and backhanded Silas across the face, and because I was a glutton for the excess today, I slapped him three more times. By the time my short taste of physical vengeance was completed, the stinging impact from hitting him had my cock twitching.
And when Silas stared back at me helpless, not a mouth pull or an explosion of ebony in sight… Well, it was enough to make me want to fuck him right here and now.
But I digress, I had other plans for my bad little king. This was only the beginning of my fun.
“Get up,” I said. “We’re leaving Alegria. Walk to the red truck parked at the bottom of the entrance stairs.”
Silas obediently rose and I followed behind him while he walked out of his bedroom and towards the double oak doors that would lead to the hallway and elevator. I pushed him several times to get him to move faster, he even slammed into the wall beside the elevator. By the time he was in the lift and we were heading back down to the lobby, Silas was dripping blood from his nose.
What a miraculous drug this was. So dangerous in the wrong hands, and yet this mind-controlling substance had fallen into the palms of two men who would be abusing it the most.
On each other, no less.
“You’re a horrible monster, you know that, don’t you?” I asked him. I glanced up at the digital display of floor numbers. We’d just passed floor eighteen, many more to go.
“Yes,” Silas replied simply.
I guffawed. “You know it, as we all do.” With speed, I reached out and grasped his neck, then clenched it in my hand. “And yet the monster still stands upon his throne.” My teeth pressed tightly, the rage burning beneath my skin like my blood had become the Devil’s breath.
Silas stared up at me, and I swear I could see the self-control that the drugs were stifling, screaming with desperation as it tried to break surface tension. Oh, how badly did this king want to shatter this hold I had on him. He was conscious under scopa’s thin film. I knew it, and he knew it.
I could see it in those eyes burning so brightly with hate.
“Enjoy this, Elish.”
My eyes widened, then narrowed. I looked down at this pathetic little king – and lost it on him.
I began beating the shit out of him right inside of that elevator. Closed fist and clenched teeth I barraged his willowy body with blow after blow, my fists flying and my chest heaving.
He didn’t fight back, what fleeting lucid moment he got was swallowed up by the rain of physical blows. Silas took it like the zombie he was, only useful in spray-painting the elevator walls around us in his flying blood.
By the time the elevator landed, my chest was heaving. I had to physically stop myself as I loomed over the battered king. Silas was on the floor now, leaning against the elevator walls with blood and welts on his face and body. He was staring off into space, his own breath coming in as startled gasps, but I could still see the anger in his eyes.
“I will kill you,” he whispered. “I swear on your brothers’ lives, Elish Dekker, I am going to kill you.”
I smiled thinly, then leaned down and whispered, “If only you could use your abilities on me, huh?” I grabbed his blood-slicked chin and tilted it up. “If only, if only.”
I picked Silas up then, and with my head held high, I walked with him out of the elevator. “You’re fine, King Silas,” I said to him. I could see the receptionist out of the corner of my eye gawking at us. “No explanation needed. You’re just fine.”
It was the thiens who had the balls to ask questions. I walked through the door, blood, drool, and snot now a mixture on Silas’s face.
“What happened to him?” the thien barked. “King Silas, are you okay?”
He didn’t miss a beat. “I’m fine,” he said. “I don’t need to explain anything to you.”
I smirked and continued walking down the stairs. Then I pushed him into Mantis’s red Ford and began driving the car back to the laboratory.
And while I was driving, I laughed. “You really think this is all my fault, don’t you?” I said through my bursts of rather unstable laughter. “You’re thinking how defective I am. You’re thinking about how much my brittle little mind has snapped, don’t you?” Anger suddenly burst inside of me. I turned to Silas and punched him in the side of the face. “You’ll never take responsibility for your actions, you’ll never admit you were wrong. You’ve been fucking abusing me since I was a child and yet.” I guffawed. “And yet it’s my fucking fault!
“Always, always… we can’t have it be Silas’s fault. His fucking feelings might get hurt! We have to pretend. We have to pretend that everything is okay as you stand on top of the bodies of the men we love, and laugh. LAUGH IN OUR FUCKING FACES!” I
couldn’t hold myself back, I turned and began beating him again. I crushed my damn fist against that god damn fucking face, every hit, every hit, every fucking hit was retribution. It was payback, finally fucking payback!
“I hate you!” I screamed at him. “I fucking hate you. You delusional little cocksucking–”
Suddenly I was thrown forward, my face smashing against the windshield of the car.
I’d forgotten to drive… Well, gravity won’t obey the chimera.
I looked over and saw Silas was slumped forward too, his eyes wide open and blinking away blood.
At least it won’t obey Silas either.
I grabbed Silas by his shirt collar and pulled him to the driver’s side seat, then I opened the door.
“Hey! You got fucking eyes to see, asshole? That was a red fucking light!”
I got out of the car and dragged Silas towards me. Then I dropped him and unholstered my gun.
“Hey, fuckface. I’m talking to–”
I shot the man in the face, and screams erupted around me like I’d just shot someone in the fucking face.
Hah.
I put my gun back and grabbed Silas. I slung him over my back and walked to the sidewalk. I caught a glimpse of stopped cars and shocked looks, but then moments later the cars began to drive again. That was the short time in between “Holy shit, this guy just crashed into someone’s car and shot this guy in the face.” And “Oh shit, it’s a chimera. Moving on.” It was fun to be above the law; I really should be taking advantage of that perk more.
There was never a time more than right now that I realized just how much power I wielded over these parasites around me. I had some blond man slung across my back, someone so covered in blood it was inconceivable to think it was the king, and they were clearing out of my way. No one was stopping me.
I found this funny. So, I laughed. I continued walking then, and when I got to the Skytech lab I slid my card through the reader, and strolled in with a whistle on my lips.
Perish emerged from his apartment, shirtless and with a cigarette between his lips. He took one look at me, and he laughed too. “I’m beginning to like you more and more,” he said. He leaned down as I walked past him and lifted Silas’s hair out of his eyes. “Oh, he’s conscious! Hello, Sieben Zwei. Getting our comeuppance, are we? Did I not tell you this would happen?” He followed behind me, and I heard Mantis gasp.
“Stay in the apartment,” Perish ordered. “Now, don’t say a word, don’t let him see you.” A door slammed moments later, and I opened the door to the room I was looking for.
I threw Silas down onto the ground, this bloodied, useless heap of a king. Conscious and burning with rage, but unable to defend himself against the two people he’d tortured the most.
Perish leaned down and lifted up Silas’s chin. The king glared at him, so much fire behind his eyes.
“You built your little house on quicksand, Sieben Zwei,” Perish murmured. “Now look at what happened? You really think you could torture him for that long and there wouldn’t be consequences?” He chuckled. “You really think… you could torture me?”
A low growl filled the empty room, mixing in with the heavy smell of fresh blood and the leftover aroma of bleach and antiseptic. “Zehn Drei,” Silas said lowly. “Elish repaired you, didn’t he?”
Ten Three. Perish was Ten Three. A later faction of born immortals. I wonder which number Sky was?
“Indeed he did,” Perish whispered. He stroked Silas’s cheek in a deceptively caring manner, but the look on his face told me there was no love lost between the two of them. “And it was I who repaired him. Disabled implants? Well, we both know that’s not true, don’t we? Julian was just kind enough to detox the little blond lion from his pills. Say…” His cold eyes narrowed. “Where is Julian anyway? Did you dispose of him?”
Julian? I hadn’t seen him since that huge fight with Silas, since Silas told me he was going to activate my implants. I’d thought that he’d gone upstairs with Silas, then perhaps sent away when Silas retreated to his room.
The familiar tightening of my jaw made it throb with pain. I tried to channel the anger, but it shot to the surface like a chain of exploding volcanos.
I locked my hands around Silas’s neck again and squeezed it. “Where’s Julian?” I growled. “What did you do with him this time?”
The king’s burning green eyes burrowed deeply inside of mine. He was covered in blood and still those eyes flashed like nebulas.
“I don’t know where he is,” Silas replied. “I did nothing to him.”
My eyes became two small slits. It was the truth, and an inconvenient one.
Silas glared back. “You’re such a fucking idiot, Elish,” he whispered. His eyes were twitching back and forth, I had to wonder if he was trying to use his abilities on me. “So smart and yet you have no fucking idea what the hell has been going on around you.”
“I know enough,” I said coolly. The tips of my fingers were digging into his skin, blood drying around each digit. “You killed Finn. You took my partner away from me. Your long string of taking away those I love… continues.” I could feel his trachea underneath my palm. How much I wanted to crush it… How much I wanted to see his eyes pop out of his skull.
You are no king. I am your new king.
I am your new god.
I loved you. I loved you and you fucking destroyed it.
At first, I didn’t know where the bellow came from, one that was overburdened with both agony and hate. It wasn’t until I was punching him in the face and throwing him across the room did I realize it was me. I was making that noise.
“I loved him!” I screamed. I kicked him in the stomach, making him vomit blood and bile onto the floor. “You worthless tyrant. I fucking loved Finn! How could you do this to me? I was obedient to you. I did fucking everything you asked!” I snatched his hair and yanked him to my face, my body shaking violently. “Remember this. Remember this, Sieben Zwei. Without your fucking mental abilities, you’re nothing. Without your fucking tricks, you’re nothing but a weak-minded insane idiot! REMEMBER THAT!” I threw him down, my boots now slipping against the blood that slicked the floor.
“You know absolutely nothing,” Silas choked. “I was trying to protect you. You fucking asshole, I was trying to protect you!”
That last part… that last part was cried.
As if he meant it.
I didn’t care.
“Protect me?” I said with a low laugh. “The only person I ever needed protection from… was you.” I turned from him. I had work to do, I’d had enough of this. “I hope you kissed little Keaton goodbye, Silas.”
“NO!” Silas screamed.
“Serves you right for abusing the two men who were most value to you, huh? Once I’m dead and Perish restored… you won’t have anyone to make you another clone.” Another laugh, this one bursting with mania. “I know where that O.L.S is… I think I might just destroy all of that brain matter.”
“NO!” Silas screamed, the most energetic one yet. “You idiot! You idiot!” Tears burst from his eyes. “I was trying to protect you. I was trying to protect you from the truth.”
I turned to the door, not wanting to hear anything more, but Perish was standing in my way, a curious look on his face.
A look of… recollection.
Then his eyes widened.
And Silas silently cried.
I stared at Perish, an uneasy feeling taking me.
“Don’t tell him, Perry,” Silas whimpered. “Don’t tell him. They’re all he has.”
What?
Perish’s eyes flickered from Silas’s, to my own. “I think you need to stop taking other people’s word as truth, little nephew,” he said simply. He turned and left the room I had Silas in. “Family will lie to protect each other. Family will lie to protect the ones they love. And the man who lords over you… will sacrifice himself to protect his most vulnerable child.”
“What?” I whispered. I left the room
, locking it behind me, and I followed Perish. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Perish stopped, then slowly he turned around. There was no half-smirk on his face, no knowing smile. Perish Fallon was stone-cold serious.
“I believe it’s time you look at those surveillance tapes, Elish,” he said. “Video does not easily lie… unlike the velvet lies spun by those who love you.”
Perish turned and walked down the hallway, leaving me standing dead center, the king crying behind me, and the door to the outside with its little red key card light, taunting me with its glow.
I walked to that light. Not a white light that promises you silence, grace, peace, the one that greeted those without the white flames, but a red light that whispered nothing but further pain, though also the promise of answers.
I needed answers. I’d had enough with this cryptic bullshit.
I was so tired. I was so done with all of this.
Silas. Silas. Was this the life you imagined for me, when you pulled my small body from the steel mother I had grown in? Did you look into my violet eyes and tell me the pain you would inflict on me? The permanent mental scars. Did you sing me songs of physical abuse, breaking half my teeth? Of rape by your hand? Torture? Was my lullaby a story of how you would kill both my sengils in front of my eyes, when they encroached on what you saw was your territory?
Silas. Silas. You King of All Things Mad. How could you look at me with such disdain, when it was you who wrote on my slate with blood.
Now in my last moments… I will do only one more thing for you, and I will only do one more thing for me.
I will find out the truth, once and for all.
And then I will rid you of my presence.
I’m tired. I want to sleep.
But I will go to my grave with the answer.
I opened the metal doors to the precinct. I walked past the reception area and opened a second metal door to the thien-only area. Ellis’s office was there, and underneath her feet was the storage area – and evidence storage.
“Elish?” When Ellis saw me she gasped and jumped to her feet. She was sitting in her office, a laptop in front of her and a remote phone in her hand. “I’ve been trying to call you. What the fuck happened?” She looked me up and down, her indigo eyes wide with concern. “You… you were in a car accident? Fuck, you look stunned. Come with me…” She grabbed my arm, but though she had every intention of taking me out of the precinct, when we were in the hallway I instead turned in the opposite direction and began walking towards the door to the basement. A blue metal door with Storage, in silver letters.