by Quil Carter
I tried to unwind myself by watching some television but that ended up being a mistake. SNN was the channel it had been left on, and they were still covering the story of Mario’s murder at Skyland High. There was some cautious relief that at least Todd’s murder hadn’t been reported.
I suppose I needed to clean up that mess then.
I got out my remote phone and called Commissioner Talbot directly. Even though being a prince and a chimera was complicated, there were some perks. I told the leader of the thiens that there was a body I needed removed and gave him the address. On a whim, I told him to give the body to the kitchen sengils of Alegria for processing. I would feel a flicker of satisfaction if I got to eat some of Todd, a small silver lining in a day I would never forget.
There was no fear of judgement from Talbot. We were royalty and he worked for us. Since Silas wasn’t home, technically I was king, and Talbot didn’t bat an eye when I told him what I needed him to do.
If only boys and school were as easy as cleaning up a murder scene.
I hung up the phone, the entire conversation taking about two and a half minutes. While I was speaking to him, my eyes were on the television showing a reporter talking to students. I wonder what would happen at school, unless Ryan opened his mouth no one would know what happened to Todd.
Honestly, I had no reservations about making it known that I’d murdered him too, on the contrary, I was tempted to make a statement to the school so they would know just what happens when you cross Elish Dekker.
“He seemed to be at the center of a lot of fights…” a man said, his piglet-like eyes squinting over blond curls. “But to be honest, I think he was just defending Sacario. Sacario got picked on a lot.”
Then a woman was interviewed. “I didn’t really talk to him… but there were a lot of rumors going around… I’m not sure how true they are but…”
“Can you tell me any of them?”
“I… I don’t want to get into trouble.”
And another one. “He was kind of quiet and awkward, but also a bit full of himself at times to be honest… I don’t know… it’s kind of weird that he’s even here, you know? He doesn’t really belong in this school…”
Time and time again they said the same things.
I didn’t fit in. I didn’t belong.
I’d gone to that school to try and break myself out of my cycle of disappointment, to try and make not only Silas, but myself proud.
And this is what ended up happening.
My mood soured as I watched the television. The media was nothing but a collection of nosey idiots grasping at any shreds of information they were thrown. They were interviewing any student and teacher they could get their hands on, and had even promised an interview tomorrow with Mario’s mother. That would be an interesting watch, because every member of Skyfall was terrified of King Silas. She was going to have to mind her words when she spoke about her murdered son. I wasn’t above wiping out his entire fucking family. Maybe I should anyway, if his son was that disrespectful to the king’s heir, it might mean that his family had been badmouthing us from the start.
Fucking parasites all of them. I’ll wipe them off this fucking planet!
My teeth clenched again. I dug my fingernails into my arm and listened to my heartbeat pick up. I fucking hated them. I hated all of them. Fuck them. Fuck them for saying I wasn’t fitting in at school, fuck them for calling me unapproachable. I’d gone to that fucking school with a smile on my face, looking forward to making friends, becoming social, looking forward to befriending Todd… and I… and I…
And they rejected me too.
What was wrong with me?
Nothing! They were the fools that were wrong. They’d hated me from the start because of who I was. And they should, because I was fucking better than all of them. And if I had to kill every single one of them to prove it – I would.
Fuck them all!
I jumped to my feet and began punching the door again, my fists flaring with pain with each and every impact. There was no other way to release this pent up rage. I couldn’t bury it inside me any longer, I fucking felt like I was going to explode.
Unable to hold it back, I let out another scream and laid one more hard blow to the door, then I sunk to my knees, closed my eyes, and dug my fingernails into my scalp.
I didn’t want to be conscious for the rest of the night, my mind was too fraught with turmoil and self-derision. Instead of facing reality, I did the coward’s way out and took some Benadryl, then I slept for the rest of the day, and whenever I woke up, I took some more and returned to my bed with my cat.
Once during this time Nero knocked on my door. I told him I wasn’t feeling well and was at least thankful that he and my other siblings left me alone after that. It was just me alone, teeter-tottering between feeling a thousand feet tall over killing Todd and Mario, to feeling less than shit over Ryan’s hurtful rejection, and mixed into the cornucopia of complex emotions, intense worry for Sacario.
What didn’t help was that every time I woke up, SNN was on the television. So not only were my nightmares full of hate, vengeance, and worry, but mixed into it were the comments of my classmates… and not a single one had a kind thing to say about me.
“He was having trouble fitting in… he only had one friend.”
“He got into a lot of fights and a lot of people didn’t really like him… this… you’re going to blur my face, right?”
“Mario was a great guy. I can’t believe this happened to him.”
Some time during the night, my phone rang. The deep sleep I was in had my body springing up in alarm and my hands reaching for the remote phone resting on my night table.
I looked at the call display and felt a sting of relief.
It was Silas.
Was this a dream? Was he really calling me?
To my absolute humiliation, the moment I realized I was going to be able to speak to him, after weeks of not seeing my master, a sense of vulnerability took me and a strong pull for comfort… the comfort that I had previously sought from Ryan. The overwhelming impact of this had my eyes welling, and my fingers desperately pressing the accept call button.
“Master Silas?” I whimpered. I didn’t care if I looked weak right now. I needed him. I just… needed someone.
“Hello, golden boy,” Silas said. His voice was sweet and full of understanding. “Garrett called me… your brothers and sister say you’re not having a good time at school.”
His voice filled me with sorrow. I missed him dearly, more than I realized. “No, I’m not…” I said, a catch in my voice. “When are you coming home?”
“I’ll be home in about a week, love, maybe six days,” Silas said. “I’ve finished what I needed to do with Perish but I have another stop before I return to Skyfall.” This brought on a monumental amount of relief. If Silas was here, he would make everything better.
But… he could never know about Ryan. Silas would kill me, he’d break every single bone in my body if he knew what I’d already done with Ryan, not to mention what I’d been more than ready to do.
This realization was like a dam on my lips. I had to watch my words carefully and cherry pick just what I was going to tell him. Even though I wanted to tell him my troubles with Ryan, there was a lot I couldn’t say. But that being said, once Ryan was removed there were still more than enough problems in my life, ones I could tell Silas.
“Now tell me what happened, love,” Silas said, his tone full of support. “Tell me who Master Silas has to kill?”
A lump formed in my throat. “There’s no one left…” I admitted quietly. “I… I killed two people today, Master Silas.”
There was silence on the other end of the line, a silence that stabbed all areas of my body and injected inside of me anxiousness and unease. “Are you hurt?” he finally asked after more than a comfortable amount of silence.
“No, I wasn’t…” I said. “The first person, he stabbed my new friend Sacario. He had
to go to surgery, they had to remove a piece of his liver.” My voice cracked as I said this.
“Elias, I don’t want to hear weakness in that tone.” Silas’s sharp tone cut right through my building emotions. “Tell me what happened from the beginning.”
I took in a deep breath and I told Silas what had happened from the beginning. I told him about Todd and Mario, about Sacario too. And when I got to Mario and Todd’s death I invented Brian, who would be my Ryan replacement (that I may end up claiming fled Skyfall since he technically didn’t exist). I found myself delivering many lies in the time I spent explaining the horrible time I’d had at school, and without Silas looking directly at me, monitoring my heart and my facial expressions, I don’t think he suspected a thing.
“From the very beginning no one fucking liked me,” I said with a sniff. I wasn’t crying, but my nose was running. “Todd didn’t fucking like me either and… I’d gotten the pull to go to school because I wanted to be his friend. I wanted to have other friends my age, other guys besides my brothers and Mantis.” My lips pursed, trapping the tightness in my throat that was threatening to send tears to my eyes. I had to keep it together, but the mixture of my rock being on the other end of the line, and the overabundance of emotions, had me teetering on another breakdown. “From the very beginning I got shit for it. That idiot asshole Tiberius, even though he has straightened up since then and has apologized. But mostly… I mean, it wasn’t even Todd and Mario, the whole fucking school just hates me. All I’m hearing on that damn television is how I wasn’t fitting in, how I keep getting into fights and how they were all wondering just why the fuck I was going to public school. I just… wanted them to like me…” My wobbling voice cracked, and I shamefully wiped away the first tear.
Nothing was said after my rant, and for a moment I feared the call had gotten disconnected. I was about to ask Silas if he was still there, but then I heard him take in a slow breath.
“Have I fucking taught you nothing?”
My heart plummeted, his sharp and accusing voice lancing me like a needle to the heart of an insect. “W-what?” I whimpered.
I heard Silas hiss through what I knew were clenched teeth. “You’re crying like a weak idiot over not fitting in at school?” Silas said angrily. “Elias Dekker, you are a fucking chimera! You shouldn’t be fitting in at school… the school should be fitting in with you!”
“But… I… just…”
“To my understanding… you went to that school for some little whore of a boy who flirted with you at that party…”
“No, it was a catalyst but I went because…”
“Do not interrupt me, Elish Sebastian!” Silas snapped.
I shrunk down, and with my eyes downcast to the floor, teardrops soon fell onto my bare feet.
“You went to school because of that little whore, who also had a boyfriend, who also was fucking some boy named Brian, and this Todd idiot had issue with you because you ended up liking Brian?”
“Yeah,” I murmured.
“And you let this boy demean and embarrass you? You allowed him to control just who you invite over to study with?” I’d told him that Todd had ordered Brian to stay away from me, but not that he’d come to Alegria. I didn’t want Silas asking that thien, or else he’d know that Brian was really Professor Britain. “You let this boy harass you and make you feel like shit… and in the end, you let this boy stab the only friend you’ve made in school?”
I stared at my feet. He was right, and I knew he was right. “Yeah,” I whimpered.
Another hiss sounded, then, like the hissing noise was propane being let out of a cylinder, Silas combusted. “You’re a fucking prince of Skyfall!” Silas exploded. “How dare you let that little insect make you feel that way! How dare you allow him to taint the family name by making it seem my chimeras can be manipulated and intimidated! You weak fucking pathetic boy. Have I taught you nothing?”
My teeth clenched, and it was my time to lose it. “I fucking killed him already, okay?” I yelled into the phone. “I already snapped. You’re a little too late, Master Silas, because I already had that fucking reality check. I already sawed off Mario’s head and fucking made Todd kiss it. I already electrocuted Todd in front of Brian and threatened his life. While you were in the greywastes giving me no fucking support or guidance… I already made it known I am not a man to fuck with!”
“Then why are you still crying!” Silas snarled, so loud I had to move the phone an inch away from my ear. “Why are you whimpering like a child? Because the mean students hurt your precious feelings? You already showed Todd and Mario you’re a chimera… now fucking show the rest of them, Elias! If I knew I’d created a whining little weakling I would’ve smothered you the moment you took your first breath!” I burned under his words, the slowly rising anger flooding the whimpering weakness that had been roasting me alive.
He was right, I knew he was right.
“If you want this Brian idiot still, you fucking take what is yours,” he said angrily. “You’ve shown him you’re dangerous, now show him that chimeras do not ask, they take. And with the students of that stupid school… I swear if you give this family a bad name I will break every bone in your god damn body. I will not have Skyfall under the impression that my creations are weak, that their princes, my genetic marvels, let mere children walk all over them. They don’t have the power, Elias, you have the power. Now stop fucking embarrassing me and prove to me you’re the chimera I raised you to be. Stop fucking crying, stop fucking whining and go out and take what you want!”
His words spared me no mercy, but it was what I needed to hear. Even though he couldn’t see me, my chin rose and my eyes opened.
It was still the same bedroom, and the man in the mirror was still the same purple-eyed boy with blond hair framing his maturing face, but inside… I suddenly felt different.
“You’re a chimera, Elish,” Silas said. “You’re the first genetically engineered chimera in the history of the world. You’re the prince of the Man Who Ended the World, and the prince of the man who rules it. My blood flows through your veins, and in that blood is a genetic makeup that trumps gods.”
“Elish…”
My eyes lifted, and I stared at the boy sitting on the bed.
“You’re a chimera.”
And at the same time, we both said: “Act like it.”
“You’re right,” I said, and the feelings of rejection and sadness washed away like his words had been a flood after a tsunami. “I’ve… I’ve been acting… unlike myself. I’m sorry, Master.”
“You know I don’t like apologies, Elish,” Silas said back. “What you can do to apologize through your actions. When I return… I want to see them fearing you like they should.”
Silas’s words resonated with me like they were straight from the mouth of a god, and in many ways, they were. His steeled voice and his gilded tongue had pushed past the sorrow that had rooted itself in me, and like hidden treasures only exposed at low tide, I was realizing my own thoughts had been trying to tell me the same thing.
I had been hurt because of Ryan’s words, because of everyone hating me at school, mix that in with the stress of what had happened with Sacario, and the confusion over what Ryan and I had been doing… the sexual stuff, it was creating this storm underneath my skin, and it was causing me to lose my head.
Silas was right. It was time to take back control. It was time to right what had been wronged, and show them that I would no longer let them make me feel like shit. They weren’t worth it, not the people at school… and definitely, hands down, not Ryan.
I owned Ryan now. I’d made it quite clear. That fucking asshole belonged to me. I was going to show him just who the real Elish was, and he was going to learn to fucking love me.
Whether he liked it or not.
“Thank you, Master Silas,” I said. “I… I don’t know what came over me.”
“You’re a teenager, golden boy,” Silas said. “Your body is changing
and your hormones are raging on and making you act crazy and impulsive. But because you know this, it means you have the tools to overcome it.” Then he paused. “But I don’t need to tell you, Elish: You’re too young for a boyfriend and you are not permitted to date Brian. Show him who’s boss, but that is all. I’m giving you trust in this matter, and if you betray me…”
“I won’t, Master Silas,” I said. The thought of him ever finding out Ryan’s true identity, or worse yet, what we’d already done, was terrifying. “Thank you.”
“Good… now what is it you’re going to do at school?”
I walked to the window, the cityscape of Skyland stretched out in front of me in the form of thousand of twinkling lights. “It is time that I teach these parasites a lesson,” I said simply, and I found a smile coming to my face.
“And I have the most wonderful of plans.”
CHAPTER 22
The moment I walked through the doors of Skyland High, a smile on my face and a drawstring bag swinging in my left hand, I could feel the atmosphere inside change. Every person who saw me froze and stared, the whites of their eyes showing like frightened bosen, and those who hadn’t noticed soon felt the shift in the air, and their gazes joined the masses.
I nodded to them, the school bell chiming above me, and strutted past with a grin on my face that could turn night into day. I soaked in the mosaic of different reactions, the looks of terror, of fear, bewilderment, and shock, and made my way towards my english class. I’d decided to skip FSS today and go straight to english. I wanted to see my professor. I’d made a special call to Talbot, just to make sure my boyfriend was going to be here today.
“Hello,” I said cheerfully to the gothic girls as we crossed paths in the hallway. They were Ellis’s good friends now, and had, lucky for them, been treating my sister nicely. “Beautiful day, isn’t it?”
The girls stared at me, then their eyes downturned to the bag swinging in my hand. The gossiping hens were silent as the fox strolled right through the hen house, huddled together for safety in numbers, waiting for the breaking twig that would have them dashing to safety.