by Patra, CS
“A mental institute, huh?” Nikhil decided it was high time to dig deeper into the history. “All I’ve seen is glowing reviews for the place.”
“Well, all that happened in the past. You and I weren’t born back then. As it is, the Bradley Institute has done a lot of good for people. They’ve given them a chance at being a family.” Victor lowered his voice then. “Don’t you want a family too? Have you ever given it a thought?”
“I’d have to get married first.”
“Then let’s get married.”
Nikhil laughed at that. “Oh, come on! We can’t rush into this! What will our families say?”
“We don’t have to tell anyone right now. We can go to the court and get married next week. You just have to fill out their application and submit it. Then we go and get married after they confirm some stuff. It will be easy!”
“That part will be easy, but there are some things I have to get through first. There are things I haven’t told you about me yet. There are things I’m not sure about either. I know you’ve been patient and I appreciate it. I just...” Nikhil rubbed his forehead. “I’m trying to find my family.”
“So it’s true then? You are adopted?”
“No, this is a different kind of family,” he explained. “You know those people I’ve been hanging out with lately? I tell you about these meetings I have to go to.”
“Yeah, you disappear a lot because you have things to discuss. You just never told me what those things were.”
“I couldn’t. Now I feel a little more comfortable to give you more information. These people and I have a bond. It’s something that nothing but science can explain. It has to do with our genes. It’s in our DNA. Are you following along?”
“Sort of. They’re your family?”
“In a way, yeah. The connection is in a sliver of DNA. I have been researching this and trying to figure out how it works. There is so much to it that I can’t explain. I’m a little afraid though. I’m afraid what this could mean for me.”
“Hey, don’t stress yourself over it. Do you want me to come over?”
“Yeah. I could really use some company right now. My mind is going through so much. After I found out about this, I nearly had a heart attack. I was so confused. I’m a little less confused now since I’ve done my research. Still, there’s a long way to go.”
“Hang in there. I’ll come see you in an hour.”
“Thanks. Can you bring some beer while you’re at it?”
“You got it. Let’s get drunk tonight.”
“You are a godsend. My mind is going through so much. I just need you so I can forget about everything else in my life.”
“I’m on my way. Don’t say another word.”
“Thanks, Victor.”
As he promised, Victor showed up within an hour, beers in hand, and wrapped his arms around Nikhil. “Hey, you! You look completely drained!”
“I have been working hard,” Nikhil admitted. “I’m trying to put together a puzzle that doesn’t have a clear picture. I don’t know what it’s supposed to look like, yet I have to put the pieces in the right places.”
“You poor thing.” Victor sympathized with him. “Let’s go get drunk. I bet you could use a nice, cold beer. Let’s crack one open right now.”
“Actually, let’s go out. The more I stay inside, the crazier I feel.” He grabbed his coat. “I want to be outside with you. Leave the beer in my fridge. If we’re still feeling like it, we can drink them at home.”
“As you wish.” Victor winked at him. ”Let’s go.”
The two of them decided to go down to a pub that wasn’t too full this evening. The college football games were on every channel, but they weren’t paying attention to those. Victor ordered some boneless wings in a spicy mango habanero sauce while Nikhil decided to have some mozzarella sticks and fried jalapeno peppers with cheese. They both ordered some IPA on tap and listened as the people cheered for their teams.
“I have no idea who’s playing this weekend,” Nikhil joked, picking up one of his peppers. “Feel free to take anything from me. I doubt I will be able to finish this on my own.”
“I’ll help you as much as I can. Now let’s get to the serious matter. What is really going on with you?” Victor asked. “You seem too scared to tell me.”
“That’s because I am,” Nikhil sighed. “For the past few days, I’ve been trying to find myself. I want to know who I really am. My parents live too far away or else I would ask them. Not only that, as soon as I speak to them, they just change the subject to my marriage. I haven’t had the heart to tell them about you.”
“Go easy with that. Tell them I’m a friend when you first bring me up. They will accept male friends, won’t they?”
“Of course. I’m just worried about what to tell them later,” Nikhil closed his eyes. “I’m sorry I’m dragging you into this. You deserve more than me keeping secrets all the time. I wish I knew the truth. I would shout everything from the rooftops. I’d declare my love for you and no one would look at me like I’ve lost my mind.” He put his head down on the table. “I’m such a mess.”
“Hey, hey! Calm down.” Victor nudged him. “Nothing bad has happened yet. No one is giving us funny looks now.”
“That’s cause they don’t know about us. If I kiss you right now, I bet their minds will change.” Nikhil looked up and saw Victor’s lips. They were begging to be kissed but he had to resist. “God, I can’t wait ‘til we get out of here. I want to kiss you.”
“Then let’s finish up so we can get to the kiss,” he suggested, holding up a mozzarella stick. “Let’s eat this, pack up what we can’t eat, and make out in the middle of the streets.”
“Streets are too busy. Let’s go into a dark corner. I want to make love to you in a place where no one can see,” Nikhil whispered. “Let’s pay the bill and get the hell out of here.”
They finished up their snacks, paid for everything, and made their way outside. Feeling a little tipsy, Nikhil found himself burying his face into Victor’s side. His boyfriend felt so warm and smelled like oil and bourbon.
“I can barely walk...” Nikhil murmured, swaying from side to side. “How much did I drink, Victor?”
“As much as I did.” Victor chuckled, trying to keep his balance. He coughed and looked up at the sky. “It’s so dark tonight. Not a star in sight. Maybe we should go home.”
“We’ll be fine. No one’s here.” Nikhil wrapped his arms around Victor. “Take me away. I’m dying for your kiss.”
“Here? Now?”
“Yes. Now shut up and kiss me.”
They leaned in close and Victor pressed his lips against Nikhil’s. All of the sudden, he was warm from head to toe. He squeezed Victor tighter and forgot about what happened. He didn’t care for Project 99 and how people would perceive them. He was with the one that he loved. He had the one he wanted to marry. No one out there could keep them apart.
“Well, well, well. Look at what we have here.”
Nikhil pulled away long enough to see a group of men surrounding them. Judging from their looks, they were not pleased with what they saw. “Look, fellas, we don’t want any trouble…”
“A little too late to tell us that. You came to the wrong part of this town, boys. Now you’ve got to pay a little fee.” One of them men said, inching closer.
“What…What kind of fee?” Nikhil asked, slowly backing away. He pushed Victor to the back. Even though he had no idea how to fight, he didn’t want to go down so easily.
“You know we don’t appreciate your kind around here. Now how are we going to help you remember that?” The leader came even closer, beating his fist into his palm.
“Um…I think we can remember this very well, thank you! We don’t need reminders!” Nikhil pushed Victor away. “Run! Get help!”
“Nik…” Victor started to say but Nikhil kept pushing away. He didn’t want his boyfriend to get hurt in this. The sooner he got out of here, the better.
“Oh, you’re in for a world of pain. Let’s teach him a thing or two, boys.”
The next few minutes went by like a blur and Nikhil didn’t know what he was doing. He felt like he was taken over by another spirit. A few of the men got punches on him, but that only fueled him. Somehow, he found the strength to fight them. He felt like he was ten thousand times stronger than them. His punches seemed to shatter bones when he hit them. He let out a cry and flipped over the guys from behind him. He didn’t know what he was doing. He just knew he had to survive.
The whole fight lasted ten minutes. While he had a swollen lip and a bruise on his cheek, he was not the one who suffered the most. The men were all lying on the ground, groaning and trying to get away from him. He could hear some of them whispering horrible slurs in his direction. He looked down at his knuckles and saw how bloody they were. He had never learned to fight in his life yet he beat these men down. He was able to overpower them even though he didn’t know how. Shaking, he ran out of the darkness and stared down at his hands. He had no idea where Victor had gone but he wanted to go home. He wanted to leave.
There was no way he was going to be able to wipe the blood from these hands again.
Chapter 15 – Pam
Nikhil had told everyone about what had happened. He called everyone in the morning with the news. Then they all went on Skype to talk. No one could see his injuries that well, which was good. Pam had assumed that it must have been adrenaline that kicked in. He assured her that this wasn’t the case. He washed his hands clean and his boyfriend came over to see if he was all right. Nikhil admitted that he had some injuries but those would heal. He was more concerned about what he had done.
“What if I go to jail? I could never face my family again!” Nikhil exclaimed. “What if I can never see Victor again? What will I do?”
“Calm down. No one has accused you of anything yet,” Doug said. “The men claim they don’t remember what you look like. They just knew they were beaten up. According to the news, they weren’t exactly upstanding citizens either. In fact, they beat up a black man only a week before. Prior to that, they attacked a group of Mexican people. It seems like you put them in their place.”
“I wish,” Nikhil sighed. “Unfortunately, people like this are all over the place. I’ve seen my share of them, but I never confronted one until now. Do you think this has anything to do with Project 99? Does it have anything to do with me being a perfect human?”
“It could,” Crystal said. “Anyway, we have a meeting today. We get to go to Ash’s house. I just hope his parents don’t ask too many questions.”
Pam knew very well what Nikhil meant by these people being all over the place. She had seen this disgusting hatred first hand. She had seen it ever since she was a child. It was hard to turn a blind eye to it when it was happening all around her. She hated the fact that she had to watch her back. The Project 99 reveal was only making things worse for her. Not only did she have to deal with the usual ignorance, she was worried about her own life. They had no qualms in trying to kill her children. Adriana was alive and this only made Pam stronger. She was determined to keep everyone in her family safe. Even though Rusty was no longer her husband, she worried for his well-being too. They showed that they could do anything and have no qualms over it.
Nikhil probably noticed how uncomfortable she was because he said, “Look one bright side. If we have powers of some sort, we’re able to protect ourselves and the people we love. We can fight back if something threatens us.”
“Yeah, we can fight back. That doesn’t mean things will get better. At the same time, not fighting leaves you open for anything,” Pam pointed out. “I grew up as the only black girl in a white neighborhood. Sure, I had people who liked me, but there were more who hated me. I didn’t do anything to them and they hated me. I used to think it was because I was different and I couldn’t pinpoint what. What you went through is something I’ve seen happen again and again. Each time is as painful as the last. I can’t help but feel like this is only the beginning.”
She wasn’t trying to bring the mood down, but that feeling wasn’t leaving her. What if people found out about their secret? That was going to leave them open to more attacks.
They all arrived at Ash’s house and greeted each other before they made their way inside for their meeting.
“Hi, everyone.” Nikhil greeted them. “How are you all doing?”
“Oh, baby. I’m so sorry about all this,” Pam whispered when she saw Nikhil’s face. It wasn’t as bad as she was expecting. He had a bruise on his right cheek and his lower lip was busted. Other than that, he seemed to be fine. “God, I can’t believe someone would do this. Actually, yeah, I can believe that. I know people can be cruel.”
“Trust me. I’m all right,” Nikhil said. “Victor thought for sure those guys would kill me but I made it! I don’t know how, but I made it. At least, it was a bunch of hateful guys and not my parents. I’d probably be stuffed in an urn if they discovered me. I’m still trying to figure out how I’ll explain this to them.”
“Still, how did you get out of it? You fought back but you claim you’ve never fought before.” Crystal said.
“That’s true. I don’t have any fighting skills whatsoever. I just threw my punches in the air and it worked,” he sighed. “Even Victor can’t believe it. He actually managed to convince the police that something was wrong back there.”
“They believed him?” Pam asked.
“Evidently, yeah. I told them what happened and they let me go. It seemed like everything was going my way. The best part was Victor’s kiss though. He feels great,” Nikhil sighed. “I know I got beat up but it was worth it. Victor’s kiss is worth dying for.”
“You should still be careful though.” Doug said. “What do you think it was that made you fight back? Was it adrenaline?”
“That was my first thought, but I don’t know now. It felt like more than adrenaline,” Nikhil murmured. “I’m beginning to think there’s a lot more to us than we know. Anyway, we should make our way into Ash’s house. He’s expecting us.”
Pam couldn’t help but think about what Nikhil had gone through. She had seen so many other people getting beaten up before. It would be for absolutely nothing. Maybe that person wandered into the wrong area. Maybe they gave someone the wrong look. Whatever the reason, they got hurt. Sometimes, they were killed. Not everyone could be fortunate like Nikhil and fight back. The way he described everything flooded her mind with bad memories. Back then, that seemed like the worst thing in her life. Now she had Project 99 to worry about.
“Do you think it’s possible that Project 99 sent those guys after you?” Ren asked.
“I wondered that, but I doubt that’s the case. Project 99 probably doesn’t care about my sexual preferences,” Nikhil said. “Anyway, let’s not talk about that anymore. I made it out alive. Victor is an amazing kisser. That’s all that matters.”
Ash’s house was nothing that Pam had ever seen before. Her condo was probably smaller than the bottom floor alone. There were rose bushes that lined the walkway and marble sculptures on the front yard. There was also a lovely rock garden and a marble water fountain with angel sculptures around it. She was just in awe at the house itself. It had to be at least three stories high and it looked like something that had come out of a storybook. She was curious as to how it looked on the inside.
“His house is like a castle.” Misty was breathless from the sight of it.
“Yeah, I knew Ash was loaded, but I never expected this,” Ren whistled. “Remind us to have more meetings at his place.”
The house was lovely indeed, but Pam was more worried about how they were going to explain this to his parents. No matter what he felt for them, they were still his guardians. She had a good feeling that Ash hadn’t told them anything about Project 99 yet.
A butler answered the door. “May I help you?”
“Y
es, we are friends of Ash…”
“Friends of Ash?” A woman spoke up from behind. “Move aside, Bastian. I’ll take it from here.”
The woman was almost six feet tall and stood with a great air of confidence. She had thick black hair that was pulled up into a tight bun. She had sharp cheekbones and a steely gray stare that could take anyone down. Her presence alone made everyone hold their breath. She looked at each one, making mental notes of them. Pam was glad that she had dressed rather modestly today. No doubt that this was Ash’s mother and she probably didn’t accept anyone that looked unkempt and untidy. She was already frowning at the sight of them.
“I’m Vivienne Blackwell.” She introduced herself. “You are all friends of Ash? Aren’t some of you a little too old to be friends with my sixteen-year old son?”
Pam winced on the inside. Ash’s mother definitely wasn’t going to be an easy nut to crack. “Our children are actually friends of Ash’s. I was here to see if he had something that belonged to my son.”
“Same here!” Doug chimed in. “I know Ash is incredibly smart and is in college like my youngest daughter. He borrowed a book from her and she asked me to bring it back.”
She looked at them and finally seemed to be convinced. “Ash is working on some project upstairs. He won’t tell me what it is. I honestly don’t understand that boy sometimes.” She looked up the long staircase. “His room is on the very top floor, the first door on the left. We do have an elevator in here, but it does tend to get stuck from time to time. I need to get that fixed. I suggest you knock before you enter. Sometimes, he doesn’t hear what’s going on outside. There are days I wish he would just give up on all this.” She shook her head. “Anyway, I shouldn’t be complaining to you. Go on up.”