by Quil Carter
The old man took a bag from one of the Crows and walked in. Reaver closed the door behind him. However, when I walked past the window, I could see that they were still standing there, staring forward with their washed-out red eyes glinting in the August sun. I wondered if they got hot in those robes. We had a fan in here, and without it I’d be roasting.
I pulled up a chair for the old man and he sat down. He tented his hands and looked at the both of us as we sat down.
“I am here personally to give you important news,” the old man said. He reached down and picked up the bag, and placed it on our table.
He opened it up, and inside were two black robes. “You will become Blood Crows tonight,” he said simply. And as me and Reaver exchanged surprised glances, the leader pulled out another bag, this one contained a small red bottle of food colouring and a plastic container full of white powder.
“We have a ceremony of indoctrination,” the old man continued. “But with the festival tonight, it will be done during our next worship. We ask you to please dress appropriately for the occasion, Man on the Hill will be there with his Angel Adi and it would be frowned upon for our new Crows to not look the part.” He rested a hand on mine, and his other hand on Reaver’s. “The festival will be starting in a few hours.” He began to rise to his feet, I couldn’t stop looking at the robes and the food colouring. “Once the horn sounds, make your way to the parking lot north of the north entrance.” Then he bowed. “Sanguine bless you.”
Automatically, since it had been said to us for the past several days, Reaver and I said it back. The old man then left us with the robes and the makeup, and he was gone.
“So I take it we’re leaving really soon?” I asked. I unfolded the black robes, they smelled like cherry gum just like the Blood Crows seemed to.
Reaver reached behind me and picked up the red food colouring. “Nope,” he said. “We’re going.”
I turned around and gave him a horrified look. I guess he thought it was rather amusing because he started to laugh.
“You said you want to figure out who Man on the Hill and Angel Adi are, right?” He picked up the white face paint and opened up the little container. “This is the perfect way of doing it. We’re going to be dressed up in our Sanguine Halloween costume, it’ll be perfect.”
“We don’t know anything about what’s going to happen at this festival…” I stammered. Then I felt a spark of anger. “You’re taking more needless risks, that’s what you’re doing. If we join this fucking cult, there’s no coming back to Melchai once we leave.”
“So what?” Reaver shrugged. “You want to hang out all the time with the Blood Nuts? I thought you didn’t want to stick around here.”
“It’s still not good to alienate ourselves from a town, and you said yourself Jade’s ravers have been attacking the other towns…” I felt a weight start to drag down my chest, this whole situation made me nauseas.
“And they’re not going to let us stay here unless we become a part of their cult,” Reaver pointed out. He put on one of the black robes, looking like someone from Harry Potter. “Do you see people visiting here? No? Neither do I. Because there are only slaves and Blood Crows here. You wanna be a slave?”
“No,” I said. I buried my face into my hands.
“Then become a Blood Crow, Killi Cat.” He threw the robe onto my lap. “Put it on and help me with the food colouring. I want us out of here so I can scout out where this festival is taking place.”
I looked down at the robe; I felt like throwing up.
Reaver suddenly laughed, and I was pissed to hear it was rather mocking. “Such a coward,” he chuckled.
My head jerked up from looking at the robes. I glared at Reaver, and surprisingly quick, all of the apprehension turned into anger.
“I’m a fucking coward?” I raged. I got to my feet and started putting the robes on. “I’m the one who saved us from the fucking worms in the plaguelands. I’m the fucking one who dragged your fucking ass back home after that incident with–”
“Watch your fucking mouth!” Reaver suddenly spun around and snapped.
I stared in shock, his anger snatching the words right out of my mouth. Reaver glared at me, his black eyes now flames, and he continued to stare me down until I looked away.
I busied myself whitening my face, and I could hear Reaver opening up the bottle of food colouring. Quietly and awkwardly, we both turned ourselves into Blood Crows, no words exchanged and nothing said.
And it continued to be quiet between the two of us for the next couple of hours. We both made ourselves look like Blood Crows, and in between that time, we read, watched TV, and did anything and everything we could to avoid each other.
Then, finally, it was time to go; but before we did, Reaver brought out the bathroom mirror.
Boy, did we look like fucking something else.
My hair was still really short, but it was hidden behind the hood drawn up over my head. My eyes were now bright red, the irises purple from mixing with the blue, and my face was snowy white. I didn’t even recognize myself, which… I guess was exactly what we wanted.
And Reaver, well, with the red dye mixing in with his black eyes… he just looked demonic. There was no other way of saying it, he looked like the Anti-Sanguine.
“Let’s go,” Reaver said flatly. “I’m bringing the M16 and your satchel. We’ll put them in one of the abandoned buildings in case shit goes south.” I grabbed my bag with a single nod, and we carried on outside.
I hated it when there was tension between the two of us, but lately it had been happening a lot. Reaver had been tense and easily agitated, and if he believed that I was going to bring up the weird states he had been falling in, or his inability to be intimate with me, he verbally tore into me until he was satisfied that I’d gotten the hint.
It had led to a lot of tension-filled silences between the two of us. I didn’t like it but… there was nothing I could do.
I wanted to help him but… I didn’t know how. All I could do was be the strong one in the shadows, since he’d knock me down if I ever showed that side of me in the light.
But there was something wrong with my boyfriend. I knew this and he knew this. The state he’d fallen into when he’d woken up from killing that slave… I’d never seen that happen before, and it was terrifying.
I wanted my Reaver to just be happy…
Then my teeth clenched, because I wanted to pay Nero back just as much as I wanted Reaver to be okay.
Reaver lit a cigarette and handed it to me, then lit one for himself. We stepped onto the main street and I was happy when he took my hand. It was so I wouldn’t wander away from him but I took it as a sign that he wasn’t pissed off at me anymore.
I squeezed his hand and we followed the crowd of Blood Crows towards the parking lot that the old man had directed us to.
“Blessed Jeff and blessed Chance!” We both looked as we heard Zach. He bowed at us and we both bowed back. “You look wonderful. I am looking at Sanguine right now!” he said happily. “I will be calling you Brother Jeff and Brother Chance soon. Won’t I? We have a wonderful night ahead of us.” I noticed that Zach was holding a plastic jar in his hands full of slips of paper, but before I could ask him what was inside, he walked away from us.
“I guess we better hope our names don’t get drawn,” Reaver commented under his breath. “Remember they sacrifice a Blood Crow for the harvest. I bet our names are in that jar.”
This made a chill go up my spine. We might be immortal but that didn’t mean I was too keen on getting fertilizer shoved down my throat and buried alive. I still had nightmares about my time at the Typhus Canyon Factory.
But if that happened, we would get out of it.
Not just Reaver, we would. Even if Reaver was hell-bent on keeping me weak and useless, the proof was in my actions – and I think I had been doing a good job when he was in his compromised state.
It didn’t make my Reaper any less powerful, it just
proved that we really were right for each other.
I looked over at him as we continued to walk towards the parking lot. He had a neutral expression on his face but his resting face was always one woven from darkness. Even when he didn’t mean to look it he looked threatening, ready to devour you whole and spit your bones out between inhales of red-embered cigarettes.
We stayed behind the hooded crowd after Reaver stashed his M16 and my satchel. There was about fifty of them and I could see more in the parking lot ahead of us. Everyone was bathed in blue from the creeping darkness, and from the orange glow I could see in the distance, it looked like torches were lit.
I glanced around, and as we walked I found myself feeling a new spark of discomfort. There were a lot of Blood Crows around, seemingly more than the ones at the worship. And, yeah, wow, I could see the women and the children as well.
I shuddered though when I saw that all of the women had something sewed. I recognized the pregnant one that we’d scared, her eyes still tightly sewn shut; and another pregnant woman with the same.
Actually, all of the pregnant women had their eyes sewn shut and the ones who weren’t pregnant had their lips done. I… wondered why, but it was obvious that there was a reason behind it.
And I noticed something else as well. The women were walking with men that didn’t seem to be Blood Crows, they were dressed normally.
I spotted Zach with his jar and dragged Reaver over to him.
“Zach,” I asked him. “Who are those men?”
Zach glanced over, the jar held tight in his hand. “Those are our breeding slaves,” he said cheerfully. The Blood Crows in listening distance nodded with him. “We are unable to reproduce and we believe sex with females is sinful. Those slaves fill in the necessary role of reproduction.”
I could practically hear Reaver cheering on this belief.
“And their lips and eyes? What’s up with that?” I asked. Reaver crushed my hand under his grip but I didn’t care. We were becoming Blood Crows to these guys; we had a right to ask questions.
“We believe that during gestation a women should be in a completely pure environment. She shouldn’t be exposed to any sin, even visual sin,” Zach explained. “A child’s life is precious and we give our future Blood Crows the best upbringing and the childhood that we dearly wish our Lord Sanguine had.” He looked past me with that creepy smile. I turned around to see who he was looking at and saw the little boy we’d seen. He still had those weird bear ears on his head.
I decided not to ask about that.
Zach wandered off after we’d finished asking questions. I continued on with Reaver but not one minute later, Reaver was pulling me closer to him. “Just so you know, last night…” he began to say, his voice quiet. “I moved our quad back to the garage. If anything bad happens, you can run fast with me, right?”
I nodded. “If we get busted by chimeras I’ll be running faster than you,” I said to him and he tightened his grip on my hand. “We’ll be fine… they don’t know who we are. Hell, I barely recognize us.”
Reaver said nothing back and I understood why… we were catching up with the mob and clear in front of us, brightly lit with torches and spotlights… was the parking lot.
The crowd had formed a circle around nailed wooden planks, crucifixes I guess, and there were five torches that were standing beside each nailed-together board. The torches’ flames cast an ominous X-shaped shadow against the chattering crowd, as if condemning them ahead of time for what transgressions were about to happen.
And there were crows perched on these makeshift crucifixes, lots of them. Those birds seemed to know that they were about to get fed.
I stepped onto the pavement of the parking lot, and as we walked closer, I saw that the crowd was split in the middle, a five foot gap was separating them like an invisible wall was keeping them back. There was no rope or anything stopping that strip of darkness from being consumed by the excited people, the Blood Crows just knew not to step there.
I looked past the crowd and realized that behind them, way back and in the darkness, was the dirt road that Reaver and I had seen. The invisible pathway to the front of the crucifixes was probably made for Man on the Hill and Angel Adi.
I kept having to tell myself that we were under disguise and that whoever Man on the Hill and Angel Adi were, they wouldn’t recognize us. Even if it was Mantis, it wasn’t like Perish could’ve sent him a picture of me, right?
My eyes scanned the crowd of Blood Crows, the sea of hooded men with their shining black hair framing such pale faces; the glow of the torches flickering against their long robes. These people made me uneasy and I hated the fact that they killed slaves like they were slaughtering bosen. But at least once we got a good look at Man on the Hill and the Angel, we could lay low until we decided it was safe to return to the plaguelands.
Then we could go back and get Perish’s things, find out, ideally, what the worms were, and where we had to go to avoid them.
For a brief moment my heart stung as I thought about Perish. I had been doing everything I could to not think of him. Think about what he’d done to me, both good and bad. It was hard, because I missed him – dearly.
But I still… hated him.
For leaving me.
“Wow, look, Kill- Jeff.” I looked to where Reaver was pointing and saw what looked like wire dog cages. Reaver pushed his way to the front of the crowd and whistled.
They were the slaves, bound, gagged, and blind-folded, visible through the blinding torchlight that bathed their bodies. It was hard to see from the angle but they didn’t look like they’d been force-fed the fertilizer – they actually looked all cleaned up and groomed.
Those were the slaves for Man on the Hill…
Then the horn blew, a sound between a trumpet and a car horn, oddly enough. Reaver and I both looked towards the dirt road, where the sound was coming from, and my hand slipped into his.
The crowd became hushed around us, even the several children who had been running around scampered back to their parents. All eyes were on the five crucifixes, and soon the three shadows that slowly approached.
It was Zach, the old leader, and Charles. They walked side by side, their heads lowered and their hands clasped together.
As soon as the crowd of Blood Crows saw them, they lowered their heads as well. Me and Reaver did too, but when everyone began muttering Bless them bless them bless them, we remained silent. I guess Reaver could only be pushed so far.
The three stopped in front of the crucifixes and bowed to all of us, then they turned towards each other and bowed to each other as well. Then Zach and Charles stepped back and started picking up torches.
“Fucking whackjobs,” I heard Reaver mumble. “This is what happens when you don’t teach your kids logic and common sense. Didn’t this happen like a billion times before the Fallocaust? Didn’t they worship narcissistic idiots with god complexes too?”
I nodded. “Yes,” I whispered as quietly as I could, “and it never really ended well. It all usually ends in blood and violence.”
“I think they need a new god,” Reaver mumbled and lit another cigarette. “What do you say we both get ourselves nailed to those crosses and we pretend we’re Satans?”
I shuddered and watched as Zach and Charles stood behind the old man, torches in hand. “I don’t think I want to be a god to these people.”
“If it wasn’t for the creeps on the hill I might, just to have some fun,” Reaver said with a mischievous smirk. “Think of the shit we could make them do. We could bring Stadium here and teach them to hate what I hate.”
I glared at him. I glared at him until eventually he felt the searing heat on his neck and looked back.
“What?” Reaver said exasperated.
“Nothing, King Silas,” I said icily.
Reaver rolled his eyes and continued smoking.
“Sanguine bless you!” Zach suddenly cried. I looked over and saw him beside the crosses. He had a white
bucket that looked incredibly heavy; he was dragging it towards the crowd. “Sanguine has given us a beautiful evening for our anniversary.”
“Sanguine bless you too,” the crowd murmured.
“Because the festival is about celebration and being thankful, we will be letting our newest Blood Crows pick the first stones,” Zach said as he looked at us with a beaming smile. He walked over to us and set the bucket down… and proceeded to hand me and Reaver small rocks the size of a golf ball, if not a bit smaller.
Reaver threw his up into the air and smiled at it. “I have a good feeling about this,” he said happily. I didn’t feel the same however, but I wasn’t a psychopath like my boyfriend.
While two men I didn’t recognize handed rocks to the other guests, Zach continued speaking. “For those who are new, this is our reenactment of Sanguine’s banishment from Melchai when he was but a child. Brother Charles… release Fledgling Daniel.”
Fledgling Daniel? My heart jolted at this.
Charles walked into the torchlight and I was horrified to see a little boy with black hair, and the same bear ears that the other kids had on top of his head. He had a blindfold on and his hands were bound as well.
I checked his lips and was relieved to see that they weren’t sewn but… but what were they going to do with him?
Reaver grabbed my shoulder and squeezed it. I knew he was mentally warning me not to do anything, but if they were going to kill the kid… I just might have to. I don’t care how mad Reaver would be; if it was a cat instead of a little boy, he’d be planning on doing the same.
“He’ll be fine,” Reaver hissed into my ear. “He’s a Blood Crow. This is probably like a fucking honour to the little shit. Don’t forget these people are insane, this kid will grow up insane too.”
… and that boy would end up cheering the next kid on. This information sat inside of my throat like a jagged pill but I swallowed it anyway. I killed the empathy inside of me and stood up straighter. It was a good thing I steeled myself too, because when they took off Daniel’s blindfold, I saw eyes full of terror. The poor kid looked like he didn’t know where he was; he was giving the cloaked men that surrounded him terrified looks.