by Quil Carter
This scene was too familiar – and to Elish’s own self-derision and inner hatred for the emotional weakness he continued to drown in, he realized that he was unsure if he could stand here and watch what was going on. Over the past weeks, he had found himself having internal reactions to things around him, usually igniting an anger or plunging him into fresh despair… but never had he had an uncontrollable physical reaction. He was sweating, his breathing was shortening, and his hands were twitching with his legs, as if urging him to flee this scene.
He kept his eyes shut, and thanks to the sunglasses, no one noticed.
However, the senior officer’s voice found the part of Elish’s brain still able to take in real stimulus, not just the ones his quickly deteriorating mind was replaying, so Elish listened to him.
“We’ve already found the location of his body but the head had been removed,” George said. Elish felt a percussion rip through him; his heart felt like it was being pulled to his throat by a thin piece of twine. “It has been several months so he would still be dead. Have any of you seen something that could resemble him?”
Elish kept his eyes closed. His heartbeat was a steady knocking against his ears, like it was commanding for it to enter his brain to further contaminate what was really happening around him.
“We’ve also learned that several cities have been taken over by ravers. The Legion has been commanded under Kessler’s son General Caligula to exterminate this new raver problem. The Legion is committed to keeping peace in the greywastes, and the greywastes includes the northern–
–“You’re in no position to threaten me.”
The senior officers tone suddenly glitched like a scratched CD skipping. Elish found his inner ear itching and the discomfort spread rapidly, until his brain felt like it was covered in mould.
“You got ten seconds, Elish. Let me take the clone or I’m shooting your husband on the spot.”
Elish’s eyes flew open. His body became paralysed; his boots welded to the floor.
And when Elish looked through his tinted sunglasses, he saw Kessler standing there – and right in front of Kessler, was none other than Elish himself.
Elish stumbled back and stared, trying, but failing, to comprehend what he was seeing and why.
Elish, the other Elish, the one who still stood tall with grace and confidence, looked behind him.
He looked to… he looked to…
“Jade?” Elish choked. He could see the boy standing behind him with an assault rifle in his hand. Why wasn’t he behind the rock where Elish had put him? Why wasn’t he hiding?
Then, like he had broken a cardinal rule that anyone seeing into the past had to follow, all attention turned to him.
Kessler glared him down with eyes that dripped poison; the old Elish himself stared with a cold glint of annoyance, and Jade… Jade just looked puzzled.
Elish took his sunglasses off, and held them so firmly in his trembling hand that they snapped. “Run,” Elish croaked. Everyone stepped back as he stumbled towards Jade, his knees buckling with every step. “Run far away from here.”
Jade started taking steps back from him. Kessler calling to Elish out of sight, but Elish ignored him.
“Don’t disobey me!” Elish shouted when the boy still only stared at him confused. “I said get the fuck out of here before he kills you!”
Elish gave a frustrated yell when the boy refused to run from this scene. The scene that would leave him half-dead, with a bullet that had almost embedded itself into his brain, and a mind that had finally succumbed to his abilities when he’d been forced to use them to save his friends and master.
Then Elish felt a hand on his shoulder; and when that hand dared try and pull him away, Elish felt his loose grasp on reality finally slip –
– and he whirled around and struck the person in the face.
Without pausing he ran towards Jade and grabbed him by his jacket. “Run!” Elish screamed. The boy hollered with fright and dropped his rifle, and behind him Elish heard hurried voices and guns being grabbed. “RUN!” Tears were stinging his eyes, running down the creases of a face twisted in desperation. His mind was in overdrive, like an engine stuck in acceleration. It was screaming to him one thing, and that thing was that this was his chance, this was his only chance to change the past, and have Jade still be alive.
Then he heard what he thought were fireworks going off around him, and Jade screamed. Elish gathered every ounce of his strength and pulled the boy into the darkness, down the incline towards a river he could hear behind him.
Then more fireworks, before shadows burst out of the shade and ripped the boy from his grasp.
“NO!” Elish cried. He lunged towards Jade but the black shadows dragged him off into the darkness. “JADE! NO!” he screamed, and broke down into choked sobs. “Don’t leave…” His eyes dropped to the ground, blurring from his tears, a tremble rocking his chest and stealing his breath. He looked up one last time and saw Jade’s face fade off into obscurity, and then four shadows stood in front of him, blocking Elish from seeing anything more.
Another pop of a firecracker going off, but this one strangely made Elish’s chest jerk backwards like someone had punched him in the gut. He fell onto his back, and with one last pull of adrenaline, sprung to his feet.
Then he looked down.
The shadows watched him wordlessly as he put a hand to his chest and withdrew it. It was shining with blood; and when he looked down at his body he saw more blood soaking through his jacket, and falling like tears into the darkness.
Death… will you remember me this time? Will you take me to him?
Elish turned his back to the shadows and limped away from the scene. He looked to the greywastes sky and saw the moon shining over him with its mask of ashes.
When he took his next step, he felt wetness in his boots. He glanced down to see the moon again, though now it was rippling and waving in the reflection of the river.
The silence was broken by one last crack, and Elish’s back heaved forward. Then, in an instant, his legs disappeared out from under him, and the frozen water of the river greeted him and consumed him like a hungry beast.
Take me to him… Elish said to himself, and even as the cold water filled his lungs, his voice remained calm, as did his mind. Take me to him.
The white flames claimed him soon after.
Chapter 23
Reaver
Kiki was staring at the living room carpet; he was scrunched in on himself with his knees tucked up to his chest and his arm wrapped around them. He was never this submissive little mouse when Nero had me chained to the bed, but now he was in my world and under my control, and the timid cicaro knew it.
The room was quiet, all except for Killian in the kitchen seeing if our ramen was done. It was a tense time. I’d just been able to coax the terrified black kitten out from the attic, and there he sat, as far away from me as he could get, staring at a stain on the carpet. Or the opposite of a stain; it had been a stain scrubbed so hard, it was now lighter than the rest of the carpet.
Kiki had downright fainted when he’d walked in on what couldn’t have been a worse moment, and when he woke up he’d bolted. I’d let him go, knowing it would only scare him more if I chased after him. I’d thought he was going to lock himself in his bedroom, only to hear him pull on a string attached to the ceiling, which folded out a rickety set of stairs. When I realized what he was doing, I did persued him, but he’d already vanished into the darkness.
I had climbed the stairs, and had poked my head up so I was eye level with the floor, and like I’d let a feral kitten into my house, I saw two white orbs peering at me from behind a steamer trunk.
I’d told him Killian was immortal and he’d come back, and I’d, angrily I might add, told him this was because of what Nero had done to me. All I’d heard back from an apology I felt pissed that I had to make, was the teenage chimera’s rapid, hyperventilating breaths and nothing more. After that I’d left him to
his shadows, I had to take care of Killian anyway, and I needed to dispatch myself also to get rid of my own personal injuries. Not trusting the kid in the house with us dead, I tossed him a two litre of water and a stack of energy bars I’d seen in the kitchen, and had locked him up there.
Two days later found us sitting on the couch. My eyes pinning him down and his own eyes wide and so orange they seemed like they were coloured in with felt marker. The terrified expression on his face and his pale, stricken complexion, only made them all the more brighter. This kid was a testament to just how unnatural me and my family were.
Killian came back with two bowls of steaming ramen noodles, and my mouth salivated as he handed it to me. This shit was a special kind of ramen, it came in a bowl and was called Nong Shim, some Korean stuff that was spicy and made my nose run. We’d found stacks of it in the kitchen, all of it with Melchai written on the side. I assumed Nero had stocked up, which made me think that they had been living here before Mantis had gotten him. Or had at least used it as a storage house. Anyway, the shit was fucking divine, and Killian and I had already eaten two bowls each today.
I took mine and inhaled the spicy hot smell. Killian handed his to Kiki, who stared at him before taking it in such a cautiously gentle way it reminded me of Deek taking a treat from me after I’d yelled at him for snatching it from my hand.
Interestingly enough, I caught an exchange of gazes between Killian and Kiki. I wouldn’t have noticed it if I didn’t see a wince from Kiki like he’d been physically struck, automatically I looked at Killian and saw an expression of pure unadulterated hate.
But like he was slipping a new mask onto his face, as soon as he turned away from the cicaro the expression vanished like it hadn’t even been there, and a more neutral one, bordering on timid himself, took its place.
I stared at him, and hid my surprise at this brief display I was never meant to see. It was obvious now that I couldn’t leave these two alone together. Yes, I had promised Killian revenge on Kiki but honestly… I’d expected that desire from him to disappear after the sex was done. Killian and I loved our dirty talk while we were having sex, but it rarely manifested itself into reality.
Kiki sniffed and put his bowl down on the coffee table. He peeled back the lid before his eyes flickered to mine and he pushed the bowl towards me. “Will you please take the first bite?”
I gave him a questioning look. My fork already twirling noodles around it. I shrugged and dropped my own noodles and dug into his.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” Killian said, and once again I was thrown for a loop hearing his calmed and even tone. Like it was out of this world for Kiki to think that we’d hurt him. I saw the fucking look Killian had given him… that damn kid was playing me for a fool.
In a way it was intriguing to see Killian put on this show, but in another way… it pissed me off. This darker side of Killian was becoming more and more apparent. What had first only revealed itself when we were in intense situations of danger, was starting to blend itself into everyday Killian. This didn’t sit well with me and I was finding myself increasingly bothered by it.
I decided against eating the forkful of noodles and instead switched bowls with him. The entire time I did it I monitored Killian’s heartbeat in case he did contaminate the food, but besides looking annoyed, he was quiet. This was enough for the cicaro though, he said a meek thanks that sounded like a baby bird’s chirp and started politely twirling his noodles around his fork.
“So… what I know already is that something is wrong with Nero,” I said in between bites of food. “What happened to him, and why the hell are you guys even in the North? Silas told me he’d put Nero in concrete.” I had a lot more questions but all of them could be answered with one request. “Start from the beginning, and I want honesty or I’ll sick the tom cat on you.” I motioned to Killian with my fork.
“I… I stranded Silas’s rescue party in the plaguelands, and Silas too. Well, I heard Silas screaming, but I didn’t see him,” Kiki began quietly. My eyebrows raised at this and Killian and I exchanged glances. So Silas had made it out of the lab, that was unfortunate. “I did it to break out Nero. Sanguine and I both planned it together. We love… love Nero.” Kiki poked his noodles with his fork and sniffed again. “We also freed Nero’s husband Ceph.”
What…? The red-haired guy was Nero’s husband? “Someone was dumb enough to marry that psychopathic meathead?” I said with a twitch at the corner of my mouth. “He must be as big of a moron as you.”
Kiki shook his head slowly. “Sanguine says Master Nero wasn’t always this way. Well, he was… but not as extreme. He got worse when Ceph was encased in concrete. He… he was so much happier with Ceph here.” The orange-eyed cicaro looked around the living room and his shoulders slumped. “Ceph was normalizing after being in concrete for so long… but then we found Mantis.”
To me, Ceph was just another tool I could use to torture Nero, and if Ceph was mentally fragile from being encased for fuck knows how many years – all the better. Killian put a hand on my knee to tell me he shared the same thoughts as I, and we let Kiki continue.
“We were in Melchai getting supplies and we heard what you probably did as well… that they worship Sanguine there. Nero wanted to see who Man on the Hill was, and we walked up to the mansion when it was dark enough for the Blood Crows not to see… and we banged on the door.” Not the smartest thing. “I was against it, terrified even.” I guess at least that kid was smart. “But when he discovered it was Mantis, he was happy… he said he knew Mantis before Mantis left. And… and that was when things got strange.”
I swallowed my food and found myself getting invested in this story. When Kiki paused to take a mouthful of noodles I was tempted to take back the bowl just to force him to tell it quicker.
Kiki politely swallowed his food. He had the impeccable manners of Jade and Killian. I never understood it. In the greywastes you ate quickly so you could start stealing food from everyone else dumb enough not to eat quickly too. Reno and I both had our share of fork mark scars on our hands from us defending our meals from each other, a couple bite marks as well when candy was involved.
“Mantis was polite with us but we saw another man just fleeting, and then he disappeared and we didn’t see him anymore. Several days in, Nero questioned Mantis about him and Mantis said that he was a servant and came and went… Nero started speaking to the both of us about it and we concluded it must’ve been Angel Adi. Nero expressed…” Kiki sighed. “… wanting to be Sherlock Holmes and decided to start searching for who he was with Ceph – or Watson as he called him after he bought that Sherlock hat in town.”
Nero was such an idiot in so many ways.
“I was left behind since I am still mortal, and Nero has always been protective of me. And one night he came back with Ceph, excited. He said that behind the mansion was what he described as a paradise. There was grass, bushes, trees that held acorns and fruits, gardens… and surrounding this place that he said looked like it was from the old world, were little cabins. He commented that there were animals too, mutated animals, but normal ones also. Ones he said Perish had been trying to perfect.” I leaned in further, fascinated as all fuck, and Killian did as well. “He says he saw the man we had seen before but that wasn’t what he was excited about… he kept saying ‘I have to tell Silas. I have to tell Silas he’s here’. But he told me I wouldn’t understand, and after we were intimate and I fell asleep.” Kiki’s face fell and he scratched his chin, now with a thick covering of black stubble. “When I woke up in the morning… he was gone and it was just me and Ceph. Ceph left to go looking for him and… and then the two of them came back for me.”
Kiki took in an uneasy breath. “They were side by side in the doorway and it was… so odd, Reaver. They walked normally but I could tell something was off. Nero had sunglasses on too which was so strange. Obediently, I went with them as requested but I got scared when they led me to a metal door at the end of a hallway
, one that had always been closed and locked. When it opened and I saw how thick the door was, and the touchpad…” Kiki’s voice dropped, as if expecting Mantis to be in this room with us. “… I think there’s a laboratory under the mansion.”
My eyes widened. “So you’re smarter than Nero and Ceph apparently.”
Kiki nodded and rubbed his nose. Jade had once told me that all chimeras rubbed their nose when they were stressed, and it was amazing how correct he was. “I hesitated and started backing away. I knew something wasn’t right with them. Nero kept urging me to follow him. Then I saw something strange, I saw he had an injury on the back of his neck. I knew–”
“The worms!” Killian suddenly exclaimed. All hostilities towards Kiki were forgotten, at least for a moment. Killian looked at me with shock, and I myself felt the blood drain from my face when Kiki nodded rapidly.
“You know about them?” Kiki said hastily. He looked at the two of us, stunned. “We saw them when we were dropped off in the plaguelands, which is how we ended up here. We didn’t know what they–”
“Finish the story first,” I said. I wanted to know how it ended.
Kiki nodded again, more energy behind his words now. “As soon as I saw the wound I knew what had happened, and it was because Mantis didn’t think I knew of them that I believe he didn’t just grab me. I turned and fled, and got several feet up the rocky trail behind the mansion before Nero caught me. His sunglasses fell off… and you saw it, didn’t you, Reaver? Some of the worms change the colour of your left eye, always the left eye, or well, our left, the victim’s right. They change it black. It didn’t on Ceph but it did on Nero. I panicked and I injured my master and I ran. I lost them in the hills behind the house and I had been living there, coming back here for supplies and food, ever since.” Then his orange eyes looked at me. I saw hope in them, the hope that only a delusional cicaro could have. “I saw you and Killian come, and I started following you around. Please, Reaver… I know you hate Nero and you have every right to. But please understand that… Nero hurt you, not because you’re Reaver, but because Silas encased Ceph because of him being upset about Sky that day, about a clone of Sky dying. Ceph was punished for being found out that he was immortal at the wrong time. Nero hates Sky, the entire family hates Sky for what he did to Silas, and because Silas mistreats us from his anguish over Sky dying. Nero had nothing but good things to say about you ever since you escaped. He thinks you’re awesome. He respects you, and he loves you as a big brother should. It was nothing personal; he was just getting back at the closest thing to Sky he had. Nero loves–”