by Quil Carter
“I remember the feeling,” Mantis muttered, and he slid down to the cold linoleum floor. The searing look I had earned faded and one of concern took its place. “I have horses, slaves, carracats, lions, and my felicos, and two sociopaths who are probably torturing them as I speak to you. I’ve spent twenty years making Turris a paradise, and if that boy destroys my work I will bury him head first into the ground and sodomize him with a katana.”
“I think Greyson and Leo both made threats like that,” I said. I looked around the small freezer room, about seven by ten, but all there was was an air vent and even I wouldn’t be able to fit through it. “Chimera kids seem to be impossible to raise.”
“Which is why they started sending them out into the greywastes and surrogating them,” Mantis mumbled. He started rubbing his left temple, looking exasperated. “My job in Skyfall was trying to curb their mental issues. I had some success. Skyfall would be in ruins without my psychological guidance.”
“My chimera could use some psychological guidance,” I said, and sighed over my own words. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason Reaver hasn’t blown up the house is because he and Nero keep killing each other.” I leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. “How long was I resurrecting for?”
“I’m not sure. You were in the freezer when I myself woke up and I don’t know what extent my own injuries were. I’m guessing two, maybe three, days,” Mantis said.
We both looked up when we heard footsteps above us, and then a door slam.
My heart jumped when I heard the muffled sound of screaming, not just anyone’s screaming…
“Reaver?” I cried. I jumped up onto the freezer and put my hands to the ceiling. “That’s Reaver! He sounds…” I paused and my heart dropped. “He sounds like he’s…”
Like he’s going through another one of his… states.
My eyes brimmed and when I heard a crash, followed by another scream I started slamming on the ceiling. “Rea-” I yelped when suddenly Mantis grabbed the rim of my jeans and pulled me off of the freezer.
I was thrown off-balance, but before the floor met me I was caught and steadied. “Be quiet! Adler and Spike think you’re dead and it’s going to remain that way. You need to suffer in silence.” I pulled myself from him and shoved him away, then climbed back onto the freezer, just so I could be close to Reaver.
I held onto myself enough to not cry out again, but the tears were running down my face. “Where are we below?” I whimpered.
“Adler’s bedroom,” Mantis replied, then he winced when we both heard a crash. “I decorated that room from furniture I recovered from a god damn mansion in Edmonton.” Another crash, followed by a sigh from Mantis. “And there goes my China vase.”
“This is more important than your vase!” I cried, before clamping a hand over my mouth to keep myself quiet. “He’s been going into these… crazy states lately after something bad happened to him, and I’m not there to calm him down! Only fucking Nero, his worst enemy, is!”
“Crazed states, you say?”
I looked at him, he sounded interested in this. I nodded and wiped my eyes. “I can’t tell you what happened, but something bad and he’s been unstable ever since.”
“Would you call it… a psychosis?”
“That’s what he calls it.”
“And… what caused this?” Mantis’s eyes went bright again.
“Why does Adler want Perish’s files?”
The brightness disappeared from Mantis’s eyes and he leaned against the wall of the storage room with a defeated sigh. “We could have many interesting discussions if we each didn’t have so much to lose from a betrayal of trust.”
“Indeed,” I said, and sat back down on the freezer. I heard another frustrated scream and more tears sprung to my eyes; I wiped them away quickly. “I’m so worried about him.”
“You should be,” Mantis said airily. “I’ve counselled a lot of chimeras after traumatic events. One completely fractured himself into two people, required implants and Silas’s own mental abilities to repair him. He’s still half-mad to this day.”
“Who?” I asked, glancing up.
“Sanguine,” Mantis replied. I was surprised he answered. “He was kept captive in a dark basement for eleven years by a pedophile, from eight until nineteen. He was starved and tortured, raped and left alone with no one to talk to. He ended up creating an imaginary friend and that friend eventually became his other personality. A peculiar man named Crow.”
I tried to stop the horror washing through me, telling myself that that wouldn’t happen to Reaver, but I found that my heart had already assumed that it would – if it wasn’t already.
I stifled a sob, but when I saw a knowing smirk come to Mantis’s face, it quickly dissolved and turned into anger.
“Rape was it? I thought as much. That really is the only thing that gets them, that and losing what you’d call their soul mate. Since you are here for him, I assume it was Nero doing what Nero does best?”
“Shut up!” I cried. “He won’t turn out like Sanguine. Once he kills Nero… he’ll be fine. He just needs to get some revenge…”
“Didn’t help Sanguine,” Mantis said nonchalantly.
“What did?” I sniffed.
“He’s never fully recovered,” he said back to me. “Scars are scars, memories are memories. This will change him forever, whether he likes it or not.”
“Not Reaver,” I whispered. “Nothing can change him.”
“You two are going to be together for a long time. I suggest you get rid of that notion. It’s false for arians and it’s false for chimeras, and it is all the more false for the dreaded born immortal chimera.”
I fell to silence… I had nothing to say to that.
But once our mutual loneliness became greater than the silence, we started talking again. Heavy topics were avoided and we settled for neutral conversations. We talked about everything from the felicos, the bat cats we’d seen outside, to exchanging cooking recipes and tips. I’d noticed that, thankfully, Reaver had stopped yelling above me, and that everything had gone silent.
Adler and Spike didn’t come back which I was surprised about. I thought they’d at least feed Mantis but there was no movement outside. I didn’t even hear anything when one of them turned out the only light we had in here, and in the pitch black, we bid each other good night and I slept on top of the freezer, Mantis on the floor.
I woke up in the middle of the night to a weird sound. I opened my eyes to darkness and sat up, my brow furrowed and my head craned. At first I couldn’t make out what I was hearing until I realized…
“Someone’s having sex on Adler’s bed. He’s going to love that,” Mantis mumbled sleepily. I looked over at where I’d seen him last, and realized he could see me perfectly well.
“Ceph and Kiki will be thrilled,” I said and stifled a yawn. Even though I couldn’t see anything, I closed my eyes to try and listen better. I think I heard groaning.
“Get off!”
“REAVER!” I screamed, then suddenly I felt hands over my mouth. I bit down, my mind going insane from what I knew I’d just heard.
Mantis pulled back with a hiss. “Shut up. If you want out of here them thinking you’re dead is the way to do it,” he snapped. “What you think is happening, is not happening.”
“Yes – it – is!” I snarled. I started pounding and kicking on the door. “Nero has him again! He fucking–”
“And it was silent until that one scream? It’s rough sex, they’re chimeras, certainly you know this by now,” Mantis said back. He pushed me away from the door and I fell to the floor, the darkness making it impossible for me to find my bearings.
“He’d never sleep with Nero. Don’t be an idiot,” I said.
“Then Reaver walked in on something and he’s pissed off. Either way, shut up,” Mantis said back. I heard another muffled yell. Something was going on up there. I felt like I was going mad being locked in this fucking dungeon. There was
no greater torture than to be forced to witness the love of your life being hurt, and you not being able to do a damn thing about it.
More muffled sounds were heard, and groaning too. I bit my bottom lip and shut my eyes tight. I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could handle. “Get me out of here!” I demanded. “You said them thinking I’m dead is the fucking key… well use it. Get me the fuck out of here, I don’t care what you have to tell that idiot.”
“You need to wait until morning. Now be quiet!” Mantis hissed. The anger was growing in his tone, but he didn’t fucking understand. If Nero had Reaver… fuck, I had to save him. This could be what permanently breaks his mind. I fucking had to save my baby.
“REAV-” Suddenly I felt something made of fabric around my neck. It got pulled back tightly, cutting off my air flow.
My hands shot to my neck. I tried to grab the cloth as it tightened around my neck but my fingers grasped nothing but my own skin. Mantis grunted behind me, and I felt him torque the bind. I opened my mouth to try and plead with him, tell him I would be quiet, but soon my head was filling with a painful red pressure, one that was pushing my eyes out of my socket, and my tongue from my mouth.
He was fucking strangling me with the arm of his robe.
I clawed at my neck, my mind launching me into survival mode, but soon I felt the cold floor greet me with a painful impact. Even then I wasn’t spared, Mantis began strangling me again and soon after that, I experienced my fourth death.
When I finally forced the first gasp of air into my lungs, and my eyes snapped open to the bright lights I had been seeing as red through my closed eyelids, I realized I was wrapped in Mantis’s robe and tucked into the corner of the storage room in between the wall and the freezer.
Mantis was watching me, leaning against the wall and looking bored.
“Reaver? Did you hear anything else?” I asked. I held a hand to my throat but there wasn’t even a muscle ache from Mantis strangling me. I wasn’t going to bother chewing him out for killing me, in my time engulfed in flames I’d come to the conclusion he was justified in doing it.
Mantis shook his head and shuffled himself up so he was sitting straighter. I think he had been sleeping. “No.” He got up and handed me something that was resting on top of the freezer. It was a Ziploc bag of something red and white. I opened it up and saw it was strawberries and cake, a bit frozen still but not much. It looked wonderful. “You’ve been out for about eight hours. Four for the resurrection and four for just sleeping. Eat. Adler or Spike will be coming in with a bucket which they expect me to relieve myself in. When they do, you’re going to be hiding behind that door.”
I stopped, a piece of white cake with strawberries frozen into some whip cream halfway to my mouth. “What?” I said.
Mantis nodded towards the door. “This is why you needed to keep quiet. I can sense the tension building and everything is going to come to a head soon. I need to quell this before it does. You’ll be hiding behind the door, and as soon as Spike or Adler’s back is turned you’re going to ambush them. I’ll be right behind you and we’ll escape together and calm these rabid beasts they call chimera teenagers.”
I jumped to my feet and started sizing up the door, my mouth now full of sugary sweet food. I took a step back and nodded. “That’s a perfect idea. Spike’s mortal, right?”
“Yes,” Mantis replied. “He’s my assistant to a lot of important research. I’d appreciate you not killing him. As for Adler, I only want him alive so I can murder the little bastard myself.”
“I think Reaver will be wanting that honour. He had to see me get beaten to death,” I said. I walked to the freezer, opened it, and started sifting around until I found a pack of ground arian. I weighed it in my hand and liked how it felt, this was going to be my bludgeoning weapon.
“We can all have our turns,” Mantis said and he got to his feet. “It’s almost afternoon and I need to use the restroom rather badly. I’m going to try and expedite this. Get into your proper hiding position and keep a good grip on that meat.”
My pulse spiked at his words and I took in a deep breath. The thought of getting out of this fucking room was one that filled me with both calm and adrenaline. Not only did I have to get out of here, I had to see if Reaver was okay. Why was he shouting up there and why the fuck was I hearing sex? If Mantis’s words were right, maybe Nero was fucking some hot Blood Crow or one of Mantis’s slaves, and Reaver got pissed off but… why ‘Get off’?
The increased tempo in my pulse continued to eat my adrenaline stores. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but Reaver was right with what he’d been yelling at me about… I was looking at him differently. I was starting to not trust him to take care of himself. But how could he blame me? I’d seen his spiralling descent into what he, and now Mantis, called psychosis. I had every right to be worried about him. I loved him, and I’d been through a lot of what he was going through. He needed to let me help him.
There was no way Nero got him again. It was an impossibility. Mantis was right, and even if Reaver had changed since his time in Cardinalhall, it wasn’t feasible he’d let Nero get the drop on him again. There was just nothing more to it. No one would do that to Reaver again. He’d blow up the plant the moment Nero put a hand on him.
But why there was still a tightness in my throat, I didn’t know.
“Adler!” Mantis suddenly yelled. I pressed my back against the wall, the metal door a couple inches away, and waited with my heart in my stomach. “Adler! I need to piss. Get the fuck over here before I piss in your fucking frozen strawberries.”
There was so much Lycos in that man, it made me smile just a little inside. I really missed Leo and Greyson. I wish I’d gotten to have a conversation with Leo as Lycos, just to talk to the real chimera who had come from this family.
And I wish Greyson was here to handle Reaver.
“It’s me. Adler’s… just out for a moment. Stand back, you know the drill.” Spike, eh? Good enough. The adrenaline was rushing through me like a white-hot current, and once again, the knowledge that I didn’t have to worry about being permanently killed acted like an accelerant.
I was going to make that bitch a little less pretty.
The calmness dashed away any nervousness I had. I made my stance but kept my face void of expression. I waited patiently, my eyes locked on Mantis, and heard footsteps approach.
Then a click, and in that click, my heart jumped.
Mantis stayed against the wall with his arms crossed. There was a glare on him that was his poker face, because Spike would expect nothing else from him.
“Adler’s upstairs. It looks like Reaver knows where Adler’s crush is,” Spike said. I inched towards the edge of the open metal door, and saw the back of Spike’s head and his shoulder.
And then he took another step inside. “So he’ll be gone soon and when he is… I can–” In the same moment that I lunged at Spike, the brick of frozen meat in my grasp, the chimera spun around and I saw his red eyes widen with surprise.
I bashed him right over the head, a good amount of force behind the blow too. Spike stumbled backwards with a surprised scream, then Mantis grabbed him and held him up.
Needing just one more hit, I raised the pack of frozen meat and gave him another hard smack. That was for almost raping me, and for being a fucking piece of shit in general.
“The door!” Mantis barked. I whirled around and caught the handle right before it closed, then I held it open and Mantis dropped Spike. He ran through and I followed.
Then I doubled back. I walked over to Spike as he lay groaning on the floor, blood dripping from his mouth – and I kicked him right in the balls.
“Killian!” Mantis called. I turned and nodded, then kicked him one more time. That was for Ceph.
I shut the door, locking Spike inside, then I trailed behind Mantis. The scientist was stalking down the narrow laboratory hallway, towards the room I’d been held in.
I was greeted with two gasps
of surprise.
“Killian! You’re fucking immortal?” I heard Ceph’s voice first. It was vibrant and full of life. I looked over and saw him and Kiki still tied to their chairs, now looking extremely dishevelled and smelling like they’d reached their past-due date.
“Surprise, guys,” I said and jogged over to them. I glanced at Mantis. “You need to make it really clear to Reaver that you were imprisoned too. Actually… untie them, I want to go up first.” I gave Ceph and Kiki a smile before I ran across the room, grabbing a machete and a handgun on the way.
“No. I need to see that man face-to-face,” Mantis said bitterly, and he disappeared up the stairs. I turned away from him and doubled back with a half-shoulder shrug, and started slicing through the binds with the machete.
“You guys okay?” I asked. Ceph wiggled out of his binds and started flexing his hands. I moved onto Kiki.
“Yeah. I’m swimming in my own piss though,” Ceph said, and then he gave me a goofy smile. “I’m so happy you’re immortal. You –”
“FUCK!” Mantis suddenly shouted.
All of our heads turned towards Mantis, and a split second later the fucking stairwell exploded. I turned around, and not knowing why, an automatic reaction I guess, I shielded Kiki from the debris the explosion had caused. I closed my eyes, feeling Ceph grab onto me too to create a human shield, and felt, thankfully small, impacts against my back.
I turned around, smoke filling the laboratory, and groaned when I saw Mantis laying at the bottom of the stairwell, shrouded in dust. I ran towards him, my ears throbbing from the blast, but skidded to a stop when I saw just how badly he’d been injured.
No, not injured.
He was dead, impaled many times over with wooden shards and… fucking nails, I think. I looked to where the staircase had been, and saw that it was now almost completely blown to smithereens, but… the door was open at least.
I smelled the smoky air and found it familiar; this explosion had been done with C4. “Reaver,” I whispered under my breath. I turned and saw Ceph, now on his feet, untying Kiki who appeared unharmed. “They hotwired the stairs… but how Adler got out then I don’t know.” I looked up the stairwell and squinted my eyes to try and see past the smoke. “I… yeah, we can still get up the stairs just be careful and… Ceph, put Mantis into one of the lab rooms.”