by Quil Carter
My boyfriend had been kidnapped from one monster and raised by two more; that’s what it was. I looked down to see Deek walking beside me. His tail wagged. “Good boy,” I sniffed. I reached down and scratched his head.
I walked home with darkening clouds gathering in my mind, unsuccessfully trying to stop myself from crying. I didn’t want Reaver to ask questions, but who was I kidding? He knew everything, and he knew my body language.
But now I had to lie to him. I didn’t know King Silas, he was just a faceless figurehead we heard about occasionally. I didn’t know who he was or what he did, but I knew he was immortal and I knew he was dangerous. I couldn’t have anyone coming after my Reaver.
I felt a knot in my stomach. I tightly tucked my arms around myself to try and contain the pangs. My Reaver was a chimera, he was a genetically engineered human straight out of the labs of Skytech.
Chimera was just a known term for Silas’s successors. Each of them had been engineered and raised to suit their purpose. Perish had been engineered to be good at science, Nero to be good at being a brute, Elish at being Silas’s top advisor. They had been created and grown for their purpose. They were raised by Silas himself or by designated families to mould the chimera for his specific purpose. They were little machines.
What had Reaver’s purpose been? And why did Leo run with him? How could he have ever gotten away with that? Silas must kept tight tabs on his chimeras, right?
Leo said they had no reason to look for them and I couldn’t give them a reason. Did he fake their deaths?
Why my Reaver? Why him and not the other chimeras that had and were still being created?
I felt like Leo had just taped a time bomb to my chest. How much time did I have before this chimera scientist decided I was too much of a liability to keep around?
And it wouldn’t be hard to kill me and make it look like an accident. His secret was more important than Reaver’s happiness being with me. Lycos couldn’t have made that more clear.
Fuck, I was so mad at myself. Leo was right. I shouldn’t have snooped.
I just had to leave well enough alone.
“I don’t have a choice,” I whispered. I closed my canvas bag, now minus one Polaroid. I looked behind me, half-expecting to see Leo pointing his pistol at me. I had never seen that side of him, it scared the shit out of me. I had treaded where I didn’t belong and I was in over my head.
I was an idiot…
I opened the shed and let the deacdog in. I gave him a big pet, and waited for the cold air to dry the red out of my eyes. I had to put an end to my curiosity. Reaver was safe and free and that’s what mattered. Now I just had to make sure I kept my head.
When I crawled inside the basement Reaver was working on his waffle maker. I had forgotten that he himself was mad about Leo coming and trying to talk to him. That problem seemed so tiny compared to the mountain of information I had just gotten thrown at me.
Any hope that that would distract Reaver from the fact I had obviously been crying was dashed when my boyfriend glanced up at me.
I was surprised to see how upset he looked. “I’m sorry…” He dropped his gaze, his shoulders slumped under his own feelings of shame. “If it’s any consolation Reno ripped me a new asshole over threatening you. I lost my head when Leo came. I wasn’t expecting him. It won’t happen again.”
He thought I was upset over what his idle threat to shoot me? I hadn’t been bothered by that at all. I knew Reaver’s nature, he would never seriously hurt me.
But I was okay with him thinking that.
“Want to do some drugs, Killi Cat?”
Wow, he really did feel bad. I said yes and sat down beside him. He gave me the silver tray.
“I’ll make nice with them eventually, but for now… I like it just being us, you know?” Reaver said as I inhaled a few lines.
I ran my hand over my nostrils and nodded. “I like it being just us,” I replied quietly. “Take as long as you need.” I had never meant that more in my life. I didn’t want to see them ever again. Especially Leo, or Lycos, or whoever the fuck that chimera asshole was.
I made a promise to myself and to Reaver. I would leave it alone. I would never tell him, and never even mention it to Leo, ever.
After the drugs kicked in, we both felt better. Though Reaver still felt badly over his threat towards me. I guess Reno had really laid it into him. I felt even more appreciation for the field sentry, he really was turning into a great friend.
I even got a bit of a surprise from my doting boyfriend a couple hours later. Which involved him on his knees and me with my jeans around my ankles. It was unexpected, but as soon as I felt the warmth of his mouth I grew inside of him. That was second biggest shocker of the night.
I didn’t protest though, and after I had reached my climax he cleaned everything up with his tongue, before zipping my pants back up with a devious grin and a passionate kiss. Not even wanting anything in return he sat back down and continued working on his appliance.
My mind played with many sneaky ways I could get him to feel guilty in the future. I was liking this treatment.
After I’d had such a great release, I was too exhausted to do anything else. So I just pulled a blanket over me and watched Reaver try to re-wire the waffle maker on his lap. He was so cute with his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth as he worked. Whoever he was, he must be someone special, my black-eyed chimera was the greatest guy I knew.
I inched closer to him. He put a hand on my head and rubbed my hair. “Reno says you’re going to hang out with him while I’m getting Asher’s junk?”
“Yeah.” I played with a loose string on his blue shirt and started to pull it. I decided not to tell him that Asher had been looking for him. I wanted Reaver to myself tonight.
We talked about his plans for getting Asher’s cache back from the raver town. I listened to every word and engaged him as much as I could, even though a lot of the things he said didn’t make sense to me. What I understood though was it was a very small town that a pack of ravers had settled into. Reaver explained that he and Asher were planning on turning a few of the ravers into rats to sell back to the Slaught House.
“That’ll require a bolt gun, but Asher says he has one in the cache.” Reaver shrugged, he was wrapping the now twisted together wires in electrical tape. “We can get five bucks a body. I mean it isn’t much but Asher’s going to need the money for the winter.”
I let out a small sigh. It sounded dangerous. I was glad I wasn’t going, but deep down inside I wished I was strong enough, and brave enough, to go. Or maybe I wished I was Asher.
Though I still didn’t care for him, I would rather the raticater be with him than Reaver go alone. Asher would be there to watch Reaver’s back, and he was quick, stealthy, and strong just like Reaver. I would have been a liability, I was pretty useless like that.
It would be stupid for me to go. I’d get Reaver killed. I was naive, a coward, and a wimp. I was nothing like Asher… he was everything Reaver probably wanted me to be.
What if Skylanders preferred their own kind? Reaver didn’t know he was one though, but… what if it was just something that would eventually happen? I was just a factory rat – I wasn’t fancy.
Why did Reaver settle for me? I was nothing. Nothing like the stealthy, handsome, quick witted Asher.
I tensed my hands into my side as the anger swept my face. I hated him, I hated his stupid cocky grin and his smirking perfect face. Why couldn’t Reaver leave him out to be eaten like he had done to Bridley?
But Bridley had raped Reno, he deserved it.
Well, he fucking deserves to be eaten.
Gosh, I felt ashamed. No, Asher didn’t deserve to be eaten… he was just reacting to my own feelings towards him. Leo’s threats and his confirmation of Reaver’s origins had made me frazzled. I think my brain was trying to find an outlet for my frustration and Asher was the easiest mark for that.
But my mind wouldn’t have to go to
such depraved places if he didn’t worry me so much. Reaver’s nice treatment of me today had only fanned the flames of my fears. I loved him so much, what if he wasn’t as good a judge of character as I hoped, and as he thought? What if he wasn’t strong enough to resist that stupid charmed air Asher had about him?
The pit that had been rolling in my stomach for hours now gave a lurch.
I took in a breath and listened to Reaver for a bit longer, but eventually the drugs showed their rare dark side and started filling me with nervous anxiety. I needed some reassurance, even if it was only a confident look on Reaver’s face. I had to convince myself Reaver knew what he was doing.
“You won’t turn your back on him, right?”
This question was met with an expected exasperated groan. Reaver had been hearing about my suspicions regarding Asher for the last month and most of the time now he just ignored me, or got annoyed and snipped at me.
“I don’t turn my back on anyone,” Reaver said in a rehearsed voice. He swore at the waffle maker and started pulling out a wire. “We will be gone a day, a day and a night if it’s busy there. I’ve gone to a billion raver dens in my lifetime, you have nothing to worry about.”
I frowned and leaned my head up against the couch. I watched him sullenly. I suddenly felt a bit nauseas. “A night alone with Asher? And you say I have nothing to worry about.” I pulled on the thread and watched it start to unravel the stitches around the hem of his shirt. My mind produced a disturbing image. Of Reaver spooning Asher in the house we had stayed in before Donnely. He had his arms around him like he had done me. It was too real for me to ignore.
“I really think he likes you.”
“He doesn’t like me.” If I was smart I would have sensed his tone and shut up, but I wasn’t smart. After tormenting me with the thought of him sleeping beside Asher, my mind started to pick apart random bits of evidence I had collected over the past month. It was only cementing my claim.
“Well, if there was anyone to ravage me, I would want it to be Reaver.”
I bit the inside of my lip and chewed on it. “I bet five bucks he flirts with you, and seven bucks he tries to kiss you.”
“Well, if he comes back without lips you’ll know if you’ve won seven bucks,” Reaver mumbled. He looked down and yanked his shirt out of my hand, but as soon as he turned back to his appliance I started again.
“I love you.” I tugged on it.
Reaver sighed and put the waffle maker down on the floor. “When is this going to stop? You know I love you, why do you think my love is so baseless I’d start fucking around with the first pretty-faced fuck I saw?”
I looked up at him. “We don’t have anything in common you know. You and Asher have everything in common.”
“So? Why would I want to date myself? Myself is an arrogant, psychotic asshole according to general consensus. If he’s like me, and you love me, shouldn’t I then be worried you would want to date him?”
I scowled at him. “Stop twisting my words around. He likes you, Reno knows it too.”
“So what? Reno likes both of us but we’re still his friends. He would date both of us in a second. His new goal in life is for us to start having threesomes.”
“But we trust Reno…”
“You don’t trust me?”
I hesitated, not because I didn’t trust him but because I didn’t trust that Asher wouldn’t get the best of him. I didn’t trust that he wouldn’t fall for Asher’s tricks. Reaver was intelligent but when it came to certain social cues he could be a bit dense.
Apparently I took too long to answer. Reaver slammed down the screwdriver and got up. “You know I wasn’t the one who finger fucked the scientist. So next time you start feeling fucking insecure remember I have a long way to go before I’d do what you already did.”
My mouth fell open. I looked at him for a moment hoping to see a flash of regret, but his eyes burned like coal. I started to cry. I was about to get up and go to the bedroom, but he got up first. He put his jacket on, and his boots.
“Where are you going?” I looked at him through teary eyes.
Reaver grabbed his gun and put a cigarette in his mouth. “I’m either going to get finger fucked or I’m going to Asher’s for a drink. I’ll let your insecure little mind decide which.”
The sadness suddenly turned into an uncontrollable anger. Get drunk with him? There was nothing worse he could have done to torment me than do that tonight, and he knew it!
I snapped. I stood up, feeling my ears go hot.
“Well, get as much time with him as you need because the moment I catch him looking at you I’m going to stab out his fucking eyes!” I screamed in a hysterically angry voice I had never heard before.
Reaver looked at me, bewildered. Without a word he crawled into the tank hatch.
“Get back here!” I shrieked.
“Go to sleep, Killian,” Reaver called back.
I got up and slammed the tank door behind him, making the cat run into the bedroom.
I stalked over to his waffle maker and viciously yanked out every single wire and tossed his carefully laid out screws behind the TV, before roughly shoving it between the wall and the couch.
No more tears came to me, and I realized I wasn’t sad…
I was pissed off.
Chapter 38
Reaver
I stopped off at Melpin’s to pick up a bottle of greywine and some vodka.
The dark and dimly lit bar was busy and crowded as it usually was in the evening. The white Christmas lights they used as lighting were strung up over the ceiling like cobwebs, hanging down to snare the taller residents in their flashy clutches. The old pre-Fallocaust lights didn’t do much to stave off the darkness but I think that was more a marketing strategy. A well-lit tavern would reveal the shoddy repairs of rusted tin and car bumpers that made up the bar, and show the rat-chewed shelves that held faded label liquor refilled with shit that had the aftertaste of battery acid.
Not to mention the ugly servers. I wasn’t one to stare at women but most of these hags were missing more than a few teeth. Punched out by men after scorned advances usually, though that had stopped happening as frequently when Melpin started giving the women brass knuckles to defend themselves with.
I weaved past the wobbly tables full of wasters looking to get wasted and tried to spot one of the server wenches before too many people noticed me. Everyone was too busy getting as drunk as they could for the least amount of money so I was just a shadow in the fringes. Or I thought I was.
“Hey, Reaver, sit down and have a drink.” I looked to my side and saw Hollis raising an almost empty glass to me.
I supposed that I could kill a few minutes. I hadn’t seen much of Hollis or Redmond since the town meeting. I sat down and motioned one of the hags over.
“I want a bottle of greywine and a bottle of vodka from the back,” I told her then I motioned to Hollis. “Get a drink for him too.” I handed her a few bills and she took off.
“So how is the town since the great leader came back?” I asked. I absentmindedly scanned the chattering crowd of wasters around me, making sure Greyson wasn’t a part of it. He wasn’t one to frequent the bar often though, weekends sometimes, but usually he just did his drinking at home with Leo.
“Obedient.” Hollis raised a glass. He looked a bit flushed from the drink. Either he was off duty or the town really was being obedient. “Greyson might’ve tried to hang you out to dry but you did good.” He shrugged and took a drink, draining the amber liquid. “It won’t last, it fucking never lasts, but at least Greyson is free to hold some trials. He’s been more involved in Aras since Leo left him, but what else does he have to keep him busy now?”
The lady came back with my bottles and a full glass for the warden. I gave her a dollar, enough for two more drinks, and nodded towards Hollis. She took the hint and went back to the bar.
“Whatever Greyson says, I commend you for what you did.” Hollis took the new glass. �
�And Greyson would too if he had to deal with half the idiots I had to deal with.”
I laughed and got up, bottles in hand. I patted him on the back. “If you hear about any legion near Aras, you tell me, alright? Old Aras might’ve banned me from killing those fucks but West Aras is my territory now.”
Hollis nodded and raised the fresh glass of beer. “You got it.”
With booze in hand I left the pub and cut across the square towards Asher’s.
I popped the cork and took a swig of the greywine. It tasted like shit but all of Melpin’s wine did, and I certainly wasn’t going back to my basement to get the goodish hooch.
I banged on Asher’s door and rattled the handle. I could see the light on in his bedroom. Probably jacking off or something.
I heard soft footsteps and the grinding of rusted hinges as he opened the door.
“Let me in, we’re drinking for a while.” I pushed past him and set the bottles down on a metal desk we had brought over from one of our old office buildings.
“You and Killian have a fight?” he asked. He opened up one of the cupboard doors and took out two large beer glasses. He set them down and pushed them towards the bottles.
“Nah,” I lied. It wasn’t any of his god damn business. “He just fell asleep and I’m still wide awake.” He poured me a glass of wine and I walked into the living room.
I took a sip and looked around the den. The floor was nothing but raw wooden boards, most water-stained and damaged; the walls spotted and discoloured to match the shoddy patched ceiling.
“What do you say we swipe some paint and scrape all the peeling paint off once we get back?” I pointed with my glass to the spots of mould Killian had scrubbed off. It left big white patches in an otherwise dirt and smoke-stained wall. What its original colour was, I guess.
I felt Asher beside me. He had the bottle of vodka and took a swig. He barely flinched as he swallowed the fiery liquid. “I want to paint it purple.”
I snorted before it turned into a laugh. “I have a purple rug, though it’s more black. Killian keeps trying to clean it.”
