by Quil Carter
It was a surprise to both of them when Nate shook his head. “Rob knew he recognized me, but his brain, what Kheva did to him, kept denying it. It confuses and scares him. Kheva yelled at Sasha to take Rob back to the truck, and Sasha, he was… he was comforting Robby, trying to calm him down.” A weak smile appeared on Nate’s thin face. “That alone told me what a good person Sasha is.”
But even though Nate was smiling at the thought of Sasha helping Rob, the notion sat awkwardly in Jobe’s throat.
Sasha… was comforting one of the men who kidnapped him? He was obeying Kheva? Why – why wasn’t he making a run for it? Why wasn’t he alerting a security guard, or finding a payphone to call home?
Jobe felt sick.
Lex noticed this. “He might be in danger, Jobe,” he whispered. “He’s doing what he has to do to remain safe. If what Nate said is correct… Kheva’s dangerous, right?”
Nate nodded. “Kheva isn’t just dangerous––Kheva is lethal.”
Lex’s eyes widened. “Is Sasha in danger? If he pisses this psycho off, is he going to kill Sasha?” What if Sasha was already dead? No, Sasha was smart. Like Nate said, he’d do what had to be done to make sure he stayed alive. Anyway, Sasha wasn’t a fighter… he wouldn’t put up that much resistance, he’d do what Kheva wanted.
But what did Kheva want?
“Lex… you don’t get it,” Nate whispered, drawing Jobe’s attention from his own inner thought. “It’s not Kheva killing him that you have to worry about… Kheva won’t kill him. He’s valuable to him, priceless. But what he will do to Sasha is much worse. What he has most likely done to Sasha––is much worse.”
And even though he was the one who said it, once those words left his lips, Nate’s own face blanched, as if he regretted giving his own inner thoughts life.
“What’s he going to do to Sasha?” Jobe said, his tone dropped. “What has he done to Sasha?”
Nate’s lips pressed. “The worst shit you can think of and more,” he said, his voice breaking again. “Once, once I got my Robby back. Once Kheva returned him and let him stay for a week. Not only was this bruise and welt-covered man not my Rob anymore; he told me that Kheva had been… had been…”
Jobe’s heart dropped.
Don’t say it. Don’t say it.
For the love of god, kid––Don’t say it.
“He said on top of being beaten, starved, and tortured––Kheva had been raping him.”
The drive home… little can be said about the drive home after their meeting with Lariat and Nate had ended. It was a silent ride, and even though the meeting had brought up a thousand questions, neither of them spoke.
The prospect… the prospect of such a horrendous thing being done to someone both Lex and Jobe loved so much was devastating. It made Jobe want to scream at the top of his lungs, and tear Vancouver Island apart searching for the lair of what seemed like an evil villain.
Kheva. Obviously, that wasn’t his real name. He changed Rob’s name to Kel, he probably changed his own too.
What would he change Sasha’s name to?
Jobe looked up at Lex as he entered the room, and took the cooler he’d offered him with a mumbled thanks. Lex sat down beside him, a ghostly look in his eyes.
The next hour was spent in silence. The two of them drank and watched the television, even though they were only watching what was on the screen to distract them from the thoughts both mutually shared.
And neither wanting to speak out loud.
“It’s hard, isn’t it?” Lex said, breaking the hour-long silence. “I want to believe it, just because it’ll mean that he’s alive… but I just don’t want it to be true. I don’t want to think of him being in that sort of situation.”
Jobe stared down at his cooler, now almost finished. He hadn’t even thought about the prospect of such fucked up things happening to Sasha… he still didn’t believe any of this was real.
Mind control? Making someone’s head explode with pain? Erasing people’s memories? Jobe had never believed in any of that nonsense. He got annoyed when he saw paranormal shows on the television, or anything supernatural being treated as real. And now he was expected to believe that Sasha was some sort of… what?
Nightcrawler.
Nate said Kheva called himself a nightcrawler.
Sounds like some pathetic idiot making up shit. Someone with a boring life that dearly wished it was more interesting.
But if I believe that… it means Sasha is still out there. It means my best friend isn’t dead.
Although running from reality isn’t the solution…
What is my reality though?
“I – I think he’s telling the truth, Jo,” Lex whispered. “So much of what he said… if we suspend disbelief, it makes sense, doesn’t it?”
It sounds like Nate got all the details about Sasha from Lariat and decided to make up a story. He decided to see if he could find two pathetic, desperate fucks to tell his lies to.
It can’t be real… shit like this just doesn’t exist.
“He said his name was Kheva before they knew about the note,” Lex continued when Jobe still hadn’t said anything back. “And, Jobe, just think about it. If we look at everything that Sasha said to us, and we actually believe the strange things he claimed, it makes sense.”
Still Jobe said nothing, Lex let out a slow breath.
“I’ve been thinking this last hour,” he said, “and looking at it differently…”
“Lex…” Jobe said slowly. “This shit just doesn’t exist in this world.”
“Just listen,” Lex pressed. He picked up the remote and muted the television. “Just listen, please. You’re forgetting some of the shit Sasha told you.” Then he turned to Jobe, desperation etched on his face. Jobe felt his heart break for Lex. He wanted to believe it, to the point where it looked like he was about to burst into tears.
“Remember, Jobe, remember when he tried to tell you what happened on that road? You don’t, do you? I remember every fucking word,” Lex said, the desperation edging on manic. “He said one of those men made his head go foggy, and then calm. He said they were after his blood, and other stuff. Other stuff… he meant cum.”
Jobe opened his mouth to retort, but then the memories swiftly came back to him.
Sasha… had said that.
“They took his blood and cum from him because… maybe theirs wasn’t working on themselves anymore. Like, perhaps that’s why Kheva kidnapped Rob,” Lex continued. “Kheva and Kel dropped off that note and that weird vial… Sasha got desperate and drank from it.” He grimaced at the thought. “We didn’t believe him, Jobe. We didn’t believe him and we wanted to commit him because of the fucked up things he did. But he’s not crazy, Jobe. Holy fucking christ… Sasha’s not crazy.”
Lex’s teeth then locked, and he stared at the living room wall, his thousand-yard-gaze becoming even more intense.
“There’s something else too…” Lex began, a tenuous foreboding to his words that grabbed Jobe’s full attention. “Something that I never really thought of until Nate mentioned it.” The man then inhaled a long, yet slow breath, and exhaled. “I’m not entirely sure that Sasha’s father didn’t adopt him.”
“What?” Jobe said. Lex’s distant look didn’t falter, it looked like the man was going over years of information in his head. “What do you mean?”
“I never really questioned it,” Lex admitted. “My brother did what he wanted to do, and he was living in Russia when Sasha was born. He told me that Sasha was the result of a fling, and that he’d decided to raise him instead of just giving him up to an orphanage. I had no reason to doubt his story, all I knew about Sasha, I knew through photos and letters. We were just starting to reconnect before the car accident.” And at the mention of the accident, Lex rubbed the faint silver scar that ran down his cheek.
“But… why would he want to adopt a kid?”
Lex shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t even know why that’s a clue t
o his origins. I just can’t guarantee that Sasha’s biologically my nephew, and I’m not willing to do a DNA test. He’s mine, that’s all there is to it. But this just means that… it just means that… Sasha isn’t crazy, Jobe. Everything that was happening to him, I think this nightcrawler thing… I think it might be real.”
He’s not crazy.
Jesus… Sasha isn’t crazy.
At first Lex’s words refused to sink in, everything that Jobe had been taught, and everything he’d believed in, prevented them. But as his mind analyzed those very words, a sickening feeling swept him, and he found himself keeling over.
“Oh fuck,” Jobe whispered. “He was telling the truth.” A lump in his throat formed, tightening his larynx enough to prevent him from breathing properly. “Fuck, Lex… he was telling the truth and we turned our backs on him.”
Jobe turned when he heard a stifled noise, and clucked his tongue when he saw Lex’s eyes glistening with tears, and a hand clutching his mouth.
“I’m going to kill Tom,” Lex choked as Jobe put an arm around him and hugged him to his side. “I’m going to slit his throat.”
“Baby, Tom did what he thought was right,” Jobe whispered. He was trying to be strong for Lex, but his own world was imploding. “And we did what we thought was right… how could we’ve… how could we’ve possibly known?”
“He’s my nephew I should’ve believed him no matter what!” Lex cried. He jumped to his feet and began pacing around the living room. “I pushed him out that fucking door; I pushed him to go with two fucking psychos.” He whirled around as Jobe got up too. “He felt like he had to go with two strange men, rather than stay with us. That’s what I did. That’s what I fucking did!”
“Lex, fucking calm down!” Jobe said. He grabbed Lex just as the man’s face crumbled. “We fucked up. We know we fucked up. But at least we know he’s alive, right? At least we know he’s not dead.”
But imbedded in Jobe’s words, was the real reality that even though he was alive, Sasha wasn’t safe.
Jobe’s eyes closed tight. Horrible things could be happening to him right now. What Nate said… was that the truth too?
Lex read Jobe’s thoughts. “They’re hurting him, Jo,” he whimpered. “What if they’re… they’re…” He couldn’t say the word, and neither could Jobe.
What if they’d raped him? What if the only reason they wanted Sasha, was to make him into some fucking sex slave. Sasha could be being tortured right now as they stood warm and comfortable inside of Lex’s house.
What if… Sasha was wondering why they hadn’t found him yet?
There were a lot of fucked up people in the world––and it looks like Sasha had wandered into the clutches of one of the most depraved.
And there was only one thing they could do now…
…they had to get him back.
By any means necessary.
CHAPTER 22
“Hurry up, nightcrawler, I will leave you behind,” Kheva’s distant voice called.
Sasha, drenched in sweat and breathing heavy, looked up ahead on the twisted trail of pounded down moss and shrubs, and groaned when he saw that Kheva was nothing but a spec of black in the far distance. The Master was surrounded by tall coniferous trees and thick shrubs, with the flattened trail the only indication that humans had been here.
They were climbing up one of the many hills that surrounded Ciel Lake, towering tree-covered hills with grey rocks that jutted out of dark green moss and sheer cliffs that made Sasha nauseous every time they got near one.
It was beautiful out here, and if Sasha wasn’t about to throw up from exhaustion, he would’ve enjoyed the scenery.
This was supposed to be a walk, Sasha said inside of his head. You said nothing about a hike!
Even though he couldn’t audibly hear it, he could sense the laughter and amusement from Kheva. ‘You’re lucky your genetics have given you a fast metabolism, considering how lazy you were back in that hovel of an apartment,’ he said back. ‘If you were fat, I would be dragging your ass on this hike every day until you looked appropriate to your status.’
Sasha wanted to say something snarky back, but he was too tired. Instead, he leaned down with his hands on his knees and took in several stressed breaths into lungs that seemed literally on fire.
Several drops of sweat fell from Sasha’s forehead and landed on the trail. He groaned, wanting nothing more than to play dead, but with a mental push, he forced himself to keep going. One foot in front of the other, from what he could see when the trees broke enough for the sky to be seen, they were close to the top.
Hopefully at least.
Sasha continued walking, his muscles burning from the lactic acid and his feet feeling like he was wearing concrete shoes, and followed Kheva.
But then he got to what looked like a fork in the road. Sasha puzzled at this, looking from one trail to the other, trying to decide which one Kheva had taken.
Then he smirked. Sasha closed his eyes and found the pulse of light that was Kheva. He stood in Silent Ground and stretched out those investigative tendrils, feeling around like he was a blind man looking for objects, until he located Kheva’s direction.
Sasha opened his eyes and smiled proudly. It was getting easier, and every day that went by, he was learning how to control and use his powers.
He was… he was really learning.
Sasha turned right on the fork in the trail, the excitement of seeing if he was correct, that he had located Kheva, made him pick up his pace. He continued walking, and soon he saw in front of him the trees begin to thin, until only twenty feet away, he saw a figure dressed in black standing on the edge of what looked like a cliff.
The Master was gazing out on the view in front of him, and as Sasha approached, he was momentarily stunned at the beauty he was seeing.
It was all just trees, arms of dark green stretching their limbs high to try and catch the sun above them, and grey exposed rock that bulged out of the forested mountains like burl. And the sky, robin’s egg blue without a single cloud for the sun to have to shine through, it stretched on until consumed by the trees and the rock of yet another flawless forested peak.
“This place is beautiful,” Sasha whispered, his burning lungs and aching limbs forgotten. “I’ll never be able to stay in a town again without realizing how noisy it is, even in the dead of night.”
Kheva looked on, the yellow orbs in his eyes lighter, as if the sun was stealing their colour for itself. “It’s not often I get to come up here,” he said, his gaze fixed on the view in front of him. “But I will be coming up here again soon.” Strangely, he then turned his head and looked directly at Sasha, then said out of the blue. “We’ll be leaving in a few days.”
Sasha stared back, his face succumbing to confusion. “Where are we going?”
“Into the city,” Kheva said, and he looked back out at the scenery around them.
Oh, well, that was fine. He’d already done that once, hopefully this time he’d be better at the store, not as scared.
“Kel will love that,” Sasha replied.
“Keluva will not be joining us.”
Now this did surprise Sasha. “He’s not?” he said, and this ripped open a squirming bag of nerves. Suddenly, and in record time, anxiety welled and hit him, extending its vines to wrap around and suffocate his previous tranquility. “W-why?”
“Because you will be accompanying me on an important errand,” Kheva said, his voice calm.
“And you must not fail on this errand.”
If the anxiety was bad before, this admission had Sasha feeling nauseous. He desperately wanted to look strong in front of Kheva, but what he was saying, and the tone in which he was saying it, made Sasha fear he was going to either vomit, run off the cliff, or both at the same time.
Sasha opened his mouth to defend himself, to tell Kheva that this wasn’t something he could do. But then, he closed it, and was reminded just who he was speaking to.
But did Khe
va know who he was speaking to? What if he failed?
How do I even know this is something direly important? Maybe – maybe he fucking needs me to pick up his dry cleaning?
Then Sasha froze, Kheva turning to him again. The Master glared him up and down, then took a step back. “Close your eyes, go to Silent Ground.”
Sasha, nerves like static in his chest, did what was told of him, and he closed his eyes. Sasha went to that dark corner of his mind, and as he stood in the center of it, he looked around and watched his own personal room form in front of him like a glass being filled with water.
‘Not yours,’ he heard Kheva say, and the room disappeared. Sasha looked around and watched a new world form in front of him––one that looked strangely like something from a fantasy book.
It was a forest with trees that had black bark, but on the branches of these trees were blood red leaves, some of them fallen on a ground covered in black grass.
It was… beautiful. Sasha couldn’t take his eyes off of it.
Then he looked to his right, and saw that he was standing on a cliff, just like he was in reality, but instead of rolling trees that melted into the blue sky, Sasha saw a sky made up of a swirling galaxy, with a full silver moon in the middle that was three times brighter than the earth’s moon. The light of this moon and the intensity of the blue-purple nebula shone on the black trees, making them glow a dark red, one that made the rolling hills appear as if covered in drying blood.
“Holy fuck, this place is beautiful,” Sasha whispered, the hauntingly beautiful scene around him seeming to demand a subtle tone. “I thought your Silent Ground was a room? I took my inspiration from it.”
Sasha turned around when he felt Kheva’s presence behind him. The Master was smirking at him, the green now gone from his eyes, replaced by a golden yellow. “Silent Ground is no set place,” Kheva explained, his body draped in a black robe. He looked around, and as Sasha did too, the scene in front of them began to shift before their eyes. The forest melted, and Sasha’s mouth dropped when he found himself in the middle of what Kheva’s Silent Ground had originally looked like: the dark brown room with the leather furniture and the Victorian paintings, almost identical to Sasha’s.
