Silent Ground Part 2

by Quil Carter

  A man who Sasha knew, had sworn to himself that he would never let a single soul know who he used to be––who he was during a time when he was the victim.

  “I’m sorry!” Sasha cried, then he began choking on his own blood. “I helped you. I helped you when I was there. I never––” A blow knocked the senses out of Sasha, and a swell of liquid shooting up his throat had him vomiting on himself. “I never looked at you different. Not for – not for a second.”

  Then hands locked around his neck and clamped down. Sasha tried to inhale, tried to force air through the blood and vomit stuck in his throat, but there was nothing. His air supply was cut off, and already a painful pressure was building in his brain. It was filling his head with a deep roaring that clogged his ears and disorientated him.

  I’m sorry, Kheva. Gabriel.

  Would you believe me if I told you it made me respect you more?

  The light began to fade from Sasha’s eyes, the iron clamps around his neck only growing tighter. His head was throbbing now, his brain pounding so hard it felt like it was going to leak through his ears.

  This is it. He’s going to kill me.

  I love you. I’m sorry.

  Suddenly, chaos, and the fetters strangling the life out of Sasha unlocked. Kheva was suddenly gone, the white ceiling there instead of those yellow flames. Then beside Sasha, to his shock, the Master Nightcrawler fell to the floor with a grunt.

  The roaring sound deafening Sasha’s ears suddenly ceased, and in its place––there was a rolling chuckle.

  A rolling chuckle of a man Sasha didn’t recognize, yet he couldn’t move to see who it was.

  “Oh, Gabriel,” the male voice said through his chuckle. “I was sure this was too good to be true. You really are here…?”

  Wha…

  Who is that?

  “Let me go! Let me fucking see him!” Jobe’s shrieking voice rang out, but still that resounding laugh trumped it ten-fold.

  “So, my nightcrawler has betrayed me more than I thought?” Sasha heard Kheva say, his craggy voice rough. “How disappointing.”

  “It wasn’t Sasha,” a voice Sasha recognized as Nate said. “It was me.” Sasha heard him shift, and he could feel the energy of Nate approach. “You underestimated how much I love him, Kheva.”

  “Nate? Interesting,” Kheva murmured. “You know very well I will kill every person in this room, but you still risk it to get to me? You’re selfish.”

  The first man sighed happily. “Oh, Gabriel. I’ve been dreaming of the day I get to wipe you off of this planet. You certainly hold a grudge, don’t you?”

  “Just go with him, Kheva,” Lex’s voice was added to the confusion. “Go with him and leave Rob and Sasha here. You’re outnumbered, and Caelum is a nightcrawler. You’re no match for all of us and you know it.”

  Caelum? Who’s Caelum?

  “I’m no nightcrawler,” the man named Caelum said coolly. “I’m not some Russian counterfeit.”

  What? Russian counterfeit? What’s he talking about…

  “Where the hell did you even get Sasha?” Caelum asked with amused. “How the hell did you get one of those?” Then he chuckled. “Oh, how cute, he doesn’t even know, does he? Neither of you?”

  “What?” Lex’s tone dropped. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “What am I talking about? You never heard of the Unsterbliche Waffenprojekt? You haven’t heard of all that conspiracy shit going on during the last war?”

  “W-what?” Lex said, his words slow. “That was in Germany, that was fucking decades ago. And it was… just a fucking rumour for idiots to jump all over.”

  Caelum chuckled. “It was no rumour, but your boy is no German,” he said. “It just so happens the Russian Government is a thieving bitch. They created your boy and a bunch of others and planted them all across the U.S and Canada to be ready for the next war.”

  “Sasha? Sasha?” Sasha could hear Jobe yell, but even though he was fading fast, his attention was fixed on Caelum and Lex’s conversation.

  Is that… really who I am?

  “The next war?” Lex said slowly.

  “Yep, better hope one doesn’t start soon, though the Russians seem to be pressing buttons and pissing the wrong people off lately, eh? I’m not sure of their end game, but they didn’t give these little fuck ups to shitty families just for laughs.”

  Sasha choked and groaned, and Jobe’s shrill voice followed. “Jesus, Lex!” he cried out. “He’s barely breathing. Why the fuck are you assholes just shooting the shit? Fucking help him!”

  “Yeah, I think I’ve had enough of this,” Caelum then said. “Come here, my sweet little Gabe. I’ve been wanting a round two with you for quite a while––We all have.”

  A round two?

  Sasha was suddenly hit with a surge of feeling, an overbearing pulse of fear, like a wild animal trapped inside of the smallest of cages, getting poked and stabbed by strangers sticking things through the bars. The emotion hitting him was enough to break open a dam, and in him his consciousness began to trickle back.

  That fear…

  It was coming from Kheva.

  “I will kill each and every one of you,” Kheva said in a harsh whisper. “I will butcher you like I butchered Gavin. Like I butchered the others. I have been hunting you, and I will continue to hunt you.” There was a thump, of a back hitting the wall. Kheva was retreating, he was shrinking back.

  Sasha, his eyes still fixed on the ceiling, was flooded with alarm, of panic, both coming from him and the master he was mentally connected to. Kheva was scared. Kheva was scared.

  Holy fuck––Kheva’s scared.

  “Oh, baby, when we’re through with you… you’ll be so mentally fucked you’ll make Keluva look like Einstein,” Caelum chuckled. “I always did want a slave.”

  Then the chaos returned, like a battering ram to rice paper there was suddenly a rush of mental force, and a commotion that had Kheva bellowing, Jobe and Lex hollering, and Caelum laughing.

  Sasha couldn’t move, he couldn’t see anything besides the ceiling. But compelled to know what was going on, he turned his eyes inward, and like a grappling hook pulling him backwards, he shot into Kheva’s mind, and his sight became Kheva’s.

  Kheva was on his knees, a blinding pain shooting through his skull. His mouth was open in a muted scream and his neck was wrenched back.

  Caelum was inside of his head, like a pitbull let loose inside of a chicken coop he tore through Kheva’s mind, searching and pulling, yanking everything he could find and absorbing the memories and feelings into his own brain.

  It was… it was fucking awful. Sasha could see the horrible flashes of memory. He saw himself standing naked with five other little boys, lined up as men sized them up, poking, prodding, speaking in Russian with cigarettes in their mouths and hands. The man named Andrei bought him, fucked him, used him, then sold him to the next, Abram. Abram had him until he started puberty, then he was sold to a Canadian named Paul. Paul legally adopted him, then had Gabriel chained in a cabin on the other end of his property, away from the man’s wife and kids. He raped him whenever he had the chance, sometimes before work, or after, sometimes once dinner was finished. And during his captivity, Gabriel had no friends, no one to talk to but the rats who came to nip and bite him.

  He was starved by them, beaten by them, forced to do disgusting, horrible things to them or other little boys. And while they tortured this boy with no parents––his powers grew.

  But until he finally escaped, he was but their victim. Their helpless victim.

  Sasha could only watch, his mouth open in horror and his eyes stinging with tears.

  So many things he will never be able to unsee. There was no question, no question, why Kheva was the man he was today.

  The good and the bad.

  And as Sasha watched, Caelum snatched these memories like thrown coins, laughing and laughing as he stole each one.

  “Where is it?” Caelum demanded, grinn
ing like a Cheshire cat on meth. “Come on, daddy’s boy. Where did you hide it?”

  Hide what? Sasha looked around, desperate to do something. He didn’t care if Kheva had every intention of killing him. Fuck, he… he loved his master.

  “It’s over here.”

  Sasha turned around when he felt another presence, and his jaw dropped when he saw a familiar face standing in a room that was now quickly forming around him.

  “Robby!” Caelum called gleefully. He walked past Sasha, either uncaring or unaware that he was there, and embraced the man inside of Keluva Swift’s body. “How are you?”

  “Half-dead,” Rob muttered angrily. He turned around and the room disappeared around him like he was a hot flame inside a cocoon of wax. “I can’t stay, I need to get my strength back or he will kill me this time, but I do have something for you.” Sasha looked around with wide eyes when the darkness that surrounded him suddenly changed, it shifted and morphed until Sasha found himself inside of a bedroom.

  Wait… he knew this room.

  “Rip him! Rip him! Rip him!” a chant suddenly burst into the memory, like the volume being raised on a stereo. “Rip him! Rip him!”

  Sasha whirled around and stared in horror.

  Utter––fucking––horror.

  Kheva, looking younger, with longer black hair and a softer face, was on his back being held down by multiple men. They were naked, and all but one of them had one hand grasping Kheva’s arms, or his legs, the other stroking their cocks.

  And that other one was behind Kheva, mercilessly pounding himself into the struggling victim, blood smudged against Kheva’s cheeks and leaving streaks of red on the white sheets underneath him.

  That man on top of Kheva… was Rob.

  Rob reached down, a horrible smile on his face, and clamped a hand around Kheva’s neck. He stared down at him like a wolverine to meat, and his fingers tightened around the bruised flesh.

  Tears ran down Kheva’s face, and Sasha was then hit with a wall of emotion––The emotions Kheva was feeling.

  Betrayal. Pain. Hopelessness. A feeling of being tricked, tricked by thinking that this man on top of him had loved him, only to realize he’d been being groomed the entire time, prepped and manipulated to trust and love, then used and tossed aside like a cum rag.

  Kheva had loved Rob––but Rob had never loved him back.

  He’d found Kheva, then called Gabriel, after Gabe had killed Paul, then filled his head with promises, promises of love, companionship, training these powers he had discovered, even the promise of food every day had Gabriel’s heart jumping.

  But most of all… Gabriel just wanted someone to love him.

  He’d never been loved before.

  But in the end… Rob led Kheva––Gabriel––to his nightcrawler and first gen friends to rape and abuse, to pass around.

  For no other reason than he fucking wanted to see if he could.

  All this time…

  The memory that Rob had shown him that day inside of the shed, had been Rob raping Kheva. Not the other way around.

  Sasha had been played. He’d been played like a god damn violin by a man who thrived on manipulating and tricking those he saw weaker––which was everyone.

  The Master that Rob had tried to take down, was only an abused, destroyed nightcrawler who couldn’t let go of the boyfriend who had pretended to love him. Even though Rob’s feelings were never genuine, Kheva’s were… so he could never let go.

  So, he kidnapped Rob, and tortured him until he changed his very personality to a man who would love him without limits.

  What the fuck have I done?

  “Oh, I just love this memory so much,” Rob exclaimed happily. He walked around the scene, the people in this recollection, even the image of Rob himself, paying no attention to the infiltrators inside of Kheva’s sensitive memories. “The betrayal in those eyes. Fuck me bloody, I really am fucked in the head aren’t I, brother?”

  Caelum chuckled. He put his hands on his hips, now standing beside Rob so he also could observe the horrific scene playing out in front of them. “Yes, you’re depraved, my friend, absolutely depraved,” he said. “He’s caused a lot of trouble for us and the family, who would’ve known the snivelling little fuck up would grow so powerful?”

  Rob’s smile faded. “It doesn’t matter anymore,” he said, a barb on his tongue. “He’s ours now and I’m back. With all of these memories––” Rob looked around the room, painted off-white with posters on the walls that suggested it was a teenager’s room. “––You’ll be able to break him, just like he broke me.” He nodded to Caelum then. “I have to leave, I’m barely hanging on right now. I’ll need time, but as long as he’s under control––I’ll be back.”

  They’re taking Kheva? They’re taking my master?

  An outside force started shaking Sasha. Soon after, the bedroom, the screaming, Rob and Caelum’s conversation, began to shatter around him like broken sugar glass. At first, it was only the physical sights that Sasha was seeing disappear, but swiftly followed were the smells, the sounds, every other sense dissolved into nothing.

  Then, like cold water being thrown on a fire, Sasha was assaulted with the pain of his own body and mind.

  Sasha’s eyes snapped open, and above him, he saw the ceiling––and Jobe’s desperate face.

  “Sasha!” Jobe cried. He had been the one shaking him. Fuck, his body hurt, every inch of him was pounding with pain and his throat was scratchy with blood and vomit.

  “No… I don’t want to go,” Kel’s weak voice pleaded. He was far away, Sasha could hear him crying. “Kheva? Master? Don’t make them take us.”

  “Kel?” Sasha raised his head, Jobe and Lex both kneeling around him. He was in his bedroom, there was no one there, it was just the three of them. “Where’s Kel? Where’s Kheva.”

  Jobe and Lex exchanged glances, but said nothing.

  Then the anger hit him––Oh, did it ever hit him hard.

  “Where’s my god damn master!” Sasha snarled. He burst to his feet, his teeth locked so tight pain was ripping through his jaw. “Where is he!?”

  Lex and Jobe’s faces both dropped. But it was Jobe, it was Jobe whose eyes jutted towards the door.

  And he heard Kel again, clearer now. “Kheva… I’m scared.” Then a smack and a cry from Kel. Someone had hit him.

  That was it.

  That was fucking it.

  Rage found him quickly, and that rage blocked out every ounce of pain he’d been feeling.

  Sasha burst to his feet, but when he made for the door, two sets of hands grabbed him.

  “You’re not fucking going!” Lex cried desperately. “Stay here. You’re fucking safer here, Sasha. I don’t care who the hell is inside of you now, you’re not going with them!”

  Sasha ripped his arms away, but their grips were strong and the savage beating he’d gotten from Kheva earlier had weakened him. To his fury, the arms physically held him back like weeds snagging someone swimming to the surface. Sasha was trapped.

  No… only physically trapped.

  Sasha looked inwards and saw the two dim beacons around him. They were human, and Sasha wasn’t strong enough to breach them––or at least he hadn’t thought he was.

  But, no, he’d done it before, out of desperation he’d done it, and Sasha had been able to break past the barrier to hear Lex’s thoughts. Now, he had no choice. There was no fucking way in hell he was going to let Caelum have Kheva or Kel.

  That was his master, that was his brother––that was a man who’d already been through enough, and Sasha would not leave him to the wolves.

  So, with a snarl, Sasha pushed all of his energy into Lex’s beacon, and when it bounced off of the dull shell, he gathered up every ounce of strength he had, and Sasha threw all of himself into it.

  The flashes of memory bombarded him like he was having a seizure, each image lasting only a fraction of a second before getting replaced by something else. It was an overwhelming
sensation of smells, visual images, mental thoughts, and powerful emotions that followed each sense like a cross-country highway.

  Sasha didn’t know where to look, or what to do; this human mind was disorganized. There was no Silent Ground, no quiet room to gather one’s thoughts and feelings, just a tornado of random things that Sasha couldn’t––

  Kheva? Sasha paused, and looked around when he felt his master’s presence. What was he doing here? Why was he inside of Lex’s head?

  “Because I have something to show you,” a young voice said. Sasha whirled around and his mouth dropped open when he saw young Gabriel. Kheva’s childhood self. He was standing in front of Sasha, these mental flashes playing around them like they were encased in a movie screen, even the images were reflecting off of his bruised and battered skin.

  Gabriel looked up at Sasha, a grave look on his face. “I’m sorry I have to do this to you,” he said simply. “But I don’t just need you angry––I need you devastated.”

  W-what?

  “You did what you thought was best at the time.”

  Sasha looked around when he suddenly heard Jobe’s voice. It was clear and audible, not just a snatch of memory like the flashes he’d just been seeing emanate around him.

  Then Lex’s voice. “I just need to keep being happy he’s alive.” Sasha stepped back when the memory began to appear around him, then in front of him…

  … in front of him was the coffee table, covered in bottles of alcohol, and Lex was resting his head on, yeah, he was resting his head on Jobe’s shoulder.

  “I keep telling myself that, like you said.”

  Then Jobe’s hand appeared, and wiped one of the tears from Lex’s eye. Sasha was overcome with a sudden feeling then, one that grew rapidly in the haze of what he realized was drunkenness.

  Are you fucking kidding me…?

  That feeling was sexual lust.

  And no sooner did that feeling hit him, Sasha watched in utter shock as his own uncle leaned towards Jobe and kissed him on the lips.

  Sasha felt nauseous, and he wanted out. He didn’t want to see this. Why the fuck was he seeing this?