Silent Ground Part 2

by Quil Carter

  It’s time to fucking end this.

  Then he heard Lex scream. Sasha looked towards the voice, and his heart seized. Lex was on the ground, and Caelum was standing over him with a smile, the gun raised and pointed at Lex.

  It went off. Once, twice, and a third time, each impact making Lex’s body jolt.

  There was no scream this time. No agonizing vocal declaration of the horror Sasha was seeing, all screams were internalized as he watched Caelum shoot his uncle, his dad, in front of him.

  Then there was a roar, a roar that couldn’t have possibly come from a human. Sasha looked towards the bedroom to see a flash of skin, and witnessed Kheva running out of the bedroom, his fist raised and clenched.

  He dealt Caelum a punch to the mouth, then with his green-gold eyes blazing, he stepped back and glared down at Caelum.

  And Caelum screamed.

  “I told you. I fucking told you I’d be back one day,” Kheva snarled, his voice a lethal octave doused in insanity. “I told you when you almost fucking raped me to death that I would be fucking back, and that I would pick you pieces of shit off one by one.” Sasha stared at Kheva, Sasha’s own shirt now off and pressed against Lex’s shuddering chest. Jobe’s hands were beside his, putting as much pressure as he could on the wound with no attention paid to his own. “You made a big mistake kidnapping me, and you made a big mistake taking what was mine. Rob’s mine, he belongs to me.”

  “Just fucking give it up, Gabriel!”

  Sasha looked to see Rob standing in the living room, Nate beside him. “It happened, now get over it. I’m not your boyfriend anymore, I fucking never was and you know it.” Rob took a step towards Kheva, Caelum’s screams still filling the air. “Let me go, just let me go, and walk out of this house with Sasha and his people. We’ll leave you alone… but it’s time you let all of this go.”

  Kheva’s head turned, and at first, Sasha saw an inferno in his gaze. But then, as if looking at Rob could soothe the burn that had been hurting Kheva for years, his eyes softened.

  “Gabe, I’m sorry…” Rob said. “All I can say now, is I’m sorry. Please, let me go back to my family. You have Sasha now, you won’t be alone anymore.”

  Kheva’s gaze shifted to Sasha, and the two looked at each other. Sasha didn’t know what to think, or how to feel. What could he possibly say?

  “He loves you… do you know that?” Rob said. Caelum’s screams had died down, and now Sasha could hear Jobe talking frantically to 9-1-1. “I saw it, and I know you can see it and feel it. There doesn’t have to be anymore fighting; no one else needs to die tonight. We can end this peacefully, Gabe.”

  Kheva’s eyes deflected from Sasha’s, and they welled. “I loved you, Rob,” he said quietly. “I might’ve been a sick game to you, but I loved you with all of me.”

  “And I threw that away, I know,” Rob said. “I’m not a good person. I know that. I realized the man I’d been walking towards was a nightcrawler, and my brothers’ influence got the best of me. I let them hurt you, and I shouldn’t have.” Rob took another cautious step towards Kheva, until he was only half a foot away.

  To Sasha’s shock, he put a hand on Kheva’s cheek. “Look how powerful you became though,” he whispered. “You obliterated us. Nate found me walking around beaten to shit with my mind completely gone. I didn’t know who I fucking was for a long time.” Rob smiled, his hand slowly running up and down Kheva’s cheek. “Then you kidnapped me, brought out that other one, and you hunted down all my brothers one by one. My little maniac.”

  “I did what needed to be done,” Kheva whispered. “I said I was done letting people hurt me, and I meant it.”

  “Yes, you did mean it,” Rob whispered. “Just like I mean it when I say… I’m not going to let anyone hold me captive.” Rob lowered his hand and took a step back. “The ambulance is coming soon.” He looked to Jobe. “Get him outside now, Jobe. Sterling and Nik, come inside.” He looked to the entrance, and was surprised to see those two hovering by the doorway. “Help them. I don’t need outsider eyes on what that man did to Johan and Mav.” Sasha watched Sterling and Nik appear and walk over, and he stepped back when they both grabbed Lex. He was still breathing. Thank fuck, he was still breathing.

  “Sash?” Jobe whispered. He was holding his shoulder, his own face pale but not as bad as Lex.

  “I’ll be there,” Sasha said quietly back. “I need to finish this first. Take care of him.”

  Surprisingly, Jobe nodded. Sasha’s best friend leaned down and kissed his cheek, then followed behind Sterling and Nik, Lex being carried between them.

  “It’s time for you to go too, Gabe,” Rob said. “You and Sasha. We’ll call this even, all of this.”

  But Kel?

  What’s going to happen to Keluva?

  “Okay,” Kheva whispered. His face crumpled, his eyes shutting tight, and Sasha saw his shoulders begin to tremble.

  “Oh, jeez, I hate it when you cry… Come on, Gabe,” Rob said. He wrapped his arms around Kheva and held him tight to his chest. “Don’t cry. This is a good thing. You can move on now.”

  “Can I say goodbye to Kel?” Kheva asked, his voice breaking.

  “No, you know I can’t let you do that.”

  “Can I…” Kheva sniffed. “Just one last fucking kiss, Rob?”

  Rob sighed and nodded. “I’d love that.” He broke their embrace, then gently laid a hand on Kheva’s cheek. The two of them looked into each other’s eyes, and Rob leaned into Kheva and connected their lips.

  That was it.

  This is how it’s going to end?

  We’re going to lose Kel forever?

  Sasha’s heart ached, a gnawing pain that ate him from the inside out. The thought of never being able to see Kel again, never hearing his manic voice always excited about one thing or another; never having the spastic, yet loveable energy that Kel always brought with him to every room.

  Kel would be gone forever––he would be Rob now.

  But perhaps, in the end, that was what had to happen. This was the only way that Kheva would be able to have closure; the only way he could finally let go of the hurt he’d experienced by Rob and the other men who’d raped him.

  There would be no more killing; no more living in hiding. It would be tough without Kel, but maybe that just meant it would be Sasha who stepped up to the plate now, to take care of the master he loved so much.

  And I do love him. I love Kheva.

  Yeah… maybe this is for the best.

  We can live in peace now. We can––

  Suddenly Rob screamed and tried to pull away from Kheva, but with his hand now grasping the back of Rob’s head, Kheva kept their lips locked for several more seconds.

  Sasha jumped to his feet, and when he looked back to Rob, desperately trying to free himself from Kheva, he saw a trickle of blood run down the man’s mouth.

  Finally, with a muffled scream, Rob then managed to pull himself away from Kheva.

  And as their lips broke apart, Sasha saw a spurt of crimson burst from Rob’s mouth, coating his chin.

  And coating the rim of Kheva’s lips as well.

  Kheva had bitten off Rob’s tongue to get to his blood

  “Sasha, subdue Caelum. Now!” Kheva barked, and just like that, just like fucking that, a new fire blazed in Kheva’s eyes.

  And a new smile did as well.

  Sasha looked to Caelum, just as Caelum looked at him, but even though his head was aching, his body still throbbing, Sasha’s instincts pushed it all away, and swiftly he drew up their beacons, and forced himself into Caelum’s.

  Then Rob screamed too, and he fell to his knees.

  “Drink Johan’s blood,” Kheva commanded. “Get your energy back. I’m going to need you.”

  “What the fuck are we doing?” Sasha yelled. He knelt down in front of the stone-dead Johan and cringed from what he saw. The back of his skull was split like a coconut hit with a hammer, spilling pureed brains and blood onto the grey carpet. There
was hope however, a grisly hope: a curved chunk of skull, scalp still attached, that cradled blood inside of it like a macabre bowl.

  Sasha leaned down and sucked it out of the curved skull, the cold blood as much of a comfort as lemonade on a hot day.

  “What are we doing?” Kheva guffawed. “What the fuck do you think, nightcrawler?” Sasha looked over to him and saw Kheva’s smile widening, there was more insanity in those two glowing eyes than all worlds combined. “He’s mine. He was mine the moment I fucking laid eyes on him, and I will not let my Keluva die. Nor will you.”

  Sasha stared back at him…

  …then he himself smiled.

  “You damn fucking right!” Sasha rose to his feet, his abilities still focused on Caelum. He walked to the two screaming men, but before he could get two steps, the front door flew open and Nate ran in.

  “You stay the fuck away from him!” Nate screamed, the red and white flashes of the ambulance now reflecting off of the walls. This gave Sasha a split-second pause, remembering Lex and the state he was in, but he was in good hands, Jobe was too––and he had to end this.

  This ends tonight.

  It ends for Caelum, it ends for Rob, and it ends for Nate.

  Sasha intercepted Nate, in the process of running to Kheva with his fist in the air, and dealt him a hard blow to the jaw. As the thorn in Sasha’s side fell to the ground, Sasha pulled up his control panel, and with every ounce of his energy, nothing held back, he pushed the disruption inside of Nate’s dim, pathetic beacon and Caelum’s flaring bright light.

  Nate’s scream was added to the three-person orchestra. But this was no regular disruption, there was a raw energy flowing through Sasha that had him feeling different… more powerful.

  More lethal.

  Sasha glared down at the kid he felt so much disdain for, and watched with satisfaction as Nate began clawing, not his head like usual… but his own face.

  The kid’s nails raked the skin, and soon strips of flesh were being scratched off. The scrapes filled with blood, which soon smeared his skin, and began to collect as the young man literally began clawing chunks of his own face.

  Scream after scream rang out like church bells on Sunday, Nate thrashing and howling as his own bloodied hands raked and raked. Soon, an eyeball was clawed off, the ocular connected by a sinewy string, then the second followed which was soon snapped off by Nate’s frantic fingers.

  And still Sasha didn’t stop. Not just Nate’s assault, but Caelum’s low, desperate bellowing.

  No, there would be no stopping… and Sasha didn’t stop the screaming stopped––and Nate was dead.

  Sasha withdrew from Nate’s mind, like a cock being ripped out of the victim he’d raped dry, and he glared down at the shredded mess that had been Nate’s face, one eye dangling down, the other resting on the floor, staring at Sasha with a shocked look.

  Sasha then stepped over Nate’s body, picked up the gun that Caelum had used to shoot Uncle Lex, and calmly he aimed it at Caelum.

  Then he pulled the trigger.

  Once.

  Twice.

  Three times in the chest.

  Sasha turned around, just in time to see Kheva collapse to his knees, his chest heaving and his entire body trembling.

  Then, a burst of blood erupted from Kheva’s nose. “Kheva?” Sasha cried. He knelt down in front of his Master, Kheva hyper focused on his victim, and looked over to Rob.

  Rob’s eyes were bugged out, his teeth locked tight and his hands grasping the entrance to the hallway. Sasha tried to draw up his beacon, only to have Kheva desperately push him away.

  When Sasha looked back to Kheva, he was horrified to see more blood dripping down his nose, and not only that…

  …What the fuck?

  It was coming out of his eyes; the lower rim of white was pooling with blood.

  “What the fuck are you doing? Stop!” Sasha cried. “This is going to kill you. Kheva, you have to stop.” He grabbed Kheva’s shoulder and shook it to try and snap his master out of this state, desperation swiftly sweeping away all feelings of triumph.

  What the hell was Kheva doing? Was killing Rob going to fucking kill him too?

  “Kheva!” Sasha cried when Kheva gave no sign that he was even hearing Sasha. “Baby, please…” Tears stung his eyes. “Stop doing this. Stop hurting yourself. I can’t lose you too.”

  Then, with a gasp, Kheva’s body relaxed. Sasha caught him as the Master Nightcrawler fell forward, his chest still deeply heaving as Kheva tried to force air into his lungs.

  Rob… he wasn’t moving. The man was staring off into nothing, like he was being forced to look into a permanent nightmare. There was nothing behind those eyes. Not Rob, not Kel… no one.

  “Kheva?” Sasha whimpered. “Kheva, what did you do to him?”

  Kheva’s head slowly rose, blood continuing to drip down his already red-stained face.

  “I don’t think I’m strong enough, love,” Kheva whispered, rising to standing on shaking legs. “Or maybe… I’d hurt my Keluva so much, he didn’t wish to return.” Kheva sniffed, and wiped the blood from his nose. “Go gets some clothes, and see how your uncle is doing, Sasha… I wish… I wish to be alone right now.”

  “But Master…” Sasha whimpered.

  “Go,” Kheva said, his eyes looking at Rob with deep despair. “I need to take Jye home. I must take Rob home too. No matter what… even if it’s only his bones, Kel will remain with his family.”

  “But… what about me?”

  “I will come for you.”

  “Do you promise?”

  Kheva, with eyes closing tight over tears Sasha knew he wished to contain, nodded.

  “I promise, Sasha.”

  CHAPTER 38

  Sasha walked up the stairs slowly, balancing a serving tray of food complete with a glass of Root Beer, and when he reached the top, he breathed himself a sigh of relief. He’d made it without spilling the entire contents down the stairs, and that itself was a victory.

  “Did you make it, baby?” Jobe called from downstairs, a laugh flirting with his words. “I didn’t hear crashing.”

  Sasha chuckled and glanced over his shoulder. “I made it,” he said. “I’m surprised myself.” He walked down the hall, to Lex’s room, and opened the door with his shoulder. “Dinner time. We ordered pizza.”

  The door opened to Lex’s room, lit only by a table lamp and the glow of a television, and Sasha smiled when he saw his uncle lying in bed. Lex’s chest was heavily bandaged still, bandages that were changed every day, but the colour was slowly returning to his body. Lex was getting stronger.

  Lex smiled back. The dark bags were now gone from underneath his eyes, but he was badly in need of a haircut, and he’d only let Jobe and Sasha shave him every several days. Bathing, of course, he left up to Jobe––Sasha didn’t want anything to do with sponge-bathing his own uncle.

  “Hey, bug,” Lex said. Even his voice was sounding better. It had been terrifying, the couple weeks that Lex had been in the hospital. So many highs and lows, moments where Sasha was scared they would actually lose him, but he was alive. Lex was alive. “Pizza? I’ll never say no to pizza.” He then glanced behind Sasha, and his smile widened. “What is this a damn party?”

  Sasha walked into Lex’s bedroom to let Jobe in, his best friend carrying another serving tray of pizza. Lex, he… lit up whenever he saw Jobe, and though it was weird at first, it was something Sasha was getting used to.

  And with how his life was now, Sasha was actually a bit thankful that they had each other. He didn’t want them to be unhappy, or alone.

  “I know you’re well enough to come downstairs, but we just moved you up here and my bad shoulder is only letting me move you once a day,” Jobe said, taking a piece of pizza and pulling up one of the chairs they’d brought up to Lex’s room. “I feel like a dick eating without you, baby.” Jobe beamed as he said this, a softness in his eyes that had once only been reserved for Sasha.

  Sasha wa
tched the two of them, proud of himself for how he felt about it. It was weird, yeah, it would always be weird… but that was the thing with finally having confidence, you kind of liked seeing other people be happy without you. It wasn’t a threat to your relationship with them.

  It wasn’t like they’d even made it official… Lex had been in no state to confirm anything, but Sasha could see the way they looked at each other, and that itself told its own story.

  And what about his story? Sasha began to eat, the quiet spectator to Jobe and Lex’s small talk, and thought, for the millionth time since the events six weeks ago, just where he belonged now.

  Even though he didn’t want to admit it, there were flickers of sadness, of longing for the life he’d just gotten used to leading, and for the men that had left his life as quickly as they’d come. But he pushed it down and continued on.

  However, that was easier said than done.

  He missed Kel with all of his heart. And Kheva?

  Sasha still loved him with all of that very heart.

  The thought of Kel being gone had been difficult to swallow, and in truth, he’d drowned himself in taking care of Lex and Jobe to help cope, but it was always in the back of his head.

  Literally, Sasha could see the memory flickering with life in that dark corner of his mind, a memory that he could only bring up during his strongest times. The other times… it was just too painful.

  Keluva Swift. His name brought everything rushing back, but it was only at night that Sasha allowed the tears to come. He had to be strong for everyone here, because they’d been strong for him during his weakest moments.

  “Oh, Lexy baby, you didn’t tell me you were almost out of oxycodone,” Jobe tsked. He was holding the crust of his last piece of pizza, the other hand shaking Lex’s near-empty bottle of pills. “They cut me off last week for my gunshot wound. I’ll go fill it for you in a bit. The Pharmasave won’t close until ten.” Jobe looked to Sasha. “Want to come with me, boogie-boy?”

  Sasha nodded, not an ounce of hesitation. “Sure, I wouldn’t mind the fresh air,” he said, then glanced at his uncle, inhaling his pizza like they’d been deliberately starving him. “Anything else you want us to pick up?”