Garden of Spiders Volume 2: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 3

by Quil Carter

  I didn’t see it as a shortcoming, or a window into the fact that, perhaps, I wasn’t as advanced as I thought. No, I actually was fascinated by it, and kept the feelings closed off in a bottle for me to watch and analyze. Like a scientist observing the evolutions of his experiment.

  “I’ll allow you to come back to Skyfall then,” I said. This news was received with a sigh of relief, his body visibly relaxing. “You have a lot to teach me and that cannot be done in the greywastes.”

  “Thank you, Elish,” Julian said. The relief wasn’t just painted on his body, but on his face as well, a pale rain-washed face that had his dark hair stuck to his forehead, and his trimmed beard dripping droplets onto the saturated ground. “That’s more than I deserve.”

  “I know,” I said simply.

  I wasn’t sure where I’d stick him. I suppose I could request a floor in Alegria for him, but the news of Julian’s re-emergence was already going to be difficult for Finn to handle. If Julian was living in the same skyscraper as us, it might be too much for my sengil. I was Finn’s master, and I didn’t need to ask permission from my servant for anything, but I respected Finn and was taking his feelings into consideration.

  Once I explained my reasoning I was sure Finn would understand what I was doing. Especially since once I saw him again… I’d be a different man.

  I wondered what his reaction would be when he found out, and I wondered how he’d take my mind being repaired. Finn had made it clear that he’d missed the old me, all of my first generation siblings did. It must’ve been horrible for them to watch Silas abuse me so greatly.

  And see me take his abuse like a friendly dog with a bad master. Every beat down had me cowering down as I looked up at him with sad devotion, my tail wagging nervously between my legs, seeking any reassurance that he still loved me.

  Finn had to witness this, and he had to stitch me up afterwards. It must’ve been maddening for him to be forced to be the silent spectator, maddening for all of them.

  And those fucking pills.

  “Elish?” Julian said beside me. We were now walking down the driveway, torrents of water making a river beside the crumbling sidewalk before disappearing into drains that led to the vast underground sewers below our feet. “What’s wrong?”

  Still he could read me. “It’s difficult to look back on my last eleven years,” I said. “The memories of Silas’s mistreatment are hard enough to have, but what makes my soul rot is the fact that I willingly let him treat me as such… and even defended him to my siblings, sengil, and friends.” We approached the door and I walked in, Julian trailing behind. The warm air hit me like a blanket fresh out of the dryer and I began to take off my rain-soaked jacket. “Not only that, the realization that he’d been drugging me heavily sours me as well.”

  “He’d been drugging you too?” Julian’s eyes narrowed and he shook his head. “I’m not surprised, not at all. Silas needed his obedient slave and–”

  I held up my hand. I was sure I’d just heard a noise, something in the distance that sounded like metal being dragged across a surface. It wasn’t loud enough for Julian to notice but my chimera hearing had picked it up. My hearing needed to be focused in order for it to be at its best, but even left in the background it was still at least three times greater than a normal human’s.

  “I hear something…” I said cautiously. “Metal scraping…” I walked to the window and pushed aside the blue curtain that was blocking the biggest window in the living room. There was nothing out of the ordinary outside, just a city darkening from the storm, and around us, boarded up houses and the iceberg pavement that made walking on the road a challenge.

  “Maybe one of the animals seeking shelter disturbed something?” Julian theorized. “It’s a big city here. When I was in Skyfall, they said that greywasters whose applications got denied, or ones just looking for a place to live, stayed here.”

  “Yes…” I said quietly as I scanned every inch of the area. “But Perish releases his radanimals here and his splices, so the people who do stay here… never really stay long.” The city had also been hit hard by looters over the centuries. Since it was so close to Skyfall it was a convenient target. There were still items of value here, but nowhere near what you’d find in other abandoned greywastes cities, like Donnely, Kreig, and Gosselin.

  “Let’s just have the guns nearby and forget about it,” Julian said. I heard rustling beside me as he put fresh firewood into the fireplace. “Let’s just get dry and have something to eat.”

  I suppose that was the best thing to do. My curiosity was still piqued but I wasn’t about to borrow trouble, so I put the kettle on for some tea and sat down beside the fire to warm my hands.

  “So he just looks at me, and I know he doesn’t believe me at all,” Julian said with a chuckle. He took a drink of a bottle of beer he had stashed away in his pack of provisions and wiped his mouth with a shake of his head. “So I say… ‘Run then. Keep running and run fast, you get twenty-five-feet away from me and you’re going to have five metal prongs shot into your neck. But I digress, my friend, you say you can run faster than me like it’s your ticket home… so run!’”

  I smiled and dashed my cigarette ash into the fire. It was now day four of my time with Julian in Irontowers. Well, day four of my time being conscious. It was early evening now; the sun had set and outside was blanketed in a midnight blue. The two of us were sitting beside the fireplace, something that we’d been doing a lot of the past few days, and he was telling me a story about a smart-mouthed slave he’d had a few years back.

  “He just stares at me. And you know, this asshole had been the ringleader the entire time, the troublemaker. All of the other slaves had gotten their balls from him, since he was mister fucking defiant and that just egged them on. So he has something to prove, right? The other slaves are watching, trying to see just what he’s going to do, seeing if he’s going to challenge me.”

  “You were calling his bluff, and he had something to prove,” I mused. “I take it that was how he met his untimely end?”

  Julian grinned. “I didn’t want him to die, I really didn’t. An arian male is worth two hundred dollars at least in the northern greywastes, more if they’re strong and hearty. This one was. He was this tall thing, eyes too close together though, but I know two of my men had a turn on his ass more than once. Test drive the goods, I guess. Anyway, so he’s fucking staring at me, challenging me with his beady fucking eyes and he says “Everyone fucking knows that slave collars are nothing more than an iron. They don’t fucking work. Assholes like you use them as bluffs.”

  This made me laugh lightly. “I know that’s not true. Perish was the one that invented slave collars. He still upgrades them every once in a while, as a side project. He even has a prototype now that’ll send an electric shock to the host. A non-lethal way of controlling someone unruly. It won’t stop giving the shock until they’re back in the twenty-five-foot grace circle, and eventually it’ll make them pass out.”

  Julian’s eyes brightened with interest, but then he laughed at himself. “Here I am wanting to get my hands on that damn collar. Force of habit, I guess.” He reached over and I handed him my cigarette, I took the bottle of beer in return and had a swig of it. It tasted like swill, but I was getting used to the grimacing taste. “So unfortunately, this declaration by the slave has all of the other slaves riled up and pissed off. They now think that he’s right, the slave collars are just pieces of iron, lies spread by slavers to keep their stock obedient and scared. It was shaping up to be a bigger deal that we’d initially thought it would be. A few heated comments and now it was looking like a revolt was going to happen. I exchanged glances with my second-in-command Bergersen, and he gives me a shrug and a nod, so I knew he was thinking the same thing…”

  “The disobedient slave is going to have to be sacrificed?” I asked.

  Julian nodded as the cherry on the cigarette brightened from his inhale, then he said through a breath full of smoke.
“The more I thought about it, the more I realized it had to happen. If he didn’t die, the others would end up trying to escape, and instead of having one dead slave, I’d have fucking fifty of them. I didn’t want that, we had a delivery to make to Creekside and they wanted fifty slaves. We always bring a few more in case some die, but we’d already lost one to the cold. If we miss quota, they might go to another slaving company and that would have me starving for the next year. I founded my slave caravan and I was proud of it, I couldn’t risk losing business. So…” He spread his hands, the smoke sticking out of the side of his mouth. Julian looked every inch a greywaster, but his time in the greywastes hadn’t dampened his charismatic storytelling. Nor the brightness in his eyes that I saw whenever he had me engaged in conversation. “So, Mr. Slave had to die!”

  “It was winter anyway, was it not? Extra food would help with that decision as well,” I pointed out, and Julian nodded.

  “Definitely. Nothing better than fresh arian steaks. Ever had them fresh?”

  Ever had them fresh? The memory of what had happened to Ryan burst out of its grave and crawled towards me like a reanimated corpse. I was happy however, because this recollection didn’t give me the usual twinges of discomfort, of unease at the memories of Ryan’s horrific screams. At one time, they’d kept me up at night and had me waking up in cold sweats. I believe both Julian and Finn had helped me through bad nights such as that.

  But now I felt no distress over the memories. To watch them in my mind’s eye now was like watching a television set, a movie starring another boy in a different life. There was also the fact that I no longer felt guilty for what had happened to Ryan. Even though Silas’s beating, the worse one I’d ever received, will always harden my heart towards him, I was adult enough to give him credit for preventing me from having sex with the man. Ryan was a predator of the worst kind, and I would’ve felt disgusting if he had been my first time being intimate with a man.

  “I have,” I said, wishing to challenge this dismissive emotion to make sure it was genuine. “I fed my old professor Todd Wellington. A man who–”

  “I remember that!” Julian interrupted. His mouth hung open, and he leaned back on the swivel chair he was sitting on with a barking laugh. “Oh fuck, I remember you telling me!” But then his eyes widened, as if his inner monolog had gotten to the part of the story that had me fretting about Silas frying him alive. “Shit… I forgot, sorry for bringing that up.”

  I raised my hand in a dismissive manner and had another drink of the beer before handing it back. “Time has made me aware of what kind of man he was. I feel no guilt for him now, only relief that he wasn’t my first time.”

  Julian nodded. “Yeah, I’m glad too. We can’t all have our first times being with heirs of Skyfall.” He smiled at this, then took a drink himself. “Right so my story…” But the moment he opened his mouth to continue, there was a noise outside.

  A familiar noise.

  A plane. There was another plane outside, the first one we’d heard since the helicopter several days ago.

  I rose to my feet, my heart jumping into my throat. Yes, that’s definitely what it was. The sound of the engine told me that it was a Fisherking, and it was flying close enough for me to know it was searching the area.

  “Well…” Julian said beside me. He was also on his feet, the cigarette dangling out of his mouth forgotten. “Do… you want to go back to Skyfall?”

  The heart now in my throat enlarged, and I had to swallow hard to try and dislodge the constriction on my airflow.

  Was I ready to go home?

  There was no question.

  I was ready.

  My eyes took me to Julian and I saw anxiousness on his face. He was just as nervous as I was about returning back to our home. But I knew it was time.

  It was time to face Silas… as Elish.

  “You can’t come with me,” I said to Julian. I dimmed the bluelamp we had on and grabbed my jacket. I’d been preparing for my return to Skyfall physically as well as mentally, I hadn’t bathed, even though it had been difficult, and had deliberately soiled my jacket by dragging it around the greywaste ash. “If Silas sees you after I’ve been missing for almost two weeks he’s not going to think rationally.”

  Julian nodded, his body awash in an orange glow, the fire was alive in his blue eyes, eyes that still seeped unease. “How long?”

  “Come to Skyfall now. I’d rather know you’re in the city,” I said, trying to ignore the racing pulse sending wave after wave of electrified shivers all throughout me. “I have easy access to funds. I’ll purchase you a house in Skyland. It’ll be on one of the roads we used to walk on, I’ll hang this jacket on the doorknob; the door will be unlocked.” My plan for what I was going to tell Silas when he saw me was shoddy at best, but I couldn’t let him know I’d been letting the family deliberately worry about me for two weeks. I wasn’t planning on hiding my surgery from Silas, at least not for long. I was actually… going to let him be the one to tell me it had been reversed.

  Alright, intelligence, show me what you can do.

  The plane’s low roaring engine began to come closer. I took in a deep breath, then turned to Julian.

  Just in time to have arms wrapped around me.

  I pushed him away, so hard he stumbled back. “The next time you touch me your blood will be splattered on the walls,” I said harshly, glaring him down as his cheeks went red. “Don’t take any of this as me forgiving you. I need you because you’ve made a career out of being manipulative and deceiving, and that is all. It is no badge of honour to wear, you’ll be helping me make up for eleven years of imprisonment.”

  Julian’s Adams apple bobbed as he swallowed. “I got it,” he said, his tone short. “How about a fucking thank you for getting you your mind back? I’m risking a lot for this, Elish.”

  “You’re fixing something you let become broken, all for your own selfish needs. If you think I owe you something, stay in the greywastes and don’t set foot in my city.” I turned and walked to the door. “I’m only doing this because I’m mature enough to put my feelings aside to aid in a greater good. That is all, and I have nothing more to say to you.”

  “If you want this to work… you can’t just treat me like shit,” Julian said quietly. “I walked over a thousand miles for you.”

  “You should’ve kept walking.” And with that, I opened the door and stepped out into the cold, rainy night.

  I was halfway down the block when the sound of the Fisherking became louder. I shielded my eyes and looked up, and soon saw a black flying object appear from behind a tall five-storey building. I raised my hand and waved it towards me. They should see me easily; they’d have the heat sensors on it which would have my body glowing like a flare dropped into a black ocean.

  “Back to Skyfall we go.”

  I whirled around, and when I saw Julian standing beside me, his ratty backpack in his hand and both guns on his back, fury replaced by blood. “I told you to fucking stay!” I snapped, just as the engine of the Fisherking above me switched to landing mode.

  It was too late. They’d saw me… and they’d seen Julian.

  “I decided I am not hiding from Silas.” Julian’s eyes were upcast, pale blue in my night vision and holding a nervousness that had his chin tight. “What happens, happens. Your plan will have me hiding like a coward, and after all I’ve been through… I am no coward.”

  My teeth ground inside of my mouth. This isn’t what I wanted, and I knew he was doing this to me because of my dismissal of him earlier. Yes, I would need to watch him. He’d been submissive to me and apologetic, but it seemed like he did have a threshold. If I was going to get what I wanted out of him, I had to watch myself and not continue to treat him as badly as I’d been.

  It was not me giving him what he wanted – it was merely a strategical move.

  Keeping my emotions on a tight leash was proving to be difficult. What I wanted to do and what I knew I should do were vastly differen
t, but learning a new skill was always difficult, especially in the beginning. I was determined to see this through and improve myself, and if that meant swallowing my pride, even if it was like swallowing a tennis ball covered in razor blades… I’d do it.

  “Do as you wish, just keep your mouth shut and let me speak,” I said. I watched the plane, now hovering around, most likely looking for a place to land, and began to tweak my plan to account for Julian now being here.

  What was I going to say to him? Silas was going to be enraged at the thought that I’d been in Irontowers while they were worrying about me, thinking I was dead or kidnapped. I had to do this carefully, handle it with kid gloves, or else Julian would be killed and I’d be re-altered to my former robot self.

  “Elish?” Julian said. I looked at him. He was wearing the sheriff’s hat, water dripping off of the rim like it was falling down the awning of a house.

  When he caught my gaze, he glanced to the plane. I realized that the plane was now rising up into the air again, but after checking the road we were walking on, realized the pavement was too broken for such a large and heavy aircraft to land. “Don’t complicate things. I know you want to think of this elaborate plan… but don’t complicate it. Silas is going to be crushingly relieved that you’re okay, but if he thinks that you were hiding, all of that relief will turn into anger. The only thing you need to do, is convince him we didn’t have a way to return to Skyfall.”

  I watched the plane slowly turn around, then there was an electronic crackle as the plane’s speaker was switched on.

  “We can’t land here,” an unfamiliar voice said boomed over the falling rain. “There’s a park north of here. Meet us there.”

  I nodded and waved, then took a step to follow but Julian, strangely, grabbed my sleeve, quietly telling me to stay where I was.

  When the plane disappeared again behind the building, Julian pulled me backwards until we were right beside the entrance.

  “I’m going to take the stitches out of your head,” Julian said behind me. “Remember what we discussed: You were kidnapped by greywasters who took you here, where I’ve been living for six months. The impact on your head disabled your implants. The healing already taking place will make it believable.”