by Quil Carter
I rose once they were gone, and walked to Ryan who was sitting in his chair. He had his face buried into his hands. I pictured him as a young child who believed covering his eyes would render him invisible.
“We have a date Sunday night,” I said to him. I walked behind the desk and caringly rubbed the top of his head, then began to smooth back his wavy black hair. I could tell he hadn’t showered in at least two days, the stubble darkening his face was a testament to that.
I clucked my tongue at this. “My boyfriend hasn’t been taking care of himself,” I tsked. “I want you looking your best Sunday night. Showered, cleaned, with nice clothes. Understand me?”
Ryan slowly lifted his head, but his eyes were still staring at his hands; eyes that held in them a hundred-yard stare. “Okay,” he said faintly.
I brushed Ryan’s hair from his eyes but the strands that curled up on the ends were too short to tuck behind his ears. “Why don’t you look at me, Ryan?” I asked him quietly. I traced a finger down and brushed it against his jawline, it was like sliding over sandpaper. “You’re the boyfriend of the heir of Skyfall, the prince and protégé of King Silas. Why are you acting like that’s a punishment?”
Ryan’s eyes rose, then slowly he turned around in his seat, and those eyes lifted to meet with mine.
Sadness overwhelmed them. Not fear, not terror, but sadness.
“Todd wasn’t a bad person, Elish,” Ryan said to me, his voice just barely above a whisper. “Neither was Mario. These are living, breathing arians you killed, Elish. Men who had mothers, brothers and sisters, young men just starting their lives… How can you just kill them in cold blood and then…” He looked over at Todd’s severed head, and his eyes momentarily closed tight as he turned from it. “And then torture us like this?”
I looked at that face full of despair, dripping agony onto the floor like his physical self was melting away. There were no flames of empathy igniting from his words, the areas of my mind that once held that emotion lay dead and rotten, starved to death because my old sengil that fed it had stopped coming. Perhaps if he’d shown just a shred of loyalty towards me, just an ounce of love…
“And what about what they did to me?” I asked, frost shining on every word. “And Sacario? Where’s his sympathy? Where’s my pity-filled stare?”
“I gave you comfort when you came to my house…”
Anger burst inside of me. “You made out with me,” I snapped. “I asked you to hold me…” Ryan’s eyes enlarged, then shot past me towards the door. “… and ten minutes later you had your fucking tongue on my cock. That wasn’t comfort, Ryan, that was seduction.”
“You came on to me!” Ryan hissed through clenched teeth. His face was reddening; the stress was pouring from him. “I tried to stop it, many times did I try to stop it! I would’ve held you all night if you let me.” He slammed his hand on the wooden desk. “I would’ve held you to me as you cried. Wiped away your fucking tears, but you didn’t want that. I gave you what you wanted, Prince Elish. Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do!?”
I raised my hand and backhanded him across the mouth. The sting the impact made on my hand was satisfying. “Watch your tone,” I snarled. I was losing control of this situation; I had to regain control.
This approach wasn’t working.
My mind retreated back. I analyzed this situation and attempted to gauge just what it is I wanted. What was I trying to get from this?
I realized, shamefully, that I didn’t want to intimidate or scare him. I wanted him to hurt for hurting me, for saying those awful things, and I wanted him to… to love me. I wanted him to feel towards me what I used to feel. I wanted his heart to skip when I entered the room… but for the right reasons.
This needed to change. I was doing this wrong. I didn’t want Ryan to be scared of me, I wanted him to respect and love me.
I reached out, Ryan now holding his cheek, and stroked the red patch caringly. “I’m sorry, love,” I said to him. “I shouldn’t have hit you.” I switched on my abilities and tapped into a thermal touch I’d felt from Silas’s hands many times. I made my fingers cold to soothe the burn. “Does that feel better?”
Ryan just stared at me, horror carved into his features like my words were sharpened steel. I tried to calm him by smiling, but that just made his horrified expression all the more prominent.
“You’re… you’re crazy,” Ryan whispered. Not in an insulting tone, but rather… like he’d just found the explanation to a problem that had been plaguing him. “You poor boy… Oh, Elish. You can’t even… you can’t help it can you?”
Behind us there was a knock on the door. I turned, my hand dropping from Ryan’s cheek, and I saw three thiens standing in the doorway. One of them none other than Commissioner Talbot.
Talbot was a solid man. He had a shaved head, a black handlebar moustache, and tattoos that covered every bit of exposed skin from his neck down. The man was staring down at me with his arms crossed over his chest, and his two fellow officers looking over his shoulder.
“You can take the head,” I said. I walked towards them since they were standing in the entrance of the class room, and all three of them jumped back to let me through. They knew better. “Give it back to the kitchen sengils.” I glanced over my shoulder, Ryan was watching me go, eyes continuously staring. “I’ll send the car Sunday at five.”
“Prince Elish…” Talbot called after me.
I raised a dismissive hand and threw my backpack over my shoulder. “I must go to my next class, Commissioner. Have a nice day.”
CHAPTER 23
I opened the door of the hospital room and slipped inside as quietly as I could. My gaze immediately took me to Sacario’s bed, and when I saw that he was awake, two sleepy yet open grey eyes staring blankly ahead as my brother Garrett spoke to him, it felt as if a vice had been released on my chest.
That release made me physically take a deep breath. I was relieved to see him conscious. Even though Dr. Liam had told me his vitals were looking good and he was healing well, there was still that constant nagging worry that he’d never regain consciousness.
“Elish,” Garrett said happily when he spotted me. He rose to his feet and offered me his chair. “He’s woozy. I’m afraid I woke him with my talking, but he’s able to talk. He already asked about you.”
He asked about me? I didn’t even realize how much I needed to hear that. Everything that had happened with Ryan, the things he’d said and that had been said about me. I think it meant a lot that someone had missed me, wanted me around. Someone cared…
I sat down on Garrett’s seat, and when Sacario’s eyes, full of fatigue and cradled by deep purple bruises, fell onto me… he smiled. “Elish,” he rasped. His lips were peeled and dry; he was unshaven too. I’d be requesting for the sengils to clean him up. They should have already. “I missed you.” He coughed into the blue blanket he had over him.
My lips disappeared into my mouth. I loved Sacario in that moment. I’d kill Mario and Todd a hundred times over if it meant he’d never gotten stabbed in the first place.
I stroked Sacario’s hair back then looked over at Garrett. “I want to speak with him alone for a few minutes,” I said to him. “Can you go to the kitchens for me and pick out a bottle of wine for this evening? It’ll be pared with young arian.”
“Good Boy?” Garrett asked as he walked to the door. Good Boy was a brand of canned meat from Dek’ko. It tasted great fried with sunny-side up eggs.
I shook my head. “No, fifteen-year-old,” I said, and there was no helping the smile this brought.
Garrett’s face turned to a scowl. “Who are you having dinner with?” he said cautiously. “And why won’t you tell us who it is?” He shifted his feet and swallowed. “It’s not with… the older guy, right?”
My expression turned dark. Garrett saw this and shifted his weight a second time. “It’s none of your business,” I replied coldly. “I’m thirteen, capable of taking care of myself. I asked you th
ree nicely to give me the apartment for the evening, and I gave you enough money to have fun out in Skyland.” I’d rented them hotel rooms as well, the fanciest hotel in all of Skyfall. It was rented out to rich greywasters wanting to go on vacation, and elites that lived in the factory towns or the Dead Islands. They’d been excited to have the chance to rent a room to the royal children. I knew those three would be spoiled… and kept busy.
“Elish…” Garrett said submissively. “You’re not going to do anything bad… right?”
The annoyance that came from Garrett’s timid comment ripped through me swiftly, severing the silent yet emotional first moments I’d been sharing with my friend. I didn’t appreciate it; I didn’t appreciate it at all.
“No, nothing like that,” I said darkly. “You don’t need to worry; I won’t do anything like that.”
Garrett’s heavy gaze pressed into me, attempting to consume me alive. There was more judgement in his eyes than consternation however, and the look left no question that he was deeply worried about my virtue, but I suspected that while he was fretting over me, there was a demon in the back of his mind that was thrilled at the chance for him to look down his nose at me; to feel like he was finally the golden boy of the family.
But whether that was true or not, I didn’t know. Garrett left soon after, leaving me alone with Sacario.
I turned back to him. “How are you feeling?” I asked. “Is there anything I can bring you?”
Sacario gave me a tired smile. That was one man who was never meant to lay quietly in a hospital bed. Sacario was meant to be loud, meant to take over a room the moment he walked into it. To see him silent and sedated was a crime against nature.
My friend took in a deep breath, it seemed to take all the effort for him to even speak. Perhaps I shouldn’t be asking him questions…
“There’s one thing…” Sacario said quietly. “Come closer, Elish.”
I leaned my head in, curious as to what he was going to say.
“I need Skittles.”
I gave my friend a flat look. “Still have your humour, I see.” I shook my head and rolled my eyes to the ceiling. “I’ll call the sengils once I leave and tell them to bring you an entire box. How’s that? But if you start getting sicker I’ll get them to take them away.”
Sacario smiled. He looked pleased with this. “Excellent,” he said, his voice coarse and gravelly. “What’s happening to that asshole who stabbed me? Do I get to see him in Stadium?”
Now it was my turn to smile, and that smile turned into a sheepish grin. “Unfortunately not,” I said to him. I stroked his hair back gently, and loved the curious look I was getting back.
I took a moment to enjoy this look before I told him the news I’d been dying to share. “I killed him after he stabbed you. I cut off his head,” I admitted. Sacario’s eyes widened, resembling two silver moons. “Not long after… I killed Todd too. I strangled and electrocuted him to death. I avenged you.”
Sacario stared at me for a moment, and even after my words had faded into the whirs and beeps of the machines around him, he was still giving me a shocked look. “Y-you killed them?” he exclaimed. Well, as much as he could exclaim with the state he was in. “Holy shit! You’re a mini-Silas.”
I chuckled. Silas would love hearing that. I couldn’t wait to tell my master what I’d done at school last Friday. His pep talk with me hadn’t been wasted. I’d showed the school that chimeras were not to be fucked with. I know he’d be proud once I told him. “That’s what happens when you mess with the friend of a chimera,” I said to him. “I’m never going to let anything happen to you.” The feeling was heavy in my voice, and I was glad in a way for his woozy, sedated state. With everything that had happened, and was going to happen, I was riding a wave of emotion.
Tonight… tonight was going to be something else. And I wished I could share it with Sacario. I wanted to tell him everything, everything I was planning. The reactions I was going to get, the power I was going to feel, it was making me, embarrassingly, almost giddy.
“Aw, Elish,” Sacario said sleepily. I noticed his eyes were starting to look heavy. “Meeting you’s… been the best thing in my l-life.” He yawned and a drowsy smile came to his face. “You guys should totally adopt me.”
I laughed, and as he fell asleep, I continued to pet back his hair. “You’d make a horrible sengil and a strange cicaro, but I’ll see what Master Silas says.” I kissed his cheek, feeling fiercely protective of my first, and only, true friend. Ryan had nothing on him. Sacario would’ve never spat the poison that he’d spat at me. He’d never hurt me in the way that Ryan had hurt me. I would never take my friend for granted. He was loyal to the core, unlike my professor.
I stayed until I knew Sacario was asleep, and when I was back in the apartment I called the sengils and put in the request for Skittles. Skittles came from the greywastes since Dek’ko didn’t make them, so I also made a mental note to speak to Silas about perhaps creating new ones. The ones we had in Skyfall weren’t that bad at least. Each box passed through a large machine made by Skytech. The machine melted the hardened sugar crystals so they wouldn’t taste grainy and gross. Almost every candy that was scavenged passed through one of these machines. It was a novel invention. But still, I’m sure fresh ones would taste better.
Anything for my Sacario. His loyalty will be rewarded – just like disloyalty will be punished.
“What time would you like dinner delivered, Master Elish?” The head chef, a kitchen sengil named Marcus, asked over the phone.
I glanced at the clock and felt excited when I saw what time it was. Ryan was going to be here in twenty minutes. He was probably getting picked up in the car this second.
“Six o’clock,” I said to him. “Don’t forget the wine as well. Put in some dessert bars or something too.”
“Yes, Master Elish. I think you’ll be pleased with tonight’s dinner,” Marcus said proudly. He prided himself on serving us only the finest food. He got a lot of fringe benefits being the head chef of the royal family, and it was in his best interest to keep us all happy. Quite frankly, I was surprised he still liked me and my siblings since becoming teenagers, there’d been more than a few times Nero had woken him up at ungodly hours because he’d gotten a craving for something specific. Well, at least he was paid well… I think.
“I’m sure I will. Thank you, Marcus. Silas will hear about this,” I said, and after that I said goodbye and hung up the phone. Since that was all taken care of, I took the rest of the time to make myself look as good as possible. I was going on a date after all.
This was no study session, no visit seeking a shoulder to cry on. This was my date with Ryan and it was going to go wonderfully.
When there was a light knock on my door, the clock showing twenty past five, my heart jumped to my throat and rattled there. I was now dressed in my best clothes: a black suit and a purple tie, black trousers with a leather belt, and purple socks. I also had snuck into King Silas’s room and had snitched one of his capes, a black cape trimmed with silver Celtic-like swirls. I’d always admired it and had been waiting with bated breath to finally be big enough to fit it.
And I did. I surely was a king today.
I walked to the door and opened it, and saw Ryan standing there. He looked quite handsome this evening, his black hair was freshly styled, the curled ends shining with hair gel, and he was shaved close and carrying the aroma of faint cologne. I was happy he’d cleaned up like I’d asked, he was even wearing a suit like mine but with a green and blue striped tie, and was also carrying purple flowers in his hand.
Happy with this, I smiled broadly and welcomed him in. “I’m so pleased you arrived,” I said. But as quickly as my smile came, it faded when I sensed the apprehension and fear on him, one that wiped away the youthful glint the professor always had. Ryan was neck deep in terror right now; it was radiating off of him with such intensity I swear it held its own colour.
I was about to question this, when
Ryan smiled back. Well, at least he was attempting to put his reservations at ease. “Thank you, Elish,” he said. But though he could mask the fear in his voice, his heartbeat was selling him out two beats per second. “I… ah… picked these up for you. Not only do they match your eyes… but purple is your favourite colour, isn’t it?"
“It is,” I said, pleased at this. I took the flowers from him and welcomed him inside of my home. I closed the door behind him and put my hands behind my back. “I’m happy to have you here this evening. How was your day?”
Ryan stood awkwardly in between the living room and dining room. “It was fine,” he said, an obvious lie. His words had been spoken too fast, and moments after leaving his lips did a hand rub his nose. “How about you?” He walked into the living room his eyes fixed on the wall-to-ceiling windows. Skyfall was still bright and sunny, summer was here and the sun wouldn’t set for several more hours.
I was happy to see him engaging me in conversation. I was hoping he wouldn’t cower in the corner and continuously piss himself. “It was good. Sacario woke up and I got to speak with him,” I said. I went to Silas’s corner bar and got us both glasses of wine. I’d only had it a few times, mostly when Silas was drunk and thought it was funny, and I’d already developed a taste for it.
“Good,” Ryan said. His tone was so stiff; he was so ridged too. I approached him with his glass of wine and handed it to him.
“I’d start drinking,” I said to him plainly. “So far you’re awkward, dull company. Lighten up and stop acting like a terrified rodent.”
Ryan swallowed hard, glass now in hand. “Elish…” he said, sounding like he had a dry throat. “You can’t expect me to forget ev-everything that happened in that class. This is… extremely stressful for me.”
He brought the wine to his lips after that statement, then proceeded to down half the glass. “Why so stressed?” I asked, and when he looked at me, I smiled. “It’s just me, professor. Don’t you trust me?”
