by Quil Carter
White powder? Why?
What if it was poison?
Alarmed, I stuffed the tissue back into the tin. Suddenly I became well aware of the fact that this could very well be some sort of assassination attempt. What if that powder was some sort of poison? The tissue could be covered in it, thus making me already poisoned.
The fact that this didn’t make me feel any fear or worry for my own health was a testament to the depression I was feeling. However, my natural curiosity had me wanting to see what this powder was. If this was some sort of assassination attempt, I wanted to know so I could hunt down this person and see him put into Stadium.
It would give me something to do at least.
With the tin in hand, I left the alleyway, my sleeve wiping my eyes so if I did pass someone they wouldn’t see that I was in a state, then I walked to the Skytech lab to find Perish. He would be able to test the substance, and do it discreetly as well.
And when I walked into our private area of the Skytech skyscraper, I was pleased to see that Perish was still awake. Perish was sitting at a desk we had behind the growing twins. He was tapping away on his laptop with vials, glass slides, and scribbled on pieces of paper all surrounding him on the metal desk.
Perish looked up when I entered and his surprised look turned into a frown. “Silas again?” he asked quietly, his voice higher now and the flow of it different.
It had taken some getting used to, this new version of Perish, but I’d found myself enjoying his company, more than I did before he was altered. It was obvious that the man had something wrong with this brain, he had difficulty focusing unless it had to do with his science work, and he was timid and subservient to Silas to a fault. But this new Perish was kind and enjoyed teaching me everything he knew, we got along well and held a mutual respect for each other.
I’d also learned that the Perish I’d grown up with wasn’t even the original version of Perish. After Silas implying it several times, I’d done some personal research on Perish’s laptop and had learned that he was missing a piece of his brain, a piece that now rested inside of something called an O.L.S, or Occipital Lobe Storage. As Silas had once implied, losing this piece of brain had made Perish short tempered and violent, not just towards us chimera children but Silas as well. The king had finally grown tired of Perish’s abuse and had taken action.
There was also another thing that I had found out while digging into Perish’s files. Perish was the identical twin brother of Sky Fallon, which also led me to realize that Silas was also making him as different to his brother as he could. It must be painful for him to see Sky through Perish, especially with the disdain that Perish occasionally held for Silas.
At one point in time, I’m sure that would’ve made me sad to hear, now it made me want to think of ways to use it as a torture tool. Silas’s weaknesses were right there on his sleeve, and one day I would exploit them and use them to destroy him.
But until then… I would lie and wait, and do what I personally needed to do: grow up and become stronger.
“Yes, it was Silas,” I said to Perish. “He doesn’t think I have a reason to not like him and he decided to beat on me to expel his frustrations over it.” I drew the tin out of my jacket and placed it beside Perish’s laptop. “During a different time I fought with Silas, when I was walking home I found this tin put in the middle of the sidewalk. It contained Kleenex. When I was out tonight and walking around… I found it again and now it’s filled with not just Kleenex… but an odd white powder as well.” Perish’s brow wrinkled as he contemplated my words and he picked up the tin.
Perish looked inside of it. “I’ll test it to see what it is. It could be rat poison, it could be corn starch, it could be anything under the sun… the first time there was no powder?”
I shook my head and rubbed my nose. As I looked down at my blood-streaked sleeve I decided to tell him about the state of my nose both times.
“So he or she is watching you…” Perish mumbled. He pushed away from the table with his computer chair and it wheeled him across the room to another desk. I watched Perish tap some of the powder onto a small glass slide, then he dipped a small flat stick into the substance.
Then he began putting the substance into additional small glass vials and pouring different substances into it with an eye dropper. After this, he poured the contents onto more slides and popped the first one into a machine resting on a metal table to his left.
While he worked, my eyes travelled around, they soon fell on the twins. I realized both of them were watching me. “Hello, boys,” I said to them quietly. I waved with two fingers, then drew the same fingers back and forth in front of their faces.
Both boys followed my fingers with their large purple eyes. They were sprouting tufts of silver hair now and the baby fat that had grown onto them had made them look like real newborns. It looked like they could come out at any time, but they still needed a couple more weeks ideally.
When I lowered my fingers Artemis’s eyes drew up and fixed on my own. He stared at me with a look of wonder, then his thumb found his mouth and he started sucking on it. Apollo must’ve thought this was a grand idea, but instead of his thumb he just wedged his fingers into his mouth and gummed on them happily. It was amazing just how identical these two boys looked, it was as if someone had copied one and pasted it beside him.
I looked forward to these boys coming into the family. Perhaps once they were older we’d become close. They were the only other intelligence chimeras besides myself; it would be nice not to feel alone all the time.
My attention took me back to Perish when I heard the computer give off a beep. I waved a small goodbye to the twins and walked past the single steel mother they were floating in and to Perish’s table.
I said nothing as he pulled the slide out, his tongue poking out of the side of his mouth. If there was one thing I’d learned working with Perish, it was that it was best to remain silent when he was in the throes of his science work. Perish’s mind had been altered, and selected memories removed. Silas explained that he could still remember things like his science knowledge, but they were in a different place than they were before. It was like knowing where the store was, but being forced to take an alternate path to get there. It wasn’t a way you were familiar with, it would take you longer and you may even get lost, but eventually you’d find that store, and the next time you’d make it there much faster.
I waited quietly behind him, and saw the moment when his eyes lit up and his face brightened. I could see the lightbulb inside of his head go off. He looked at the machine that took the slide and read something on the screen, then nodded to himself.
Surprisingly, Perish spun around in his chair and looked at me. “The gash on your chin… bring your face closer.” I puzzled these strange instructions but did as I was asked. I lowered my face down and was confused when Perish took a bit of the powder I’d found onto one of his fingers, then patted the gash with it.
Then he got up, my shoulder in his hand, and directed me to a mirror we had resting on the wall. I disliked seeing myself, I was beaten black, blue, and red and I looked a pathetic sight indeed. Not like royalty at all.
My face scowled as the hatred for myself took me, but my attention was diverted when Perish pointed to my chin with a smirk. “Notice anything?” he asked, just when the powder started to sting.
“It hurts?” I scratched around the gash and watched the white dust on the wound, waiting for the red to soak through it. That gash hadn’t stopped bleeding and there was now a ring of dried blood around it, and underneath that swollen, red skin.
“No,” Perish laughed lightly. “It’s no longer bleeding. The powder is something I created but I wanted to be sure. It’s called stopper and it’s available in any pharmacy. It seems like this mysterious person was trying to offer you some medical aid.” My brow furrowed just as Perish’s face became a smile. “It seems like you have a secret admirer, my friend.”
A secret admirer? I
picked up the colourful tin and looked inside of it, the bottom of the shiny metal holding the last bits of the white powder. “Why?” I asked, confused. “And how? Both times I escaped Silas it was late at night…”
“Someone with insomnia?” Perish shrugged one shoulder. “Or perhaps working as a security officer doing night time patrols? You do stand out like a sore thumb you have to admit, and it’s obvious where you live. It wouldn’t be difficult for you to be tracked.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about this. Curious of course, but also… I’m not sure…
… maybe kind of flattered?
Perish playfully nudged my shoulder with his hand; he seemed to be enjoying this. “You should look for him,” he said with a smile. But then his face became strained, I could see his mind taxing itself as he tried to figure out whatever it was that was on his mind. “Sky…” He winced, as if in pain, and held the back of his head. “Found Silas at a 7-11… irish creams, lots of them in his…”
Then Perish’s face relaxed, and oddly the smile returned. “You should look for him,” he said again, repeating himself exactly, from the tone of his voice to the flow of his words. “I’d like to see you make a friend, Elish. Sacario is wonderful but… I’d like for you to find someone for yourself. You’re so unhappy. It would be good for you to find someone to make you happy.”
He reached out and patted my hand, something that the old Perish would’ve never done, but this new, altered person in front of me… genuinely seemed to care.
And the feeling that it brought drew me closer to him. “I think I just need to run away,” I whispered. I ran my fingers along the gash in my chin, it was dry now and the powder had hardened on the wound as if making a temporary scab. “I… I hate Silas.” To my humiliation, my voice broke and the bridge of my nose began to burn.
Then for reasons unknown, I spilled all of myself to Perish. I told him about my fears of Silas physically taking me, my confusion over how our family was evolving, my miserable and depressed existence just being Elish, and the derision I felt for myself. I told Perish everything through tears, the entire time clutching one of the tissues that had been stuffed in the colourful tin.
Perish was sympathetic, and not once did he judge me or laugh at me, something unheard of before his surgical alterations. The entire time I confided in him he was quiet and he listened, only speaking when I asked him a direct question, or was struggling to find my words.
Perish put a hand on my shoulder and drew me to his side. He was sitting to my left now, both of us holding the cups of tea he’d made while I’d been talking to him. “I didn’t know it was this bad,” he said to me quietly. “You hide it so well when you come and help me here.”
“I’m only screaming on the inside,” I mumbled. I drained my cup of tea, and when Perish offered me a glass bottle full of brown liquid, I took a long drink of that too. I think it was whisky, I didn’t like whisky because that’s what Silas was usually drinking when he came to my room drunk. But it was alcohol and I needed it. “I’m hoping he’ll get tired of me and send me off to one of the greywastes laboratories. I liked it when we were in…” I stopped myself. Perish didn’t remember the time the two of us spent in the Gosselin labs, when I was helping him with baby Lennix. I wasn’t stopping myself because of some respect for Silas, it was that I didn’t want to stress out Perish. If I mentioned something he knew he should remember but didn’t… it would be bad for him and he was only just starting to get his confidence back.
“When I was in there,” I said instead. I tilted the liquor back and forth before taking another drink.
“It’s best to be out of his line of…” Once again Perish paused and his face became taxed. I watched him, the liquor burning my throat, and remained silent.
But what he said next wasn’t a brief recollection of his old life, it wasn’t anything that was familiar to me, and I thought I’d learned most of Perish’s quirks. No… Perish’s face suddenly changed, from an anxious, furrowed brow, to a stern expression with a locked jaw.
And when his eyes fixed on mine, I saw someone I never thought I would see again.
Uncle Perish.
“Fix it,” he suddenly whispered.
Then Perish shook his head, and like it was nothing but a phantom, the expression disappeared, and Perish let out a whine. He held a hand to his forehead, then his eyes closed and his lips peeled back from pain.
“I… I have a migraine,” Perish whimpered, his voice now returning to the high pitch tones. “I’m going to… lay down in the dark. Thank you for the visit, Elish.”
Perish then turned and left, leaving me with a confused expression and a mind full of questions.
What the hell just happened?
Did… did whatever Silas do to him temporarily get disabled?
He said… Fix it. Fix what?
It was a long walk back to Alegria, my mind was overloaded with questions. Not just about what happened to Perish, but the questions that stemmed from the purple tin I held in my hand.
Whatever happened to Perish… there was nothing I could do about it. What he wanted me to fix, I didn’t know, but I knew there was nothing I could do for him. I… I wish there was, but I was helpless in my own life, I couldn’t even save myself, let alone fix him.
Perhaps one day, and since Perish was immortal, he’d have to settle for that one day. That was all I could give him right now.
While I walked past the alleyway I had cried in, I decided to stop. I put the purple tin down where I’d initially seen it.
“Thank you,” I said out loud. I closed the tin and looked around the dark alleyway. I almost didn’t want to leave that tin there. It was a tie, a strange tie, to someone out there who actually cared. Wherever he is.
But I left it, and hoped deep down, that perhaps I would see it again.
I looked around one last time, and with my world just a bit lighter, I turned and walked back to Alegria.
CHAPTER 28
The next month was one of the most stressful times in my mortal life. I couldn’t relax, I couldn’t function, my entire existence was paranoia and an intense fear that had me circling anxiety attacks almost every day. Never more than in that month did I hide out from my family and do everything in my power to avoid King Silas.
Every interaction I had with him was a bad interaction. Silas was angry at me and he did nothing to hide that anger. Whenever he would look at me his green eyes would flash, his pulse would spike, and I’d see the muscles in his body tense and tighten.
It wasn’t just me that was stressing the king out, Skyfall was also in the throes of a transformation. Silas was taking in hundreds of applications for residency in Skyfall, and the influx of greywasters had presented Silas and the council with the problem of where to put them.
I was with Silas in a meeting. I’d been shocked when he’d told me this morning to get dressed and look presentable, and all the more shocked when I was taken to floor six, Skyfall’s council chambers. Basically where all of the council members and the king met to discuss Skyfall.
And here I was sitting down by my king, trying my hardest to look put together and worthy of a place beside him. I didn’t feel worthy; I didn’t feel like anything but a discarded piece of damaged trash. But we had to keep up appearances. No one knew the chaos that went on behind those double oak doors… and no one could know.
“I just think we should wait until next year,” a councilman named Isenberg said. He was a bigger man and quite tall, Isenberg was the head of agriculture. “Make sure the crops are thriving before Skyfall takes on all of these extra mouths.”
“The mouths will feed themselves,” Silas replied. “The applications we’re accepting are for greywasters with money. They can afford to feed themselves and those who cannot already have jobs lined up for them.”
“Will it be enough to not strain Skyfall? I don’t think it will be, my king,” Isenberg said. He was holding up a piece of paper and staring at it, it was a part of Silas
’s carefully put together presentation. However, the person who had put this presentation together had been Garrett. My brother had jumped around like an excited shih tzu when Silas had asked him to do it.
It was supposed to be my job to do all of these things, but he hadn’t asked me. I was thankful for that.
“I have to agree,” another councilman named Matthis said. It was obvious from the downturned expressions on all of these men and women that they were not happy at all about bringing in all of these future permanent residents. They hated change just as much as I did, but they were fooling themselves if they thought it was merely the strain on Skyfall’s resources that was concerning them. “Why not just raise the baby bonus? Throw in an extra thousand dollars at the Skylanders per live birth and adoption and we’ll have a boon on our hands in nine months and all of Edgeview and Lighthouse will be cleaned out by the end of this month.”
There were nods of agreement throughout the council, especially from the mayor of Moros, Mayor Charleston. He had been looking green ever since Silas had mentioned the greywasters going to Moros. He didn’t want the extra work, none of them did. “That would go over smoother,” Charleston said. “We wouldn’t have to worry about increases in crime, food shortages…”
“We’ve had an abundance of food for going on three years now,” was Silas’s response. “We can’t keep bribing women to have children and bribing the gay men to adopt or surrogate, our population is falling and we need to sustain it. The greywasters will be a perfect way to do so.”
Then why not just put them in Skyland? I thought bitterly to myself. I knew that saying such a thing out loud would most likely have me slammed up against the wall on the other side of the room, but my thoughts were at least still my own.
It was obvious what was happening. It was all about the class system and maintaining the status quo.
It was Skyland that was suffering from a population shortage, not Moros. The lesser class bred like lesser class do, so there were a lot of them running around. We needed Skyland to fill up, not Moros, but the thought of the filthy greywasters going to Skyland was unheard of and insulting to the snobby little elites. But that meant that Skyland would be getting an injection of Morosians, the higher class ones who made a lot of money, but either didn’t want to move to Skyland or didn’t have the pull with the right people to gain residency in the elite district.
