Garden of Spiders Volume 1: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 3

by Quil Carter

  This was it. He was going to find out. But was it not me the fool for thinking I could hide Julian in the first place?

  A boulder ballooned in my throat, and freely did I let the fear consume me. However, even in the throes of my own failure, I surprised myself. I scrambled around, quickly picked up the scattering balls, and began to juggle them again.

  “What do you wish to speak with me about, Master?” I answered calmly. I wasn’t denying his statement; I wasn’t crumbling into nothing either. I was collected. I was in control. And even if my world was burning around me… I will not show it on my face.

  Silas smiled and clasped his hands over his lap. “I’ve been proud of how you’ve been with Finn. I decided to allow you a special privilege, my golden boy.” He rose, walked the two steps to me, and kneeled.

  Then he brushed the strands of blond hair from my eyes, and gently caressed the side of my head.

  And still no fear showed on my face.

  I was doing it. I was in control.

  “I’m going to allow you to seek a boyfriend, love,” Silas said to me, and my eyes widened. “I must approve him, of course. But I wish for you to… discover the joys of a relationship.” Silas kissed my cheek as the heat left my body, and again rose. “I look forward to meeting the man that has made my little love so happy.”

  He looks forward to…

  As Silas’s back turned, my heart plummeted.

  Silas knew.

  No… he can’t. There’s just… no way he could know.

  “Master Elish?” Finn jumped up from the desk, alarm radiating off of him like it was audible. “What happened?”

  I handed him his jacket and walked out of the bedroom door. Once again I was trying to hold it together, but these bouncing balls I was juggling continued to slip from my fingers. “We’re going to the pharmacy now. Put your shoes on and hurry.” My breath kept catching, my throat tightening as if it had fear that the next breath wouldn’t come.

  “Okay,” he said meekly. I heard the door close as I slipped on my black leather shoes, and heard him run to catch up while my feet quickly took me to the elevator.

  I had to get out of his apartment. I needed air… I needed the outside…

  I needed Xanax.

  While the elevator took us down to the lobby floor, I found myself looking around the elevator for hidden cameras. I was trying to pinpoint just how Silas knew I was sneaking out, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I was foolish for thinking he wouldn’t know. All he’d have to do was ask a thien and they’d tell him everything they knew.

  Or a brother.

  Had it been Nero?

  If it was… I’d never forgive him. I knew Nero was loyal to our king but he was still my brother and I should be able to trust him. We’d been through a lot the two of us, even escaped ravers together, and I shared a connection to him on a different level due to that.

  Nero was Nero however, and he was Silas’s loyal servant. It made my stomach twist itself into knots but I had to look at the reality… and the reality was that Silas knew how to play Nero like a violin. And if he wanted to make music come from my brother… he knew just how to do that.

  This was all my fault, and knowing that my secret could soon come to light… I knew I wouldn’t just be taking one pill of Xanax tonight.

  I looked down when I felt a warm hand slip into mine. My eyes rose and met Finn’s, and when he returned my gaze, his hand squeezed my own. He even went one step further and began walking so close to me his shoulder was rubbing against my upper arm.

  “I’m sorry, Master Elish,” Finn said quietly. He took in his dark surroundings with wide eyes that reflected the yellowy orbs of the streetlights above us. “I know I’m being a burden to you these last several days… and nights.”

  “You’re nothing of the sort,” I said to him, my voice also hushed. It wasn’t as late as it usually was when I ventured out, there were still people around, some of which I could see watching the two of us. “I needed some myself anyway. A lot of it…”

  “What happened?”

  We passed two women also hand in hand, smiling and laughing with an ocelot on a leash sniffing around our feet. Further on, was a cluster of people, businessmen from the looks of it, chatting happily outside of one of the high-class restaurants. “There’s too many people here. Not now.” I didn’t say it with a tone at all, yet the timid boy still cowered down like a yelled-at dog.

  My footsteps picked up when I saw the pharmacy in the distance. Even though drugs had been illegal before the Fallocaust, the good ones anyway, it was Silas’s philosophy that there was too much money to be made in illegal substances, and instead of the criminals and the gangs getting the money, why not the Crown? They were regulated by Dek’ko, Silas’s corporation and the One Ring of the Fallocaust. Dek’ko ruled them all when it came to manufactured products, from pre-Fallocaust foods such as Fruit Loops, new foods like Good Boy and Fois Ras, to household items such as bath mats to couches, they all came from one giant company. There were three major corporations in Skyfall and the greywastes: Dek’ko that took care of most consumer goods, Skytech which covered all scientific research and technological advances, but also made electronics, and Crown Legion which made bullets, armour, weapons, anything to do with the Legion military or the thiens.

  Silas controlled all of them. He hadn’t just rebuilt the world; he’d rebuilt an economy. And one of the perks of living under Silas Dekker’s new world… was that you could buy Xanax at eleven o’clock at night on a Sunday.

  It was right next to the bubble-gum-flavoured powdered heroin.

  The two people behind the counter, a young lady and a middle-aged man with black glasses, both did a double take when Finn and I walked into the pharmacy. I didn’t feel like conversing with them so I grabbed the Xanax that I wanted, and because I suspected I may need it, I picked up some opiates as well. None of that heroin junk, just some hydromorphone to have for Silas emergencies.

  “Grab some Valium as well,” I said to Finn as I walked to the counter. “For sleeping, Xanax will knock you out, but it’s still good to keep around.” Silas never let me have these pills since my suicide attempt. It was nice that he trusted me again, but like all of Silas’s gifts, they had so many strings attached to them they looked like fuse boxes.

  I put the purchases on the counter, then realized something with a sigh. I had run out of there so quickly I didn’t have my wallet.

  Well, I was a prince. My family owned this pharmacy. “Give the bill to one of the thiens in front of Alegria,” I said to the man as he rung in the purchases. “I don’t have my wallet on me and I’m not going back to retrieve it.”

  The older man stared at me for a brief moment. I could see behind his eyes his brain spinning in circles, desperately looking for something to say back that wouldn’t be seen as offensive. It seemed this man was scared of me. In the state I was in, I found myself enjoying his fear. I may be powerless in my world, but at least the common arian was afraid of me.

  “Oh, it’s on the house tonight,” the man said with a friendly smile. “You enjoy your evening, Prince Elish.”

  Well, that worked too.

  Finn and I turned and left the pharmacy. His hand slipped into mine, the other one carrying our bag of drug, and we carried on towards Alegria. Ahead of me, I could see the shadows of Skylanders walking around, this road was busy tonight but I suppose it was Sunday and a lot of people were enjoying their day off. Still though, I disliked seeing so many people… especially since they could recognize me.

  My eyes narrowed when I passed three people dressed strangely. Their clothes seemed shabby and their eyes were everywhere, seemingly going over every corner and crevice of Sebastian Street, as if they thought a threat was looming.

  Then it occurred to me. Those were greywaster refugees.

  I wasn’t sure what truly triggered it. I think it was a byproduct of the trepidation, the anxiety and fear that was rocking me. Either way,
I found myself angry that these greywasters were walking around the elite district of Skyland, and worse still, the road that held the King of the World and his royal family.

  “Hey,” I said, turning around. Finn’s pulse shot to the sky at this, and his hand clenched mine.

  The three greywasters turned around. One was a man with auburn hair and a rough beard, another dirty blond, and the third a female wearing a stained pink dress.

  “Yes?” the man asked. I immediately didn’t like his tone. It sounded impatient which I found insulting. This dirty greywaster should be thanking me that I even acknowledged his existence.

  “What are you doing in this district?” I said to him coolly, the annoyance feeding and growing from his tone. “This is the elite district of Skyland and this is Sebastian Road where the king’s skyscraper resides.”

  The man looked at me and shrugged. “So what? We’re getting a feel for the city and walking around. Is there a law against that?”

  To my surprise, Finn let go of my hand and stepped in front of me. “Do you know who you’re addressing?” the sengil said heatedly.

  The auburn-haired greywaster glared down at Finn before he cracked an amused smile. “Some fancy elite, I’m assuming? Sorry, young man. We don’t have elites where I’m from. And if we did, they’d be dining on arm candy like you.” He laughed and turned around with the other two.

  “I wasn’t done speaking with you, scum,” I snapped. “When I tell you you can leave… you can leave.”

  “The last time I checked, elites don’t get to treat other district dwellers as slaves,” the man called as he walked away from us. My blood was well past simmering now; it was boiling within my veins. “You may look down your nose all you want, elite. You’re not better than me just because you’ve lived a soft life in luxury. We survived in the real world, a world that would have you crawling back into your momma’s cunt.”

  Finn gasped, and that was the last thing I heard before the roaring behind my eyes consumed all audible noises around me. The rage sliced me open from collarbone to navel, and the rolling laughter coming from the three parasitic greywasters filled that laceration with vinegar. There was no going back after that, nor was there any self-control inside of me to restrain myself, to prevent myself from making a scene. I was its willing slave, a desperate prince who had no dignity and pride when it came to his king, but when it was in regards to those who dwelled beneath my feet, I coveted every ounce of pride and dignity and protected it with my life.

  The man had no idea just how much of a mistake it was to insult me in that way, on this night.

  I grabbed him, my hand clamping around his neck before I’d even given my brain the signal to attack him. Around me I heard gasps as the herd animals witnessed this predator strike, but the only noises I wished to covet were the ones fearfully spilling from the greywaster’s lips.

  No, I wish not for whimpers.

  I like screams.

  I tapped into the altered touch that had been gifted to me before my birth, and as the man’s eyes bugged out of his ugly skull, I conjured up a white ball of lightning and forced the electricity into my hand.

  This brought out a satisfying shriek from my victim, one that had my ears ringing from the noise. But though his screams were satisfying, the reaction I was most fascinated with was the one going on inside of me.

  It was as if this crystal lightning, clinging to my fingertips like adhesive, was blasting away the storms of darkness that had been swirling around me since the conversation with Silas. Suddenly, if only for a brief moment, I was alive. I was a living, breathing chimera in his element… in more ways than one.

  It was wonderful, and I inhaled deeply this feeling of all-consuming power as it lit up my veins like it had come from the sky, and not the genetically engineered brain that had been given to me. I let it consume me, devour me alive, and to spoil myself further… I taxed the invisible muscle I used to control such abilities, and injected even more electricity into my victim.

  The next scream that exploded from his lips, was what brought me back to reality.

  And the smell wasn’t far behind.

  In front of me, dangling off of the ground, was the man.

  Or what had once been a man.

  His eyes had popped out of his skull from the pressure inside of his head, and those eyes had smoke wafting off of them, their whites encircled with bright red, as if they had become two lit cigarettes.

  The man’s mouth was open as well in a continued pig shriek of horror, all of his yellow-stained teeth bared for me to see, but lost as the smoke soaked through his soft pallet to fill his mouth like a clogged fireplace. Yes, there was smoke all around him. I observed, as the screams became a chorus, the grey smoke seep off of his head like the trunk of a dead tree that had gotten struck by lightning. He was burning from the inside out, and even though there was chaos around me, screams and discord now hand in hand, I found myself enjoying watching him burn. I almost felt spoiled by it.

  Then a hand grabbed my arm, and like that hand was cold water being dumped onto a warm bed where pleasant dreams were conceived, I was pulled away from the transfixing sight, and there I dropped my victim.

  The man fell to the ground and what was left of him groaned and twitched. Both the man and the woman ran to him, screaming apologies and crying openly. I spared them not a glance.

  Wordlessly, I turned around. And as if I was still a conductor of lightning, all those behind me leapt away and gave me a wide berth while I walked past them towards Alegria. There were many people around us now, but even if they were talking, shouting, screaming, I didn’t hear them over the liquid power that was rushing through my body like premium fuel mixed with nitro.

  I liked that. Once again, killing has offered me a brief light in this world of constant darkness. Like a hit of your drug when you were in the middle of detox, it offered such a reprieve I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel the beginnings of addiction.

  But the addiction wasn’t to murdering, not truly. As my steps were heard down Sebastian Street, my sengil’s meekly joining the rhythm, I searched myself and found the real source of my pleasure.

  Domination.

  I was developing a taste for it, and even though I knew it was a dangerous craving to have… I thirsted for it, desired it…

  I could taste it in my mouth… and it made me, if only fleeting, feel powerful.

  “Master…” I heard Finn whisper. There was quiet all around us now, I could no longer hear their screaming.

  But I could taste them on my lips.

  And what a delicacy it was. What a feeling inside of me. So dearly did I want to bottle it, keep it and consume it when needed. But like all pleasurable things, it was as fleeting as an orgasm.

  I inhaled deeply and realized the afterglow, the pleasurable twinges, were indeed like a climax. Yet what was rolling through me seemed to be the beginnings, the throes, and the afterglow all rolled into one.

  “Master?” Finn whimpered. He touched my arm. “Are you o-”

  I turned to the sengil, and as he let out a startled gasp at my suddenness, I grasped the side of his head with my hand and deeply I kissed him, right in the middle of that sidewalk.

  Finn’s gasp turned into a surprised moan, and his mouth opened with mine. We kissed, the cold, blue LED lights shining down on us, and, wanting to grasp every shred of that orgasmic feeling of domination, I slipped my tongue into his mouth and met his own.

  I could feel the sengil’s legs become weak. He was melting into my arms as I kissed him; his first kiss.

  From the reactions he was giving me, both inward and outward, I knew that this moment would be one that Finn would never forget. But little did he know, I was about to turn a moment of remembrance into an evening that would brand itself on his memory until his dying day.

  I broke our kiss, and for the brief seconds before he opened his eyes, I found myself stopping to admire the portrait in front of me. A waif of a boy, with an
innocence in his soul that perfectly mirrored his physical appearance. How much more angelic can one get with golden curls that tumbled down the porcelain face of this living cherub, one that was void of any and all flaws.

  And when he opened up his eyes, I saw that unique shade of tropical blue. A colour that was so vibrant it was as if they were both traps, set up by a predator just waiting for people to drown themselves in their depths.

  I leaned down and kissed him again, baffled deep down that I was feeling such a strong attraction to this boy. Here I was loving Julian with every inch of me, and yet as my tongue tasted this boy’s fragrant, sweet taste, I realized that I was lusting for him in a way I’d never had before.

  The blood drying on my face, my clothing, hinted of the true reason these primal urges were binding me tightly. But if I thought acknowledging this lust as actual bloodlust would stop me from taking Finn’s hand and sprinting with him down the street towards Alegria… I was dead wrong.

  Finn looked confused, perhaps even alarmed as he ran. His eyes asked me a thousand questions but none made it to his lips.

  “The… the people are gathering where… where you killed that man, Master Elish,” Finn whispered when we were a block away from the carnage. “Perhaps we should tell the thiens to make sure they don’t cause trouble.”

  I looked over my shoulder. Indeed, they were gathering, and if I had luck on my side it would be elites circling the greywasters to beat them into a fine powder. Either way, I cared not. What had been a trip for Xanax had transformed itself into an even better cure. And the two of us dearly needed a reprieve from the chaos that went on inside the walls of Alegria.

  The two of us sprinted into Alegria, Finn’s breath short from the running and a thin sheen of sweat on his temples. I had no intention of letting him catch his breath however, as soon as the elevator door closed I began to kiss him, only allowing him brief gasps for air while my lips explored the corners of his mouth and the edges of his chin which I realized I enjoyed nipping.

  “Master… you’re going to make me faint,” Finn said submissively. “I… I feel like I’m drunk.” I sensed hesitation whenever he would kiss me back; he didn’t know if he should be returning the affection or just allow me to take the lead on everything. This was interesting, in so many other ways I was training this sengil, and it looked like I would be training him in the art of sex as well.