Murder Genes

by Mikael Aizen

"It's because of you, you know. My brother was the reason they split up in the first place. Mom caught him hurting me, and dad didn't believe it. Mom became sure Jeff would kill me someday, but dad insisted that since he didn't have The Code, it was impossible. They fought and split apart." She looked down and that odd sound in her voice plagued him. But maybe it was Kyle. He’d changed, everything seemed weird nowadays. "That was just a month before Jeff died."

  "Didn't you tell your dad?"

  "No. I thought it'd make things worse. That they'd split up if I told them. After they split anyway, Jeff promised he'd hurt me bad if I told dad, since dad was in charge of us most the time and he really liked Jeff. He always would say that Jeff was the smart one."

  "I'm sorry."

  "It's better now, though," Callie said. "I know you didn't mean to, but, it is better. And you did it because you were brave and were trying to protect me. That's how I know you're nice."

  "But I killed your brother."

  "It was an accident, and it was for the better because God was using you."

  "God?"

  She gave him a funny look. "Yeah, God."

  "I don't believe in God."

  "Doesn't matter. He's there." She kept that funny look on her face.

  "Huh," was all Kyle could say.

  They kept walking around the lake, a few times around until the breeze that was barely there started to get cooler and breezier.

  They talked the whole time, though, like they were close friends. It was mainly Callie talking and him listening. She told Kyle about how her dad was a famous scientist and how he was always staring at things and talking about how things worked. She told him how her father like to study things in their natural environments, and how that was the best kind of scientist. She seemed proud of her father.

  When she asked him, he answered as if Tim was his father. Tim wasn't, but Kyle answered that way because it was easier.

  As they were talking about parents, Kyle saw a man with dark glasses and orange hair walking toward them.

  Callie saw the man too and she stopped in place. "That's my dad." She kept staring at her dad and her jaw got tight and then shaky.

  Kyle felt a sick feeling of wrongness descend around him. The feeling had disappeared while he'd been with Callie and only appeared for that brief moment when she'd been talking weird, but it was back, stronger than ever. The man walking toward them made Kyle feel like a bug and Kyle knew that he didn't like the man. Not one bit. And Callie, she didn't either, not deep inside. "What's wrong Callie?" he asked cautiously. A part of him told him to get away from her, that she was the dangerous one. But he resisted it and stayed, wanting her answer. Because it didn't look like she was proud of her father, or loved him.

  "I...I'm not supposed to say."

  "What is it?"

  "I've got to go."

  "Callie, you said that if we're gonna be friends..."

  Her lip was quivering obviously now. "I..." Her eyes went to her father. She swallowed. "It's all an experiment!" she blurted. "All of it--everything!"

  Callie's father was walking fast toward them, like he was worried that something was going wrong. "What's an experiment?" he asked urgently. "It's OK, I trust you Callie. Just tell me."

  She bit her lip. "You." Callie gave him a regretful look and shook her head. Then she took off toward her father and ran right past him. Her father looked at Kyle and behind at Callie and back at Kyle. Ever so slowly, he went after his daughter. He had a weird walk to him like he was a hunter in a forest, afraid to scare his prey.

  Be like a duck, Kyle thought to himself.

  Kyle continued walking around the lake like nothing was wrong back toward the car where Tim waited. He trusted Callie, more than anyone right now. Tim, Del, anyone. She was warning him that something was wrong, something he'd felt and known deep inside.

  He was the experiment she'd said.

  Kyle looked at the lake and though there was a breeze sweeping across it, and plants that stuck up out of the water, and a smell that smelled just like a lake would.

  He knew it couldn't be a real lake.

  He'd felt that creeping feeling like he was being watched again and he was still in the forest and he'd never left. Now he knew why. Because it was fake. Everything. Everything except Callie and what she'd told him.

  "Like a duck," he whispered to himself.

  Chapter 18

  As scientific progress in behavioral genetics gains credibility, searches for a cure for negative behaviors have begun in earnest. And who can blame them? From violence and aggression to hyperactivity, drug and alcohol abuse, antisocial personalities. A new realm of possibility.

  -Hound, Chester A. Colorado University Legal Studies. June, 2020.

  "You still do not wish me to remove it," Xiaos stated at him.

  "Nope." Jay took the pliers and squeezed, crushing one of the bells. His hand was weak and his head felt hot.

  "Gamer's dead, there is no point in..."

  "Yup," Jay cut Xiaos off. "Yup." he said again. He got the pliers around the next bell, squeezing that too. Two bells left.

  "Tell me again, Jay. Why will you not take the bells off?"

  "I like them," Jay answered dryly.

  Xiaos sat up, his chair struck the floor. "Please, your true reason, why? Why do you torture yourself?"

  Jay tossed the pliers onto Xiaos table and propped his legs up onto the desk, it took more effort than it was worth. "Seriously?"

  "Seriously."

  "You know I can't be that."

  Xiaos gave him a dry look. He looked a bit like a penguin.

  Jay pulled his feet back down. "If I'm serious, I become stupid," he started. "Stupid enough to convince myself that I'm allotted seven...kills...before I go insane and become a murderer like the rest of Morir. And why, you might ask, is seven such a special number?" Jay grabbed the bar with his existing hand and jabbed it forward, it jarred against his teeth. It hurt pleasantly. "Because there are fucking seven bells on this bar. That's why." He paused. "Sorry. I'm angry at Mike for making me waste a bell on his fat ass."

  "Sometimes you must kill to protect others," Xiaos said evenly. He hadn't taken the news of Mike well. His face still showed it.

  "Others worth more than those you killed?" Jay snorted.

  "Precisely. Sometimes you save more lives than the one you take."

  Jay shook his head, the lessened jingling was louder than he'd expected. He was getting a headache. Chances were that he had a fever too. "You're God now? Weighing lives like you're some kind of fucking deity? What about you? As leader of Esperanza, are you more valuable than two people? Ten? Or not even one?"

  "Some people deserve to die," Xiaos said.

  "Says who?"

  "Your logic is just as reasonable." Xiaos pointed to his own jaw where a bar would've been. If he'd been Jay that was.

  "No, but I like my logic. I'm a man with bells. That's all. It works. It's simple. It means something to me AND, it tells me that I, ain't, God. Or Satan--whatever." Jay looked at his arm. He could've been Satan. The two bones sticking out of his stump made him look like a modern day Reaper who liked to flay people with bits of his own flesh.

  "You should get Issak to look at that."

  "What, he's a fucking doctor too?"

  Xiaos frowned. "You’re overusing that word."

  "Fuck you." Once in a while, Xiaos got sensitive to cursing. Usually when Jay was mad at the world. It only encouraged Jay.

  "Issak’s the closest we have to a doctor. If you don't at least cover the injury, it'll rot your arm into your body and you'll die."

  If it hasn't already. The stump had gone red and puffy, even after Jay had cleaned it again it still looked irritated and mad. "I'll take my chances and wait for the nurse."

  "You're waiting another day." Xiaos stated, giving a skeptical frown.

  "Yup. I'm taking antibios, all right?"

  "You're wasting antibiotics. They are rare enough as it is, if you don't fix that
up, clean it and cover it..."

  "I'm not worth it?"

  "Of course you are..."

  "Then shut up, Xiaos," Jay snapped. He regretted it when Xiaos didn't react. The guy was a ice cube. He was frustrated and angry, things couldn't have gone any worse with Karah's rescue. And being in pain, no matter how sharp it made his senses, got tiring.

  "It doesn't hurt?"

  Jay lifted it with excruciating agony. His elbow felt dislocated a bit, even after Xiaos had pulled on it and did some martial arts move to put it back in. "Nope, doesn't hurt a bit."

  "Really?"

  "Shut up Xiaos," Jay said again, too tired to care.

  Xiaos gave him a disgusted grimace. "At least have someone wrap it up so I can't see your bloody bones sticking out and your skin rotting."

  "Rotting?" Jay looked at the threads of skin and veiny looking flesh hanging from his stump. Green stuff. "So it is. I'll do my best," Jay promised. He began tearing the stringy parts off his stump. Of course Jay would clean the wound again, take more antibiotics, and if it got bad enough he'd have Xiaos take one of his homemade swords and chop it off--bone and everything. He wasn't that dumb. But he'd promised to meet Karah. Any type of intervention right now could put him down for days. He couldn't afford days. Even if she didn't show up, he'd promised. Plus, there was something he needed to take care of first.

  Bitch. Fucking Bitch.

  Then Bitch walked right in through the door, alone. Jay stared.

  "Hey. Good to see you're alive," he said to Jay. He looked at Jay's hand. "Though not in one piece, I see."

  Jay couldn't believe it. "Where the hell have you been?" he asked. "Because I know it wasn't here since Xiaos' been searching for you ever since I went to Lair."

  "I left," Bitch answered, looking him in the eye.

  Jay stood up, wobbling unsteadily. He could feel his arteries pump and practically imagine the veins popping from his face. "Get over here." Jay pointed at the ground in front of him.

  Bitch didn't move. "What's your problem, Jay?"

  Jay snapped his fingers. "Down."

  "Fuck Jay, you're taking this dog thing too far. I left, I'm sorry. But I'm back now. I know I promised but..."

  "DOWN!" Jay bellowed at the top of his lungs. His blood pumped red spots into his eyes. He knew he wasn't himself right now. But he didn't care.

  Bitch looked toward the door except Xiaos had already moved behind him. "What the hell?" Bitch whispered. He walked forward and sat in front of Jay cross-legged, scowling. "Want me to wag my tail and pant, Master?"

  "Yes," Jay answered. "And beg, too."

  Bitch glared at him. "What?"

  "Wag, pant, and BEG! NOW!"

  Bitch didn't wag, pant, or beg, so Jay backhanded him across the face. Bitch took it full on and sprang to his feet with a furious look. "Do that again and I'll shit you up--chopped up arm or not and as bad as I'll feel doing it--I'll SHIT YOU UP!"

  Xiaos locked the door and knocked on it three times. Three meant "do not enter no matter what unless you hear my voice fucking tell you to."

  Bitch knew what it meant, too. His eyes got really big. "I screwed up and I shouldn't have snuck out. I get it. But this is overkill don't you think?"

  "Gamer's dead," Jay said

  Bitch nodded. "I know, I heard. High-five." He held a hand up and then switched hands with a glance at Jay's arm.

  "I spoke to him," Jay continued. "He said some interesting things."

  "Yeah?" Bitch answered warily. "I'm not going to run, you know. You'll think I'm lying if I do."

  "He said you've been working for him from the inside. Our inside."

  "He'd say that," Bitch nodded.

  "He knew I was coming."

  Bitch paused, then shook his head. "Not likely. But he might say that too, just to mess with your head."

  Jay began to doubt himself. He wanted to believe Bitch, but if Gamer had been telling the truth, Bitch was a much better liar than he could read. Could he really risk Esperanza on trust?

  "Damn." Jay said.

  Bitch nodded with a thoughtful expression. "You thought you'd torture it out of me, huh? Thought you'd get some answers if you broke me. Now you're realizing it'll never work because I wouldn't break even if I was betraying you, and if you tried torture anyway you might make me hate your ass for not trusting me. Not to mention your own funny conscience." Bitch shrugged. "Hate to break it to you buddy, but you'll never know for sure." He gave Jay an ironical smile. "Gamer was like that. He messed with people bad. He kept everyone paranoid and doggy-style under his bum." Bitch had a faraway look. "Even after I heard what you were doing--breaking all the Rules and rubbing shit in the Gamers' faces--it took time for me to squirm out and only because I made sure I was on your to-do list."

  Jay felt his blood pressure drop and fatigue moving back in. "Where'd you go these last days?"

  Bitch smiled. "Close to heart's home, I thought you might need help. I followed you, helped your distraction work. Pure cowinkadink that when you yelled in Korean, my distraction went into play." Bitch grinned. "I led them on a merry man-chase. Just got back from vacation today."

  True, the reaction to Kim Cho-sung's name had been bigger than he'd expected. But, did he really trust Bitch that much? "Goddammit," he said, sighing.

  "Yeah Jay, you can't really keep me inside forever anyway," Bitch said. "I'll find an out, I always do. Not unless you tie me S&M style and post guards who hate being bored around me. Or, who’d just kill me."

  Jay gave in. "I need your help, Bitch."

  "That is it? What just happened?" Xiaos broke in.

  "Yeah. That's it," Jay said. "He's right, what else am I going to do? We knew we never had Bitch squared in. We just said it to make ourselves feel safe."

  "We should hold him for at least today and tomorrow," Xiaos answered.

  "I'm too shaky to do it alone," Jay admitted.

  Jay could see Bitch’s mind putting together the dots. "You didn't get the girl, did you?" Bitch said. "And now you're planning on meeting her somewhere."

  "I cannot trust Bitch alone, Jay. She will not either, from how you've described her," Xiaos warned.

  Jay sighed. "You're right." Bitch and Jay would have to go together to meet Karah. Bitch was the only one who knew the pathways as well as--better--than Jay did. If something went wrong Jay would need him.

  "It's a gamble to trust me," Bitch said. "But if it makes you feel better, I'd never betray you."

  "It does," Jay answered. Sortof. "We meet Karah tomorrow at dawn. Pope's Hat. Xiaos?" Jay looked at the door.

  "She'd better be worth it," Xiaos frowned. "I'm putting up guards though, we're prepping for a fight."

  "I wouldn't have it any other way. Open the door, Xiaos," Jay said. "I've got to get my nap in."

  The fever only got worse. Jay felt that if he laid down too long he'd become a puddle of sweat. But they were halfway there and it wouldn't make any sense to turn back now, no matter how badly he gasped and shook and stumbled near collapse. "Bitch," he called.

  Bitch looked behind himself. "Yeah Jay?"

  Jay used his half-arm to prop himself up on the wall. He'd wrapped the end the best he could but it still hurt like hell--more of a slow coal burn with occasional sparks and flares. "What's your real name?" he asked.

  Bitch snorted. "I don't remember."

  Liar. Even from the back of the kid's head, Jay could tell. "You remember fine," Jay said. Either Bitch was good at pretending to be a bad liar or Jay should have a lot more confidence in his decision to trust Bitch.

  "Why do you want to know?" Bitch asked.

  "As much as I enjoy saying your name, I deserved to know your real name by now. Maybe start calling you something less dog-ish."

  "Probably," Bitch answered. "I prefer Bitch though."

  "Just tell me."

  Bitch nodded. "It's Chris."

  ...Chris. A common name, common and normal.

  It didn't fit.

  "Bitch is bette
r," Jay agreed.

  "Yup."

  The world spun around him. Jay fell to his ass. "Hold up again," Jay said, rubbing his eyes. Traversing darkness hadn't helped the disorientation and nausea.

  "As much as I'd like to, we won't make it if you take any more of these breaks. If you want, I'll go ahead and convince her to wait, but it might not work." Bitch offered.

  "No. You're right, we'll keep going. I'll be there to meet her."

  "You really like her," Bitch said. "I mean, I know she's hellish hot, but you hardly know her."

  Jay got up and waved Bitch to keep moving. He supported himself on the rocky walls as he walked. "There's a lot more to her than people see. I might only have spoken once or twice to her, but a troll could see that she cares about people. She doesn't deserve to be here."

  "And we do?" Bitch asked it like he was offended.

  Jay looked at his bells. "Has she killed anyone in Morir yet?"

  Bitch shrugged.

  "Even if subconsciously, she's figured out the only way to preserve her humanity in Morir." Jay took a gulp of a breath. He continued. "She's the only person here that I know that will be able to walk out someday, conscience squeaky clean. Not even Xiaos can claim that."

  "Walk out? You planning an escape?" Jay heard the skepticism in Bitch's voice.

  "Always have been," Jay answered. "I, for certain, don't have the smarts to get out of here. So I figure that if I can get enough people together with a common goal not trying to kill each other every chance they get, I have a much better chance jail breaking."

  "Damn Jay, that's actually pretty smart," Bitch said admiringly. "You planned this from the start?"

  "I planned to survive, first. But that fact alone makes me no better than anyone else here."

  Bitch led them to a path Jay recognized. They were close. "I think you're genius," Bitch said. "Day one you refused to play the game, day two you kept it that way, so on so fucking forth--I've never seen that before. That's what gave me the balls to join you. I figured that if I could grow peanuts compared of yours..."

  "You didn't have a choice," Jay said.

  "I did. Fuck Jay, you've seen only a fraction of what I've done."