The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 2 (The Fallocaust Series) (47 page)

“The third time he orgasms, in the throes of it, I have already ordered Sanguine to slash his throat –”

“What! Silas –” In a movement of pure stealth Silas grabbed Garrett’s mouth and held his hand over it. He kneeled onto the floor so he was face-to-face with Garrett.

Silas’s face was aflame and his grip tight, not a shred of empathy and humanity to be found.

But there was never any to begin with, perhaps hundreds of years ago when he was still human, but now? But now… No, he was a monster and Garrett knew it.

Which is why Garrett’s chest rocked, his brain jammed, and his stomach threatened to throw him over the edge. The chimera in that moment felt like he was going to have a nervous breakdown. He didn’t know what to do. What could he do? There was no winning situation here, there was nothing to be done but try and salvage what he could.

And the most important thing to him in his world was Reno Nevada.

“I will not play games with you, Garrett,” Silas hissed at him. His grip tightened around Garrett’s mouth. “I have no time for such idiocy. So I will make this simple: Tell me where Reaver is, or Sanguine will slash Reno’s throat. The order is already there, Garrett, and only you can stop it. Tell me right now or else Chally will be cleaning up the blood spray on the ceiling.”

Sanguine?
Garrett couldn’t move. Like King Silas’s words held a physical weight he keeled over, his back bowed and his head hung low. It wasn’t until Sanguine let out a sharp groan that he looked over to the intense acts that were still going on.

Would you do it, Sanguine? Even though – you know everything?
As Garrett’s eyes took in the heated sex between Reno and the other two he knew that mercy was an impossibility. If Sanguine resisted his loyalty would be questioned. No, Sanguine had no emotional attachments to Reno and in his eyes Reno’s job had been done; he had gotten the key card.

Sanguine would kill Reno, that Garrett knew was true.

A wave of dizzy nausea crept up Garrett’s throat like a bloated worm. In that moment he felt like he was leaving his body, flying up and through the ceiling far away from this situation, far away from Skyfall.
No, this couldn’t be happening… dear god. Elish, what do I do? I… I can’t lose him.

Then a loud moan. Garrett’s eyes shot back to Reno and he saw a flicker of silver in Sanguine’s leather boot. The silver of one of his hollow daggers that he always kept on his person. Silas had never been one to lie, but seeing the reality right in front of him drew Garrett even closer to the edge.

Reno was thrusting into Sanguine. The sengil rising up and down with his hands brushing dangerously close to the top of his boot. Drake’s face had changed in this time as well, and Garrett realized that the cicaro was in on it too. The orange-eyed, curly-haired chimera was watching Sanguine with a grisly smile on his face, his fingers thrusting in and out of Reno like he was trying to accelerate him to his peak.

“You’re hesitating?” Silas withdrew his hands from Garrett’s face. His eyes narrowed. He rose to his feet and when Garrett grabbed onto his shirt the king wrenched it away.

“Sanguine… do it.”

“NO!” Garrett suddenly screamed. As reality hit him like an arctic ice flow he jumped to his feet and ran towards Sanguine, just as the sengil was reaching to his boot.

With no more hesitations, no more buying time, Garrett tackled Sanguine and together the two of them tumbled to the floor. In a flash the sengil pushed Garrett off of him with a snarl, but not a moment later Garrett had Sanguine’s knife in his hands.

“Plaguelands!” The words came out as a strangled cry, a desperate noise that carried on it a sadness no one but Garrett truly understood.

He fell to his knees and with a cry he slammed the knife down onto the carpet. “He’s going to the plaguelands. Perish has Killian, they’re going there and Reaver is chasing them.”

“GARRETT!” Reno suddenly cried. He scrambled to his feet looking around in confusion, the only man out of the five who didn’t know what was happening.

But what happened next wasn’t what Garrett was expecting at all.

Silas stared at Garrett like he had just uttered black magic. He stared at him in a way that made Garrett’s heart palpitate; the mood around them quickly plunging into an even deeper darkness.

“P-plaguelands? Perish… Perish is taking Killian to the plaguelands? Up north? The highway near Melchai?” Silas’s tone dropped to a harsh whisper, an uneasy anxiety-riddled rasp that made even Reno shut up.

Garrett nodded and to everyone’s shock Silas stumbled back, almost falling until Sanguine helped steady him. The king looked stricken and pale, an uncharacteristic flow of anxiety radiating off of his body.

“That can’t… he…” Silas took a step back, shaking his head. “We need to stop him. We need to stop him. Garrett, he’s taking Killian to Sky’s old lab. It has the...”

Garrett shook his head, tears streaming down his face. He rose to his feet. “What? What does it have there?”

Silas looked at him, his lips tightened. The king stalked up to Garrett and grabbed his shirt; his teeth clenched tight and his green eyes wide.

Garrett could only stare back, bewildered.

“It has the machine we used to condense our radiation, you fucking fool. He’s taking Killian to that lab, ground zero of the Fallocaust. Sky’s O.L.S is trying to make Perish re-enact the Fallocaust, YOU FUCKING IDIOT!” Silas screamed. He raised his hand and smacked Garrett across the room, the chimera flying backwards and crashing into the side table.

“Sanguine, evacuate the family. Get Ellis on the phone. Immunity or not, take them to the Dead Islands. Get them as far away from ground zero as you can. NOW! Command them not to return until my signal. And get Elish, he won’t argue. Tell him… tell him Jade’s in danger and do not let him question me.”

“But... the chimeras are immune...” Garrett said weakly.

“The sestic radiation can condense and explode especially that much of it. I had entire cities melt hundreds of miles away from ground zero. It can happen anywhere it’s gathering, I won’t risk the family, not even Jade,” Silas said.

There was a flurry of activity around Silas as Sanguine and Drake dressed, though the king was still staring forward in shock, like he was in a stunned stupor.

“We must hurry. We must hurry.” Silas sunk to his knees, his face the colour of tallow.

“My love… my love is going to destroy the world… again.”

Chapter 55

Kiki and Sanguine

             
“You can spend as much time with him as you like. I will tell the thiens you have free access to my lovely back room, Kincade. Come here at your will and visit him. You can even hold his hand, though I would watch his grip. He seems to be slipping already and with one squeeze, he would break those fragile little fingers.”

“When… when will you let him out, Master Silas?”

“Oh, Kiki… you will be nothing but bones by the time I let him taste the outside air.”

The concrete was cold underneath Kiki’s cheek but he was the closest he could possibly be to Nero so that was okay. The young chimera closed his eyes and squeezed Nero’s hand and knowing that he could hear him he started talking to him in a subdued voice.

“And I made sure to feed your cats… Ares and Siris came over just yesterday to check in on me. It looks like Silas has no intentions of taking over the skyscraper but I was thinking of asking Ares and Siris to stay with me for a while. It’s lonely without you,” Kiki said.

He looked down at Nero’s pale hand. It was the only thing sticking out of the large square of concrete, everything else past his wrist was encased in a sealed tomb. Only a half of an inch of space between Nero’s dying body and then seven inches of concrete.

Kiki looked behind him and felt a cold shudder go through him when he saw the other concrete prisoners. Five of them, all immortal chimeras whose names were not allowed to be mentioned. All chimeras who at one point in time had made King Silas angry enough to forbid their very immortal existence. They were now locked inside their mental dungeons, starving and dying only to resurrect in the same maddening darkness.

And now Nero, the man that Kiki loved and admired more than anything, was doomed to the same fate. He would slowly starve inside of his eternal midnight and die, then emerge in the same blackness only to die again several days later. With no eyes, no voice, and nothing but a tube for his nose and a hand for Kiki to squeeze.

But Kiki knew he could hear him; Nero squeezed his hand whenever he asked. Nero even twisted Kiki’s raccoon ring on his finger as if Nero wanted to make sure it was really him.

He had given me this ring because I was his little raccoon. He gave it to me and I knew it meant he liked me more than the others.

Kiki had stayed with him every night since it happened, only leaving to make sure all of Nero’s pets were fed and to get something to eat. He would come back and tell Nero all about his day, even though when Nero was free he had often told Kiki to shut up. But the sengil knew his master didn’t care right now; he was the only thing that was keeping Nero on the fringes of sanity.

So I will be here… for as long as I can be.

The young chimera, only sixteen years old, leaned down and kissed Nero’s hand slowly before resting his cheek against it. He looked up at the grey concrete, finding it hard to believe that his master, in his entirety, was underneath it.

“I… I heard from Sanguine that… it helps them when you tell them what day and time it is. He says it helps them stay in reality and not get too lost in their own minds,” Kiki said quietly. “It’s Wednesday and it’s 12:30 pm. I’ll tell you that everyday if you wish.” Nero squeezed his hand at this. Kiki smiled and squeezed back.

Though his smile turned into a frown before his lips disappeared into his mouth. He knew it wasn’t appropriate to say it but he did anyways.

Kiki took a deep breath and twisted his raccoon ring around on his middle finger. “Why did you do it, Master? You must’ve known Silas would eventually find out… I wish I had had the authority to tell you no. I thought you would know better.” His brow creased as he thought back to those weeks in the Cardinalhall Mansion. It had been fun doing those things to Reaver but in the end… look at where they were.

“They tell me you deserve this but I can’t stand to see you like this. It seems to go against the very fabric of the universe. You’re a powerful beast, a god, and now you’re…” Kiki flinched as Nero clenched his hand hard but he continued on, “And now you’ve been removed from my life. Master… I didn’t want to tell you this but…”

Kiki took a second breath and ran his face down his hands. He closed his eyes and sniffed. “King Silas is sending me into the greywastes; he says I am going to be given to Theo to be his servant and cicaro. Theo, of all people. Theo’s a mad hatter and Grant lets him get away with everything. Silas even says he filed his own teeth down to points.”

Nero clenched Kiki’s hand tight. The young chimera set his teeth and tried to resist the pain but a moment later he gasped and cried out as the brute chimera’s grip became molten steel.

“I’m sorry. What can I say? I have no rank, Master. What King Silas says I have to do. Do you think I want to be given to him?” Kiki cried. He tried to pull his hand away but Nero wouldn’t let him go.

“What can I do? There is nothing I can do…” Kiki’s eyes started to burn. “I wasn’t created to be a hero, Master. I was created to be a cicaro and a sengil. What can I do?”

The rough concrete met his face again as he leaned his forehead against the cold tomb. He moved his head to the left and saw the five other tombs standing in the frozen darkness. They were silent right now but usually at least one of them could be heard moaning or gasping for air. They must be sleeping or perhaps resurrecting inside of their coffins.

What can I do?
Nero’s grip loosened and Kiki slowly pulled his hand away, never taking his eyes off of the only piece of his master he had now.

There must be something I can do.

“Kiki?”

Kiki looked over his shoulder, a tall shadowed silhouette was in the door.

“Come to visit the living dead?” Kiki sniffed and rubbed Nero’s hand caringly.

Sanguine nodded and pattered into the room, wearing coat tails today and a white cummerbund below his red bowtie. He silently walked over to Kiki and kneeled down beside Nero’s hand. The sengil of Silas Dekker grazed his fingers along Nero’s hand before looking up at the concrete brick.

“Hello, Nuky… are you feeling madness yet?”

Sanguine and Kiki both looked down and watched Nero’s hand move until he successfully gave Sanguine the middle finger. The sengil-chimera chuckled before taking Nero’s hand into both of his.

“He still has his sanity, Kiki, but it will not be for long. Soon he will stop responding to your voice. Soon he will even stop squeezing your hand. Nero and I both know this. We know what happens…” At the mention of him Sanguine looked behind his back at a concrete tomb that was oddly covered in pink heart stickers. He smiled sadly before brushing Kiki’s hair back.

“Do you have the strength to endure what this will put you through? Do you know what it’s like knowing a loved one is in there?” Sanguine asked. A flicker of sadness came to his eyes and Kiki was sure he almost saw wetness.

“Nero is all I have, Sanguine,” Kiki responded. “I love him.”

“All sengils love their masters.”

“I
really
love him… one day I want to marry him.” The look Kiki had was that of any teenager gazing upon their first love; though Sanguine had been a teenager himself and he knew not to discount or belittle the boy’s feelings. Chimera teenagers were hard enough to reason with but they became worse when you tried to downplay the love they were so sure they were feeling.

Jade’s devotion to Elish said a lot about teenage love. It can be intense, overpowering, and chaotic… especially when the man you love is a ninety-one-year-old immortal chimera with too much pride.

Though it had taught Sanguine one thing – a young chimera in love was an unstoppable force, but one that could be used and manipulated.

Sanguine smiled; his eyes squinting as they so often did. He put a hand on Kiki’s black hair and brushed it back.

The young man’s brilliant copper eyes looked up at Sanguine, and the demon-chimera smiled even more inside of his head when he saw the deep pools of sadness that lay in each one.

“Walk with me, little one.” Sanguine rose to his feet. Though he glanced to the concrete tomb that was covered in stickers and, while Kiki was getting up, he walked to it and gave it a kiss.

“I wonder if he knows… how close he is to Nero,” Sanguine said, more to himself than Kiki, before turning from the tomb.

They left the room and walked down the elegant hallway full of paintings and sculptures, but to Kiki’s surprise when they went to the elevator Sanguine pushed the button for the roof.

“Silas will be leaving Alegria and Skyfall shortly,” Sanguine commented. His red eyes flicked up to the ceiling before the corners of his lips rose.

Kiki was quiet, only staring at his hands, imagining Nero’s burly strong fingers slipping into his. He missed him and Kiki’s mind was with his master, not what Sanguine was saying to him.

The elevator doors opened to the roof of Alegria. Sanguine stepped out onto the roof, his leather boots with a high heel clacking against the asphalt ground. Kiki watched him warily as the demon-chimera casually sauntered up to Silas’s personal Falconer, his fingers flexing and waving like he was singing a tune inside of his head.

Kiki followed, though his copper eyes continued to look behind him just to make sure the elevator doors were going to stay open. He felt apprehension at being up this high with only Sanguine. Though the sengil had never harmed Kiki, he had heard enough stories about Sanguine to be wary.

Sanguine traced a finger along the plane’s shiny black metal before grabbing onto the outside handle and sliding the door open, then he jumped inside.

Kiki quietly walked over to the Falconer and saw Sanguine opening up the several wooden crates that were always inside of the plane. They were full of supplies mostly: parachutes, survival food, powdered water, and pills and liquid to stem the radiation for any non-chimeras who might be travelling along.

“Yes, that will do…” Sanguine mumbled.

Kiki froze when the Sanguine’s eyes shot to him, it always seemed like the sengil was grabbing him with those red eyes. Corrupting and tainting him with nothing more than a blood-filled stare. The demon-sengil had a look to him that matched the calmed madness inside of his head. A madness that no one knew but the demon himself.

“Yes, this will certainly do.”

Chapter 56

Killian

The grey sun had started to shine through the haze that covered the plaguelands, beams of light that shone through the overcast sky with a half-hearted brilliance. Like an underpaid worker its attempts to burn the smoke fell short of anything that could be called sunlight. But it did try, though whether it was because it was its duty, or because it could do nothing else... I didn’t know.

And as was my own duty I carried on behind Perish. My feet soaked in blood and my lips so chapped my rough skin was coated in a thin, crusted layer of red. I had no more facial hair. It had fallen out, the same with the slaves. The only man out of all of us who still looked like a human was gliding ahead, long and sure steps like he couldn’t get to his location fast enough.

I stayed in his wake, the slaves behind me plotting the best way to eat me. I could hear their voices in my head when the silence got too loud. Each and every one of them and the hundred others I could hear inside of my damaged mind, telling me again and again that I would taste nice.

I bet you would taste nice.

I’m not going anywhere.

Whatever you say.

I turned around and saw crimson spots behind me. Though the grey ash had caked itself against my bloodied boots I was still leaving behind a trail. This was familiar to me, though I didn’t know how it was. I think at one point in my life I had left a blood trail for someone. I didn’t know who though, every time I tried to think of what my life was like before Perish the voices got angry at me.

The best meat is in the ass, just wash it good and take off that thick layer of skin – it’s sweet and juicy. The next bit would be the thigh, and don’t discount those ribs. If you can find a pressure cooker you’ll be living like a king.

Live like a king – I lived with a king.

My boots scraped and I pivoted. I turned around with my eyes wide as I saw Danny approaching us. I hadn’t even noticed he had fallen behind. He stumbled up to Perish; his face peeling in thick white sheets, the bright pink showing through like his skin was old blistered paint.

“We need to rest. Edward’s ready.”

Edward’s ready.

Edward – is – ready.

Behind me I could hear thin rasping breaths, deep inhales that sounded like a suction after it had cleared all the water away. It was the sounds you would hear in a horror movie, when they would run into a pitch-black room only to realize they had trapped themselves inside with the monster

I turned around and slowly drew my gaze up to the slave.

Edward was on his knees, his head bowed and his shoulders moving up and down to accommodate his deep, scratching breaths. His clothing was strained grey with outlines of yellow pus from the sores that had burst all over his body. These sores had rotted straight through his skin, all the way down to the bone which shone in a brilliant white unsuited for this slate terrain.

The slave drew his remaining hand up to his face and even in the throes of my own madness I felt myself take a step back from him.

Edward had chewed the tips of his own fingers off, this fact displayed on showcase as he put his index and middle finger into his mouth and bit down on them, long huffs of air escaping from his nostrils as his mouth chewed his own flesh. He looked at us as if confused; his eyes holding a thin yellowed film.

Perish handed me his assault rifle and I held it. He walked to Edward and knelt down beside him before reaching into his bag and grabbing a penlight.

“We were fascinated as all hell when we saw what the radiation was doing to the survivors,” Perish said in a casual tone. I saw Danny’s face twist and Teejay look away. I knew they didn’t appreciate Perish’s nonchalant attitude.

“Some of them became these crazed beasts, like a zombie with rabies and a bit more intelligence. Some of them became dull-witted and dense, good for feeding the survivors but not much else. We decided to separate them and class them as subhumans, for eating or just hunting for sport.” Perish put his pen back into the bag and Edward’s face flopped back down. “They bred and continued to evolve into their traits... soon we had rats and ravers.”

Perish got up and nodded to me. “Shoot him, Killian.”

I stared at him for a second and looked down at the assault rifle. I held it in my hands and took a step towards Edward.

Danny and Teejay both cleared away, their dead, soulless eyes staring at me with weighted agony. Though no one made a move to stop me and I made no move to stop myself. One less slave to try and eat me; though Edward hadn’t spoken in days he still spoke a lot in my head.

I wonder if he will still talk in my head when I shoot him. I shouldn’t be too sad then. Though my head was an auditorium of many voices, I would recognise his. He had been the one to try and save us.

No, no… he had been trying to eat me, not save me.

Edward was making no move to run or plead for his life. He only stared at the ground, his hand in his mouth as he chewed on his own fingers, more blood speckling the grey, hitting the rocks with a light sound.

Like drip drip drop little April showers.

I think it was April now. No... it was May.

You died in April or May, Edward. I’ll remember that.

I pulled the trigger and Edward’s body snapped back. In a heap he fell backwards, his milky eyes staring off into nothing as the pool of red grew underneath his head.

Goodbye, Edward.

Now you’re... Deadward.

Danny swore and Teejay sniffed. I whirled around from fright as I saw a shadow beside me but it was only Perish. He rested a hand on my shoulder and patted it.

“Good little lunatic. Okay, let’s go.”

“Wait… we need to get some of his meat.” Danny’s boots crunched and I heard scraping as he turned Deadward onto his side, then with a final push he rolled him onto his back.

“No, the lab isn’t far, leave him for the radrats.” Perish motioned me to follow him and I obediently shadowed his footsteps, still holding the assault rifle in my hands.

“Fuck that! Are you fucking joking?” Danny said in a hoarse voice. I turned around as I heard an odd noise and saw Danny twisting and pulling Deadward’s fingers off, a rope of tendon following behind the now severed digit. He quickly stuffed it into his pocket, only giving Teejay a quick glance as the second slave kneeled down and started trying to cut Edward’s remaining arm with a jagged rock.

I watched them as Perish’s steps got further away. Danny pulled Deadward’s pants down, his white pale ass exposed to the irradiated air. Desperately Teejay started trying to slice the flesh, exposing yellow pockets of fat with each slash, the entire time giving Perish fearful glances as the scientist walked further away from them.