The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 2 (The Fallocaust Series) (9 page)

“Sit beside me, grab some meat,” Perish said as he glanced over to me. “Did you feed the slaves?”

I nodded. The slaves got raw meat, the disgusting Ratmeal was far away in the resort we had left behind. The slaves were happy and thankful to have some real food, though I still couldn’t look them in the eye after Perish cut Edward’s fingers off. It was my fault, I should’ve obeyed him.

Reluctantly I sat beside Perish and picked up a skewer of meat. The skewer was an old radio wire we had found inside of this building.

Perish saw me staring at it. “The televisions stopped working...” he said suddenly. “But radio was still working. That was the only way we could get updates, to figure out what was happening. And where the Russians were dropping the bombs.”

That’s right; of course he was around before the war. A silly realization since I had known he was Silas’s age, but hearing him talk about the times before the radiation... there was only one other person left in the world that could tell you about those times.

“Was that because all the electronics got fried?” I asked. The sestic radiation fried the electronics and now every one we scavenged needed to be manually fixed before it could work again.

“That came later.” Perish shook his head and started chewing on his piece of meat. “The Government started to control the media. In retaliation the people rose up and started bombing buildings and causing havoc. They were accusing the Government of padding just how devastating this second Cold War had become and their plans to bomb the Kremlin. In response the Government shut all media down and the Government services, and when the war got even worse the government said
fuck it
and shut down too. After that all we had was radio.” Perish looked around the house. “Silas, Sky, and I stayed in a place not too unlike this house for a long time. Until we decided it was time to put a stop to all of this. We decided to try and stop the bombs.”

“Did... did the Government make him release the radiation?”

Perish shook his head. “No, they didn’t even know we existed. What Silas did and what Sky did... it was all them.”

“How did they do it? How do you release all that radiation? I mean... it covers the entire world now. It killed or mutated everything that wasn’t in Skyfall.”

Perish stopped for a moment; his lips downturned.

“Fear,” he replied slowly. “Hatred, fear, and just finally... being done.”

I remained silent but there was no silence to the eerie feeling that was creeping inside of this room. It seemed to scream inside of my head a thousand cautions as Perish continued to speak. “All of us held the ability to create sestic radiation. Silas knew about his abilities and when he found us... he taught us too.”

Then he smiled. “He knew we were real born immortals when he doused us with his sestic radiation. We didn’t die from radiation poisioning he knew we were also born immortals. He was thrilled, it had been a long time since he had found other born immortals.”

Then Perish chuckled. He looked at me and I saw a glint in his eye. “Did you know you can make a greywaster immune to sestic radiation? It’s tricky but with the right dosage at the right time...”

I stared at him confused. In response he grabbed my hand and stared down at them.

My confusion grew as my Geigerchip suddenly started to hum. At this he chuckled again before removing his hands from mine. As quickly as it came the radiation warning stopped buzzing.

Then he carried on, “After the Fallocaust happened, far from Skyfall, Silas and Sky came back. I was looking after the survivors underground, safe from the radiation; I kept them in the sewers. Oh, I remember how different Silas and Sky were. I remember the radiation radiating off of them It almost looked like they were… they were glowing white.”

Perish paused and I watched the creases on his face deepen as he dove deeper into his old memories. Memories that I knew must’ve belonged, at least in part, to Sky.

“I remember it was then that Silas climbed to the top of Alegria, to clear away the radiation surrounding Skyfall. Sky was with him? Yes, I believe Sky was with him. I remember there was a white... there was a white light that I could taste on the air. I ran out of the sewers and looked to see a figure on top of Alegria, drawing in this invisible radiation like he was a black hole drawing in galaxies. It was beautiful. So powerful – Silas is so powerful.”

Perish stared at his hands. “Silas died clearing out that radiation but, of course, he came back.”

Perish reached a hand up and stroked my face. I was too shocked by his words to do anything other than stare. “Silas was a lot like you back then, Killian. Which is why I love you, and which is why I am going to have to let
him
do this to you. If only because the reward outweighs your pain.”

I pulled away. “Who? Who’s him?” I didn’t understand.

Perish didn’t move and I wondered if he wanted to tell me, but I knew he wouldn’t.

Sure enough, not an answer or the beginning of an answer broke Perish’s lips. So I decided to turn the conversation. I didn’t know if it was a smart thing to do, to get him to continue talking, but I felt compelled to.

“Why did Silas end the word?” I asked. “We were told Silas ended it because it was already ending... he just... quelled its suffering.”

Perish stared at the fire. “We wanted to do good.” He glanced around, at the collapsed ceiling above us and the burnt-out studs around the living room we had made shelter in. “And we did. Though no one but Silas and I know how bad the war was. So to everyone else... we’re just evil. They didn’t see just how bad it got. How destroyed the world was before the Fallocaust.”

He smiled thinly. “The world deserved what ended up happening. We just showed it what it had done to us. We showed the world our hurt.”

Then Perish held his palms out to the flames and I watched the orange fire lick his pale hand. “I wonder what you’ll do to the world, to show it what it had done to you? I wonder what Reaver will do, when he finally realizes what I plan on doing to you.”

“You won’t do a thing to me or Reaver,” I suddenly said. I flinched away as Perish’s eyes shot to me.

I swallowed the fear inside of me and against my better judgement I said to him, “I won’t let you.”

But he only smirked. I cringed as he raised a hand and touched my lips with a brush of his finger. A hungry look in his eyes; one I knew all too well.

“I love you, Killian. I know as time goes on I will stop showing it but I do. I’ll never forget when you proved to me how much you loved me too.”

I knew he felt this way, but him putting his own feelings into words always made my gut twist. I knew I had to choose my words carefully, and I knew that the truth was not welcome here.

“I love you, Perry.”

I casted a sideways glance at Perish and watched his face, though there was no change not even when he spoke.

“I know, and you don’t deserve to suffer in this world so, which is why I need to do this to you. I will end your suffering, Killian, as you tried to end mine.” Then his expression changed. I could see his calm face darken and twist, until it became like a black pit, pulling all the light into him and making it dark.

“You don’t need to… to do this, Perry,” I said in a calm but subdued voice.

Perish’s dark face seemed to burn away the fleeting glimpse of love I had seen. And when he opened his mouth to talk to me, it was as if a new person was speaking through his lips. A dark person with a deep, sneering voice that sent a cold chill up my spine.

“You’re an idiot, Killian,” Perish suddenly growled. “Reaver and Silas belong together. The strands of Sky that he has guarantees that. These born immortals... they belong together. You’ll see it as I had to see it. Deities that will always draw each other like magnets. No matter what... they will be attracted to each other. Just like Silas’s chimeras will always be attracted to him. Silas will get Reaver, no matter how much it hurts you. If you are smart –”

I jolted away as he leaned in to kiss me, surprised by not only the kiss but his sudden attitude and topic change. But a moment later Perish grabbed the back of my head and pushed me into his lips. I gasped, and he took full advantage of my open mouth.

I stayed still and let him, I was too scared to move and I didn’t know what would happen if I did.

Finally after what seemed like forever, he separated our lips.

“You should give into me quickly. It’ll hurt less this way,” the dark voice inside of Perish growled. I had an eerie feeling inside of me, a feeling that I wasn’t speaking to Perish right now.

I pulled away from him quickly. I couldn’t hold back the disgust at the mere suggestion. “Get away from me... what you want isn’t going to happen. We’re not going to be together, Perish. I love you as a friend but...”

Perish grabbed me, his hand grasping behind my head. He pulled me in for another kiss but this time I shoved him away.

“If you don’t let me kiss you, I’ll make you sleep with me.” Perish’s dark tone dropped, plunging into those dangerous octaves I knew all too well. The once tense but quiet atmosphere around us suddenly becoming hostile. “So I would just go with it until I teach you to like it.”

I got up, walked out of the living room, and started walking up the stairs.

“Last chance, Killian,” the dark voice inside Perish called. I ignored him and continued up the stairs, daring a single tear to come to my eyes. I was stronger than that now.

Then I heard rustling beside me and suddenly a commotion. I paused to listen and to my horror I started to hear the slaves screaming.

Panic rushed through me. I flew back down the stairs and burst into the room we had been keeping them in. I cried out as I saw Perish beating Danny with the wooden leg of a kitchen table.

“Stop!” I shrieked. I tried to grab the table leg out of his hand but Perish swung it at me, catching me in the shoulder. I cried out and grabbed my arm, watching as his blazing blue eyes stared me down.

“Okay... okay!” I screamed, tears running down my face. I fell to my knees, clutching my throbbing shoulder. Seeing Danny in the corner of my eye groaning, blood covering his face. “I’ll let you kiss me just... please stop hurting them.”

Perish glared at me; he took a step towards me, the table leg still firm in his grasp. I clenched my teeth as he put the piece of wood to my chin and made me look up at him.

Then Perish knelt down in front of me, and with a soft smile he ran his hand along the welt now forming on my shoulder. In a disturbingly caring way he soothed the pain with his hand, now iced cold to the touch.

I whimpered. Perish shushed me as his touch became colder and colder, quenching the hot, throbbing hurt from his own hand.

Then he leaned in and kissed me on the lips, his mouth opened, and I felt his tongue graze mine.

I choked and stifled another sob, and feeling my chest well with shame, I met his tongue with my own. With tears streaming down my face we kissed deeply, the slaves’ eyes staring at us in the darkness.

Chapter 39

Reno

There were legionaries on the walls of Aras. I think that above everything else disturbed me the most. There shouldn’t be legionaries there, it should have been sentries. Sadii, Matt, Jess, Owen...

Reaver.

Instead I saw the black combat armor and the blue uniforms underneath. All of the stone-faced legionary soldiers holding their assault rifles, staring off into the greywastes.

Staring at me.

It was silent when I approached them, the realization as to why that was was obvious. The deacons were all dead or maybe they had escaped into the wasteland, I wasn’t sure.

Either way... Aras had changed, and at this point I wondered if I would ever see it back at its past glory.

“What’s your business here?” a soldier asked crisply. He looked down his nose at me and I heard the familiar noise of people drawing their guns.

“I used to live here,” I said back. “I am Reno Nevada and I want in.”

They exchanged glances. I let out a breath, feeling my shoulders slump.

“And what is your business here, Reno Nevada?”

I stared at the chain-link gate, and behind the crisscross wires I could see the structures off in the distance, the ones I used to explore with Reaver. We were only two and four when we first started going into abandoned buildings together. Seeking out anything and everything we could use to entertain ourselves.

My view of the inside of Aras was broken up by another figure. He was standing behind the fence with his arms crossed.

“We asked you your business.” This one’s voice held more hostility to it than I felt okay with. I swallowed hard and shrugged my shoulders.

“I... I don’t know... I just wanted to...”

I had just wanted to go home. I had only wanted to go and knock on Reaver’s tank hatch, curl up on his couch with some drugs and Mario Kart so we could hang out like we used to. Feel him relaxed and content, with Killian sitting beside him bugging the cat or strumming on his guitar.