Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (43 page)

I started untying them, and as I did I slid out of my loafers.

“Can you tell King Silas I’m sorry, and I’ll be going away for a few days?” I said to Garrett as I pulled his shoes off and started lacing them on my own feet. I quickly realized I didn’t know how to tie shoes though so I just made several knots.

Garrett’s glassy eyes didn’t move, but his head made a twitching motion like he was trying to make it look up at me, he wasn’t doing a good job though.

“Party floor?” Garrett said in an asking voice. “Polly-wolly… Ah-Artemis… floor?”

“Ah, sure,” I said and put my loafers onto his feet. “Just tell Silas I’ll be back. I just need a bit of… time by myself.”

“Okay, we’ll p-parthy some other time, it’s s-sokay.”

The elevator would stop on every floor because of me mashing the buttons, so I let Garrett be on the elevator carpet and walked down the lobby towards the door.

I glanced behind me once as the doors closed. Though the guilt overwhelmed me, and the incident that sparked my outburst was still glaring in my mind, I felt an odd sense of calm.

Perhaps even the most insane had their moments of peace. Or maybe my emotions had finally burnt out; the flames had been ravaging me for quite awhile.

When I opened one of the glass doors to outside I paused. Feeling the early morning air on my burning face. It was a small comfort, but the cold air did feel nice against the flames.

“Would you like me to call you a driver, Master Dekker?”

I jumped and looked to my left to see a thien, dressed in black with a red trim. He had an assault rifle on his back, and a bullet proof jacket that I think was combat armour.

“No…” I said hurriedly. “I just… need to be by myself.”

I looked around, though I had no hoody to pull over my head. I was unshaven, with twisted, oily black hair, I was a wreck with no clothing to bundle myself in.

So I wrapped my arms around myself and gave the thien a mumbled goodbye. Then I walked off into Skyland, leaving Alegria, the king I had injured, and my family, off in the distance.

The sun was starting to rise, and with it my own anxiety was rising as well. People were starting to crawl out of their buildings. Some holding hot cups of liquid, dressed in suits and ties, and others putting out food carts that carried on its heels some wonderful smells.

It was strange to be inside such a huge city that actually had people living inside of it. The only big city I had ever been in was the one with the celldwellers and it had been entirely abandoned for good reason. Skyfall had the same tall buildings, broken up by double-lane roads, but everything had been repaired or was in the state of being repaired. There was washed brick, intact windows, and most of the buildings had a peaceful cold glow from the hanging lamps inside. Not even bluelamps but real LED lights that were attached to wires that snaked through the building’s interior. No extension cords here, it was like the cities on the television.

Though the wear was still apparent. The pavement was patched to the point where it was equally dark, new pavement and light, cracked pavement. The cars that were on the road were rusty and some missing windshields entirely.

Though most of the Fallocaust could be seen on the buildings in the distance, the ones in the other districts. I had seen this from my view on the patio. Hundreds of ruined buildings, some of them half-collapsed or in such a state it seemed like the only thing holding them up was the collective will of those who lived underneath them. They were buildings that wouldn’t be able to be renovated, but, from the looks of it, were in the process of being scrapped and salvaged. Their bodies would be dismantled and taken apart, only to be used to repair the other structures. It was like the greywasters in a way: we eat one another so their meat doesn’t go to waste.

I turned my attention away from a man with a food cart talking to another man in a truck that had Dek’ko farms on the side, and went inside a building I had eyed up from half a block away. They advertised apartments and that was exactly what I had been looking for.

Immediately my anxiety rose. The inside of the building was like the entrance to Alegria but, of course, not at all as elegant. It was just an open room with chairs and tables to one side, and a reception desk on the other. There were inside plants too that were a beautiful shade of green.

Before I could stop myself I walked over to one of the plants and touched a leaf. The leaf was the shape of the club on a deck of cards and was not only green, but the inside part of the leaf was a lighter shade of green.

I pulled on a leaf and popped it into my mouth, though as soon as I bit down a sour, unpleasant taste filled my mouth so I spat it out onto the pot of dirt.

“Hey!” a man suddenly called. “Bums aren’t allowed in Skyland. Get out before I call the thiens and don’t eat my fucking–”

As soon as I looked over to him the man, a balding man with glasses, froze in a state of shock. I flushed, embarrassed over my appearance, and looked at the ground.

“Are you… are you a chimera?” the man suddenly stammered, before to my amusement he dropped to one knee and bowed until his nose touched the ground. “I’m extremely sorry, young prince. I didn’t recognize you, please forgive me. Take the plant home, it would be my honour, it was my grandmothers.”

I stared at him and pulled off another leaf, even though I had spat the last one out. I nibbled on the edges, the taste a little less potent now.

“Do you have apartments?” I asked, not knowing what to say to him bowing to me, and even less: what to say to him calling me a young prince.

The man slowly got to his feet, his limbs stiff from old age, then adjusted his glasses which had become ajar on his face. “Oh, yes, of course we do!”

I nodded and took out my black card. As he gave me a confused look I handed it to him. “One apartment, please.”

The man glanced down at it, and the confusion he had on his face only got more apparent. “One… you want to buy an apartment?”

I nodded. “I need to move into it right now.”

“Right… now?”

I nodded again.

The man went behind the counter and put my black card on the table. He then clicked a few times on a big computer before glancing at my card.

“Well, Master Sanguine… I have two apartments for sale right now. One has a family that will be living in it until it sells but the last one, a two bedroom, is for sale. Would you like to go see it?”

I shook my head. “No.” I thought back to some of the choice places I had spent my childhood. I had pretty low standards. “Does it have furniture?”

“Yes, we currently have furniture in it for showings. We usually include furniture for an extra cost but…” He shifted nervously before wiping his creased forehead. “If you promise not to tell our king I called you a bum, I’ll throw it in for free.”

I was finding all of this strange and odd until I remembered something that King Silas had told me. That the Skyfallers were subservient to us, and rather terrified of us too. He had said I could walk up to anyone and ask them for something that they had and they had to give it to me.

I was a prince… that was a hard rock to swallow. I wonder what Nana would say if she found out I was a prince. I wonder what Gill would say.

Or even Jasper.

What would Jasper think of this? I wonder if he would be surprised I was talking to people on my own and that I was outside in the city.

“Okay, I won’t,” I said to him and I saw a visible look of relief on his face. I guess insulting a chimera was a pretty harsh offence. He was sweating bullets and seemed just as anxious as I felt all the time.

“There are some papers for you to fill out…” the man said slowly. “The deed and all of that…”

“Not now,” I said to him. “I just would like the key. In a couple days, three or four perhaps. I need time to get myself back.”

I burned the king’s face. I knew he was immortal but… I didn’t know how it worked.

The man nodded slowly and pulled open a drawer. He started rooting through it, shifting around papers before he produced a key with a leather circle as a keychain. He slid it over and I took it.

“I’ll get one of the housekeepers to bring you back your card and the invoice in a few days, nothing will be charged until you sign the forms,” the man said. “My name is Jan. I own this building. We would be… honoured to have a Dekker living with us.”

“Okay,” I said looking at my new key. I brought it up to my nose and smelled it before testing it out on my teeth. “Tell housekeeping man to knock and wait for me to answer… tell him to… announce himself and make sure he’s alone.”

“Sure… no problem,” the man said in a voice that told me he probably thought I was crazy. That was okay, I didn’t care what they thought. Silas says they were below me.

I had never had anyone below me before.

Without another word I walked to the elevator and looked down at my keys. They had 401 on it and I assumed that was my room number.

So I pressed four and hoped that no one else would be in the elevator, but at this point I was tired and mentally exhausted from the night’s events so maybe I could be too fatigued to care.

I hope Silas was okay and out of pain… he had been so nice to me and what had I done in return? I would apologize in a few days – after I got some time to myself.

The plain elevator took me up several levels until it opened to a white painted hall with a floor made out of light-coloured wood. Unlike Alegria there were no sculptures and paintings, no hanging lights or anything but something that I think may be a smoke detector.

I put my key in the lock and opened it, and was immediately pleased with my surroundings.

Never in my life had I ever had a real place to live. I had had shelters, like the apartment in the shanty town or the abandoned buildings I stayed in, but never a real home. Even the room at King Silas’s, I never felt like it belonged to me, it was Silas’s and I was a guest there.

But this… I had a blue fabric couch pressed against the wall which faced a medium size television, a wooden coffee table, and side tables on either side. I also had two standing lamps with see-through bulbs, a big dresser-type thing with lots of drawers, paintings on the walls, and I even had throw pillows. All of this was on a blue carpet, and even the walls were an off bluey-greeny colour.

I also had a kitchen now, though I wouldn’t trust myself to use it. And as I walked around I found two closets and a bathroom with pink walls and a pink rug-thing on the toilet lid. I liked the colour pink, it was bright and not threatening like some other colours I’ve seen here.

Then I walked into my two bedrooms, both of which had comforters of a mixed pattern of gold and red designs. I decided on the bigger one to be my bedroom.

To show myself just how far I had come and just how brave I was, I opened up the blinds of a sliding glass door that took up half of the far wall. I looked outside at my view of the green park and enjoyed the scenery. Even with all the other feelings inside of me – I was kind of proud of what I did. And if Silas kicked me out of Alegria, I would have a place to stay.

I made sure the door was locked and locked well. Then, just to make sure I was safe, I dragged my couch and pushed it against the door, and even got creative and leaned my new silverware against the door so if someone did try to push through it would come crashing to the ground and it would alert me. It might not be much but it was good enough, so I slipped under my covers and quickly fell asleep.

I slept for a long time, longer than I usually slept. Though I was used to sleeping whenever I could. At Jasper’s I was either sleeping or staring at the white door, so I was used to being inactive. This was different though; this was a deep, restful sleep, with the cautious confidence that no one was going to bother me. Even if they were looking for me they wouldn’t know where I was.

Though when I woke up I found myself not wanting to get out of bed. There was something that was keeping me inside of this safe bedroom. I was drawn to the warm comfortable nest like a magnet to shavings so I stayed in there for quite awhile either daydreaming inside of my head or having quick cat naps throughout the day. Even better when I was reminded that I had a television in my room. I quickly found the cartoon channel so when I wasn’t napping I was watching cartoons or rerun shows.

I stayed away from the Skyfall News Network, or SNN. I didn’t know if Silas was going to announce that I was missing and I wanted to avoid the stress if he was. I was happy in my cave and… I would see him soon. I would apologize and tell him I just needed a break. I wasn’t sure how long I had bought this apartment for, and I would eventually have to return.

The next several days were my own, and I cherished every one of them. In that time I had realized the phone in the apartment could be used to call the desk, and I used that opportunity to call in any food I decided I wanted that day. Suiting to my chimera status they brought it and left it outside of my door. I was getting used to being a chimera and a prince.

The morning of the fourth day I think, there was a small knock on the door, immediately followed by a male voice. “Housekeeping here. I have your papers and everything.” Then a pause. “It’s just one person… just me.”

I got out of bed and looked around for my cloth pants. I had taken them off sometime during the last day and had been nestled in bed with just my underwear and a t-shirt. So I put my pants on and walked towards the door.

“One… second…” I said to the door. I pulled away my couch but that made the silverware come crashing to the ground. I jumped at the noise and kicked the silverware into a pile, before opening the door.

Immediately a young man around my own age flinched before stammering an apology. My ears burned with embarrassment over his reaction. I hated meeting new people, they always reacted the same. I hated myself even more for being different. All of the sengils and my family were used to seeing different-looking people… everyone outside of Alegria were not.

“I’m sorry…” the housekeeper gasped before, like Jan had, he started to get flustered. “Really… really sorry…”

“It’s okay,” I said in a small voice before walking towards the living room, my head hung low. “I’m used to it.”

The housekeeper followed me inside, and I heard the door click behind him. He was tall, almost as tall as me, with dark brown hair that had blond streaks in it, and blue eyes. He wasn’t threatening so I didn’t mind him in the apartment with me. I hadn’t spoken to anyone in days, and though I wasn’t lonely… it was nice to have a conversation with someone.

“What’s your name?” I asked him as I sat down. I only had one couch, no chairs so he sat on the other end of the couch holding in his hand a couple of papers and a pen. He was dressed well, in a shirt that said the apartment building’s name (Skylanding) and pressed black pants. He smelled nice as well – I was sure I smelled awful.

I pushed down the further embarrassment over that. I was starting to feel self-conscious about my appearance. I had a beard and tangled black hair, I was still extremely thin and gaunt and my clothes were dirty. I think the more comfortable I got in Skyfall the more I was starting to feel ashamed about my appearance.

Silas had been on me constantly about cleaning myself… maybe it was time. I was alone here so I could be naked without feeling scared.

The housekeeper didn’t seem to care, or if he did he didn’t voice it. “My name is Kass. You’re…” He got that stricken look again. “I’m sorry I don’t want to insult you over trying to pronounce it.”