The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 1 (The Fallocaust Series Book 2) (90 page)

Oh fuck... fuck me.

“He’s going to rape me!”

The anger coiled in my stomach like I had swallowed snakes; I couldn’t contain it. The serpents crawled to my tongue and with that I spat my poison.

“He’s lying!” I screamed. I grabbed the blanket I had been using and wrapped it around myself. “He’s fucking lying, Killian! We... we have to go. We have to get the fuck out of here. His mind is back, he’s been fucking faking it for weeks now!” I took a deep breath. I ignored the shocked looks Killian was giving me and tried to press on. Not wanting to admit to myself I was probably sounding crazier right now.

“Killian!” Perish sobbed. He put his hands behind his neck and started sobbing. “I want him gone.”

Killian stared at me like he didn’t know what to do. “I... Jade... Jade why did you do this? What’s happening in your head?” Showing the sensitive patience that was so unique to Killian he put his hands on my face. “Is it your headaches? Are you hearing voices?”

“Killian, I want him OUT!” Perish screamed. Obviously upset that Killian wasn’t kicking me out into the cold night.

“Perish, enough! He’s sick!”

I loved that kid, fuck, I loved that kid. He was forgiving to a fault; no wonder Reaver loved him so much.

I grabbed onto Killian’s hand and looked at him straight in the eye. “Listen to me, Killian. Perish is –”

Suddenly Perish came out of nowhere and shoved me away from Killian. I lost my balance and fell down onto the ruined couch, a billow of dust rising up around me as the springs dug into my naked waist. “Get out!” Perish screamed.

My temper suddenly snapped and the chimera stirring underneath my surface sprang forth. Anger took over my resolve and my anger at Perish broke through my countenance. I announced my fury with a scream of boiling anger and jumped onto Perish. I swung my fists and started hitting him as hard as I could. Feeling my emotions rage as the reality of his trickery lit like a beacon in my mind.

“Jade!” Killian’s voice was far away in another world. Plunging its pleading tones into the deep ends of my mind where my self-control could not hear it. I felt him try and pull me off of Perish but I shoved him back and continued to punch Perish in the face.

Then a ripping pain shot through my body. An electrical current that I knew came from Perish’s hands; the chimera talent that Elish also possessed. It automatically made my jaw clamp shut and taking this opportunity Perish shoved me off of him.

Fucker, he never had this ability before. What the fuck did you do, Lycos?

I groaned on the floor. Hearing Perish’s manic sobbing and Killian’s sniffling attempts to calm him down.

I had to get out of here, away from them... too much... too much in my head. My eyes closed as I felt an intense headache start to gather behind my eyes. With nothing more than a mumbled mention that I was going for a walk I grabbed the rest of my clothes and ran out of the room.

Killian called after me but I couldn’t... couldn’t... I had to get out of that room, away from them.

Fuck, my head. I put on my clothes and my boots. My brain felt like it was swelling inside of my skull, pushing itself against my eyes and filling them with a white, blinding light. So much pressure...

I groaned and stumbled outside into the darkness. I picked up a handful of snow and pressed it against my left eye, trying to soothe the clustering pain.

It seemed to help a bit. I walked further into the snowy night towards the winding road that eventually led up to the highway.

I found comfort in the high trees when I was keeping my watch. I loved heights and I felt safe up high. So I climbed up my favourite twisted black tree and perched in a spot I found myself in during most of my sentry evenings. I gathered more snow from adjacent limbs and tried to ice down my head.

The snow was swirling around me like soft feathers, calm and silent. It fell to the earth and covered the trees and pavement in its own sound muting blanket. Sounds ceased to exist when it was snowing heavily, and what noise did break through had to struggle to reach your ears. It was beautiful in this forest and though I loved the snow in Skyfall there was something unique about watching it in the dead of night, surrounded by hundreds of miles of forest. I almost felt alone, and tonight that was what I needed.

I lit a cigarette and watched the soft flakes fall down to earth, breaking up the black silhouettes of the trees and making them just shadows of static grey. I inhaled and blew the smoke out, seeing if I could melt the snowflakes with just my breath.

Yes, this is what I needed in this moment, a break from my friends and a break from this mission. If only for a few hours with a cigarette as company I would take it. When I was with my master things were most often quiet. Elish was tranquility encompassed, a man of silent grace and an aura about him that made you stare in hushed awe. He was a cold but calming presence and one that told you to shut up.

I took another long drag and felt the pockets of my jacket just to reassure myself I had more cigarettes if I wanted them. I knew by the time I climbed down this tree that I would probably burn through half a pack.

At least we had a lot of smokes. Killian was going to need the cigs and the drugs for tomorrow.

Because before dawn broke... we would be gone. Just me and him on our way back to Kreig. No more Falkland, no more O.L.S. It was too dangerous for both of us now. I had to get me and Killian away from Perish.

He would believe me. Perish was crazy and he had experienced that first-hand. He would believe me and if he didn’t I had Perish’s scopa to prove it to him that Perish had been drugging me.

I flicked my cigarette out of the tree and tucked my fingers into my jacket for warmth. Then I closed my eyes to try and will this fucking headache out of my head.

Sometime later I was jarred out of my partial sleep by the sounds of voices. I looked down and saw Hopper and Chomper walking together, sharing a smoke between the two of them.

They stopped underneath the very tree I was perched in; I stayed still and tuned in my chimera hearing to catch their conversation.

“I really was expecting the snow to melt now and I apologized for it, alright?” Hopper dashed his cigarette and leaned against the tree. “I didn’t think we would have to deal with the little shits for this long either.”

Oh, they were talking about the slaves.

Chomper brushed the snow away from his beard. “Tabbit is ready to blast a hole in the yellow-eyed one. Always spouting off like a fucking wild animal. I highly doubt we can get anything for him when we get to Melchai. Killian maybe, the other chimera probably... but Mikey is a wild fucking thing. I really just think we should put a bullet in his head and make it look like an accident; his meat would be nice.”

What? My body jolted like I had just touched got a static shock. I was sure I had just had a stroke. What the fuck was going on?

“Nah, I think Man on the Hill might have some use for him. We have a fucking treasure trove right now that fell into our fucking lap. And Melchai has the people in it that would pay good money for not only the little blond shit but the wild one as well. Fuck, I ain’t letting them go for no less than four hundred each.”

So we had gone from being mercenaries to fucking slaves ourselves? I guess the plans to bring us to Falkvalley, the town next to Melchai, was completely bullshit. I wonder when they decided that.

My eyes narrowed and I quietly bit off the end of my cigarette to mask the illuminated ember. It must have been that group meeting after I had killed Jimmy. That was when they decided we were more trouble than we were worth.

“I would have let them go, I fucking swear on all that is holy... but I am just through with their shit. I know Mikey killed Jimmy,” Hopper said, and as if to confirm my suspicions he added. “Churro was right, if we can fake it ‘til we make it to Melchai... we can put collars on ‘em before they even realize we turned.”

Low, muffled laughing sounded underneath me. “I gotta say. We’re going to need to bind and tie them before we get to Melchai. The crazy one will rip out our throats the moment they realize what we did. What a bunch of fucking idiots. I swear though, I tried to be friendly I fucking tried.”

Shit. Shit. Shit.

“Yeah, me too. The world will be a better place with a couple less chimera scum,” Hopper said through laughter. I heard him break away from a cigarette and then exhale. “Fucking chimeras and their bullshit. I wish life was easy enough for me and Churro to have drama like that. Too bad we’re too busy fucking surviving. Well, whatever. Let’s scope out the road.”

I felt dizzy; nauseas and dizzy. As the wool over my eyes slowly drew back I thought for sure I was going to throw up. We had been tricked and we were still being tricked.

I had enemies all around me.

That’s it... that’s it. I’m done.

With my mind sifting through a thousand thoughts a second I waited for Hopper and Chomper to disappear. Then when the two slavers were out of sight I scaled down the tree and ran back to the lobby.

My chest was so tight, it constricted my heart and my lungs making it hard to breathe, and on top of that my headache was coming back. But I had to push through it... I had to tell Killian. I had –

I yelped as cold hands grabbed me in the lobby; one immediately covering my mouth. I opened my mouth to scream when I felt a needle go into my neck.

“This isn’t water, this is real scopa,” Perish hissed into my ear. I felt a burning, bitter taste in the back of my throat. I thrashed my head, not to tell him to stop but to tell him what Hopper had done.

“Perish, Hopper... Hopper’s lying...” The hand cupped my mouth again and I heard his low, sinister laugh. No quickened tones, no hand rubbing madness – just a cold, dark chuckle.

“Let it take you, Cicaro. Let it take you.” Cold lips pressed against my cheek. “You will not feel your own mind free... for quite a while.”

The light inside of my mind started to fade, like a dimmer on a light switch I watched the colours around me start to burn away to a charcoal grey. It smoldered and swirled until there was nothing left to see and nothing left to hear. All of it static, just static to my ears.

That rhymed.

I stood there, my eyes fixed forward. Seeing a tipped over desk in the corner with a broken computer monitor, all covered in thick dust.

Thick dust...

“Jade.”

My eyes lifted and I saw Perish. I sniffed as I felt a string of drool start to run down my chin, my nose was running too and my eyes. Everything was turning to liquid, like my mind, like my brain.

Hands on my cheeks. My heartbeat hammered each nail into my coffin, pumping the drugs through my system. Faster, faster.

Dust on everything... liquid, dust.

I outstretched my arm so I could feel the dust. And even though it was on the other side of the room... I could feel it so soft underneath my fingers. It stuck to the tips and in my own head I rubbed my fingers together. It fell to the floor like ash.

Ash.

Fell to the... floor.

... like ash.

“Now tell me, Jade. What did Hopper say? Tell me everything.”

Killian

I huddled by the fire and squeezed my eyes tight to fight back the tears. Perish had left to get more firewood and I was here alone, wringing my hands so hard that my joints were aching and sore.

What was I going to do? Everything was just falling apart. Now Jade was acting this way... I didn’t blame him, I really didn’t. I had been around Perish and Reaver, I knew chimeras and I knew even though they were genetically engineered... they seemed to fall into madness more easily. I don’t know if it was a side effect of their coding, a fault or what but I knew they were susceptible to it so I understood Jade.

I just wanted to help him...

I knew Jade and he didn’t care for Perish any more than Perish cared for him. He would have never tried to have sex with him... that just wasn’t Jade.

Right now I felt like I was responsible for these two chimeras. It was like I was walking two rabid dogs on short leashes. I had to keep spinning and contorting myself to try and stop them from ripping each other apart.

I couldn’t even control my own chimera well... let alone his brother and his fellow born immortal. What if Perish killed Jade?

What would Reaver do?

Reaver…

It had been three weeks now since they took Reaver. I had been apart from my boyfriend for almost a month. I had to hold onto the hope that Elish already had him and they just hadn’t found us yet. If I didn’t... if I let myself believe that Silas had him I wouldn’t be able to cope. I would tip into madness just like Jade was.

So Elish had Reaver... that was my truth. They were looking for us right now.

Maybe tonight... maybe tonight Reaver would come. I would hug him so hard his ribs would break. I would make love with him all night, until the sun rose and after.

No... I didn’t want sex, I just wanted to hold him, and make him like it.