AN: I probably shouldn't be starting a new story as I have so many others to finish, but here it is. Enjoy.
Regal couldn't understand why it was so hot. The sweltering heat bore down on him relentlessly. It was worse than any fever he had ever experienced. His skin sweated freely, his richly clothes sticking to him. His long periwinkle hair matted against his forehead, neck, and back. His vision was so blurry that he could hardly make out where he was. In fact, he had no idea where he was. Why was it so hot, he continued to muse? The oxygen was thin; he could barely breathe, his mouth parted slightly so that his lungs could receive enough air. How had he gotten here? He was sure he hadn't been running, but his body felt so overworked that he thought he had.
He heard footsteps, large boots that crunched on what sounded like gravel.
"Alright," a man's heavy voice said to him overhead. His voice was slightly lilted. "Let's get this over with. No more struggling—it never turns out good for you."
Struggling? Was that what he had been doing? Images flitted passed his vision as he began to remember if only a little. A flash of thunder, heavy footsteps, and a sharp but brief pain against his neck, a needle perhaps, darkness, then…He couldn't remember what happened next. He moved his head a little to try and make out his environment more. The vague, blurry blobs of his vision remained this way and he did not gain any insight whatsoever stirring as he did. The footsteps were almost upon him now.
"You awake?" the man said in his peculiar accent.
He tried to answer the man, but his words came out all wrong, his voice was far too slurred and his mouth wouldn't work the way he thought it should. The strange man only laughed.
"I see. You won't put up much struggle then—not this time."
Not this time…The phrase itself was a clue to whatever predicament he was in. His mind refused to remember however. He felt his arms being lifted upward and then behind him. Then he was being moved. The man was dragging him. No! His mind shouted out. He could barely function, but he supposed his mind was working well enough. He tried to pull his arms back, jostle his own body, but his efforts in reality came out much feebler. His speech wasn't much better. He couldn't tell the man to stop.
"Now, now, don't start this up again," the man said in calming, patronizing tones that immediately began to irk Regal. "If you make this easy for us, we'll make this easy for you." The man continued to drag him without pause. "In fact, we might even make it…painless."
Regal began his endeavors to escape the man's grasp with renewed fervor even as he felt the hopelessness become almost palpable.
"Have it your way," the man said with smugness that easily irritated him.
Odd and random blurry shapes passed his vision slowly as the man slid him roughly through what he assumed was a doorway as he heard a creaky door being opened. At least the task of pulling him was proving difficult as the man began to show signs of exhaustion. He huffed and puffed as he struggled to pull him over the ledge of the doorway. The uneven ground changed to something more solid, tiled. Finally he stopped and Regal was left to lie there on the floor. The air quality was slightly better here. It was a little easier to breathe.
"Pl-please…" Regal finally managed to say with a scratchy voice. He wondered if he had even been heard.
But there was no response and Regal was only left with silence. It was far too quiet. He tried to move once again, but he made little progress and he had no clue as to where he was headed or where he even needed to go. Then he heard what sounded like metal being scraped against the floor and then moments later a sloshing of water filled with ice—it struck the metal with soft crushing noises. A container with ice water…?
"Easier to move this tub than you," the man said with a sardonic chuckle.
"Wh-what…are you…?" Regal struggled to say. He could barely enunciate the words.
"You don't need to know," the man said smoothly as if mocking his poor speech. "I've spent too much time as it is. I swear if they weren't paying me this much money…"
Regal felt himself being moved again or more like yanked haphazardly in the same manner as before.
"Alright," the man said pausing, "How am I going to do this?"
After a few more moments, Regal felt arms wrap around his midsection and begin to pull futilely. Not only was it probably awkward for the man, it was for Regal as well as he tried to pull away from him again. His back pushed up against something cold and metallic. As the man continued to pull, he felt the sharp edge of what he determined was some kind of tub cut into his skin. The man's grip became like a death hold as Regal's previous troubles with breathing only worsened. He coughed in protest.
"Damn it," the man bit out, "Why are you so damn heavy? And why out of all people did they choose you?"
The man was becoming desperate, Regal could tell. The grip finally loosened and he fell to the ground again with his back still against the metallic tub—the man must have been grabbing him from the other side of it. He imagined the tub was oval shaped and that he was sitting against the side of it. Slowly, he could feel blood seeping from the scrape on his back. His head lolled to the side and he did not have enough strength to move his neck. He did, however, manage to move his toes in his shoes. He was beginning to regain control of his body.
"I suppose you wouldn't be willing to simply climb into the tub for me," the man said to himself, but Regal could hear.
His vision was still blurred so he could not see the man as he stepped in front of him.
"Don't…don't…do this," Regal murmured.
He wasn't exactly sure what the man was trying to do, but it didn't sound good. Anyone who would drug someone and throw them in some godforsaken place was probably not someone friendly and whatever he planned to do was in some way detrimental to his life.
The man laughed almost pleasantly, "You're in no position to be giving orders, now are ya? Well," he began thoughtfully, "maybe if you had enough money…"
Money? Was this all this was about? This entire rather elaborate scheme was simply to extort money? Could it be this easy to escape his predicament? But his train of thought stopped there. Giving money to a man capable of this was not something he'd feel very comfortable doing. He didn't need yet another reason to stay up all night feeling guilty.
"Ah, and you were so talkative before. Then I guess you want to die."
Was that a threat? For some reason, Regal did not feel that it was; it had simply been a fact. It did sound as if someone else was pulling the man's strings. There was something happening here that he did not fully understand. Then again, he hadn't the slightest clue what was happening.
"Let's try this again," the man said with an exasperated sigh, "I don't want to hear their mouths again."
If he felt he had enough breath to sigh exasperatedly as well, he would have done so. The man walked back around the tub and tried to pull him once again, but this time he made far more progress much to Regal's dismay. He still wasn't able to move his body fully so he was quite defenseless as he felt himself falling backwards. He was in no way prepared as his body crashed into bone-chilling water filled with sharp, jabbing ice. It provided a sudden shock to his system and he was splashing about wildly. At some point he was completely submerged and water began spilling into his mouth and then throat. He would have held his breath, but he didn't have much to hold. His hands pressed against solid walls of metal and his eyes wide open now stared into a strange blue world. He was drowning. He could hear the voice of the man but he could not make out his words any longer. Please, I don't want to…
As if answering his plea, hands shot into the water and pulled roughly at the nape of his button-up shirt. Suddenly, there was air once again and he sucked it in greedily, but not without a good deal of spluttering and coughing
"Not yet," the man said. "Still need to keep you alive a little longer."
The water was far too freezing. Just as suddenly as he regained feeling, he quickly began to lose it and his body began to shiver uncontrollably.
"That's it," the man said, "No use in fighting it."
His body desperately tried to maintain a suitable temperature as the shivering continued, but it was a hopelessly losing battle especially as he felt more ice fall onto him—an entire bucket full.
"Just a little more," the man said.
For a moment, his eyes were open and he could see everything clearly—the dim lights overhead, the twig of a man, bald and completely dressed in black with a jump suit, the small enclosed space he was in. But something else truly caught his attention as his eyes began rolling back, the smell of rotting flesh. His body was once again shutting down.
"Just right," the man said in satisfied tones
The voice sounded far away as Regal lost consciousness.
There was an incessant pain that would not go away starting right above his neck bone and it began to spread in a precise manner. Hot blood seeped onto his skin. He needed to wipe it away, but nothing seemed work. His body would not respond to him. The only things that seemed to work were his eyes, but his head was raised to an elevation that made it impossible to see past his nose.
"See, what did I tell ya," the familiar voice of the jumpsuit man said. "He keeps waking. The drugs ain't working."
"No," a different man with an even heavier accent said. His voice sounded much closer as well as if he was right beside him. He couldn't move his head to see if he was right. "The drugs work. This man simply resistant. This man strong and…suitable."
"He better be. Do you know the trouble I had to go through? The man lives in a fortress."
"We must follow orders. This man was chosen."
For what? But that was never elaborated on and once again he could not speak, but this time was different. While before he'd been able to move a little if he put up enough effort, now his efforts were fruitless. He truly was motionless. It was an eerie feeling. He'd never felt so helpless before. The pain continued to spread about his neck. He couldn't make it stop. He could do nothing more but allow it to continue.
"Nice and easy. Smooth as butter," the heavily accented man said contently.
"Is it really this easy?" the jumpsuit man asked.
"We haven't scratch the surface. Nerves and blood vessels must be severed. Countless, countless. Need concentration."
"You better pray he doesn't move, then," the jumpsuit man said jokingly. "You hear that, Mr. Bryant? Better not move—at least, I wouldn't if I were you."
"Concentration," the accented man repeated for emphasis.
"Oh, sorry," the jumpsuit man said sheepishly.
What in the world? It sounds like… His eyes widened in terror as his mind began making assumptions. It feels like. The pain continued in an orderly manner around, a little ways below his nape. Was this some sort of surgery he had wakened to? Now more than ever he wanted to escape and as the cutting pain began to worsen he closed his eyes trying to will himself to move. This was all just one long bad dream and it was coming to an end—his life was coming to an end. Yet there were things in his life that he had always wanted to do and he had never had the opportunity to do. No, that was a lie—he'd been too much of a coward to do it. The opportunities were always there. He'd always held himself back for one reason or another and before this moment they had all seemed to make sense to him. Now those excuses held little weight and he wondered why he had allowed the past to control his decisions for so long. What had been the point? What impact had he left on the world because of it?
Then he heard a metal door being slammed opened with a loud, startling clatter against solid rock walls. He wondered if the door itself might have been knocked off its hinges.
"Let him go right now!" a very familiar woman's voice shouted indignantly.
A bright flash of light erupted in his peripherals and the room became quiet save for the small, running footsteps of someone he knew well, but he couldn't be sure until he saw her face: Raine. He was utterly confused. He couldn't understand why she would be here, but he had no time to consider the circumstances as she commenced with pulling him out of the tub and soon he laid sprawled on the hard, tiled floor.
"Oh, Regal, what have they done to you?"
Regal couldn't respond to her, he simply looked at her. Her hair had gotten so long that she had to push some of it behind her ear as she gazed down at him trying to evaluate his injuries.
"Alright," she said, "I should be able to help you to move. I certainly couldn't drag you out of here on my own."
But why was she here alone? How had she known he would be here? Nothing was making any sense. She knelt down and pressed her hands firmly onto his chest and stayed in that position for what felt like an eternity until he began to feel something like warmth gradually spreading through him. He attempted to move again after a while and he found his limbs a bit more responsive.
"Raine…what are you doing here?"
"Saving you," she said looking at him now. "There's no time for questions. I have to get you out of here." Finally she pulled her hands away. She appeared a bit tired from her efforts. "They pumped you with a lot drugs, but that should do for now. Try to stand up."
That was easier said than done especially when he didn't have any support. He didn't exactly want to use Raine as that support, she seemed exhausted enough as it was. After struggling for a bit, he was able to rise to his feet and he quickly found a wall to lean against—that took far too much energy to do. They were practically sitting ducks. He knew he couldn't defend himself and unless Raine happened to have some gels with her she was the same. He didn't want to discourage her, but this didn't feel like any plan that Raine would have hatched—it seemed far too rushed. Could she have been so emotional as to run in without even thinking about the consequences?
"Come on," Raine said approaching the other. "I'll help you. You just concentrate on moving one foot in front of the other."
Regal only nodded to her.
He did wound up leaning on her but he put most of his weight on himself as he carefully placed one foot in front of the other deliberately slow. He swore it took them years just to get down the corridor they stepped into and Regal was already out of breath, but as long as Raine was willing to push onward, then so was he. They made their way down another corridor and two others before Raine began to stumble.
"We have to stop," Raine said breathlessly.
"Alright," Regal readily agreed.
They stood near a door and Raine was closest to it. When she opened it, a sound like the outside came from it. The sound of crickets and cicadas was telltale. Yet when they stepped through the doorway, there were four walls but grass instead of tiled floor. It made little sense to Regal, but Raine made no comment at all to the oddity which was strange in itself.
"Raine?" Regal said questioningly as he stepped in and then closed the door behind him.
She was sitting down next to a conveniently placed stack of dried wood. "Enough for a fire," she said simply.
Regal paused. "Are you sure we should use it?"
Raine looked at him with an annoyed look. "Maybe you haven't noticed, but it's freezing in here. They probably keep this facility cold for a reason, at least parts of it. Judging from what they were doing to you…I can probably guess why."
Regal almost unconsciously touched where the incision had begun. Some of the blood that had spilled was still a bit sticky. He glanced briefly at its presence on his fingers. He finally sat down on the other side of the wood. A flash of light sparked the logs into a bright blaze that dimmed after a few moments. He must have been cold for so long that his body had simply adjusted, but as he felt the warmth from the flames he realized just how low the temperature truly was. He shivered a bit.
"We should rest and regain what energy we can. Then we can make a hasty escape," Raine said authoritatively.
Regal simply agreed with her and left it at that as he lowered himself onto the ground. He laid back with his arms behind his head for the time being.
"Raine, are you ever going to tell me how you came to be here?"
"Questions, questions," she said almost teasingly. "I followed you."
Regal's eyebrows furrowed a little at this. "Followed?"
"Yes, it sounds exactly like how you think. It was quite painstaking and before you ask why…I think you know the answer to that already."
He hadn't heard her move at all, but he found her looking down upon his resting form. What was more startling was the way she straddled him, her knees on either side of him, her hands placed beside his head. They were quite close.
"Raine, not that I don't apprec—"
He paused when she pressed an index finger to his lips. "Don't say anything," she said smoothly as she lowered herself upon him.
Her hair tickled his face and then became entangled in his as she began to kiss him and he did not stop her. In fact, he reciprocated. He paused again, however, when he felt her slender hands slide down into his pants, but she kept kissing him as she began to massage his core. Regal couldn't understand where any of this was coming from. All he knew was that he didn't want it to stop.
But it did and very abruptly.
It was as if he was jolted awake by a strike of lightening. Instead it was someone shaking him to wakefulness. When had he fallen asleep? A young boy with short cropped dark hair looked down at him with a worried expression.
"Mister, are you, alright?"
That was a good question, actually. He tried to sit up to assess his own condition and to his pleasant surprise everything seemed to work properly. He sat up quite easily and he realized that he was for some reason on a bed, a very comfortable one at that. How had he gotten there? Very little was making sense, but he didn't allow his mind to become trapped in a million and one questions.
"I seem to be," he said presently. "Child, do you have any idea why I'm here?"
The boy looked away when he asked this. "Because my father wanted you to be."
"It's alright," Regal said sensing the other's growing distress. "Just tell me what you know. I won't judge you in any way."
The child looked at him again silently. "You won't?"
"Of course not. What is your name?"
"Giovani," the child said singularly.
"Giovani, I am all ears."
The boy blinked and then began. "It's grotesque what my father does. He doesn't think I know, but I do. He takes people, men or women, who he fancies and brings them here. He doesn't do it himself, mind you. He hires shady people who can be bought with the right price to do it all. Sometimes…I hear people screaming in the basement. He saves…parts of them and then he places it on himself. I haven't seen my father in a very long time, you see…but when I did, he didn't look like himself. He didn't look like anything I'd seen before."
"I'm sorry," Regal said very nearly speechless. "I cannot imagine how you must feel."
"They were going to do the same to you," Giovani said hauntingly. "But this was the first time I heard someone in the basement for so long…I had to save you…"
"How long has it been?" Regal asked.
"Nearly a week."
"Was I…the only one down there? Did you see a woman with white hair?"
Giovani shook his head confusingly. "No one like that. Just you and those shady men."
"I'm in your debt for what you've done for me. You were very brave. If you know a way out of here, I would be happy to take you with me."
Giovani was shaking his head again this time more vigorously. "N-no…I can't do that. I can't leave."
"Why not? Is it your father?"
Giovani was stepping back now.
"Wait," Regal said urgently, but the boy was already sprinting even as Regal quickly got off the bed to follow him.
Regal ran into a very upscale looking hallway. The floors were carpeted with intricate design, the width of the hallway was enough to fly a Rheaird comfortably through, and the walls were painted a deep dark red with sophisticated framed images of landscape and surreal art. Giovani was nowhere to be found.
He gave a start when he heard a door nearby slam shut. Had it been open this whole time he'd been standing there dumbfounded? He didn't want to wonder along those lines. He simply made his way to the door and tried to open it. His hand jerked back when he heard something hard slam against the door, but it wasn't just once. A heavy pounding like a hammer striking it shook the door violently and then stopped abruptly. He'd been standing there watching the door transfixed. Even as it became silent, his eyes still stayed on it wondering if he should enter or commence to finding a way out of the building.
Then something began to protrude from the door. For a moment, Regal could not believe his eyes as he tried to focus them by narrowing his eyes, but there truly was something protruding through the door as if it were made out of dough. The form began to take shape the farther the protrusion became until Regal recognized it as a human hand, but it was much larger than one and took up a large part of the door.
He blinked and then it was gone. He shook his head quickly and then ran a distressing hand down his face. Was he hallucinating from the drugs?—were they still affecting him? Or was he still dreaming? Who was real? Raine or Giovani. It made no sense for Raine to be here and she had been acting…differently. He knew very little about Giovani so he couldn't decide if he had actually saved him or if he was some figment of his imagination.
"Mister?"
His heart skipped a beat at the small voice of Giovani. He wondered how much more of these jump-scares his heart could take. Regal looked at the other closely. Why did he look younger than before? Maybe he was imagining things.
"You can call me Regal," he said despite himself. Perhaps he could engender some confidence in the boy so that he would be more apt to trusting him. That is if he was real in the first place…
"Regal," the boy said looking up at him with frightened looking eyes. "Do you want to see him?"
"Who?" Regal asked confused.
"My father."
"I don't see why that would be pertinent. I'm sure you know the way out of here since you live here. Show me this and I will take you with me. You don't have to stay here, Giovani."
The young child shook his head. "You don't understand. I do not exist outside these walls."
"What are you saying?" Regal asked.
"Do you want to see my father?"
Giovani had already told him in so many words that he would not show him out and Regal suspected that it was impossible for either one of them at this point. He didn't have any logical reason as to why he felt that way, but it was more instinct than anything else. Sadly, Regal had to depend on his instincts to figure anything out; his knowledge was far too scarce and unreliable. Giovani had saved him or so it seemed. He'd been placed in a much preferable predicament than an impending surgical decapitation. Judging by the way he kept repeating the same questions, it would probably be better to simply acquiesce or suffer the consequences.
"I will see him," Regal finally said to the anxious boy.
Giovani turned on his heels tersely and then broke off at a run. Regal was forced to pick up the pace as well or risk losing him once again. He hadn't run like this in a long while and he quickly found himself losing breath. Then, right before his eyes, the sprinting boy stopped and then vanished. At the very least he'd been standing before a door.
A thumping noise sounded in the distance as if a large hand was smacking the ground over and over again in a moderately fast cadence. He began to feel the vibrations traveling under his feet. Wide-eyed, he peered into the depths of the long, seemingly unending hallway and he could determine nothing. But his heart was beginning to pound harder than what his previous exhaustion called for. Turning to the door now, he tried out the knob and found it frustratingly locked. Stepping back and looking for any more doors yielded no results. This was the only door for miles. What would he do now? Run? The thumping was coming closer if he was not mistaken.
Something caught his peripheral, something shiny and blue coming from where the cacophony emitted. It was so close now that he could hardly hear himself think. In the distance the space was filled with a strange, blue liquid substance—was it water? How could that be? He thought he would run, but perhaps he was too shock to do so, perhaps he was stayed by the immense impossibility of what he was seeing. He couldn't move at all. His heart was pounding a mile a minute. Move! his mind yelled at him.
The blue liquid seemed to be coming faster and then a gigantic skull splashed through, it was misshapen with eyes that were too large and a chomping mouth that was too small. A wave of fear shot through him so intensely that his heart began to ache and he grabbed his chest in pain—he could hardly breathe as if his lungs were beginning to fill with water once again. Yet his eyes remained on the approaching skull. It was too late. The chomping teeth were upon him—this was the end.
Then it vanished along with the encroaching water. Regal still stood there breathing quickly, his heart pounding away as if it would crush his ribcage. His vision began to swim in warning. He needed to calm himself or else faint or worse. He closed his eyes and waited for his breathing to return to normal and it did eventually. He waited longer for his poor heart to achieve the same calm.
He breathed normally now but he knew that he was tired. He had to take it easy from here on as he was approaching his limits mentally and physically. He couldn't remember the last time he had even eaten something to replenish his energy. His head didn't feel right. There was a rolling, almost throbbing wave of sound that kept passing over his skull as if someone had stuck a soft vibrator into his eardrums. It wasn't painful, but it was unnerving all the same.
The door was still there and for good measure he tried it once again, but it was predictably locked. He let his head fall onto the door as he leaned upon it hopelessly. What was the point of this door? Why had that child brought him here? Giovani couldn't be real. He'd said it himself, hadn't he? He couldn't exist outside these walls. Did that make him some kind of apparition? Did he even believe in such things? If he hadn't before, he was beginning to now.
"So you've made it here, Regal," a man's voice said floating through the door.
Regal's eyebrows crinkled a little at the mention of his name. "Who are you?" he asked.
"You may call me Ganix, the owner of this establishment."
Could he be Giovani's father? "Ganix…I think I'm losing my mind. Would you kindly show me the way out of here? Surely an owner would know such things."
"There is no way out of here."
Again? "Why, pray tell, is that the case?"
"That is a very long story. I'd rather speak of other things. Humor me."
Regal sighed deeply trying to think of what else to say to the man.
"You sound exhausted," Ganix said.
"I am," Regal said wearily. "I can't remember how I came to be here. I suppose I could guess, but I could be wrong completely. I can hardly trust my own eyes."
"That must be the drugs wearing off. Many have complained of its psychedelic effects near the end of its efficacy."
"Speak plainly, Ganix," Regal began still leaning on the door with his head, one hand still held the knob. "Were you the one who had your paid men bring me here and then drug me in preparations for a procedure I do not want to even begin to understand?"
"What good would answering be? You're still here standing before my door."
Now Regal sighed exasperatedly. He knew he needed to calm himself in spite of the difficult man on the other side of the door. "It would help me understand. It would give me peace of mind."
"Knowledge gives you peace? Many people say that at first, but when they obtain that knowledge, they find it gives them nothing but."
"So, I'm simply better off not knowing?"
"Better off? Perhaps."
"Will you at least allow me entrance into your room? Don't you think it's a bit awkward to be speaking through a door?"
"You have yet to humor me at all. Besides, the door is for your safety."
"My safety?"
"I'd rather not explain."
Regal straightened himself deciding for a better tactic. If Ganix wanted to converse, then he would give him something to talk about. He turned and then leaned back on the door with crossed arms.
"Have you ever done something you weren't proud of?" he asked.
Ganix did not have an immediate answer to this and Regal waited patiently. "Truly a loaded question. I've done a great many things that would fall in that category."
"Tell me an instance in which you would never tell anyone else. We are just strangers, after all and I'm not one for telling others' secrets."
"For some reason, Regal, I believe you. You seem trustworthy."
Maybe this man was simply lonely and wanted a friend, someone to talk to.
"I once had a wife who I loved dearly," Ganix began slowly.
And what horrid thing did you do to her? Regal thought to himself.
"But I constantly worried over my own mortality. You see, she would live much longer than I being an elf, and I was only human. In the beginning, I was able to disregard such details, but soon my wandering mind betrayed me and my dreams haunted me. And she became so sad. She could not understand why I was always with a frown. She could not understand why she couldn't be enough to stave off such sour feelings. She was the root of it. Loving her caused me to agonize over the future and what it would most certainly bring. Then one day she simply died—from a malignant brain tumor the healers say."
There was a long pause and Regal wondered if he would simply leave it at that. Ganix's story began to make him feel more and more uncomfortable. It was beginning to remind him too much of other things…
Ganix finally continued. "I hadn't noticed the signs at all. She was always so fatigued. Everyone but me knew of her periodic seizures. Yet she never told me. She hadn't wanted to trouble me, I realized. I'd been so focused on my impending death; I had not seen hers. In fact, I had not been seeing her at all. That is what I regret the most. Not cherishing the time we had together when it was still possible. I think I would have accepted her death more had that been the case. We'd been arguing that day about small, inane things that I no longer remember. When I came back from work, she was simply dead and there was nothing more I could ever tell her."
Regal had closed his eyes. If someone was going to be depressed this would be the perfect reason to be that way. He hadn't expected to hear something like this.
"I am truly sorry for your loss, Ganix."
"You sound so trustworthy that I believe you really are sorry when you say it."
"Did you ever have children with her?" Regal asked hoping to lighten the mood. Also, he was still curious about the boy from before. Was there really a connection?
"I did. One child, a boy named Giovani."
As soon as he heard the name, the wheels in his mind started turning, but he was still confused as to what was real or not and Ganix himself who somehow knew he was drugged openly admitted it to it causing some temporary mental impairment. Regal waited for the other to expound—it was a common thing a parent would usually do, but Ganix was silent.
"If you don't mind me asking, whatever happened to him? I'm sure his mother dying so suddenly must have been hard on him," Regal said.
"Sorry, I do mind." And once again, he was closemouthed about the things that mattered. "But I shall open this door so we can speak to each other properly."
Regal suddenly wasn't sure if he was looking forward to the prospects. Why had he been so determined to keep the door closed before? What would he see in that room? He straightened himself again and turned towards the door expecting for it to be opened.
"You may enter," Ganix finally said.
Confused, Regal did the only thing he could do at the moment and tried the knob. This time it turned with little resistance and slowly he opened it. The door swung on its hinges silently. Regal stood in the doorway and waited for his eyes to adjust to the dimly lit room, at least dimmer compared to the hallways. Only one kerosene lamp was lit revealing a plain looking bed and a seat that was positioned a respectable distance away. Regal assumed that it had been drawn for the purpose of him sitting there. But what truly caught his eyes was Ganix. He could barely make him out in the shadows. He didn't seem to have any noticeable abnormalities about him, but it was much too soon to tell. He wore black, long sleeved robes tied at the waist with a gold band. His hair was a pitch black and quite long as it trailed down to the bed he was sitting on. It was parted in the middle. The smooth, fine tendrils of his hair all fell in the same manner and it was all the same length all the way around. There was nothing to cover his forehead. He appeared surprisingly young, but his deep dark orbs held the weariness of an old man. Who he assumed was Ganix looked at him now.
"Please, come sit down," his said in almost pleasant tones. There was some hidden note of sadness that Regal was easily able to detect.
"Thank you," Regal said as he stepped through the doorway and sat down at the seat that the other indicated.
"It has been such a very long time since I've had company."
Regal noticed a small table next to the bed that Ganix sat on, now that he was closer. There were two glasses and they were both filled with a clear liquid. Regal imagined it was water, but it could be a number of other things including vodka especially in such nice looking glasses. But he was thirsty, he realized, and he desperately wanted some cool, refreshing water. How long had it been since he'd seen his own home? Had it truly been days as Giovani had claimed?
"You look parched. Have a glass of water."
Ganix took up the glass furthest to him and passed it to him. Regal took it hesitantly, but the glass was enticingly cold to the touch. The glass only began to perspire as he held it in his hand—a fact that Regal took no notice of. Regal waited for the other to take a sip before he even began to think of doing the same. That the man would conveniently have cold water on hand to offer him was strange in itself.
"I didn't poison it, if that's what you're wondering."
Regal looked down at his glass to see if he could perchance see anything off about it. There was nothing. Of course, some poisons were invisible to the naked eye and it could have dissolved perfectly into the water. He held it to his nose as well and it smelled just like water—poison could also be odorless. He glanced back at Ganix whose condition had not changed, but why would he poison himself? The glasses seemed to be set well before he ever stepped in. He had plenty of time to spike his drink. Nothing reassured him at all that the water was safe. Should he just sit it back down? But it did look tantalizing. No, I shouldn't he thought shaking his head. He handed the glass back to the man who looked at him questioningly and then with understanding as he took it.
"I suppose I haven't given you much cause to trust me, but you do look quite faint," he said setting the glass down on the table.
"I apologize."
"Think nothing of it. The offer still stands, however." He took a long swig from his glass as if to tease the other. "I've told you what it is that I regret most in my life. Why don't you tell me yours?"
His eyes seemed to gaze right into his very soul. It was a bit disconcerting. Perhaps he already knew. Maybe there was a wrong answer to this question.
"I don't mean to pry," Ganix said when Regal found himself momentarily at a loss of words.
It was an odd sentiment seeing as Regal guessed that he in fact did mean to pry. "My apologies, it is just that there are a great many things that I regret—it is hard to rank them."
"Go with your instinct."
Instincts. The only thing he could rely on right now and what he'd been relying on for an inordinately long while. It wasn't something he enjoyed doing. Instincts could just as easily be the death of him as it could save him. Then a singular name came to his mind: Raine.
"There is this woman who I know quite well," Regal began slowly choosing his words carefully.
"Do you know her well or do you love her," Ganix said as if he already knew.
"Y-yes, I suppose that is a more accurate word. We began seeing each other on and off for a few years before it became more serious, but I…" Regal paused again trying to find a better way to say things. Why was it so difficult to even speak? He wasn't usually so inarticulate. "I thought it was too soon for such things, but she was the kind of woman who could see through any façade even if it was one that was deliberate or subconsciously. She accused me of being afraid of anything deeper not because of any obvious reason that I imagined, but because she was a half-elf. I'd already determined that such a relationship was doomed to fail because one would most surely outlive the other and that I would be the cause of someone else's pain and grief. It made perfect sense when she said it, everything else had been mere excuses. I told her she was right and that had made her angry. How could I allow the future spoil the present? How could I possibly live if I was always thinking about what may happen the next day and the next? And I could not answer her and I could not understand it myself. We argued about the same thing over and over again until she simply left." Regal looked away from Ganix's prying eyes. "I have not spoken to her in months and a friend of mine tells me I'm quite depressing to be around. Evidently, I'm no good at hiding such things from other people. I regret ever causing her to leave in the first place."
"You've run into the same issue as I had long ago," Ganix said.
"I suppose I have. Is there any advice you could give me?"
"Learn from my mistakes. Caution can sometimes be a hindrance."
While Regal had been speaking, he watched as the other poured the contents of his glass into his and began on that as well. Ganix still appeared well. Then again perhaps he was immune to any sort of poison that might have been in the other glass. Was his caution hindering him here as well? His mouth was as dry as sandpaper at this point and watching the other drink made his want even stronger.
"I see you gazing at my glass. Please, for my sake, will you take some water?"
He felt as if his body was slowly shutting down. "Alright," Regal said finally giving in. "I will accept your offer."
Regal watched the other take out a pitcher from under the small table full of water—he felt as if he could gulp down the entire thing, but that would be unseemly. Then Ganix was soon handing him a delightfully full glass to him. Regal took a sip, but he couldn't stop himself from gulping down the contents.
"Want another?" the man asked half-amused.
Regal went through at least five glasses in total until he thought he could control himself. Not that he had had his fill. The container was a little less than halfway full, but Regal felt as if he could finish that off quite efficiently, but by then Ganix was clearly amused and Regal did not want to give him that satisfaction. He seemed to know far too much even though Regal had not given him much information about himself.
All at once, he began to feel it, something changing. His blood felt like it was boiling within him and he cried out in pain. Had he been right then, his mind thought despite the onslaught pain, had he just been poisoned? He managed to look up as he fell out of the chair and saw Ganix observing him with keen interest. That bastard—is this some sort of game to him? There was a nauseating, stabbing pain in his stomach on a threshold he could not even begin to comprehend. His arms pressed into his abdomen as if it would somehow make things better, but really he could do little more than allow it to progress and worsen.
He was on the ground hunched over and he could not see and did not care what Ganix was doing at this point. The pain began to subside at some point and Regal took solace in this. He was still alive at least, but when would this end? When would he escape this godforsaken place?
"I will entrust to you a special gift. Something you will find useful. Until now there has never been anyone worthy to receive it. Someone who fits all my criteria."
He was sweaty once again, precious beads of sweat rolling down his temples, his hair beginning to mat again. "What…do you mean," he managed to say. His voice sounded quite feeble.
"Remember to drink water whenever you are thirsty—it will quench it better than anything else and it will cause you the least amount of pain."
Regal's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Wasn't that obvious? But the last part made him pause. What exactly had he gotten himself into?
"What did you do to me?" Regal asked with a trembling voice. His body quivered from the absence of the extreme pain before.
Regal finally looked up and his eyes stayed on the other. For the first time, Ganix seemed to smile. He stood up and then bent down to his level and placed a flat palm atop the other's crown as if he was somehow subordinate to him. His knowing eyes made Regal feel exactly like this.
"Child, I will send you back. Remember my words and you shall be fine. Caution truly can be a hindrance."
Before he could protest, his world went black.