Jack woke up groggily to find that he was lying naked in the dark. He blinked, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the gloom and half-wondering where he was. His right eye, having been concealed under an eyepatch for so long, took to the darkness almost immediately, and that was when Jack remembered everything that had happened the night before. The Diamond Dogs had seen Aladdin Sane perform, and Kylie had come with them. Jack had realized that Aladdin Sane was from the same planet that his father was from, thus proving once and for all that Jack was not human. Jack and Kylie had gone to the basement next to the Temperance Building and had sex, though Kylie still only wanted to be Jack's friend. Remembering the last event of the night, Jack rolled onto his side and reached out uncertainly to feel if Kylie was still there. His fingers touched the bare skin of her stomach, and then he moved his hand upwards to gently stroke her breasts. Kylie roused slowly to the touch, her hand capturing Jack's. "Where are we…?"
"Some old building," Jack said, shrugging. "I think it's morning. How are you?" His voice was quiet and calm, so as not to alarm the sleepy Kylie. Kylie responded to his question with a yawn, and Jack's hands slid off of her body slowly. "God… we stayed out all night… My parents are probably going crazy trying to find me."
Jack was about to apologize, but in the brief silence between Kylie's words he became aware of an unusual sound. Slow, heavy breathing surrounded the mattress that he and Kylie lay on. They were not alone in the dark.
Jack immediately sat up, reaching blindly around the mattress for his clothes. "Kylie-" He didn't get to finish his sentence before a bark froze his blood to ice. The dogs were here. Jack scrambled quickly to find his clothes and yelled to Kylie urgently. "Dress yourself! We're not alone!"
The dogs attacked before Jack was done pulling his pants on. He had found his pants and underwear along with the fluffy fur coat that Widdy and Dice had presented to him, but had no time to search for his shirt before a dog had leapt on him, knocking him to the ground. Kylie shrieked in the darkness, and Jack longed to go to her rescue, but he was too busy fighting off his unseen opponent. Where was his knapsack… where was his knife? The dog snapped salivating jaws at him, but Jack held it at bay for as long as he could, flailing beneath its sturdy body before it could get a grip on his face. He managed to twist onto his stomach and fling the dog off of him, jumping to his feet and onto the mattress that Kylie had deserted. It struck Jack as he did so that not only would he need his knapsack and knife- he would need his skates, too, if he wanted to escape from the dogs quickly.
Down in the dark of the basement, there was no way to tell how many dogs were attacking, or where they were coming from. In his search for his knapsack and his skates, Jack felt claws and teeth tear into him, but he paid his injuries no mind, knowing that the skin would close up in time. A Chinese star went whizzing past his head- Kylie had found her jacket with the weapons in the pockets. Together Jack and Kylie fought the dogs, she with Chinese stars, he with his fists, until Jack stumbled over something on the floor. His skates! Kylie's roller skates were lying right next to his. Jack fluidly strapped them on and urged Kylie to do the same with hers. Just as she reached down to pick up her skates, a dog came barreling out of the dark, making straight for her. Jack threw himself in front of the dog and beat it harshly as it clawed at his chest. Fortunately the fur coat was so thick that for all the dog's efforts, Jack remained unharmed. Then a frightening voice filled his head. Filthy Aresian! Die, die, die!
"Jack!" Kylie called, flinging a large object at him. It fell into his arms with an "oof!" Jack cradled the knapsack, reaching in and unsheathing his knife before putting it over his back. The fight suddenly became more even. With Kylie's help, Jack managed to drive the dogs back and reach the top of the stairs. He cranked the door open, resulting in a flood of morning light so bright it nearly hurt his eyes. The dogs growled, and one raced up the steps towards Jack, but he flew out the door just in time. "Kylie! Get out of there and follow me!"
The dog chased Jack down the street, and was soon joined by the five other dogs that had attacked him in the basement. We will destroy you, Aresian scum! Jack put his entire strength into skating as fast he could and as far away from the dogs as possible. Yet they too put on the speed, not seeming to need rest or anything else. Jack was so consumed with worries for Kylie's safety that he could barely concentrate on where he was going, but the worries were quelled instantly when a yelp sounded from behind Jack and Kylie came rolling up to join him at his side. "I put one of the stars through the dog's nose," she said between gasps. "That stalled him for a bit. Where are we going now?"
Jack had no idea where he could go to escape the dogs, and the pack was gaining on them ever so slowly. He got the feeling that the whole chase was just a game to the dogs- they were waiting for their prey to tire out before leaping on it. They were amusing themselves by running their victims to the ground before making the kill. As death threats continued to sound in Jack's head, he knew that the dogs wouldn't stop their attack until he and Kylie were extinguished.
Suddenly Kylie pulled ahead of Jack, racing even faster than she had been before. "Jack! There's a fire escape on that building right over there!" she called. "We can climb to the top of the building and escape!"
Jack was momentarily speechless, staring up ahead at the length of Kylie's dress. The fight with the dogs had turned what was once a small tear in the back of her dress into an entire split seam, essentially ripping the dress into shreds. Though Jack had felt Kylie's body just last night, it was the first time he had seen such a thing, and was for a moment both embarrassed and transfixed by the sight of her skin, made pale from lack of sunlight and contrasting to the tan on her face and neck.
Then the barking of the dogs dragged Jack out of his fantasies, and he nodded in response to Kylie's suggestion regarding the fire escape. Kylie waited for Jack to speed up and come to her side before taking off again, making a beeline for the fire escape at the side of the nearest building. Together Jack and Kylie hopped up on the garbage cans by the fire escape and swung their legs up onto the platform, knocking the garbage cans over in the process. They noisily clumped up the steps and climbed onto the roof, where they sat down, panting with exertion. Jack crawled over to the side of the building and looked down at the dogs, who were still yapping and howling away. ARESIAN! The voice in Jack's head screamed. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE!
Jack leaned back wearily as the dogs threw themselves at the wall, attempting to reach the fire escape. But none of them could leap high enough, and Jack was grateful for knocking over the trash cans he had used to get up on the roof. A few of the dogs got distracted and ripped open the bulging black garbage bags inside of the cans, tearing them apart ravenously in the search for food. Jack scooted away from the edge of the building and rested his head against Kylie's shoulder, too afraid to stand up yet. He listened as the cacophony of barks grew louder and louder, with the clanging of the trash cans in between.
"How long do you think it'll take for them to go away?" Jack asked hypothetically. He was sure that the dogs would never give up.
Kylie was more positive in her thinking. "If someone lives in this building, not long."
Sure enough, Kylie and Jack soon heard a BANG coming from the side of the building that the dogs were facing. They crawled to the side together and looked down as a woman stuck her head out of the open window, brandishing a pot of steaming water.
"You bloody dogs!" she shrieked in an accent that Jack had never heard before. "How'd you like a face full of boiling water first thing in the mornin'?" With that she upturned the pot, and the dogs below howled as the scalding water hit them directly in the eyes. They regrouped and scampered away down the street, yelping like wounded puppies. Kylie and Jack breathed a collective sigh of relief and scooted back from the edge of the building. Jack sat down cross-legged to examine his wounds. To his satisfaction, they were starting to heal themselves, though the rate was so slow that Jack made a mental reminder to himself to defend himself better, otherwise the wounds wouldn't be able to repair themselves by the time another one appeared. Kylie took time to examine her bites as well, which were oozing bright red blood in contrast to Jack's light pink, before standing up on her skates and rolling around on the roof.
"What are you doing?" Jack whispered sharply, fear tingeing his voice. "Kylie, you're going to fall off!"
"No, I'm not," Kylie said calmly. "Not if I'm careful." She performed a perfect figure eight while Jack held his breath. He thought his heart would stop beating when she skimmed the edge of the building, teetering so that one gust of wind in the wrong direction would send her flying off. But Kylie was confident, and she returned to Jack's side with a smile on her face.
"Jack, I think I'd better go home." Jack's heart sunk. "My parents are probably very worried right now, as they were expecting me to be home by nightfall." She knelt down and brushed a few stray hairs away from Jack's forehead. Jack tilted his head back and closed his eyes, not wanting Kylie to see his disappointment. "I'll take you there some other time." She paused and laid her hand very gently against Jack's cheek. "You know… this is the first time I've seen you without your eyepatch."
"Well," Jack stated, trying and failing at keeping the unhappiness from slipping into his voice, "The Diamond Dogs won't be doing much of anything today, so I guess I'll go home too." He opened his eyes to find Kylie staring into them, her mouth half-open as if she wanted to say something, but she closed it at the last minute. Her lips came up and kissed Jack's forehead. "Stay safe," Kylie murmured in his ear. "Don't miss me too much, and don't let those dogs get you, okay?" She grinned slyly, and Jack couldn't help but return the grin, his heart filling with warmth. "I promise I won't."
"Good." Kylie skated towards the fire escape, and Jack, wanting to call Kylie back but not knowing how, ended up calling behind her, "I love you."
"See you tomorrow on Poacher's Hill," was her response before she lowered herself down the fire escape and onto the ground. "By the way, you look better without it!" Jack watched her go, the torn strips of fabric from her dress fluttering in the wind.
Once Kylie was out of sight, Jack leaned back on his hands and turned his face to the sun, sighing heavily. What a night last night had been. He now knew exactly the way he felt about Kylie, and was a bit downhearted to learn that she didn't feel the same. But Jack wouldn't force Kylie into a relationship if she didn't want to. Yes, they had made love together, but it was only a test. Jack was determined to keep things normal between himself and his best friend.
He opened his eyes, realizing suddenly that his eyepatch had been lost in the basement during the dog attack, and now he could see everything perfectly, the way it had been before he met the Diamond Dogs. A flash, a fragment from the previous night came back to Jack- he was moving in sync with the audience at Aladdin Sane's concert as if they were a living, breathing organism, and above him Aladdin Sane howled as if he was being rent into pieces. Aladdin Sane… the man so inhuman that he had to be from another planet. The man whose strange features resembled both Jack and his father. And at that moment, as Jack remembered every detail of what Aladdin Sane had looked like, he decided that he wasn't ready to go home quite yet. There was someone in the city that he needed to talk to first.
As Jack skated leisurely to the Hole In The Wall, he couldn't help but let his thoughts stray involuntarily to his mother and what she might possibly be doing at home. Like Kylie, Jack had not gotten permission to stay out all night, and so was now realizing that his mother would be in a panic. Jack was usually mindful of these things, knowing that he was the only person his mother had left in life and that she was too afraid to go into the city to look for him, and yet he had defied his mother's wishes by staying out all night. What could her reaction have been? Jack hoped she had gone to bed sensibly and was still asleep now. She usually slept late anyway…
The Hole In The Wall wasn't quite as jumping as it had been the night before. Tables had been set out over the dance floor, signaling that there would be no live band playing during the day. A few bleary-looking customers sat at the tables, nursing their drinks, and several wasted Mercurians lay passed out at the counter. Jack wished that he could speak with the Mercurians, and was sorry that they all seemed to be alcoholics and thus wouldn't have much of anything to say. Then he remembered what Kylie had told him, that their language was incomprehensible to humans, and felt a bit better, though it was still depressing seeing all those unconscious bodies at the counter.
Jack strolled up to the counter, wondering at once if roller skates were allowed inside of the nightclub and bar. Last night he and the rest of the Diamond Dogs had taken them off in order to dance better. The bartender was serving drinks to a human couple, and when he was done Jack caught his attention. The bartender walked over, wiping his hands on his shirt, damp from condensation on the drinking glass. "Yeh? What can I do for you, young man?"
"Do you know where I can find a man that was performing here last night?" Jack asked. "Bog- I mean, Aladdin Sane. I need to talk to him."
The bartender nodded. "You came to just the right place. Old Aladdin Sane lives here, right backstage in his dressing room." He sized Jack up and down. "You're a funny type, you know that? Most boys your age who come here use the strangest slang I've ever heard, and they're always so rowdy. They usually don't come during the day either. But you're not like that."
"I was here last night, actually," Jack said. "I guess I'm more like refined than most malchicks." He grinned and took off towards the stage, heading in the direction of the backstage dressing room that the bartender had mentioned.
Jack hesitated before knocking on the door. He wasn't quite sure what he was to say to Aladdin Sane when he came face to face with him. Hi, I saw you perform last night and I'm a fan of yours. Was it right to preface the conversation with that? Jack was sure Aladdin Sane received such compliments all the time. I think you might be from another planet, and I think I might be from it too. He cringed, but what else was there to say? The only reason Jack wanted to talk to Aladdin Sane was to finally figure out who he was, once and for all. And maybe he did want the chance to brag to the Diamond Dogs, I was govoreeting with Bog this morning!
Jack took a deep breath and then rapped sharply on the door. He waited for a few seconds- no one answered the door. Jack knocked again, louder and more urgently than before, and waited once again. But still no one came to the door. Inhaling deeply again to quell his nerves, Jack went ahead and turned the doorknob carefully. It turned. Jack flew through the door and stopped a foot inside the dressing room, gazing at a slumbering figure lying on a chaise. Aladdin Sane was here, and he was asleep, wearing the same disheveled clothes he had on the night before.
For a moment Jack felt bad for disturbing Aladdin Sane, but then he realized that the man hadn't woken up with his entrance. Because Jack still needed to talk to Aladdin Sane, he decided to stay in the room and wait for the singer to wake up. While in the dressing room, he began to explore his surroundings with his eyes. The room was furnished with nothing but a dressing table, a chair, and the chaise on which Aladdin Sane slept on. The dressing table was cluttered with stage makeup, a case for contacts, and bits of half-eaten food- crusts of bread, apple cores, coffee beans, and the like. Beneath Aladdin Sane's prone body was a lacy white blanket, but he lay atop it instead of under it, his head pillowed on his folded arms, chest rising and falling relaxingly. Examining him, Jack noticed that Aladdin Sane slept with a frown on his face, just like Jack's mother did.
His heartbeat had slowed, and Jack was starting to forget that there was another person in the room when he heard the sound of shifting fabric coming from the chaise. Jack started and glanced over; Aladdin Sane was waking up. His eyes blinked open, seeming not to see anything until he rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself up, stretching out his weary limbs. He yawned once, widely, before throwing his legs over the side of the chaise and piercing Jack with a knowing look that suggested to Jack he had been expecting him. Chills cluttered up his skin, both from the glance Aladdin Sane gave him and the color of his eyes. They weren't blue as Jack had noticed the night before. Now Aladdin Sane's eyes were a bright, unnatural red.
"Hello," Aladdin Sane said, his voice deep and scratchy and colored with the strange accent that Jack had heard him singing with the night before. He swiped his tongue around his mouth a few times, swallowed once, and cleared his throat before speaking again. "I was expecting you."
At first Jack was about to say, "But you were asleep," but his lips formed instead the question "How did you know I was coming?"
Aladdin Sane scratched his head, running his fingers through his reddish-brown hair. "Oh, I always know." He pulled a garment off of the back of the chaise and slipped it on, revealing it to be a dark blue dressing gown. Aladdin Sane then stood up and stretched up and down, touching his toes, and then stalked over to the dressing table and cleared some of the mess aside to reveal a coffee maker. He fed it with beans and water and then turned it on.
"You'll have to forgive me for the state I'm in," Aladdin Sane drawled in a bored-sounding tone above the noise of grinding coffee beans. "That and the state of this room. I never tidy up in here, and I was sleeping off the hangover from last night's concert. Goodness, but hangovers are such a load of cal." He blinked apologetically, and Jack was at once surprised to hear him speak the Earthly language so eloquently and to hear him slip a nadsat-talk word into his sentence. "You were there," Aladdin Sane continued, massaging his temples as he waited for the coffee to be ready. "I know because I saw you and heard that you would be coming."
"How did you know?" Jack repeated. Aladdin Sane made a shush noise and turned his back on Jack, fumbling around on the dressing table before he found a Styrofoam cup. Once the coffee was done being made, he poured the coffee into the cup and sipped it slowly, both wincing and delighting in its heat. "Ahh. One of the few Earthly imports to this planet that I enjoy." Aladdin Sane smiled, though his eyes were tight and faraway.
Aladdin Sane turned to sit back down on the chaise and motioned for Jack to follow him. Jack sat, a little cautiously. He was about to ask for the third time how Aladdin Sane had known he would be coming when the singer himself held out his hand. "I'm sorry- I've known who you are for a long time now, but I haven't yet known your name," he said ruefully. "Certainly you known mine already."
"My name is Jack Stardust," Jack said, shaking Aladdin Sane's thin hand. "My droogs- I mean my friends, the Diamond Dogs- call me Hallowe'en Jack."
"Diamond Dogs," Aladdin Sane muttered to himself, and gave a sarcastic snort of laughter. "You know me as A Lad Insane, though it's not my real name. The Mercurians christened me as such when I first came among them."
"The Mercurians?" Jack stated in surprise. "But they can't speak the Earthly language."
"No," Aladdin Sane said, "but they could repeat after me back then, and gave me the name after what I referred to myself as, though I wasn't so versed in the universal language as I am now." He shook his head in seeming disbelief. "On the planet that both I and you come from, what you would call the Earthly language was used as a universal language for every country to understand each other. It originated in one of our countries, so that they didn't need to learn to speak it, but for every other country, each person was taught the universal language as a second language five years into our lives. I, however, had not spoken in the universal language for years and years by the time I came here, and so I mixed it all up. 'Lad' instead of man, and I'd gotten the syntax wrong too." He grimaced. "I suppose it's better than if I had gotten it right, or else everyone would be calling me Aninsane Man, which has much less of a ring to it."
A Lad Insane… The pieces fell into place, and Jack smiled inwardly. Then he turned all of his attention onto the most pressing question. "Aladdin Sane… if I can call you that…" His heart started pounding as Jack longed to just burst out with the question. To heck with introductions.
"What else would you call me?" Aladdin Sane answered. "Bog?" He gave another harsh snort.
Jack hesitated, and then plunged right in, letting his question spring forth. "What planet are you from?" Unexpectedly, Jack's voice didn't ring out the way he had hoped it would. The question was squeaked out in a small, uncertain voice, as Jack realized he would finally find out his heritage, and was suddenly apprehensive.
"I knew you would want to know," Aladdin Sane sighed. "My planet was called Ares. It was the fourth planet in the solar system that Earth came from, but now it has died, along with Earth."
Ares… Aresian! The hostile voice that had filled Jack's head during the most recent dog attacks came back to him. Filthy Aresian… Suddenly it all made sense to Jack. He now had a name for what kind of person he was.
"Now," said Jack, peering with slight inhibition into Aladdin Sane's red eyes, "can you please tell me how you knew I was coming?" Aladdin Sane stared back unfathomably before crossing his legs and leaning his head back against the frame of the chaise. He took another sip of warm coffee, and Jack breathed in deeply, the heavenly scent permeating the air.
"I knew you were coming in the same way that I knew the Venusians would be coming," Aladdin Sane said. "I see things that normal humans, or-" He cracked a wry grin without humor- "normal Aresians don't see. Call it clairvoyance or what have you. I saw that you would be coming to my concert last night, and that you would want to talk to me this morning. Really, I knew about it all in advance, so I'm very sorry I wasn't ready to receive you."
"Excuse me?" Jack said, his ears and mind picking up on an important-sounding word. "What do you mean- the Venusians?"
"The Venusians," Aladdin Sane explained in a patient tone, "are what the humans have been calling the Saviors of planet Earth. They are the ones who rescued both the humans and the Mercurians, and who attempted to rescue the people of my planet- our planet- as well."
"I see," Jack breathed, nodding. He waited for Aladdin Sane to take another few sips of his coffee and wipe his mouth before prodding him to continue answering his questions. "Can you tell me more about Ares, Aladdin Sane?" Jack tried to force himself to say "my planet," but his mind stumbled over the phrase. "How did it die? When did you come here?"
Aladdin Sane set his Styrofoam cup down on the floor and steepled his spidery fingers, delicately leaning back on the chaise and shaking his head wearily. "We've just barely met, and you're asking me so much already. I should have foreseen this." He closed his eyes, trying to make the words flow better, and Jack hastily blurted, "Appy polly- I mean, I'm sorry. If you're still tired I'll leave you alone…"
"No," Aladdin Sane said. Without opening his eyes, he reached out and tapped Jack lightly on the arm. "I would like you to stay. You are going to stay, anyway. I see it. It's been so long since I've been able to talk to someone who relates to me, even if you are only half Aresian, and you need your questions answered besides." Jack stiffened and prompted Aladdin Sane- "Go on…?"
Aladdin Sane said nothing for a while, collecting his thoughts, and then began without any prelude. "I was living out on my own in a cottage in the wilderness that I had built for myself when I first saw that the Venusians would be arriving. I had built the cottage to keep myself away from society, who would surely shun me or do worse to me if they discovered my visions. But that is beside the point. What matters is that while I was out there, I had a vision of the Venusians, flying above Ares in their shining wood and metal ships, searching for life."
Flash- Jack remembered being on board one of those very ships, in a waking daze as he gazed numbly at all that was around him. A tall being nearby him stood with his back facing Jack, but not for the first time, Jack could not recall his or her face.
"At the time I didn't know what it meant," Aladdin Sane said. "I had never seen nor heard of anything or anyone like the Venusians before. I thought maybe my vision was false, that it was showing me a dream. But later I began to see horrific visions, scenes of an apocalypse that was taking place over the course of five Aresian years. People were ravaging houses, screaming in the streets, fighting brutally over what little supplies they had, all to be finished off by a poisonous yellow fog and blood-red rain. Then the vision of the Venusians came to me once again, and I understood what they were trying to do. They wanted to land on Ares to save our people and bring us to a safe haven on another planet.
"From that day forward, I kept my eyes and ears open for any more signals that the Venusians might send to me. My visions have no sense of time, and so I had no idea how far along in the future the apocalypse would be happening- it could have been several years or, just as possible, several weeks. I only knew for sure when I fell asleep one night and received a dream that felt so vivid it had to have been happening only the next day. The Venusians had come to Ares- indeed, while working outdoors the next day I could feel their presence, though as far as I know they weren't nearby- in a time of peace, appearing at a festival in the country that the universal language originated in. They stopped by briefly to watch the festivities, and it must have been decided that we didn't look to be in any danger, for they sailed away once more into the galaxy, content.
"I was aghast that the Venusians had missed the date, and decided to take matters into my own hands. No one would listen to me in town if I told them of my visions, for the fact that I saw them in itself, and for the content. If the apocalypse was not to happen for another thousand years, it would be useless warning the townspeople and stirring up their defenses when they were in no danger to speak of. So I decided to build a spacecraft of my own design to help me get off of Ares when the apocalypse came. I could see from my visions that it was going to be a successful plan. I just didn't know how I could pull it off, or more importantly, when. But my instincts told me to move quickly.
"I needn't go into detail about what happened. If you are familiar with the destruction of Earth or of Mercury, you will understand what happened to Ares." Suddenly noticing that his hand was shaking, Aladdin Sane opened his mystifying red eyes and reached into the front pocket of his dressing gown to produce a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. He took one out of the pack, leaving two behind, and lit it, before offering the second-to-last cigarette to Jack. Jack shook his head, having never smoked before, and Aladdin Sane replaced the cigarette packet and lighter in his pocket and sucked on it for a bit. "Here's an Earthly import that I don't enjoy anymore, but can't give up now," he said sorely, pinching the cigarette between two fingers. After blowing smoke into the air, Aladdin Sane went on with his tale.
"I perceived from my special sight that only a few of us would get out of the apocalypse all right. I would survive, as would a young man from the country that the universal language originated in, and eventually the Venusians would arrive late to pick up whatever people were still living down on the planet, just as they did for planet Earth. Now, at the time I was very excited to see this vision, and determined to find out where the Venusians had taken my people so that I could join them there. What a nazz I was! I traveled outer space for years and years, so many years that I lost track, desperately searching for the remnants of my planet.
"When I finally arrived on this planet, I came to find that there were no signs of life whatsoever, and yet my visions told me that my people had been taken here. Convinced that there was no way my sight could be lying to me- ha! Ha!" Aladdin Sane broke off into cruel, harsh laughter. "I wandered about the desert for days, blindly searching for food, water, and civilization. I was nearly famished when I saw them for the first time. At first I thought they were a mirage, but when they came closer I found I was staring not at a mirage, but at a pack of true Diamond Dogs." He smiled a twisted smile, and Jack blinked.
"Diamond Dogs? Like my droogs? But humans haven't been on this planet for…"
"Years and years, I know," Aladdin Sane said. "Jack, your 'droogs' as you call them- so charming, the way the nadsats in this city have picked up on my language; they use it as a kind of hero-worship, believing me to be God or Bog- named themselves, whether they did so knowingly or unknowingly, after the real Diamond Dogs, the animals that attacked me so many years ago." His tone grew blacker as he spoke, staring sharply at Jack's arms and face. "You were attacked by them this morning, I see. You still bear the scars."
"I do?" Jack murmured, reaching up to touch his face where the dogs had clawed it. The wounds had closed up as per Jack's healing ability, but he could still feel the lines of raised patches of skin where he had been scratched.
Aladdin Sane nodded. "I see that you have inherited our Aresian trait of an accelerated healing ability. However, the human half of you causes the wounds to leave scars. Tell me, when did you receive them, and how long did it take for them to heal?" He leaned into Jack with a flicker of interest in his crimson eyes, like a dying flame rekindled. "I'm sorry if you think this is irrelevant. I know it is myself, but I'm a bit curious to see how true Aresians and hybrids differ."
"It's okay," Jack mumbled, trying to wrap his head around the idea that he was an Aresian-human hybrid. He unconsciously ran his fingers along the scratches on his arms as he answered Aladdin Sane's question. "The dogs got me this morning, and the wounds healed in the amount of time it took for me to skate over here."
"Ah," Aladdin Sane said, his curiosity apparently sated. "It would appear that full-blooded Aresians have a faster healing power than you. You'll have to be careful, Jack, if you ever run into those Diamond Dogs again. Which brings me back to my story…" He took a drag from the cigarette and then reached down between his feet, taking the Styrofoam cup of coffee up once more, and downed the contents in one gulp. Seemingly steadied, Aladdin Sane then went on with the rest of his story.
"The Diamond Dogs knew what I was. To this day I have no idea how they knew, but as they ran at me I could hear voices in my head, shouting about death to the Aresian and so on. They nearly tore me to pieces, but I escaped in time, though not without terrible wounds. The Diamond Dogs must have been named for their teeth- those fangs are so sharp they could cut open anything, as unbreakable as diamonds. I crawled away into a little shelter to bleed and hide. The next day my journey continued in a similar fashion. It was truly awful, let me tell you. I staggered about this wasteland for days and days, near delirious from thirst and hunger, weakly fending off attacks from the vicious Diamond Dogs, and starting to go mad. And all the while the visions haunted my head- memories of the destruction of Ares, and scenes of what had happened to my people and what was going to happen to me. I still don't understand why the Diamond Dogs didn't just kill me at the time. They had the opportunity, for I was defenseless and could barely stand up straight, but the most they ever did was rough me up a bit and threaten me with voices in my head. To them, I suppose killing me would have been showing me mercy, and perhaps they thought it better to torture me by having me live. That might explain why I got to Hunger City in time. I finally collapsed in the streets, and the Mercurians found me and took me in.
"It wasn't called Hunger City then, not yet. The Mercurians had their own name for it, but their language was impossible for my tongue to pronounce. They nursed me back to health over what had to have been the course of a month, or more. I was traumatized from my entire experience after leaving Ares and the visions were driving me insane. It was a very dark point in my life…" Aladdin Sane took in a pensive breath, and for a moment Jack thought he was going to continue with the story, but with a miniscule shake of his head he skipped ahead and went on with, "Anyway, when I had been through the dark tunnel of madness and come out on the other side alright, the Mercurians asked me my name. I knew what they meant because I had grown to understand a bit of their language during my convalescence, and so I told them I was 'A Lad Insane.' They didn't get the joke, of course, but the name stuck and I've been using it ever since then." Aladdin Sane looked over at Jack, pinning his with his gaze. "Before you ask, I am not going to tell you what my real name is. I've completely gotten rid of it since the Mercurians found me, and to hear you call me by my name would prove both confusing and painful." Jack nodded- "I understand"- and Aladdin Sane relaxed.
"Well, that was my personal story. The rest I'm sure you've heard from whatever authority figures are in your life right now. I lived with the Mercurians in this city for Bog knows how many years, serving as an entertainer for them. I was a musician, though I could do nothing but sing. When the humans arrived, our entire city changed. They set up their stores and nightclubs and what have you, and the Mercurians were driven from the city they had built, retreating to various bars and nightclubs and quickly becoming addicted to drink. It's been terrible seeing a race of people that I've always admired throw their lives away at the bar. Not that I wasn't immune to the Earthly vices." Aladdin Sane tapped his cigarette and winced. "Nicotine, alcohol and the like… I can only thank Bog that I'm an Aresian and my body heals itself before I can get alcohol poisoning. The drink used to drown out the pain I still felt over my lost planet and the trauma from my time in the wasteland, but it's no longer helping me and I'm hopelessly connected to it now." He sighed, though not too tragically. Jack figured that Aladdin Sane didn't want to appear too melodramatic or take his fate too seriously. He wanted to play the part of a survivor, albeit to survive he had ended up paying a terrible price.
"When the humans came, my role in the community changed. I was the only Aresian in a city of Mercurians and humans, and I suppose that put me in a higher esteem than anyone else. I began my career here at this nightclub, and since the day I set foot in this building I've never left it. There is nowhere else to go, and besides, the Diamond Dogs stalk the streets more freely now that the humans have taken over. I don't want to risk another run-in with them- I'm sure if I even saw one now I wouldn't be able to stand it.
"The children from Earth grew into nadsats and began to worship me, calling me Bog. I suppose that's where you fit into the picture, Jack. They adopted the name of the Diamond Dogs for themselves, not knowing that the name has such negative connotations." Aladdin Sane tapped the ash off the end of his cigarette and repositioned himself on the chaise. "I think I've said all I needed to say, or all I was planning to say, anyway. Is there anything more you'd like to talk to me about?" He paused and spoke before Jack could say anything. "I know there is."
"I don't think so," Jack said, his mind trying to absorb the entire story that Aladdin Sane had just told him. "I…" He brushed his long hair behind his ears, a nervous tremor in his hand as he did so. Jack wished he still had his eyepatch so he wouldn't have to look at Aladdin Sane full on. That face was a little too knowing, and those eyes were a little too disturbing.
"I just have to get something straight," he said. "You're the last Aresian living?"
"As far as I know, yes," Aladdin Sane said. "The Venusians supposedly rescued a number of Aresians from my planet, but what they did to them is unknown. My visions told me they took them here, but that has proven to be false. I do know that the fate of the young man who escaped the planet by himself is unknown, unless you know something about that." He looked at Jack. "You're not a full-blooded Aresian. You have some human blood in you as well. Tell me, Jack, how did you come into being? Did the man I saw escaping the apocalypse on Ares come to Earth to have children?"
"I-I'm not sure," Jack said, suddenly realizing that what Aladdin Sane had said was exactly true. Who else could his father have been, if the entirety of the Aresian race had been extinguished besides Aladdin Sane and one other young man? Jack stuttered, "I mean, up until a few days ago I didn't know that I wasn't completely human. My mother is human, but she never told me that my father wasn't. According to her, he was a rock musician like you that she had a one-night-stand with. She told me he was murdered on Earth. His name was… Ziggy Stardust." Jack peered hopefully into Aladdin Sane's eyes to see if the name rang any bells, but Aladdin Sane shook his head apologetically.
"I've never heard of anyone named Ziggy Stardust, but there were many people on my planet, and he didn't come from my country, so it's likely that our paths never crossed. Whoever he was, it's clear from the sight of you that he was an Aresian." Aladdin Sane reached out and touched Jack's gently pointed ears, and then slowly brushed his pink face. "Your ears…" he murmured. "Your skin… You have Aresian blood in you, Jack. There's no denying that." He pulled his hand back suddenly, as if realizing how suggestive his movements were. "It's a shame that we don't have more time together. Being the last two Aresians, or at least partial Aresians, left alive, we need to stick together. By all rights I should be allowed to tell you everything you might need to know about your own race. But this is the last time that we'll ever speak. My vision had told me so, and I don't believe it's wrong now." Aladdin Sane's face was a blank slate, betraying no sadness or anger, in contrast to Jack, who let the disappointment show on his face.
"But I just met you," he said plaintively. "Why- why are we never going to speak again?" Deep within himself, Jack felt himself grow melancholy. He longed to continue talking to Aladdin Sane, divining all of the man's secrets and all the secrets of the race of Aresians. Now that Jack had found out at last who he was, even if there were still a few holes to fill in (talking to his mother should alleviate that), he felt a close kinship with Aladdin Sane. His heart broke at the thought of never seeing this man again after that day. He was his race… he was his family…
Aladdin Sane's inscrutable red eyes blinked once, and he stood up and went over to the dressing table. "We just aren't," he said quietly, calmly, and stubbed his cigarette out on an ashtray on the dressing table. Jack watched as Aladdin Sane then opened a drawer in the dressing table and took out of it a handheld pistol. He turned the gun on himself, and Jack leapt forward, crying, "No-"
"Don't be alarmed!" Aladdin Sane said, whirling on his heel to face Jack and halt his advancement. He shifted the pistol into one hand and used the other hand to keep Jack away from him, grabbing his shoulder. "I'm not going to use it yet," he said. "Actually I'm not sure if I'm going to use it at all. Being clairvoyant, I have foreseen my own death, but the details are unclear, as they are in many of my visions." He let go of Jack, who breathed deeply in an attempt to calm the spiking of his heart, and got a lungful of cigarette smoke, which made him cough. Aladdin Sane took no notice, spinning the pistol about in his hand.
"I've had this pistol with me for a very long time," he said. "There is but one bullet inside, meant for me. When the memories and the visions began to torture me, I felt that I had to find a way to die. And so I obtained this little Earthly veshch." He snorted, giving the pistol another spin for good measure. "You have to be aware of this, Jack. We Aresians have excellent memories- too excellent, in fact. I can remember most of the events of my life since my birth in crystal clear detail. Have you come to experience anything like this before?"
Jack, shocked by Aladdin Sane's revelation, shook his head. "I have a good memory," he said, "but I think the human part of me keeps it from being too good. Sometimes I get little flashes here and there…"
"Ah, well," Aladdin Sane sighed. "It's for the best. I hope to Bog you've never experienced the depression, either."
Jack shook his head again, though he wasn't quite sure what Aladdin Sane meant. Aladdin Sane didn't look at him, instead turning back to the dressing table and hoisting the pistol to his chest once more, staring in the corrosion-flecked mirror at himself.
"The best way for an Aresian to commit suicide," Aladdin Sane said, "is to shoot or stab oneself in the heart or in the brain. Any other injury would heal, and if we never drown nor poison ourselves, we will simply live forever and ever and ever."
"What?" Jack blurted suddenly. "You mean we're… we're…" He could barely spit the word out, and Aladdin Sane didn't seem keen on helping him find it. Ageless? Immortal? What could Jack say to that?
"You might not be," Aladdin Sane said. "And thank Bog for that. You don't want to live as long as I have lived. It will drive you bezoomy, turn you into another Aladdin Sane." He smiled dryly, again without humor, and ran his finger along the pistol's trigger.
"In my vision of death," Aladdin Sane explained, "I am standing before this very mirror with the pistol pressed to my chest, ready to make the final shot. I can hear the sounds of scuffle coming from out in the club, including the barking of the wretched Diamond Dogs. I can hear them coming closer and closer to my dressing room, and I can feel the cold steel of the pistol as my sweating hands tighten their grip. But for the life of me, I can't tell who gets me first- the dogs or myself." He swallowed.
"I hope it won't take very long for me to find out."
After leaving the Hole In The Wall, Jack stood outside for a bit to pull himself together, his mind reeling from everything that Aladdin Sane had told him. He wiped the sweat off his face- it was looking to be a hot day already- and took a deep breath to calm himself before rolling forward on his skates, then backward, and finally taking off down the street. It was time to either go home, or find the Diamond Dogs to tell them of everything he had learned. If only Kylie hadn't left so early… Jack knew she would be very interested in what he had just found out.
As Jack skated, he began to hear the telltale squeaking sounds coming from behind him. He didn't turn around and waited until the Diamond Dogs had surrounded him, Widdy and Dice skating at his flanks, Sledge bringing up the rear, and Jagger taking the lead, as usual. Though Jagger was in front, it was actually Jack who led the Diamond Dogs into a back alley and spun around a few times on his skates before braking. Widdy and Dice skated to the front and checked out the contents of a metal garbage can while Sledge drifted away to practice his skating and Jagger swung in front of Jack, hands on his hips and eyes glowing. "Welly welly welly well now, oh my brother Hallowe'en Jack," he said triumphantly. "And where have you been all nochy and this morning? We searched all high and low for you, my brother and droog, when we found we had not viddied you all morning." Jagger drew his arm around Jack's shoulders and gave him a conspiratorial wink. "What were you and my fair sister Kylie up to last nochy? Did anything sloochat that you would like to govoreet about?" He peered closely at Jack's face, noticing a difference. "And what has sloochatted to your glazzy-patch?"
Jack shook off Jagger's arm in as polite a way as he could manage and checked over his shoulders to make sure none of the Diamond Dogs were listening before drawing Jagger over to the side and whispering in his ear, "We ittied off to the basement together, oh my brother Jagger. I don't like believe I need to skazat more."
Jagger grinned knowingly and clapped Jack on the back. "Hallowe'en Jack, you have like grown!" he exclaimed. "You are no malenky malchick anymore. You are a true veck!"
"Why thank you, brother Jagger," Jack said with a slight sarcastic edge to his voice. He didn't think that having sex with someone would make him a man, especially not at his age. Besides, there were more important things to discuss than who he had been with the night before.
Jagger, however, didn't seem to think so. "Where is the molodoy devotchka now, oh my brother?" he asked Jack. "Why has she not like come with you?"
"She had to itty off to her domy," Jack explained downheartedly. "She wants only to be my droog, brother Jagger. I… I love her, but she does not love me back." Despite Jack's earlier decision that he wouldn't feel upset about Kylie's affections, he couldn't help but let disappointment creep into his voice. He tried to shake it off to look unaffected for Jagger, but Jagger saw through Jack immediately, and patted him on the shoulder.
"Appy polly loggies, my brother. There are plenty of other sharps in the city for you to like enjoy."
"I only want Kylie," Jack said, and then thought it best to shut up. No one would want to hear him whine about something he couldn't change, and he still had important news to tell the Diamond Dogs. Diamond Dogs… The very name suddenly struck Jack as being darkly humorous. When these boys found out what their name really meant, they wouldn't be laughing.
Jagger tried to offer another word of comfort, but Jack shrugged him off. "Oh my brother Jagger, I have like important news to skazat. Gather the rest of our brothers so that they can all slooshy."
Jagger blinked, started to open his mouth, but then twisted whatever he was going to say into a simple word of, "All right, my brother." He backed away from Jack and spun in a circle on his skates a few times before gliding up to Widdy, Dice, and Sledge. "Slooshy here, oh my brothers! Hallowe'en Jack has some important like slovos to skazat and he wants us all to slooshy very very closely. Come to me, my brothers!"
Widdy and Dice stopped their sifting through the garbage bag, which they had ripped open with their knives, and came to Jagger willingly. Sledge followed behind with darkness in his eyes. Together the Diamond Dogs stood in a curved line, facing Jack and waiting for him to speak. Jack took a deep breath, surveying his friend's faces, and clasped his hands together as he started to talk.
"I was govoreeting with Bog this morning, oh my br-"
He couldn't finish the sentence before Jagger let out an overly dramatic gasp. "Not-"
"Aladdin Sane?!" all four Diamond Dogs finished simultaneously, and their eyes widened at the same time as if on cue. Jack would have found it comical had his news not been so important. He nodded.
"Yes, I was govoreeting with Aladdin Sane-" The other four Diamond Dogs mouthed the name- "oh my brothers. I went to him this morning after being attacked by that oozhassny pack of dogs that have like terrorized us Diamond Dogs-" the name was hard to get out, now that Jack knew what it meant- "in the past. I awoke in the basement with our fair sister Kylie by my side, our plotts all nagoy after lubbilubbing last nochy, and found myself staring into the litsos of those grazny creatures." Widdy and Dice looked as if they were about to start cheering with the mention of having sex with Kylie, but when Jack brought up the dogs they immediately sobered, a trace of fear in their eyes. Jagger's face was guarded, and Sledge blurted in a suddenly forceful voice, "How did you ookadeet safely, oh my brother?" He stepped forward, his expression urgent.
"There was a bitva," Jack explained, "and myself and Kylie were both like wounded, oh my brothers. But we did escape by climbing to the top of a nearby mesto. A devotchka inside the mesto saved us by pouring boiling water down on the dogs, and they ittied off in like great fright, oh my brothers. I would have smecked at the sight had I not been so poogly."
Without warning, Sledge turned on Jagger, speeding up to him in one quick movement and lunging for him with a shout. "You bratchny!" he cried, as Jagger blocked his blow with his arm and whipped out his knife in a single movement. "Those dogs could have oobivatted our brother Hallowe'en Jack! Why did you not warn him, brother? I thought droogs were supposed to like protect each other from danger!"
"Calm down, brother," Jagger pleaded, as Widdy and Dice, alarmed, skated up to Sledge and grabbed hold of his arms, tugging him away from Jagger. "I am not poogly of using this nozh on you." Sledge gave a few more halfhearted struggles before falling still, contempt flaring in his eyes. Jagger continued, "We are droogs, oh my brother Sledge, and it is not right for us to like fight. Besides, this is like the day after a nochy of worship. I will explain everything when Hallowe'en Jack has finished telling us his news."
"I would much prefer it, brother Jagger, if you explained everything now!" Sledge cried. "Both Hallowe'en Jack and Kylie could have snuffed it this morning, and we would have you to blame!"
Jagger sighed and looked reluctantly over at Jack before letting his gaze swing back onto Sledge. "Release him," he commanded Widdy and Dice, and they let go of Sledge, who stayed where he was, gazing levelly at Jagger. Jagger sheathed his knife before turning to look at Jack again. "Appy polly loggies for this example of poor conduct, oh my brother," he said. Sledge huffed an angry sigh at him.
"I admit," Jagger said, "it was like unfair of me to not tell you about the dogs we found in the basement the last time we were there, Hallowe'en Jack. Appy polly loggies once again. I never thought they might like return to attack you."
"When did you viddy the dogs for the first time, oh my brother Jagger?" Jack asked.
Jagger sighed and held his hands out, palms up. "The last nochy in the basement with the sharps, oh my brother, was the first time any of us Diamond Dogs had viddied them. We could slooshy them prowling about on the streets outside as we lubbilubbed, barking their awful vonny barks and sniffing about quite near the door. The sharps were a bit spoogy of such animals, but we told them they would not come down to find us and kept those devotchkas from ookadeeting. But all through the nochy, as we zasnooted, whenever I awoke I could slooshy the breathing of the dogs quite near my ookoes and around the plotts of my three brothers, deep in spatchka. I could not move, out of shilarny that the dogs would like find me there in the dark and attack me. They did not vred us at all that nochy, my brother Hallowe'en Jack, but it was enough to like drive the devotchkas away in the morning. Brother Sledge here-" he hooked his finger over at Sledge, who glowered- "was poogly of the dogs, and thought that we should warn you about them. But I never thought you would need the basement, oh my brother, and so left it un-skazatted. It turns out-" Jagger placed his hands on his hips and swept his gaze over Sledge, Widdy, Dice, and Jack. "It turns out that I was wrong, oh my brothers, and I offer deep appy polly loggies to anyone I have like offended on accident."
"Good good good," Sledge sighed, a note of exasperation in his voice, covered with a hint of affection. "Appy polly loggy accepted."
"And you?" Jagger asked, looking at Jack. Jack nodded. "Appy polly loggy accepted, oh my brother."
"Good good good," Jagger conceded. "The dogs may have attacked you, brother Hallowe'en Jack, but they do not appear to have done much like damage. I am pleased to viddy that you escaped all right."
"Not exactly," Jack said, returning to his story. "Do you not viddy the marks on my litso where the dogs skriked me?" He ran his fingers down his face, and Jagger, leaning in to peer closely, frowned and shook his head.
"Are you sure?" Jack said, touching his face again, and then he remembered as his fingers ran over smooth skin. By now, the wounds on his face and arms would have closed up entirely, thanks to his partial Aresian blood.
Jagger nodded. "I am sure, oh my brother. I do not viddy any wounds on your litso or elsewhere. What does all of this have to do with Bog, my brother?"
Jack inhaled. "That's what I was getting at, my brother Jagger. Slooshy closely, everyone." The Diamond Dogs huddled in on each other, all looking eagerly towards Jack, ready for him to continue.
"After saying goodbye to my fair sister Kylie, I went back to the Hole In The Wall in like search of Aladdin Sane." The Diamond Dogs mouthed his name to themselves in unison. "I had many veshches I wanted to govoreet with him about, because I had a surprising like realization last nochy at the concert that involved both myself and him."
Jack looked at the open faces of his friends, hoping that they would be accepting and believe what he had to say. The last time Jack had suggested that he was descended from one of Bog's Holy Angels, Jagger had been very vocal in protesting that Jack was not connected in any way to them. Now, to claim that he was closer to Bog than any of the other Diamond Dogs, or even anyone on the planet or, for that matter, the entire galaxy, Jack was afraid that Jagger would shun him for his words and cast him out of the group of Diamond Dogs. But as it was the truth, Jack had to say it anyway.
"Have you ever noticed, brothers, the shape of my ookoes?" Jack started, brushing the hair back behind his ears. He flipped his head to the side and strained his neck forward to show the Diamond Dogs what he was talking about. There was a short intake of breath; from who, Jack couldn't tell.
"Pointed, yes," Jack said. "No human I know has ookoes like this. And viddy my skin, brothers." He held out his bare arms, and four pairs of eyes bulged as they gazed at them. "No human has skin as light as mine. And before you choose to like disbelieve me or skazat that there are other humans with these features, I would like to show you something." He slipped his hand into his knapsack and drew out the Bowie knife, unsheathing it. Before the Diamond Dogs' very eyes, Jack sliced into his wrist, taking care not to open the veins beneath. He may have a quicker healing power than normal humans, but he was sure it wasn't quick enough to heal severed veins before he bled to death. Protests rang out.
"No, brother Hallowe'en Jack!" Dice cried. "Don't vred yourself!"
"It's all right," Jack answered, holding his wrist out to show the Diamond Dogs. "Viddy well, my brothers." The Diamond Dogs held a collective breath as Jack's light pink blood dripped out onto the ground. Then the skin began to grow back, and the boys gasped as one. They watched and waited as Jack's self-made wound closed up the rest of the way, and then Jack dropped his arm and looked the Diamond Dogs in the eye. They stared in disbelief, their minds trying to make sense of what they had just seen.
"I am not human," Jack said firmly. "I am not completely human, anyway. My em is human, but my old pee who snuffed it on Earth was not. He and the great-"
"Aladdin Sane," all five Diamond Dogs breathed.
"-were of the same kind. They both came from the planet Ares, and were the only survivors from its untimely death. The great and holy Bog told me this. My old pee got my em like pregnant and she gave birth to me after he was oobivatted. Now Aladdin Sane-"
"Aladdin Sane," the four boys repeated numbly.
"-is the only Aresian left alive. I am half-Aresian myself, descended from the race of people that our Bog is from. My pee also happened to be one of Bog's Holy Angels." Jack reached into his knapsack and withdrew the newspaper article. BRITISH ROCK SENSATION ZIGGY STARDUST MURDERED IN SUFFRAGETTE CITY.
"Therefore, I am the like spawn of Bog," Jack said. "Or at least His Holy Angels." He waited for a reaction, which, due to the shock of everything Jack had said, was long in coming. The Diamond Dogs stared unblinkingly at Jack, none of them moving, and Jack began to fear that he had done irreparable damage by telling them everything. But then Jagger moved forward, and placed his hand on Jack's shoulder, looking into his eyes. Blue met gray as Jagger murmured weakly-
"All hail the Child of Bog's Angel."
There was a short silence, and then Sledge, Dice, and Widdy repeated after Jagger. "All hail the Child of Bog's Angel. All hail the Child of Bog's Angel! All hail the Child…" They continued to chant, their voices growing louder and louder, until Jagger cut them off, his eyes still boring holes into Jack and his hands still on Jack's shoulders.
"Brother Hallowe'en Jack…" He stopped and corrected himself. "Brother-"
"Hallowe'en Jack," the Diamond Dogs said in unison, catching on.
"Now that we know you are like one of Bog's Holy Angels themselves, I do not think I can lead the Diamond Dogs. You must become the leader of our malenky shaika, Child of Bog. I cannot give like orders to someone who is above me in rank."
Jack quickly shook his head, ducking out from under Jagger's grip on his shoulders. "You have gotten it wrong, brother Jagger," he said, worried suddenly about the hefty responsibility of leading the Diamond Dogs. "I don't know anything- like, anything- about leading a shaika. If it's all right with you, I would prefer not to like do this. There are more important veshches to skazat now, anyway. Slooshy closely, everyone."
Jagger pulled away from Jack and rolled back into place with the rest of the boys, looking a bit put out. They waited with bated breath for the conclusion of his tale. Jack said:
"The great and powerful Bog told me that the vonny dogs we have all viddied before are truly baddiwad and evil. They attacked him several times in the past and drove him bezoomy. Now the dogs are after me, because I am like Aresian, and the dogs hate Aresians. Bog told me that the dogs are known as… Diamond Dogs." Jack paused. "They want to oobivat me."
This time the pause in between words and reaction was shorter. The Diamond Dogs exchanged glances with each other, and then Jagger stepped forward, his face serene and his eyes glowing. Sledge was the next to come up, his face etched with determination, and then Widdy and Dice came forward, holding hands and glancing eagerly up towards Jack. They let Jagger speak for them.
"Hallowe'en Jack." The name was once again spoken in unison. Jagger dipped his head. "We Diamond Dogs will protect you with our jeeznies, no matter what danger comes your way. We will not let the Diamond Dogs oobivat you. You can trust us, dear brother and droog."
Jack was unable to summon up any words for a moment, staring at the devoted faces of his friends. Then he came forward to meet them, holding out his arms. "I…" There seemed to be nothing left to say but "Thank you." Jagger smiled, and Jack rushed in to give him a quick embrace as a means of expressing his gratitude.
"Oh, hell," Jagger grumbled as Jack wrapped his arms around him. "Get off me, Child of Bog! You may be all holy like, but that doesn't make me want you to touch me."
Jack backed away, giggling. "Appy polly loggies, brother Jagger. I'm just so… happy that you want to defend me."
"Of course we do," Sledge said, and the other boys added their assent. "Even if you were not like the Child of Bog, you are still our great droog and brother. We would always protect you no matter who you were."
After taking leave of the Diamond Dogs, who bid Jack solemnly farewell and went back to their doing absolutely nothing, Jack skated towards home, clutching his Bowie knife in his hand and fretting internally over what he was to do when he got to the Manhattan Chase building. It was time for something that had been far too long in coming- a confrontation with his mother.
The sun was making ready to set as Jack skated, and along the way he felt sure that someone, or something, was watching him. He gulped quietly and tightened his grip on the knife. Were the Diamond Dogs here? Invisible eyes seemed to be staring at him, but in the fading light Jack could see nothing that would suggest he was being watched. He flipped his head around to look up at Poacher's Hill, far behind him in the distance. For a moment Jack felt sure that his unseen stalkers were up there, but a closer look revealed no dogs. Still, Jack chose to skate backwards the rest of the way, blood pounding in his ears. Thoughts of the real Diamond Dogs suddenly brought back memories of Kylie's nursery rhyme that she had told him about on the day they met, and he reviewed the words with a newfound clarity.
"'You better lock up your kids and your wife, because the Diamond Dogs are coming to get you tonight. Crawling down the alley on your hands and knee- I'm sure you're not protected, for it's plain to see, that the Diamond Dogs are poachers and they hide behind trees. Hunt you to the ground they will- mannequins with kill appeal."
Jack hadn't even gotten to the front door of his home yet before it burst open and the figure he was most wanting and dreading to see came flying out at him. "Jack!" Jack began to brake, but his mother came at him too soon, and they collided in one place, his mother wrapping her arms around him in a much-too-tight iron grip.
"Where have you been?!" she seethed from between clenched teeth. "Where have you been, Jack? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!"
"I was out in Hunger City, Mom," Jack replied, trying to break free of her brutal embrace. "I stayed the night. I'm sorry if I-"
"You stayed the night?!" Jack's mother cried, her voice rising. "Where did you sleep?"
"Down in an abandoned basement," Jack said, and stifled an awkward cough. Sleeping hadn't been the only thing to occur in that basement.
His mother finally released him, but she kept her hands on Jack's arms. "Jack." Her voice was firm and harsh, and her dark eyebrows were pushed together. "Don't ever stay out in the city without my permission AGAIN."
"Sure, sure," Jack muttered, brushing his mother off of him and moving towards the door. He wasn't in the mood to deal with her freak-out. His mother followed him closely behind, her hands setting themselves on her hips.
"'Sure, sure?'" she mimicked Jack as he sat down on the couch and tossed his knapsack at his feet, sheathing the Bowie knife and slipping it back into the bag. "Look at me, Jack! Look at me!" Jack complied, brushing his hair out of his eyes as he faced his trembling mother. Her face was twisted with a strong emotion- anger? Terror?- that instantly made Jack feel ashamed. He shouldn't be treating his mother so coolly… But this was no time for her hysterics. Jack had to find out the long-awaited answer to a burning question that only his mother could answer.
"What were you doing all night?" Jack's mother asked, her arms slackening and falling at her sides. "Why- why didn't you tell me you would be gone for so long?"
Instead of making a dismissive comment- Jack figured that that would rile his mother up even more- Jack murmured his question in a quiet, soothing voice. "Mom? There's something I need to know from you." He swallowed, controlling his churning emotions within, and then burst out with, "Why didn't you tell me my father was from another goddamn planet?!"
As Jack's voice screeched up a few octaves despite himself, the glass in the windows shattered, and his mother clapped her hands to her ears in pain. Jack was too angry to care about the damage. A small part of his mind suddenly compared the sound of his fitful rage to the high-pitched cries that Aladdin Sane had emitted the night before. Did this vocal extension have anything to do with being an Aresian? There was no time to wonder, and so Jack muted the pondering voice in his head and turned his attention back to his mother.
Jack's mother stood in one place, her entire body vibrating. Her hands knotted and unknotted themselves, wringing out imaginary water. Her trembling lips parted, and tears came pouring down her cheeks. "Jack," she choked. "I'm- sorry!" The second word turned into a wail as Jack's mother ripped her hands apart and began to sob. Jack had never seen his mother cry before- upset and angry, yes, but never reduced to tears- and the sight shocked him so much that he forgot to be angry.
"It's okay, Mom," Jack said, starting to rise from the couch, but then he decided his mother didn't need any comfort from him. Instead, he patted the seat next to him. "Sit down." His mother came over and sat, burying her face in her hands and weeping bitterly.
"I'm sorry," Jack's mother coughed out in between sobs, her voice hoarse. "I'm sorry, Jack." Jack, who was growing annoyed with his mother's emotional outburst but was not utterly heartless, gave in to his instinct and laid his hand on her back, while saying, "Get a hold of yourself." After a while his mother's crying subsided and she looked up at her son, scrubbing her damp face with the palms of her hands.
"Ask me anything, Jack, and I'll answer every one of your questions," his mother said, reaching out to take his hand. He pulled it away at the last second.
"Why did you lie to me for so long?" Jack whispered. "Why did you tell me I was a human all this time, when I'm actually half-Aresian?"
The word that sat so comfortably in his mouth now did not have the same effect on his mother. "Aresian?" she murmured, scrunching up his forehead, and then leaned back and heaved the longest sigh Jack had ever heard her sigh. "I'm so sorry about all of this, Jack, you have to forgive-"
"I'll be able to forgive you as soon as you give me a reason for deceit," Jack said. "Why?"
His mother fiddled with her fingers, refusing to meet Jack's eyes. "I thought you would never need to know," she said. "I thought it would just be you and me, all by ourselves in this old building. I never thought you would meet other humans and start wondering…" She peeped at him with one eye. "How did you find out?"
Jack shrugged. "It was weird enough when my wound healed so quickly. Added to that, and my features that looked different from everyone else, and then last night at the concert…" He wasn't sure if he wanted to go into that much detail about Aladdin Sane right away. "I talked to someone, and I found out who I am. Why did you want to pretend I was a human, though?"
"For a while, I wasn't even sure that you weren't human," Jack's mother said, leaning forward to stare into the distance. "I was… oh God. I was so fucked up the night I met your father that I didn't know later if the proof he gave me was real… Someone who knew my father, the same person who advised me not to have an abortion, told me that yes, your father was from another planet. But I wasn't sure who to trust anymore…"
Jack wanted to know if the elusive, mystical person that his mother had mentioned was Kylie's father, who had tracked his mother down and asked her to stay with him because he was interested in Jack. But he didn't know how to find the words to ask.
"And besides," Jack's mother breathed beside him, "I was scared. I thought that if I let it slip you were from another planet, someone would come to take you away. It nearly happened back on Earth. Now that you're all I have to rely on in life, Jack, I was too afraid to let anyone know… I had to keep your true nature a secret."
Jack nodded, thinking about the true Diamond Dogs and wondering if they would have attacked when he was a baby to bring death to the Aresian!
"Now," said Jack's mother, turning her head to look into his eyes, "can you forgive me?" She spoke as if her heart was breaking with the words.
Jack shrugged and nodded again. "I forgive you, Mom." The phrase felt like a rock in his mouth. He wasn't really sure if he forgave his mother; he just wanted her to be content.
"Can you tell me again about the night you met my father?" he asked. "I want to know everything you know about him." Now that Jack had discovered so much about his race from Aladdin Sane, he felt it was important to hear about the second-to-last Aresian who had brought about his existence. "And I want to hear about his death." Who on Earth would have murdered Jack's father? If rock and roll had been as huge there as it was in Hunger City, no one in their right mind would have killed one of Bog's Angels.
"Oh, Jack," his mother sighed. "Is this really the time?" She smoothed her hair back from her face.
"Yes," Jack said defiantly. "This is the time. Tell me everything."
And so Jack's mother did.
She started out with the familiar story Jack had heard since he was born- after breaking up with her boyfriend one night and moving out of her apartment, Jack's mother had gone to a concert that Jack's father was holding. After the concert, he had noticed her and taken her back to his apartment. But this time there was an embellishment that Jack had never heard before. "After having sex," Jack's mother said, still blushing lightly from the years-old memory, "your father began talking about how he couldn't die, ever. He got out of bed and got a knife to show me. I watched as he sliced his own wrist open, right down to the veins, and it knitted back up before my eyes. I was in shock… and since I was on drugs at the time, I didn't think it had been real. Of course, it didn't help that your dad was calling himself a Martian to get publicity for his music. But heroin was never a drug to cause hallucinations…"
Heroin… Martian… Jack's mind was set alight with these new additions to the old tale. "What do you mean by 'Martian?'" he asked his mother. "I-I was told today that I'm half-Aresian."
"Aresian…" Jack's mother repeated blankly. "I don't know about that, but your father referred to himself in public as a Martian, from the planet Mars, the fourth planet in Earth's solar system."
"I was told that the fourth planet in Earth's solar system was Ares," Jack said, confused. His mother didn't bat an eye before letting out an amused snort. "Ares… Mars… they're the same thing," she said, shaking her head at something that Jack didn't understand. He supposed that only those who had lived on Earth could get the joke.
Jack's mother continued with her story, and the room grew somber once again. "The day after I had sex with your father, he was stabbed to death onstage."
"Onstage?" Jack blurted, a flash of memory from last night's concert coming to him to embellish the fact of Jack's father's death that he had known about beforehand. He imagined three faceless assailants bearing down on Aladdin Sane and plunging their Bowie knives into him… For Aladdin Sane, it would be mercy, but for the concertgoers, it would be horrific.
Jack's mother nodded. "Yes, onstage. No one ever found out who did it. Apparently the people were wearing all black like his backing band and face masks…"
"I know," Jack said. He bent over and reached into the knapsack and his feet, pulling out the newspaper article about his father. "I read it here." Jack handed the article over to his mother, who blinked in surprise at the sight of it.
"Goodness, you still have that?"
"I've never let it go," Jack said.
"Well then," his mother said, sizing the article up and down, "there's not much else to tell you about. A week later I found out I was pregnant with you."
Jack nodded, thinking over the familiar story. Though he should have been satisfied, a large part of Jack was crying for more information. He wanted more personal tales about his father, the second-to-last Aresian, than his mother could provide him with. Jack tried to implore her to go further by giving his mother a gentle nudge to startle her out of the reverie she had apparently slipped into. "Mom? Isn't there- isn't there anything else you can tell me about him? About- about my dad?" He was too hopeful and he knew it, but there was no harm done in lifting his spirits.
Which then came crashing down as his mother shook her head with an air of finality. "I've told you all I know about him, Jack. I never knew if he was a good man or a bad man. I only met him for one night, and it was so long ago… and we were both so very, very messed up…"
She smoothed out the newspaper article and held it flat in both hands, gazing from the photograph of Jack's father to her son, back and forth. "You inherited the ears, and the skin," she said softly. "His skin was as pale as bone. I can remember that at least." Jack stiffened as his mother reached out to massage his hair. "You got my hair, though. His wasn't naturally red, but I don't know what color it really was." She paused, swallowed, and then added with a trace of bitterness in her tone, "You inherited his looks."
"I did?" Jack murmured, unconsciously reaching up to touch his face. "Are you sure about that?" He had never considered himself a handsome or attractive boy- the face he saw in the mirror every day was plain and so familiar to him now that he saw nothing remarkable in it whatsoever.
"Of course you did," Jack's mother said in amusement. She tousled Jack's hair, and he glared at her. "Your father… he was the most handsome person to have ever touched me. I'm no looker myself, of course."
"Don't say that," Jack said to mindlessly assure his mother. "You're beautiful." But looking upon her at that moment, he realized he didn't really think she was beautiful. She might have been attractive once, but stress and hardships had obviously taken a toll on her. Her face was aged beyond its years, dissimilar from the way Kylie's eyes were more mature than anyone else Jack knew. His mother had turned into an old woman prematurely.
She tried to take his hand once more, and this time he let her, leaning into her and then, with a bit of apprehension, laying his head on her shoulder. Jack's mother kissed the top of his head, her face etched in sadness, or a longing, a wish that things were different. "Jack," she said, emotion leaking out of her voice. "I…"
She fell silent for the longest time, and Jack let the silence stretch out before asking, "What?"
But his mother said nothing, and held him on the couch for a few more minutes before releasing him to stand up and ask, "How was the concert last night?"
Jack stood in the audience of rock and roll fans back at the Hole In The Wall, jumping up and down with his friends the false Diamond Dogs and cheering at the man who stood onstage, who this time was not Aladdin Sane. The man that stood at the microphone now, a smile on his face, was Jack's father Ziggy Stardust, his flame-red hair burning bright beneath the spotlights and his odd blue eyes connecting with the crowd, unlike Aladdin Sane's gaze that had been fixed to the wall in the back. Jack's father was singing one of Aladdin Sane's songs, however, up high in his vocal range. He closed his eyes and leaned forward to keen the song out better, and Jack felt intense pride swelling in him, to dissipate when he noticed several dark shadows moving up towards the stage. Gradually they materialized into creatures, and Jack let out a yell of surprise when he saw that they were the true Diamond Dogs, and they were gaining on his father. He tried to warn him, but his father continued to sing, the noise of his own voice in the microphone drowning out Jack's cries. Suddenly the Diamond Dogs leapt on him and knocked him over, biting through skin, ripping him open so that pale pink blood flowed… Death to the Aresian!, sounded the familiar threat. The concertgoers began to run, but Jack stayed in one place, desperately shouting to his father. The band continued to play the song, as if their hands were stuck. Then more Diamond Dogs appeared and fixed their cold, glittering eyes on Jack. He tried to run, but they cornered him and moved in for the kill…
Jack awoke drenched in sweat, his heart pounding a mile a minute and his bedsheets tangled up from thrashing about in his sleep. He sat straight up and rested his head on his hands, breathing hard, blinking around the dark room and telling himself over and over that it was only a dream.
After his heartbeat had slowed down and his eyes had adapted to the darkness, Jack slid back under the covers of his bed and pulled the sheet up to his chin. He lay enveloped in night, his eyes half-closed and his mind working overtime, thinking about his father. His mother may not have known his father very well at all, but Jack knew that there was someone in the city who had- Kylie's parents. If Jack wanted to know anything about his poor, disappeared father, he would have to talk to them right away.
All night, Jack could swear that he heard the howling of Diamond Dogs far away in the distance.