The Original Light

The four of them slept in the same bed. Apart from Floyd who didn't sleep, but spent the night gently pawing Spencer and being roughly pawed by Sam, who did finally sleep. Floyd's mood sank to deep dark levels. He'd not intended to be stuck in this place for too long. He knew that Spencer wouldn't deal very well with what was going on, but now with the stupidity, his own and Spencer's they were stuck here for at least a few more days. He would send Sam out to get funds, but didn't trust him to come back again. If Sam saw or heard of something shiny and nice, he'd be gone, never to be seen again. Sending Levin out was not possible if they wanted to see him again... but for different reasons. He'd be cooking on a spit as soon as he left the room. That left himself, and Floyd didn't want to pay in the currency which was common here. Though he'd never baulked at sex or pain... or indeed sex and pain, he didn't want his arse or his body to be handed around for food. Sam was far better at that... yet... there was that damned trust issue.

Floyd rolled onto his back and pulled Sam's sleeping hand out of the front of his breeches. There had to be a better way. Keep dragging rats off the street was going to get Spencer riled... the man... dare Floyd think of Spencer as a man now? He was a man. Times had moved on fast... too fast. Spencer didn't understand that the things thrown around for fun were not children as they may well appear to be... the street rats just looked that way because that's what the locals desired. Go a few towns over and it would be something else... a fair haired woman, a dark skinned man... or even an animal... yet they were all the same inside. They are all rats without souls or spirits. Nothing more than a banana plant... or a lump of shit. Here the rats roamed free... in other places they were caught and put in pens and sold in the markets. Spencer wouldn't like that either. Spencer and his high morals... Spencer the liar... Spencer the faggot. Spencer who liked to suck on dick... perfect Spencer with his pretty eyes and soft wavy hair and a very nice arse too. He had plans for Levin and they all involved him killing him. That was something Sam was going to protest against and likely Spencer too. Why did they have to be so stubborn... so unwilling to see the bigger picture? They thought they were right and that was the end of the debate, whereas Floyd knew very well that it was himself who was correct in all matters all of the time.

Levin was surely sweet to look at, but he was the chip which Floyd intended to bargain with to get his own life back on track. Living down here wasn't all bad, but it wasn't a place he wanted to live eternally in... just keeping Spencer alive was going to take all of the joy away from being here. He turned and looked at Sam's sleeping face. The slightly open mouth and beautiful lips... those black eyelashes resting on his face... that cute little nose and that smooth and delicious skin which never had stubble and would never become rough and hard through shaving... pretty boy... perfect and pretty. He had been castrated, but that didn't by any means curb his libido. He looked over Sam's skinny and pale shoulder at Levin who was laying there looking right back at him. As Spencer had noted earlier, in this light, Levin's eyes looked almost silver they were so light in colour. He blinked and licked his lips.

'You should be sleeping.' Floyd whispered over Sam bony form.

'I have been. Something woke me... movement in the bed I suspect.' Levin whispered back, his voice a song in Floyd's heart. Had there been no risk or waking Sam and Spencer he would have slipped out of bed there and then and had the pretty Seraphim up against the wall. He would have made him scream... would have smelt the blood... it would have been glorious.

'You would kill me.' The Seraphim said to Floyd.

'You are reading my mind.' Floyd replied.

'No... I read your soul. I know what you want.'

Floyd pushed up onto one elbow and frowned at Levin. 'You know what I want? Then please tell me because I am flummoxed.'

Levin flicked his hair off his face in a lazy gesture and shrugged. 'You want me dead. I know that much. I saw you... when you pulled that knife from my chest. I saw the pleasure you got from that knowing it would kill me. I know you cut me up... I stood there in my shadow and I watched what you did to me. You will... you want to do it again. Creatures like you... they find something they desire and they will repeat until it makes them sick... as Spencer has made you sick.'

Now Floyd slipped from the bed... Spencer moaned and rolled over, reaching out. It was Sam's hand he touched and Sam who wound fingers through his. Floyd wanted to pull them apart, but he wanted to talk to Levin with his fists first... outside... 'Outside.' He hissed, tapping Lev on the foot.

Levin slipped from the bed too... giving Sam a backwards glance and then followed Floyd out of the door and into the dull red light of the corridor. The stone walls seemed to be sweating... puddles had formed at the edges of the floor... light seeped out from under some of the half dozen doors... Floyd touched Levin on the arm and nodded towards the stairs. 'Outside.' He said again and Levin nodded and walked ahead, limping and clanking slightly in his chains, but he was getting better at walking in them... He was learning. Floyd wondered if it was too late though.

Night and day were much alike in a place like this. The lanterns were still lit, pooling their liquid onto the floor. Things lurked in the shadows... other things scuttled around, licking at the floor and scaling the lumpy dark walls. Floyd put a hand on each of Levin's shoulders and pushed him against the wall... leaning on him, nose to nose.

'What do you see?' He asked him. Not bothering to lower his voice now.

'Death.' The Seraphim replied.

'Smart answer, considering the reason we are all here. What do you see?'

Levin tried to pull away from Floyd's clutches, but was held firmly in place. 'My death – again.' He said in a sigh. 'Why do you keep trying? What makes you think they will forgive you when every step you take is a step further from the light? I know you're not stupid – so why?'

'Is that why you stopped trying? You think what you've done can not be forgiven?'

Levin let out a small tinkle of a laugh. 'Forgiven? Me? No... they won't do that. I stopped believing that a long time ago. I stopped thinking that there was forgiveness available the moment they pushed me out. They don't forgive. Ever. Even the true prophets lie when they say that. Even the ones who truly think they have the ear of the gods don't really think that there is any forgiveness. They are arrogant cunts. They will never have you back. They will never trust you... so kill me... get it done. Let me go... I'm not stopping you. I'm not scared of you, Isgar... any more than you are scared of me. But killing me won't bring redemption. And you know that. You're cursed to roam forever trying to get back something you never truly had in the first place. Peace... love... tranquillity... I know from the darkness of your soul that you don't really desire those things. You've been given chances and you never take them... you never even looked twice. You never even saw them because you're so blinkered and just as arrogant as the rest of them... so that is why I don't even try... there's no point. I am one of the lost ones... and so are you... only even if you're found they'll pretend they didn't see you.'

Floyd took his hands from Levin's shoulders and took a step back. 'You're a bit of a smart arse, aren't you?'

'No.' Levin crossed his arms over his slim chest. 'I just know when to stop trying for something I can't have. It's time you took a good hard look at yourself. You've worked for both sides and now neither side will even contemplate having you work for them. At least I've not done that. I've kept a bit of me... a true bit of me.'

'Well I hope that true bit of you will be smiling when I screw your head off your shoulders.' Floyd smirked at the idiot.

'But...' Levin's face twitched... maybe it was a smirk of his own... but only if you looked really hard. '...you're going to feed me to fire. I know. I know what you have planned. I can see you, read you... I know you better than you know yourself.' He glanced towards the door they'd come out of. 'Why does Spencer trust you? What did you do to him to get him to keep coming back to you?'

Floyd didn't answer. He walked in the direction Levin had looked and went back through the door. A few seconds later Levin was walking behind him into the downstairs common area. The thing which had been cooking over the fire could have been anything now. It no longer looked as though it might once have been human. The fire had gone out. The musician was curled up in a corner with his instrument clutched in his hands and was snoring gently. The grey sagging woman who had been there earlier was gone too, but a big bearded man with one eye slightly offset from centre was leaning on what passed as a bar. That one eye was looking at Levin.

Floyd turned to look at that impassive and unchanging face Lev always seemed to have. 'If I don't scare you, why did you piss yourself?' He kept his voice down slightly now that someone was obviously listening. Or at least taking more interest than Floyd would have liked.

'It wasn't you that caused that. It was knowing where I was and what was going to happen. I'm not a fighter, Isgar... I'm not made to kill... I have to get by just with my brain... and it keeps and stores vast amounts of information. I don't want to be here. I know what this place is... I was confused at first, but slowly the required memories are returning and I know how much of a bastard you are and I know that you are going to feed me to fire. For that at least I will thank you.'

Again Floyd walked away. The Seraphim was being a bit too smug about things for him to want to argue with him.

And there was the fact that the cunt was right.

Floyd had been taking backward steps into oblivion since the day he went to the other team and asked for help. He'd been weak then. He'd been stupid... that doesn't mean that he didn't do it. No amount of back peddling and whining about the miserable state he was now in was going to change that. He could fool Spencer... maybe even fool Sam... but not Levin, it would seem... and certainly not the gods... and it was them who he had been trying to fool for most of his existence.

'I'd not call it a life.' Floyd muttered.

'Call it what you want... it will never be over. They won't allow that.'

'I don't like your smart mouth.'

'Find it hurts? You don't like to see what you really are? Look at Spencer... really look and then look at Sam. Why? Why did you create Sam? What was that for? No... no don't bother telling me. I know. He's just something to play with. Something to keep your dick warm. Couldn't you have used a sock for that and caused one creature a little less pain? No... of course not. That wouldn't occur to you would it?' Levin walked around Floyd and after stumbling slightly on the stairs went back into the room where Spencer and Sam were still sleeping, now curled up with each other in a way that made Floyd's blood boil... in a very good way. Levin sat on a chair and started to pick dirt out from behind his toe nails. Floyd hunkered down next to the bed and watched the pair of them hugging.

'It's worth it all just for this.' Floyd spoke softly, not wanting to awaken them.

Levin's face twitched again. 'I must admit that I don't see what it is you do when I look at Spencer. I am by far the prettiest of the four of us.'

'Oh, don't tell Sam you think that. You'll make him cry.' Floyd smirked at his boys. 'You know what you need to do to stay alive. Keep Sam happy. It's that simple.'

Levin's silvery eyes flicked towards Sam and then back to Floyd. 'You make things difficult for a reason?'

'There is someone else you'd rather make happy? I thought Spencer did nothing for you.'

'He doesn't. And you need to get him some clothes. And I'd like some more under garments and maybe have these removed.' He rattled his chains. 'You want me to keep Sam happy. I will keep Sam happy. Not because it will keep me alive. Obviously it doesn't work like that.' He gestured around himself indicating where he was. 'The jungle is a terrible place to go.' He sighed and smoothed out his leather coat.

'It is the way forward.'

'It is the way... but not forward. Stop trying to fool yourself. The jungle will be our deaths. You know that... you see yourself holding Sam's face under the insect bloated waters... Fancy birds with incredible feathers of colours which have no names... the constant howling of the monkeys in the trees and the hissing of the snakes on the ground... the snapping of the jaws of all those things coming to find who it is intruding on their patch... things flying with wings which should be too small to carry their many limbed bodies... maggots the size of dogs... the gods only know what they'll become, but that's nothing compared to the pleasure of Sam's struggles... his hands slapping at the water... the way his shoulders buck and move... they way his screams are just pretty bubbles in the water... That's what you have planned for him. I have seen your dreams.'

'Oh just shut your wank of a face before I pull your damned tongue out.' Floyd snapped at him.

'You don't like it when you're shown the truth.' Levin muttered.

And Levin was correct on that much at least. Floyd really didn't like his faults being pressed on him by some flirty damned fairy boy. 'You're only here because you look nice.' Was all Floyd could think of to counter him with. 'And that won't last long if you keep up this...'

'This what? This truth?'

'Yes! Lie all you want... choose your visit to hell for all the truths to flood out of your nasty deceitful gob. You could have picked a better time.'

Levin did that annoyingly cute laugh again. 'What do you mean by that? I could have said what an arrogant bitch you are when we were both up top... so to speak? You would have liked to have had a reason to... oh wait! You did kill me! You then decapitated me, mangled me... sliced me into bits... chopped up what was left and sucked the marrow from my long bones! HA! You've done your worst... what's left?'

'I'm going out. Stay with them.' Floyd gave Levin no room to argue and was gone again... sweeping out of the building and into the stuffy streets.

There was one with shoulder length brown hair... wearing rags and licking muck out of a puddle. For a few moments, Floyd stood and watched. He wondered how much of a sense of existence these creatures really had. He'd discounted them... always discounted them as the lowest form of creature before you reach vegetation, but he wondered if he'd been wrong. He pulled a lump of bread out of his pocket and approached the boy, dropping it onto the floor and splashing it into the edge of one of the oily puddles. A hand whipped out and snagged it, pulling it back, but it didn't look up to see where the prize had come from. Floyd hunkered down next to him and touched his shoulder. 'More where that came from.' He told him.

The face which now looked up had wide dark eyes and a cheek stuffed with bread. It was a small pointed face... dirty... very dirty, but a nice face... no unusual growths or extra eyes. The boy did have mottled greenish grey skin, but that didn't take away the prettiness from his face at all. He seemed to be about ten... if you wanted to count his age in human years.

'Why?' The boy said. His voice was not much more than a hiss. A strange voice better suited to a snake than a rat.

'Because I want to ask you questions.'

'Fuck off.' The boy spat out the bread, sniffed and carried on licking at the puddle.

'Do you have a name?' Floyd needed to know. Giving of names was what seemed to put some creatures above others. He'd never actually thought that the rats would name themselves.

'Sessos.' He hissed back at Floyd.

'Sessos. And who gave you such a pretty name?'

The boy moved to his knees now and gave Floyd a curious frown. 'My ma... who else would name me?'

'Your mother? You have a mother?'

'Everything comes from somewhere. Of course I have a mother. She's long dead now... but of course. Everyone has a mother at some point... come from egg or cunt... there's a mother some place.'

Well that wasn't so for Floyd. He'd been created from a shaft of pure light and love, but there was no need to educate the boy so late in his life. 'Silly me.' Floyd said as he stood, grabbing Sessos by the back of his ragged shirt. 'You're coming with me.'

'For questions?' The idiot boy asked.

'Oh for such and such.' Floyd pushed the boy in front of him, grasping his hair to stop him running. 'Tell me... a good place to purchase clothing.'

'Down there.' He pointed into shadows. 'But... no... mister... not me. Please don't. I never hurt you. I never done nothing to you... why me? There's others... take another.'

Floyd ordered under-clothing for Levin. He threw the boy at the tailor and said he'd be back within the hour. When the tailor complained that he didn't like to take in the leather when it was still attached to the previous owner, Floyd offered to skin Sessos for him.

'At least make it so he's not wriggling.' The tailor remarked. And so Floyd did. He clamped his hand over the boy's mouth and nose and held him tight to his chest... one of the last things the boy would have felt was the love Floyd was feeling for him as he wriggled and pissed himself. The tailor was still not happy though.

'I don't like to skin them...' He proffered a knife to Floyd who was more than happy to skin the boy. At least that way he knew that the skin used was going to be from what he'd picked. Floyd was a proficient skinner. He'd spent much of his life doing this. It was over quickly... the whole encounter from start to finish was done within the hour.

'You will have this ready for me this time tomorrow?' Floyd slapped down a bit of paper with approximate measurements for Levin's new under wear.

'A pretty girdle... and... oh yes... I have chemicals to cure the hide. It's a pretty one.'

'And I will remember what it looks like, so don't think of keeping it for yourself.' Floyd left no room for the man to argue. He'd not even asked for a price, but he'd provided the man with food for a couple of days, surely that was enough.

The next was a taller man... not a street rat at all. Black skinned... oiled... slender and naked... it was a beauty... a shame about the colour. Though in the end it seemed that it didn't matter about the colour... his arse was still nice and he still squirmed and yelped as they all did.

He had an interesting evening. He fucked everything he came across... tore off some wings... battered a few until brains were dripping from noses and ears and yet others he ignored... mostly the ones with breasts... and the ones who were too small. If asked, he would have told the questioner, just before killing them, that he was following instinct... that this was his true self. This was the truth Levin had talked about. They wanted the real Floyd to show his very ugly colours, well here it was... come and stare... these are not boys... these are not children... they're rats...

His heart was pounding... his blood racing, when he walked back into the room where his boys were and threw a pair of old breeches at Spencer. They were the best he could get on short notice. Nothing specially tailor made for him. Spencer was sitting on the side of the bed putting pressure on his leg.

'We were going to come and look for you.' Spencer said... careful... be careful... Floyd looked as though he wanted to kill someone. 'Has something happened?'

'Yes.' Floyd threw himself onto the bed and pulled a pillow over his head. 'Get dressed. I need to rest.'

The three of them exchanged quick glances. Floyd had been gone for hours. Each of them in turn had admitted that they were concerned... or was Levin actually beyond concern and visiting the land of hope... hope that he'd not return.

'I'll go get some breakfast.' Sam said. 'You two stay here with Floyd.'

Spencer didn't like to take orders from Sam, but he also didn't want to be left here alone with Floyd... and didn't want to go down to the bar with Sam. 'Be quick.' Was all he said on the matter.

Levin sat hunched up in the corner... there was a strange look on his face. One which was beyond that normal blank look of his... yet no one seemed to notice it. If they'd looked they'd have seen something akin to horror sitting there... blatantly on Levin's face. A twitch of the nose... a flick of the eyelashes and then his face dropped back to the blank expression he attempted to keep at all times.

Breakfast was a couple of jugs of bitter ale, some bread, cheese and a collection of nuts. Sam seemed happy with what had been offered. Spencer prodded the nuts and picked at some bread. Levin took some ale and a handful of nuts. They nibbled in silence but their eyes didn't leave Floyd who was on his side with his back to them. Something had happened. They all knew that, and each of them was inventing different events which might have taken place. Sam assumed it was something to do with sex... Floyd had been jumped by something and poked him good and hard. Spencer desperately wanted to think that Floyd had spent time alone considering his actions of the previous day. Levin read Floyd and blinked. He looked at Sam and gave a small nod and then went back to the things which looked a bit like pecans which he'd been eating.

'So what happened?' Sam needed to know. Seemed that Levin had guessed... Seemed that Spencer didn't have a clue either.

'I got to thinking.' Floyd pulled the pillow off his head and rolled over to look at his boys all sitting there on the floor... sitting together as though they were friends. It made him want to laugh. They loathed each other. He had to kill them or get them dead in some way to have them sit that close and not want to punch each other on the nose. 'What happens to people... Spencer, what happens to people who die... people where you come from... people who haven't got a creature like me holding onto them. What happens to all of that energy they had. That energy they were creating with each step they take... each thought they make. It came from somewhere... where has it gone?'

Sam's hand went up as though he was in a classroom. 'I know!' He jumped to his feet, knocking over a bowl of nuts onto the floor. 'Thermodynamics.' He grinned at Floyd. 'And I do know this. I read about this and it made so much sense! We take energy from around us when we are created. Then all the time we are living and breathing we are creating energy and putting back what we've taken... sort of... that's the easy way of thinking of it, so when an animal dies – for example – they rot and the energy from their rotting body... the heat, that's transferred into the ground around them giving life – NO! Not life, giving energy to the earth and that creates or gives energy to the small thing which fell off the tree... the nut! The nut! You see? And the warmth in the ground – which is then energy then gives life to the nut which grows... and then the squirrel or whatever the animal was has transferred the energy into a new life and the tree will grow and produce chemicals and give homes to animals and eventually it will die... and it will fall and it will give off heat and so it continues.' Sam then sat down again.

'I wasn't asking you.' Floyd snapped at him.

'But that's also an explanation of the decline of the universe and the disorder and chaos, because heat is a very low form of energy and eventually that's all there will be left and there will be no light and everything will die.'

'Shut up Sam.' Floyd snapped again.

'But that's what happens. Creatures that have no soul...'

'I said for you to shut up.'

'But you asked!' Sam stood up again. 'You just don't like it when you realise what a smart bunny I am.'

'I don't like it when you answer for someone else. I asked Spencer the question, not you.'

'That's why it's dark here and warm... hot and dark. That's why. This is the core of the end. This is where things come when there is no where else to go. The lost ones, like Levin... the cursed ones like you and things like me and Spencer who have no choices in life, but are dragged along behind you because your personal energy field is so immense that nothing can resist once you've got too close and that's why you can drag us around because your energy is pure. The core is pure and it still has order and hasn't declined into the chaos yet, like what mine has and Levin's and Spencer's and so you're able to do the shit you do because you are still of that original light.'

'For the love of the gods... someone shut him up.' Floyd started to slide off the bed. Sam picked up the bowl of nuts and held it defensively, ready to smack Floyd with it if he came too close.

'But I'm right.' Sam insisted. 'Am I right or not.' He waved the small bowl in front of him. 'You know what? Try to hit me and I'll stuff this so far up your arse you'll be able to chew on the nuts.'

It maybe was an offer that Floyd didn't want to refuse, but Levin stood in his way now, protecting Sam in the way he'd told him to, yet now was finding it quite annoying.

'Levin, get out of my way. I don't want to have to kill you too.'

And now Spencer was at Floyd's side, placing a hand on his arm. 'I don't know what happened but whatever it was does not mean you can kill Sam. He was just voicing an idea. It was a good one. Now back off.'

Spencer telling him what to do? What had life come to? Had he really been such an awful person that a bit of scum from some random back town desert could tell him what to do? Seemed so, because Floyd found that he was sitting on the side of the bed again.

'If energy creates life then this is all we are.' Floyd found himself muttering.

'We have a spirit and a soul.' Spencer reminded Floyd. 'We're not rats or dogs or...'

'But we are.' Floyd flumped back onto the bed and curled up again. 'All of us created from that...'

'The big bang.' Sam intruded on Floyd's words. 'It started at the beginning of time and that was a long fuck of a time ago.'

'Please... please someone make him be quiet. He's giving me a sore head. If I can't kill him, then I leave it to you to keep him quiet.'

'I'll keep him quiet.' Levin offered... 'At least I can stop him talking.'

Spencer saw it. He saw that flicker of a smile on Levin's face.

As much as Floyd despised Levin, loathed Sam and was so very tired of Spencer, he still felt this weird need to protect them all, and not just protect them either, but to show them off; let people know they were his. For this reason and this reason only, once Sam had shut up, but Levin had started with a stream of excited yelps, banging his fists on the floor and making drooling sounds, it was then that Floyd offered Spencer his shoulder and said he'd help him downstairs to have a change of scenery. Oh there was that fact that Spencer seemed to want to watch... and Floyd was unaccustomed to feeling pleasure in letting his boy watch porn... at least not porn he'd not already watched and vetted himself.

'I'm OK here.'

That's what Spencer said and it caused Floyd to sneeze and want to drag Spencer from the room by his tongue. It mattered not whether he thought it was OK or not. Floyd didn't like it. He didn't like the way it all felt so very comfortable. He didn't like the way Spencer was accepting what was going on here. He liked none of it. He'd be glad to get them to the jungle, but such jolly fun was going to have to wait.

'No point in taking a cripple.' Floyd had said. And Floyd was right.

Floyd was always right.

Floyd was sure he'd mentioned that previously.

So even though Spencer had voiced his displeasure at being hoisted from the comfort of the bed, they were making their way towards the slightly slippery stair way.

'It's that thing...'

Floyd knew what Spencer meant. 'It hardly looks like anything now.'

Spencer pulled a face, being very careful to keep his teeth hidden. 'How long do we have to stay here for? Can't you help my knee heal quickly?' Spencer played the part of the slut and ran his free hand over the front of Floyd's breeches. 'Can we at least find somewhere where we don't have to use such an abhorrent currency to buy our food?'

Oh Spencer was doing his head in. There was a flash of temptation... luckily it was just a flash and Floyd didn't follow it, but just to press his hand to the small of Spencer's back and push him down the stairs... how much of a problem would that solve? He decided to change the subject.

'So... you left a will of sorts?' He asked Spencer... Another flash of temptation... again he ignored it. He felt Spencer's arm holding on tighter as they did a three legged crawl down the stairs.

'I left everything to you.' Spencer did a closed mouthed smile. 'It really doesn't matter. I'm not there to see what happens.'

'So burial or cremation?'

'Oh.' Spencer stopped. There were two steps to go. Enough to hurt if he was pushed, but where was the joy in pushing someone down two damned steps? 'Burial.'

'So we can go dig you up again if needs be.' Floyd went down the next step, dragging Spencer with him.

'I'd sooner not have to dig myself up.'

'Sam and Levin... both... cremation jobs. I made sure of that... I made sure of that with Sam... Levin knows that he can't move on unless he burns. This I'm saying for a reason.' The last step and they stood leaning on the wall for a while. Spencer taking deep breaths.

'Are you going to tell me why you're saying this now?' Spencer fiddled with the slightly stiff and smelly breeches he'd put on. Now that they were warming up he could smell the not so faint odour of... well of ordure and piss. He quickly wondered about washing facilities.

'Just that when I throw Levin into the lava, that you'll understand.'

Spencer shrugged. Was Floyd trying to annoy him? Didn't Floyd spend his life trying to annoy him? Why now?

'And how will I die? You have that planned?'

Floyd said nothing to Spencer for now, but called out for music, food and maybe some dancing boys. He then turned back and looked at Spencer still leaning on the wall. 'Ask Levin. He knows. Come... let's relax for a while.'

They sat and played cards. They played dice. They placed a game a bit like chess – Floyd showed him the rules but Spencer was sure Floyd was cheating. They'd both cheated with the cards and dice so it wouldn't have been too much of a shock if he had. The thing over the fire had been removed... there were squelching, scraping sounds coming from the kitchen and low and sad sounding tune from the bard sitting with a small harp on his knee and a green feather in his hat. It was the sort of tune which sounded as though it was just coming to the fast part, when it all slowed down again. The man with the off set eye was banging a large wooden spoon on the bottom of what seemed to be a wooden bucket... the sound was dismal and forlorn, but Floyd seemed to like it.

'You were asking for a name.' A voice suddenly said. A man with unbrushed ginger hair and a bright green eye sat down facing them. A short man in what seemed to be monks robes stood behind him with a wooden staff in his hand. His face in shadow... never mind him... the one sitting down, Spencer could see his face clearly enough. He was wearing an eye patch. A long scar ran from his forehead down through where the eye should have been and down across his cheek. The scar was strange though, in the shape of a hand. Spencer thought it looked as though a boiling hot hand had pressed against the man's face and he cringed slightly thinking about how much that must of hurt. Apart from that and the brightness of the eye... and the curve of the mouth, which seemed to be mocking... he looked human. The scruffy hair hung down the man's back where there seemed to be the hilt of a sword jutting over the shoulder.

'Fuck off.' Floyd said... only briefly looking up at who had joined them.

'I might have the name you want.' Clipped accent. Not one Spencer recognised.

'If you tell me that it's you or that little arse wipe of a son of yours then I'm going to kill myself here.' Floyd pulled out a small skinning knife and pressed it to his own throat.

'Hey...' Spencer started. 'What? Stop it.'

'Tell me.' Floyd hissed at the two strangers.

'And let you choose the manner of your parting?' The man with the one green eye grinned. His teeth were broken... but white. He placed his hands on the table in front of him and now Spencer could see that the little finger on the left hand was missing. 'Stop scaring your buddy, Isgar. You want the information I have or not?'

There was a long drawn out sigh from Floyd who lowered the knife and placed it on the table in front of him. He shook his head. 'No. I don't. Your price will be too high.'

The man standing behind leaned forwards and whispered something in the one eyed man's ear. There was a nod and the man stood. 'I'll take it anyway. You might as well get something in exchange.'

'Go threaten someone else. I'm not interested in making deals with the likes of you.'

Now he leaned forward so his elbows were resting on the table and his face, curtained with dirty ginger hair looked down at Floyd. Up this close Spencer could see the man had a cute scattering of freckles across his nose. 'I'll have him anyway, Issie. Not today... maybe not tomorrow... but one day when you're not looking... one day when you let your guard down... I'll have that creature and I'll have him displayed on my wall like the ugliest butterfly ever.'

'Don't call me Issie.' Floyd snapped back at him. 'Take your promises and threats elsewhere. I don't do business with ginger arse faces.' Floyd stood... tapping Spencer on the shoulder. 'This creep has ruined our relaxation time. Back to the room.'

'Run...' The other man now called out. 'Run Isgar. Go protect your boys.'

Floyd stared at the face hidden in the shadows. 'You two sell swords need to go get what you want from somewhere else. I'm not interested. Take your old man and get the fuck out of my face before you regret being born.'

The robed one nodded slowly and put a hand on the other's shoulder. 'And there I was going to offer his trollop my healing hands. A small price to pay? You'd be able to leave... well leave as soon as you've packed your bags. Truth is that we don't want you hanging around here.'

'Truth is, I don't give a flying fuck if you don't want me here or not and touch my boy here... you'll find the next thing you do is die. There... we've warned each other now. I don't like you, you don't like me... it's mutual. Now I'm going back to my room and you can leave. End of discussion.'

'We shall be watching you.' The older of the two said. Though to Spencer he didn't look much beyond forty.

'Sam isn't for sale.' Floyd snapped at them. 'Watch all you want. You can't have him. Not even for the name I'm after, but I don't think you have that anyway.'

'You'd take that risk? Come on now Isgar, you intend killing them anyway, what difference does it matter when that happens? The creature will die. Surely it's better to get it over with?'

Floyd dragged Spencer off the bench and helped him back towards the stairs. The two strangers left as quietly and suddenly as they'd arrived.

'Who?' Spencer started to ask as he hopped along clinging hold of Floyd.

'No one.' Floyd replied.

'Why didn't you just hit him?'

Floyd turned when he got to the stairs and sat on the next to bottom one, pulling Spencer down with him. 'It's probably a very good idea, not to mention that encounter to Sam... or to Levin for that matter. They're not a couple I like to mix with.'

'Floyd...' Spencer put a hand on Floyd's knee and squeezed slightly. 'They want Sam? Who are they?'

'Two shits.' Floyd turned to look at Spencer. He gave him a quick smirk and ran a finger down the side of his face. 'You are quite gorgeous... you know that?'

'I truly think that you see something other people don't.' Spencer replied. But that's not the answer to the question I asked. Are they a danger to Sam? Who are they?'

Floyd kissed Spencer on the end of his nose. 'Hunters. They work for some demi god of fire. They carry demon crafted weapons and they are very good at their job. I'm not going to fight them.'

Spencer sat for a moment in silence. He could feel Floyd's fingers drawing invisible patterns on the side of his face, and Floyd's thumb gently brushing over his lips. His hands had a strange smell to them. Spencer decided it was best not to start trying to work out what the smell was.

'I wish you would tell me what is going on.'

'I know, Babes, but I can't tell you.'

'Do you actually know yourself? You need to find someone – surely they would have told you who this person is? Couldn't you have offered them something else?'

Floyd stood up so suddenly that Spencer nearly fell sideways onto the steps. 'I said... I'm not making deals with them. The one with the one eye... he might not look dangerous, but I'd not want to fight him all the time he has that boy with him... and all the time he has that sword to hand. I'm not a coward – don't think that, but neither am I a fool. And that one in the robes, don't under estimate that shit. He's as nasty as they come. He'd stand and watch the ones he loves die, just to see how long it takes. He's scum. As for lending you his healing hands... no... don't be tempted. He might do that, but the price would likely be that he'd break something else just to keep the balance.'

Spencer stood looking at Floyd who had killed those he'd loved. He'd stood there and watched him! Floyd had done just what he said that other person did... and that was what made him such a repulsive person. Did Floyd see that he did exactly the same? And not just that once either. Oh no... Floyd had killed and destroyed things he loved many times.

Spencer decided that it wasn't worth broaching the subject – not now – not ever. He didn't want to learn my example.