Chapter 6: Party Crasher
The room was pitch black, aside from the singular bulb hanging from the ceiling. The floor was cold cement, as were the walls and ceiling. A thick wooden door was on a wall, indented with scratches and dents from what one would think would be a wild animal, but were of my work instead - though I suppose to some aspect, I was some wild animal with the way I looked and was living.
Well… 'living', if you can even call it that.
I don't remember how old I was when I went through that stage of hell, and I don't even remember when I escaped it and into the next. All I remember was being down there for days, alone, with no escape and no hope. Though, that did little to dampen my will to live.
Time was impossible to tell at some points, blurring my perception of minutes and hours and making them feel like days on end. I remember at one point thinking that I was in there for a year straight, only to find out later that I was down there for three weeks.
No one came down there. No one brought food, or water. There was no toilet, no bed. How the hell did I live?
I didn't; I survived.
When I was first tossed down those stairs and locked in that damn basement in that cabin in the woods, I remember screaming until I had a headache and my voice wasn't even a whimper anymore. After that, I just sat down in a corner and cried, sleeping every now and then to kill time, though everything hurt whenever I awoke on that hard floor.. I was catatonic like that for a while, unable to do anything and praying to starve in my sleep rather than while I was awake. I couldn't have been in this state for more than two days, because it was then that I started to really feel what it felt like to slowly starve and dehydrate to death.
My eyes hurt, my lips were cracked, and saliva was nothing more but a distant memory it seemed. Death felt so close that I could feel him breathing down my neck, but he never struck. I was forced to make a toilet out of one of the corners in the room, leaving me with this stench that lasted days before my sense of smell began to numb. My butt was itchy, and I resorted to using my underwear and socks as toilet paper, though it only lasted so long…
The lack of anyone or anything happening was slowly driving me insane, the only noise being a gentle hum of the ceiling bulb. I started questioning what I saw and heard, thinking that I was hearing someone coming to my rescue every time I heard the slightest noise.
By the third day, I was terribly weakened by thirst and hunger. Having no other option, I drank the only liquid that existed in there - my own urine. I puked the first time I did, only adding to my hunger and pain. I considered eating that too, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. The second time was easier, though only slightly. I got it down my throat and cried afterwards, hating myself for letting this come to this point, where I was forced to drink my own piss to live. But it did its job, though only barely, and the problem of dehydration was solved for then.
By day five, the next task was food. I walked slowly around the room, severely weakened by hunger and scouring every nook and cranny I could find to kill time and maybe find just anything, which I did. There was a crack in the wall, with a fairly large hole in the base of it. I tried reaching in to see if anything was there, but I could only fit my hand inside it and no further. I gave up that day and collapsed back in my corner, trying to sleep the pain away.
Some amount of time later, I was greeted by a feeling, a sensation, some form of stimulus. I awoke immediately, seeing that a cockroach had found itself upon the back of my arm. I plucked the thing off and set it down, when I thought about naming it something and declaring it as my friend as some way to keep me entertained. But then, another idea came to mind, one in which I would lose my only friend at the time in benefit to my survival. I ate it, chewing the disgusting thing and swallowing everything. I didn't throw up that time, only dry heaving.
For days on end this vicious process continued, until something finally happened. A rat poked its head out of the hole in the crack in the wall one day, and it wasn't until it was at my side that I registered what it was. I was in shock at the large thing, seeing something moving other that the occasional spider or cockroach. But the amazement was only temporary, because in seconds, I had the thing by its head and twisted, breaking its neck and killing it. I could feel my humanity leaving me that day, when I ripped into the creature's fur and bone with my teeth, eating everything with my dirty hands and bloody chin, drinking that disgusting blood and cracking those bones between my teeth. But I was the most full I had been in days, maybe even weeks, and I merely continued. I was sicker than a dog after a while though, and terribly so. I had diarrhea and was forcing myself to hold down the bile that wanted to escape my stomach. I felt like shit then, but powered through it, somehow.
Sometime in the middle or ending of the second week, a storm happened. I was able to hear it, and I thought I was truly going insane at that point until I heard a gentle dripping noise that made me realize it was real. I looked towards the noise, and saw that a steady stream of water was dripping fairly fast out of a crack in the ceiling. I crawled to it as fast as I could, getting beneath it and letting every drop land in my mouth. It was dirty - I could taste whatever rock or concrete or sediment it went through to get to me, but I didn't care whatsoever. I sat there and drank until I couldn't no more. I stripped naked and placed my shirt and pants below the water, giving me some method of storage. I rationed that water like no-one's business, and it nearly lasted until my freedom.
A couple of days before I was given escape, I was thinking of ending it. I didn't want to starve to death, I already damn near did and it was hell. I thought about breaking the bulb on the ceiling and using the glass to cut myself, but it was just barely too high, taunting me from that height. That was the most painless I could get with it, and so I started to downgrade my expectations to just being less painful than starvation.
I tried bashing my head in the wall, suffocating myself by tying my then dry pants around my neck tightly, but it was either too much pain or I backed out of it at the last second out of fear. I couldn't kill myself, I didn't want to die, though I did at the same time. I felt weak for not ending it right then and there. I cried what little I could after that.
After that, my memories were impossible to keep straight, until the door finally opened. I heard the noise, I saw the light peering through the open doorway, the feeling of my body moving, but I didn't react or anything. It was only when I moved my arm that I heard a voice.
"Holy shit, you're still alive?" The voice said. I felt my body crashing to the ground, the ground being much more forgiving than that of the hard, cold concrete flooring. My insanity was left behind in that prison as I became aware of my surroundings once more. Aware of who was above me, staring at me like I was the monster.
"You can't kill me, you cocksucking motherfucker," I said, my voice nearly nonexistent and full of cracks. I started laughing, uncontrollably so as I saw a different color than gray, as I got fresh air, as I felt something beneath me other than that hard ground.
The next time I awoke, I was in a hospital, being treated for extreme malnourishment, dehydration, a concussion, mild food poisoning, among other unpleasant things. I was hanging on by a thread, and when they released me a few days later, it was that same person who found me that took me home - Frank. He said nothing to me on the ride home, and it took me forever to get the courage to speak.
"Why did you put me through that? Why have you always put me through hell?" I begged, my voice getting better but still extremely weak. He looked at me for a moment, somewhere in his thoughts I figured, before he finally spoke.
"It will all make sense one day, I promise." He paused. "I didn't think you'd be alive after all of that, but you are. I'm proud of you, Alex. I, uh… I know the hell I put you through on the daily kid, I'm not that thick. But, uh… don't worry about me for a while. You earned that much from what you went through. Just… enjoy this time, because it won't last forever. It just can't, I'm afraid."
Baffled by his reasoning and willingness to finally give some answers, I said, "Why?"
He said nothing, bit the inside of his cheek it looked like, before saying, "It'll make sense one day… just not today."
I never felt this rested. Sleep was something of a rarity for me, so heavy eyes and sleepless nights were a normal. After a while, it becomes so normal to the point where you can function during a normal day on somewhere around three to five hours of sleep - it's exhausting as hell, but it becomes easy after a while. The thing here was that I felt good, great even. Normally, I wake up in cold sweats with visions of Frank or Tony in the corners of my eyes. But this time, I woke up calmly, the sound of Xerxes' fast heartbeat in my eardrum. I gently rose up and down from his breathing, and I felt his hands and tail wrapped around me, keeping me with him.
My dreams typically consisted of horrific nightmares and memories - ones where Frank cut me, deep enough to see muscle, where he starved me one summer to the point where I was forced to eat cockroaches and rats for survival, where he beat the shit out of me until my nose stopped bleeding due to swelling. This is my own personalized Hell, and it is torturous…
However, this was different. My dreams weren't of horrors like having my chest carved X's in random place - no, not at all. They were wonderful. It was Xerxes and me, side by side in some rocky mountain-like area. We were on a cliff side, our feet over the edge and watching a sunset, one filled with colors from purple and pink and a deep orange. It wasn't Earth, it was impossibly beautiful to have been. I remember feeling loved, wanted, surrounded by warmth. I was in bliss. Xerxes was protective and guarding of me, but so was I of him. No danger was there, but we refused to let any potential threat harm either of us.
It was such an amazing dream, and I already missed it as I woke up. I couldn't remember ever having that good of a dream instead of a nightmare, and it nearly made me cry at the thought. Instead, I took in a deep breath and slid down the side of Xerxes, laying beside him now. He shuffled at my motion so that he was facing me, and a hand being brought up to my face revealed that he was awake too. He brought it up to my face and rested it upon my left cheek, which he softly rubbed. I leaned into the warm appendage, and he brought his head close to mine, his warm breath hitting my face. He stayed like that for a moment, before leaning forward and pressing his lips against mine. I moaned into it as his hands went along my body, feeling me gently. I ran my hands along his sides, feeling his rough yet smooth skin. We were both in bliss, until Xerxes pulled away, leaving me panting for breath.
"Finally, you're awake," He said. Before I said anything, he gave me one last kiss, bringing his hand behind my head and holding back nothing, before pulling away yet again. I brought myself up against him so that my head was in the crook of his neck and our bodies were pressed up against one another.
"Hey, don't stop," I complained. I continued to run my hands up and down his body, slowly and methodically feeling out every part, hoping that I could have the perfect mental image of him purely by touch. He grabbed my arms gently.
"Slow down, Alex, or I'm gonna lose control and we'll be doing a lot more than kissing." He let go of my arms and I brought them to myself. The idea of him becoming unhinged and us 'doing it' made my heart beat fast, but if he didn't want that, I wasn't going to force it.
"You started it." I sat up, planting a kiss on his forehead. I brought my watch up to my eyes and turned it on, seeing that the time was 9:29 at night. I thought it seemed dark in here. "We slept for that long?" I said. I looked at him, saying, "Did you have something to do with that?"
"Perhaps…" He said, sitting up beside me. "Perhaps not. Perhaps we slept soundly, enjoying the view of my planet…" Called it. I wrapped my arms around him, my head sinking back into his neck. He smelled like musk, or hormones, or something. It was good. He returned the hug.
"It was stunning," I said. "Would you go back - could you go back?"
"No, but we don't want to either. Or at least, I don't. It was a desolate world, filled with nothing but danger, death, and sights like that. Plus, I have you - why would I want to go there?"
"How did you get here?" I asked. He got out of the hug and sighed.
"I didn't even exist yet, but previous members of my hive know the story well. These creatures came to our planet many times, killing us for sport and pleasure. But years ago, they managed to take a Queen, the Queen of the hive I came from. We know that they take us only to hunt us elsewhere, and the Queen was no different. As we neared your planet, she managed to overtake her captors, crashing the ship they were in. She escaped, going into the forest and into hiding, until she found what is our current hive. Those creatures chased her for days and months on end, and she evaded every one of them. They haven't been seen for quite a while since, but ever since she saw her original hive slaughtered on our planet, she has grown cold and spiteful, despising anything with a heartbeat and believing that anything but her own hive should deserve no mercy."
"Jesus… that's terrible. Your Queen's still a cunt, but she went through Hell." I said as hopped over him and grabbed my clothes, an arctic winter greeting me. He chuckled at the comment.
"Yeah, she didn't deserve any of that. But you're right - she's a cunt." He got up as well, stepping on a paper before picking it up. "By the way, what are these?" He asked.
"All of my assignments and tests and crap that I saved over the years, thought I could make use of them one day, maybe." I slipped on my shirt and looked at the floor, seeing the mess of comics and other papers about. "These colorful little things are comic books I managed to… acquire from some people. They aren't like the notebooks - these tell stories of superheroes with strange powers fighting crime and stuff."
I grabbed a random few and tossed them on the bed, putting away all of the old assignments in their respective boxes. As I did, I saw my jacket lying on the ground, a white paper peeking out of the pocket. Do I really want to..? We're on a time limit, and I don't want to leave Xerxes alone here, not after he got attacked. Besides, everyone there probably won't be the most welcoming to me… What if I just go there for half an hour? Then I get to see what's there and get out. And I can just park the Blazer a little ways away so that Xerxes can hide in the back! And if he feels unsafe, I'll leave the party immediately.
I put the coat on. What were we talking about again? Oh yeah. "Grab as many as you'd like, we gotta go soon."
"We? Where are we going?"
I took a deep breath. This was such a terrible idea, Alex. "Okay, so after that fight between me and those two guys, someone slipped me this," I said, handing him the paper. "It's an invite to a party - a gathering of people to have fun. No idea what the specifics are, since I've never been, but it'll be safe. Safe enough that I won't get killed."
"And what's my role in this? I can't really go inside if people are there."
"I'm one step ahead of you - follow me," I said, leaving the room and walking to the living room. A door on the wall closest to my room was there, between a sofa and a large box T.V., which we went through. I turned on a light switch, and a large navy blue and rusted to Hell truck was revealed to be in the middle of the garage. I walked to the back of it, lifting up the back window before pulling out the tailgate. Inside was the two back seats that were folded down, a large comforter laid out in the back and covering the floor. Pillows were also present, due to the amount of times I slept in the back, refusing to stay here some nights with Cassandra and the crazies she attracts.
"I don't plan on staying long at all - maybe thirty minutes at the max. So I figured that because safety here is well nigh impossible, you could hide out in the back while I go to the party. This way, you're relatively close by and if it becomes unsafe, you'll still be in range to actually call for me." He looked at the back, a small stack of comics in his right hand, before turning towards me.
"Are we ready to leave, for good I mean?"
"I need to call my boss and arrange a meeting between him and I, so that I can quit. We can do that on the way, though. I don't wanna risk using the phone here." He paused, looking unsure, not that I blame him.
"Do you have to go?" He said. "I won't stop you if you do, but… I dunno. This isn't a good idea to me. We need to get everything ready to leave and stay alive until then, and I fear that doing this will hinder our odds of accomplishing the second."
"I just want to see what this is like, maybe get a small piece of normalcy for once. Believe me, I know this is stupid, but it's my final chance. I have to do this… Besides, many people'll be there - wouldn't your brothers want to avoid such a large crowd?"
"Maybe… Okay, let's go. I hope you're right."
"I do too," I said. "C'mon, we can get something to eat on the way. Get in, I'll be right back." He jumped in the back and closed the tailgate as I went back to the kitchen. I grabbed the phone and dialed one of the local pizza joints. After ordering a large pepperoni pizza, I hung up the phone and returned the truck. I climbed into the front and started it up, opening the garage door and backing out into the rain. I turned it around, closed the garage door, and started driving down the lane. I turned the heat on to full blast, melting into the warm air and telling Xerxes to let me know if it gets too hot. Right before we reached the end of the driveway where it intersected with the main road, I turned myself around and looked in the back, seeing Xerxes' back against the back of the passenger seat.
"Remember, just keep low like that and no-one should see you."
"Don't worry - I'll be hidden. Come on, you promised food."
"Then let's go," I said, and we started moving again. Now that we were more or less out of the woods, a hard pitter-patter of rain hitting the truck could be heard over the engine. I turned the windshield wipers on. As we drove, I remembered wanting to talk about something - now seemed as good a time as any other.
"So… earlier today, when you taught me how to keep my thoughts private, you said that I have more power than you thought. What's that about?" I said.
"I meant that you may have great control over your mind, even to the extent where… how do I describe this? You can do things to others' minds," He said.
"The hell? D'you mean like how you're talking or..?"
"Sort of… I don't quite know though - you would be able to do things I can not. You could… control what someone does if you concentrated hard enough, maybe even establish a link with someone like I did with you. Like I said, I don't know." What? This is beginning to sound like those comics he grabbed.
"No - that's impossible. There is no way in hell I could go up to someone and make them… drop something or whatever. I would've found out about it at some point in my life, wouldn't I?"
"That's something else. When I made the link with you, your mind had such a strong barrier around it that it literally almost killed you setting it up. Maybe breaking through it has given you access to this."
"I… I really doubt that."
"Well, believe it or don't. Just keep it in mind and try it out when you can."
"Sure… I'll try and remember to do that."
As we entered the town, I made it a point to stick to the more dark back roads, keeping Xerxes from sight as best I could. As we neared the pizza place, I put the truck in park in the darkest area nearby, shutting it off but leaving the key in the ignition. I told him what was happening and that I would be gone for a minute or two, and he nodded.
As I entered the building, I was assaulted by the wonderful smells, reminding me of that hunger from earlier that never entirely went away. I told the cashier my name and order, giving him fourteen dollars and sitting down on a chair as I waited impatiently. The idea of being away from Xerxes terrified me now after what happened earlier. Nothing would happen to him in a few minutes, but still.
Geez. And yet, here I am about to ditch him for half an hour, Alex, you fucking hypocrite. He'll be safe, though - why would his kind come out this far into civilization? They'd get spotted, wouldn't they? Xerxes'll be fine.
In an attempt to take my mind off of that, I remembered our conversation on the way here. There is no way - and I mean no fucking way - that any of what he said is true. It's impossible - as simple as that.
However, as someone came in, pulling out their wallet to pay, temptation got the better of me. There is no way, I thought. I concentrated on entering his mind, doing what I could only describe as 'what feels right'. I did the simplest thing I could think of, which was to make him drop the wallet. Instantly, the second the idea turned into the action I wanted, his fingers unclasped around the leather and it fell to the ground. I jumped up immediately in shock, the chair screeching across the floor loudly.
"Jesus fucking Christ!" I shouted, the words coming out much louder than intended as I finished the sentence under my breath. Some people looked at me like I was mad, and I sure felt it. That was a fluke. Just a coincidence. My heart was beating fast, and I sat back down slowly, everyone returning to their food.
"Xerxes? What the hell did I just do?" I asked.
"I have no idea - I'm not there. What did you do?" He replied.
"...I think I made someone drop their wallet… with my mind." It came out like an innocent child admitting to a wrong they commited. The guy grabbed his wallet and paid, waiting for his food to come. Xerxes chuckled.
"Told ya."
"No, maybe it was just perfect timing, I dunno. Just… hold on. Lemme try something," I said, seeing the cashier with a box coming up to the front. He continued past and into the dining area, myself getting up to meet him halfway. As I moved, I focused on the idea of making him drop the box until it became an action. It was even faster and easier than the wallet, and the box fell with a smack against the tile floor, nothing coming out. I could only mouth the words "Are you fucking kidding me?" as he picked it up, cursing something under his breath.
"Sorry 'bout that, sir. Don't know what happened there. I can take off a couple bucks or get another made if you want," He offered. I shook my head.
"No… don't worry about it." I grabbed the box. "Have a good night." And with a nod, he walked back towards the kitchen and cash register, myself getting out of there in not time at all.
"Well? What'd you do? Did it work?" He said. I said nothing, rather sprinting across the wet road and back to the truck, climbing in the back and shutting the tailgate behind me. I was greeted by warm air blasting from the vents, making me realize once again how cold I had just been during all of that. I'm getting used to it, it appears. I opened the damp box and gestured to it. "That smells amazing. It's pizza, isn't it?" I nodded. He reached for a slice, but before he could even pull it away, I made his hand unclasp from it, making him pull back a whole hunk of air. He looked surprised for a split-second, before grinning and saying, "Ah, so it did work."
"I thought you were lying - thought you were just exaggerating or something. But this… holy shit, this is real." I can't tell whether this terrifies me or excites me. I was beginning to hyperventilate.
"Well, I wasn't sure if it was this powerful, but I guess it is." I said nothing, lost in thought and barely registering that he had even spoke. "Alex? Take a breath, calm down," He grabbed a slice and handed it to me, "And eat." I took the slice, breathed in and out few times to steady myself, before biting into it. "Better?" I nodded. "Good… You'll be okay, I promise. This is just a new little addition to your life - sort of like me, I suppose. Plus, this party you're going to can be a means of training! You can figure out your ability with everyone there!"
I took another bite, chewing as I said, "I won't kill anyone, will I?"
"No, that'll take an immense amount of energy from you to do. You'll know if you're going too far." He grabbed a slice and brought it up to bite into it, but when a second pair of jaws shot out and ripped off a chunk in less time than I could blink, I nearly started choking on my own food. He gave me a look, saying, "Are you okay?"
I shook my head, grunted, and said, "Yeah, just… scared the crap outta me."
"You sure weren't scared when we were kissing earlier."
"Eat your damn pizza."
The radio's clock read 10:19 as we started to get close to the house. I knew the area, the party taking place in a nice set of suburbs on the northern edge of town, my house more on the western edge. The houses there the last time I saw them were spacious, having a small set of woods behind most of the homes and large pine trees between them.
But of course, we aren't there yet.
A few blocks away, in an apartment district, I was backing the truck deep into an alleyway with no lights whatsoever, turning it into an indent in the building beside us. The car would be invisible if someone looked down here, and it would be impossible to see inside it if someone came. I turned the radio down, the ending of Take Me On going quiet as I turned off the engine and killed the battery. I opened the glove box and reached in, pulling out another pocket knife, which I jammed in my right pocket and closed the glove box. I turned around and looked at Xerxes.
"Alright, I won't be gone long - I promise. Just lay low in here until I get back. Press this," I pointed the button to lock the doors, "When I leave. It'll lock the doors so that no-one can get in, or take it." He nodded hesitantly. I could feel the anxiety radiating off of him. "Are you gonna be okay? How's your leg?" I asked.
"It's getting better. And I'll be okay, just… please be quick," He said.
"I promise, I will." I opened the car door. "If anything happens at all, call for me. We'll go back to the house just like that, alright?" He nodded. "Love you."
"I love you, too." He leaned towards me and we kissed, his hand coming around the back of my head. It was over as fast as it started though, and we pulled away. I got out of the truck hesitantly and closed the door, going down the alleyway until I was at the end. I looked back at the truck, knowing in the bottom of my heart how bad of an idea this was, but dismissing my worries and turning down the sidewalk.
As I walked through the empty streets, I came across a payphone under a streetlamp that occasionally flickered. I went towards it, reaching for the phone until it decided to ring all of a sudden. I jumped back, startled by the loud noise before picking it up.
"Hello?" I said.
"Alex?" A voice said, that same one from earlier.
"Yeah… How did you find me?"
"We have our methods, but that doesn't matter. What does matter is what you told us, about Jackson's. We sent some people over there to collect the car… No-one's been back in hours," He said.
"Okay, what are you getting at?" I was rubbing my hands furiously to keep warm, looking around the empty street to make sure no-one was near.
"We need you to come in tomorrow, sometime around one o'clock. If the initial team fails to return by the time you come in tomorrow, you'll have to go with the other team to get the car and find the first team."
"What? No, dammit, I'm not goin' back the-"
"You don't get a choice in this, Alex," He interrupted, "For all we know, you set us up for a trap and got those guys killed. You're coming with the rescue team whether you like it or not tomorrow. Besides, we're low on manpower at the moment, you'd have to come in either way."
"So is this because I could be a traitor or because you're low on people?"
"One o'clock, Alex." He hung up, the dial tone greeting me.
"Dick," I muttered. I hanged the phone back up and continued walking. I did not look forward to going back to Jackson's, not one bit. When I meet up with them tomorrow, I'm gonna have to play my cards just right. If that guy thinks I betrayed them, suggesting I quit would probably just add on to that.
I sighed. Just enjoy tonight, Alex. You know how to do that, right?
You're certainly gonna find out, I thought back to myself.
Alex had way too much trust in me.
Less than a minute after he left the alleyway, I got out of the truck, pressed the button to lock it, and closed the door. I scaled one of the buildings and went in the direction I saw him go, running across the wet rooftops and seeing his form on the ground below. I tailed him like this for a while, until he started moving towards a large box with a pole supporting it. Right as he was about to reach it, it started making a loud noise that repeated itself. I couldn't help but cringe at the loudness, but Alex picked it up and stopped the noise.
A short talk later, one that I eavesdropped for the entirety of, Alex was back on his way. I followed for as long as I could on the rooftops, until I had to jump off and scurry over to houses, which I scaled in no time.
It was when he reached a large house with multiple cars and people about that I realized that was where he was going. I sat on the roof of a house across the street, watching him go inside as I took off the bandage on my leg. It was slightly stuck from the blood, though it peeled off easily. Under the bandage was a deep cut, though nowhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be. It wasn't bleeding, so I just left the bandage on the roof.
I jumped off, sneaking my way to the rooftop one house left of the party. I took a few steps back on it before running full sprint and jumping to the roof of the party. I kept watch, looking around everywhere listening for anything, be it Alex or something else, though it was nearly impossible over how loud they were below me.
I sighed. Now we wait.
The place was booming. People were out on the porch of the house, either drinking or smoking and talking with others. I could see people in the windows, most of them dancing to the music. Certainly not the crowd I'm used to. I slowly walked up the steps and through the open front door.
Inside was something else. It reeked of marijuana and cigarette smoke to the point where I was getting a second-hand high. People were everywhere, chatting, eating, and a condom away from having sex from the look of a few couples. It was hotter than hell too, and I quickly found myself sweating. As I unzipped my coat, I decided to wade through the crowd and see what was happening.
In the kitchen were some people playing beer-pong on a table. I went over to an empty spot along the counter and leaned against it, watching the next person shoot. People were beginning to look my way, noticing that I was here. As I glanced in their direction, the people who stared at me quickly looked away, some shifting uncomfortably and moving away. I thought nothing of it, focusing my attention on the guy shooting the ping-pong ball. I did what I did back at the pizza place, getting into his mind and, this time, trying to make him throw the ball elsewhere. He made the motion, and I made him swing wide and toss it completely to the left, missing the table entirely and landing in the sink. He looked perplexed at what happened, and the few people watching him laughed. I couldn't help but grin just a little - this is kinda cool!
I wandered back into the living room, coming in just in time to steal an empty spot on the couch. The two making out to my left certainly didn't care. I glanced towards them, before looking back at my feet, another idea forming. They were too focused on each other to notice me. I focused on them as I tested the idea, as though they were my guinea pigs. They kept on kissing for about a minute more, before the guy pulled back. I looked away, but kept connection going.
"Sorry babe," He groaned, "Got a killer headache goin' on now."
"Well then," She replied, "Maybe I can help… maybe… suck the pain right outta you," She said with a wink. She leaned up against him and started kissing him even more, crawling on top of him and forcing me to get up or risk being a part of their thing. She was beginning to grope him, as was he to her, and I realized how badly I regretted doing this now.
"Josh, Trish, go take one of the guest bedrooms you animals!" Someone said. I looked over and saw a guy in a black, leather jacket come over. He had just a little more than a five o'clock shadow, and his hair was brown and going midway down the sides of his face.
"They're full!" Trish whined, sounding like a pouting child.
"Then take it out to your car - I don't care. But I don't want you - or anyone else for that matter - fucking out here on the furniture! My lil' sister sits where you guys are, c'mon!"
"C'mon babe, we can take this back to my house, alright?" Josh said.
She stopped her pouting there and looked at Josh. "Better hurry up then, stud. Let's get outta here." She jumped back on him and started making out with him ferociously. He stood up, holding onto her and stumbling out the front door, nearly falling down the porch too from the sound of them. I looked back over at the guy with the facial hair, who sat down where the other two were earlier.
"Hey, I see you came. That was a helluva fight earlier, wasn't it? You kicked those guys asses, which they totally deserved." The look on his face changed suddenly. "Hey, you alright? You got a bloody nose."
Huh? I brought my fingers up to my nose and gently pressed under it, pulling away and seeing blood on them. I grabbed my sleeve and wiped it away furiously, the hot red entirely visible on the white jacket. "Yeah, I'm good. You the guy who's hosting this thing or the guy who slipped me this?" I pulled out the invitation and showed him.
"Both! That fight was something else, man. I just knew when you beat them up like that, two on one, you had to be here." He looked around slightly, reaching into his jacket as he talked. "Y'see, I dunno if you know this or not, but I'm sort of the new kid around here. Just moved in about two months ago, Alex." He pulled out something looking like a hand-rolled cigarette.
"How do you know my name?" I asked.
"Everyone always has something to say about you, but if you ask them why they're so damn interested in you, they go all quiet all of a sudden." He pulled out lighter. "You smoke?"
"No. Wait - what is it?"
"A gesture of kindness," He said. I looked at him weird, not catching on quite yet. "It's a joint. Y'know, pot?" He waved it around my face. "So?"
I mean, marijuana isn't nearly as bad as coke or meth, so I shouldn't turn into Ma or anything. And I should probably test if this'll affect my little brain power thing going on. Screw it - for science.
"Fuck it."
"That's the spirit!" He lit it and puffed on it. "Since this is probably your first time, here's a tip: There's no shame in coughing up a lung, just try not to cough up whatever you ate," He said, his voice strained until he breathed out a cloud of smoke. He handed it to me, which I took and slowly brought up to my lips, breathing slowly in. It tasted… different, and after a solid ten seconds of puffing, I handed it back to him. My lungs burned and tickled, and I breathed out another cloud of smoke until I started coughing midway through. Once I started, it was nearly impossible to stop until I had coughed for at least a minute. I breathed carefully, trying not to start up again.
"You okay?" He said, taking another hit.
"I don't feel nothin'," I said.
"You will, just give it time." He breathed out and took another hit, before passing it back to me. "So? What's the story? Why does everyone seem so keen on talking about you without actually talking about you?"
"Well, how much do you know?" I said, taking a puff.
"Someone named Frank was around for a while - he sounded like a real prick from what I've heard. I heard someone say that you got someone killed once, but I didn't believe him."
I closed my eyes and focused on the burning in my lungs, before breathing out and passing it back. I barely managed to suppress a cough. "God I wish you were right."
"What? There's no way. There just isn't."
"Okay, fine." I stood up. "Anyone here remember Tony Hammond?!" I shouted out.
People looked around, some raising their hands, while others yelled back "Me!" or "Yes!".
"Everyone knows what happened, right?"
Again, everyone replied yes or nodded, rather solemnly this time too.
"And it was my fault, wasn't it?"
Hardly anyone said anything that time, looking around anxiously and not saying another word. A few brave people said "Yeah", some saying it softly and others saying it like they meant it. A few said "No", but barely anyone.
"There's your answer…" I said, gesturing for him to say his name.
He breathed out some more smoke, before putting out his hand and handing back the joint with the other. "Lawrence Pierce, but you can just call me Law for all I care." I shook his hand and took the joint, the length only about a third of what it was three minutes ago. My eyes were starting to feel tight, and I was beginning to feel… tired? No, maybe more sluggish than anything, but a good sluggish. God, does my throat hurt though. Another drag taken.
"Pleasure to meet you, Law," I strained, breathing out. "Now, what do ya wanna learn? You wanna know how I got someone killed, how I killed someone, or… what?" I trailed off, failing to find any more to say.
"How you killed someone, I suppose," He said warily and slowly.
"Alright, you heard about Frank, right?" He nodded. "Okay, I'm his kid. And he's the one I killed."
"Why? What'd he do?" He asked.
Jesus, he is new here, I thought. "He's the one who offed Tony, who was then my… a great friend of mine-"
"I know that bit too - it's cool, you ain't gonna get kicked out of here or anything."
"Oh," I breathed, "Hell yeah. Saves me that trouble. Anyway, after that, Frank tried getting me, too, and even before all of that, he… uh…," Should I? Eh, I'll probably never see him or anyone else ever again after this party. "He did frequent butcher work," I slowly pulled up my shirt and rolled up my sleeves, "And I was the pig."
His mouth dropped when saw the indents in my body, and I realized I may have taken it a wee bit too far. I dropped my shirt and unrolled my sleeves as he got a closer look.
"Jesus fucking... " He drifted off, before his face suddenly changed. He stood up and offered his hand. "Come with me, you need to party and forget all that." He pulled me up and I followed behind him, walking back to the kitchen. He pulled a key out from under his shirt and attached to a necklace, before reaching up to a cabinet and unlocking and opening it. Inside were many bottles, and it became apparent why it was locked - it was filled to the brim with bottles of alcohol. He reached in and pulled a bottle labeled Crown Royal. "Grab a bottle, whichever one you want, and follow me."
"What're we doing?" I said, grabbing a bottle that said Fireball on it.
"I told ya, we're gonna party, not sit around doing nothin'." I said nothing as I followed behind. I opened the bottle as we walked and brought it up to my nose, smelling cinnamon and something else. I took a large swig, my throat and chest feeling warm and the taste not all that bad. I kept drinking as we got back to the living room. He walked towards a small cabinet below the stand that the T.V. was on and opened it, revealing a small stereo system. He turned it on and cranked a dial far to the right, until after a moment of it warming up, it finally started to blast heavy rock music. Everyone cheered. He turned and headed back towards me. "Jesus, man, you're drinking that like water!"
"Huh?" I looked down at the bottle, seeing the liquid only reach to about a third of what it was earlier. "I guess I am!" I shouted, the music nearly muting me. He took a drink of his, before he started headbanging to the beat of the music. People around me were dancing or headbanging too, and before I even knew what I was doing, I was headbanging along with them. This was all stupid - the stuff we were doing - and I fucking love it!
Some amount of time and several songs later, the bottle was bone dry. I still didn't feel all that different from it, just warm and high. Maybe slightly different. Maybe.
It was then in my deliriously wonderful and head-banging induced dizziness that I noticed the way some girl was looking at me. She was all done up, looking like a plastic doll covered in makeup. Brown, curly hair that went down a little ways past her shoulders. She had a skimpy tank top on, showing her belly button and barely containing her small breasts. She must've saw me see her, as she started walking towards me without looking away, coming way too close way too soon. I looked away, searching and failing to find Law in the crowd. Come on, man. I need some help here, I thought.
"Hey, Alex," She drew out.
I looked back at the girl, and realized that I knew her. She was Jane Kress, who I was with for barely less than a month. I was thirteen then, and though everyone knew of the horrors that Frank had committed on people in the town, everyone got to learn of what he did to his son from her. That was what caused the ripple effect that started in school and eventually went everywhere in town. Frank had always told me that if I ever revealed the horrors he enacted upon my body, everyone would see me as weak and take advantage of me. While some people did attempt to reach out to me, they quickly lost their nerve when Frank went around telling everyone to treat me like shit or they wouldn't see their parents or family or whomever again. And asides from that, he was right, in that later in life, around the time I got my first job, most people tried to use me for their gain, and the second they were done, I was worth nothing. The only piece of information the fuck was good for.
Fucking Frank. Fucking Jane.
God, she looks so different. I suppose four years does that to people. She started dancing, though it was more of a show she was trying to give me, it looked like. It did nothing to me, only serving to make me even further uncomfortable. Ugh, stop standing there like you're being forced into this - you have hands, don't you, Alex? I placed them firmly on her shoulders and gently pushed back.
"Why're you doing this, Jane?" I asked.
"Doing what? Come on, let's get outta here," She said, getting close to my ear and saying it with a sultry voice. The smell of alcohol on her breath was obvious, even from my ear. She was practically grinding on me now, and at the same time, dragging me back further into the house. People looked at us, some even cheering her or, surprisingly, me on.
"Jane, no, sto-" She shushed me with what I think was an attempt to put a single finger over my mouth, but what ended up being the entirety of her palm that more-or-less slapped me.
"Just hush now, hun. You just let me do all the work," She said. She reached for a door, missed the handle on her first attempt, and pulled it open. Inside was an empty bedroom, though it certainly didn't smell like it was that way for long. She shoved me in and closed the door behind us, a click telling me she locked it. I looked around, seeing a lack of pictures and deducing it to be a guest room. I was unable to examine the area further, as she had charged towards me and was now forcing her tongue in my mouth. I recoiled from the strong taste of whiskey, maybe a little dramatically, and pulled away. She had this look on her face, though drunken, that basically said "What the fuck?"
"Jesus, Jane. I thought you were dating that jock guy."
"Fuck Brock. He's been such a prick, threatening to leave me if I don't keep my goddamn weight down. But you weren't, you were always so nice. I bet you're still that nice." She grinned. "C'mon, you an' I are gonna do it," She slurred, pressing her hips against me as she mentioned doing the dirty. God, how hammered is she? I started to back up, my back connecting with a window as she talked.
"No, we're not. I'm with someone, and even if I wasn't, I'm not gonna be your revenge fuck. I don't like girls - I'm a homo." She shook her head as she came up to me, taking my jacket off and tossing it on the bed. She proceeded to plant kisses down my neck and even sucked on a part of it. She couldn't have been that strong, but she had one helluva grip on me.
"No you ain't. That was just some fake show you put up with Tony to avoid me. And who the fuck're you with, you liar? Nobody, be it man or woman would want to be with you. I'm all you got."
Some show? You better bite your goddamn tongue, you bitch. I was livid, and I grabbed her shoulders again and pushed her away, maybe a little too hard by the way she stumbled. She's drunk, the wind woulda knocked her down, I reassured myself.
"Fuck you, you goddamn snobby cunt! The only fake fucking thing here is the thought that I would ever even want to be with you." I walked beside her, our shoulders connecting in another rough shove, and put on my jacket. "I'm leaving. This confrontation," I waved around us, "Never fucking happened." I refused to look back until I was at the door, and when I did, I saw her sitting at the foot of the bed, on the verge of tears if she wasn't already crying. I felt nothing for her, though, and said, "Goodbye, Jane Kress." I opened and closed the door behind me, my brain beyond the point of fried.
I released a breath I was holding and looked around, seeing people pay no mind to me, though a few were making small comments to their friends while they glanced in my direction. Whatever. I'm done with today. Why the hell did you let yourself come here? You dumb prick! You know not to let your guard down! I berated myself. I was back to the main living room, about to go out the front door, when I felt a hand grab me from behind.
"Where're you goin' Alex? The party's just getting started!" I turned around and saw that the hand was connected to Law.
"Had a run in with an old friend. Didn't go too well, and I'm just not caring to stick around much longer. I need to go and clear my mind. Sorry, man." He shook his head.
"Nah, don't even worry about it, dude. You were cool as fuck. Hope I can see you at the next one." Ugh, that bit just made me sad, even more so than earlier.
"Yeah…" I started walking out, until I heard a loud shout, sounding more like a callout. I looked back behind me, and heard it again.
"ALEX!" The voice boomed, managing to be even louder than the party going on. I recognized that voice.
Fucking Brock.
I turned back fully and went back inside, seeing the large form of Brock beside the much smaller form of Jane, his arm wrapped protectively around her. She was all tears, but I could see through her bullshit a mile away, catching onto that tiny curve on the side of her lips.
"Oh, fuck me," I mumbled, before shouting, "WHAT?!" Much louder than him. I wasn't backing down, not tonight. My mind drifted to the knife in my pocket, but I refused to go for it. Unless he had something more than his words and his fists, that is.
"What did you do to her?!" He yelled, his face red with rage.
"I don't fucking know. I didn't touch her, though! I only pushed her away 'cause she wouldn't stop trying to get it on with me. She gave me a fucking hickey!" I pointed to the side of my neck. "Everyone knows I swing for the other team. Why the fuck would I do anything with her, Brock?" Hell, why would you do anything with her? I nearly continued, but choked the words back.
However, my words did nothing but infuriate him further. His face looked like blood would shoot out if you even lightly poked it. He started saying something else, but I blocked it out as I remembered a little ability of mine that I should of used when dealing with Kress. I thought of everything I could make him do; I could give him a headache from hell, could make him jump off the balcony, make him hit Kress in some messed up way of revenge from me. God, I could make a list for hours, but I was knocked out of mind when I saw Law came between us.
"Both of you, chill. Brock, Jane, get outta here." They both looked surprised. Hell, I was too.
"What? Kick him out!" Jane pointed at me. "He's the creep that wanted to get in my-"
Law was clearly as pissed as I was. "Jesus Christ, would you shut the fuck up!" He pointed to the open doorway. "And get the fuck out of here before I call the cops and ruin this for everyone!" People groaned, and though Jane looked more than ready to continue this, she said nothing when Brock laid a hand on her shoulder. He went up close to her ear and whispered something, before the two looked around and started walking out. Neither of their eyes left mine until they were outside. Somebody in the crowd booed, and Law gave a glare in their direction. Nobody else said anything, and people quickly returned to the party. He turned and looked at me.
"You okay, dude?" He said.
"Yeah, I'm great. You didn't have to do that, you know?"
"Yeah, well, I was getting sick of Jane hitting on everyone. I don't think Brock even noticed, or maybe he did. Fuck if I know." There was an awkward pause, until he continued. "You still leaving?" I nodded. "Come on, I'll get you something for the road." He started walking back into the party, and I decided that, since he just defended my name like that, I could spare some extra time for whatever he had.
He led me upstairs and down a hall, people present, but not as much as downstairs. The hall had four doors down its length, and realized just how large this place is. It couldn't have been cheap. He opened the door at the end on the left and went in.
Closing it behind me, I looked about his room, seeing various posters for The Police, Aerosmith, and a seemingly out of place Duran Duran one. Paraphernalia of those and more bands were present around the room; T-Shirts from concerts, record cases of various bands, and a record players hooked up to a very expensive looking set of stereos, more so than the stereos downstairs. There was also a small shelf with baseball related items strewn about; gloves, balls, and a light brown wooden bat. A sudden urge of kleptomania spread throughout me, but I just shook my head and sat down on Law's bed beside him. He reached under it and pulled out a beautiful wooden box, complete with intricate carvings and a padlock, which also had some indentations on it.
"You do that yourself?" I asked.
"Ha," He said, "No, God no. I couldn't even dream of doing something like this. The box was like this when I got it, and the lock's the work of a friend." He took a small key out from his pocket and stuck it in the lock, opening it. He pulled the top back, and inside was a small plastic bag with some green herb inside. He took it out of the box.
"So, why're you being so nice to me?" I asked. He dumped out the green on a nearby magazine.
"Why not? Really, there's no reason. I just wanted to know what was up with you, plus, like I said earlier, you're badass. You can fight real well, you're not a total asshole… I dunno. I just like you, I guess." He took out a small paper and started packing the green into it, rolling it as we talked.
"Not a total asshole? So I'm at least kind of one?"
"Dude, you pulled up your shirt to show me what choice cuts you had missing from you all of a sudden earlier. That was kinda fucked."
"Heh. It was, wasn't it?" He smiled and nodded, bringing the loaded paper up to his face and licking it like an envelope. I looked down at my watch and turned it on, seeing it light up and read 11:08 in blue. I felt my heart jump, realizing that I was supposed to be gone nearly twenty minutes ago. I swore under my breath, before a hand-rolled joint was thrusted into my vision. I looked back up and took it, putting it in the small pocket on the inside of my coat.
"Thanks," I said. He nodded.
"Just make sure to come by here every now and then, alright?" I nodded. As he started to speak, so did someone else.
"Alex, you need to get out of there!"
"Nice. Alright, I'm sure you don't wanna hang around here anymore, I'll w-"
Out of the blue, a blood curdling screech of a girl cut through the music. It sounded like it was coming from the backyard.
"Xerxes? Why're you here? What's going on?" I asked.
Law and I looked at each other, before we both got up and looked through his window as Xerxes said something, though I wasn't paying attention. It faced the backyard, and we were met with the presence of a large black figure charging through the window, which had the first floor roof in front of it, creating a sort of walkway.
As the glass broke and we were shoved backwards by the force of the form, I realized what the form was, and my fear skyrocketed. Law was shoved back towards his bed, while I was more to the side of the door, the shelf with the baseball stuff beside me. The creature looked at me, roared a deafening screech that easily beat the girl's, and moved towards Law. I shakily got back up, leaning on the shelf as the monster looked down upon Law, getting on top of him and roaring in his face. But it was before the monster was able to do anything that I had swung the bat from the shelf as hard as I could, hitting the alien square in the side of the head, knocking it off Law and leaving a… a dent in its head? Good God, did I swing that hard?
It moved slightly, and I yelled as I swung the bat again, and again, and again, until the bat was all but melting and its head all but disintegrated. Law had crawled back to the door, terror spread across his face.
"Stay away from here! Get back to the truck - I'll meet you there!" I said.
"Alex, I'm not-"
"I'm begging you, just go back to the truck. I don't want you to get hurt or captured, so please, go back to the truck!" All got in answer was a simple affirmative. I sighed.
I looked down at the bat, seeing smoke come off as I saw it visibly shrink. I dropped it and reached to help Law up..
"You okay?" I said, picking him back up.
"What the fuck is that?!" He said, pointing to it. A sizeable chunk of the floor was missing now, and I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually fell to the bottom floor. I pulled out my pocket knife and flicked it out as I spoke.
"Don't know, though I have an idea..." The blade was hardly anything. It was sharp, I sharpened it myself, but sharpness wasn't an issue. I'm liable to get blood on myself if I use it, and I don't wanna turn out like that bat there. Better than nothing, I suppose.
"What, you know these things?" He said.
"I may have recently started a small war with an alien species…" I shamelessly admitted, "Here's one of 'em." It was then that I realized that over the music were multiple screams coming throughout the house, and multiple screeches and roars of unwanteds. "I'll tell you about it when we leave. You got anything we can use as a weapon?"
Law looked… shaken, to say the least. Though he seemed to functioning much better than most people in a situation such as this. He got down beside his bed, avoiding the body, and started searching for something, while I opened the door and peered down the hallway. I could see people running up the stairs, until they were cut down like grain by the tail blade of another creature. It started sprinting past the bodies before they even fell, getting to the door in record time. I screamed and slammed it shut, locking it and pushing the baseball shelf behind it.
"We're not going that way!" I shouted. A loud bang started repeated itself on the door, moving the shelf and busing the hinges out of the wall. I put my weight against it, trying to prolong it as Law got back up from the bed. The door was beginning to collapse, the top coming down on the shelf as I saw the alien come over it. I put all my strength into trying to push the door as high as I could, until Law came to my side, reached up over the door towards the alien, and then, a loud bang! Green sprayed on the left side of the door frame and wall, and I managed to get the door somewhat back where it originally was. I looked at Law, taking note of a double barrel sawed off in his hand as he put another shell inside it. I looked at him, wondering why in the hell he would have a shotgun.
He must've saw the look on my face, saying, "It's my parents, I just didn't want this out there 'cause, y'know, everyone else." I just nodded. The multiple screams and screeches reminded me of our objective: escape. The door just wasn't happening.
"The window! C'mon!" I said. I ran up to it, knocking broken glass off the edge with my sleeve and climbing through it. Stepping out on the roof, I was reminded once again at the downpour present, the cold hitting me hard and fast. I looked back at the house, seeing that staying on the roof wouldn't get us towards the front yard. We would have to jump down.
However, as I looked back towards Law slowly getting across the glass, I failed to notice the form of another alien on the second floor roof looking down upon me. By the time I noticed it, he was already diving towards me, knocking into me and making us both tumble off the roof and onto the ground.
I landed on my left side, a sickening pop and fire and spreading down my left arm before rolling twice and coming to a rest on my back. The wind was knocked out of me, and I couldn't do nothing but wheeze in pain, until I shakily looked up and saw the creature jumping on top of me. I tried rolling away once more, but was grabbed roughly by the shoulder and placed back on my back, with him crushing me with his weight on my stomach and pelvis. I tried bringing my arms up to block my neck and face, but only my right came up. My left was useless, that pop being my arm coming out of its socket.
He grabbed my right arm, slammed it back to the ground roughly, and brought his face closer to mine, as though he were savoring his victory. I was terrified, though that terror would have made a normal person shit themselves. Instead, I spit in its face, watching it slide down his dome as he recoiled in surprise. He recovered, tightened his grip on my wrist, before opening his maw and preparing to strike. I closed my eyes, hoping not to feel the blow, though knowing I probably would.
Instead, the only blow I felt was the wind from some force that took my assailant off of me. I sat up and looked to my right, seeing another creature charging the one that was on me into a wall, dropping him to the ground, and stabbing him many times in the throat and chest with its tail blade in a fit of fury. There was an indent in the now melting wall where the now dead monster's body had crashed into. The other monster, well, he isn't a monster.
"Xerxes, you okay?" I said loudly. I saw his form slowly heave, as if he were calming himself down.
"Yeah," He said as he walked towards me. "You?"
I stretched out my right arm. "If you can't tell, I'm trying to lift lefty over here." He came to my side, lifting and examining my left arm. "I think it's dislocated. Don't suppose you know how-" I was interrupted by an intense pain in my arm, a subsequent scream owned by me coming immediately after. He dropped my arm, and I could move it again, fingers and all. A dull ache went throughout it, my shoulder aching and burning. Nothing out of the ordinary.
"Of course I know, I read those notebooks you had," He said. I punched him in the chest hard, though nowhere near hard enough to do anything to him, it appeared. Certainly got some anger out of me, though.
"Give a guy a warning, you dick!" I said, "And I thought I told you to go back to the truck!"
"Hey, Alex?" A voice rang out. I jumped when I heard it, looking back up the roof I fell from and seeing Law standing on it. "What the hell is happening?"
Xerxes looked up at him, eyeing him warily. "Who's he?" He said. "Can we trust him?"
"Yeah, we sort of saved each other's lives a couple minutes ago," I replied. "Yeah, I may have refrained from telling you 'bout this bit, Law," I said, waving my arms around us. Man, my shoulder hurts.
"I wouldn't've believed you until five minutes ago," He said. "He isn't gonna gut me if come down, is he?"
"I mean… You're not, are you?" I asked Xerxes.
He shook his no, while saying, "If he tries something, I'm ripping out his heart for him to see."
"Ha, not funny," I said. "You're good!" I told Law.
"Wasn't trying to be."
"Alright, coming down!" He sat down on the edge of the roof before pushing himself off, landing hard on the ground in a crouch before getting up. "He got a name?"
"Xerxes."
"Right," Law extended his right arm towards him. "Name's Lawrence, but you can just call me Law." Xerxes looked at his hand, looking as if he didn't know what to do before taking his hand.
They pulled away, Law saying, "Alright, we need to GTFO ASAP. If we can get to the garage, we can get in my car and go. But… we have to go through the house to get there, and I think there's more of them inside."
"How many shells you got?"
"Five, plus the two loaded."
"Alright, X over here is weapon by himself.. And I have…" I pulled the knife out, "This fuckin' thing." I was about to pull out the blade, but Xerxes put his hand on mine and tried pushing the knife back in my pocket.
"Hold on," He said, and started walking to the body he made. He knelt down besides him and grabbed his tail, before detaching it with his own tail blade. The end of the tail was squirting out green while Xerxes started to make something out of his own spit.
"You seem oddly calm," I told Law. "This shit normal for ya?" He scoffed.
"Normal? Alex, this is far from normal." He paused. "Here I am at my party with fucking aliens attacking us, one of which is friends with you, with a double barrel looking like fucking Mad Max and surrounded by dozens of bodies that likely won't show up for school tomorrow. I'm freaking the fuck out, man."
"Great! Use that fear! Gives ya something to fight for!" I came up to his side and reached around to his shoulder. "Or you're gonna end up like everyone else, my friend." He pushed me away.
"I won't freeze up. I didn't earlier, I'm not now." Xerxes was coming back, holding the tail in both hands before coming down to a knee and presenting the makeshift weapon to me. Where it was cut off from its host was some of that resin, stopping any blood from coming out.
"Use this instead, Alex," He said.
"Ooh, all ceremonial-like," Law quipped. I rolled my eyes.
"Get up, man," I said, taking the weapon from him. He merely grinned.
I brought up the blade to my face, gently putting my finger on it and pulling back immediately when it cut me like butter. I'd have to toss this whenever I wanted to attack, or else I'd be burned. At least the tail was ridiculously long, so I could easily be a safe distance away. It can't be that difficult, can it? It's simple physics.
"You guys ready?" I nodded, while Xerxes hissed. "I'll take that as a yeah. Just follow me and hopefully we can get to the garage." He turned and started heading towards the open back door, the two of us closely behind. He got up against the wall to the left of the door while Xerxes and I were on the right. Xerxes and Law both looked inside at the same time, before bringing their heads back immediately.
"There has to be at least five of them!" Xerxes said. Law put out his hand, sticking all five fingers up. I nodded.
Okay, we can do five. We have three, we have weapons, and we have the element of surprise. We got this.
I looked up at Law and put my open hand out, lowering a finger as I told Xerxes, "Five, four, three, two, one…"
Law went first, Xerxes second, myself third. The doors connected to a hallway, giving a straight shot to the living room. On the left of it was a large opening that led to the kitchen, which was empty and full of bloody bodies sprawled about. So too was the hallway and from what we could see, the living room. I could see horrifyingly familiar forms hunched over them, crunching and slurping. It reeked of copper, and I had to suppress an urge to gag and throw up. While Law and Xerxes charged straight down the hallway, I kept my back to them, keeping watch over where we came from. As I passed by the kitchen, I saw a spray can on a nearby pantry which I snagged and jammed into my coat pocket. I could've sworn I saw a form in there, and my thoughts were confirmed when one leaped out of there and started to bum rush me.
Grabbing onto the improvised weapon, I held the long handle in my left hand and threw the blade from my right, the tip digging through his chin and barely slowing down until it pierced through his neck. He collapsed in seconds, skidding to a stop a few feet away from me while still twitching and spreading blood all across the hall we came from, destroying most of the floor in seconds. It reeked worse than human blood. I ripped back on the handle, bringing the blade back to me. A decent amount of green stuck to it, and I made sure to swing it away from myself to get the blood off. Most came off, though a little did stay here and there.
I risked a glance behind me, seeing Xerxes pin a form against a wall and bury his head into the crook of its neck, before ripping away with a rather dramatic spray of blood. Law, on the other hand, was busy hopping over a knocked over couch before turning around, taking aim, and firing, an alien collapsing over it and melting the furniture. I looked back where we came from, before sprinting towards the others.
Xerxes was now busy grabbing our fourth threat by the neck and lifting him high in the air, before roaring as he slammed him into the ground. He let go, before rearing up his foot and stomping it hard on number four's throat, causing it to basically implode on itself.
I looked towards Law, watching him go towards a door before seeing the fifth and final one jump off a wall and towards him. Law turned just in time to see it land barely three feet away, and as he brought his gun up to aim, the alien slammed his hands to the side and into Law's arms. The gun went off, shells hitting the wall behind number Five and the gun going elsewhere. I ran towards them, readying my aim as Five slashed across Law's stomach hard and grabbing him by the neck, lifting his feet of the ground. Law put both of his hands around his stomach, not even bothering to grab the arms grabbing him.
As I saw Law get grabbed and hurt, I dropped my aim and resorted to a different tactic. I looked at Five, making him drop Law to the ground where he landed on his rear. Five hissed in frustration and confusion, before his tail - for some reason or another - went around to his front and pierced through his own stomach, appearing out his back. It came back out of his stomach before finishing the job from under his jaw, blood spraying around him. None of it hit Law, as he had begun crawling backwards slowly, much to the help of Xerxes pulling him back. It wasn't until the body fell to the ground that I realized that I had been screaming and raising my arms at the motions I caused Five to do. I was heaving with breath, and a headache was forming. I wiped my nose, seeing blood on the back of my hand. I went up to Law.
"You alright?" I said. He shook his head, small tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes.
"I don't know. I think my guts'll fall out if I move my arms." Blood was seeping between his arms, though I have seen much worse. "I'm gonna die, aren't I?" I shook my head furiously.
"Hell no, you ain't." I looked around quickly, putting my improvised knife-thing's tail around my belt-loops to hold it there, the blade itself hanging into my left pocket, before finding and grabbing the dropped gun. I broke it open and dumped the casings out. "Where are the rest of the shells?"
"Right pocket." I reached in and grabbed them, loading two up and pocketing the rest as I closed the shotgun. As I handed him the weapon, I heard multiple hisses and screeches approaching. Looking back towards the hall we came from, I realized that we had forgotten about the stairs and likely other aliens above us. I looked back at Law.
"Gimme your lighter!" I demanded. He moved his arm from his gut and reached into his pocket himself this time, pulling it out and tossing it to me. "Xerxes, grab him and get him to the garage." He nodded and ran to Law's side, slipping his arms under his legs and back before lifting him up. "Get him to the garage, I'll cover y'all!" I said.
I turned to our assailants, watching them jump over the couch and other furniture as I flicked the lighter open. I took the can out of my pocket, the label reading cooking spray, before spraying it in front of me. Some of them stumbled at the sight, confused by what I was doing until I lit a flame under the spray, fire manifesting just out of range of them. I grinned as they dove backwards, unable to get away fast enough before looking back at me. I gestured for them to come to me.
"What? Are you scared of this lil thing?" I raised the can above my head. "Well come on!"
A familiar explosion of a shell rang out behind me, Law saying, "Dammit!" I looked behind me for a split second through an open door, before looking back at the threat as I heard them move and lighting the spray. This time, the fire engulfed the entirety of one of them and partially of another, before the spray stopped and the flame - minus the one looking like a candle - disappeared.
"Oh shit," I mumbled, before tossing the can at one and running. I saw Xerxes pop out from the open door I was running to.
"Alex, come on!" He yelled. He reached around the door and slammed his hand down, breaking off the doorknob as it clattered to the ground. As I neared him, he grabbed me by the shirt and ripped me in, tossing me behind him as he slammed the door closed. He let go of knob as he slowly backed up, not looking away from the door as small dents began to form in it.
I slowly stood up, seeing Law up against a tool-bench in the back, opposite the garage door. A brown sedan was in the center and, as I noticed a familiar acrid smell, I saw a black form sprawled out near the back of it. The body had sprayed a fair amount of blood around, some of which was in the process of eating the back left tire, the hissing sound of lost air overpowering the hissing sound of hungry acid. Either way, the car wasn't happening.
"We can't drive outta here - the tire's melted!" I said. "We're trapped."
"What about the garage door?" Law said. Right as he did, a sound of glass breaking, something landing, and subsequent pounding sounded from said garage door. "Oh, shit… What now?"
I racked my brain for a possible plan, but nothing came. Escape is impossible, we would have to fight our way out or hold our ground, neither of which had good chances of survival.
"What're we doing, Alex?" Xerxes asked, worry laced in his voice.
"We fight. If anything, we'll put up a helluva good last stand if all else fails." I tossed Law back his lighter as I took out my throwing blade, leaving most of the handle in my belt-loops. "But… I don't think we're survivin' this," I said. Xerxes came to my side, getting into a stance and ready to attack.
"Alex?" I sighed.
"You were right, Xerxes, I should've never come here. Maybe I could've saved you if I didn't…" I said. Oh, Jesus this is like what I did with Tony! I dragged Law into this mess with me and Xerxes, and I basically just got us all killed by simply being. God, I can't fix this… I felt a sense of hopelessness that I haven't felt in years, and it shook me to my core. I felt sick. My heart hurt and everything was cold. But the cold went away when Xerxes' arm went around my side and brought me close to him.
"Alex, in the twenty hours I've known you, I've been the happiest I've ever been in my two years of life." Chips were beginning to fly away from the garage door, and smoke was coming from the metal door as it began to bubble slightly. A large dent in the center appeared, and I became unsure whether it was the monsters or the door that was screeching. "It was nice while it lasted." He released me, and I despised the fact that that was likely the last time we would ever touch. We both watched the door groan and crumble, waiting and refusing to go down without a fight.
Or at least, that was before sirens began to ring in the air, getting ever closer. The attackers on both doors must have heard it too, as they gave screeches in different tones than earlier before scampering off like coyotes. Sure took y'all long enough, I thought.
"You guys should start running, unless you want them to find your friend, Alex," Law said. The blood looked like it was slowing down, but it was hard to tell.
"What about you?" I asked.
"What about me? Authorities are here, I just gotta wait for an ambulance now." I said nothing, not quite knowing what to do, before he said, "Go!" That got me going, and I turned towards the garage door button, pressing it. Me and Xerxes stood in front of it, waiting for enough room to go. "Hey, Alex?"
I looked at him.
He grinned. "Don't die."
"'Til we meet again, Law," I said. I looked back at the garage door. I took two running steps forward and slid under it, standing back up in the rain and seeing Xerxes run across the street between two houses. As I crossed the street, I saw a large formation of cars and sets of red and blue flashing lights making their way here in no time whatsoever. I stared for a second, sidestepped, and ran towards Xerxes, who was now climbing the wall to the backyard for one of the houses. It was nowhere near low enough for me to climb, and Xerxes waited at the top to help me up. I scrambled up it and grabbed his hand and elbow in my hands, before getting high enough to latch onto the wall itself. I pushed myself up and over it, Xerxes and I landing side-by-side.
This process of scaling and pulling me up walls continued for three more houses and two more minutes, until we finally reached the outside of the neighbourhood. Cop cars were everywhere, patrolling and looking out for, well, me. However, we were able to use a combination of back-alleys and fire-escapes to stay away from them. When we reached the truck twenty minutes later, we both got in the back and sat down, neither of us saying anything. I laid my head on a pillow and groaned, Xerxes laying down on the same pillow beside me.
"What did I do? What have I done?" I said, tears streaming down my face at the first word. Xerxes brought himself closer, wrapping his arms around me.
"I've got you," He said.
"There were so many bodies," I sobbed out, returning the embrace.
"I know."
"Did… Did I cause it?" I said, fearing the answer.
"No," He said, "And even if you did, neither of us could've known it was going to happen. I don't know why they came so far into civilization, but they did and we can't fix what they did." And it was left at that.
I laid there, lost in my thoughts and replaying the night over and over again for however long, until I remembered something that was said to me there.
"Xerxes..?" I said, "When this is all over, you won't… You're not gonna leave, right?"
"No!" He said. "Once we leave for good, I promise you, we'll stick together." He paused. "What was that you called her? A 'goddamn snobby cunt'?," He added.
"Who, Jane?" He nodded. I smiled. "Well, she was. I take it you were there the entire time?" Again, he nodded. "Well… thanks for watching over me."
"Thanks for saving my life today."
"Of course."
And then, all was quiet, minus the sirens in the distance. Neither of us could - or wanted - to sleep, so we just laid there, waiting for the heat to die down and the sirens to end.
It didn't stop until just before sunrise.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and all the rest! Thanks go to my beta-reader, Incurser for going over and editing this. Give him some season's greetings and read some of his stuff, too!