The Silent One
Part 08
When Kai knocked on the door and stood waiting to one side, he felt the bundle of nerves in the pit of his stomach grow and tense. He wasn't sure of how well he would be received. No matter, he had decided to confront his Russian friends and get any ugly business over and done with.
When Tala answered the door, he glared out at Kai who stood calmly in the doorway, black bag resting against his leg as he waited. Infuriated with the calm composure, he said the first thing that came to mind, besides the relief that flowed through him.
"You compromised my beauty."
Kai raised an eyebrow and took in Tala's appearance. Damp clothes, mussed hair, and an odd brown stain that was clinging to Tala's left cheekbone. "What exactly did you do?"
Tala heaved an irritated sigh and reached out, grabbing Kai by the front of his shirt and tugging him inside, slamming the door before realizing the bag was still out there, and subsequently opening the door to snatch it inside before shutting it firmly again.
"While you had fun frolicking your merry way away from me, my poor sense of balance made itself known and I became well-acquainted with the ground." He threw the bag to the foot of the stairs where it landed with a dull thunk. "Repeatedly. Then a patch of ice just formed under my foot, and when I fell for the eighth time I hit something. Not too sure what, yet; all I know is it left this brown stain and it is stinging!"
Finished with his rant, Tala breathed loudly through his nostrils and glared over at Kai. Waiting. For what, Kai could only guess.
"I told you, Red, it's dog feces that froze to your face," came a loud voice from the living room doorway. Bryan smirked at Tala's annoyed and anxious look. "Look at it this way: you don't look like the walking dead anymore. You have colour in them vibrant cheeks of yours."
"I believe the proper term is fever, you ass," Tala replied haughtily, reaching up and rubbing at his face with a cloth that he held in his left hand. "And if it's the last thing I do, I will get rid of this mark!"
Having said that, Tala stomped his way through the front hall and up the stairs, muttering something about an exfoliating cream. Bryan heaved a long-suffering sigh and shook his head at Kai.
"The trials of living with a vain beauty queen, hm?" His eyes dropped on Kai's bag, then flicked back up to his face, but said nothing.
Kai shifted uneasily and tried to explain. "I left Voltaire."
Bryan snorted. Kai raised an eyebrow questioningly and the older teen explained with a smirk, "You left him. Sounds like you left a lover or something."
"Ugh! Bryan!" Kai glared at him but felt the knot of apprehension loosen. He was better received than he'd thought he would be. Bryan merely shrugged, before pushing himself away from the doorway and reaching down to heft the bag over one shoulder.
"As punishment for your behaviour before, you get to sleep up in the attic with Red," he said, beginning to ascend the stairs. After kicking his boots off, Kai followed. They passed the open bathroom door on their way to the stairs that led up to the attic at the end of the hall, where they could hear water running and Tala grumbling under his breath.
"Face like porcelain, it says. Regenerative oils, it says. Removes all blemishes within three minutes, it says. My ass, I say!" There was a clunk of a solid object hitting the shower wall, followed by the breaking of glass and Tala's loud wails.
"Yeah, I don't envy you," Bryan promised Kai as they hurried past the bathroom, trying to get away from the mad laughter accompanied by the toilet flushing repeatedly.
Bryan kicked open the door at the end of the hall, and he and Kai climbed the short flight of stairs that opened into the attic room that was Tala's. Bryan crossed the room and threw Kai's bag on the bed under the circular window, while Kai plopped himself down on the sofa. He sighed and leaned back, feeling light-headed from the task of travelling from down to up.
Must mean I'm getting out of shape if I'm like this after two flights of stairs, he thought to himself tiredly as he rubbed at the sides of his head. He winced as his fingers brushed over the raised area on the side of his head where Voltaire had hit him.
"Honestly, who uses a paperweight as a weapon?" he asked Bryan then. Bryan shrugged from where he stood.
"Who'd have thought a jaded German would start the second world war?" He answered. Kai frowned to himself, and wondered if it was because of the blood loss that he saw no connection to what Bryan just said.
Just as he was about to answer, Tala came stomping up the stairs, using a wet white towel to dry his face and hair. "Did you know that a toilet can send water projectiles five feet around the room, soaking everything within sight in minutes? Including towels?" he asked as he shook his damp hair.
"By the way, Bryan dearest," he continued, "the toilet is broken due to extenuating circumstances." He threw himself down on his bed and tossed the towel back towards the door.
"'Extenuating circumstances'? What the hell do you–" Bryan cut himself off and glared at Tala. "Do you mean to say that you tried to flush that jar we heard you break down the toilet?"
Tala tugged a small pillow from under his back and pressed it onto his face. "I never mean to say anything, boyo. I just open my mouth and things come out."
"Delightful," muttered Bryan as he picked up the towel and began to head down the stairs. He stopped mid-way and turned to face Kai. "Be sure he doesn't suffocate himself, hm? If he does, the least you can do is push his corpse out that window. Last thing I need is the body of a drag queen stinking up the place."
"I'm not a drag queen!" Tala's muffled yell was indignant. Kai snorted from where he sat.
"Just confused about your sex, right?"
Tala lowered the pillow and glared, which soon turned into a lusty grin. "I'm not confused about my sex, Kai. I know that I like it rough."
"Right. You need help."
"I don't need help; I need a damn outlet for all my sexual urges!" He sat up and winked at Kai. "You know, since you are sleeping here tonight, maybe we could make our relationship–"
"Remain platonic?" Kai cut in, standing and crossing the room for a sweater that he knew he'd packed in his bag, because damn, it was cold in Tala's room. "Yeah, I could go for that."
"Kai!" Tala whined, angrily kicking his feet against the edge of the bed. "Come on. Don't tell me you don't find me the least bit attractive!"
Kai glanced over at his friend while he rummaged through his bag. Tala's hair was wet and dripping toilet water (ugh) on his lap, and he had smudged face cream streaking down to his jaw. Not to mention the fact that he had put on a sexy smile. Well, to Tala it was sexy; Kai thought that it made him look like he was suffering from gastrointestinal problems.
Kai smirked and turned away, nodding. "Sure, Tala. You belong on the cover of...um...one of those teen magazines you follow. Eighteen?"
"Gasp! Kai! You wound me!" Tala grabbed at his chest and gagged. 'It'd be Vogue if anything! Where they care not just for my looks but my intellect and thought-provoking ideas."
Kai grunted in a noncommittal way as he pulled his dark green sweatshirt over his head. Through the stretched areas in the front of it, Kai could see Tala reach over and begin pawing through his bag. Shirts and a few books that he had opted to bring with him were tossed aside with unimpressed snorts. Just as Kai's head was unearthed from the wide collar, Tala found the source for the weight in the bag.
Kai stopped as he watched Tala pull out the heavy metal box, an unsettling stiffness falling over him. For one moment he thought that Tala was about to open it and see inside. And Kai knew that that was one thing he did not want at all.
He inwardly sighed with relief as Tala met with the obstacle that was the lock on the front of the box. Kai could feel the light weight of the key pressing through the pocket of his pants, and could breathe easier.
"What's this locked for?" Tala questioned as he poked his finger at the lock. He gasped and looked at Kai with wide eyes. "You have dirty sex toys in here, don't you?" He pressed his eye to the keyhole and tried to peer inside unsuccessfully. "I always told everyone you were a closet pervert, and at long last I have proof!"
Kai sighed to himself as Tala fell on his back, desperately trying to see the contents. "You know, a locked box is usually locked for a reason. Because, I don't know, maybe what's inside is private."
Tala waved his comment off, but finally put the box back on the bed and sat up. "Mere trifle, my dear fellow." He rubbed at his eye where there was a red and very obvious lock imprint circling it. Kai decided it would be in his best interest not to say anything. Instead he took the box back and quickly pushed it to the bottom of his bag. Just because he'd brought it with him didn't mean he had to deal with it.
As he turned to go downstairs where he hoped he would find heat, a cool hand suddenly gripped his wrist and he was tugged back to sit on the bed. Again he sighed to himself but turned to face Tala anyway, fully prepared for some lewd comment or suggestive look. Only this time, Kai was disappointed.
Tala was watching him with a serious look in his eyes that was seldom seen. As he always did when he was nervous, he had begun to run his tongue along the bottom of his right eye-tooth, the one that looked like he had sharpened it so it looked like a fang. Kai waited silently for the confusion to leave Tala's eyes, which was a signal he had gathered his thoughts and was ready to talk.
"About before..."Tala faltered with a slight crease of his brow, unconsciously running his thumb around the base of Kai's hand. "Did you want to talk? I mean, well, I want to know what happened. Not all of it, if you don't want to say, but maybe a brief summation would help. I'd appreciate it, at least..."
"Drugs," Kai told him, fighting the anxiousness that had suddenly made itself known. "Not meth or ecstasy or anything," he added at Tala's look. "For the anaemia. I told you, they make things surreal."
"Surreal? Like, surreal as in you see everything like you're underwater, or surreal like the furniture waves at you?" Kai took no notice of Tala's attempt to lighten the situation and shook his head.
"Surreal as in...I see...things that aren't really there," he muttered. God, he felt like an idiot saying that; it made him sound like a damn nutcase. Tala nodded slowly; he remembered Kai had said something about hallucinations when he and Bryan picked him up off the street.
"So you saw something then?" Tala was not one to believe in the supernatural, and he scoffed at those who spent their lives wandering around, searching for ghosts and putting forth paranormal reasons for things that were caused by natural occurrences. When it came to medication, however, Tala had heard enough Advil commercials on the TV, and the bit about 'side effects may include' often enough, so who was he to say now what might be going on with Kai?
"You could say that..."Kai said slowly. He felt it would be a tad melodramatic to come out with 'I see my dead parents and they follow me because I killed them and I think they're out for revenge'. Kai sighed and shook his head.
"Well, this kind of talk makes me awkward. I'm not prepared for this..."Tala frowned a moment, then brightened. "After I eat, we'll talk more, k?"
Kai shrugged. "We don't have to. Just let it go. Really, Tala. I think the worst of it is over."
"Uh huh." Tala was not convinced. "Kai, I don't want you to think that we have to talk about anything. But I want to. All right?" He gripped Kai's hand tightly before letting go and standing. He glanced towards the box once more, before tugging on his friend's shoulder. "I need to feed Cal."
Kai stood as well, and raised an eyebrow at Tala. "Cal?"
"Yes, Cal," Tala answered, nodding vigorously. "My stomach. I named it because I felt our relationship was too impersonal." He lay one hand across his abdomen, then smiled and nodded. "Oh, Cal, you say the oddest things. Here, Kai! Listen to what he says about you!"
When Kai didn't move Tala waved him over eagerly. 'Come on! Don't be shy; just put your head right here and have a listen."
"Because that's normal," Kai said, rolling his eyes and crossing the room to the stairs, clearly intent on spending time in the company of normal people. Though at this point, he would settle for anybody sane. Kai had to admit, however, that Tala provided a distraction, a rather good one at that, because it hadn't been until Kai turned to go downstairs that he saw them next to the window, winter sunlight floating through the window and pointing out dust motes.
He'd noticed the way the light cut through them, and infracted like a laser would when the beam was reflected back through a mirror. It had not bothered him as much, their presence. Of course he had had to curb his instincts and not partake in a repeat performance of a few hours previous, and naturally he had to swallow down his nausea. All things, considering, he was still up and moving on his own, walking down those stairs like he owned them. Just step step step down and soon he would be all good.
"So, Kai. Your opinion?" Kai stopped and turned to Tala, who stood at the top of the stairs, which was right behind Kai. Hadn't he just been descending this very same flight moments ago?
"On what?" Kai asked, wondering if he'd missed some other comment. Tala gestured toward the stairs.
"You know. Gravity. I know how you've always theorized that we could resist it, and here we are. Not going downstairs, because that's what gravity wants us to do, right?" At Kai's look Tala raised his hands up defensively. "Hey, I'm with you, man. Fight the power."
"Sure," Kai said before turning back around and making his way down the stairs. He could rarely make a connection between one of Tala's thoughts and the next, and sometimes, he had to admit, that was a good thing.
After a rather long time, I finally updated this. And I am sorry for the wait for this chapter. And the quality and quantity. I just thought that perhaps you readers would like something to read.
Good news now: it is really easy for me to write these characters, so I have actually already started the next chapter and it's coming along well. So I don't believe that you'll have to wait another ten thousand years for the update. Thanks for reading, to the loyal readers who are still (surprisingly) with me.