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 Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 9:38 pm
It was the first time he had set foot in this particular establishment of Downers since the advent of Ciro's death.
It hadn't changed, much. The upper floors showed all the signs of a renewed infestation - beer bottles (not Ciro's) strewn about, new tagging on the walls, tumbleweeds of trash blowing across the floor.
The new tenants would be simple enough to scare off again. He'd already sent one scruffy looking little rat fleeing out of the room. He grinned. Ciro or no Ciro, he could handle a few hobos.
He stepped down the stairs. The lights were off again, but he didn't pay it any mind. He could hear the shuffling of people down there - more homeless, probably hoping to stay quiet enough so that he wouldn't know they were there and chase them out. The first runner had probably told them that one of the demons had returned.
He could smell the fear, and it pleased something within him. He could hear the quick heartbeats, now, the stuttered breathing of those in hiding.
He stepped into the room - an abrupt clatter to his left had him turning.
A metal bat behind him and to his right had him unconscious.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Dimly, he realized he was being dragged. Gravel scraped across his back, arms dragging along the ground. He couldn't move, couldn't twitch a single finger; could only make out the distorted murmurings of people around him, curious sounds that went high and low with no recognizable words.
His world was in flux. He was atop the temple, staring up at the night sky. Standing, this time, the stone tablet to his back.
The stars shone at him, the spaces hummed their quiet song, but he could find no solace. No peace. He'd thought about what the sky had said, for a very long time.
The dragging ended, and his legs were released to fall to the ground. It was silent. Then footsteps, stopping next to his frozen form.
"I don't want to be a star," he finally declared to the sky. "Or a space. Or a human."
The night looked down upon him, silent and considering.
He felt cool metal pressed against his forehead. An ominous click echoed, that seemed to stretch for minutes.
The stars moved, a slow, shuffling waltz across the night sky. He stood, and waited, staring up. For hours? For days? The sky kept turning.
The dancing shuddered to a stop after eternity had come and gone. And then it answered, a fatalistic rumble that shook him down through his bones.
"Very well."
His eyes flashed open, and the world was still turning.
His mirror was ice cold; it was spreading through his veins until they burned, rushing past his blood and freezing it solid. His heart stuttered, quieted - did it die? Could he hear it anymore?
He couldn't hear anything except for the beating heart of the gun held to his head. His instincts, so carefully controlled, ripped through him, just like the chill - and his arm snapped up, pushing, crunching, tearing, ripping, in one graceful movement. Snapped back, and the gun fell away with a clatter and a heavy, fleshy thud, its heart beat gripped between his fingers. He stood, detached, arm covered in sharp, clawed shadows and clutching the bloody beating as the hunger washed upon him.
He devoured.
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Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 2:13 pm
Quinn couldn't dislike Downers anymore if he tried. It was everything he wasn't. Drab, dull, predictable...The best part of Downers was the homeless people who begged for money, because then he could feel good about himself for not being them.
He had come to find Vale. It was the day after their one-week anniversary, and he had woken up without Vale beside him. It was unnerving to be in an unusual bed without the other boy. And Vale's house was creepy in general-- too few people in such a big space.
After sluggishly awakening himself and finding some food, he headed outside to find the other boy. He wasn't at his current work site, and he wasn't at the store getting groceries. He wasn't at Quinn's house (though he didn't know why he would be) And he wasn't at the babysitter's, whose location he had learned eventually.
Quinn could only think of one more place, and that was where he had met Ciro. Vale had shown up there, before, so maybe he would return.
He had to investigate downers to find the street he had been on before, and then rack his brain to figure out which apartment was the correct one. They all looked the same!
The godling let himself in, finding the door unlocked. Vale never did lock things. He called around, loudly.
"Vale? Vale, are you in here?" He didn't hear a response from Vale, and frowned. The apartment didn't look tidy anymore. It looked like it had people living in it. It looked disgusting, and messy. Like Quinn's room, but larger.
Quinn shivered. He hoped no one was living there. He called again, his voice shaking a bit with his nervousness.
"Vale?"
He really, really hoped it was empty.
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Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 2:41 pm
He was having that dream again - the one with the strange wetness upon his palms. It was dark here, too.
But unlike his regular dreams, he knew he had heard Quinn's voice. At least, he thought he knew he had. He was slow to move; less like dreaming, this was more like waking up.
Something tickled in the back of his mind. Something was wrong, something that he couldn't comprehend right now.
The wetness wasn't just on his hands. It was on his face, in his mouth, splattered across his chest - bitter and metallic and making him light-headed in the same way that drinking tea too fast sent a rush to his brain. It felt like he was just barely walking on air, head swimming, but he felt alright. Better than alright. If the world was more clear, he knew he'd be able to jump up to the skies if he wanted to.
His eyes turned to sound, moving towards it - he tripped over something that he paid no heed to, something soft and wet and heavy and large. No, he paid no mind to it. He pushed the door open - yes, that was the one that led to the alley behind the building, he remembered that. Didn't remember the reason why he'd wandered into the alley, though--strange, to have the alley and this building in his dream, and Quinn--
"Quinn?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 2:56 pm
Quinn heard his name and jumped, out of surprise. Then he recognized the voice, and sighed with relief. "Yah, Vale, I'm in here." He followed where he had heard the voice, kicking at some old beer bottles on the way.
"I'm sorry for snooping, but you weren't there when I got up, and I thought maybe you would be here, and I was worried something would happen, and I..." He stopped, and looked up at the other boy.
He nearly jumped again. Lightning already crackled in his hand, ready to be launched. Who was this man? Was he homeless? He looked strange. His clothes didn't fit. He was ragged. Then he saw the ears. And the tail.
He was different.
Vale was older. Shaggier. His face was covered in blood.
So were his hands.
The other boy already had facial hair sprouting out of his chin. He looked like he had been fighting.
Like he had been eating.
Eating something bloody.
All of this took back seat in Quinn's mind, however, as he noticed one very important fact.
He's taller than me again.
Quinn narrowed his eyes.
Damn it.
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Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 3:12 pm
This was definitely strange. Quinn never, never appeared in his dreams.
"Sorry for v'orrying you," he answered, puzzled, voice slow. This dream was getting stranger by the minute - he didn't remember --
A flash of something, something before the dream had started - he stumbled, nearly listing to the side. His head was pounding; he just noticed that. Just noticed the smell, too, beyond the taste and the sight - something just as metallic that clogged his senses and dragged him down.
His head hurt, making his mind fuzzy. He couldn't move so well.
Was this - was this a dream?
His mind wanted to reel back from that thought, even as another flash of some memory had him leaning for support against the wall.
"V'hat - v'hat happened?" he asked, unsuredly. He couldn't remember--
Didn't want to remember--
Shouldn't remember--
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Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 3:42 pm
"It's alright, I guess. I know you didn't mean to worry me." It was easier to respond to Vale's voice, and not to Vale's body. He wasn't used to it. Quinn stared at Vale, trying to ignore all the bloodstains and the new appearance and focus on the Vale he knew underneath it. He cautiously made his way up to the other godling, trying to avoid the blood as he pulled him into a hug.
It was hard, the boy was covered in it.
"Let's get you home, alright? You need to get cleaned up. I don't know what happened."
He put one arm around Vale's waist, and attempted to get the boy's arm around his shoulders. He hoped Tepin and Sydni were still out of the house. This would take some explaining.
"Do you not remember anything?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 4:04 pm
He returned the hug more than happily - that was one thing he was familiar with, winding his arm around Quinn's shoulders, because the world was still spinning.
"Cleaned up?" he wondered more confusedly, finally looking down at himself. The wetness had been normal in his dreams.
But it had never had a color. Nor a taste, nor a smell. Here it was a dark red, stained into his shirt, dripping down his hands -
His hand, which had been dark claws and ripping tearing crunching--
It was coming back to him now, in flashes that grew faster and faster. The attack, the gun, the dream, the men, the hunger, the killing--
The eating.
His legs gave out from underneath him as shivers began to wrack his body, comprehension dawning in the widening of his eyes.
"I didn't," he stuttered, "didn't." He threw himself back to his feet - it was all a dream! None of it had happened, right? He didn't do that, he didn't--
He ended up lurching back to back door, stumbling and tripping over himself in his unbalanced haste, stopping with an abrupt jerk upon reaching it.
The alley was a slaughter house. Blood splattered everywhere upon the brick walls and gravelly ground. Bodies, splattered everywhere. Some ripped apart at the seams, others with gaping holes in their chests, expressions twisted into horror and terror.
It was a dream. A terrible, awful dream.
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Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 4:16 pm
Quinn followed him slowly, afraid of what he'd see on the other side of the door. He stepped up behind Vale, looking out onto the alley.
And throwing up all over the carpet in the house.
A month ago, he was sure, Vale would murder him for throwing up in his precious little house, but Quinn was unable to hold it in. So much blood. So much gore.
The blood on Vale. The bodies outside. His mind was spinning. He felt dizzy, and emptying his stomach out had left a bad taste in his mouth. He reeled backwards quickly, just barely avoiding tripping over beer bottles on his way. He ran back through the house the way he had come, and out the front door, grabbing onto a light pole to stop himself, throwing up again.
His mouth watered as he thought of the carnage. Seth's blood had tasted so good, when he had bitten him.
He swallowed, and clenched his eyes shut. It wasn't real. It wasn't real at all. It couldn't be. Vale wouldn't--
Would he?
He groaned and held onto the light pole like it was his only tether to sanity.
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Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 4:33 pm
He stared distantly at the bodies, barely noticing Quinn coming or going.
It wasn't a dream.
He wanted to deny everything so badly - to tell the roiling in his stomach and the blood upon his lips that it was all a joke. That he hadn't killed those men, hadn't ripped them apart, hadn't devoured them.
That he couldn't remember the inhuman hunger, the feral rage. The mindless killing.
But he couldn't. Couldn't even begin to deny this, no matter how badly his mind wanted to shut down. He felt like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
He wanted, needed, to get back to Quinn. Carefully, he picked his way back through the building, limbs not working quite right still. He felt curiously numb. Even the pounding ache in his head didn't seem to register compared to the blank refusal to think that his mind was proposing.
Just wanted one thing. He found Quinn, hanging off a lightpost. Slipped his arms around the other boy in a hug and buried his face against his back, willing his arms to stop trembling and not even noticing the height difference just yet.
It would be okay. He wasn't in this alone. If he could just hold this tightly onto Quinn forever, it would become better somehow, someway.
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Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 4:45 pm
Quinn whimpered, and couldn't help but flinch as he felt the other boy's arms come around him in a hug. His deathgrip on the pole tightened, and lightning flowed from him into the metal of the pole, to keep it from popping around him randomly.
Vale had killed those people.
What's stopping Vale's claws from doing the same to him?
Quinn couldn't worry about that, though. He let go of the pole and grabbed onto Vale, holding him close. The smell was awful. Blood from Vale mixed in with the nearby vomit Quinn had let loose. But at least he was with Vale.
They both needed a bath, now. A long, warm bath. And Vale needed a haircut. And Quinn needed to forget any of that ever happened.
Just like all the memories of his father. Just like every other bad thing that happened to him.
Block it out. Pretend it never happened, and it never did.
Don't let it bother you, and you'll be fine.
"Let's go home."
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Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 5:03 pm
Go home? Like this?
He couldn't. Not right now. Not with Tepin and Sydni there - he couldn't do that to them.
"I can't, Quinn," his voice was hoarse, rough and quiet and bordering on desperation. He refused to relinquish the hug, refused to look at the world around him. "I killed them. I did more than that, even," he added, a growing horror tightening his voice. "I ate them. Just ripped their hearts right out-"
He was feeling sick again at just the thought. The blood was still upon his tongue, and he pulled away to frantically spit it out upon the ground, wiping futilely at his mouth - it wouldn't leave. His hands were coated in it, he was only smearing it further upon his cheeks.
He hadn't been prepared for this. Mentally, he was working himself up to killing - but this? He hadn't thought, in a million years-!
He couldn't decide whether to cry and demand for his god to show up, to explain what he'd done. Tezcatlipoca was behind it, but his mind was empty save for the sickness that was quickly invading it. Where was the man, now? Laughing to himself at the monster that his godling had become?
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Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 5:44 pm
Tezcatlipoca was always a savage.
Not helping.
When Vale started talking about it again, Quinn's wish to push it all out of his mind became harder and harder to fulfill. He pushed Vale away, and swallowed, taking a deep breath.
"I'm going home. I'm going home and taking a bath." He took another step away from Vale. His mind overcompensated for his nervousness by spewing random words out of his mouth.
"I had a good time with you today. I'll see you later. Tell Sydni I said 'Hi', and thank you for the necklace, good morning, afternoon, evening, night!" He jogged backwards for a few steps before turning around and running out of Downers.
Block it out. Pretend it never happened, and it never did.
Don't let it bother you, and you'll be fine.
Over and over.
Block it out...
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Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 5:58 pm
He could only watch, silently and in disbelief, as Quinn left.
Left him. Alone.
It took a few more minutes of standing like a ghost next to the pole before he realized Quinn wasn't coming back. The next realization after that was that he wasn't coming back - ever. Slowly, his ears flattened back, tail tucking between his legs listlessly.
It was over. All of it. Everything. People would only ever run away from him. The babysitter, Quinn, his parents - even Sydni and Tepin would see what he really was, now, and leave.
It wasn't going to be okay. Not for him, never for him.
No. He wasn't a star, a space, or a human anymore.
He was a monster.
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