Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (61 page)

“Get the fuck out of here,” I said lowly. “You’re the one who has been lied to. Silas would never let that happen. He’s a good person and a good king.”

Kass started to laugh, until I picked up my tumbler of vodka and flung it at his head. He dodged it just in time and made a beeline for the door.

“Silas is a fucking tyrant, your entire family is,” Kass said coolly. “You were different which is why I like you, but I’m already seeing you turn into one of them, just from your new attitude.”

“You can’t talk to me like that. I’m a–”

“A fucking chimera – I know,” Kass snapped. “We all know. Okay? We all have to walk around in groups and run for our lives every time a chimera’s shadow meets ours. We all live in fear… because
you’re a chimera
, and we’re just your family’s fucking pawns. Good night, Sanguine.”

The door slammed, just as another glass shattered against the wall.

I whirled around and stared at the dark brown curtains that were closed over my sliding glass door, so much rage was sweeping through me I felt like either screaming, pulling out every strand of my hair, or both. Instead I did the only thing I could think of… I picked up my remote phone and dialled Nero.

After several rings it picked up.

“What is it, puppy?” Nero answered. He sounded drunk and I could hear Ceph in the background chuckling.

“Is it true?” I shrieked, unable to control the volume of my voice. I felt my teeth clench and it took every ounce of restraint inside of my trembling body not to throw the phone too. Everything inside of me felt alive with electricity, small but strong sparks of lightning that seared and exploded my muscles and blood.

“W-what?” Nero said. I heard rustling. “What’s true?”

“You… YOU! Have… have you ever raped someone? Has the family? Is this what this entire fucking family is about?” I screamed. “Is it?”

There was silence on the other end. Dead – full – silence.

“Puppy…”

“IS IT!” I shouted into the phone, my voice cracking not only under the volume, but under the weight of the realization.

“Sanguine…” Nero said slowly, his words slurred. “This isn’t a conversation for the phone. This is shit Silas has to tell you about.”

Silas has to tell me about? I felt dizzy, then a thud as I fell down to my knees. “I told you what Jasper fucking did to me, you were sympathetic. Are you fucking telling me you do the same fucking thing?”

“FUCK NO!” Nero said angrily. “I’d never touch a fucking kid, you moronic shit. Ever!”

“I’m nineteen!” I screamed. “So it fucking started to become okay in the eyes of this fucking family as soon as I turned fifteen? Is that what you’re saying?”

“NO!” Nero shouted back. “Stop cornering me. I’m not fucking smart enough to calm you down and I’m fuckin’ drunk as fuck. I don’t know fancy words like the others. I can’t explain it properly just… you’re a chimera, so no one can touch you, shithead. It never stopped being bad, kid or adult.”

My jaw locked. Unable to stem the rage coursing through me I screamed from anger and gripped the phone in my hand. “You’re all a bunch of fucking hypocrites!” I yelled. “And liars, a bunch of fucking liars! I’m – I’m… telling… I’m… does Silas know about this?”

More silence on the other end.

“Pup… I’m not going to pay for the lies Silas has told you. He wanted to shelter you from a lot of things until you were ready. Look he’s healing fast…”

“Just shut up!” I tried not to scream but my voice was wobbly. “Just… leave me alone for awhile.”

I dropped the phone onto the ground, it hit the carpet hard and the battery popped out of its casing. I watched it bounce over and hit the side of the coffee table before becoming still.

He’s not going to pay for the lies Silas has told me? I stared at the remote phone and the disconnected battery and for a moment all I could do was breathe.

So was that the reality then? Kass had been right? Silas had been sheltering me from how this family really functioned? We were all a bunch of fucking rapists or something and that was supposed to be okay?

I looked around my empty apartment, stunned. Everything inside of this place suddenly seemed dirty. It seemed contaminated, filthy like my body felt after Jasper had been on top of me. A dirty apartment bought with dirty money from a family of tyrants that I belonged to.

I was a chimera – and just an hour ago I had never been more proud of that fact.

Now?

Now I think I just wanted to be the boy in the basement again. At least my world was small back then; at least I knew who I was… Sami. Not even Samuel Landon Fallon… just Sami the celldweller.

I got to my feet and continued to look around the apartment. I never knew things could look so different. My eyesight hadn’t changed but… everything else had.

My eyes fell on the yellow bottle with the blue cap. I picked up the lighter fluid and popped the cap off.

With no expression on my face, and no methods to my madness I squeezed the bottle over the coffee table and the carpet, before moving to the couch and the side chair. Then I squeezed the sour-smelling liquid onto the walls and finally emptied the rest onto the curtains.

This would be when Crow murmurs ideas in my head. This would be the time when madness takes over so I can be shocked over my actions later… but it was only me. Tonight… it was only me.

I didn’t want to be a chimera. They can give me schooling, training, love, and family… but I refused to be a part of a family that was full of people only slightly better than the man rotting in a cell in the Dead Islands. I would rather rot in a basement, than rule with the man who lived upstairs.

My lips pursed as my eyes took in the apartment, the smell of butane crawling up my nostrils and clawing inside of my brain. I didn’t want to admit that I was more hurt than angry. Hurt because Nero had said they all knew what had happened to me, and yet it seemed like they were no different. The family was full of tyrants and liars, and Silas was obviously aware enough of that fact to lie to me.

What a bunch of hypocrites.

I walked into my bedroom and picked up Jett napping on my bed. He was small enough for me to fit him into my book bag, and beside him I put Barry. The only two things in this world I cared about.

Then I walked into the living room, pocketed the remains of the lighter fluid, and not knowing why, I picked up the clown mask too.

Then I leaned down and touched the slick of oily liquid soaking into the couch –

– and I lit it on fire.

“S-Sami?”

I looked over, half-aware and half-caring. I was walking through the lobby towards the door to outside, pulling the caps off of my teeth one by one and slipping them into my pocket. I had gotten the front ones off in the elevator; the back ones I knew would be trickier.

But I would only need the front ones off.

Kass was staring at me. He was speaking with Jan, who was at his usual spot behind his desk.

“Kass…” I said. I walked over to him and handed him my bag, just as it started to move. I then reached in and pulled out another tooth. I put it in my pocket and ran my tongue along the naturally pointed teeth underneath the caps. It felt like I was greeting old friends. “Take care of my cat, alright?”

Kass blinked, but when he saw the bag move he quickly took it before opening it up. Jett’s head popped out, his ears were pressed back and his pupils dilated but he was okay.

I pulled Barry out, who was sitting beside Jett and held him close to me. “Okay?”

Kass gave me a confused and cautious look. “Sanguine… you look really… unstable. I think you should call one of your brothers.”

I already did…

“Will you look after Jett?” I repeated, not realizing how robotic my voice sounded until Kass had pointed out my state. Every movement I had had since I grabbed that lighter fluid had been from the hands of some puppet master. I felt like a marionette on strings and yet I knew the master was myself and only myself. I had no Crow to goad me on, no Barry to smile at me through pointed teeth. It was me and only me.

My only honest friend nodded slowly and lightly put a hand on my shoulder. “Of course, dude. Where are you going?”

Suddenly alarms starting blaring around us. As Kass and Jan started swearing, I pushed Jett’s head back into the bag and slipped my last front tooth cap into my pocket.

“I’m going to go kill some rapists.” I pulled the clown mask over my face, and with Barry tucked underneath my arm, I walked out of the apartment building.

“Sanguine!” Kass called over the alarms ringing in all of our ears. “Sanguine… fucking be careful.”

“My apartment’s on fire,” I called to him, and walked through the glass doors of Skylanding, probably for the last time.

The night was cold and the hot breath coming through the mask was visible in the dim LCD lights. It was late but there were some people still wandering around. All of them giving me a single look before disappearing into the shadows and alleys. They were smart. Like how an insect displays bright colours to warn you that it was dangerous, my mask held the same warning.

I clawed bigger holes into the clown mask for eyes as I crossed through an alley of an old antique shop. It was a shortcut to the pub, the pub that I had sent Kass to get food.

The pub that Kass had said he’d seen Valen and since this was a weekend I knew the little pink shit wouldn’t be sleeping early for school. If I was lucky I would see him sitting in a booth with his gang, and if I wasn’t…

If I wasn’t I would be taking the elevator to the eighth floor.

And there I would grab him and there I would hold him… and there I would squeeze his neck until I saw the blood stain the perfect whites of his eyes. Like a flower coming into bloom I bet it the red would look quite beautiful next to the pink.

I wonder what it would taste like.

For a moment I closed my eyes, and for just a moment – I wished for Crow to be here with me. I had Barry underneath one arm, but he was just a bear… just a bear with a song inside of him.

Sanguine, Sanguine.

Give me your heart to do.

And what was I?

My eyes narrowed as I emerged from the alley and into the car-less street, the streetlights shining overhead and illuminating the sign that said ‘Popkin’s Pub’.

I didn’t give a fuck who I was anymore.

My boots clicked as I stepped onto the curb of the sidewalk, the tinted windows showing me different faces separated by the dim candles on the tables. Immediately when I pushed open the swinging wooden doors I was greeted by the low buzzing of voices, the smell of beer and greasy food, and fucking John Denver
‘Thank God I’m a Country Boy’
blasting on the speakers.

The bar went dead silent.

“Life ain’t a nothing but a funny, funny riddle… thank god I’m a country boy.”

Almost silent.

“Who knows Valen Dekker?” I asked, my voice booming loudly over the acoustics of the room.

A sea of faces stared at me, white ones, dark ones, female and male, all of them with their eyes wide and their bodies frozen. Not a single one of them moved, not the patrons or the staff still holding trays of drinks.

“Who knows Valentine Dekker?” I asked again, raising my voice. I wondered if they could see my teeth through the horrifying-looking clown mask, though the mask itself held its own rows of sharp teeth.

My eyes immediately took me to the first signs of movement. I saw a round-faced bearded man wearing a black apron and a name tag, shift from one leg to another. Immediately I could see a glisten of sweat on his brow that reflected against the dim lighting.

I started walking towards him, still holding Barry in one arm. As I approached he shrunk back, his face creased in a permanent expression of both horror and shock. He quickly moved behind a table, the only thing separating the two of us.

“I don’t need to give you a description, bar man,” I said lowly. “Where’s the pink chimera?”

The man let out a wheeze and wiped his mouth with his hand. “Those chimeras will kill you, you – you don’t go fucking with chimeras, arian. You–”

There was a collective gasp and several screams as I pushed the table out of the way. It went crashing into another smaller table sending both to the ground. I closed the two feet of distance and grabbed onto his apron.

I slid my mask up over my face. And when the man saw my eyes and bared teeth he gasped and looked at me with the same terror that I had been seeing since I could remember.

“Do I look like an arian to you?” I whispered.

Suddenly I heard the door open behind me. I jerked my head towards the noise, slipping the mask back over my face.

“Stop them!” I snarled, my red eyes sweeping the room. And when every shocked patron stayed frozen in their stasis I growled and threw the bearded man down onto the ground.

“I said STOP THEM!” I screamed. I grabbed a bottle of alcohol and flung it at the door, catching one of the men on the leg. I snatched another bottle just as several men jumped to their feet and ran out the door after them.