riftverse } { it's the price you pay for the world you live in
[This was written as a series of prompts for thenewpub. We'll see if it actually goes anywhere.]
“You know, the next time you suggest a summer vacation? We should go to Iceland.”
Katherine Harper pushed her sunglasses down her nose as she glanced over at where her brother was sitting. “Would you relax? This is supposed to be a vacation.”
Evan Harper didn’t do ‘relax.’ She knew that, and liked to chide him for it anyway, but he was sitting next to her on the Los Angeles shore line, watching as his kids ran through the waves and played in the sand. It was hot-which is why it warranted the day at the beach-but not as hot as it could have been if they had stayed inland. She was also relatively certain that her pasty white brother was going to burn in this kind of direct sunlight, but considering that they had practically bathed him in sunscreen, she was hoping that this wasn’t the case.
“Yeah. Right. A vacation. The one week a year when I’m not just this guy that my kids spend time with on the weekends.”
“Hey,” she said softly, reaching over and pinching his arm. “None of that. Those kids adore you, and you know it. It’s not your fault their mother is a vicious-”
He reached over and pinched her right back as Addie came running up from the shore, a giant shell in her hand. “Look, Daddy! I found one.”
“Good girl, peanut,” he said with a grin as he picked her up and placed her in his lap. “Let me see.”
Kate smirked as she watched the two of them, bonding over the shell for a moment, before she wiggled out of his lap and tugged on his hand. “Come on, you need to go swimming.”
“I will, sweetie . Soon.”
Then the big green eyes turned on her aunt, wide and pleading. “What about you, Aunt Kate?”
“I will go when your dad goes, how’s that sound?”
The seven year-old took that as a sign of good faith, and took off running to the shore to play with her brothers again. Evan sighed heavily, before leaning back against the beach chair with a sigh. “I still can’t believe you convinced me to trade the humidity in Miami for the humidity here.”
“It’s not too bad,” she smirked. “Less mosquitos. Less of a chance for your ex to come in and crash the party.” Evan sighed heavily, keeping his eyes on his kids in front of him. She watched him for a minute, before reaching forward and placing her hand on his arm. “Hey. It’s not your fault she didn’t understand.”
“I know,” he replied, his eyes falling on his oldest. “Ryan turns sixteen in three months. What are we going to do then?”
Kate sighed for a moment, before shaking her head. “I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out when we get there.” She then pushed to her feet, giving herself a bit of a stretch, before finding her sunglasses. “Come on. I think you owe your daughter a swim.”
He smirked at her, before nodding and starting to walk down the shoreline with her. “You sure you have to go back to Chicago when this is all over?”
“Yup,” she sighed, hissing just a little as the cool water hit her feet. “There’s no place like home, right?”
***
The hair at the nape of her neck was wet with sweat as she pulled up to the front of her ex-sister-in-law’s house, but by the time she did, it was already too late. Ryan had turned sixteen two days ago. She hadn’t been invited to the dinner, but that was understandable, given the family situation. She wished that Evan had at least been there, so that he could help Ryan through this, through what every member in their family had to go through, but Angela, being the smug bitch that she was, still wouldn’t let Evan anywhere near the kids unless she had to.
Since Ryan’s birthday happened on a weekday, not a weekend, there wasn’t much they could do.
Not until they got the frantic call from Ryan a half-hour earlier.
“Please tell me you at least tried to warn him?” she said as they both bailed out of the car. Evan didn’t respond, just ran for the door to try and find his son. Kate followed close behind him, ditching her heels somewhere in the front yard to let herself run faster.
“Ryan?” Her brother’s voice echoed in the corridors of the dark house ahead of her. “Ryan where-oh, god.”
It was then that her heart sank to her stomach. She was worried about what Angela might have done, when she found out that her son was going to turn into the same thing his father was. But when she finally caught up with them in the kitchen, it wasn’t what she had anticipated. Ryan was sitting in the corner of the kitchen, sitting in a ball with a mix of red and black blood resting on his fingers, his wings-beautiful full wings-curling around him like he was trying to hide.
And across the room from him, his mother was slumped against the kitchen cabinets, a knife buried in her chest.
Evan was standing in the middle of them, clearly to stunned with the situation to know what to do. Kate moved forward, placing a hand on his shoulder, before moving on to her nephew who was still curled up in a ball on the ground. “Ryan? Sweetie?”
“Go away!” he said, his voice edged with fear. “Go, or I’ll just do it to you too.”
“Ryan, it’s okay,” she replied, brushing her fingers through his hair. “Baby, we’re here to help. We know what’s happening to you, and it’s okay. It happened to us, too.”
“What?” His head finally came up, bright green eyes edged with fear as he looked between them. “You knew this was going to happen? That I was going to become this-”
“You’re not a monster,” Kate replied, cutting him off before he could finish. “You’re just confused. And we can explain.”
“But … I killed my mom. And it felt-it felt-I want to do it again. How do I get that to stop?”
“You relax. You breathe,” she said slowly, before glancing back at her brother. “And we need to get you out of here.” She turned back to Ryan, smoothing a hand through his hair gently. “Go get cleaned up, and let me talk to your dad, okay?”
He watched her carefully, before nodding slowly and pushing himself to his feet, moving past her to the bathroom. She then pushed herself back to a standing position, before turning back to Evan and giving him a sympathetic look. “Ev-”
“He’s a Rak,” Evan said softly. “How the hell did that happen, there hasn’t been a Rak in the family in centuries.”
“Evan, listen to me,” she said softly. “We need to clean this up first. We need to get him out of town, otherwise the police are going to take him to prison.” The police didn’t care if the supernatural humans in the area went to town on each other, but Angela was human, and that wasn’t going to go over well. “And you need to get to your other kids.”
“What-what am I supposed to do, Katie? I can’t just take him out of town.”
“No, but I can,” she sighed. “I was going to drive back to Chicago tomorrow, but I’ll move it up to tonight and take Ryan with me. There’s a large community there, we can try and help him get a handle on his Calling. At least for now.”
Evan nodded slowly, before glancing around at everything. “What do you need me to do?”
“Go get Addie and Ben. Ryan and I will get out of here, and when you come home, you call nine-one-one and report it. You’ve got to do this right, Evan, or it won’t work.”
He nodded slowly, before turning and heading to the door. “Okay. Okay.”
“I’ll call you when we get to Chicago,” she sighed to her brother’s back. She then glanced around at the scene, and sighed. “Hopefully we’ll make it there.”
***
They hadn’t had a lot of time before leaving Miami.
Just enough time for Ryan to throw a few things together without making it look suspicious. The Harpers have been covering up their sins for years-the price of having Callings that usually ended in people dying-but they also usually had time to prepare. They didn’t kill without the meticulous planning that came with their Calling, that came with being a Chauron. Having a specific victim at a specific time helped in that respect.
Kate didn’t know how they were going to come back from this one. Rakshakas were chaos in a bottle, unleashed on a world that wasn’t prepared for them. This is why Kate was taking him to Chicago. Hopefully there would be someone there who would be able to help him-would be more prepared for this than she was.
“We’ll go shopping when we get to the city,” she said to her nephew, filling the silence between them as they headed down the highway. “I’ll have your father send your transcripts once things die down, an we’ll set you up at the public high school.”
Ryan didn’t say much, dark hair falling in front of his eyes as he slumped against the window of the car. In fact, he’s barely said a word since they left Miami, but she can understand that. He’s had a rough time of things. She can’t say she blamed him for not wanting to talk to anyone.
About twenty miles later, he actually speaks up. “You should have left me there.”
“No,” she said softly. “We don’t do that to family.”
“But I killed her. I should be punished for that.”
Kate paused for a moment, before yanking the wheel to the side and pulling off into the emergency lane. She shut off the car, letting it idle for a moment, before turning to face her nephew again. “Look-we’re going to figure this out, okay? But this wasn’t your fault. This-this is the consequence of a lot of things.”
“I just don’t get why mom or dad didn’t tell me.”
“Your dad tried. He knew this was going to happen, but your mom didn’t listen. She-she didn’t want to listen.”
Ryan took a deep breath, before leaning back against the window again. “I don’t want to be a killer, Aunt Kate.”
“You don’t have to be,” she said softly, reaching over to place a hand on the top of his head. “You won’t be. There are a lot of people in Chicago-good people, who can help you learn to control it. We’ll figure out a way to keep this from happening, okay?”
“Okay,” he said softly, then later, with a bit more purpose. “Okay.”
“Okay,” she nodded again, before turning to turn on the car again. They lurched back out onto the highway, carefully pulling into the traffic and continuing their trip.
After another fifty miles of silence, he perked up again, with the ghost of what could have been a smile moving across his face.
“Is it true there are monsters in Chicago?”
She glanced over at him with a smirk, before turning her eyes back to the road. “Guess we’ll just have to see.”
1918 words
“You know, the next time you suggest a summer vacation? We should go to Iceland.”
Katherine Harper pushed her sunglasses down her nose as she glanced over at where her brother was sitting. “Would you relax? This is supposed to be a vacation.”
Evan Harper didn’t do ‘relax.’ She knew that, and liked to chide him for it anyway, but he was sitting next to her on the Los Angeles shore line, watching as his kids ran through the waves and played in the sand. It was hot-which is why it warranted the day at the beach-but not as hot as it could have been if they had stayed inland. She was also relatively certain that her pasty white brother was going to burn in this kind of direct sunlight, but considering that they had practically bathed him in sunscreen, she was hoping that this wasn’t the case.
“Yeah. Right. A vacation. The one week a year when I’m not just this guy that my kids spend time with on the weekends.”
“Hey,” she said softly, reaching over and pinching his arm. “None of that. Those kids adore you, and you know it. It’s not your fault their mother is a vicious-”
He reached over and pinched her right back as Addie came running up from the shore, a giant shell in her hand. “Look, Daddy! I found one.”
“Good girl, peanut,” he said with a grin as he picked her up and placed her in his lap. “Let me see.”
Kate smirked as she watched the two of them, bonding over the shell for a moment, before she wiggled out of his lap and tugged on his hand. “Come on, you need to go swimming.”
“I will, sweetie . Soon.”
Then the big green eyes turned on her aunt, wide and pleading. “What about you, Aunt Kate?”
“I will go when your dad goes, how’s that sound?”
The seven year-old took that as a sign of good faith, and took off running to the shore to play with her brothers again. Evan sighed heavily, before leaning back against the beach chair with a sigh. “I still can’t believe you convinced me to trade the humidity in Miami for the humidity here.”
“It’s not too bad,” she smirked. “Less mosquitos. Less of a chance for your ex to come in and crash the party.” Evan sighed heavily, keeping his eyes on his kids in front of him. She watched him for a minute, before reaching forward and placing her hand on his arm. “Hey. It’s not your fault she didn’t understand.”
“I know,” he replied, his eyes falling on his oldest. “Ryan turns sixteen in three months. What are we going to do then?”
Kate sighed for a moment, before shaking her head. “I don’t know. But we’ll figure it out when we get there.” She then pushed to her feet, giving herself a bit of a stretch, before finding her sunglasses. “Come on. I think you owe your daughter a swim.”
He smirked at her, before nodding and starting to walk down the shoreline with her. “You sure you have to go back to Chicago when this is all over?”
“Yup,” she sighed, hissing just a little as the cool water hit her feet. “There’s no place like home, right?”
***
The hair at the nape of her neck was wet with sweat as she pulled up to the front of her ex-sister-in-law’s house, but by the time she did, it was already too late. Ryan had turned sixteen two days ago. She hadn’t been invited to the dinner, but that was understandable, given the family situation. She wished that Evan had at least been there, so that he could help Ryan through this, through what every member in their family had to go through, but Angela, being the smug bitch that she was, still wouldn’t let Evan anywhere near the kids unless she had to.
Since Ryan’s birthday happened on a weekday, not a weekend, there wasn’t much they could do.
Not until they got the frantic call from Ryan a half-hour earlier.
“Please tell me you at least tried to warn him?” she said as they both bailed out of the car. Evan didn’t respond, just ran for the door to try and find his son. Kate followed close behind him, ditching her heels somewhere in the front yard to let herself run faster.
“Ryan?” Her brother’s voice echoed in the corridors of the dark house ahead of her. “Ryan where-oh, god.”
It was then that her heart sank to her stomach. She was worried about what Angela might have done, when she found out that her son was going to turn into the same thing his father was. But when she finally caught up with them in the kitchen, it wasn’t what she had anticipated. Ryan was sitting in the corner of the kitchen, sitting in a ball with a mix of red and black blood resting on his fingers, his wings-beautiful full wings-curling around him like he was trying to hide.
And across the room from him, his mother was slumped against the kitchen cabinets, a knife buried in her chest.
Evan was standing in the middle of them, clearly to stunned with the situation to know what to do. Kate moved forward, placing a hand on his shoulder, before moving on to her nephew who was still curled up in a ball on the ground. “Ryan? Sweetie?”
“Go away!” he said, his voice edged with fear. “Go, or I’ll just do it to you too.”
“Ryan, it’s okay,” she replied, brushing her fingers through his hair. “Baby, we’re here to help. We know what’s happening to you, and it’s okay. It happened to us, too.”
“What?” His head finally came up, bright green eyes edged with fear as he looked between them. “You knew this was going to happen? That I was going to become this-”
“You’re not a monster,” Kate replied, cutting him off before he could finish. “You’re just confused. And we can explain.”
“But … I killed my mom. And it felt-it felt-I want to do it again. How do I get that to stop?”
“You relax. You breathe,” she said slowly, before glancing back at her brother. “And we need to get you out of here.” She turned back to Ryan, smoothing a hand through his hair gently. “Go get cleaned up, and let me talk to your dad, okay?”
He watched her carefully, before nodding slowly and pushing himself to his feet, moving past her to the bathroom. She then pushed herself back to a standing position, before turning back to Evan and giving him a sympathetic look. “Ev-”
“He’s a Rak,” Evan said softly. “How the hell did that happen, there hasn’t been a Rak in the family in centuries.”
“Evan, listen to me,” she said softly. “We need to clean this up first. We need to get him out of town, otherwise the police are going to take him to prison.” The police didn’t care if the supernatural humans in the area went to town on each other, but Angela was human, and that wasn’t going to go over well. “And you need to get to your other kids.”
“What-what am I supposed to do, Katie? I can’t just take him out of town.”
“No, but I can,” she sighed. “I was going to drive back to Chicago tomorrow, but I’ll move it up to tonight and take Ryan with me. There’s a large community there, we can try and help him get a handle on his Calling. At least for now.”
Evan nodded slowly, before glancing around at everything. “What do you need me to do?”
“Go get Addie and Ben. Ryan and I will get out of here, and when you come home, you call nine-one-one and report it. You’ve got to do this right, Evan, or it won’t work.”
He nodded slowly, before turning and heading to the door. “Okay. Okay.”
“I’ll call you when we get to Chicago,” she sighed to her brother’s back. She then glanced around at the scene, and sighed. “Hopefully we’ll make it there.”
***
They hadn’t had a lot of time before leaving Miami.
Just enough time for Ryan to throw a few things together without making it look suspicious. The Harpers have been covering up their sins for years-the price of having Callings that usually ended in people dying-but they also usually had time to prepare. They didn’t kill without the meticulous planning that came with their Calling, that came with being a Chauron. Having a specific victim at a specific time helped in that respect.
Kate didn’t know how they were going to come back from this one. Rakshakas were chaos in a bottle, unleashed on a world that wasn’t prepared for them. This is why Kate was taking him to Chicago. Hopefully there would be someone there who would be able to help him-would be more prepared for this than she was.
“We’ll go shopping when we get to the city,” she said to her nephew, filling the silence between them as they headed down the highway. “I’ll have your father send your transcripts once things die down, an we’ll set you up at the public high school.”
Ryan didn’t say much, dark hair falling in front of his eyes as he slumped against the window of the car. In fact, he’s barely said a word since they left Miami, but she can understand that. He’s had a rough time of things. She can’t say she blamed him for not wanting to talk to anyone.
About twenty miles later, he actually speaks up. “You should have left me there.”
“No,” she said softly. “We don’t do that to family.”
“But I killed her. I should be punished for that.”
Kate paused for a moment, before yanking the wheel to the side and pulling off into the emergency lane. She shut off the car, letting it idle for a moment, before turning to face her nephew again. “Look-we’re going to figure this out, okay? But this wasn’t your fault. This-this is the consequence of a lot of things.”
“I just don’t get why mom or dad didn’t tell me.”
“Your dad tried. He knew this was going to happen, but your mom didn’t listen. She-she didn’t want to listen.”
Ryan took a deep breath, before leaning back against the window again. “I don’t want to be a killer, Aunt Kate.”
“You don’t have to be,” she said softly, reaching over to place a hand on the top of his head. “You won’t be. There are a lot of people in Chicago-good people, who can help you learn to control it. We’ll figure out a way to keep this from happening, okay?”
“Okay,” he said softly, then later, with a bit more purpose. “Okay.”
“Okay,” she nodded again, before turning to turn on the car again. They lurched back out onto the highway, carefully pulling into the traffic and continuing their trip.
After another fifty miles of silence, he perked up again, with the ghost of what could have been a smile moving across his face.
“Is it true there are monsters in Chicago?”
She glanced over at him with a smirk, before turning her eyes back to the road. “Guess we’ll just have to see.”
1918 words