SOL - Generation Eight - Chapter Two
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The sky is blue, bright blue, almost cloudless; the sun is high, chasing away shadows, chasing away monsters. Things seem safe.
And then he blinks.
The sun is gone and there is no moon to replace it. It is so dark he cannot see his hand in front of his face. The ground is hard and cold beneath his feet, feet which thunder on it so he can find his safe place before something finds him first.
Eyes watch him from the shadows, mouths open and laugh, things chase him; claws brush his clothes and hair, close, too close. He cannot run fast enough.
Moments before he finds his safe corner in this world, he sees her.
Kohi is twisted; her face is sunken, skin drooping from her and peeling away. Her teeth are rotted stumps. As he watches, she disintegrates to nothing more than a moving skeleton with some flaps of skin and muscles hanging from odd places.
There is a high keening sound and it takes him too long to realise he is screaming.
The skeleton reaches towards him, jaw moving in an odd cackling motion, her voice still clear in his mind. "Come back, you are mine, mine to command, mine to control, mine to make, mine to craft mine to break mine mine MINE MINE!”
Ciaren jolted awake, mouth open in an empty scream. He gasped instead, turning over to his front so that the pressure on his chest was alleviated. Every part of his body was shaking.
Somehow he pulled himself out of bed and stumbled over to the en suite bathroom. The light was bright and he had to shut his eyes into slits, but somehow he still found the toilet. He hovered over it as his stomach churned horribly, remembering the horrendous images from his nightmares.
However sick he felt, he never threw up. Ciaren spat into the toilet and shut the lid, leaning against the wall until his chest stopped heaving. He began to shiver as the sweat layered over his body cooled.
He wasn’t ready to return to bed. He stood up and made his way back into his room, pulling the curtain away from the window. It was light outside, but that was no indication of the time. He glanced at his alarm clock. Six in the morning. Not too bad. He’d lived through the day on less.
Ciaren perched on the edge of his bed and picked up a small notebook. He set his shoulders and wrote as much about his dream as he remembered, in as much detail as he could. After school he and Attie visited a councillor that Quinn had recommended, though at separate times. As far as Ciaren could tell, Attica was dealing with it well. She was more cheerful than before, in fact - perhaps that was a coping mechanism.
He, on the other hand, had the memories from those two weeks and his whole life before to contend with. However, they tended to form the backdrops of his nightmares, whereas Kohi’s betrayal always featured somewhere.
He didn’t need any therapist to tell him why. He’d trusted her and had believed in her, and she had turned around and had no hesitation to kill them.
Ciaren shook himself out of his thoughts and walked downstairs to the kitchen. He began to tidy a little, making himself useful, because even though this was his family now he still felt like he had to pay them back somehow. He felt that he fit in better now than he did before, though; now, they were all somewhat broken.
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“You don’t have any experience working in a kitchen?” the interviewer asked, gaze rising from Akta’s CV. Akta continued to smile pleasantly, though this grated on his nerves. There weren't many people applying for this job, he knew that, but he still had to go through this hell.
“I’ve been cooking from a young age,” Akta said. “I’ve cooked meals for my parents since I was thirteen, and now for my partner and his brother.”
At that, the interviewer seemed to perk up a little. Akta hid a smile. If the realisation that he would help them tick their equal opportunities box get him hired, he was happy to use and abuse it.
“And how do you think you’ll deal with the busy and sometimes stressful atmosphere?”
“Rather well, I think. I’ve had a lot of stressful situations and I’ve begun to cope with them a lot better recently.”
The interviewer nodded along and their back and forth continued, with Aktaion unsure if he was losing or gaining ground.
Time would tell, he supposed. In the meantime, he had to ready the house for his grandmother Ellysia to stay for the weekend. She was going to help him with the garden, and Akta had to admit it would be nice to spend time with her.
He got home moments before the clock struck four. He set about making beds, cleaning the house and readying the meal, as always enjoying the motions. This was the calm, normal life he had always wanted.
Attica was staying over the night after their grandmother, as she wanted to explore the town a little. Ciaren would have come over too but Akta had no space for them and refused to allow them to sleep in the same room (mostly to be a dick, but whatever).
It was almost an hour later when the door opened. Rome hopped in, grinning brightly, and almost tossed his backpack to the floor when Akta scowled at him. He was doing some extra summer classes, simply because he was interested in them, and had been eligible for an Independent Persons grant.
“I’ve just cleaned!” he protested. “Put it in our room, out the way.”
Rome gave a salute. “Sir, yes, sir!”
When he sauntered back from their shared room, he snaked his arms around Akta’s waist and pressed his lips to the nape of Akta’s neck.
“Stop distracting me,” he complained.
“Mmm, no, distractions are fun.”
“Distractions are distracting,” Akta protested, untangling himself so that he could continue cooking. Rome pouted from the side.
“Have you checked your phone today?”
“Shit, no, I left it off after the interview. Why?”
Rome beamed at him. “I found something pretty in a charity shop on the way home. Oh, let me just go get it -“ He rushed back into the room again and came out a few moments later with a small ornament. On closer inspection it was a Pegasus that was designed to hang from a ceiling. Rome seemed completely enamoured of it.
Akta couldn’t help but chuckle. “I thought you were going to say something more important than that.”
Rome gasped. “Don’t say that about Peggy! Don’t listen to him, he’s a mean man.”
“Hey!” Akta said, flicking some cake mix at Rome, who gasped in horror. What happened next wasn’t particularly well thought out; Rome grabbed a cushion and faced Akta, who was protected only by a whisk covered in mix. Between them, the living room quickly became not-so-clean, but Akta was laughing too much to care.
Rome looked at him fondly and wiped some cake mix off his cheek to taste it. He made an approving sound and then kissed his nose, before giggling and reaching out for a cloth to help tidy up while Akta finished the cake.
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Akta didn’t think he’d regret introducing his grandmother to his boyfriend (she has gasped and clasped her hand together with a dreamy sigh when he told her he had a partner), but nope, here it was, in the form of Rome’s mischievous smile.
“What was Akta like as a baby?”
No. Akta stared at Rome in horror.
Elyssia laughed brightly. “Adventurous and so brave! He’d have all these imaginary games and friends - werewolves and witches and superheroes. He always demanded we read the fairy tales to him each night.”
Akta felt his smile dim a little. God, how much he’d changed. Remy leaned forward with a positively evil glint in his eyes.
“You’ll have to recommend some stories to them when they have their own little Akta or Rome wandering around.”
Elyssia gasped and nodded enthusiastically, launching into an in depth discussion with Rome about baby names. Akta scowled at Remy, who wasn’t trying to hide his glee.
“I hate you,” he hissed. Remy only smirked, watching Rome’s eyes light up while debating the pros and cons of breast feeding - like they even had to worry about that, Jesus.
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His garden started thanks to Elyssia’s help, Akta eagerly awaited for news of the job and of Attica’s arrival. They came almost simultaneously. He only had about a minute to digest the call that he’d got the job (he’d got the job! Okay, it was a pub’s kitchen, but it was still exciting to him) when Attica knocked on his door, having taken a taxi from the bus stop rather than walking. He opened the door and breathlessly said hi, before explaining why he was excited. Attica celebrated with him, of course.
Though his house was relatively far away from the few shops and such that the town had, the walk there was nice. However, he doubted that Attie would want to walk back the way she came and instead they sat in the living room and enjoyed the warmth.
“The garden looks nice! Are you planning on staying here forever?”
“God, no,” Akta scoffed. “The place is tiny. My bedroom is like a box!”
“Sure, you’d need to upgrade if you were ever to need more space,” Attie said slyly.
“Damn it, At, between you and grandma -“
“Did she hint about kids too?” Attie said gleefully.
“Hint? More like suggest baby names with Rome through the whole of dessert.”
Attie sniggered. “What did they decide on?”
“Rome seems adamant that his son would be called Rome junior.” Akta sighed and looked heavenwards.
“So... do you think that you’d want kids?”
“Maybe. Maybe one,” he said firmly. “In a few years time.”
Attie pouted. “I want a niece or nephew!”
“Yeah, well, I want to be twenty five before I have any children, jesus. I don’t think I’m exactly parent material right now.”
“Maybe not,” Attie sighed. “Oh, hey, I need to show you some of my pictures. I’ve been taking some photos recently, just of random things. It was sort of an idea from Yvette, the therapist lady. She said that living in the moment and appreciating the world around you is a really good way to, like, ground yourself.”
Akta looked at her intently. “Are you having problems?”
“Not... exactly.” Attie struggled to word her thoughts correctly. “More like I... I saw horrible things and I want to be able to distance myself from it. But also... I know that sometimes this world can be just as horrible. Knowing that the two worlds aren’t all that different in some ways is difficult.”
Aktaion nodded slowly. “I can see why that can be hard.”
She smiled sadly. “Ciaren is struggling a lot more. He doesn’t really talk about it much. Well, I don’t want to push him so I’ve never asked. I don’t want him to feel like he’s alone.”
“I’m sure he knows he’s not. He’s always welcome here though. I don’t see how that would help, but...” Aktaion shrugged helplessly.
As Attie opened her mouth to reply, they heard the front door bang open. “Akta? Attie?” Rome called out, sounded as excited as usual. He tumbled outside after catching his foot on the ledge. Aktaion couldn’t help but laugh.
Rome grinned anyway, and enveloped Attie in a hug. He then made his way over to drape himself over Akta, finding a comfortable position and then giving a sleepy smile.
“You’re like a cat,” he sighed.
“You say this like it’s a bad thing.”
Attie, out of Rome’s line of vision, made a heart shape with her hands. Akta rolled his eyes. Why was he surrounded by these people?
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Quinn glanced up as there was a knock at his office door. He shoved some paperwork to the side and shouted for the guest to enter. He watched as his door creaked open and he smiled broadly as his guest sidled in. “Attie, how are you?”
“Well, you know,” Attie said dismissively, and then paused. “Better.” With a firm nod, she sat in the chair opposite him. “I was hoping to catch you here.”
“You could have made an appointment,” Quinn grinned. “Though I admit, that’s not as interesting and spontaneous.”
“How’s Danni?”
“She still hasn’t forgiven me,” Quinn lamented. “And the house is filled with cats. She seems determined to get me a normal hobby, too, though I’ve managed to convince her otherwise by knitting lingerie instead of a baby blanket.”
Attica raised an eyebrow. “Baby blanket, heh?”
“I’m hoping that if we have kids we won’t have cats,” Quinn laughed. “Anyway, you’re stalling. What can I do for you?”
Attie chewed on her bottom lip. It was already chapped and broken from her previous attacks on it, though she didn’t seem to realise. “I miss using my magic to the extent that I could in the second realm.”
Quinn’s eyebrows drew close. “Are you wanting to gain power?” he asked slowly, with an undercurrent of worry.
“More like... I want to use it in an everyday way. I miss it.”
Quinn’s face cleared of its previous anxiety. “Ah, I see.” He leaned forward on his elbows and scratched his chin. “Have you thought of volunteering?”
Attica blinked. “In passing, I suppose.”
“Think about it some more. There are plenty of things in the local community you could help with. There’s the public gardens, charity shops, and several programmes. I suspect it’s not necessarily the magic you miss, but knowing you were helping or protecting someone. And if you found something you enjoyed volunteering for, we could look at how to apply your magic to it, rather than the other way round.”
Attica swung her feet under the seat and nodded slowly. “I like that idea. I think that would help.”
Quinn studied her. “Are you struggling at all?”
“Not... really. I could easy be, but I want to use that experience to make things better.”
The smile she got from him was incredibly fond and sweet. “You really are one of a kind,” he said.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Attica said suddenly, eyes brightening and body straightening. “You said that something didn’t make sense, back in the second realm. About the orb, or about being kept alive because Kohi wanted to brag, or something.”
Quinn’s frown returned, deeper this time. She could see that it sat quite comfortably on his face; he must have been frowning a lot lately. “That’s complicated,” he edged. “And... I’m still not sure I understand it fully. Did you see the man when you touched the orb?”
“Yes,” Attica said immediately. She thought about him often, in fact. He was so mysterious. “Is he a God or something?”
Quinn blinked. “I... Don’t know. It would probably depend on how you define God. I think he’s certainly a force for good, though he is so hidden it is difficult to tell that someone is there.” Quinn looked like he was about to say more, but ultimately decided against it, to Attica’s profound disappointment. “I’ll get someone to email you about volunteering opportunities. That might actually be a good thing for the council to look into on a bigger scale,” he mused. He waved the thought away. “One thing at a time,” he said, half to himself.
Attie pursed her lips, but as curious as she was, Quinn was stubborn. He wouldn’t tell her anything if he didn’t want to. She stood and left him to his papers and wandered over across to the park. She texted Ciaren when she was done and he arrived at the park half an hour later, content in each other’s company.
“Ciaren,” Attica finally said. “You know that if you are ever bothered by anything, you can talk to me. Right?” Her gaze cut across to him. He watched her with a strange look in his eyes.
“I know,” he said softly. “But you’re so cheerful and bubbly. I’d hate to... contaminate that.”
“Don’t be silly,” she protested. “It just means I can help you be more cheerful too.”
At that, he laughed loudly, drawing stares from parents across the park. “What did I ever do to deserve you?” he asked aloud.
“You mean that in a good way, right?”
He rolled his eyes to the point of dramatics, and then reached out to place his warm hand on her bare arm. She felt her heart speed up and automatically blushed, as if he knew. “Of course I do, you idiot,” he murmured. “You’re my family.”
She felt suddenly self conscious. “But not like... a sister, right?”
His fingers brushed her arm as he pulled his hand away. She suddenly felt foolish and pretended something to her right had her attention, and it was only when Ciaren stood up and his shadow fell over her did she turn around.
“Attie,” he said seriously, and held out his hand. “I’m not good at this stuff, obviously. I thought we were on the same page.”
She stared at his outstretched hand. His fingers were calloused, his hands scarred. Her eyes trailed up his arm, up to his face, to meet his gaze. “I don’t think we are.” She reached out and placed her hand in his. “Does this mean we’re going out?”
Ciaren grinned stupidly. “Sure, that sounds fun.”
Attie grinned back.
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“Rome, get up.”
An unintelligible groan answered him. Aktaion shifted beneath the warm weight of his boyfriend, trying to wiggle away so that he could relieve his full bladder. Rome protested and hooked his arm around Akta’s waist, burying his face next to his ribs.
“Stop moving,” he grumbled.
“Unless you want me to piss on you, let me go,” Akta groaned, trying to pry his fingers off. When Rome didn’t move, Akta dug his fingers into Rome’s sides. He squealed and launched himself off the bed to safety, dragging the quilt with him as he did. He sprawled on the floor and somehow manoeuvred himself to hide in the duvet.
“Asshole,” he pouted, only his head peeking out from his duvet fortress. Akta laughed at his dishevelled hair and slid off the bed, reaching the bathroom just in time.
He made breakfast, because he always tried to make breakfast on the weekends, and Rome ate his waffles with a pleased groan. He glanced at Akta over the rim of his glass of water. “You’re not at work until lunch, right?”
“Late start today,” Akta nodded. He was enjoying his work, and enjoying his garden. It seemed things were settling down for his life, becoming part of a routine. He loved it, though they were thinking of moving as soon as Rome’s course was over. Given that it was just a college class, he only had a few months left of it. They wanted to stay in the area, though; they both liked this village, and it was easy enough to commute to the city.
“How about you come back to bed, then?” Rome asked, grinning mischievously.
Akta suddenly laughed. “So you can propose to me?”
Rome gasped. “How did you know?” He looked heartbroken to have his perfectly planned surprise ruined.
“You kept the ring in the bedroom drawer,” Akta pointed out. “And you’ve been talking to yourself in the shower for days. The walls are not that thick, so I could hear the telltale words.”
Rome wilted. “Can you at least pretend to be surprised?” he pleaded.
“Sure,” Akta snorted. “So long as there’s some celebratory sex afterwards, I’m up for it.”
The grin that found its place on Rome’s face was positively wicked. “Trust me, you will be up for it -“
“You have a room for a reason,” Remy complained, taking a plate of the waffles on the counter. Rome, always shameless, only grinned. Akta shook his head in despair. “Please use it for this disgusting dirty talk.”
“You’re just jealous,” Rome said smugly.
“Definitely not,” Remy snorted. “Though I’ve been appreciating the loud cover up music. Now,” he sat down at the table, “Congratulations on your impending engagement. If you can give me five minutes, I will be out of the house and therefore not permanently scarred.”
Rome giggled and winked at Akta, whose face was red. “I suppose we could do that. So long as we are celebrating our engagement?”
“Of course, you dope. Like I’m going to say no.” Aktaion stood up and took the dishes to the sink. Rome’s gaze cut to Remy.
“You have three minutes to finish your waffles,” he said, straight faced.
Remy sighed. “Fuck you guys.”
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Poor Remy xD It's not been mentioned explicitly in the story, but Remy is asexul and aromantic. And he is also going to live with the main family because he is too adorable. And also we only have one kid, so....
Speaking of a kid... better get on that, huh? The next chapter may have a time skip, but we'll see what happens when I write it.