Authors: Mikael Aizen
"But I killed your brother."
"It was an accident, and it was for the better because God was using you."
"God?"
She gave him a funny look.
"Yeah, God."
"I don't believe in God."
"Doesn't matter.
He's there."
She kept that funny look on her face.
"Huh," was all Kyle could say.
They kept walking around the lake, a few times around until the breeze that was barely there started to get cooler and breezier.
They talked the whole time, though, like they were close friends.
It was mainly Callie talking and him listening.
She told Kyle about how her dad was a famous scientist and how he was always staring at things and talking about how things worked.
She told him how her father like to study things in their natural environments, and how that was the best kind of scientist.
She seemed proud of her father.
When she asked him, he answered as if Tim was his father.
Tim wasn't, but Kyle answered that way because it was easier.
As they were talking about parents, Kyle saw a man with dark glasses and orange hair walking toward them.
Callie saw the man too and she stopped in place.
"That's my dad."
She kept staring at her dad and her jaw got tight and then shaky.
Kyle felt a sick feeling of wrongness descend around him.
The feeling had disappeared while he'd been with Callie and only appeared for that brief moment when she'd been talking weird, but it was back, stronger than ever.
The man walking toward them made Kyle feel like a bug and Kyle knew that he didn't like the man.
Not one bit.
And Callie, she didn't either, not deep inside.
"What's wrong Callie?" he asked cautiously.
A part of him told him to get away from her, that
she
was the dangerous one.
But he resisted it and stayed, wanting her answer.
Because it didn't look like she was proud of her father, or loved him.
"I...I'm not supposed to say."
"What is it?"
"I've got to go."
"Callie, you said that if we're gonna be friends..."
Her lip was quivering obviously now.
"I..."
Her eyes went to her father.
She swallowed.
"It's all an experiment!" she blurted.
"All of it--everything!"
Callie's father was walking fast toward them, like he was worried that something was going wrong.
"What's an experiment?" he asked urgently.
"It's OK, I trust you Callie.
Just tell me."
She bit her lip.
"
You
."
Callie gave him a regretful look and shook her head.
Then she took off toward her father and ran right past him.
Her father looked at Kyle and behind at Callie and back at Kyle.
Ever so slowly, he went after his daughter.
He had a weird walk to him like he was a hunter in a forest, afraid to scare his prey.
Be like a duck
, Kyle thought to himself.
Kyle continued walking around the lake like nothing was wrong back toward the car where Tim waited.
He trusted Callie, more than anyone right now.
Tim, Del, anyone.
She was warning him that something was wrong, something he'd felt and known deep inside.
He
was the experiment she'd said.
Kyle looked at the lake and though there was a breeze sweeping across it, and plants that stuck up out of the water, and a smell that smelled just like a lake would.
He knew it couldn't be a real lake.
He'd felt that creeping feeling like he was being watched again and he was still in the forest and he'd never left.
Now he knew why.
Because it was fake.
Everything.
Everything except Callie and what she'd told him.
"Like a duck," he whispered to himself.
Chapter 18
As scientific progress in behavioral genetics gains credibility, searches for a cure for negative behaviors have begun in earnest.
And who can blame them?
From violence and aggression to hyperactivity, drug and alcohol abuse, antisocial personalities.
A new realm of possibility.
-Hound, Chester A.
Colorado University Legal Studies
.
June, 2020.
"You still do not wish me to remove it," Xiaos stated at him.
"Nope."
Jay took the pliers and squeezed, crushing one of the bells.
His hand was weak and his head felt hot.
"Gamer's dead, there is no point in..."
"Yup," Jay cut Xiaos off.
"Yup." he said again.
He got the pliers around the next bell, squeezing that too.
Two bells left.
"Tell me again, Jay.
Why will you not take the bells off?"
"I like them," Jay answered dryly.
Xiaos sat up, his chair struck the floor.
"Please, your true reason, why?
Why do you torture yourself?"
Jay tossed the pliers onto Xiaos table and propped his legs up onto the desk, it took more effort than it was worth.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
"You know I can't be that."
Xiaos gave him a dry look.
He looked a bit like a penguin.
Jay pulled his feet back down.
"If I'm serious, I become stupid," he started.
"Stupid enough to convince myself that I'm
allotted
seven...kills...before I go insane and become a murderer like the rest of Morir.
And why, you might ask, is seven such a special number?"
Jay grabbed the bar with his existing hand and jabbed it forward, it jarred against his teeth.
It hurt pleasantly.
"Because there are fucking
seven
bells on this bar.
That's
why."
He paused.
"Sorry.
I'm angry at Mike for making me waste a bell on his fat ass."
"Sometimes you must kill to protect others," Xiaos said evenly.
He hadn't taken the news of Mike well.
His face still showed it.
"Others worth more than those you killed?"
Jay snorted.
"Precisely.
Sometimes you save more lives than the one you take."
Jay shook his head, the lessened jingling was
louder
than he'd expected.
He was getting a headache.
Chances were that he had a fever too.
"You're God now?
Weighing lives like you're some kind of fucking deity?
What about you?
As leader of Esperanza, are you more valuable than two people?
Ten?
Or not even one?"
"Some people deserve to die," Xiaos said.
"Says who?"
"Your logic is just as reasonable."
Xiaos pointed to his own jaw where a bar would've been.
If he'd been Jay that was.
"No, but I like my logic.
I'm a man with bells.
That's all.
It works.
It's simple.
It means something to me AND, it tells me that I, ain't, God.
Or Satan--whatever."
Jay looked at his arm.
He
could've
been Satan.
The two bones sticking out of his stump made him look like a modern day Reaper who liked to flay people with bits of his own flesh.
"You should get Issak to look at that."
"What, he's a fucking doctor too?"
Xiaos frowned.
"You’re overusing that word."
"Fuck you."
Once in a while, Xiaos got sensitive to cursing.
Usually when Jay was mad at the world.
It only encouraged Jay.
"Issak’s the closest we have to a doctor.
If you don't at least cover the injury, it'll rot your arm into your body and you'll die."
If it hasn't already
.
The stump had gone red and puffy, even after Jay had cleaned it again it still looked irritated and mad.
"I'll take my chances and wait for the nurse."
"You're waiting another day."
Xiaos stated, giving a skeptical frown.
"Yup.
I'm taking antibios, all right?"
"You're
wasting
antibiotics.
They are rare enough as it is, if you don't fix that up, clean it and cover it..."
"I'm not worth it?"
"Of course you are..."
"Then shut up, Xiaos," Jay snapped.
He regretted it when Xiaos didn't react.
The guy was a ice cube.
He was frustrated and angry, things couldn't have gone any worse with Karah's rescue.
And being in pain, no matter how sharp it made his senses, got tiring.
"It doesn't hurt?"
Jay lifted it with excruciating agony.
His elbow felt dislocated a bit, even after Xiaos had pulled on it and did some martial arts move to put it back in.
"Nope, doesn't hurt a bit."
"Really?"
"Shut up Xiaos," Jay said again, too tired to care.
Xiaos gave him a disgusted grimace.
"At least have someone wrap it up so I can't see your bloody bones sticking out and your skin rotting."
"Rotting?"
Jay looked at the threads of skin and veiny looking flesh hanging from his stump.
Green stuff.
"So it is.
I'll do my best," Jay promised.
He began tearing the stringy parts off his stump.
Of course Jay would clean the wound again, take more antibiotics, and if it got bad enough he'd have Xiaos take one of his homemade swords and chop it off--bone and everything.
He wasn't that dumb.
But he'd promised to meet Karah.
Any type of intervention right now could put him down for days.
He couldn't afford days.
Even if she didn't show up, he'd promised.
Plus, there was something he needed to take care of first.
Bitch.
Fucking Bitch.
Then Bitch walked right in through the door, alone.
Jay stared.
"Hey.
Good to see you're alive," he said to Jay.
He looked at Jay's hand.
"Though not in one piece, I see."
Jay couldn't believe it.
"Where the hell have you been?" he asked.
"Because I
know
it wasn't here since Xiaos' been searching for you ever since I went to Lair."
"I left," Bitch answered, looking him in the eye.
Jay stood up, wobbling unsteadily.
He could feel his arteries pump and practically imagine the veins popping from his face.
"Get over here."
Jay pointed at the ground in front of him.
Bitch didn't move.
"What's your problem, Jay?"
Jay snapped his fingers.
"Down."
"Fuck Jay, you're taking this dog thing too far.
I left, I'm
sorry
.
But I'm back now.
I know I promised but..."
"DOWN!" Jay bellowed at the top of his lungs.
His blood pumped red spots into his eyes.
He knew he wasn't himself right now.
But he didn't care.
Bitch looked toward the door except Xiaos had already moved behind him.
"What the hell?" Bitch whispered.
He walked forward and sat in front of Jay cross-legged, scowling.
"Want me to wag my tail and pant, Master?"
"Yes," Jay answered.
"And beg, too."
Bitch glared at him.
"What?"
"Wag, pant, and BEG!
NOW!"
Bitch didn't wag, pant, or beg, so Jay backhanded him across the face.
Bitch took it full on and sprang to his feet with a furious look.
"Do that again and I'll shit you up--chopped up arm or not and as bad as I'll feel doing it--I'll SHIT YOU UP!"