Severing Sanguine: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 2 (87 page)

“That’s not true at all.” Jack sounded offended at my words. “I’m just doing everything I can to keep you calm and keep you relaxed. When you’re calm, as you said, you don’t switch into that state. You know what calms chimeras down? Sex, sex and killing things.” Jack picked up one of my knives and shoved it into my bag, then he pushed the bag into my arms. “And off we go to kill things.” He stalked past me.

“Just…” I lit the cigarette and started following him towards the door, grabbing Barry on the way. “Be careful. Remember what I told you – if I start to go squirrely you promised you would run.”

“I’m not defenceless,” Jack said, and as if to show how not defenceless he was he showed me his own set of pointed teeth. “I ripped off Felix’s ear remember? I can handle you. You’re not even that strong.”

I glared at him as we both started walking down the cold hallway. The door behind us shut and after a few moments my eyes started to adjust to the darkness.

“I am so,” I said back. “When I’m mad at least.”

“Well, we’ll never know… we won’t let you get mad,” Jack responded. “We’ll keep everything calm until we can eventually go home.”

“You’re so patient it’s sickening,” I grumbled. Jack turned around at this and gave me a smug smile. I rolled my eyes.

We got to the rickety old stairs that led to the ground level of the old building. I hadn’t been up here in four days. I wouldn’t say I was happy to be out of my safe basement but it was nice to get some fresh air. It was cold out but my long sleeve shirt was enough to keep me warm.

Jack waited for me at the top of the stairs, but as I climbed the last two steps I noticed he was frowning. And as I reached the top I realized why.

“Something smells rotten…” Jack spoke both of our mutual thoughts out loud. Something did smell rotten; an animal or something had died near here.

“Maybe a radrat?” I said cautiously. Jack and I both started walking to the main entrance of the building, our steps cautious and our eyes and ears peeled for anything out of the ordinary.

Then I saw them.

I froze in place before letting out a stifled cry. I ran over to the front of the office building and got down on my knees in front of them.

Five of my crows were in the front of the building, all of them embedded on wooden spikes that had been hammered into the floorboards. The spikes had been jabbed through their chests and their wings had been sewn into the next crow’s wings in some sort of demonic circle. They had been set up as some sort of display.

And as I stared in shock I realized that’s exactly how they had been set up: on display for me to find.

“Oh shit…” Jack whispered behind me. His silhouette appeared beside me before a hand reached out to gently touch their cold bodies. “Who the fuck did this…?”

I let out a small cry and brushed my hand against the middle crows head. Two dull red eyes stared at me, its mouth open as if it was trying to speak. Their bodies were stiff but as I touched their skin I felt movement. I pulled my hand away realizing that underneath their skin were probably hundreds of maggots.

“Sami…” Jack said under his breath. He put his arm around me and squeezed me to him.

“You were just up this morning…” I stammered. “They must’ve killed them days ago if – if maggots have hatched. I… I don’t understand. Who… could’ve…”

“Do you think you might’ve snuck out when I was sleep–”

“I didn’t do this!” I suddenly screamed. Jack immediately pulled away. I let out a sob and put my hand over my mouth. “I would never hurt them – I love them.”

“I know, I know…” Jack said hastily. “I just… who the fuck could it have been, love? Someone who knows where you are at least…”

Someone knew where I was. Someone wanted to send me a message. But who?

“Did… did anyone follow you when you were out getting food for us?” I asked.

Jack helped me to my feet, rubbing my side caringly as we both looked down at my dead crows. It almost looked like they had been crucified – like I had been at Sunshine House.

“I don’t think so…” Jack said. We both looked towards the wide open door, seeing the dark streets ahead of us, void of any light but the silvers of the moon. “But I didn’t really check… I mean, no one seemed to care I was just picking up food.”

“We’ll bury them when we get home…” My tone started to shift, Jack could tell because his hand soon found mine. “And I’m going to be guarding this place tonight after. I’ll find out who did this.” As I walked into the empty street I was relieved to hear the familiar sound of claws against metal. I looked up and saw half a dozen of my crows standing on a street lamp. I smiled at them, there was no words to explain the relief I felt that the mystery person wasn’t able to kill all of them.

One of them flew down and with a flap of wings he landed on my shoulder. It was the lead crow; he had always been the bravest.

I got a piece of tact out of my pocket and fed him.

“Go on get!”
the crow called, and above them one said, ‘
Got any food?’

Jack smiled with me and we started walking down the road. Sure to their personality my crow friends started to follow me, always loyal and always waiting for me.

“King Silas brought them from Jasper’s farm, he says they’re actually half-raven,” I explained to Jack as we started walking down the street. I was looking in all of the alleyways we passed for any sign of life. I wasn’t picky tonight, any man or woman with breath in their lungs was going to be my target. “I went outside for the first time because of them. I spent a lot of time hiding under the bed.”

“I bet that was cute,” Jack said and squeezed my hand. The guy really seemed to like hand holding. “Silas was really patient with you, huh?”

My mouth twitched at this. “It was all a lie. He painted a pretty false picture of who he was.”

“No, he is like that…” Jack said, though he didn’t even know how nice Silas was, just some of the stories I had told him. “He’s just… he’s kind of sociopathic most of the time, but sometimes he has these times of intense empathy and caring. It’s just that it doesn’t happen often… he’s a wonderful king though. I love him a lot, even with his faults.”

There really wasn’t much for me to say about this so I just grunted. Jack squeezed my hand and we continued walking.

It was a beautiful night out, the sky was clear and we could see the stars twinkling above us. The air was fresh and clean as well, and I could smell the ocean which was only a few blocks away. I would like to go there one day, perhaps see some of the boats that travelled from the harbour over to the factory towns. Maybe I would visit one of those one day too.

Jack and I walked together for the next two hours. The two of us taking whatever street we decided we wanted to take and several alleyways too. We didn’t see a soul though but as the air above ground cleared my head I realized that wasn’t important. My friends screaming at me in the basement seemed far away when I was on the surface with Jack. Their demands were distant and only a harsh whisper, and even that was quickly dismissed by Jack’s voice.

“Maybe we could try and find a way… to get rid of them?” Jack said when I told him what was on my mind.

Get rid of them? “I couldn’t do that…” I said, feeling bad that I was even entertaining the thought. “They’re just kids.”

Jack fell silent. I could see him out of the corner of my eye. His hair looked so beautiful in the night, like the moonlight itself had fallen from the sky only to weave itself into the strands of his hair. And his eyes… those eyes captured me every time they made contact with my own.

“But… they’re not real,” Jack said slowly.

“They’re real to me,” I said defensively, “and they scream at me all the same. How can you say they’re not real when I hear them constantly?”

Jack’s lips vanished into his mouth as he seemed to consider this. “Okay… but maybe once we go home we can start looking into medication to stop the voices?”

The way he worded it made me sound like a crazy person, but then again I was a crazy person. So maybe he –

Suddenly there was an incredibly loud, thunderous bang behind us. We both whirled around as the ground below us shook, almost throwing us off balance.

We watched in shock as an explosion sent a spray of dirt and material up into the air. It seemed to touch the very heavens before fiery debris started raining down below us like asteroids falling to earth. Large chunks of building landing with heavy thuds, all of the pieces smoking and smouldering with toxic black smoke.

As we stood stunned, we both saw a black object appear in the sky, a trail of smoke behind it. Then a low whistling sound pierced our ears as it started to fall down to the ground.

When it landed there was a second rumbling explosion, this one close enough for us to see the red and orange flames peaking through the oily smoke.

“That’s from a rocket launcher. Someone’s fucking bombing Cypress!” Jack screamed over the noise. He pulled on my arm and we both ran down the street.

“The rebels?” I asked, looking behind my shoulder.

“Yeah, they have rocket launchers, this I know,” Jack called hastily. He pulled out his remote phone and turned it on. “I think… Sanguine, I fucking think they bombed the building your basement is in.”

“What!” I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around. I put my hand on my satchel to make sure I had Barry with me but still I felt a jolt of fear go through my heart. “My friends are down there! I need to get them.” I started to run towards the explosion.

“SANGUINE!” Jack screamed. “NO! Sanguine, they’re not real!” I heard him start to follow me but my mind was too focused on getting my friends out of there. They might torment me and yell at me but I couldn’t fucking leave them. They were just kids! They were kids like I was.

Jack screamed after me but all I could do was run, my mind was going in a thousand directions but the only one I could focus on was straight ahead of me, into the heart of the explosion.

What was I doing? Sanguine, they aren’t real, they aren’t real.

And then I heard them screaming.

All of a sudden an onslaught of agonizing shrieks filled my ears. The sounds of my kids burning alive. They sounded like Pauly and Gabe when I lit them on fire; they sounded like me when Gill nailed me to the wooden planks.

And as I got closer, as the smoke filled my lungs, a new scream echoed. One that was drown out by the other ones at first, but the closer I got the more it rang inside of my head.

This scream I knew; this scream had been embedded in my bones for the past twelve years.

It was the scream that was my own – the first night Jasper fucked me.

“I’m coming!” I screamed out loud. “Shut up, I’m coming!”

I coughed, my lungs filling with smoke, and I heard Jack coughing behind me. As I ran through the quickly gathering smoke I yelled at Jack to turn back, but I couldn’t slow down enough to know if he did or not.

I looked to my left to see another black object shoot across the sky. It landed a block away from us and another thundering explosion rolled through me. I turned the opposite direction from the exploding missile and cut through an alleyway, my building was just across the street. I would be in and out in… in…

I skidded to a halt, so quickly I felt a large impact and a grunt behind me as Jack crashed into my back.

I couldn’t believe what I saw.

Valen was standing in front of my building, with two other men dressed in camo. These two men were holding assault rifles in their hands, ready to shoot whatever was going to emerge from the door. The apartment building, two structures away, was on fire, casting a shimmering glow of orange and red like an inferno of borealis.

It was obvious what was going on in front of me. Valen and these two men were waiting for Jack and I to burst out of the building then they planned on shooting us like smoked-out scavers.

“Get the one on the right, I’m going left,” I growled at Jack. “We’ll kill them first then get Valen.”

I was expecting Jack to voice his disagreeance; I was expecting him to grab onto me and beg me to go back to Skyland with him, but he didn’t.

“Okay,” Jack said in such a low, gravely register it temporarily silenced the screaming voices in my head. “Go for their necks and stay away from the assault rifles.”

I nodded, and as I started to run towards the man on the left a growl erupted in my throat. And over the low rumbling of the infernos around us I could hear Jack growling as well.

We were chimeras, the most advanced chimeras created to date. We were genetically engineered to be killing machines. We were barely human.

I jumped onto the one on the left, and as I felt the heat of the burning building hot against my neck and face, I slammed him down on the ground. I heard the other one beside me hit the pavement with a scream and as I bit the man’s neck the sound of Valen shouting from surprise.

I tore a chunk out of his neck before grabbing a fistful of his hair. I repeatedly smashed his face against the concrete, feeling sick satisfaction every time I felt a bone crunch on impact.

I didn’t stop until his face was nothing but a bloodied mess; then turned to see how Jack was fairing.