Fallocaust (The Fallocaust Series) (80 page)

The crowd jeered, some even threw things at the condemned. They shouted at them, taunted them and laughed as they died. Their own residents, their own people, and in some cases their own family. They didn’t care, no one cared, the prisoners had no voice. This was no longer Greyson’s democracy, this was Reaver’s dictatorship.

And the people were loving it.

The fire spread quickly, and the prisoners thrashed in panic as the flames started to lick their bodies. Some screams were high pitch and desperate, others were baritone low moans. The many screams of dying men.

I couldn’t look away.

Their clothing burned to ashes, revealing blackened flesh that started to peel off in grey chunks. Soon it was too hot for the gathering men to stay on stage. They jumped down to stand in front of the crowd, leaving only Reaver in front of the burning men.

Smoke started rising from their bodies, not just their clothing burning but their hair and flesh. All of them were screaming now, and with each agonizing pleading noise I felt my chest tense. I had heard those screams too many times now. The last desperate shrieks of people in the throws of a excruciating death.

My first time had been when the ravers had eaten one of the mercenaries, my last one had been Perish when he killed his creations. I would be no Angel of Mercy to these men as I was to my second chimera. They were solely in the clutches of the demon dressed in black.

One by one the screaming stopped, and after five minutes of watching them burn, they were dead. Dead from either smoke inhalation or their organs being cooked inside of them.

With the flesh of the burnt corpses blackened, and the steam rising off the barbequed meat Tom the bull cook came and slit their stomachs open. Organs and body contents spilled onto the burning coals below them. The sound of sizzling joined the already noisy air and soon the smell of hot meat and boiling innards.

A moment later Redmond dropped the chains and three of them fell onto the glowing red embers below them shooting a plume of red sparks into the air.

Then Tom got out a jug and started dousing the bodies with something, a baste perhaps. Behind him another cook, his assistant I assumed, came with a tote full of peeled onions and brown potatoes. The residents started to cheer as he dumped the vegetables into the cavities and started sewing them up with a hook and tendon string. Then stepped back as a Matt started shoveling coals and more wood onto the bodies.

“Who’s fucking hungry?” Reaver called into the megaphone. This got the expected reaction. “Go home and grab some booze and whatever you want to throw into the fire pit, we’re celebrating taking our block back.”

Matt put the shovel down and walked up to Reaver, he took the megaphone from him and turned to the crowd.

“Reaver! Reaver! Reaver!” He started to chant.

I heard Asher chuckle beside me. I gave him a sideways glance and saw he was watching everything with a look of amazement. What a first impression for him to have in Aras, but he didn’t seem freaked out by it. I swallowed a bit nervously, I was getting an uneasy feeling about this new guy. He seemed to be enjoying this show a little too much.

My attention was stolen when I heard the first broken wave of chanting, it became audible with each repetition until it was as clear as day.
“REAVER!”
They shouted.
“REAVER!”
My black caped boyfriend raised his hands again, and they cheered. The dead behind him cooking, burning and being hauled off for processing. The fire, now resurrected back to life in large flames shot to the sky behind him, licking the grey overcast with embers as red as blood and as numerous as the stars.

The coals exploded behind Reaver as the assistant threw even more wood onto the fire.

Reaver’s eyes shot up to the window, and quickly found mine. He looked up at me and smiled, the flames flickering in the black depthless eyes. Dancing like dragons in a the pits of hell.

My dark chimera.

I realized now why they called him the Teufel, the Scourge of the Greywastes, I realized more so than ever why people feared him. Not only could he murder seven men without a trial or so much as a testimony, he could get the entire block to light the torches to do it.

This is what Leo and Greyson had been afraid of having happen.

His smile widened as I smiled back. Around him was a flurry of activity, the cooks, the warden, the councillor, the residents, all talking, all planning. Everyone was moving but him. Reaver was still, stoic with a half smile on his rose coloured lips. The only thing on his body that moved were the flames flickering in his eyes.

I was dating the devil himself.

I brought out a quil and lit it, I took a huge huge inhale and held it for as long as I could. I blew the smoke out of the side of my mouth and watched the people below. I was surprised to see Reno hopping up on stage, he looked a bit shocked. He pulled Reaver aside and started talking to him. Soon his shock turned to a smile and then a laugh. I’m assuming my boyfriend was filling him in on the last week. Reno had been in his house on full time sentry since the mayors were gone. I guess the smoke must have pulled him down to Aras.

“You choose very interesting company, Killian,” Asher said, still leaning against the window frame looking out onto the square. He looked at me with a smirking grin and cocked an eyebrow. “First Dr. Perish and now him? You like them unstable don’t you?”

I like them chimera apparently.

“He... he wasn’t my boyfriend, he wanted to be but he wasn’t. I had to say I was so he wouldn’t kill Reaver or myself.”

Asher’s green eyes didn’t leave the stage or the square. “He was very twisted... Greyson says you killed him.”
I nodded, trying to hide the jolt of sadness I got being reminded of that.

I took another inhale, then offered him the quil. It wasn’t to be polite, my mind was in over drive with what Reaver was doing. I couldn’t listen to him right now, I didn’t want to make conversation. “Do you smoke?”

Asher took it from me and smelled it. His nose twitched and he looked at it with approval.“I’ve never had it before, will it kill the pain any? I feel like cutting my leg off.”

I nodded, before forcing myself to turn away from the scene below. “Marley would have given you morphine or vicodin if you didn’t sneak out so quickly,” I said forcing the corners of my mouth to raise.

Asher’s lips pursed if acknowledging his own mistake and looked back towards the square.

“I guess I just wanted to see what was going on. If I am staying here, I should have some idea where I am.”

What an interesting first impression. Greyson and Leo couldn’t be here soon enough.

“You’re planning on staying in Aras?” I asked. “You don’t  have any other family you would want to return to?”

The auburn haired raticater shook his head, I felt his eyes on me but I didn’t look at him right away. “My family is all dead  now, and what distant cousins I may have are irrelevant. I was thinking I could capture ravers for Reaver. Make some money that way.”

“I think Reaver would be okay with that.” I returned his gaze. I wasn’t going to bother telling him it would be Greyson he would have to consult with. I didn’t want to get into that discussion with so much happening below us, and in my own mind.

We were silent together after that, watching the crowd below us continue to have their party. Bottles of Tulley booze started to get passed around, and I even saw Reno bringing out a CD player. I could see Reaver hovering around, keeping his distance from the crowd. He talked to Redmond a lot, and Hollis. From the looks of their facial expressions they seemed to be pleased with themselves. The town looked really happy... united. I hadn’t seen the residents unite like this ever. Greyson had never had a town party like this since I had arrived.

Soon the bull cook and his helpers were scraping the skin and coals away from the three cooked arians. Their corpses barely recognisable but for their charred hands and feet. Their bodies grey and ashy until the skin scraping revealed brown cooked flesh. Well done to kill the disease but still tender and bursting with grease. When Tom put his knife into a thigh it came off in delicious chunks. He nodded to Reaver, and a moment later he was on the megaphone calling everyone to line up into three lines.

And everyone did... orderly, without fights, without complaint over who got to go first. The hundred and fiftyish people lined up in double file some with plates ready, others with only boards. Ready to take their ration of meat, potatoes and onions.

Fuck Reaver was amazing... they were obeying his every order. Was it his chimera engineering that made him able to do this? Or that made these people want to obey him? I wish I had paid more attention to this ruling family, but I had only seen one of them before we left. Leo had acted normal, I could’ve never guessed he was one of them.

I kept shaking my head in disbelief. What I was seeing was both scary, but in a strange way fascinating. My boyfriend was one of them... that was his origins. He was engineered to be something amazing. In all respects there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do.

There were things he
shouldn’t
do, but there was nothing he couldn’t do.

Everyone below us ate, I was a bit hungry but I still didn’t want to venture down there. It was getting a bit too rowdy for my liking and I knew for Reaver’s too.

I looked around the crowd trying to spot him again but he must be off speaking with Redmond or something.

“Who are you?” Reaver’s voice demanded from the hallway. I looked behind me and saw my cape draped boyfriend carrying a plate of shredded meat, potatoes and onions.

My chimera... I was dating a chimera...

And he was beautiful. I had always seen him as perfect in everyway, but in that moment I realized just how strikingly handsome he was. It seemed so obvious now he was engineered to be that way. Everything from his perfectly shaped eyebrows, to his small nose and ears was sculpted and flawless to the last detail.

I wanted to run into his arms and tell him everything. Protect him from himself, but I couldn’t. He didn’t know, and I couldn’t tell him. I would cause more damage trying to explain what he was, it wasn’t my role. That was something the mayors should’ve told him years ago.

I stuffed down my fears and doubts and put on my normal face.

“This is Asher, Owen brought him back from Donnely, he survived the whipwolf,” I explained.

“I heard from Owen...” Reaver walked up to him and looked at him from top to bottom. Asher did the same, not losing the smirk on his face. They both took each other in and stared at each other for a good ten seconds. It kind of reminded me when cats met and they just glare at each other deciding if they were friendly or not. Reaver would know by just looking at him if he was a good person to have around, I always trusted his opinions on people.

“I imagined you to look a bit more... raticater like,” Reaver said finally, breaking the silence. He then turned to me. “I’m to assume you got a hold of him?”
I scowled but Asher laughed already in on the joke “Yes, I did.”

Well I guess this meant Asher passed the Reaver test.

“Go and grab some food and take a room at the hotel, today isn’t a good day for a guided tour,” Reaver said. “If Greyson isn’t home by tomorrow I’ll go through the new residents crap with you, alright?”

Asher nodded and helped himself to a chunk of meat, I wondered what prisoner we were eating from. “I’m tired anyways. It’ll be nice to sleep without fearing it will be your last.” Asher headed towards the door. Even though he was leaning on his cane, he still had an almost sauntering self assured walk to him.

“You’re a good mayor. I like how you handled things.” Underneath the door frame, he paused as if considering something. Sure enough he turned around and gave Reaver a sly smile. “You should have wet the cloth and wrapped it over their mouths, not gagged them. The wet would have filtered the smoke, and kept them alive longer. The gag only gave them one less air supply, didn’t you notice how quickly they passed out?”

With a wink he turned and walked out of the room.

There was a curious silence between the two of us, I looked over and saw his brow furrowed. I couldn’t pin the expression but it wasn’t confusion or annoyance. It might have been intrigue.

Hmm...

“What an interesting character,” Reaver said finally. “I’ll be keeping an eye on that one.”

I stared at the closed door way, the slight unease started to creep into me. It was taking over my beat in politeness, and appealing to what I had learned in the past couple of months. I realized that I was more suspicious of him then I had been of Perish. I must just be being silly, my emotions were everywhere since my realization about Reaver.

Reaver leaned against the window frame and turned his attention back on the crowd below us. I was happy to have that raticater out of his mind and mine. At least for now.

“Look at them, fucking little parasites.” I looked at him a bit surprised at the harshness in his voice. “They were easier to manipulate than I thought.  People are stupid.”

“How did you get Redmond and Hollis to go along with it?” I asked, I hadn’t seen him very much in the past couple days, compared to how much I usually saw him. I realized I must have missed a lot.

“They wanted to do it, I just told them they could.” Reaver licked his fingers after devouring a greasy piece of meat. “Look at everyone, Aras has never been happier and all it took was some public execution. I bet we don’t see any crime for a long while. Thanks to me.”

“You really helped the town.” I picked up a part of Reaver’s black cape. “Why are you dressed so...” I wanted to say chimera,  but I bit my tongue. “Nero like.”
“You picked up on that, huh?” Reaver looked down at my hands. “I liked his authority, I thought it would make the idiots look at me more as a authority figure and less like Greyson’s stand in. I think it worked too.”

But you don’t want to be the kind of leaders they are... I didn’t say that though, he was so proud with his work I couldn’t ruin it for him. He wouldn’t understand my fears either way. I pushed my suspicions away and instead we finished our food together and rinsed it down with a shared bottle of water.