Dying Trust

  FADABIDA

  Should I check on him?

  I thought this in regard to Blu who was most likely being turned into a four-course meal judging from the background noise I heard before he hung up on me.

  But I had really been thinking about Aushen.

  Aerix had left with Nika to get some food, leaving me sitting in the room by myself, festering in my distress and anxiety like a parasite I could not rid myself of. I looked around the room that belonged to Aerix and me; in itself, it was a symbol of our alleged bond. White walls and monotonous furniture, opulent trinkets that served no purpose spread out around me, the same as the rest of this hall; yet it was supposed be to special because of the people that shared it, but I didn’t feel it.

  Claustrophobia became a more active presence in my anxiety recently and right now I could feel the room around me like a vise grip. The space squeezed and contracted; the walls shifted closer to me pressing on my mind, forcing me to make a decision.

  “FINE!” I said sharply to myself as I pushed my weight up from the couch and swiped my phone off the coffee table and into the pocket of my newly acquired shorts. The door swung open in response to my foot connecting with the wood surface. Precariously close to hitting Aushen.

  “Hey!” He protested.

  “My bad, I guess.”

  “You guess?”

  “I’m sorry,” I felt my tone shift with agitation.

  “It’s fine, I was coming to check on you. Where are you getting ready to head off to?”

  “I was actually coming to see you.” I rubbed the back of my neck stiffly.

  The pain was starting to come back now; I felt my chest compress and my heart rate skyrocket. I needed to pull myself together. Without a rooted mind, I risked my Concepts getting out of hand and straining my body and mind as a result. Anxiety really was not the vibe today. It was a festering weed.

  I straightened up and looked Aushen in the eyes. “What about? Is there something you needed from me?”

  “Just bored. I thought you might like to check out the pool, since Aerix is busy at the moment. If you’re doing something right now, then it’s whatever; I can just ask Blu.”

  I smirked a little bit at that. “Nah. Blu is… preoccupied. I’ll go with you.”

  Aushen began walking down the hall only to pause a second after. “I actually don’t know where the pool is.”

  This time a real smile broke across my face. “We’ll find it together, then. Come on, Frosty.” I held out my hand, but he shook his head at me.

  “You figure out the situation with Aerix before you do anything like that, then I’ll think about how I feel."

  Glaring at him, I crossed my arms. This had no effect on him as he continued down the hallway.

  "Aushen, why are you walking? Use the gate thing."

  "Gatekeeper," he corrected.

  "Gay keeper." I scrunched my face at him, drawing out my own variant of the device and laid it on the still-open door. After setting it to the Lobby Area, I closed the door and reopened it to reveal the lobby area we had first entered in and stepped through the door.

  Aushen eased next to me; the room had not changed all that much from when we had initially arrived. The lavish decorations and furniture were in the same place they had been. The most notable change was that no one was behind the reception desk.

  “Via! Darrell!” I called out into the lobby. Maybe one of them was in the back; I considered searching for one of them in one of the back rooms, when something hopped up on the desk.

  It was a cat.

  There was a strange sense of uneasy familiarity with seeing such a normal organism in a place filled with monsters and anomalous landscapes. I stepped closer to the cat, cautiously, potted plants began to lean toward me, ready to strike on my behalf.

  You’ve been near him.

  I swiveled and brought a vine to shoot out of one of the pots and coil around my arm. Aushen held his hands up and smiled awkwardly, “Uh, what?”

  “I heard someone.”

  Where is he? His scent is on you.

  I turned around again; the voice was feminine and eloquent. I lashed out with my makeshift whip. Still nothing.

  “Did you hear that?” I sputtered.

  “Um. No, are you losing it? I did hear some of the locals call this the House of Horror,” Aushen stated unhelpfully.

  Whatever that voice was, it was not coming from anywhere else but my mind.

  “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” I bellowed.

  I will not take orders from the likes of you.

  “What are you? Who are you?” I spat uglily.

  “What are you- “

  “Shut up for like, three minutes!”

  A look of hurt flashed across Aushen’s face, but only momentarily. I turned and looked at the cat, its green eyes focused on me with crystalline intelligence. It was a small runty thing, with black fur. I drew my scythe.

  I wouldn’t recommend that.

  I didn’t ask, I thought wickedly.

  Suddenly, the cat was no longer there. It sat on a shelf, stretching, unconcerned.

  “You’re a cat,” I couldn’t keep a straight face. I dispelled my scythe to splinters and bones.

  And you’re an idiot.

  Aushen was shaking his head in disbelief, like I had finally lost it. Which I still might have. “What are you saying?” Aushen quavered.

  “What do you want, cat?” I said to the cat, ignoring Aushen.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  I want, first, for you to address me by name.

  “Okay, Garfield.”

  The cat only hissed at me.

  “Whiskers, Mittens, Princess, Lady Sparkles?” I supplied, further agitating the cat.

  VALUNI!

  The voice overloaded my neurons, arriving with such force, I surely would have passed out or possibly even died of brain trauma had I been a regular human.

  “That’s it, I’m making a meal out of you,” I snarled at the furry freak, my scythe materializing in my hands once more.

  “Can you calm down, please?” Aushen tugged on the shaft of my scythe trying to prevent me from impaling Valuni.

  “Her name is Valuni.”

  “The cat?”

  “No, the plant,” I responded aggressively.

  Aushen considered the cat with increasing wariness. “Valuni?”

  His eyes widened comically; he turned to me slowly, as Valuni filled his silly little head with silly little words.

  I crave meat, have you any?

  Valuni must have been speaking to both of us, because it was Aushen who responded to the lazy beast.

  “Not with us, but we could get some.”

  I will speak further with you once you’ve returned with my prize, you are dismissed.

  That was it for me. “Valuni, go f- “

  Aushen was not pleased to have to continuously call forth ice from his palms to counteract the swelling along my arms.

  “So much for the pool,” Aushen sighed in defeat.

  It was better than it would have been if I’d been wearing my dress still because I would have had no protection on my arms, so the scratches would have been far less in quantity. As of now I was dressed in leaf-green cargo shorts and a pink shirt with a smiley face that read K.Y.S. in big red letters, with “Keep Yourself Safe!” underneath it in parenthesis. I changed out my heels for some ratty, dingy sneakers I had found in a sales bin, and wore a gray cropped pullover hoodie with the sleeves shortened.

  Aushen and I were standing in line in the mess hall, awaiting an opportunity to get our hands on some sort of premium meat. It occurred to me that Aushen hadn’t spoken for some time, and my body began to feel cold and clammy. Was it possible that I had upset him: I had yelled at him, given him wounds to tend to, and just realized I would have him waiting outside of a meat stall within minutes, which could not be a good feeling for him, considering the memories associated with the last one.

  I started to quietly panic inside. I felt slickness build up in my hands and the weight of my breath increase. We stood side by side, waiting to receive our food tickets, which permitted one to get a certain amount of food in a day, confirming their room number via an app on their phone. Wi-Fi actually worked in the hotel, strangely enough, allowing for those without modified phones to access the hotel’s app. I noticed I was staring at Aushen and slowly pulled my gaze away; it was like peeling gum from pavement.

  We slid up to the confirmation counter and held up our phones, which the attendant peered at for several seconds before he turned and checked off our room numbers and waved us past him with a grunt. The chattering the flowed through the room reminded me of a food court at a mall or a school cafeteria, which kept me on my toes with a potential source of anxiety being everyone and everything around me.

  Save Aushen. Yes, he made me extremely anxious, probably worse than any other source of anxiety. But the effect he had on me was different. With him I became panicky with a sense of excitement and unfamiliarity that frayed my nerves and sent a tingling sensation through my bones. I wanted to grab the odd boy’s attention nearly every second, just for him to notice me. Just to relive that rush of emotion that I know will never, ever be enough for me to be happy with myself. But I was okay with that. As long as he was happy with me, that’s what mattered.

  Earlier today Aerix had brought up rescheduling our wedding, which threatened to flatten me with the weight of guilt the topic brought. They were eager to finalize the details and it happened to be one of the few things they rarely forgot. It would be endearing to me if wishing they would forget didn’t make me feel like even more of an unworthy spouse. I brushed it off and told them we could discuss it another time.

  Because I’m all about communication.

  We found an okay spot that was relatively secluded from the others, relieving me of some of the noise. My initial plan was to go in, get the meat, and dip. But hotel regulations demanded otherwise. We were required to sit down and eat, to prevent hoarding, only reasonable amounts of leftovers could be brought back to rooms with sufficient authorization.

  I sat and put my head down, chin digging into my arms, while Aushen sauntered off in search of the food that Valuni requested. Tables were scattered about, relatively equidistant from each other, groups of people gathered around the tables some standing if there weren't enough chairs. Funnily enough a lot of the people here were teenagers, only adding to the cafeteria vibe.

  I wondered about Valuni, with her strange attributes yet simplistic needs. What stopped her from just teleporting into the dining area and taking food for herself? she was certainly capable of asking any number of people to allow her to take some meat. There was also the matter of what she implied when she spoke to me. Whose scent was she referring to? I had meant to ask before she had ordered us on this excursion to tame her hunger. I suppose I could always ask what she meant after we got the meat she wanted.

  I started, lost in thought, when a tray clattered to the table with a distinct lack of grace, splattering gravy on the table. My eyes flitted up to Aushen, who was already eating his share of mashed potatoes in silence. Soon after, I was enjoying my own plate consisting of mashed potatoes, salad and an energy drink of a brand I was not familiar with. A small bowl of cooked chicken was set aside to bring to Valuni, in the hopes we could get some info out of her superior self.

  Our meal was reduced to scraps within minutes after we had gotten the food. Between rushed meals and meager rations, hunger was always lurking while we traveled, noticeably, but not fatally so. There was almost always a food source in the levels we’ve been on so far; there hadn't ever been an immediate worry about being able to find food or water. Still, after being fuller than I had in some time, I found myself in a much brighter mood.

  Maybe I won’t kill the cat, I thought abjectly.

  After an instantaneous return with the Gatekeeper, we found ourselves in the lobby area once more. Valuni was not where we left her. It thankfully was not a very time-consuming search, since she was not far off. The odd demoryn had been found wandering the halls as if she owned the place. Like a normal cat. She surveyed us carefully, her tail flicked back and forth as she swept that baleful gaze up and down our bodies.

  Good. You’ve brought it. Set it here and we’ll chat as equals.

  “What if I step on you?”

  Valuni ignored that and closed her mouth on the baggie of baked chicken that Aushen placed on the floor, flouncing back to the reception desk. Unquestioningly, both Aushen and I pursued her, she expertly bounded onto the desk and tore open the bag. Valuni began sniffing the chicken; no doubt deciding if it was up to her pretentious standards.

  I suppose this will suffice.

  I snorted. "So glad you approve."

  "We wake up and go to sleep in hopes of pleasing you," Aushen added.

  I was aware that provoking Valuni probably was not the best way to bring her to share any information she had. But I couldn't help myself.

  His scent is very strong on you.

  "Yeah, I got that. But who?" I sighed with impatience.

  The Black Guardian, the one who speaks for us.

  "I'm so in love with your precise delivery."

  Valuni made a sound like a sharp exhale. A sigh, most likely. My mind was bombarded with visions of a boy with blue hair, eyes like black holes, and teeth like a shark, spread into a wide mischievous grin. My best friend as well as my worst enemy.

  "What do you want with Blu?" I inquired audaciously.

  He is the scion of Rift, celestially represented by the domestic cat, usually black ones. I wish to meet the one who walks among the shadows and offer my services and companionship.

  "Wot?" Aushen said blankly.

  "You couldn't have just gone to him first?"

  Are you questioning my actions?

  “Yes, how perceptive of you to notice," I snarked at Valuni.

  “Blu’s sacred animal is a cat?” Aushen mulled over.

  “Yeah, he’s a dumb lil cat-boy, move on.”

  Where is he?

  “I literally could not tell you. I doubt he’s still in his room; the boy cannot sit still for the life of him,” I replied impartially.

  “I could text him,” Aushen informed me, retrieving his phone from his pocket.

  I watched as he navigated through the device and began rattling off a text to the Echo of Darkness. His phone buzzed almost immediately in response.

  “Where is he?” I demanded.

  “At the pool, because we just can’t have our own thing.”

  “In his defense,” I motioned to Valuni, who returned my acknowledgment with a hiss, “We got distracted, otherwise we would have gotten there first.”

  “Are we going to go get him?”

  I wish to speak with him. Now.

  “I don’t care, cat,” I muttered irritably. “Let’s go find him.”

  I update on M/W/F; Patreon has early access chapters.