Keary
Monsters are giving the pods too much space. You think you’ve seen every horror, but then you come upon something that makes you reel back and say, what the fuck is that?
Always, the end goal of being loved unconditionally, with respect and compassion, was what put stars in his eyes.
His first family was awful. I hated them.
I hated how he was treated. I hated the manipulation and control that happened in that house.
It took them ripping away his dojem—a kind of monstrous soulmate—for everyone in that house to see the way they were nothing but puppets to their head of house, a narcissistic siren named Imani.
Thankfully, Iska had finally decided that he didn’t care about the magical rules of marriage and left that toxic situation.
As far as I know, they all, four other men and one woman, left Imani.
I don’t know what became of them, and frankly, I don’t care.
No one stood up when they saw what Imani was doing to Iska.
No one spoke up. No one did anything at all until Iskander left entirely.
The moment he met the Kallans, I knew that they were the monsters he was meant for. They doted on him. Cherished him. Never let a day go by where he didn’t know how very loved he was.
Perhaps more importantly, they didn’t try to end the relationship between Iska and his dojem. They welcomed it, embraced it, and nourished it. If there was ever a love story written for Iska, he’s living it.
We spend several days with the Kallans, and every day I can’t help but feel incredibly thankful that my best friend finally found the place that he was always meant to be.
With the people who love him and every relationship he has outside of them.
There’s no control or guilt or abuse. Nothing but love.
As they leave, I take Rainer’s hand, realizing how much I’d been fooling myself. I don’t want a fairy tale, but I do want love. I want to love and be loved. Iska had once said I want the kind of epic love that happens in novels even though I always argued that happy endings didn’t exist.
Looking at Rainer, Notto, and Drystan, I’m willing to admit—only to myself—that I was right. There is no ending here. Only beginnings. We’ve barely begun our relationship, so there’s definitely no ending in sight.
We’re back to walking, following the wide paved roads that head north. Concrete still covers the ground, but it’s littered with deep holes and wide crevices. However, it’s a clear road, a rather straight path, and we’re not traveling through trees filled with beasts.
Arguably, we’re choosing the wide-open areas where the aerial beasts hunt, but since the sun follows us, we’ve been left alone.
It’s fall weather now, so the clouds are becoming more frequent, the wind is picking up and carrying with it a colder temperature, and the days are getting shorter.
What I love about traveling with a purpose is that we’re constantly reaching measurable milestones. I can see the enormous green sign from a century ago that says NYC 30 miles. We’re incredibly close to where Rainer began.
We’ve been watching him closely for any signs that he’s feeling distressed by being so close to the place where his parents were killed. I can’t imagine he hasn’t seen the sign telling us how close we are, but Rainer seems happy enough looking around.
However, as we pass the sign, I see the marker we’ve been looking for. Like all monsters and humans the world over, we like to mark our territory to tell those encroaching that we will defend it if they come to cause trouble. The pods have begun to do the same.
At first, I thought they were mocking us. Showing their arrogance that we didn’t manage to wipe them out. But now I think that they’re doing it to communicate with other pods that this is their hunting ground. We’re now walking into green and yellow pod territory.
It might not be mockery behind their emboldened announcement about where they’re located, but they’re definitely feeling confident and secure enough in their workings that they’re no longer attempting to keep their locations secret.
That’s not a good thing.
I meet Notto’s eyes, seeing that he’s spotted the mark on the big green sign as well. Drystan stares at it as we get closer, but Rainer doesn’t appear to have taken notice as he’s still looking around.
He hasn’t brought up the pod in quite a while, so I wonder if maybe he’s changed his mind. We don’t bring it up as we pass the sign. In the distance, I see an exit for a rest area where we can stop. Take a breather. Have a chat. See where Rainer is now.
Drystan takes his hand, and Rainer smiles.
The trees are turning orange and red and yellow, making the entire area look like it’s glowing.
Leaves are beginning to cover the ground, hiding holes and cracks.
It’s probably time we stop walking on the road, honestly.
It’s going to become riddled with dangerous holes hidden by nature.
The rest area is a shell of what it had been. Between fallen trees and the wear of time, the structure itself is in disrepair. One wall remains upright, stubbornly refusing to fall, even with a massive tree leaning against it, having been toppled in a past storm.
There’s still a handful of stone benches that are seemingly untouched by the century since they were placed there.
Rainer drops to a bench and sighs. He stretches and yawns, which is probably a sign that he’s ready to stop for the day. Perhaps we ought to see what’s around. The next actual exit isn’t for several more miles. After examining the rest stop, I think we can take shelter well enough here.
I crouch in front of him, and Rainer meets my eyes, the hint of a smile lingering on his pretty pink lips.
“Are you still interested in tracking down the pod that killed your parents?” I ask.
The smile fades as he closes his eyes. A couple weeks ago, I’m sure his answer would have been an immediate yes. That he’s hesitating now tells me that he’s had some time to think about it.
“I knew I had no chance of avenging their deaths,” he says quietly.
“I’ve been on a suicide mission. Furious and guilty because they left me alive.
They left me behind and took everyone I loved.
I wanted to know why. Even knowing that I wasn’t actually going to get an answer, I wanted to be able to say that I demanded one.
Then I’d die like they did, just as I was supposed to. ”
Notto looks at me before taking a seat. He wraps an arm around Rainer’s shoulders and pulls him in tightly, carefully considering his words.
“You saw what the humans at the pod we just disassembled were going though,” he says gently.
“Had you succeeded in finding them, you weren’t in for a quick death. ”
Rainer winces. “I know,” he whispers. “I know that now. I didn’t then.”
I nod, taking his hands in mine. “What do you want to do, precious? It’s up to you.”
He sighs. “I guess I don’t really want an answer as to why they killed my parents, especially since I didn’t see them die. I saw them being hauled away, and I’m choosing to believe that they simply died. But I still want to know what they’re doing. I want to stop them.”
“Them as a whole or them as in the pod that killed your parents?” Notto asks.
“Both, but right now, the ones that killed my parents. Whatever they’re doing, it’s not good. Why are they doing it?”
“When you tell someone no and they’re not willing to take that as an answer, they find a way to accomplish what you tell them they can’t do.
A hundred years ago, our mistake was thinking that keeping our heads down meant that Silence would go away.
We waited too long to act, and now the entire human world has paid the price as well as hundreds of thousands of monsters.
We aren’t letting that happen again, Rainer.
I’m sure their current agenda hasn’t changed much from what it had been.
They’re just beginning again, but this time, we’re not complacent enough to let that happen. They are being hunted.”
“Who’s winning?” he asks.
“I’m not going to pretend that there aren’t more pods lingering around than we’d like there to be. But I promise you, there are far more good monsters in the world who are actively exterminating them. We won’t let them gain power again.”
He nods. For a minute, he’s quiet. What thoughts are moving around in his head? Which way is he leaning? Is there an outcome I want?
Rainer takes a deep breath. His eyes drop to Kaida, who's sitting like a perfectly alert little watch dog—monster style. I smirk. She nudges her nose against his hand, and he pets her.
“What do you think?” he asks Kaida.
We all turn to the lut as if waiting for her answer. I’m partially holding my breath, wondering if I missed the fact that she could speak this entire time. Can she?
Kaida gets up and rests her head in Rainer’s lap. He nods.
“I want this pod to die,” Rainer says. “I want to be a part of their death. I want to see that they’re dead. But… I’m not sure I’m really cut out for it. I still feel queasy when I think about what we saw at the last place.”
“How about this,” Notto says. “We’ve crossed into the pod’s hunting grounds now, so we’re close.
Let’s locate them. We’ll do a little recon, then decide what our best course of action is.
There’s a chance that there’s more of them than we’re comfortable taking out on our own.
Once we get a feel for what’s going on, we’ll make a decision on what we do. ”
“Regardless of our decision, you don’t need to go in if you don’t want to,” Drystan says. Notto and I nod in agreement. “You and Kaida can stay a safe distance away while we take care of it.”
“Then we can bring you in to show you that they’re dead while keeping you from seeing anything that they’ve been up to,” I say.
“I feel like a coward,” he mutters, looking miserable.
“Having compassion and empathy for victims of brutality is not cowardice,” I insist.
Rainer sighs, nodding.
“Feel like walking a little more today?”
“Yeah,” he answers and gets to his feet. “Back to the road?”
I look at Kaida, knowing if any of us are going to have the best idea for direction, it’s going to be our pretty little pet. She raises her nose to the air, her head turning as if she’s determining whether or not she has an idea.
When she meets my eyes, I get the impression she doesn’t smell anything yet.
“Yes,” I answer. “Back to the road.”