12. Midnight Diner
12
MIDNIGHT DINER
KRYPT
I blindfolded Remiel and led him through the tunnels to leave the house. I didn’t want him to know about the tunnels that connect to the asylum yet, mostly because I don’t want him to know how to escape. I dropped him off at his music shop, where Cain was already waiting, and he hopped out of my truck without a look back. So I grabbed his wrist and stared at him until he remembered who he belonged to.
Moros is buzzing with something this morning. After Initiation Night, the town is more relaxed but more sinister, too. I like the vibe of it. There’s no part of me that wants to leave Moros. Where else in the world could I be this version of myself and have it respected instead of imprisoned? Moros doesn’t play by the same rules as anywhere else, and that’s why I like it here. That’s why it’s home.
Sitting in Midnight Diner for lunch with my brother, I watch Reeven Matterson from across the restaurant. The first name on Remiel’s hit list. He’s a middle-aged man with a small cult following, leading a group of submissive, brainwashed idiots just to flex his control-freak muscles. He brings nothing to Moros other than despair, and the fact that he’s going after people who have managed to free themselves from his cult pisses me off. Getting out of a cult is hard, and I don’t want Remiel’s mom’s side of the family living in fear of this prick. Not because I like her, but because I dislike Matterson.
“He’s a bit psycho,” Riot, my brother, says, watching Matterson. “But he’s not strong. He’s good at brainwashing and control, but doesn’t do his own dirty work.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “He gets his followers to do it, which makes him an easy target because he’s gotten lazy.” I’m not worried about Reeven Matterson. He should be easy enough to make disappear, especially if I get the boys to help. Kyd’s wanted to tear this guy to bits for years. “It’s his followers I’m worried about.”
Riot nods. “They’ll need a new leader. They don’t know how to survive on their own anymore, so someone will have to take over. Any ideas?”
Kill them all comes to mind. “They believe in bloodlines, don’t they? The Matter Cult is all about continuing powerful bloodlines, right?”
Riot huffs. “Yeah, and he thinks his bloodline is the strongest, so he’s probably knocked up half the women in his cult. We could kill him. Throw his followers in with the Death For Life Cult. They can learn to worship their fearless leader’s ghost like they do.”
Fucking idiots. Cain has a girlfriend named Sadie, and her whole family, close and extended, sacrifice one another to their dead ancestors. I don’t presume to judge what people believe in, but some of it is so far-fetched that it makes my head spin. I won’t willingly sacrifice myself for anything, ever. I’m my own belief, and I don’t believe that the living or the dead will protect me. I’m hypocritical because I want Remiel to believe I’ll protect him, though.
“I’ll approach Abigail as a Vile mask and see what she says.” Abigail is Sadie’s grandmother, and she currently leads the Death for Life Cult.
“You fuck him yet?” Riot asks.
Here, in the Midnight Diner, we’re Killian and Keegan, two brothers out for lunch. We aren’t hiding, but we aren’t approachable either. We’re feared because of the mystery and mayhem surrounding the death of our parents. I repel people naturally, but Riot has perfected the art of drawing in whoever he wants near him.
“No.” I look at my brother, and he sees the shame in my eyes, so I keep talking. “Wouldn’t know how.”
“You’re not a virgin,” he says.
Close enough. I’ve had actual penetrative sex twice, and neither time was enjoyable. I’m afraid to fuck Remiel because it will twist his vision of me. Right now, he’s falling in line because he’s scared of me. But if he sees how insecure and inexperienced I actually am when it comes to sex, he’ll use it against me somehow.
Riot grins, setting down the crust of his club sandwich. “A lot of lube, stretch him open, and stick your dick in. Not much more to it than that.”
“Fuck you, Kill. What guy have you ever fucked?”
He laughs at me and signals for the server to close out our tab. “An asshole is the same no matter the gender,” he says. “Still want my help with G… Soren?”
The server brings the bill and my brother pays. “Can I get you guys anything else?” She avoids looking at me but eye-fucks my brother. No one ever holds eye contact with me for long.
“No, love. Thanks, though.” He smiles at her and she melts. My god. When I smile at people, they cringe. But Killian is on the sociopathic scale, according to his psych records, and even though he pretends not to be selfish, he is. Charming people and manipulating them to do whatever he wants them to do is his greatest gift. One I don’t have.
I take one more look at Reeven Matterson before following Riot out the door. We walk down Death Row, and I pause when we pass The Ambient Raven. Remiel is at the front counter talking to a customer, so I narrow my eyes to make sure no touching is involved. Riot lights a joint and passes it to me, reminding me to calm down in public.
“Well?” he asks. “Soren?”
“Maybe. Remiel wants him incapacitated so he can’t kill himself. Wants someone on him all the time. I don’t really trust you to be around him that much without killing him.”
Riot laughs again. It’s no secret they hate each other. I don’t know where the hate stems from, but they fight the most out of anyone in Vile House. Director puts up with it to a degree, but he often punishes them for the trouble they bring. None of us know what the punishment entails.
“If I kill him, it’ll end the Sauder curse and Remi can go free.”
I bristle at his words and stare at Remiel through the window. “Remiel will never be free.” Yes, free from the curse somehow, but never free from me. I worded the deal to make it sound like I might free him, but now that I have him, I know I never will. But I’m not at the point of sacrificing Soren for the sake of Remiel.
“Let’s go before Director rips us apart for being late.” I inhale half the joint in one breath, tearing my eyes from Remiel at work.
There’s a theatre room in Vile House, with a platform used as a stage and row seating bolted to the floor. Back in the day, it was used to teach the staff about new protocols and illnesses, to host staff meetings, and to do monthly briefings. Now we use it as a meeting room, and Director is at the front while the rest of us sprinkle throughout the seats—the ten of us closer to the front, and some of the lower ranks filling out the back. The initiates aren’t welcome here yet, but if they pass their tests and do well in their training, they’ll be allowed to sit in.
“You reveal yourself to Cain?” I ask Menace, cringing at the C name.
“Nope. Kept the mask on but gave him exactly what he wanted. Pain and pleasure,” he whispers, rubbing his dick in fond remembrance. At least he kept him alive. “Fuck,” he groans, rubbing himself harder.
I look away and shake my head, baffled by how easy sex is for everyone but me. Yet another thing that’s wrong with me without me knowing why.
“Benton Wentworth,” Director starts, standing at the podium. “He survived the night, but barely survived Kyd and Facts. They interrogated him all day, and we finally got some answers.”
Facts is like an AI come to life. He knows everything, and because of how full his mind is, he’s batshit crazy. The guy can barely form a coherent sentence without blurting out a bunch of information, and his IQ is so high he’s never challenged enough, which makes him bored. Bored is deadly around here, but Facts also has a whole slew of warped realities because of his upbringing. Kyd, on the other hand, is a whole pot of crazy that comes with the biggest smiles and the most energy. A lot of unbearable colours, too.
“Hello,” Facts says from his seat, barely containing everything he wants to blurt out. “Benton Wentworth is just the tip of the iceberg. Turns out he works with a whole group of megalomaniacs who want to take our town and turn it into something… else. One of them is Dr. Axel Graves.”
My eyes widen at that, and curses fill the room.
“Yeah, that Axel Graves,” Kyd says, standing up front with Director because he can’t refuse the spotlight. “Born and bred in Moros, presumed dead for the past four years, and now back to haunt us with his evil little brainwashing games.” He claps his hands in sinister glee. “Oh, god! He’s going to become my bestie with a mind like that!”
“Sit down, Kyd,” Director says. “Axel Graves is the one responsible for the weird behaviour in some of our residents. Including your mother, Ghost.”
We all look at him, but he keeps his face blank, waiting for the rest of the explanation.
“The group we’ve been studying are all chipped. We don’t know how Axel got his chips implanted, but according to Wentworth, Axel has been working out of a lab not far from here. He created the chips and is now using Moros citizens to test them on.”
“Mind control?” Seven asks.
Director nods while Kyd skips around the theatre to burn energy. “Mind control. Small things at first, but since you led us to your mom’s strange behaviour, we’ve been watching her,” Director says to Ghost.
Facts takes over again. “Hello. She’s somehow receiving subliminal messages. Maybe they’re coming straight through the chip, but they could be coming from an app on her phone or a demand sent to her through her phone. Maybe nothing like that, but I’ll find out. It’s what is making her do things her sane self wouldn’t do. Hurting Remi, burning her hand, stealing that baby from the hospital, things like that.”
I tense at the reminder of Remiel being hurt by his mother. A few months ago, she slashed his wrist with a kitchen knife when she was at his house for dinner. It’s the scar I ran my thumb over the other night, and I know Remiel is ashamed of it. He hasn’t made any suicide attempts, but he still bears the scars. Ghost glances at me, and I meet his eyes. We might not agree on my bargain with his brother, but together, we’ll do everything to keep him alive. He already warned him away from his mom, and I’ll be tracking him everywhere he fucking goes when he isn’t with me.
“And she’s not the only one.” Director projects his screen to the white wall behind him. Twelve other Moros residents fill the screen, each of them acting a little off compared to their normal. “We haven’t had the chance to scan them all yet, but at least four of them have been found with the same chip as Ghost’s mom. And we still don’t know how to remove the chips without killing the patient.”
Three other photos hit the white wall. All three of them have died within minutes of their tiny microchip being removed. Ghost got to choose whether or not we tried to remove the chip from his mom, and for now, he decided not to. I don’t know if he’s afraid of losing her or if he’s afraid of how it will affect his siblings, but it’s his call.
“So, let’s kill the conductor,” Ransom says. “Kill Axel Graves and we kill the control he has on them.”
Director nods, but shakes his head, too. “We can’t find him.”
“I’ll fucking find him,” Kyd declares, standing on a chair. “Look how fucking hard I am for this guy!” He pumps his crotch, humping the air. “God, I have a full-on raging boner for this mad scientist. He’s mine. Dibs! Double dibs! All the dibs.”
“Seven, I want you to lead a team. Put something together and get back to me, but I want his hideout found first and foremost. Kyd can second you.”
“Yes!” Kyd fist-pumps the air. “Facts, you’re with us!”
“Glitch,” Seven claims him for his team. “Need your hacking.” Glitch nods to accept that.
“Ghost, you continue to monitor your mom and infiltrate The Misfits. Something is up with them. Ransom, you and Monster are on the rest of the chipped, and Krypt and Riot, I want you two tracking every tourist who comes to town. I don’t care if they’re a reporter or a fucking sorority girl, I want to make sure they aren’t being sent in by Axel. Menace,” Director looks at him, a subtle grin on his face. “You know what to do.”
Menace rubs his dick again. “Yes, sir.”
“You need help?” Director asks him.
Menace has always preferred to work alone, but he looks at Glitch. “I’ll need you once I get the chips out.”
“I can do both,” Glitch agrees. “Facts can help, too.” Facts jitters out a nod.
Menace loves nothing more than causing pain and messing around with bodies, so he’ll be the one extracting all the chips from the residents Ransom and Monster bring to him. Menace has an uncanny ability to open people wide and keep them coherent and alive for as long as possible. I once watched him root around in someone’s brain while carrying on a conversation about fashion, of all things. He’s the farthest thing from a brain surgeon, but he somehow pulls off such dexterous tasks.
When Director dismisses us, he pulls me aside. “Remi acting weird?” he asks.
“No. Why?”
His eyes meet mine. “She cut him. He went to a doctor for stitches. A doctor whose name someone has redacted from the file. I want to make sure there’s nothing inside him. It was his arm that was injured, but we don’t know if anything else was done to him while he was under that doctor’s care. Keep an eye on his behaviour, yeah?” He whispers so Ghost doesn’t hear, but my mind is already clouding. I’ll cut Remiel’s whole arm off before I let him become anyone else’s puppet. If it’s in his head, I’ll brainwash him harder than Axel Graves ever can.
“Want me to bring him for a scan?”
“Yeah, but keep him with you first. Keep it from Ghost for now. He’s already going mad trying to protect his brother, and we don’t need him falling prey to their curse.” Director sighs, wanting to touch me but knowing better than to try. “Our cover has to stay in place, Krypt. Moros is relying on us.”
And so is Remiel. It’s time we start knocking names off his list.