Silent Ground Part 2 Page 3

  Lex nodded. It looked like he had other questions but Jobe wasn’t sure if he was going to ask it. Nate always answered their questions but it was obvious that some of the questions he was uncomfortable with. It was easy to tell that Nate was terrified of Kheva, and though it seemed like he was mentally insisting that Jobe and Lex should be scared of him too, Jobe knew that the moment they laid eyes on the asshole, the rest of his life was going to take about two minutes to be completed.

  “Lariat said that he met Kheva… have you ever met Kheva?” Lex asked.

  This question made Nate shrink down, his green eyes widening behind his glasses and his body shifting on the dining room chair he was on.

  “Yeah,” Nate answered. “I met him twice… the last time I saw him was when he was dropping Rob off.”

  “Not when he was picking him up?”

  Nate shrunk down further, his head slowly shook back and forth. “Rob ran away,” he whispered, and his lips pursed as his eyes welled. Jobe felt a pang in his heart, it was obvious that this fact devastated him. “He wasn’t Rob anymore, he was Keluva Swift, and… and Kheva had altered his memory to make me nothing more than an abuser to him.”

  Lex’s head shot up, Jobe’s did too. “W-what?” Lex asked, a spoonful of chicken soup halfway to his mouth. “That’s how Kheva got him to come back? He… he fucking altered his memories?”

  “Not just his memories,” Nate said quietly, grimness haunting every word. “You have to understand, Lex, a nightcrawler’s mind… they’re fucking powerful and bizarre. The more in mental turmoil they are, the more powerful they are. But on top of that… if their mind endures too much, they seem to be able to develop personalities to cope with their lives, and their original personality, they just get stuffed down and hidden. I think… from talking to another brother I have, who – who does know, that Kheva tortured Rob enough that he became Kel. Rob just… vanished. There is no Rob now, there’s only Kel, and Kel doesn’t know who I am. He doesn’t know who any of his family is––All he knows is Kheva.”

  Nate’s words lingered on the air before being slayed to the tension now rising up around the dining room table. As Nate stared down at his almost-finished soup, Lex and Jobe just stared at him. Jobe with a knot in his stomach slowly tightening with each drawn-out second, and Lex with a face succumbing to horror live in front of them.

  “Jobe?” Lex said, his voice a pleading whine. His head turned to Jobe, his prickly chin wrinkled as his lips pursed tightly together.

  “He… he won’t do that to Sasha,” Jobe said, his words coming quickly, too quickly for them to be seen as nothing more than a hastily cut bandage for a gushing wound. “Nate said that Sasha was obeying Kheva, so… he’d have no need to do something like that.” He wanted to turn to Nate for confirmation but he was too worried that the man would cast doubt on his frantically gathered explanation. “Sasha will be fine.”

  “It took months to do it,” Nate said quietly. He glanced behind Jobe, towards the dining room window. Jobe could hear it without even looking, a car pulling up the driveway which would be Lariat. “Even if Kheva is doing that to Sasha… it’s not instant. It’s not something Kheva can just do with a snap of his fingers; it takes time.”

  Lex’s despair only deepened. He looked down at his empty bowl of soup, an anguished look on his face, and then his eyes tightly shut. “Yeah, because he has to fucking torture him in order to do it, right? It takes time because he’s a-actively raping and torturing my nephew, my – my son.”

  Jobe rose and walked to Lex. “We’ll get him, baby,” he whispered. “Look… Lariat’s here. We can get going now and see if we can get any clues. That’s good, right?”

  There was a knock on the door, and all eyes glanced towards the entrance. Lariat could be seen standing on the brick entry way, wearing a tan long coat belted in the middle.

  Lex nodded and he rose. “Yeah, let’s… I want to get going.” He stepped back and let Jobe answer the door, the sound of clinking dishes behind him as they cleaned up lunch.

  “Hey, Jobe,” Lariat said with a faint smile. Even though it appeared that he was trying to hide it, it was easy to tell the man was nervous about their trip. “Sorry again I couldn’t make lunch. Thanks for feeding Nate, I swear he thinks he can live off of Hot Pockets.”

  “Sounds like Sasha,” Jobe said. He stepped back and let Lariat into the house. “Lex is eager to get on the road, just let us grab our things.”

  “That, yes, that would be great,” Lariat said.

  But there was something about his tone that had Jobe turning his head. Lariat usually had a nervous manner to him, however there seemed to be something off.

  Jobe waited for Lex and Nate to disappear into the kitchen. “Is there something wrong?” Jobe whispered.

  Lariat’s eyes lowered then shifted. “There could be, but… it’s nothing to do with Sasha,” he said slowly. “I would… need to speak to Nate about it.”

  Lariat’s words brought unease. But even though Jobe was ashamed to admit it, even in his own inner thoughts, there was relief from the fact that it didn’t have anything to do with Sasha. They couldn’t take any more bad news about him, Lex especially.

  It seemed that Nate could read Lariat just as well as Jobe could, the moment the young man stepped out of the kitchen and saw Lariat, his own dropped. “What is it?” he said hesitantly. “What is it, Ian?”

  “Ah, hopefully nothing,” Ian stammered. He turned and stepped back into the entryway, several red brick steps behind him that led to Lex’s truck and Lariat’s small silver car. “I just… I just heard from Cadence. Gavin was back in town but…”

  “Gavin was back?” Nate said, and though Lariat seemed to be in the middle of breaking bad news, Nate looked excited. “Is he going to come see me? How long is he in town for?”

  Gavin… that must be one of Nate’s foster brothers, possibly Cadence too.

  Lariat adjusted his weight. “Cadence… Cade said Gavin was back in town taking care of some business but he missed dinner the night before last, and Cadence hasn’t heard from him since.”

  Nate’s face dropped. “He left without seeing me?” he said sadly. He put on his jacket, a dejected look on his face. “Alright, I guess.”

  “No, Nate…” Lariat sighed. Jobe and Lex, quiet spectators, walked out into the entry way, jackets on and shoes tied. They waited on the steps as Nate finished getting ready, Lariat still in front of the door. “Nate, Cade’s worried that Gavin is missing, not that he went back home.”

  Nate’s expression changed from rejection to concern. He stepped out into the walkway and began walking down the stairs, Lex staying behind to lock the door. “But Gavin’s always running around… last time he disappeared without so much of a wave goodbye.” Nate kicked a rock at this, his expression hard.

  “I told Cade that…” Lariat said as followed Nate down the steps. “Cade didn’t give me that much information, which makes me think he could be hiding something. He just seemed concerned and that has me worried. You know Gavin, he’s always putting his fucking nose where it doesn’t belong…”

  “You guys should contact the police,” Lex said. He got into the driver’s seat, and on the passenger side, Jobe offered Lariat the front seat. “The sooner the better they told us when we called after Sasha ran away.”

  “Ah.” Lariat seemed to stumble on the idea. “Gavin… Gavin wouldn’t really be happy with that. It’s a – a family affair.”

  “That’s a good point,” Jobe said, now in the back seats with Nate. He looked over at the nervous kid who was staring out the window. “What do the police know about Rob?”

  Nate didn’t break his gaze from the window, but his chin was tight. “I went there once,” he said quietly. “They said because he was over nineteen, he could do what he wanted. And as I left… I overheard the two cops laugh and then the faintest murmuring of ‘faggot drama’.”

  Jobe’s mouth dropped open, and in the rear-view mirror, Lex’s eyes caugh
t fire. “Are you fucking serious?” Lex said angrily. His teeth pressed and Jobe saw his chest rise and fall. “I wouldn’t mind being a fucking nightcrawler and melting their god damn minds.”

  Nate said nothing, but he did shift himself towards the door of the truck, as if wishing to make himself smaller. The more time Jobe spent around this kid, the clearer it was just how reserved and closed off he was, the only time life seemed to come to him was when he was talking about Rob.

  Jobe felt bad for him, and the isolation that seemed prevalent in his life. He decided then to make more of an effort to be friends with Nate, not just because they needed more information on what was going on with Sasha, but because he seemed like he genuinely needed a friend.

  “So, what sort of things are you into?” Jobe asked after half an hour had passed. Lex and Lariat were having a quiet conversation in the front, and it had been awkward crickets between the two of them in the back. “Do you work? Or go to school?”

  Nate was quiet for a second before his eyes jutted to Jobe. He seemed surprised that Jobe’s question had been directed towards him. “Oh, ah, I work for a company that works with lawyers,” Nate said, his cheeks tinging red. “I track people down and serve them papers.”

  “Really?” Jobe said. He’d never heard of that kind of job before, but that did make sense that it would exist. “So, it’s kind of like bounty hunting?”

  Nate chuckled softly. “I guess,” he said. “Some of them are trying to dodge the summons papers, they don’t want to be served, so the lawyers will contact the company to get someone unaffiliated, that the target doesn’t know. It’s on-call which is perfect, and it pays enough for bills and rent. Um, what do you do?”

  Jobe smiled. “I work nights at a house that takes care of mentally handicapped people, ones that don’t really leave their beds. It’s quiet work, I basically just watch them sleep.”

  “That’s why he’s such a mother towards Sasha,” Lex said from the driver’s seat. “If Jobe isn’t taking care of someone… he goes insane. He’s… a good guy.”

  Jobe blushed, and although he’d never admit it, his heart may have melted a little bit at Lex’s compliment. “Everyone is good at something,” he said modestly. “Sasha made it easy to love him. He’s just so loveable, and the troubles he was having… you just wanted to fix all of them.”

  Nate’s mouth pursed and tightened. He shifted further against the passenger side door and wrapped his arms around his chest. Jobe watched him while he did this, the farmland and woods they had been passing turning into shops and buildings as they drove into the town of Courtenay.

  “What – what was Rob like before this happened to him?” Jobe asked quietly, hoping that perhaps that would cheer him up. He seemed happier talking about Rob.

  Nate was quiet for a moment, his eyes reflecting the cars they were passing. “He’s been gone longer than we’ve been together,” Nate said quietly. “But for the short time I had him… he was my rock. He had his own set of problems but we worked through our issues together. Rob… taught me that I wasn’t an outcast, that there wasn’t anything wrong with me being gay. He helped me love myself and never gave up on me. So, I won’t give up on him.”

  Jobe reached his hand over and put in on Nate’s shoulder. He had to reach quite far however, Nate was tucked up to the side of that door like he was trying to become one with the car through osmosis. “We won’t give up on him either,” Jobe assured. “We’ll bring Sash and Rob back together. If Sasha has those scary powers, once he knows we’re here to get him… he’ll, like, erase Kheva’s mind or something. Then Sasha can change Rob back, right?”

  Nate’s staring eyes slowly shifted towards Jobe’s. There were no flickers of hope, not even pity hope, they looked grave. “If he’s still Sasha,” Nate said bitterly. “And if he still wants to come home if you do find him.”

  Jobe’s hand retracted. An injection of anger shot into his blood stream, quickly travelling through his veins and to his heart. “Don’t say that,” Jobe said, trying to hold down the anger. “Don’t say shit like that about stuff you don’t understand.”

  Nate’s eyes went back to the window. “It didn’t feel good when I realized the truth either,” he said dully. “That not only had I lost my boyfriend… I was nothing but an inconvenience to him.”

  “Sasha’s not brainwashed yet,” Jobe said angrily. “You said it would take months…”

  “You also said he fled from you two after you tried to take him to an institution because he was confused over his own powers and in constant pain.”

  Jobe’s anger exploded. “Hey, shut up!” he snapped. “We didn’t know what the fuck he was. We did what we thought was best, you ignorant fuck!”

  The anger Jobe was exuding seemed to seep into Nate. The reserved man’s jaw tightened and his glaring eyes burned holes in the back of the driver’s seat. “You didn’t listen to a damn word he said,” Nate said, and sure enough, those words were between locked teeth. “Kheva kidnapped Rob. But you? You chased Sasha out of the damn house and right into Kheva’s fucking––” Nate’s words were cut off quickly and he cowered down. The reason why was quickly seen, Jobe’s fist was raised, ready to deliver a hard blow to Nate’s face.

  But the fist never flew, Jobe only glared at Nate, his heart breaking in half and filling with devastation.

  Then he lowered his arm, and turned away as his eyes filled with tears. There was silence then, Lex and Lariat in shock and Jobe quietly crying with his face buried in his hands.

  Jobe heard a click beside him, then the seat they were both sitting on shift. “I’m sorry,” Nate said quietly. “I’m really sorry, I just… I’m terrified right now.” Jobe felt a hand get put on his shoulder. “Kheva scares the shit out of me, and if I didn’t love Rob… I’d still be running in the opposite direction.”

  “If he’s that damn dangerous, we have to get the police to listen,” Lex said. The truck stopped and Jobe looked up to see they were parked in front of a Walmart. “If we have proof he’s hurt Sasha, that’s assault, possibly rape. I don’t give a shit if they’re gay, the law is the law.”

  “Kheva’s above the law,” Nate said quietly.

  “No one is above the law!” Lex snapped.

  Nate’s eyes became rock. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with,” he said acidly. “What I’ve seen him do, what he’s done to me.”

  “I don’t care. There has to be––”

  “The moment those fucking police officers show up on his land, he’s going to smile, nod, tell them they have nothing to worry about and they will turn around,” Nate said angrily. “What part of ‘Can control people’s fucking minds’ and ‘Read their god damn thoughts’ do you not understand, Mr. Zakharin? Kheva is above not only the laws of man––he’s above the laws of nature. You have to understand that before you try and rescue Sasha.”

  Lex’s reflection glared at Nate. “We’ll see how much he can control minds when I shoot him in the back of the fucking head,” he snapped. Lex clicked his seatbelt off then and exited the truck.

  Jobe decided to defuse the situation, Lex was getting upset and he didn’t want his friend to spiral down into another pit of depression. Since getting the news from Lariat, Lex had been better, a lot better, but Jobe was watching his progress circle the drain.

  “Nate… why don’t you show us where you saw them?” Jobe asked. “Lariat, you said you were going to check to see if they have security cameras?”

  Lariat, who had been rather silent during the trip, nodded. “Yes, there were a few things I wanted to do,” he said. He opened his mouth to say more, when there was a ring of a cellphone. Lariat dug into the pocket of his tan long coat and pulled out a black Motorola. “I, ah, need to take this… you three go in without me and I’ll get my work done.” Without waiting for their response, Lariat walked away to the back of Lex’s truck, and further past to a van parked behind them.

  Nate turned and began to make his way towards the store, and re
luctantly, Jobe and Lex followed.

  Nate walked into the Walmart, the elderly greeter sitting in a motorized scooter giving them polite welcome which all three of them reciprocated. Nate crossed through the bakery section to the grocery aisles and walked down an aisle that held cereal and other breakfast items.

  “Kheva shops here,” Nate said quietly. “Almost always on a Friday and always between noon and four o’clock.”

  Jobe’s eyes widened. “Today’s fucking Friday…” He checked his wrist watch. “And it’s a little after two.”

  Nate nodded. He looked around, as if hoping to see Rob hiding somewhere. “It was just wishful thinking, but I lucked out. I saw Ro- I saw Kel jumping up and down in place looking at all the cereal. His… palms were smacking against his sides.” This image sounded rather cute, but Nate’s face only read disgust. “Rob was proud, dominant. He was… mature and strong, he protected me. Kel’s an immature man-child that acts like an insane seven-year-old. He’s not like Rob at all… but I know he’s in there.”

  “Where was Sasha?” Jobe asked. He couldn’t help also looking around, hoping with an ache in his heart he’ll see Sasha in that store. Jobe would crush his bones to dust with how hard he’d squeeze that damn man; he just wanted to know he was okay.

  Just fucking be okay, Sash.

  “Sasha and Kheva both came when I was trying to get through to Kel. Kheva yelled at Sasha to take Kel out of there, because he was freaking out.” Nate’s eyes closed tight. “I don’t remember much after that. The next solid thing I remember is being back at home. It’s all a blur to me. But I know… I know I saw him.”

  “Excuse me.”

  Jobe turned when he heard Lex’s voice and saw that Lex had flagged down one of the floor workers. “Can you please get me your manager? Or your head of security? I need to speak with him about something important.”

  The young man, tall and gangly with red zits showing through an unshaven face, looked a bit taken aback by the question. “What for?” he asked, scratching a prickly neck where there were additional zits.