Venator Chapter 1

Chapter One

Scavenging

 

     I hoisted my pack onto my back and stepped as silently as I could through the broken shards of what used to be a building.  I’d been shocked when I’d first stumbled upon the skeleton of the once beautiful home. It was rare to find anything that wasn’t already ash.

     My boots kicked up puffs of dust as I slid them carefully over the uneven floors of the old place.

     “What do you think it was?” whispered Latro from behind me.  Her voice, deep and gravelly, crawled up my arms like tiny insects.

     “Some kind of home I think,” I whispered back, my voice sounding soft and sweet in comparison, though I was anything but.

     She sighed and even that was deeper than my childlike voice.  “I was hoping for a shoe store.  My boots are getting thin and I don’t relish the idea of going back to bare feet.”

     I shivered, understanding.  I never wanted to feel ash between my toes again.

     She glided up beside me and I could see her nearly white hair blowing softly in the breeze. “Why do you think it’s still here?” she asked.

     “Trap,” I suggested, saying out loud what we’d both been thinking.

     Her cornflower blue eyes searched my face, lingering on my lips. To tell what another is thinking you only need to watch their lips. I smiled, reassuring her.  She responded in kind, letting the tightness she’d been holding along the line of her pink lips slip away and turn up at the corners.

     “We have time yet,” I smiled.  “The darkness won’t be here for a while.  We should be able to scout this place and be safely away before then.”

     She nodded, keeping her smile, and we walked on unhurried.  A demon sighting during the light hours was close to unheard of. They thrive on darkness and the sun burns their flesh. Still, it had happened before. I knew that for a fact.

     I’d been walking alone one afternoon, not paying attention to my surroundings because I’d thought it was safe. I’d been in my head, calculating numbers for a project I’d been working on, and I’d let it sneak up on me. If it hadn’t been for Latro I’d have been ash, but she’d followed me out of curiosity.

     She’d killed the Demon before I’d even turned around, and we’d traveled together ever since.

     I stayed alert though I walked easier now.  I eyed each tumble of rock and pile of rubble we passed, but I saw nothing.

     “I think this place is empty,” I muttered almost to myself.  “I don’t even see any scraps of humanity here.”

     She turned to me, her warm skin glowing and her full pink lips turned down into a loose frown. I felt bad for her. I knew she’d been hoping for shoes.  “We should go.”

     I could see in her face and the flutter of her dark lashes that she wanted to look a while longer.

     “Maybe if we look under the rubble,” she suggested tensely.

     “No,” I said a bit too loudly. “You know they dwell under the rubble.”

     “Yes, but if we pick a smaller pile to search-“

     I shushed her with a look. She knew better; we both knew better. Staying alive meant not disturbing the rubble.  I glared at her, letting my gold flecked green eyes bore into her, waiting for her to challenge my decision.

     For a moment her beautiful face became a mask of anger but it faded quickly and she was back to smiling with her perfect lips again if not her eyes.

     She was what others would describe as beautiful. She had long wavy blonde hair so light it was almost white, creamy tan skin that glistened in the sunlight as if spun from gold, eyes so blue you could mistake them for a cloudless sky if you looked into them very long, full pouty lips, endless legs, and the kind of curves that made her look round despite constant exercise. If she’d been created shorter, she’d be the kind of girl all men blushed around, but at 6’1 even the brave were shy around her.

     I smiled as I thought it. It evened the score for the girls like me with plain looks and no curves to speak of. I’m not unattractive but I’m not a knock out either.  Being something in the middle makes people warm up to you quicker. Well, until they hear my name anyway.

     She poked me in the arm with one slender finger and my thoughts faded away with the sudden cool breeze that lifted my black hair off my neck and sent a sudden shiver down my spine. Instinct roared through my body and I dropped into a low crouch, scanning the dust and rubble.

     Latro’s fake smile slipped away as she bared her teeth and pulled the long blade she kept on her back in one graceful motion.

     “What?” she hissed through her growl.

     “Something’s close.  I can’t tell what it is yet, but it’s definitely coming this way.”

     She relaxed her sword arm and let the tip of the blade rest against the ground. She looked relaxed, thoughtful, though I knew it didn’t make her any less dangerous. I’d seen her fight thousands of times before and I knew her mind.  She’d wait for them to get closer before she poised to attack. It saved the strength for the fight instead of fatiguing the muscles by trying to keep the same pose over an extended period of time.

     I pulled my smooth leather glove from my right hand and tucked it into the pocket of my beaten leather jacket.

     “How many?” she asked so quietly it wasn’t even a whisper.

     I pressed the naked flesh of my hand to the ground, trying to ignore the feel of the ash under my fingertips. My eyes closed and a shock bowed my spine and made me clench my teeth to keep from screaming.

     The visions swam past the backs of my eyelids like an old reel from a movie projector. The house was warm around me and I could smell the fire burning in the hearth.  Children laughed, two of them, their eyes bright as their mother brought a huge chocolate cake from the kitchen with candles flaming brightly on the top, ten candles, five for each of them.

     I swallowed past the lump in my throat. I’d never tasted cake, or smelled a child, or been near the heat of a fire without worry that They would come from it.

     The images stopped suddenly and I held my breath.  I knew what was coming next, what always came next. The children were screaming then. The boy grabbed his mothers arm and pulled her toward the kitchen while the girl stood in silent terror before the Demon. The cake crashed to the floor and the mother pulled away from the little boy and threw herself at the beast, sacrificing herself for her children.

     She burst into flames and I held my breath because I could smell her skin boiling under the heat, and then the little girl screamed and it seemed like the whole world was shattering to bits. Her brother grabbed her arm and pulled as hard as he could toward the door but she wouldn’t go, not without her momma.

     The beast smiled and flames licked from its nostrils and up the front of its face. It was eager for the ash that the body would provide. It didn’t care about the little ones; they weren’t much of a meal anyway.

     But, the little girl pulled away from her brother and ran for the demon.  She flung her arms wildly, trying to crush him with her teddy bear but it caught on fire in her hands.  She dropped it with a scream but not before her soft brown curls went up with the blaze.

     The demon laughed and pushed her away to let her burn. He’d have that one, the little one for desert. He was patient; he could wait for them to finish burning. There was plenty of food for him here, plenty of things to burn.

     My body shuddered and the images faded away like they’d been a trick of my mind.  I centered myself and relaxed my back to a normal position. With a deep breath I sent myself out into the wreckage all around us. At first my conscious didn’t want to go, it was frightened that it might not make it back, but I shoved with my mind until it trickled out and away from me.

     “Not demon,” I whispered under my breath and I knew that Latro had stood up and exhaled beside me. “Not yet,” I hissed.

     She dropped back to a crouch, her sword tip still on the ground, pommel held loosely in her left hand.

     My mind caressed flesh, live flesh, but nothing like I’d ever sensed before. It traced the outline, definitely male, tall, broad shouldered, angular jaw, thick legs, and short hair.

     “What is that?” I whispered.

     I could feel Latro staring at me, something she’d never done while in the midst of intruders before. Then, there’d never been anything I couldn’t name before either.

     “What does it look like?” she asked.

     My mind whispered across the man’s skin, leaving goose bumps on his arms in their wake and he stopped short. He lifted his muscled arms to each side and pulled two big guns from the holsters on his thighs. 

     “How’d I miss those?” I asked myself.

     “Miss what?” Latro hissed, but I ignored her. I focused more intently on the man. Slowly I let myself curl around him, find his chest and breeze along the line of his tight brown t-shirt.

     “Heartbeat,” I stuttered, perplexed.

     Latro stood back up inhaling softly and I pulled myself away from the man. If he was alive then he wasn’t a danger to us. I let my conscious trickled back to me, slower than it had come, still searching but less wary of monsters in the ruins.

     With a shudder I snapped back into myself and snatched my hand from the ground.

     “F**k I hate that,” I growled as I wiped my hand on my black jeans, leaving dust trails along the thigh, and pulled my glove back on.

     Latro was glaring at me, mad because I hadn’t given her more information.

     My green eyes flashed to her taut lips and I apologized. She accepted more gracefully than she had any right too, and I went back to shuddering.  I hated touching things that’d once belonged to people. They carried too many memories, too much pain.

     “Well, is he coming here or not?” she asked suddenly and I realized I’d done it again though not on purpose.

     “Yeah,” I said. “Three minutes and he’ll come over that pile of debris there in front of us.” I pointed it out with a quick jerk of my hand, still shaking.

     “Clone?”

     “No,” I all but breathed. “I don’t know what he is, but he didn’t feel like us. He was warmer, more alive. I can’t explain it.”

     She closed her eyes and readied her sword. It’s been more than a minute and a half.  “Human?” she asked suddenly.

     I shrugged. “Can’t be, they all died remember. There are none left, they rotted or burned away.”

     She shrugged her right shoulder and pulled her body into a quick half squat. Ten more seconds. We stared at the pile of concrete and dirt apprehensively.

     There’s no way, I thought to myself.

     Then, he stepped over the dirt, guns in hand defensively but not expecting to see us. His eyes flashed from me to her, her to me, and then lingered on her. Whether it was because she seemed more dangerous, holding her sword high and her body coiled to spring, or because she was the most beautiful woman nearly any man had ever seen, I couldn’t tell.

     He smiled, his teeth white and straight, but didn’t drop the guns.

     “Who are you?” he asked in a deep voice that seemed to rumble from his chest and rake along every part of my flesh that was exposed.

     “We could ask you the same question,” I glared.

     “Either use those things or put them down,” Latro hissed.

     He dropped the guns and put them back in the thigh holsters smoothly.

     “Better?” he asked looking amused.

     Latro dropped her guard and let her sword tip dip back to the ground by her feet. Keeping a fighting stance when you weren’t sure there would be danger was just another way to burn energy you might need to fight.

     “Who are you?” I repeated.

     He smiled again and shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe you should tell me who you are, since your standing in my home.”

     Latro growled and lifted her sword up back into place, but I laid my gloved hand on her arm before she’d completed the pose.  There was something familiar about the man standing before us, something about the eyes.  Then it hit me and I gasped and struggled for air.

     “What are you doing to her?!” Latro yelled and reached for me, trying to put her body in front of mine and shield me from whatever trick he was trying to get away with.

     He looked started and back up with his hands in the air like I’d seen in books, signaling innocence.  It was something one of us would never have done.  We never give ground; never show fear, or a willingness to give up.

     “Human,” I managed through another deep gasp. “Lives here, lived here.”

     His eyes were wide, showing more of the whites then he was comfortable with. I could tell he didn’t like being surprised or confused. He’d go for his gun.

     I shook the memories from my head and reached my hands toward him, empty, open. I watched him watch me, his arms tensed, ready to go for the guns but unsure if he should.

     Latro growled and it sounded like something that would come from a great feline beast and not a long beautiful woman.

     The man went for his guns but I was there before he could get them. My gloved hands here on the backs of hands, pushing down, holding the guns in the holsters and his hands trapped at his sides before he’d seen me more.

     “What are you?” he breathed and I could smell the sweetness of his breath in my face.

     “Alive,” I said. “A friend.”

     “People can’t do what you just did.”  His hands were shaking with the effort of trying to move them under my hands. “People aren’t this strong.”

     “We Are,” I said, thinking I’d explained everything.

     Behind me, Latro sat down on a dirty block of concrete and put her sword away. I could feel that she was bored. She wanted to go and I agreed. It was getting dark, too dark.

     “I’m going to let you go,” I said as calmly as I could. “Please don’t try to shoot me. I’m not going to hurt you. We’re just going to leave.”

     He swallowed, exhaled his sweet perfumed breath into my face again, and nodded his head.  I looked into his eyes before I let go. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t lying to me. I need to know for sure. I didn’t want to kill him. 

     His pupils were larger than any I’d seen before and his eyes were a dark brown like his hair. His skin looked dark against mine, though everyone’s does, and smelled of new sun and soap. I flashed back to his face as a child. He was paler then and I realized half had been shock and half because he’d gotten a tan.

     “What are seeing?” he asked me suddenly as I let go of his hands and stepped away from him slowly so he could see me move.

     “What?” I asked trying to sound oblivious.

     “Come on Ven, let’s get out of here. It’s almost dark and we still need to find a place.”

     “Yeah,” I said and stepped further away from the warmth that was coming off the big man but unable to look away from his eyes.

     “You guys can stay,” he hurried. “I mean, what I mean is-“

     I smiled at him, the perfect whiteness of my teeth gleaming in the new dark.

     He swallowed, staring at my mouth and trying to finish his sentence.

     “Sure,” I hurried. “We can stay.”

     I heard Latro kick something behind us and then wince in pain as the shock worked up her leg. She needed shoes.

     “No,” she suddenly grunted from beside me. “We aren’t staying here. It’s a death trap and you aren’t fast enough to keep up with us, so go away before something comes along to kill you.”

     He grinned at her and it reached his eyes. “Wow, bossy one hu?”

     She pulled back to punch him but I grabbed her arm and breathed into her ear, “Human. Fragile,” and she dropped her arm.

     “Short tempered too hu?” he chided.

     She shot me a look that made me want to curl up and die inside. “We have to leave, now.” It wasn’t exactly an order because we didn’t give each other orders, but it was as close as she’d ever come.

     “No, wait,” he smiled. “I have a place. It’s safe and I have-“ He looked us over. “I have food, though I don’t know what you eat, and I have shoes that might fit you. They were my moms.”

     The last made his face bunch and he looked down at the ground. I knew what he was seeing. I’d seen it too. The sudden urge to reach out to him and touch him gripped me and I started to pull my glove from my hand but he looked back up.

     “Come on, this way,” he grinned and started away from us.

     The desire for new shoes over ruled any sense of impending doom Latro had had and we followed the man, trying to step slowly so we wouldn’t walk right past him. I counted and measured his steps, his pace, in my head and calculated the ratio from his to ours. He would need to take 30 steps to keep pace with the quickness of each of ours. He’d need to run to keep up, if we walked.

     “Here we are,” he turned, pointing toward the hole we’d spotted earlier but hadn’t gone down. “It used to be our basement, but it’s my home now. I promise its safe enough. I’ve been here for, well, years I guess. I can’t really remember.”

     “26,” I offered.

     “Yeah,” he shrugged. “Something like that.”

     “No,” I corrected. “Exactly like that.”

     He stared at me for a second but shook the thoughts away. I could see that he didn’t believe me. He thought I was guessing.

     “I never guess.”

     He smiled, ignored it. Maybe he thought I was crazy. I didn’t care. Latro laughed, mostly at me but partly at him for not realizing what she’d already figured out. She cocked her hips to the side and waited for us to finished arguing.

     “No,” she grinned. “Flirting.”

     She’d been reading my mind. S**t. I closed the doors down tight and felt the world around me slip back to normal parameters. “If you're going to do that, I’m not keeping watch.”

     “Oh, you don’t need to,” the human offered. “Trust me. The demons never come here.”

     We knew it was true the instant he said it. There was no way he could have lied to us.

     He stepped down into the hole and disappeared below us.

     “F**k it,” I grumbled and stepped in after him. 

     What I didn’t expect were stairs, and intact at that. I put my foot on the wood, worn thin by use and marveled at the strange texture under my boot.  There was a little dirt, and a little ash, on them but they seemed cleaner somehow that everything else.

     I walked carefully behind him so I wouldn’t accidently shove him down the stairs in my excitement.  Behind me, I could hear Latro holding her breath, marveling as well.

     A door creaked open in front of us where it looked like only stone had been a moment before and the little stairwell was flooded with light.

     “How?” I gaped and my question was echoed behind me by Latro.

     The man turned his eyes up to me and smiled, and at that moment I thought he looked like an angel must look. He had a halo of light behind him but his face was dark and serene.

     “Gas,” he said. “Before the war, well what I remember of it anyway, my family and I lived here.  This was our basement. My dad was an engineer for global designs. It was a company that made earth friendly products, saving the environment and all that. You know,” his face fell. “Back when there was an environment to save.”

     He stepped into the light and disappeared around the corner, leaving the entry way open for us to follow. “You’re welcome to come in if you want,” he called. “I can make some tea.”

     “Tea,” I smiled at Latro and she smiled back. We hadn’t had tea in a very long time.

     We stepped into the light and marveled at the small room around us. Shelves were stacked up and down every wall and were stuffed full of things I hadn’t seen since the beginning of the burnings. My eyes scanned it all but there was too much for me to take it. It would take me days to see everything on the shelves.

     In the center of the room was an old brown couch with holes worn into the arms but still in decent repair. To me it looked like a dream. It looked soft and… clean. Everything in the room was clean. There were no traces of ash on anything. I felt the sting of hot tears on my cheeks before I realized I was crying.

     It was clean.

     I wiped at my face as fast I could, catching them before anyone could catch me but noticed that Latro was making the same motion.

     “The human didn’t see,” she whispered. “His back is to us.”

     “Good,” I gulped and let my eyes feast on the room once more.

     Beside the couch were two small end tables, mismatched but sturdy, and in front another small round table with little wooden squares sitting on top of it. I wasn’t sure what they were, but they fascinated me. I picked one up. I needed to touch it.

     “Those were my grandmothers,” the man called from another part of the room I hadn’t explored yet. The lights were brighter there and there were cabinets instead of shelves everywhere. He was standing in front of a long counter, white and grey flecked like cold marble, and pouring boiling water from a pan into three cups.  Behind him were things I’d only read about, but knew: a stove, a refrigerator, and a sink- supposedly for running water.

     “Does it work,” I asked suddenly because I needed to know.

     “Yeah,” he said, his smile getting brighter. “Everything here works, even the shower.”
     “Shower,” I repeated in awe.

     “A working shower?” Latro chimed in.

     “Sure, you can use it if you want to. The water’s even hot here. I told you, my dad was a genius, and this house is built a few yards from a natural aquifer that supplies it with fresh water and natural gas for power.”

     “Oh,” we both marveled.

     “I’m sure you’ve seen this stuff before though, right. There has to be other people out there somewhere?”

     He’d said it both as a statement and a question. He really didn’t know. I looked at Latro. I didn’t want to tell him but I knew she would. I was the coward and she was the brave one.

     “There are no other humans,” she said casually. “There are no other places, there is no stuff, and the world is all but gone.”

     He dropped the cup he’d been picking up and it shattered noisily on the cold tile floor. “S**t,” he yelled and jumped back away from the hot tea spreading out around the floor. “I’m sorry. I’m not usually a klutz.”

     He grabbed a scrap of cloth nearby and started wiping up the spill, then swept up the remains of the cup. He turned, opened a cabinet door, and pulled out another mug with shaking hands.

     I put my gloved hand on his and stilled. “I can get that,” I said as softly as I could. “I know how to make tea.”

     His hand shook under mine. “You aren’t human?” he asked quietly, fear in his voice.

     “Not entirely,” Latro called from across the room where she’d been inspecting things on shelves. “We’re clones. They call us the Are.”

     He took his hand from under mine and backed away from me. “The tea’s in that canister over there.” He pointed to some containers on the counter. “I’m going to go to the bathroom and I’ll just be a minute.”

     “Sure,” I said. “Take your time.”

     He disappeared behind a long black curtain I hadn’t noticed before and I set about making three cups of tea while I scanned the rest of the room. In the far left corner was another curtain, long and black as well, which I figured to be another room, a brown recliner that looked to have been a match to the couch, and a tall lamp. Across from those I noticed yet another black curtain and I wondered what I would find behind it if I’d looked.

     Latro glided across the floor to me with a huge smile on her face. “This place is amazing,” she purred. “We could live here, safely I think. We could kill the human and take this place for ourselves. Just think about the possibilities.”

     I didn’t like the way her face glowed with anticipation, it ticked me off. I opened my mind to her and let her know exactly what I thought of it.

     “Sheesh,” she sputtered. “It was just an idea, a good one if you ask me.”

     I huffed at her and steeped the tea.

     Have you noticed the black curtains, I thought to her.

     “Oh yes,” she grinned. “I peeked.”

     “Well, I hope you found it to your liking,” a male voice interrupted. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you want. I’ve never had any company before, and I think I might like it.”

     His face was rosy but his hands were still and he smiled easily again.  “Though,” he mock frowned. “If you want to stay here, you’ll have to tell me who you are at the very least.”

     I gave him a very real frown back. “But, she told you who we are. You’d call us clones, genetically engineered humans created for fighting.”

     “Uh,” he stuttered.

     “I’m Latro,” she suddenly interjected and held out her hand to him in a gesture I’d never seen used before.

     He took her hand in his and shook it slowly, a smile spreading on his face again. “I’m-“

     “Alex,” I said smugly. “And your sister was Alexis, your mother Ally, and you had a dog named Poof. That was all 26 years ago though, to the day.”

     His mouth gaped and Latro gave me a look I couldn’t quite place.

     “Stop scaring the human,” she grumbled. “He’ll kick us out and you won’t let me kill him to get back in.”

     “I’m not scaring anyone,” I said as I realized what I’d done and swallowed my own words. “Sorry,” I muttered. “Sometimes I don’t think before I speak. Tea’s done.”

     I handed him a cup, which he took without touching my hand, and Latro the other one. We all sipped the hot liquid slowly, relishing the delicacy.

     “That’s Ven, by the way,” Latro suddenly interjected trying to lighten the mood.

     “Ven, that’s an odd name,” he said. “What’s it mean?”

     “Thanks for this,” I said lifting my cup hoping the question would go away.

     “Yeah thanks,” Latro smiled, and for once it was a real smile.

     “No problem. I thought you might like it hot since anything hot or cooked seems like a delicacy. I’m not that great a cook, but I do what I can with what I can get. I have some venison in the freezer and fixings for salad in the fridge. I can make it for us if you’re hungry.”

     I instantly said no but my stomach growled and gave me away. The thought of the food was just too much to keep it quiet.

     He laughed it off and took what looked like steaks out of the freezer and laid them in the sink to thaw. “You know, you don’t need to worry. I have enough to share and I’m not greedy. I mean, you’re the first people I’ve had to talk to in years.”

     “26,” I added then slapped my hand over my mouth.

     “No actually,” he grinned. “More like three or four. My grandpa died about three and a half years ago. Until then, he lived here with me. He taught me to hunt, to grow, to talk, to read, and pretty much everything else. I was too young to take care of myself when they came.”

     At the mention of them he shuddered and his empty hand went to the gun on his leg instinctively. “They didn’t get him though,” he hissed through nearly clenched teeth. “He died naturally enough, a heart attack, I think. I’m not a doctor so I couldn’t really say.”

     I was flabbergasted. There had been more than one human. One was unheard of, but multiples? I let the implication of that roll through my head as I drank the rest of my tea.

     After we’d all finished, Alex showed us around the rest of the small place. He started with the bathroom which had been behind the curtain he’d disappeared into earlier. It did indeed have a shower with hot and cold running water and a sink. It was tiny, but to us it was more than amazing. He spent some time explaining to us why there wasn’t a commode, only a metal bucket with a lid on it in the corner that had to be dumped after use, and how to use the shower and sink.

     Every wall in the bathroom not being used by the shower was lined with shelves like the other room, but unlike those, these were organized. There were shelves for shampoo, conditioner, soap, towels, and all kinds of other things I’d never used before. He showed us where we could find a hand mirror if we wanted to look at ourselves but we both declined. We’ve never cared how we look. We’d seen ourselves through each others eyes before.

     The next room he took us to was behind the chair. It had a huge bed in the middle of the room with piles of blankets and pillows on top. I’d never been in an actual bed before, and after stating it was pushed lightly onto the heaping mound of softness.

     “Wow,” I nearly yipped. “It’s so soft.”

     “That’s the idea,” Alex had laughed and the sound make my cheeks warm for some reason.

     Latro plopped down on the bed beside me and sank back into the blankets. “It’s like what I would imagine heaven to feel like,” she purred and the words sounded sultry and inviting.

     “You believe in heaven?” Alex asked suddenly, standing by the bed.

     “We read about heaven,” Latro said as she buried her face under some pillows and rolled around like a cat stretching. “We read a lot in the early days.”

     “But do you think there is one?” he asked again.

     “I don’t know,” I answered as I stood up. “I hope so.”

     “Yeah, me too,” Latro called from under the blankets. “And I hope it’s as clean as this bed.”

     “Oh,” I nearly yelled. “Latro get up, you’ll get his bed dirty.”

     She flung herself up in one graceful motion so fast it was nearly a blur. “I’m so sorry,” she started but stopped when she saw Alex laughing at her.

     “No problem,” he said. “It can be washed, and besides, you barely have any dirt on you.”

     We always tried to keep clean and most times we did a good job of it. Unless there was a fight we never touched anything with ash on it. Never.

     “Yeah,” I said. “I guess not.”

     I looked at the big bed in the middle of the tiny room and sighed. “Where do all of these curtains go?” I pointed to the walls around us that were all covered in curtains. I hadn’t thought the place would be so big.

     “Nowhere,” Alex shrugged and pulled one of them to the side showing row upon row of books packed neatly on shelves.  “They are on every wall in here. I collect them.”

     My eyes went wide and I knew, even though I hadn’t looked, that Latro’s looked the same. “Where did you get all of these?”

     “My dad.”

     “But where?”

     “The house that used to be up there had a huge library,” he said as he pointed to the concrete ceiling above us. Grandfather moved them down here after he killed the demon that attacked us, and everyday, in the beginning, he would bring more stuff and put in here. I don’t know where he got it. I just know he did. I stayed down here the whole time. He never let me go out, not until I was older.”

     I didn’t know what to say. I just stood there staring at all those curtains and imagining how many books would be behind each one.

     “Come on,” he finally said and led the way out of the room. “I have something else I want to show you.”
     “The green room?” Latro said quickly. “Wait till you see the green room.”

     He nodded and grinned as we crossed the couch room and went through the black curtain on the other side. We stepped through, but there wasn’t really enough room for us all to fit in the little niche so our arm and bodies bumped against each other before he got the door open before it.

     As it swung inward the smell of growing things caressed me. It was hot, fragrant, and sweet. The room was brighter than the others and Alex ushered us in and shut the door after. 

     I wanted to cry again.

     “Welcome to my garden,” Alex said proudly, and I knew he should have been. It was beautiful. The room was long but not very wide. It had three aisles and in each were wonderful growing things and colorful flowers. I took a deep breath and inhaled the smell of life, a smell I had never known before, and before I could stop myself tears were rolling down my cheeks again.

     I stepped forward, the others forgotten behind me, and really looked at all the plants growing around me. Most were for food of course, things I’d never eaten: eggplant, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, potatoes, celery, strawberries, blueberries, and even a few small fruit trees in the back. I marveled at these things, each in turn, but what really called to me were the flowers. I had never seen flowers before.

     I leaned over then and sniffed each kind individually, luxuriating in the scents and the colors. I tried to recall the types from the books I had read on botany but I couldn’t place them all. 

     I turned then to ask the question, and suddenly remembered the others behind me. Alex was smiling and watching me like I were a new toy and he were a small child. It was innocent but longing. He’d wanted someone to share this with. Latro was in the next aisle over, peeling an orange from a tree near the back and putting the sweet meet of the fruit in her mouth bit by bit.

     “You like it?” he asked though he knew he didn’t need to.

     “Very much,” I sighed. “Would it be ok if I touched this purple flower here?”

     “Sure,” he said. “Just don’t crush it. It’s delicate.”

     I knew that. I, better than anyone, knew just how delicate things were. I turned back to the flowers and I pulled my glove from hand very slowly.

     What will I see, I wondered. I was unsure but I didn’t want to stop. I needed to see how it felt beneath my fingertips. I wanted to know if it was as velvety as it smelled in the air all around me. Or will it feel like silk, I wondered, or heaven?

     I brushed just the tips of my fingers along the edge of the bloom in front of me and started at the texture of it. It was smooth, but not soft. Glossy was a good word, but if glossy were a texture instead.

     I let my fingers curl lighting around the bottom of the petals and my eyes closed, breath exhaled, and the movie played through my mind.

     Alex’s grandfather finding the flowers growing quietly in the forest about 20 miles away. The destruction had already taken nearly all the towns, but some places outside hadn’t been scavenged or burnt yet. He carefully dug the roots of the flower up, put it in a scrap of cloth with some of the dirt, and wrapped it up. His hands were toughened with work and age, but they were gentle. He knew how to handle the plant. His wife had been a botanist. He’d built this room for her beneath their house, before it was his children’s home, before he had grandchildren.

     Alex. He was worried about Alex being in the basement all alone while he was gone but it was too dangerous for him to leave. He was too young, too scared. He didn’t know what was happing, not really. He’d seen one of the things, seen terrible things. He was worried he’d never get over seeing them. He hoped the beautiful flower would help. He wanted to plant more food crops, but the flowers reminded him of his wife. He was glad she’d died before the war. It would have killed her to see the world so grey.

     I let go of the flower slowly, reluctantly. I’d liked seeing the man in my vision, Alex’s grandfather. He’d been a good man, a kind man. I slipped my glove back reluctantly.

     “What was his name?” I asked quietly.

     “Arthur,” Alex said the name with reverence, somehow knowing who I’d been talking about. “He planted those flowers.”

     “Yes,” I said. “For his wife and for you.”

     Alex nodded.

     “Hey guys,” Latro said as she moved her long beautiful limbs gracefully though the plants. “You have to taste this orange. It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever had. I didn’t know food could be so-“ She had to think about it for a moment. “Sweet.”

     I laughed and so did Alex, our memories forgotten by Latro’s good mood.

     “Give me a bit,” I said happily.

     “Sure, me too,” Alex said though it wasn’t his first orange ever.

     I stuffed the juicy piece of fruit in my mouth, ohh-ing and ahh-ing as I rolled it around my tongue and let the flavors explode into my mouth.  Alex smiled and enjoyed his slice but not nearly as much as we did.

     “Um, that was good,” I offered after I swallowed. “Does all fruit taste so good?”

     “Yeah, does it?” Latro asked.

     Alex beamed and told us both that we’d have to stay long enough to taste it all to find out. We smiled back and agreed that we did.  He picked some of the more ripe strawberries and carried them out of the room as we went.

     “We can have these for desert,” he said as I shut the door to heaven behind me. “You’ll love them.”

     Once we finished the tour, Alex let us each pick a book to read while he cooked dinner. I settled myself onto the end of the couch and Latro next to me. She’d picked Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as her book and I’d taken The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I’d never read anything that wasn’t reference before so I had been particularly excited to find it on the only shelf I’d looked at.

     I opened the cover and immersed myself into the sad tale as delicious scent wafted though the room from the kitchen. I started reading fast, the way I always read in order to learn, but something about the book slowed me. It hadn’t been written to be memorized or read so fast. It was different, like my visions, like living a life through words and descriptions. As the realization truly hit me, I started examining the words, the characters more closely.

     By the time dinner was ready and I’d read the entire book, Latro had gone through at least six of her own. They were all how to books mostly, things that would be of use or about religion. She was most fascinated by the world’s different religions. She studied them because she wanted to know which one was right. She wanted to know more about heaven.

     We ate at a small table by the kitchen area, devouring our food until we finally felt sated. It had been a long time since either of us had eaten anything, and I’d said as much to Alex. He laughed and offered us more, but I could see the fear in his eyes behind the smile. He worried that someday he would have nothing as well.

     I smiled back at him, trying to make light as he gave us each three strawberries and we luxuriated in the taste of them until they were gone. Latro seemed the most humbled by the sweet but tangy fruit, and she thanked Alex until he’d had to tell her that he’d think she was lying if she didn’t stop.  She’d stopped immediately after.

     We helped Alex clean the plates after we ate and then he offered for the both of us to sleep in his bed. “I’ll take the couch,” he added hurriedly and I could see that he’d been embarrassed.

     “If you want,” Latro said easily. “We don’t really care. We’ve slept with men before, not human, but close enough. It doesn’t bother us.”

     “Oh,” he nearly choked. “I’ll take the couch anyway.”

     I laughed at a joke only I got and followed Latro into the room with the bed.

     “What’s so funny?” she asked me as we stripped out of our top layer of clothes and tossed them in a pile of the floor.

     “Nothing,” I giggled.

     “What,” she begged. “I can’t take it. Just tell me what you’re laughing at.”

     “No.”

     “Oh come on.”

     I eyed the bed longingly and she watched me.

     “I’ll take first watch,” she offered. “If,” she added slowly. “You tell me.”

     I laughed again but gave in. I was looking forward to the much needed sleep in the big soft bed. “I think you just invited Alex to bed with you.”

     “Of course I did. It’s his bed. He should be able to sleep in it too.”

     “No,” I laughed even harder. “I think you just invited to him to BED with you.”

     Her face screwed up uncomprehendingly and it made her all the more beautiful for it.

     I nodded at her, seeing her face start to light up.

     “No!” she nearly yelled. “You do not mean to bed with me, you mean to bed me?”

     I nodded again, laughing too hard now to catch my breath and say anything.

     She glared at me, something like horror and wonder mixing her features. “Oh no,” she finally sighed. “Oh no.”

     “Oh yes,” I finally managed as I crawled into the blankets in nothing but my undershirt, and underwear. “Oh yes.”

     She sat down on the floor, cross legged, and I felt her essence drift out from her as I fell asleep smiling for the first time ever.