'Kid! We need to talk about next room! Your father is a bigger fish than Raima, find a way to avoid his gaze for a moment!'
There was too little time to rejoice from their reunion. Show had seen the terrible scene behind the wall and couldn't keep it for himself.
"Hey, let's have some talk before having a bite."
Said Lorbe. The kid wanted to enjoy some more time. It had been a year since he had lost his father and he began to compare each traits of Lorbe's face he hadn't a memory of. Was it really him?
While his nervous tic intensified, Lorbe kept on scratching his head, burns began to appear on his scalp under his thick hair. To reduce the pain, he would chew his nails to their utmost limit. He clearly had trouble being steady.
"I feel a little jumpy today, can we head outside for a walk? Here, let me take this off, it must be heavy."
He said while removing Keith's cloak. He swiped his sweaty forehead, his nervousness raised little by little.
Lorbe shown various locations he liked to his son. The market, the 'park' and the big place which seemed to be eventful.
There Keith had an unprecedented sight. Something huge, wrinkles all over its big body. Covered in dust that made his skin vary from pale grey to red. With tens of ornaments or what might have been done to protect it. Two white carved sticks that decorated his face and those eyes devoid of life. Staring to the crowd acclaiming it. Most people raised their hands, a joyous feeling emanated from the people.
Each of the thing's steps made the ground shake and left prints behind. Shiny pieces of decoration were distributed all around its body and especially on its back.
"What's this?"
He asked. He couldn't understand what he was seeing. Lorbe answered. "Our king."
While Mister Show said. 'An elephant.'
The crowd could barely see the man in the wooden cabin at the top of
the animal and it was more a mark of power than a simple ride. The parade was composed of many guards, long clothed men and beautiful women nearby the animal with feathery fans. They went to the grand place and where more people gathered. And so the two followed the crowd.
The elephant stopped and one of the man from behind the procession came with a scroll he unrolled while clearing his throat.
"The great king Chandragupta has been informed of the devil's presence in this very city. It is said to be hungry for flesh. The king has decided to act against the devil. Therefore all must open their door to the guards or else be punished by blood."
That's the moment both Lorbe and Keith swallowed their saliva. They could hear gossips all around.
"I heard that from northern temple. Someone saw it!"
"That'll explain the many recent disappearances my brother told me about."
"Is this for real?"
"The rumours were true?"
"They said it ate a whole cart from its mount to its coachman!"
'People gone missing? That can't be me' Keith thought.
'A whole cart? That can't be me.' Lorbe thought.
They were missing the point their everything made the monster. While the hear-say had already distorted reality, it amplified its popularity and the word spread as fast as fire.
Still Show was a little more lucid and looked for a way to take advantage of this situation. If the population was looking for something, he could gave them, appearing at night in a remote place to give Keith some safety space. But that would mean leaving the kid alone with the corpse amateur his father was.
Keith, Lorbe and Raima had cannibalistic behaviours. Raima quickly died, eating her unborn runt in a curry. Keith ate a lot of meat so far. And Lorbe had his collection exposed in his room. His age managed to make him understand how sick he had became over time.
He knew his business was wrong but the pain in his whole body said the contrary. He had to go out and bait people by letting them think they'll be given a meal, a bed or even sex. He worked hard to not give his identity but somehow he was found by his long lost son.
The son he had paid his now growing hunger with. The situation was fucked up. There had to be a line connecting the dots. He couldn't bear his own doing and he was aware he'll be discovered sooner or later anyway.
'I could... I could turn myself in... Or I could turn him on my behalf.' He thought. New plans entangled his brain by the passing minutes until they went back home.
Tapping his fingers on half a table, he couldn't decide. On his side, Keith had Show pondering on almost the same choices.
'Either he give us to the guards, either we give him to the guards, but we'll be alone once more. We have some talking to do little one.'
"Father? Mother taught me something important we have to discuss before she passed away. It's about my birth."
'No way.' Lorbe couldn't believe his son.
"She told me about a magician in another land that healed both of you, but cursed you in return."
"That fucking bastard! That's all because of him!"
Lorbe flipped the table and punched the wall, then asked.
"What else did she said about Wenyi?"
'What's that?' Keith asked, just to be mentally yelled at by Show. 'CONTINUE REPEATING!'
"That you'll be damned as much as she was, and so would I. Can we go in your room now? If you show me I'm sure we can pass through it together."
The kid wasn't mature at all, he wasn't close from his father either, but Lorbe needed those exact words.
"For real?"
Lorbe was emotionally moved. He moved away because him and his late wife were devoured by hunger. They had no argues whatsoever, they were both fighting against their stomach. The family was doomed to know what loss was.
The difference between Lorbe and Raima is that the woman struggled harder than the father. She stayed by Keith's side and she was resolute to stay by his side. The pain drove her insane and ended up giving her a jumpy mood, hate and finally, death.
The difference between Keith and his parents is that they have no Show, no healer to keep their body 'healthy'. The kid had mutations through the process that helped him adapt his diet. Hardened teeth, stronger jaw, stretching fiber in the trachea and muscle density around the neck to pull harder with his mouth.
It wasn't easy to discern, his features remained the same, almost as if his body focused on evolving rather than growing up.
They hugged once more. 'And here I was, thinking about losing my son again...'
"How did you hold on until now?"
"With rodents I could catch, I'm a good hunter. I was taught how to fish! I could teach you too!"
Lorbe heaved a sigh. "No needs for fish when you can have better delicacies."
He opened the door of his room, revealing a macabre sight. Merging bodies... A piece of art. Lorbe had eaten their organs and their contents, so the only smell was that of the rotting skin. He spent his time with them, just to scare rats and flies. Nearby the bed was this mass of bodies, stitched, sutured , altogether. Their parts started deteriorating and the man added more parts over it.
Time stopped as Keith was processing the colossal amount of morbid in front of him.
'What's this ...?'
"Help yourself, son."
Both their mind were dizzy.
Blood fell from Keith's nose.
'What has he done to them?'
The thing wasn't alive. Yet he didn't miss the missing parts on the humans composing the picture. Teeth? They were all in front of him, inside one of the many gaping holes of the creature.
"I thought I was raving mad at first then, after pondering a little I knew it could work! If I can summon him then maybe he can cure me... he can cure us. I saw him in many dreams. The curse and the man who curses."
That was definitely Show's effigy. With human features. Except for the sunken eyes all over the place and the mixture of blood and pus seeping through holes.
The silver lining going under the door were all around the place, they radiated from the statue. Keith swore he could see it moving, emitting a nearly inaudible sound. The thing was full of insects and small living beings. Lorbe couldn't guard his food stock every time, he had to ration it. To make it bigger.
"Maybe I've achieved it. You heard the decree right? It came to the city, either they noticed my actions, either he came."
There was nothing Keith could vomit in his tummy. He was shocked deep. But he had to reassure his father for the moment being.
"It's fine father. I am sure you did great."
The same moment they could hear uproar from the neighbourhood, in the street, guards were already inspecting houses. Banging at doors and sometimes breaking them.