Chris
The last thing I remembered was holding Juliet's hand and meeting my father… I thought… She handed Caleb over. Her little hand gripped me so tightly. And… then… we had to let go…
It was the first time she saw what I would become. My father wasn't as big as Silvanus was. The others were just a little bit bigger than me. I had some growing up to do.
I was in a wonderful state of euphoria, peace, and dreaminess. I thought that had to be what Juliet felt like getting those shots… She exchanged sexual favors for. If so… I understood why. There was so much wrong with that sentence. I giggled… Even better for her, she was going to marry her drug dealer… And it wasn't true. I didn't want to think about what was really going on. I was probably on another planet, and it hadn't sunk in yet… I smiled at the thoughts floating through my mind.
I was in motion. I felt the sway left and right of being carried, making me want to fall back to sleep. Opening my eyes, I saw no one with me. I lay on a hard surface with four posters and curtains. The roof was draped. It was pretty. I shook my head, thinking about Juliet going back to the compound. Qadir opened up her back with a belt again… I sighed…The unbearable heat swept in with wind and sand that washed over me… I coughed…
"Party over…" I whispered.
I sat up, preparing myself for whatever I had to face there. However long it was going to take. My goal was to get back to her… To take her son back to her… She said that her goal was to make her way to me. It was a race to see who loved the other more. Pulling back the curtain… All I saw was… Desert… Sand, rocks, and dunes all around me. I wasn't that high from the ground. I saw horns. Those were the men in the house that came for me. They were carrying me on their shoulders. I manifested and jumped out.
The four men bellowed into the sky, making the whole convoy stop. The train of Riphaths stretched from my left to the right as far as I could see. Everybody fell down to the ground. I groaned. I had wished that it would not be the case. I didn't want to be important. I saw what it did to Marcus. At best, I thought maybe we were just rich. My father came walking up to me. He clapped his hands together in the air. Everybody slowly got up, and the convoy moved again. No one was in human form. I held out my hands to take Caleb. He was fine and sleeping well. I thought we would have issues away from Juliet, but it seemed that the magic of rubbing your thumb over your child's head came in handy to put him out.
Out of habit, I changed back to human, putting Caleb on my shoulder. My father picked me up around the waist and hugged me, putting me down and turning me this way and that way. At least he seemed friendly… And he came for me… waited for me.
"Aren't you going to say something to your father?"
"Does the whole planet look like this? It's freaking hot!"
A low rumble escaped his lips… "Yeah. Why do you think… no one wants this place." He laughed out of his stomach and slapped me on the shoulder.
"What do I call you?"
"King Manaen…Father… Dad… My name is Ira."
"King off?" Guess my surname wasn't Rheed anymore, but Manaen.
"Zoreah." He lifted his hands in the air. The whole convoy cheered and went into song… Each Riphath sang different parts. Some took out instruments that I had not heard or seen before. It was beautiful and echoed into the desert around us and back again.
"Is Zoreah a place or the planet?"
"The planet stands united under the name of Zoreah… There are no wars here. No clans and no one else besides who you see here. The city we are walking towards is called Yaroun. We are a peaceful species that doesn't like to fight. We have no crime and no strict laws like on your… Earth…"
The mention of the Earth as a third party made me revisit the idea that I was actually on another planet. In another system. How far was I from… home?
"You're a very serious boy…." He tapped my head. "Too much in your head… Just like your mother." I peeked up at him to see if I could see any emotion in his features about her.
I couldn't really make out what his human attributes would be. Like a Riphath, we all resembled each other in some way. There weren't really distinctive features to separate us. Not like the vampires… Maybe when I was there for a while, I would start to see what they saw.
"Where are we going." I started walking in the same direction as the train of Riphaths.
"We are migrating north for the winter months."
He handed me a sack for Caleb that I could drape over my shoulder and carry him on my chest. We walked in silence for some time before Silvanus came to join us. They seemed friendly to each other. There were no royalty formalities towards my father.
"So who am I that they bowed like that… Silvanus bowed the first time, and the four guys yesterday… what's the deal here?"
"You are the born prince… Riphaths only have one child their entire lives. So you are the next king…." The way I always walked was eyes cast down and in my head thinking. Hearing this didn't make me lift up my gaze to survey all I would rule. On the contrary, my heart sank a little every time he said something... One child… In nine hundred years. Caleb would be my only kid.
It was quiet between the three of us. Silvanus came closer and patted me on the back. "You okay, son?"
I shook my head from side to side.
"What's the problem? You miss that little girl…?" Hmmm, Chuckle… noise. "Don't worry, we will get you some woman to make you quickly forget about her… Here on Zoreah, we do what we want to with who we want to… There are no commitments here… You fit right in… With the easy way, you accepted your life on Earth."
"Why did I end up on earth?"
"Your mother paid someone to take her away from here. There was a problem with the communication. She ended up stranded on Earth for some time. She had you…. And according to the orphanage you were in. A human one. She had died in childbirth." He slapped me on the shoulder. "A sad business for sure."
"Why?" I turned around and glared at Silvanus and my father. "The truth!"
"It's nothing like that… She wasn't running away or fearing for her life… There was a problem with the water supply around that time. Drought for years and years. She got pregnant… We wanted her off-planet… Paid to have her stay somewhere safe."
"Where?"
"I… don't remember… but she was doing it all by herself… As I said, no one here gets married or stays together for life… There is no point… We are not that sentimental." Silvanus held out his hand to Manaen. Who nodded in agreement.
"Why so sentimental about me… could you not have left me there." My father grabbed my shoulder and picked me up again, hugging me.
"Children are an exception… We love our children to death… We do it as a community. No one is lost, forgotten, or forsaken… The thing is… I trusted your mother with the arrangements. And accidents do happen… but we never lost hope, Chris."
***
We had been walking for hours. Caleb was waking up after a nap. I was glad that I was fit. And that all I had done for months was exercise, fight, and study. It was still only rocks and sand all around us. The scenery didn't change. A soft breeze that made the sand blow up and into my eyes. My father hadn't left my side and was walking behind me, and faithfully behind him was Silvanus.
"He needs to be fed soon. How is that going to work? I don't see bottles here."
Ira didn't respond.
"King Manaen…" It didn't sound quite right. I cleared my throat. I tried again… "mm… Father?" Silvanus and Ira laughed.
"Yes, boy?"
"Did you hear me ask about milk?"
"I did." He clapped his hands together. A very young Riphath came running up to him, bending a knee. "Go get the nursemaid."
My head snapped around. "What?"
That was why he didn't answer me? That morning, Caleb was still on Juliet's breast. He would be suckling on a strange woman soon. I stopped walking, making the whole convoy stop. I groaned and rolled my eyes… Irritation made my feet move again. The entire convoy proceeded. What a production for a peaceful nation.
"Here, we nurse the kids in a neighborhood of people. But if you want, we can assign just one to Caleb."
I wondered what happened to Juliet when we left. Her son was taken away from her. I disappeared. Did she change? Could they control her? Was Michael already taking my place with his special button? I looked up from the small path we were all walking on. Another person came walking toward us. A woman. As she came into view, I blinked several times... She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Stunned into a visible jolt. Silvanus laughed. My father slapped me on the shoulder. "She is one of the ugly ones." He whispered.
I choked on a burst of laughter. "How can anyone be prettier than this goddess walking toward us."
"Forgetting about Juliet so soon?"
Who's Juliet…? I thought to myself. Oh yeah, the mother of my child. That girl… who had the body of a boy and small, perky breasts. A mouth you needed to kiss, or else she would say something to put you down. You had to hold on to her, or she would do something stupid. Like, bring another boy home… A little girl with tiny hands. Piercing blue eyes. Ones… that could see BS. a mile away. See right through you. She would be so jealous… I would have to beg for forgiveness. I didn't mind fighting with her. She liked the fact that it built a connection. But I would never see Juliet again. I didn't have two hundred years of fornication like Louis and Marcus had before meeting her. It was implied that both of them had several women over the years. But never anyone after… And that they would never have anyone else.
Even Juliet had more men than I had had women. Before Sita, there was… No one. An outsider in school and a nerd. It didn't make me the most popular guy around. Studying at a community college on a scholarship. It had me working my ass off to put myself through school so that I didn't have debt when I got out of there. And all I had to show for it was a teaching job.
The goddess came closer and closer. It wasn't one of those pretty from far off but far from pretty up close. She was both and had massive breasts like Juliet said they would. "Does this mean she has a child of her own?" I asked but got no answer.
She fell to the ground in front of me. Bowing. I had such a mixture of emotions coursing through me that my brain worked overtime.
"If you're not pleased with me, we can organize someone else." She said it so softly I could barely hear her.
"Get up!" I held out a hand. She took it. "Don't do that again." She nodded.
Reluctantly, I took Caleb from the pouch around my neck and handed him to her. She took him from me as if he were the next king. Which he was.
She didn't go far and got into the chair I was in earlier. The four Riphath men picked her up… boosting her onto their shoulders. She closed the curtains. You could barely see her outline. But knowing that she was in there half-naked was playing tricks on my mind. The way she and one of the carriers had made eye contact. It seemed that everyone really just did what they wanted. Ira slapped me on the shoulder. "That's a good boy. You love that girl so much that we thought you three would put up a fight… That you would fight and not want to come."
"Why you drugged us? Unnecessary…"
Ira bobbed his head.
"So what are the major laws that I should know about? Before I break any of them? Or even something important?"
"Peace should always be the only resolution," Ira stated. "Not to hurt anyone as far as you are able."
I frowned. That's vague.
"Children are the most important thing on our planet." He continued. "And… the fact… that…" He hesitated and drew in a breath… "One… year… on Earth… is five… on Zoreah."
Ira had said the last part really slowly. So that it would sink in. It was another one of those moments when my mind went completely blank. That no thoughts were computing. I had hoped he was joking. I stopped. That time, I didn't care if the whole convoy copied me. My father wasn't waiting for thirty years… But a hundred and fifty years… For me. If I didn't see Juliet for a year... Caleb would be five… I didn't think I could do it. "How do I go back?" I spun around.
"Chris!" Ira tried.
"How do I go back!" I yelled. He came out of his Riphath form and stood before me human. The whole convoy did the same. But I didn't care. "How do I go back?" I pleaded.
"You can… never go back," Ira whispered, trying to grab my shoulders.
***
Michael
"Michael. Michael."
My one eye wanted to obey me. The lights were so bright. It wasn't easy to focus on the person in front of me. "What do you want?" My voice was croaky. I coughed, trying to sit up. Kubra helped me get my torso into the air. I was already weak. Hadn't been there long. It could've only been a few days. My body felt it, though. Being locked up in the dark. No food. Just drugs. He held up water for me. Eagerly, I drank down the cool liquid. I had to clear my throat to find my voice. "What do you want?" I asked again.
"Where is that freaking button? That tech to control Juliet… She changed and nearly killed Marcus." That got my attention. I breathed in a deep breath. Lifted my head to the roof, thanking the universe for making all my plans work out.
"Safety deposit box. Chris's box. The old town they lived in."
Our heads jerked to the left when we saw a figure in the doorway. Jabin didn't stop and strutted up to Kubra, pulling him up by his jacket, fisting a clump of material in his hand. "What are you doing?" Kubra stayed silent. "What have you been doing, boy?" Kubra still didn't answer. Jabin let him go and tossed his clothes back at him. "If you think I don't know what's going on, you're more naive than I thought."
"You have your master… And I have mine."
"You're supposed to be above this. You're my son. Helping Marcus in the right direction and not assisting him being stupid!" Kubra cast his eyes to the ground. "Where are the feeds for the last two weeks, Kubra?"
"I set it to live feed and not recording… I've been watching, but no one will ever know what happened."
I got the sense that Kubra was lying… But would his father know? Jabin was furious, pointing his finger at Kubra, turning on his heels, and spinning back at his son. "You just killed your own father. Ahasuerus specifically wanted to know what would happen."
Kubra's features hardened at the thought. "Like I said. You have your master, and I have mine."
Jabin laughed with restraint. "You think Marcus is better than Ahasuerus… Why?"
"He is different."
Jabin smiled sardonically. "You are ignorant. Knowing nothing of what's going on. They are one family that will never die out… Or let the rule of the planet fall into the hands of another clan… Marcus has been indoctrinated for so long… Do you really think he will be different? So far, he has grown up the worst of all the sons of Ahasuerus. Even worse than Qadir. And look what he did… There is no duty to anyone but themselves… And the throne. Do not let Marcus's self-control and… nature fool you. As soon as he tastes the power… Marcus will turn into something you don't recognize."
Kubra smiled back at his father with the same mouth and face. Their facial features were almost identical. The one was just older, a little bigger, stronger, and had a few lines around the eyes. Scars on his face. Black short hair that both of them wore the same way. Identical black three-piece suits. A shirt collar and a black tie came up high into their faces. They painted an impressive picture. Running alongside a king was an honor. No matter the species.
"I see you've been in the same place for far too long, father… Next to the same person for far too long. You are making decisions based on assumptions… When Marcus kills Ahasuerus and takes the throne… I'll make sure he gives you an island somewhere far away from me." I thought that Jabin would hit him for the disrespect. The older man turned away towards the door and stopped.
"Come Kubra, no one is allowed down here." The son wanted to defy… but ultimately walked towards the door. Jabin spun towards Kubra. "Right there, you just proved to me that you are wrong. How many times must Marcus show you who his master is? He is just…"
"Don't say it!" Both I and Kubra yelled at the same time. I smiled, hoping Jabin was wrong. That I was right in telling Juliet to trust Marcus… All of us together couldn't have been wrong about him… That he wasn't just like his father.
***
Kubra
I knocked on Carl's hotel room. My eyes darted to my watch. It was already 8:00 am. We were still in Paris and needed to get to America. Tiny little details needed to be finalized in France. Before we could go to Washington.
"Hey, you ready." My eyes darted into the room and at him. It was a mess, and he wasn't close to being anywhere near presentable. The stench of alcohol overwhelmed me.
"That bad, huh? I thought you and Charlene would end up together… eventually. I actually thought she would come with you." I pushed him into the room.
"You're so much livelier than I pegged you for Kubra." Carl's words slurred.
"When did you stop drinking?" He lifted up the small bottle in his hands.
"For the last year… I've never seen you drink this much."
"Mmmm, I wanted to know what it felt like… Juliet and Charlene are always drunk. Smoking and with someone."
I scoffed at his logic. "You could've been that someone. Seems like you're drinking because you were fooling yourself. At least they know what they want. You, my friend, have no clue what's important to you."
"Says the guy with a black suit on and has been sucking… someone dry for two hundred years."
By then, I had pushed him into the shower. Coldwater assaulted him. He screamed and danced around as I kept pushing him under the freezing stream.
"I'll make you a cup of coffee. Get undressed and take a proper shower. We need to go." He glowered at me. I pouted my lips and shook my head.
The last year, we've all been watching them. We've noticed and seen so many things going on in that house that I sometimes felt a connection with them. Marcus was so invested. I had to be too. So… Not only was Carl Bertram's son… But my best friend and ally. I also added watcher tech to keep a close eye on Charlene. Seeing her so scared last night… Fighting with Ben. I just couldn't go back at that moment. She had to stay safe for two days at most.
The family that Juliet had created went beyond my understanding. How she got Marcus to accept sharing her... I had watched Marcus grow up in horrific conditions. That day, when he met Juliet, something changed in him. I saw it grow. Flourish. I was there when he went against everything he had been taught. Choosing her. It sustained me for a while. Made me believe the universe wasn't as screwed up as we thought. Maybe we could choose another way. And that year… I decided I also wanted it. Watching how they lived off the compound opened my eyes. Wide.
I took out my phone and sent a message…
Anonymous { Hey. Everything will be okay. I'm still watching the house. Hang tight. }
I made Carl a cup of coffee and kept an eye on the news. We needed to report to our fathers. Bertram wanted him… and Jabin wanted me away from Marcus. There was contention between fathers and sons. All around. A fight that wasn't going to end well for either the older generation or the younger one.