Paragenesis: Stories of the Dawn of Wraeththu (6 page)

I am dragged from the comfort
of my memories by an intense sensation that I cannot ignore. I
think I’m screaming, although it’s difficult to tell whether the
heart-wrenching sound comes from my throat or from one of the
others in the darkness around me. It
f
eels
as if I’m
being burned alive, yet the next moment my insides are freezing
cold. Wave after wave. The process repeats itself, dragging me
through one world of agony after another. Each time I’m sure I’ll
die from the pain alone, but always something within me resists the
temptation to surrender. The cold stone beneath me digs into my
back. Each small grain of dirt feels like a blade. The fine grains
of sand and gravel abrade my flesh like nails, tearing it away to
reveal the bone beneath. My jaw is clenched tightly, my eyes are
squeezed shut: quiet explosions of colour blossom before my mind’s
eye. From those explosions, more memories emerge. To escape the
pain, my mind retreats once more into events that happened only a
few days ago...yet seem more than a lifetime away.

Over time, through evolution,
herd creatures develop a sort of sixth-sense about danger; an
instinct that warns them of the approach of a predator. Whether
it’s catching a hint of musk on the air, hearing the rustle of the
underbrush, or feeling an inexplicable urge to flee, this instinct
has enabled herd animals to survive. Unfortunately, my own
instincts and intuition were not quite as finely tuned as those
possessed by other creatures. By the time I realized that I was
vulnerable, standing alone in the open with no one else around, it
was too late.

Just as the hairs on the back
of my neck began to tingle, an explosion of sharp pain burst in the
back of my skull. The shock of it nearly drove me to my knees. It
sent my backpack skittering across the sidewalk and my glasses
clattering to the road.

‘Hey, Piggy, good to see ya!’ A
sickeningly cheerful voice came from behind me. A voice I
recognized all-too-well. If I was near the bottom of the social
hierarchy in school, then the voice belonged to a guy who stood
near the top: Jamie Brown. You know the type: captain of the
varsity football team, face and body of a Hollywood actor,
personality of a barracuda. I’m sure that every school around the
world has one of those types. One of those people who have been
given everything on a silver platter, yet who decide for some
reason that those less fortunate needed to be reminded of it
constantly.

Jamie never went anywhere
without his pack, all predators like himself, although he was
clearly their Alpha-male. And I had the misfortune of being the
prey they had cornered this day. There was no reason for them to be
out where I lived, except for the corner store across the street
from my bus stop where they were remarkably lax about carding
people for cigarettes or alcohol. From the reek of beer and tobacco
surrounding those guys, it wasn’t too hard for me to figure out why
they were around here. I just had the bad luck to be in the area at
the wrong time.

Jamie and his pack were
infamous amongst the herd students for the strange types of
entertainment they enjoyed. No one who’d been forced to entertain
them ever said a word about it, but there was a strange sense about
these victims, as if their spirits had been totally broken. I had
always believed that my friend Rick had committed suicide because
of something Jamie’s pack had done to him, and that was probably
the same reason Adam had run away as well.

‘What a great way to finish our
Friday, eh guys?’ Jamie crowed to his friends.

They crowded around me,
jostling me from one body to the next until I was dizzy. The world
around me was a blur of washed out colours, yet somehow Jamie’s
cruelly smiling face was crystal clear. ‘A case of beer, some
cigarettes, and now we have a little Piggy for some entertainment.
Who could ask for a better way to start the weekend?’

Before I knew what was
happening, before I could say anything in protest, I was manhandled
into the back of Jamie’s car, pressed between two of his friends.
They had decided to take me someplace more private for their
entertainment
. The fear in my stomach churned acid that
scalded its way up my throat, yet fear also kept my lips clamped
shut. I was terrified of what would happen if I were sick. They
were bigger, stronger, and meaner than I was. If I protested, or
made any commotion, I would be beaten - and beaten bad. The further
we got from my home, the sicker I felt. If there was any point in
my life that I’d wished myself dead, this was the time.

Suddenly, I am awash with a
coolness that spreads through every part of my body, soothing away
the fire and ice, and the pain that has been my torment. Once more
my wandering mind returns to my body. I gasp involuntarily at the
unexpected release. Tears of relief fall down my face, even if this
reprieve is only temporary. Around me, some of the others are
weeping too, while still more moan and scream in the throes of
agony. My body feels different somehow, as if it’s too tight and
too small to contain the energy that’s building up inside me again.
A thin blade of light cuts across my face, burning my sore eyes. I
can hear myself groaning.

As I close my eyes against the
light, a strange, dispassionate voice speaks over the cries. ‘Three
have already died and it looks like two more won’t make it through
the night. I want the bodies removed and tossed into the pit; we
can burn them before dawn.’

I try to rise and open my eyes,
to see who’s talking and what he’s talking about, but the straps
hold me fiercely. The sweat-soaked leather is slimy against my
skin, yet although I’m still bound, the straps feel a bit looser
than before. Odd, considering leather tends to shrink when it’s
soaked, becoming tighter not looser. It almost makes me laugh: my
mind attempting to rationalize the looseness of the leather straps
instead of worrying about the talk of people dying and not making
it through the night. Then my body once more explodes with pain.
The fires within me flare hungrily back to life, feasting upon my
insides with fangs that dig deep enough to scorch my soul. It’s as
though someone or something is trying to disembowel me from the
inside out.

I don’t know how long I was in
the car, or to where exactly we were driving. Jamie seemed to be
taking a convoluted route through the city and Carmine has never
been the easiest of places to navigate. Within minutes, I was
hopelessly lost and gave up trying to watch where we were going. I
realized fairly quickly that trying to find my way back home would
be hopeless. All I could hope for was that I would be able to get
hold of my mother somehow, after the evening’s
entertainment
was completed, because I knew already that this was a one-way trip
as far as Jamie was concerned.

Finally, Jamie pulled his car
into a narrow side alley in what looked to be one of the more
rundown areas of the city. After stopping the car, Jamie and his
friends quickly got out, ushering me in front of them through a
small door into a dark room. The metal door closed behind them with
a resonant clang that sent shivers through my body.

I could hear the heavy
breathing of other guys in the darkness of the room; I could almost
smell their anticipation. Apparently though, only Jamie really knew
what was going to happen, because one of his goons suddenly asked,
‘Are ya sure this is the right place?’

‘Yes, now shut up!’ Jamie
barked back. He pressed a large hand against my back, propelling me
further into the gloom and down a hallway.

The building stunk of old piss,
of rotting meat, trash and other things that I didn’t want to
identify. The smell definitely did not ease the churning in my
stomach.

‘Down the stairs, Piggy.’

I felt like retching, but my
body had begun to descend into a state of shock. I followed Jamie’s
directions, nervously climbing down the stairs. The other boys
followed behind me, ensuring that I couldn’t make a break for
it.

The stairs emerged into a large
basement, dimly lit except for small patches of sunlight streaming
through grimy windows. Then, as soon as all of us had stepped into
the room, a light array flickered on overhead, the bright
fluorescent bulbs humming loudly. They revealed that we were not
alone.

A tall figure stood illuminated
in the harsh fluorescent radiance. Spiky hair dyed indigo,
fashioned into a Mohawk that spilled down his back, contrasted with
the whiteness of his skin, as did the black fishnet shirt and black
latex pants that seemed moulded to his incredibly lithe body. His
face was...the only word I could think to describe it was sculpted.
His features were fine, narrow and angular, yet with a fullness of
lips and a certain lushness about him that was reminiscent of
marble sculptures from Ancient Greece or Rome. The fishnet shirt
revealed that the figure was in fact a guy, yet the way he held his
body and the way he moved seemed off somehow. There was something
distinctly inhuman about him.

As the stranger saw us, he gave
an odd, almost feral smile. He peered at me from eyes shadowed by
his hair. ‘Good, you brought him,’ he said, in a soft, almost
whispering voice.

‘Yeah,’ Jamie replied smugly,
‘Just as ya asked - the Pig...er...the kid, Mikey. You got the
money? Same deal as always?’

The stranger stepped forward,
moving towards us with a sinuous grace that made me uncomfortable.
Not that I wasn’t already scared enough to piss myself, but I was
so caught by the grip of terror, at that moment even a loosening of
my bowels seemed impossible.

When the stranger spoke next,
it was in a sort of pleased hiss that reminded me uncannily of a
cobra about to strike, ‘Excellent, Jamie...you will most assuredly
receive what you deserve.’

‘Great, just what I wanted to
hear,’ Jamie smirked and nodded his head, glancing smugly towards
his friends as he said, ‘See, what’d I tell ya? These guys’ll pay
good money for these scumbags. Best part is, no one cares what
happens to ‘em, so it’s easy money.’

Just as the last word left
Jamie’s lips, the stranger snapped his fingers. At once, the room
was again thrust into darkness. Movement erupted around me. Jamie
and his pack were shouting and flailing about, and there were
others in the murky shadows, moving with absolute silence except
for the whispering slither of vinyl and leather. Bodies crashed
into me as I tried to make a break for it, sending me spinning,
until I couldn’t tell which way was out. I strained my eyes trying
to pierce the gloom, but all I could see was the afterimage of the
fluorescent light burned against the backs of my eyes. Finally, I
thought I spotted a gleam of light, a possible way out, so I
started running, pushing my way past whatever got in my way; then
someone hit me from behind and sent me sprawling to the concrete
floor. I tried to pick myself up, but a hard boot slammed against
my head and sent me crashing into oblivion.

When I awoke, I found myself in
a large room, without much light. I quickly realized I was naked,
my skin crusted with sweat and filth. It didn’t take me much longer
to realize I was trapped with others, who were in a similar state
to myself. At first, I tried talking to these anonymous figures,
but the oppressiveness of the room and the starkness of our
situation soon left each one of us alone with our own thoughts.
Thoughts crowded into my head: I had been sold into slavery, or
kidnapped by some strange cult, or even that I would be forced to
take part in some sinister government experiment. In the end, when
the Uigenna came to drag us away and strapped me down to the stone
table, I had given up trying to figure out what had happened, but
found in myself a strange determination to get out of it somehow,
to get out and become something more than a statistic of another
inexplicable disappearance.

I open my eyes and gaze up at
the lights above me. My body feels strange, different somehow.
Looking down at myself, I see the straps have gone. I’m lying on a
cot instead of a cold stone table. I’m covered with a thin grey
blanket, my body’s shape visible beneath the fabric. At once, I sit
upright, my head reeling. This can’t be real. The rolls of fat have
gone, as if they melted away in that terrible crucible of heat and
pain. What’s left behind is a body lithe and willowy. And I can see
myself clearly, without the thick glasses I’ve needed all my life.
Warily, I lift the corner of the blanket to see what lies beneath.
Something has been done to me. Something beyond words. This body is
not mine: it can’t be. I’m not sure if it’s even male any more.

I lie back in the silence,
unable even to think. I lie still, very still. I stare at the
cracked ceiling.

Then a shadow falls over me and
a voice murmurs, ‘So, our sleeping beauty awakens.’ It is the
stranger from the basement: the tall, slender figure in ebony,
ivory and indigo. He smiles and something within me stirs. There’s
something oddly familiar about him. And beyond this recognition is
another feeling. He approaches me slowly. ‘Good morning, Mikey. I’d
ask if you slept well, but I remember how painful the change
is.’

I pull the sheet up to my neck,
say nothing.

He smiles wistfully and shakes
his head. ‘What? Don’t recognize me? No, guess not... I was a bit
different the last time you saw me. Well, guess that means we need
to be reintroduced. Down here, they call me Athame, but the name my
parents gave me was Adam.’

I stare at him, and shake my
head in denial of his words, yet as I look into his eyes, they are
familiar to me, and part of me believes him. He kneels next to me,
lifting a delicate yet powerful hand to cup my face. Alien thoughts
spark inside me again. ‘I know you don’t understand any of this. I
know that this must come as a huge shock to you. It was a shock to
me as well. But let me tell you, it is better this way. I couldn’t
save Ricky from killing himself, but I could save you.’