Vivid (BoyxBoy) {Pipe Dream: Book I}

Chapter Twenty-Three: Simon Says 'Jump'

Chapter Twenty-Three: Simon Says 'Jump'

"Kae," Siem made me feel very small. "I will make things very clear. I will not hesitate to kill you if you do anything that threatens my people. It has taken over a decade for us to build what we have and anything that jeopardises it I will deal with it without any reservations. And I won't lose sleep over it either."

He really makes me feel right at home. "I got it," I mutter. What else could I do?

I see a smirk form on his lips, "On the flip side, I will protect you as best I can. Now," that smirk disappears as his eyes linger on my fingers that I wasn't able to fully hide, "show me." He holds out his hands and I make no move towards him. He must have realised how threatened I felt as the sharpness in his eyes soften. "I promise not to hurt you as long as you cooperate."

I felt like growling, my lip twitches as I hold out my arm.

His hand is rough and big as he takes my hand while the other forces the sleeve up.

I hear Mist's sudden intake of breath and I look away as the onyx-scales are exposed.

"Hanna has explained to me that you said that you did not gain this arm or..." he pulls on my hood to expose my face, "appearance until you made contact with the Queen."

I look back at him in the eye, unable to completely hide the bitterness from my face.

"So you know what they really are," he muses, letting go of my arm.

I take a step back, pulling the sleeve and hood back to hide myself.

"I'll agree to your terms...but you have to follow mine. Are we clear?"

I feel like someone pulled a rug from underneath me. "Huh?"

"You are looking for your siblings and require our assistance. In exchange, you'll give yourself up...to me. Well, to our cause more specifically. It'll be interesting, I have to admit. Especially with your cat-friend. It is rare to find a Miasmic-Beast not trying to maul us to death. For you to have tamed one...perhaps that shows promise that we may yet be forgiven."

"Forgiven?" I frown.

"Yes," and he doesn't bother elaborating. "Now then, Hanna. You said that there was something interesting you wanted me to see."

"Yep. A recording." Hanna grins, going over to his desk and fiddles with something that brings up a weird holographic screen in the centre of the room, making me jump back from the carpet. "It's only about ten seconds long...it's been damaged rather strangely."

As she hits a button, the blue screen becomes a weird colour before it flickers over to what looks like the room they had me cooped up in when they first caught me. ...And there I was on that table thing, laying down like a corpse....is that seriously what I look like? I look like someone decided to drag me through hell -ass first- and my hair was a birds nest. I couldn't stop myself from reaching for my hair...yep still sort of a mess...Did my bones really stick out like that?

Suddenly, the 'me' on the holographic screen had the eyes wide open and sitting bolt up. I notice the markings moved and pulsed along my body like a snake and actually seep into the eye as it blackened and the iris became yellow and snake-like itself. Where that 'me' sat, ice began to crackle along the ground, growing with the groaning snap of deep-water ice. Then that 'me's eyes flick to what I imagine to be the camera as the yellow eye pierces through my bones before the video suddenly stops with a snap.

"The recording ends here and there has been no way to put it back online since. I was barely able to save even this much of the data." Hanna reverses the recording and freezes it on the 'me' that's staring directly at the camera...and it's really spooky.