Coming of Age -- Ending Two of Four is up!

mmmyep, chapter 5... it's getting weird... you've been warned.

Read, love, review, thanks!
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Lila was beautiful. She had artfully curled her strawberry blonde hair into a messy pile on top of her head, her make up was perfect, and she’d worn Connor’s favorite dress, the pale blue strapless one that clung to her hips. She swooped down on him, planting a slow, lingering kiss on his mouth. But when she pulled back, she wrinkled her nose.

“You taste strange.” She told him. “Like… spearmint.”

He half smiled at her. “I’m sorry.” He watched her sit down beside him, and let her rest her head on his shoulder.

“That’s all right.” She said, and snuggled against him. “I’ve missed you.”

“Have you?” she nodded. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around the last couple of days.” He paused for a moment, and then patted her hand. “But at least you have the others to keep you company, right? Like Adam?” he been suspecting it was Adam since he first got the notion she might be cheating. When she sat up and met his eyes, the look on her face was affirmation enough.

Of course, she went on to deny it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She told him, but her voice too flat and guarded. “Where did you hear that?”

He shook his head and patted her hand again. “It doesn’t matter, Lila. What does matter is that I know about it.” She looked away, her face turning an unflattering shade of scarlet. “How long?” he asked her.

“A week.” She said softly. “Maybe ten days. Not long.” She gave him a tiny shrug and managed to meet his eyes again. She at least had the good grace to look guilty, and he almost felt sorry for her. “I’m so sorry, Connor.”

He nodded and patted her hand again. “It’s okay. It’s better this way, I think.” She frowned, obviously confused. “I mean, maybe since we both fucked up, we can move past it and just be friends again.”

It took her a moment to realize what he meant, but when it sank in, she launched herself off the couch and began to pace in front of him. “Who is she?” she demanded, her hands twisting together in front of her. She cracked her knuckles, a nervous habit Connor has always despised. “How long have you two been-“

“Lila.” Connor cut in. “Don’t be so overdramatic. You can’t apologize for fucking my friend and then immediately turn into a jealous bitch when you find out you weren’t the only one screwing around.”

She glared at him. “Don’t you call me a bitch.”

“Well, stop acting like one then.”

“Who is she?” she snapped, and stomped her foot. “Tell me.”

“No.” he leaned back, dropping his hand behind the back of the couch. Jin immediately linked their fingers together. “Lila, this is pretty much the end of our relationship. You and I both know that. I want us to be friends, though, and if I divulge that information, you’ll turn it into a huge-“

“This has something to do with your ward.” She interrupted, and Connor flinched at the word, unable to help himself. “If it was something normal, like a girl at school, you would brag. That’s your style.”

“I don’t know-“

She cut him off again. “Rachel told me all about it. About the bracelets, and what they do. She’s getting a ward, too. She wanted me to understand. That guy isn’t your cousin, is he?” her lips peeled back from her teeth in an unconscious snarl. “You’re fucking him, aren’t you?”

Connor sighed and stood up, not letting go of Jin’s hand. “Come here.” He said softly over his shoulder, and Jin hopped to his feet, pulling the headphones down to hang around his neck as he climbed over the back of the couch. He smiled expectantly up at Connor and wrapped an arm around his waist.

Lila watched him, looking both fascinated and disgusted. Connor looked at her flatly. “I’m sorry, Lila.” He told her, and he really meant it. He hadn’t expected things to end up this way, for things to change so drastically in such an incredibly short amount of time. “You know that I want us to be friends, but-“

“Go to hell.” She snarled. She turned and stormed out of the parlor. Connor sighed and leaned his forehead against Jin’s. Jin brushed his lips against Connor and slowly but patiently coaxed him onto the couch.
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Halfway to her car, Lila had the overwhelming urge to run back and punch that silver haired faggot’s teeth down his throat. She actually turned around, but the sight of Connor’s little brother standing behind her made her stop.

“Quinn?” the boy looked terrible, hollow cheeked and sickly, like he hadn’t eaten or slept in a while. “Are you okay?”

“You saw it, right?” he asked her, his eyes widening. “You saw that pale thing my brother has attached to him?”

Lila nodded, scowling. “It’s disgusting.” She agreed.

“It’s a monster.” The boy whispered, and absently rubbed at the side of his head. He seemed to lose track of what he was doing standing there for a moment, but then he eyes refocused on her. “You’ve seen it. My father brought it back. He was supposed to trade it away, but it did something to him. The same way it did something to Connor.” He reached out and grabbed her wrist. “It did something to his mind, Lila.”

“Quinn, you’re scaring me.” She told him gently, and tried to remove his hand. What the hell had gotten into this kid? Last time she’d seen him, he had been bright and cheerful, and had seemed completely sane. That had been maybe five days ago. So why did he look like a lunatic now? “I’m sure you don’t like Jin, but-“

He hissed at her to shut up, and looked around. “Don’t about it like it’s a person. It’s not.” He looked up at her, and she realized his wide, glassy eyes were full of terror and pain and confusion. The kid was going crazy. She felt her heart hurt for him, and decided he might need someone to listen to him.

“Quinn, how about you come with me? We’ll get away from here for a while. You can tell me what you know about it, and I’ll see if I can help you. Okay?” The boy nodded quickly, throwing a quick, scared look back at the house. She smiled and ushered him to the car.

The drove mostly in silence. Quinn asked her one question, just as they were pulling onto the main road. He asked if she had her laptop. She nodded, and he seemed pleased. She took him to her house, installed him in her bedroom with her laptop in front of him, and told him she’d be right back. She went downstairs and found the kid something to eat. He looked malnourished. What the hell was going on around that house?

When she came back upstairs, he was focused on the laptop. He’d plugged a thumb drive into one of its ports and was quickly opening files for her to look at her.

At first, when he began to explain what was going on, she thought he’d seen one too many horror movies. But then, as he started showing her the ledgers of his father’s “company”, the personal journal entries he’d scanned from his father’s diaries, the photographs of the thing in the ice, she began to realize that the kid wasn’t insane at all. When the boy showed her the list his father had made of the suspected side affects of close proximity to the thing they’d found, Lila found herself starting to feel true and absolute terror for Connor. The list seemed innocent enough at first, things like overwhelming fatigue and a sense of unnatural well being when consistently exposed. But then it got weird. Why would the side effects involve an increase in sexual activity, or a lack of self control? What exactly would the purpose of that be? Lila asked Quinn his opinion, but didn’t know anymore than she did. The last side effect on the list wasn’t really an effect but a warning. It read;

//the mind effects are almost instant, but only effective if physical contact is made. Do not touch it. The effects are cumulative with excessive physical contact//

She stared at the boy beside her. “What are we going to do?” she asked him, her voice barely above a whisper. She was shaking, she realized. This was all too much. “Poor Connor. He’s doesn’t even know…”

Quinn shook his head. “Of course he doesn’t. That thing wouldn’t let him really find out about it, now would it? Connor might have some idea that things aren’t exactly right, but he’s probably also so wrapped up in it that he doesn’t care.”

“I can’t believe your father knew all of this, and then decided he’d just give the goddamned thing to your brother like a pet. He knew what it would do to him!” she slammed her fist down on her knee. “Why would he do that to his own son?”

Quinn sighed. “There’s a mention of that in one of the journal entries. He wrote that Connor was the only person that fit the requirements for a field test, to determine its effects. The ward system was a perfect excuse to keep the two of them close.” He paused for a moment, as if he was afraid to go on. “He mentioned that he… traded… Connor’s original ward.” He looked at up Lila. “He talked about it like the girl was part of a business deal.”

Lila’s stomach clenched and she had to look away from Quinn’s miserable, overwhelmed eyes. After a few moments of silence, Lila leaned forward and scrolled through the photographs until she found a specific one. “I want that one printed out.” She said, and Quinn nodded. He transferred it onto her desktop, and she sent it to the wireless printer in her father’s study.

“Lila? Can I stay here tonight?”

She stopped halfway out the door. The boy wasn’t looking at her. “What about your parents?”

He shook his head. “Mom went to Florida to visit her sister again, and Dad…” he looked up at her. “He’s on a business trip.”

Lila shuddered and looked at him sympathetically. “Of course you can stay, sweetheart.” She tipped him a wink, pleased when it made him smile a little, and then went into the study to retrieve the photograph.

The thing in the ice was curled up on itself, its long, not quite human body so white it was blinding, even through the cloudy murk of the frozen lake water in which it was encased. She studied it, and the man standing beside it for reference. It was so small, she thought to herself, not even the size of a toddler. Apparently it had grown quickly, because the timestamp was only eight months ago. Lila recalled that two months ago, William had gone on a business trip to Russia. He’d also stayed longer than planned, she remembered, apparently to go… hunting.

Lila wondered just what the hell kind of job Connor and Quinn’s father did. Quinn seemed to know the truth, but refused to flat out talk about it. It had something to do with moving products, she knew, and Quinn had suggested that it was illegal. A strange, far away thought bugged her, and she tried to grab it.

She’d touched that thing. She’d shaken its hand. She’d let it hold her hand for longer than she’d thought proper. She stared down at her hand as though it were something alien to her. What if it had done something to her?

She turned and ran for the bathroom. She just barely made before she began to vomit. Quinn came in on silent feet and sat beside her, patting her back gently.

“We’ll figure this out.” He told her gently. “You and me, together, we’ll figure out a way to get rid of it.”

Lila wiped her mouth with the back of her band and choked back a sob. “Connor.” She looked Quinn. “We have to help him.”

Quinn nodded. “We need to confront my father.” He said. “He returns Friday. Hopefully, the thing won’t kill my brother before that.”

Lila pushed her hair back from her face. “I had a nightmare about that thing.” It was so easy to think of Jin as an it, rather than as a person, now that she knew he wasn’t a person at all. “I had a dream that it drowned Connor in a lake full of huge black fish.”

Quinn rested his forehead on Lila’s shoulder. “I dreamed it ate him, and came for me.”

Lila turned and put her arms around Quinn’s shoulders. “I’m scared of it.”

Quinn hugged her back. “So am I.” he told her. “But you and me, we’re together in this. I’m not alone anymore. That’s make it less scary. You’ll see.”

They began to talk about what they would do when William returned.
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Connor twitched fitfully in his sleep. Jin sat beside him, awake and listening. He traced patterns along the skin of Connor’s stomach with his fingertips and watched Connor’s face. When Connor quieted, when whatever dream that was plaguing him let him rest more comfortably, Jin leaned down and brushed a gentle kiss across Connor’s mouth. “Jin…” Connor whispered in his sleep, making him grin.

It wasn’t really his name. But it was the easiest sound to make that soundest closest to Connor’s harsh, ugly language. It was the first thing that popped into his head when that girl, Lila, had asked him. His real name, now, he doubted Connor would even be able to hear half of the syllables in it; his ears were tuned so low on the spectrum.

Jin scooted off the edge of the bed, walking as far out into the main living room as the cuff would allow. He’d opened the far window, the one that pointed east, earlier, and Connor had never bothered to shut it. Now, he closed his eyes, his nostrils flaring delicately as he took a deep breath of the night air that reached him through the window.

Plants and night time animals. Something thick and painful to his senses, like ancient, rotting things. He knew that Connor fed whatever it was that gave off that smell into his… Jin searched for the word in Connor’s language… car. It was as horrible smell, but it was everywhere here. He didn’t like it. He took another breath and tried again.

Water. He smiled, his lips pulling back from his strange teeth. Tainted water, but water none the less. It was the same water he’d swam in earlier, when he’d accidentally hurt Connor with the temperature change. He hadn’t meant to, but the water was so tainted, he had to at least make the temperature right.

He turned and looked in at Connor fondly. The boy was beautiful, and he really didn’t mind at all, being attached to him the way he was. But something was wrong. He’d sensed it, somewhere in the house. Something was afraid of him, he’d realized, but it was also capable of hurting him.

Jin frowned. In all the time since he’d come out of his sleep, when the men had pulled him up out of the blessed cold blackness of the lake, this was the only place he’d felt safe. Connor was warm and pleasant and soft, and he liked being near him. He’d really only had to push a little. There had already been something inside of Connor that was ready to become what Jin needed him to be. All it took was the right nudge, and Connor had fallen perfectly into place, right where Jin wanted him. He knew that Connor’s father was using him, using them both. He was okay with playing along for the time being. He supposed that he should hate Connor’s father for what he’d done to him over the months since he’d been found, but he had, after all, delivered him to Connor, so Jin supposed he couldn’t really complain.

He looked down at the slim, silver bracelet around his wrist. Smiling, eh touched it with one finger, and it fell off and hit the carpet with a soft thud. He glanced once more back at Connor, making sure he was still soundly asleep. He sensed that Connor might wake up soon if he didn’t feel Jin beside him, so he closed his eyes and concentrated. A moment later Connor rolled over, letting out a content sigh, and tossed his arm over the empty bed as though it were Jin’s hips. He snuggled closer to the invisible thing he thought he felt beside him, and Jin smiled. Connor really was a wonderful creature.

He slipped out the window easily, down the three stories to the ground, and ran towards the smell of water. He pulled his clothes off as he ran, leaving them behind.

When he dove into the water, it was with barely a ripple. The water closed around him, welcomed him, and he curled up into himself, feeling his skin open and pull. It was better than anything. His skin whitened, what little color he had draining away to reveal the blinding, snowy perfection underneath. He opened his eyes, feeling the water touch them and turn them black. He turned his head from side to side and opened his mouth, letting the water rush down his throat. With a powerful kick, he pushed himself towards the other side of the pool. It took him two kicks to cross from one end of the Olympic sized pool to the opposite end, and he turned and did it again. It was cramped, and he wished for a lake or even better, an ocean. But for now, it was enough.

He planned on staying with Connor, with all the wonderful things he provided Jin, as long as he could. He would figure out what it was that wanted to hurt him in the house, and he would either reason with it or simply dispose of it. Whatever he had to do to survive.

He surfaced silently and looked up at the house. He could see the kitchen light on, and considered getting dressed and seeing if he could figure out how to make one of those milkshake things. But then he decided that, should he make a mess or worse, break something, it would be very hard to cover it up, and Connor might find out that he could open the bracelets. He couldn’t have that at all. Connor might care for him right now, and that was all fine and good, but Jin couldn’t risk Connor having a choice in the matter.

He swam for a while longer, then climbed out and walked back to the house, gathering his clothes on the way. He climbed up the outside wall of the house, his clothes under one arm, and let himself back in the room. He shut the window behind him, picked up his cuff, and put it back on. Then he crawled back into the bed, snuggled against the intense, nearly painful heat of Connor’s sleeping body. Connor mumbled something incoherent and pulled Jin against him, his face burrowing into Jin’s hair.

Jin ran his fingers along Connor’s spine, smiling. He suspected that soon, he wouldn’t have to push Connor at all to care for him, that soon he would be able to take the cuffs off both of them. Connor was becoming attached, Jin sensed, and that was just the way Jin wanted it.

He’d had human lovers before, of both genders. Hell, he’d been both genders. But something about Connor was different. He didn’t just want the human to feel like he needed him, he wanted something more than that. For once, the sense of being sought after, the physical contact, they weren’t enough. Jin suspected that part of it might be shock from the trauma of his unplanned awakening, and the hell that he went through up until about a month ago, when William had stepped in finally and made plans for Jin. But perhaps another part of it was his age. He knew he was getting closer and closer to maturity, and soon the rash, hungry needs of his adolescence would fade into something easier to feed, something calm. He would find a secluded body of water and live the rest of his days in peace. This felt like the end of a cycle, and he knew that things always reached a pinnacle before they subsided.

He snuggled closer to Connor and closed his eyes. How he wished he could soothe his own dreams, the way he did for Connor. He knew what was waiting for him when he slept, and he feared it worse than losing Connor. But sleep was not something he could hide from, and eventually he succumbed to it.


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So... about Jin... now that you've seen a little of the way he thinks, do you love him, hate him, what?