Afraid New World (Part 13)
The Emperor opened the door to his room and stepped inside, looking around as he did so. And there, in the middle of the room, was the one thing he was looking for. His human sat cross-legged on the bed, his head bent down over his notebook and a pencil jutting out of his mouth. The human - Joshua - looked up at him and gave him a tentative smile.
"Master," JC said as he gave a slight nod. Only a few short days ago, the Emperor had declared that he would no longer have to greet him on his knees with his head bowed, something that JC would be eternally grateful for.
The Emperor sat down on the bed and motioned for JC to come to him. JC put the notebook and pencil down carefully and made his way over to the Emperor's side.
"Do you ever take your nose out of those books?" the Emperor asked.
JC knew that the Emperor was teasing him. He could tell by the sly purring note in his voice. He smiled a little and said, "Sometimes, Master."
This made the demon smile in return, as JC knew it would. The demon then placed his hand on the back of JC's neck and brought them closer to each other. JC kissed him, instinctively knowing to do so. The kiss was deep, but short, and they soon parted.
"I have some news that I think will make you very happy, Pet," the Emperor said with a grin on his face.
"What's that Master?" JC asked.
"I shall be traveling soon...and I will be taking you with me."
JC had to restrain himself from jumping up with joy. Instead he merely said, "Really?"
The Emperor couldn't help but smile widely. The human was obviously happy, even though he was trying for some reason not to show it. More and more often these days, the Emperor found himself enjoying seeing the human's happiness. He wasn't exactly sure why, but he didn’t try to fight the feeling.
"Yes, really. We will be going to Medea," he answered. "Do you recognize the name?"
As soon as JC heard what their destination would be, a memory flashed in his mind unbidden. The memory was almost a year old, but he was seeing it as if it had happened yesterday. He could clearly see the Emperor standing before Justin and sentencing him to a life in Medea as a whore.
He blinked heavily, then leaned back. "Justin is there," he said in a soft voice.
"Yes. That is why I thought you would want to go. I thought you would want to see your friend."
"I do. I do..." he said, and in that moment a bitter hatred welled up in him. Hatred for this monster who had sent Justin away...who had sent all his friends away. He quickly swallowed the anger however, he knew he could not let it show on his face or in his actions. What was done was done.
"I do want to go see him. It's been so long. I miss him. Them..."
The Emperor looked at JC's face, and saw happiness joined with an unmistakable deep sadness, and he felt more powerfully aroused than he had in weeks. He wanted this beautiful human and he wanted him now. He reached for him and JC responded automatically, burrowing his own emotions deep within himself until they barely existed. He knew what was coming next and it was always better not to feel...
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The ride to Medea took the better part of four days for there was no great urgency to get there and they stopped often. JC spent most of that time gazing out the open window enjoying the scenery. After being cooped up in a dark castle for so long, seeing the green grass and blue skies felt, to him, like finding a river in a desert. But as the time and miles passed, JC became less entranced with the view and more and more concerned about seeing Justin again.
On the third day of their journey the Emperor looked over to JC and noticed that his legs were bouncing up and down so quickly that they were almost shaking.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
JC looked over at the Emperor and then down at his legs. He forced himself to stop. “I guess I’m just a little nervous master, Master,” he admitted.
The Emperor looked at him quizzically. He truly did not understand. Isn’t this what the human wanted?
“But why?” he asked.
“I don’t know. It’s just been so long...what if Justin doesn’t know me anymore? What if I don’t know him?”
The Emperor shook his head in frustration. “Sometimes I don’t understand you humans. Your emotions rule you so.”
“I don’t really understand it myself, Master.”
The Emperor looked away and no more was said on the subject, not even when JC’s legs started to bounce up and down again, almost of their own accord.
At the end of the fourth day they finally arrived at Medea. The sun was just starting to set and it was throwing rich shards of gold over the entire landscape. It made everything look magical and soft and for a moment JC couldn’t help but forget about his ever-worsening nervousness.
As the carriage stopped at the building’s gates the Emperor jumped to the ground and JC followed suit.
Several demons stood outside the gates to greet them. They all bowed low and the Emperor gave a nod of acknowledgment. Then one of them stepped forward. “It is an honor to have you here, my lord,” he said.
“Thank you,” the Emperor replied. “And I thank you for the invitation. It came at precisely the right time.”
The other demon gave a small bow. “You are most welcome. Your room is ready, my lord, if you would like to rest.”
The Emperor clapped him on the back heartily. “Wonderful,” he said. “Although I am not yet tired, perhaps my slave may be escorted there?”
“Of course sire.” He turned to one of the demons behind him. “Take the human to the Emperor’s room.”
The demon nodded and motioned for JC to follow him. JC had taken a step forward when he felt a hand on his arm. He turned and saw it was the Emperor.
“I will not be back until late. You do not have to stay awake for me,” he said.
“All right, Master,” he replied before again moving to follow his guide. As they walked through the halls of the brothel he noticed that there were very few people around (or demons for that matter). He wondered where everyone could be, then chided himself for being so stupid when the answer came to him a minute later. He was in a whorehouse after all - where else would everyone be?
They finally reached the room and he was escorted in. The room was huge and luxurious, as was befitting the Emperor of the world. It was decorated in rich reds and purples and it shone with the light of a hundred candles. JC waited until the demon was gone and then he flung himself on the over-sized canopy bed; sighing in contentment. After four days of being on the road his body was sore and weary and the bed was a blessing. As he lay on his back and looked up at the ceiling, his thoughts drifted towards Justin. He wondered what he would look like, what they would say to each other, how they would act. The more he thought about it all, the more he realized that he would never sleep tonight. No matter how exhausted he was, his mind was simply not going to shut down. He was going to be staring at this ceiling all night...
He was asleep within ten minutes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next afternoon...
Justin was in the middle of a heated discussion with Jack concerning Ginger and Maryann when one of the demons came to their doorway.
“You. Human,” he said as he pointed to Justin. “Come with me.”
Justin looked confused. “Why sir?”
“The honor of your company has been requested,” he said sarcastically. “So come along.”
Jack stood up angrily. “But this is our time. You can’t take him!” he protested.
“What did you say to me?” the demon asked angrily.
“It’s ok, Jack,” Justin said as he stood up. “It’s no big deal.”
Jack was about to protest some more when a look from Justin silenced him. It was a look that said, ‘shut up or I’ll kick your ass myself.’ Jack shut up.
Justin followed the demon dutifully but found to his surprise that the demon was not leading him to any of the rooms, but to the outside of the building.
“Where are we going, sir?” he asked.
“I told you. You’re meeting someone. I don’t know who. I was merely asked to take you down to the common area.”
Back in the days before the demons, the common area had been known as the quad. It was the place where the students could hang out during their lunch periods or after school. Now it was used by the humans as a place where they could relax, sit in the sun, play sports together, almost anything they wanted. It was the one place that still provided them a measure of freedom.
The demon stopped suddenly and Justin all but walked into him. “All right. Go find him,” the demon said before turning around and leaving.
Justin began to walk forward, shading his eyes with his hands. He wasn’t even sure why he was here. Who should he be looking for?
He walked forward a few more steps, looking around cautiously when he saw him seated at one of the tables. His hair was much longer than he remembered, but everything else about him was exactly the same. With a slight gasp, he began to walk more quickly.
JC saw Justin only a second later. He had been sitting at a table, trying hard to wait patiently, when he noticed a young man heading towards him.
He stood up, instantly knowing that it was Justin. Despite the fact that he was much thinner than he should be, it was Justin - the curls were unmistakable.
He began to run, and before he knew it, he had his arms wrapped around Justin, someone he thought he’d never see again.
He squeezed him tightly even as he himself was squeezed tightly. But damn it, it felt so good to hold him. To be held by his friend. He didn’t think he would ever let go.
“Justin,” he whispered.
“Jace?” he could hear Justin ask from somewhere behind his ear.
They finally separated and JC saw the tears in Justin’s eyes. His own tears were already spilling down his face.
“Is this for real?” Justin asked as he touched his face, as if to make sure that he was real. “What are you doing here?”
“I came with the Emperor. He’s here for something and he brought me along.”
“I can’t believe you’re here,” Justin said wonderingly. Then he shook his head and gave a slight laugh. “Come on, let’s go sit,” he said as he grabbed JC’s wrist and pulled him over to one of the tables.
They sat down opposite each other and Justin pulled a lighter and a worn pack of cigarettes from his back pocket. He lit the cigarette with practiced ease and then set the lighter and pack on the table.
JC stared at the cigarette, then lifted his eyes to find that Justin was looking at him. “You want one?” Justin asked with a wry smile.
JC shook his head. “No...I...you smoke now Justin?” he asked.
Justin shrugged and lit the cigarette, inhaled deeply then blew out the smoke. “Something I picked up. Believe me, there are worse things I could be doing.”
“I guess so,” JC said uneasily.
Justin leaned forward and said, “It’s good to see you Jace,” in a serious voice.
“It’s good to see you Justin. I’ve missed you. I’ve missed all of you.”
“I’ve missed you too. How are you?” Then he leaned back and said, “You look good. Hair’s pretty long, but it suits you.”
JC ran a hand through it absently. “Yeah, well...I’m ok. As good as can be expected I guess. What about you? How are you doing?”
Justin shrugged. “I’m all right. I’m...popular here. Which mostly sucks but sometimes it gets me perks.”
“Perks?” JC asked.
“The happier they are with you, the more you can get away with,” Justin said.
There was a brief silence while Justin took another drag of his cigarette and JC pondered Justin’s words.
“Do you ever see them? The other guys?” Justin asked suddenly.
JC shook his head. “No, I haven’t seen any of them. What about you?”
“I saw Joey a couple months ago. He was here.”
“Joey was here? You talked to him?” JC asked.
“No, not really.” He paused and his face grew grave. “Actually him and his friend held me down while he fucked me.”
“What?” JC asked, not really sure if he had heard right. “Justin, no...he...He raped you?” he asked in a shocked whisper.
Justin looked away. His eyes were unfocused and he suddenly looked very young. “No. Whores don’t get raped, Jace. You know that. He picked me and he had me.”
The words were said with an air of indifference but JC knew that Justin had to be hurting.
“Justin...” JC began.
“So you haven’t seen Lance huh?” Justin asked suddenly.
Surprised by the quick shift in the conversation, it took JC a few seconds to answer. “Ummm...no, I haven’t.”
“Yeah, well, he probably hasn’t seen you either,” Justin said, then took another drag of the cigarette.
“What does that mean, Justin?”
Justin exhaled slowly. “Nothing. Nothing.”
JC sat still for a moment, trying to take in what Justin had told him. About Joey. About what Joey had done. He couldn’t quite wrap his mind around the fact that Justin was a rapist. Or that Justin seemed to be so accepting of it.
As he sat there it hit him that there was one person that they hadn’t talked about yet. “What about Chris?” he asked.
Justin froze, and for a moment JC saw a myriad of emotions in his eyes - pain, sadness, anger, hurt - and then Justin straightened and all of them disappeared, leaving his gaze blank.
“Have you heard about him?” JC persisted. “You seem to know more of what’s happening than I do,” he said.
“God, you really don’t know shit, do you?” Justin asked.
Before JC could answer, Justin said, “Chris is dead, man.”
JC stared at Justin, certain that he had heard wrong. Or that Justin was playing some cruel trick on him. “What?” he asked.
“He’s dead. They killed him.”
“But how? Who?” JC cried.
“Don’t know all the details. Just know that he was beaten to death. By humans. Heard that the demons were pretty pissed about it when they found out. They liked him or something.”
JC dropped his head and shook it slowly. Not Chris. Not Chris, who had been through so much shit in his life and had always managed to smile despite it all. Tears stung at his eyes and he absently wiped them away.
“I’m so sorry, Justin,” he finally managed to say.
Justin merely looked at him. “For what?”
“About Chris. I mean...he was your best friend.”
Justin laughed, but it was a short, brittle laugh that made JC’s hair stand on end. “Don’t you get it JC? He was the lucky one. He got out.”
“You don’t really feel that way do you?” JC asked.
Justin narrowed his eyes. “What do you think?”
Before JC could respond, Justin spoke again. “God, you really don’t hear anything in that ivory tower of yours, do you?” he asked.
JC’s head shot up. The disgust in Justin’s voice had been unmistakable. “What?”
“You heard me,” Justin said.
“Justin...you have no idea what I have to live with every day. None.”
“Bullshit!” Justin spat out. He dropped the cigarette and ground it into the dirt with his heel of his shoe. “I hear things. I hear how happy the Emperor is with you. I hear how he treats you.”
“You don’t know anything,” JC said, suddenly on the defensive.
“What, you want to compare lives? Do you? Cause I’m pretty sure mine is shittier than yours, Jace!”
JC shook his head sadly. “No, I don’t want to compare lives with you. That’s not what I want at all.”
Justin looked at him intently for a moment and then rubbed a hand over his face. He looked very tired. “I’m sorry Jace. I don’t know where that shit came from.”
“It’s ok, Justin,” JC said quietly.
“No it’s not; but we’ll pretend it is.”
“Why don’t we talk about nice things? Good things?” JC suggested, hoping to change the direction of the conversation. He had not come here to argue with Justin. That was the last thing he wanted. “We can talk about the good old days. That can’t possibly depress anybody,” he said earnestly.
Justin stared at him for awhile, and JC held his breath as he did so. He knew Justin was thinking things through, trying to decide if he could handle this or if he needed to walk away.
“All right,” Justin said at last. “Let’s talk about the good old days.”
JC released the breath he had been holding and allowed himself to smile.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few hours later, Justin walked back into his room to find Jack waiting for him.
“Hey,” he said as he sat down on his bed.
“Are you ok? Where’d they take you? What did they do to you?” Jack asked anxiously.
Justin waved his concern away. “They took me to see an old friend.” He looked up. “Do you remember me telling you about JC?” he asked.
Jack nodded.
“That’s who I went to see. The Emperor’s here and he brought him with.”
Jack’s eyes opened wide. “The Emperor’s here? Holy shit!”
“Yes, but that’s not the most important part of this story, Jack,” Justin said.
“Sorry. So how did it go with your friend? You must have been excited to see him after all this time.”
Justin hesitated before answering. “It went ok. It was kind of strange actually. Not what I thought.” His voice wavered on the last words and before he knew it, Jack was sitting next to him on the bed. “You ok? Really?” Jack asked.
“Not really,” he admitted. “I thought it would be wonderful to see someone from my old life, but seeing JC just made me feel...sad.”
Jack cupped Justin’s cheek with his hand. “I’m sorry,” he said.
Justin turned his head and kissed the inside of Jack’s palm. “It’s ok. Not your fault.”
Jack knew that it wasn’t, but it still hurt him to see Justin this way. And he had been doing so much better after that bastard Joey had...he stopped that train of thought. It only pissed him off whenever he thought about it.
He leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on Justin’s lips. He was not surprised when Justin returned the kiss. Nor was he surprised when he felt Justin’s tongue slip into his mouth.
As their kiss deepened, both men let themselves fall back on the bed.
When they finally broke apart, both of them were breathing heavily.
“I thought we said we weren’t going to do this anymore,” Justin said as he fumbled with the buttons to Jack’s jeans.
“That’s right. We did,” Jack managed to reply before slipping his hands under Justin’s shirt and kissing him greedily.
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Two days later JC was back in the carriage heading towards what was now his home. The time spent with Justin had been good but it had left him deeply saddened.
Justin had changed. Not that he hadn’t expected some sort of change, but this one was so drastic. He rarely laughed, even when they talked about safe topics. And when he smiled, the smile never quite touched his eyes. Every once in a while he would slip into a dark mood and grow accusatory and spiteful, as if he blamed JC for everything that had happened to him. Gone was the innocent boy he used to know, the one that had been growing into an adventurous, fun-loving young man. This Justin was bitter and hurt and wounded.
He grieved for him. Just as he grieved for Chris. And for Joey for that matter. Because as soon as Joey had touched Justin he had died also.
The only one he wasn’t sure of was Lance. What had happened to him? And what had Justin meant by his cryptic statement about him?
One thing was for certain though - he was now determined to find Lance and find out what had happened to their fifth member. Or die trying.