Just Here for the Pain Read online

  Were they about to…force entry?

  So this was an evil cult that had left scars on Sid’s soul and now imprisoned his sister, but storming someone’s property was still very much illegal. A reason for arrest, or worse. And Asher had never been arrested.

  “Like…how? The wall’s too high to just climb.”

  Sid looked back at him, and it was impossible for Asher to let go of his hand. “I know a spot farther on. If they haven’t cut the tree, we’ll be able to cross the fence there.”

  Asher’s stomach knotted, but he didn’t want to be a coward. H followed Sid without a word, briefly switching on the flashlight in his phone when they dove under tree tops and he could no longer use the moonlight as his guide.

  The noise behind them was getting louder, with new voices joining the cacophony of screams. All Asher could make out was ‘Our Lord’, ‘Armageddon’, and ‘wolves in sheep’s skin’. He hoped Dusk and Mage would have the good sense to know when they should run.

  “Here.” Sid stopped so abruptly Asher bumped into him. He reached up to a thick branch and pulled himself up.

  “Careful.” Asher didn’t hesitate. He laced his fingers together and offered them to Sid, pushing him up as soon as the thick-soled boot rested in his hands. Sid shot up and clung to the bough. He offered Asher his hand, but the tree had enough irregularities in its trunk for Asher to use.

  Normally, he used his gymnastics skills at the gym. It had been years since he’d climbed a tree and felt its rough bark scrape his fingers, but it came right back to him. The fresh scent of leaves filled his nose and made him relax as he watched Sid’s long body cross to the top of the wall.

  For a heart-stopping moment, Asher watched Sid’s shadow transfer to the fence, but once he sat on top of it, there was no uncertainty in the way he called Asher over. “Quick, they can only create a diversion for so long.”

  With Sid’s form looming against the background of the house, which was now lit up from the inside like a magic globe, Asher ignored the voice telling him not to and moved along the shaky branch, all the way to the wall. The moment of transferring to the solid wall was the hardest, but Sid’s hand tightly curled around his gave Asher the courage to let go of the unstable support of the tree.

  It was a breeze after that.

  Jumping off was much easier and only when they both hit the ground did Asher realize he didn’t know how they would leave.

  But once fireworks exploded at the front of the building, there was no time to lose. Colorful lights created yet more commotion, luring people out of the house, and filling windows with faces. Dusk was in his element, performing for a crowd of onlookers.

  The garden was a mess of plaster sculptures, flowers, and little decorative trees picked by the most disorderly yet ambitious gardener. Sid pulled Asher straight to a door, the kind with glass and a flimsy lock, but they didn’t even have to force their way in, as it was unlocked. White and inconspicuous, an entrance into a house of Apocalypse cultists. Sure, Asher could do that. He could handle it.

  The large kitchen with old cupboards covered in ivory laminate looked deceptively normal. Every surface was polished so thoroughly one could eat straight from it, and the entire room was tidy despite stacks of boxes and pamphlets crowding every bit of unused space. But despite the illusion of this being just a large family kitchen, as he stepped across the brown-tiled floor, his guts still twisted with discomfort as they passed a chest freezer. Something in his brain kept insistently telling him that there was a body in there, and that his would be next.

  Outside his cave where he and Sid could end up torn apart, fireworks blasted one after another, and the thumping of many feet was loud as an avalanche, tearing through raised voices and the beating of Asher’s own heart. They were hiding just beneath enemy lines, and yet when Sid slipped out into the corridor, he followed.

  A hard tug on Asher’s shoulder maneuvered him under a flight of stairs, and they hid just beyond the pounding feet. The shadow of the staircase was their trench, and Asher instinctively backed into the boxes and cleaning products collected there.

  But he wouldn’t get to enjoy the elusive safety. Sid pulled on his arm again.

  “Coast clear,” he whispered and they were off into the depths of the house.

  Asher’s head spun, his gaze licking the strange posters and childrens’ drawings on the walls that had people exploding from the inside in front of a cross. To his ears their footsteps were louder than the explosions or shouting at the front of the building, but he forced a deep breath down his lungs and followed, observing Sid’s back as if it were the only thing at the end of the tunnel.

  They were about to sneak past a corridor leading to the front of the house, as evidenced by cold air and noise originating from that direction, when a door to Asher’s left opened. He flattened his body against the wall, squeezing his hands into fists. It was only once the initial surge of adrenaline passed that he slid his gaze lower and saw a tiny girl in a drab gray nightgown staring at him.

  Her eyes were huge and sucked him in with their inquisitiveness, and all he could think was, ‘Don’t scream, don’t scream’.

  Sid was by his side within seconds, like a shield protecting Asher from dangers he wasn’t equipped to deal with. He went down to one knee in front of the kid.

  “Hey there, sweetie. Everything is okay, why don’t you go back to bed, huh?”

  She grumbled, biting on her finger. “You look weird,” she stated, blinking the sleep out of her eyes.

  “That’s because we’re messengers,” Asher said with exasperation, resting his hand on Sid’s shoulder. Words flowed out of him like that one time he’d forgot to do an assignment for school and made everything up as he went, pretending to read everything out of a notebook. “We’re here to see if everything’s going according to plan.”

  Her face got that childishly serious expression. “Oh…”

  “But only children can see us,” Sid added quickly. “And shouldn’t you be sleeping? Don’t tell any adults you’ve seen us, please? Only then, everything will go according to His plan.”

  She smiled and twisted her fingers at the front of her little body. It took time for the girl to make up her mind, and every second brought Asher and Sid closer to being discovered. There was only so long Mage and Dusk could serve as a distraction. Asher’s brain was slowly turning into a hot pulp.

  “Open your window and look outside. There’s fireworks,” he said softly.

  Her wide smile made relief pool in Asher’s limbs, but it was only when she rushed back into her room that he slumped forward and briefly rested his forehead on Sid’s shoulder. He half-assumed they’d be climbing to the second floor, but Sid pulled Asher along, circling the stairs until they found themselves in front of a door Asher hadn’t noticed at first.

  It was the same off-white color as the wall, and was even decorated with a picture of a sword-wielding angel, as if to further disguise it as a piece of wall, but the handle was unmissable once you noticed it.

  Sid opened the door without hesitation and ran down the wooden stairs, which were lit only by a single light bulb. Their way to the cellar was framed by pikes and banners made of old pool cues and brooms resting against the walls on either side. The messages spoke of a world about to end, about destruction and mortal sin. Some seemed even specifically aimed at various groups of people, like the picture of Lady Gaga redone to resemble a demon.

  But once they reached the cool space beneath the house, Sid led the way past a wall that made Asher’s head turn so fast he heard a crackle in his neck.

  Top to bottom, implements for punishment. Mostly canes, though a few mean-looking whips were also there to make Asher’s skin crawl. He was so shocked Sid had to physically move him along.

  “I know,” Sid whispered, only to freeze when a female voice—Abra’s—came from somewhere farther down the cellar.

  “Who’s there? What’s going on?”

  They both stopped breathing, e
yes drawn to a door on the other side of the open space. In the yellow light of the naked bulb, Asher shuddered when he realized spike studs covered the wooden surface, as if there was a need to warn anyone passing about the sinner locked inside.

  Sid cleared his throat, but didn’t move to get closer. “It’s me. Sid.”

  For a moment, Abra remained silent, but then something thudded on the other side, as if she smacked both her palms against the wood. “Get me out of here, please!”

  Asher took a deep breath, frantically staring at the walls in search of keys but all he found were the damn whips, right next to an area clearly dedicated to doing laundry, as if the canes and pain were as mundane as dividing clothes into whites and colors.

  He looked back at Sid, to see if he had any ideas how to break down a door that had claws and teeth, but he stilled when he saw Sid take off the chain he always wore on his neck. Asher’s heart sank when he connected the dots.

  Sid moved toward the door slowly as if every step took enormous effort. “We’ll get you out, Abra. Promise.” He glanced back at Asher, squeezing the key pendant in his hand. “I…I took it when I ran away. Maybe it still fits the lock.”

  “They put me here after I got back. Someone’s seen me leave,” Abra spoke, her voice trembling behind the studded door, but Sid’s distress was apparent too as he approached the cell step by step, his limbs stiff as if he were treading through mud.

  Asher exhaled and put his arm on Sid’s shoulders, all of his fear gone from his mind instantly. He needed to be there for Sid. “You’ll be fine. I’m here.”

  Sid’s mouth twitched, and he rubbed his face with one hand, erratically pushing the key into Asher’s palm. “They kept me here for a month.”

  The key was hot and heavy as if it physically bore the weight of Sid’s suffering, but Asher ignored the discomfort twisting his guts and somehow pushed the key straight into the hole at first try. He then twisted it, and the door unlocked without any issue at all.

  His heart throbbed as he put his arm around Sid. He didn’t know for whose support it was at this point, but the way Sid immediately pushed back against him filled his veins with new energy. He opened the door.

  Abra’s eyes were red, and the bags under her eyes made her appear older, but she rushed out with a determined look on her face. “Let’s go, please.”

  Sid moved away, stumbling to the side, but he nodded, leading the way as if his own fear had only been an afterthought. Asher couldn’t help but admire him for that. Whatever childhood traumas this cellar held, Sid had still chosen to come down here, come into this house of horrors for the sake of a sister he barely knew.

  “We can go through here.” Sid pointed to a pair of large steel doors locked from the inside with a sliding bolt.

  Asher went first, grabbing the latch and pulled on it until it gave with a loud clang. He flung the double door wide open and rushed out into the night.

  The sulphur-scented air was so fresh he only then realized how stuffy the cellar had been with its damp walls, spiky doors, and implements for locking and punishing people. No more fireworks illuminated the sky, and the noise had lowered significantly since he and Sid had descended into the abyss of torture and laundry. Did this mean Dusk and Mage had been forced to retreat?

  Sweat trailed down Asher’s back.

  “It’ll be easier to leave through here,” Sid said, rushing past Asher and guiding them through the maze of bushes and statues of saints in the garden.

  They didn’t speak much from then on, focused on the task at hand instead. They dragged a statue of an open book on a pedestal to the fence. The noise coming from the front of the building caused constant tension, but the climb itself wasn’t nearly as tough as their ordeal with the tree, and once on the other side of the fence, they could stop worrying about being caught breaking into someone’s property.

  Not long after, the three of them rushed along the wall and toward the front of the building, where the commotion had died down, but the presence of flashing red-and-blue lights promised nothing good.

  For a moment, Asher’s heart clenched when he worried someone might had gotten hurt, so he became oddly calm when he saw not an ambulance but a cop car in the cul-de-sac. Mage already sat in the back, and Dusk was in the process of getting cuffed, but at least they were both alive, not dragged down to the dungeon to repent for their sins or frozen alive in the kitchen.

  “Shit, they got arrested,” he whispered to Sid as they rushed along the fence of another property, trying to get away without being noticed.

  Still, they heard Dusk yell, “Our cult is better than yours!” when he was being packed into the back of the cop car.

  “We’re not a cult!” Gatekeeper yelled back furiously.

  Sid groaned, but didn’t seem that bothered. “Probably just for disturbance. They’ll be fine. We’ll tail them and see what we can do.”

  Abra gripped Sid’s arm like a frightened child when they approached Asher’s car. The cool air burned Asher’s lungs, as if he’d already ran half a marathon, but the moment he sat in his pale leather seat and pulled out a nut bar, everything was good again. Inside the car he was safe, and so were Sid and Abra.

  It would be fine.

  Unlike any other time, Sid joined Abra in the back instead of sitting with Asher at the front, but when their eyes met in the rear view mirror, a silent ‘thank you’ from him warmed Asher’s heart.

  Sid only spoke once Asher switched on the ignition. “Fuckers locked me there when they found me fooling around with a guy. What did you do?”

  Abra was trembling violently, and it took her several seconds to compose herself, but she accepted a nut bar from Asher and eventually spoke, settling in Sid’s arms. “They noticed I was losing my dedication. Mother wanted me to marry, as if that could actually help with anything,” she whimpered, rubbing her face with shaky fingers. “And then they noticed me disappearing. I thought I’d never leave that house. I don’t want to marry a man twice my age,” she finished in a sob.

  Sid put his arm around her shoulders. “Are you eighteen yet?”

  “In three weeks.”

  “So you’ll stay with us, and we’ll make sure they don’t get to you. When you’re eighteen, Father and Mother will no longer be your guardians.” Sid took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for how I treated you. I…anything about this family makes me so angry.”

  Abra sniffed and looked between Sid and Asher, biting into the nut bar. “I understand. It must have been tough to be cast out.”

  “They didn’t cast me out. I ran away. I…” Sid briefly met Asher’s gaze. “I was homeless for a while, but I still thought it was better than having to submit to what they wanted.”

  Asher didn’t join the conversation, focused on the police car he was low-key following, but he did listen, and thinking of Sid locked up in that tiny room for doing something that was in his nature had him riled up.

  Abra swallowed. “I think it’s easier for a man. There’s so much danger lurking for a woman alone out in the world. I didn’t have any money, and the food is rationed, so I couldn’t take any with me.”

  Asher grimly thought that she probably didn’t have many transferable skills either.

  Sid kissed her temple as if they’d never parted. “I’ll take care of you. It was brave of you to stand up to them, and brave to look for me.”

  “Because I remembered you were always nice, and didn’t just follow rules. I had no one to talk to about my doubts,” she continued with her mouth full, chewing on the bar as if it were her biggest consolation.

  Asher licked his lips, watching the reunited siblings in the rear view mirror. “I have a big house. With a pool and everything. You guys could stay with me,” he said in the end, hoping Sid wouldn’t tell him off for it. He didn’t know Sid’s current living situation, but with Sid being the minimalist he was, he likely only had a one-room apartment.

  Sid took his time, and every second of silence stretched into an eternity b
efore he finally spoke. “How does that sound, Abra? A nice month of vacation with time to figure things out.”

  She touched Asher’s shoulder with a smile. “Thank you, I would very much like that.”

  Asher briefly met Sid’s eyes, and a pleasant warmth enveloped his chest. “I hope you like to swim.”

  Abra laughed. “I don’t know how.”

  “That’s fine. I’ll teach you. You’ll relax and have all the time you need.”

  “Will you teach me how to swim too?” Sid smiled shyly, and Asher wished he didn’t have to keep his eyes on the road, because he wanted to kiss him all over.

  Chapter 10

  Asher hadn’t been lying when he’d told Sid and Abra that his house was huge. Even he believed so, and he’d actually grown up within its walls. The Italianate villa had eleven bedrooms, fifteen bathrooms, two kitchens, living and dining rooms, as well as a music studio, a fully equipped gym, a home cinema, and even a guest house with a further three rooms. After he’d turned eighteen, Asher had redecorated some of the interiors to fit his personal taste, replacing the glam chic preferred by his late mother with more minimalist decor, but he didn’t want to wipe away all traces of his family, so many of the rooms still remained intact.

  Mage and Dusk’s arrest had, unsurprisingly, leaked into social media, but after three full days of an intense campaign to portray the events in a more positive light, the situation turned into a huge meme among fans of The Underdogs, with the shared pictures usually involving the guys in their costume robes photoshopped into film stills.

  Asher was proud of the effects of his work, even though it stopped him from spending much time with Sid. Sid needed to reconnect with his sister anyway, which would have made Asher into a third wheel.

  Now that the PR disaster had been averted and with the rest of the band safely home with their families, Asher was free to introduce his guests to the long driveway framed by palm trees. Asher’s dad used to call it his personal Sunset Boulevard. The house wasn’t one of those designed to pretend their owners were members of royalty, but it had a grand front with a sizeable balcony on the second floor and a large double door that led straight into a foyer with a ceiling that was open to the roof. Asher had replaced the crystal chandelier with a modern glass sculpture depicting life-sized doves emerging from the centre. When lit, it looked as if all the birds were fleeing an explosion in the middle.