Episode 79: Guy (Cecil)

At some point in Cecil’s life, the desire to survive had been outpaced by the will to live.

He wanted something more than this place, more than the knowledge that he had made it through another day intact.

He slipped into the staff cafeteria, his eyes grazing the room until they settled on the curled brown locks of the man he sought, who shared Cecil’s burden in this place. 

For most here, this was a military training facility, coupled with a research lab. If they knew, if they had any idea of the losses, the young lives, taken in this place…

Actually, he suspected it would hardly faze them. They had lives and agendas and children to go home to. It was why he and Guy had found their way to each other, across the expanse of secrets and fear.

He’d managed to convince Adele that their connection was a good thing: It meant they each had a second opinion, for the culls. It meant they weren’t competing with each other. It meant better ideas, stronger connectivity, training exercises between groups.

Today he joined Guy at the table. He could feel the heaviness.

“How was your day?” Guy asked him, robotic.

Bad. “I spent the afternoon in Sylem,” Cecil told him.

“Working on your project?”

Cecil’s boys were at a stage in training where he could begin taking them on little field trips. Sylem wouldn’t be an option. It was too volatile, too close to total meltdown. The boys, for all their skills, wouldn’t be capable of defending against the Caelum. Ten vulnerable children with no connections who would look for them, as far as the Caelum knew.

No, he would never take them to Sylem. The idea was the prolong their lives, not protract them.

“Checking on an ex, actually,” he said, for the sake of simplicity. Guy would know what he meant. “And taking the political temperature.”

“An ex?” Guy joked. He tucked a strand of his hair behind his ear and Cecil knew, from his subtly closed posture, that what Guy needed right now was to be together, alone, somewhere he could succumb to the weight of the upcoming cull. “Should I be concerned?”

“It’s a she,” Cecil said, with amusement. He rested his hand on the small of Guy’s back and leaned closer to him, a lovers’ pose. “What about you?” he whispered. “Did you…decide?”

“We eliminated thirty from the program early this morning.”

Thirty.

“How eliminated?” Cecil clarified. If he’d missed his chance…

“Paperwork,” Guy assured him. “The next phase is in a few days.”

A few days. If he could get it to Saturday night, he could buy himself a ticket to a campaign dinner and ask for help there. “Saturday?” he suggested. “The weather is good for it.”

“Saturday would work. Are you helping? It would please Adele.”

Yes, Adele would love it if he blackened his conscience with more lives taken.

“I think I will,” he lied. “Do you mind.”

It wasn’t really a lie. He would help, just not in the way Adele would want. With luck Adele would never need to know.

“I would enjoy your company,” Guy said. He squeezed Cecil’s hand. “How is Sylem doing?”

“Tumultuous. I give it a week, two at the outside. Too much is brewing.” And there were too many factions, groups within groups, outside forces, alliances and betrayals. The place was a powder keg.

“That’s unfortunate for your ex?” he asked.

Lil. She’d just glower at a war for complicating her life, and tell it to go elsewhere. It might even listen. “I have a suspicion she’ll survive,” he laughed.

Guy leaned still closer. “Do you want to go to our room?” he whispered before he pressed his lips to Cecil’s.

There was no passion to the kiss. It was nothing more than a catalyst to enable them to talk.

Hand in hand, they cleared their trays and walked toward their living space. Down the sterile white halls, up the sterile white stairs.

“How is your new employee doing?” Guy asked him when they were upstairs, away from where wandering students might overhear.

“Better than expected.” Cecil found Emily’s lack of confrontation more alarming than any rebellion or escape she could have tried. False complacency was much more dangerous for Emily. “I suspect she thinks she’s planning something.”

“Has Adele made any comments about it?”

“No,” Cecil complained. It wasn’t Adele’s style, to give people warning. If she decided to remove Emily, it would be swift and irrevocable and Cecil would be powerless.

“She does want one of my boys, for a side project,” he told Guy.

“That might be too helpful,” Guy mused. They wanted their students alive, not in Adele’s grasp.

They entered the apartment – small personal kitchen, sofa with television and books, exercise room, bedroom, master bath – in silence. 

Cecil started stripping Guy right away. First his overshirt, then his undershirt, kissing him all the while, running his hands all over him. It was impossible not to get aroused in the process, even though it was just for show. Guy’s hands against his skin, his lips pressed into the little dip between Cecil’s clavicles…

Cecil tugged them into the bathroom, started both the ventilation fan and the shower, and tugged him into the shower space.

“So?” Guy pressed.

“I’ve found a man,” Cecil whispered against his shoulder. “A boy, really. I think he might take them. Safety for them, concealment.”

“Where?”

Cecil kissed his shoulder. He was too close, Guy too perfect in his hands. He wanted him. “Elesara,” he breathed.

Guy’s body tensed in surprise and Cecil took the opportunity to take Guy into his mouth, the wonderful taste of him while the shower water rained down on his face.

“I’ll make arrangements,” Guy agreed.

After a few moments of necessary silence, punctuated only by moans from Guy as Cecil worked on him, Cecil stood and turned Guy so that he faced the shower wall. He slid into him, moving against him while he kissed his neck, while he whispered, “Adele has been checking. They’ll have to appear dead.”

“Can we revive them?” Guy asked. “Or a sedative?”

“There’s a plant we can use,” Cecil managed, before he ran out of anything but hunger for Guy, for this stolen moment, for the feel of him against Cecil.

“I love you,” he breathed against him, spent. Guy leaned into him and kissed him again.

He wanted them out of here – all of them. The boys, maybe the girls, Guy, Emily.

It would have to be soon.

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