Episode 228: Cecil (Thayer)

He was naked.

At least he was alone.

Thayer stayed on the couch and pretended he was on his rock solid mattress in bed, instead of staring at an endless list of shows.

“Thayer?”

He turned toward the whisper, toward Cecil.

“Hey.” Thayer pulled a throw around himself.

Cecil stood upright. “Adele is distracted; how are you?”

“Great,” he lied. “She’s amazing.” He kept himself closed, his mind empty. He didn’t need to destroy his life anymore than it was.

Cecil laughed. “I may not have long, but.” He bumped a vase, that Thayer bet had a camera in it. The camera faced just out of view of them. “I needed to see you.”

  Thayer tensed. He knew better than to let his body react, but he had boundaries, apparently. He tried to let the tension go. “What about.”

“There is a man in charge of this facility, but only Adele knows how to reach him. If we kill her, we force him into action. She trusts you.”

Thayer watched him, studied him in a new way. Cecil had beads of sweat on his forehead. He’d never sweated before.

He fought against instinct. Instinct wanted him to flee, to get as far from there as possible. Except he didn’t know the world, or the security he would have to get through. Even trained, he doubted he could escape alone.

It left him with one main choice. He looked at Cecil, and played along: “You want me to kill her?”

“Not yet. But the tide is turning.” His body softened, almost apologetic. “We rescued five of your classmates and 30 younger children tonight.”

Culled. He culled four. Which four? They were gone, even if they were alive.

Cecil continued. “We have allies eager to help. We have brought a man here tonight who is skilled and powerful in his own way. I want you to know that this is temporary, and I need to be sure you can hold her trust.”

Keywords: I’ve profiled you, and I know she’s disgusting to you, but you have to make her happy.

“Yeah,” Thayer replied. “I can.”

How much could he trust Cecil?

“She’s nuts,” Thayer said.

“She saved your life twice,” Cecil told him.

Twice?

“So I could be her sex slave?” Thayer asked.

“Is it worse than death?”

Thayer started at him.

No, it wasn’t. “I guess not. I’ll deal with her if you Tell Asa I’m fine. just Asa.”

“It is temporary. There is a family somewhere safe who wants to adopt you when this is over.”

“What about Asa?”

“We rescued him.”

He didn’t flinch. He thought he would, but he didn’t. As far as Thayer knew, he was dead. As far as he knew, this was a game and he’d lost his only ally.

“I don’t need family,” he stated in calm even words. “But I’ll do this.”

Another test. Another step toward the end of his meaningless life. Cecil was right: Somehow, even in agony, with his family gone, it was better than death.

It had to be fear. Fear of death was all they had over him. It was the only fear he hadn’t been cured of.

“I’ll get a signal to you when the time is right,” Cecil planned. “We’ll deal with her guards.” He stopped talking, until Thayer met his eyes. “What things can you do to keep her happy? Relationships aren’t only sex, you can avoid it more if you think of other things.”

“Like what?” Anything but sex.

“Girls like cooking together. Compliments. Cuddling. Poetry, if you can manage it. Movies together. Suggest reading the same book – that’s time spent apart where she still has the benefit of feeling connected.”

So, do things he hated less than sex and make them mean more. “Okay. Got it.”

He wanted Cecil to leave. He wanted to mourn losing Asa, except they weren’t allowed to mourn losses. He wanted to be anywhere else.

“I’m sorry, Thayer.” Cecil hugged him.

Thayer’s throat caught. His eyes felt heavy. He brushed both feelings off. “What happened to the other guys. The twenty that left a week and a half ago.”

Cecil frowned. “We hadn’t established our alliance yet. It came about by luck. A family relation.”

Thayer stepped back. “I asked what happened to them.”

Cecil met his eyes. “They were deprived of oxygen until they died.”

He bet that’s how Asa died too.

“Because of their skin?” Thayer asked. Every kid with colored skin was gone, it was the most notable common factor in the last cull.

“Skin,” he admitted. “And evaluations of what Asa thought of them. Everyone who remains are people he has strong feelings about, one way or the other.”

He was right, about the eyes and that Asa mattered. He was right, and it didn’t matter. “Then why is Asa gone?”

“It doesn’t matter now. All of us are leaving, soon.”

Thayer gritted his teeth. He was tired; angry and frustrated and full of fight, but sick of it.

“If she brings a man by the name of Greg here, you should trust him,” Cecil added.

Was it a game or not? Thayer didn’t know.

“Okay,” Thayer agreed. Going along with Cecil was all he had, was his only chance. Either he won the game or his freedom, depending on how much Cecil was lying. “Got it.”

One more test, for Cecil. “She knows Brendan is gay.”

Cecil knew too. Without hesitation, he replied. “Yes. Brendan is also her son. He and you were guaranteed safety, as it turned out.”

“I feel privileged.” No wonder he hated Brendan – he was Adele’s kid. He almost felt bad for Brendan, but then remembered… “What do you say when a girl asks if you want kids?”

His skin coiled in memory.

Cecil’s eyes widened. “How soon?”

“She asked if I want them. And I didnt think no would go over well.”

Cecil laughed. “When she comes back, why not have an idea of where a crib could go in the apartment? That’s not just a yes, that says you’re thinking about it and planning ahead.”

But he didn’t want a kid. He was asking how to avoid it, not how to encourage it.

Cecil’s tone changed, more serious again. “You can have power over her, control her, if you work it right. She is desperate for you, and no one else, to want her.”

“No one else since she killed my dad.”

Cecil didn’t blink. It must have been true; he knew. “You should go. I’ve got this.”

Cecil took a half step closer. Thayer prepared for attack, but kept his body calm. It wasn’t likely that Cecil would attack now.

Instead, Cecil hugged him. “I’m not sure what you think of me, but we are trying. We want you safe, all of you, as many of you as we can.”

Thayer kept his arms at his side, but he let Cecil.

“I’ll let you know how I feel on the other side,” Thayer said, instead.

“Fair.” Cecil stepped back, shifted the vase as he moved, and was gone.

Thayer had nothing to do, no one to talk to. He returned to the couch and found a show to watch. He was asleep before he knew what it was about.

Then, there was crying. Screaming, loud, crying.

“Hey.” He stood up, not sure he was ready for whatever was wrong.

Adele was there, her bushy brown hair matted against her sides. A crying baby in her arms.

“Are you okay?” Thayer asked.

She stomped over to the counter, dropped a bag from her shoulder, and turned to Thayer. “I was murdered tonight.”

If she was murdered… how did Cecil think Thayer could do better. Here she was, alive.

It must have been a setup.

Thayer stepped toward her and wrapped his arms around her and the baby. “I’m sorry, but at least you’re alive now.” He kissed her. “Do you need a shower?”

All of the anger slid into a big smile. “He’s alive too,” she replied. “You should name him.”

Probably Asa, except the baby had brown eyes.

“He doesn’t have a name?” Thayer asked.

She was nuts. Baby obsessed.

“I did a spell to get pregnant, because we wanted him, and then when I was killed he died too. So I brought him back with me.” She kissed him while he tried to process her words. Then she kissed the baby’s head.

“I would love a shower.” Adele handed him the baby she claimed was his.

He looked down, at a face he knew was a lot like his. Maybe it was because she insisted it was his kid. It had been hours since he met her. He was pretty sure babies didn’t come that fast. He just didn’t know how.

He looked at the baby still. His baby.

“You should shower, get comfortable,” Thayer insisted.

She left. He was alone, with a baby.

He felt bad for the baby. He’d never seen one in real life, and he knew in an instant it was a good thing: This place was no place for a baby.

His baby. That seemed wrong. It had to be wrong. He looked down the hall while he stayed and bounced. He had no idea what babies ate.

It didn’t matter. As he moved around the room, the baby quieted.

“You know,” Thayer said to the calm, eyes closed, face. “I have to name you. She wants me to. You might not be mine, but we have to pretend. It’s a game.”

He sighed. Everything was a game.

He thought of every name he knew, and remembered one of his other classmates. He’d been culled. Maybe that was a bad thing, except this baby would be protected.

If he could bring back anyone, it would be the one kid: Isaac. He’d been top of their class, like Asa, but dark skinned.

According to Cecil’s logic, he had the wrong skin and Asa didn’t care about him enough, one way or the other.

It didn’t matter. If Cecil was telling the truth, Thayer was safe from any cull. He had to play his hand right.

He looked at the baby. He needed to believe it was his.

“What about Isaac?” Thayer asked.

The baby didn’t care.

“Isaac,” he repeated. “My son Isaac.”

He dug through the bag Adele had brought and found bottles and a can that said infant formula.  He pulled it out and followed the directions. He brought the bottle, warmed, and Isaac to the couch. The show was still on, something with horses and a weird underground monster.

Thayer changed the channel. He found a blank channel that played nice music.

“So, Isaac.” The baby ate. “We need to get you out of here.”

Thayer didn’t know what to do. He had Adele and a baby and influence, but little faith. He needed his own plan, one that stopped anyone else from being hurt.

“What, though,” he mused aloud.

The baby didn’t have any ideas.

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