He tried to stop his traitorous thoughts, but they came anyway. Because the fact is, he wasn’t so sure. Part of him was wondering if this wasn’t just his punishment… He didn’t know what he’d do if this was forever.
Ender stumbled upon reaching the bottom of the steep hill into the valley. The black smoke was so thick, he could barely see the ground beneath his feet, but he didn’t let it slow him down, taking off at a run into the burning, and in some cases, still exploding, city of Grander. The putrid smell of burning flesh, metal, and so much more seared through his sinuses, etching into him with every breath he took, making him fear he’d never smell anything else again.
As Ender blindly ran through the destroyed streets, almost nothing was recognizable anymore. Stores and homes alike had been destroyed, turned into piles of rubble, and in some places, only craters had been left behind. But it was what was missing that truly scared him—the sounds of life. There wereno screams, no crying…no sirens. Aside from the crack of fire, the whistles and explosions of the still dropping bombs, and the shaking ground as they landed, it was silent.
As his gaze flicked to a crater that was where the post office used to be, he’d just had the thought that he needed to be careful of the holes when the ground dropped away, and he stepped right off the edge into a burning pit he hadn’t seen.
His lungs seized as he let out a soundless yelp, before Ender began to cough violently, all while desperately clawing at the side of the pit to stop his downward momentum. The heated dirt burned his hands as he dug into it, but Ender ignored the pain and just started to climb.
When he reached the edge, wheezing the whole way, Ender let out a groan as he dragged himself out. Breathlessly, he pushed back onto his feet. His eyes were glued to the ground when he once again followed the long-mangled path back to where his life had been.
While his small farm was on the very edge of the city, his home was on an actual street with others, even if there was a generous bit of land behind it for farming. The location was something he’d always loved, but at the moment, he was cursing it being on the opposite end of the valley.
Just as the sounds of bombs stopped, a new sound started. Ender flinched with the first loud rumble of thunder as it shook the sky, and the thick clouds above let loose a downpour of rain. Even when the ground became slick with mud, much of the fire continued to burn.
Ender’s first glimpse of what his home had become was that of the broken white stone path in front of it.
As his gaze snapped upward, a cry of denial ripped through him, as visions of a two-story white farmhouse with a fenced in front porch and light-blue roof flickered over the top of the burning pile of destruction that now laid in front of him.
With tears streaming down his face, he stumbled forward a few steps, before screaming, “COOPER, NYLA, KOVO!” while sprinting down the crumbled path.
Ender climbed over the still simmering, and in some cases burning, debris, sliding a few times with the slickness of rain, and then he started digging. His body felt like it was going numb, barely even feeling it as the heated debris seared his hands, knees, and arms, uncaring anytime something sliced into him, the blood only adding to the slickness.
The faces of his husband, Cooper; his son, Kovo; and his daughter, Nyla, flashed into his mind, as he continued to claw at and shove aside the broken wood, siding and more. Cooper was his opposite, with his ready dimpled smile, dark, naturally tanned skin, black hair, and apple-green eyes. Their children took after them—Kovo looked just like Coop, while Nyla was all Ender.
He grunted, his muscles straining while lifting up a large slab. Ender froze as he caught sight of what he’d just uncovered. His heart clenched as he stared down at the small soot-covered hand, with equally as tiny, painted pink nails. He knelt there unmoving, it taking a second for his brain to comprehend, before Ender continued frantically clawing at everything around him.
His scream of agony was covered up by a boom of thunder when he uncovered the heart-shaped face of his daughter. All the while, his heart shattered as he met the lifeless amber-yellow eyes staring back at him.
Ender spasmed awake, choking out “Nyla,”as his body heaved with a wheezing sob. The burning smell from all those years ago was once again searing through his lungs.
Grasping at his chest, in that moment, he more than anything wished that the stabbing pain would go away, that the emptiness, the cold would stop…but it hadn’t yet, and likely never would.
“Nyla—ah. Nyla—” he repeated again and again, calling his daughter’s name, despite knowing she would never answer—the dead never did. His desperate cries became more garbled as he began to sob harder.
The aches all over his body were nothing compared to the agony radiating from his chest. Ender curled into a tight ball, trying to hide from the memories and the cold that was coming from inside him.
Cyrus moanedinto the mouth pressed against his, as he gripped the hips of someone else and thrust up into their tight, wet body.
The mouth he knew. He’d kissed Killian too many times to count to not recognize him. The person in his lap, however, was unknown to Cyrus. As they arched against him, he could tell they were taller and more muscular than Killian. Cyrus heard them whimpering, but the words weren’t clear when they reached his ears, or maybe they were just too muffled with the man’s face pressed to his neck.
The only thing that seemed to be in focus was the tightness around his cock, and the feeling of tears hitting his skin each time he pumped inside. He wasn’t sure why he was so certain that’s what it was, but he just knew.
Minutes passed, with the taste of Killian on his tongue, while he sated his body inside another, when suddenly he heard them…pleading.
“C-cold. I’m so cold…please!” an accented voice begged, the words coming again and again.
And as he finally heard the man’s voice, the body that he knew was his own acted without him, breaking free of Killian’s kiss to draw the unknown person to his mouth, bringing the unknown man’s face into full view for the first time.
Cyrus jerkedawake with a shocked gasp. Heart racing, his chest rose and fell rapidly as he stared wide-eyed out into the dark room.
“Impossible,” Cyrus rasped while he sat up in bed.
Beside him Killian made a soft groaning noise, before slowly sitting up to look at him tiredly. “What’s wrong?” The man blinked, and then seemed to become more alert, a smile spreading across his face as he excitedly asked, “Are they back?! Did you have a vision?!”
“I…” he trailed off, not even sure where to begin.
Killian’s smile fell slightly. “Was it…bad?” The Siren took a deep breath, likely to prepare himself for bad news, but looked down with a brow raised after smelling exactly how ‘not bad’ the dream was.
