“Go use ours,” Mom said, hugging me. “You can borrow your dad’s robe.”
I hurriedly scrubbed the dreck off of me., then hopped out. I saw Dad’s robe, but no underwear and I couldn’t put back on the ones I was no longer wearing to begin with, thanks to Arrakus. I giggled then, a high pitched sound that sounded manic even to my ears. I’d been sat there wearing soggy tattered clothes, my bare ass hanging out, the entire time they’d been genuflecting. It was absurd. But hey, given that, I could wear the robe and go commando beneath. They’d never know, and if they guessed, I doubted they’d give two shits about it. I slipped the robe on, tied it, and padded out to where I could hear voices. Mugs of hot chocolate sat on the island, a spray can of whipped cream by them, as well as an opened bag of marshmallows.
“Chocolate fixes nearly everything,” Mom said nervously.
“True story,” Shannon said, emerging from my room and crossing the space to reach us. He picked up the can, shook it, then removed the lid before adding a mountain of fluffy white goodness onto the top of one of the drinks. He offered me the can `and I took it. He picked up the marshmallows and out on as many as he could without them falling off.
We all watched him silently. He seemed to be taking this rather too well.
He took a sip, closing his eyes. “Oh, yeah, that’s good.” He reopened his eyes, setting down his cup but keeping both hands curled around the warmth of the mug. “Okay, nobody say anything yet, just let me speak. So, I was at the gala and went to the bathroom. Santa came and stuck this dirty rag of stinking of sickly perfume in front of my nose, and then I woke up with Octo-Dude and River here doing the nasty while River feels up my chest and kisses me. There was weird gold light, then we were in that cold, nasty ass water, Roy is dead, still wearing parts of that Santa outfit, his guts are being literally used for garters or whatever, and now you guys think River and I are royalty.” He took a deep breath. “Whew. Did I get things right so far? And uh, was I dead, or did I imagine that?”
“Well, You’re mostly right,” I said. “Octo-Dude is named Arrakus,” I began.
“Yeah, yeah, you guys said that in the car. Along with you not being human and how he’s a being from the Void. Are you from there, too?”
Dad sighed. “This is going to take a while.” He reached for the can of whipped cream. “Right, so, when the universe began, it sprang from the Void.” He squirted some whipped cream onto his hot chocolate.
“Yeah, got that.”
“There were already beings living in the Void, and some ended up in our Universe. They multiplied, spawning their young on the worlds they found.”
“And Arrakus was spawned here, on Earth?”
“Yes.” Dad went on to explain about how Man discovered they could communicate with Arrakus and the few others like him they encountered from time to time. That they could be given eternal life, for a bargain- the price of a soul, more or less. Not the soul of the one to be Made, no, they needed that for fuel, for the making. It had to be from someone mature, yet hale and hearty with a good many years left, as it was the life-force that mattered most for the Making. The beings often also ate the flesh or snacked on the blood of their victims, but that was considered a bonus.
“Ewww,” Shannon interjected.
Mom got up to boil the electric kettle so we could have more hot chocolate. Dad then explained about the Family in an overview. Shannon looked at me, and I told him how I ended up within the fold, getting Made.
“Oh my God, so you were born before the turn of last century!” he exclaimed. “I’ve been boning an old man!”
I sputtered the hot chocolate I was trying to sip, sending marshmallows and whipped cream everywhere. Mom looked stunned while Dad looked away.
“I’m kidding,” Shannon flicked his hand. “Okay, I’m really not, but I’m hanging on here by a thread, and if I don’t laugh it off, I’m going to curl up in a ball and go catatonic or something. So, please, carry on.”
Mom came over with a cloth, wiping up the mess I made.
“Well, as River just said-”
“Only he’s not River, is he? Was there even ever a River?”
“Yes, there was,” Dad said, angrily. “Look, I know it’s all a big shock y=to you, but you don’t get to hurt my wife like that. Not over the death of our son.”
Shannon looked abashed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think. You did say something in the car about having a son you lost.” He looked at Mom sorrowfully. “I need to think before I speak, sometimes.”
She nodded. “We all do. The story about River and his accident are all true, up to a point.”
“He died at the scene and the ambulance crew took him to a human hospital. By the time any of us knew anything, he’d been gone too long. He had departed,” Dad said.
“So, like his soul wasn’t still tied to his body, but mine was? Because Roy killed me.”
“He used too much chloroform or whatever that was,” I said, the memory of the discovery of that rag and then finding him so still, watching him slip away, hit me hard. I bent my head, cupped my hand over my mouth and sobbed. Mom slid an arm over my shoulder, but the thing that gave me the most comfort wasn’t the loving support of a parent, but the understanding embrace of the one I now believed to be my soul mate. He got down off of his stool and hugged me from behind, resting his chin on my shoulder.
“Hey now, he said softly. “This is all kinds of fucked up, but we’ll figure it out. I’m here, and I’m alive. Kinda. I’m breathing, use the toilet, eat and drink, have a heartbeat, and all that jazz. Everything else, I just need to wrap my head around, okay? You, well, you, I don’t regret. If I had to choose, I’d choose you every time, and I know that’s what you did for me.”
I nodded, unable to speak, my tears still falling. I was beyond grateful that he understood. “I knew it was selfish,” I choked out, moving my hand to speak.
He peered at me. “Selfish? How was it selfish to not let me die?”
