Page 140 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘I promised to keep you safe.’

‘You don’t know… what safe is.’

‘I know what dead is.’

‘Without the sky, I’d rather be dead.’

Troy looks away, line between his eyes.

He seems to be thinking.

‘The top of the tower’s flat,’ he says slowly. ‘It’s not pretty up there, but if you behave and you eat, I’ll let you go up there at night sometimes.’

‘Really?’

‘Really.’

‘Please,’ Riley says in a rush. ‘That’s all I want. To see the moon, to—’

‘I know, but Riley, listen. Listen close now. The moon is why those bad things happened to you. Moonlight on your skin,’ Troy tells him, very clearly, ‘is why your body is changing like this. I knew something would happen eventually. I just thought you’d be older when it did.’

‘You knew… this would happen?’

‘I’ve always known you were different.’

He knows so much more than Riley does.

It’s yet another form of imprisonment and torture.

‘What am I?’ Riley’s eyes move between Troy’s, begging. There’s an answer he desperately needs, and for a moment, it seems like Troy will give it to him, but then the older man stands, expression shuttered.

‘I’ll bring you dinner later. We’ll talk more.’

‘Troy—’

‘You’re my son,’ he says, turning away. ‘That’s what you are.’

✴

The chains stay bundled on the wall, ready and waiting.

But for the next few weeks, they’re not needed.

Riley has to work up the courage to ask for food without salt and oil. Although Troy sniffs at that, seems to find it highly distasteful, the food he brings from then on is what Riley asked for, more or less. It’s almost entirely fresh fruits and vegetables, with the occasional expensive cut of steak, grilled bare, always on a different plate so it doesn’t touch the rest.

‘You need protein,’ he says when Riley makes a face at the steak.

Riley doesn’t know enough about food to argue, so he sometimes makes an effort to eat a few bites in front of Troy, but otherwise, he’ll leave it by the barred doors as far away as possible.

Something about the blood… is weird.

He wants it but he doesn’t.

Without the chains, Riley can finally sleep properly.

He sleeps more than before, not the grey hell of wanting to die in his sleep, just genuine rest. He’s sometimes still in bed when Troy, and it is only ever Troy now, no one else, brings him lunch.

Troy gives the mattress a mild kick, sets down the food, says something like, ‘You’re looking better,’ or ‘Gaining weight, good to see.’