Worlds Apart

Chapter 43

O V E R F L O W

Nov. 06 2020 15:52 FGT

Jaykio Ancestral House, Kyno, Province of Forseglet

The late afternoon sky swirled above Neàl in a nauseating spiral. The sun glinted maliciously as they stumbled towards the sprawling estate that had once been their home. A long time ago, before things changed, before the prophecy, before he was deemed a monster—when the word only meant the skulking shadows of the large house...Neàl would have been comforted at the sight. Now, it brought a bad taste to his mouth. Putrid, acidic betrayal.

He gagged, then gasped in pain as his leg snagged a broken branch at the edge of the property. Stumbling closer to the large looming building, the windows blurred into a sneering face. Neàl's feet found the edge of the porch and they tripped up the stairs, catching himself on the pillar. Fingers gouged into it, plaster collecting under his nails and prickling his skin and a hand grasped the doorknob.

The door slammed open and he nearly collapsed to the floor, watching plush plum carpets fill their vision and blood splatter on it. Stained, stained forever, the carpet hardening into pavement from years ago—no, no, that wasn't years ago. It couldn't be. It was yesterday. It was yesterday that the gun was pressed to his head and the heart—

"Neàl?"

That was out of place. No one knew his name there...but that was his father. Why was his father in his head?

Tweed-clad knees dropped into his vision, a white lab coat falling to the side. It must have been folded before it fell—the creases were sharp, but now it was stained. Another thing they had stained forever. Didn't his father know those never came off?

Pa's concerned, light eyes searched him, calling his name. They must be dreaming, yes, that would explain this. He had never looked at Neàl like that, not since...

"—happened to you?"

Why else would Vin Tayen Jaykio look at his son as if he were concerned over their well-being, as if they were worth something to him?

Neàl remembered now why they were here—to look for Riona, alive and well and with Adalina in tow. They had been worried. The Guardians wouldn't take an incursion like that lightly. He had only wanted to find their girls and ensure they were alright but instead had found his father showing...concern. For him. It felt strange. Novel.

It had come too late.

Laughter bubbled up and Neàl snickered at his father, who stared at him wide-eyed. He doubled over in laughter, the sound echoing in their head until it was all they heard, filling—

"Your eyes," his father was saying from across the ocean. "Is that kadin—?"

—filling—

Neàl flung their arm out, pushing Pa's hand off their shoulder.

"Neàl, son, whatever you're doing, you need to stop."

—filling—

"You're going to hurt someone or yourself."

And Neàl couldn't help but laugh again, even though it wasn't funny at all and their chest felt so heavy it could sink through the floor. Bury him alive. Smothering, smothering. Lights glistened in the corner of his vision, sticky with blood.

—and it—

Pa reached towards him, hands outstretched and Neàl was ten years old again, holding a broken doll and angry and grieving and frustrated, and his father's hands were up in surrender, a wary look in his eyes as he placated him and then hurriedly got Riona out of the room; and Neàl was eighteen, holding a recruitment letter from the Evanos Intelligence, and his father's hands were reaching to him in congratulations, but then he pulled back and fear and hesitation replaced his relief and short-lived pride; and Neàl was nineteen and their father had his hands outstretched in concern so they reached through the planes, kadin flaring down their veins as their Jaykio powers activated and a shape emerged behind his Pa.

It flickered and was gone and Vin Jaykio trembled, eyes going white, a grin growing on his face as another soul took control and his hands grabbed his head and—snap—and his father crumpled to the ground, eyes staring unseeing at the universe buried in the floor in the house that had once been their home.

—overflowed.