Downworld

Part 1: Save Me

Warnings: profanity (including the occasional gendered slur); attempted rape and mentions of rape; attempted suicide; mentions of child prostitution and self harm; violence and character death; capital punishment; some sexual content as well, and this would be consensual m/m sex, if you can't guess. Mature content generally. Also, drinking driving. Please don't drink and drive. None of the sexual violence mentioned in this story is designed to titillate or glorify such violence. This is not that kind of story. If all this doesn't scare you off, welcome to downworld and I hope you enjoy.

*

The bar wasn't the best. It was scuzzy; the patrons -- including me -- were a shifty lot, the bartender was a grumpy asshole, and the drinks weren't cheap enough to make up for it. The only thing it had going for it was the location. It was close enough to the gateway that it wasn't trouble for my cousin to come up from downworld, and far enough from my place to be reasonably sure none of my aboveworld colleagues or neighbors would stop by.

So, I sat at the bar to wait for Tinder, who the only one in my family not to disown me when I went rogue and ran away to the above. She even tried to understand why, even though she said she could never leave herself. I didn't blame her either, she was a good guardian, and served a good noble, Raven the Silent Lady, who didn't take advantage of her devotion. That's just not an arrangement I'd be able to stomach, no matter how genuine the noble was. It didn't help that guardian-noble bond was an all or nothing, lifetime deal. I didn't know how people could trust anyone else that much, let alone a noble.

'Beer?' the bartender asked.

'Yeah,' I grunted back. I wasn't a stranger here, and he knew I refused to touch anything other than his weakest swill, ever since that time he poured me a shot of his 'special'. I woke up the next day in a stranger's bed, with said stranger and a few of his friends, no memory of what had happened -- though it wasn't hard to guess -- and a hangover that put me out for days.

He poured the beer, and I took a deep gulp.

I wasn't the only downworlder in the bar. Hell, the bartender was a bloodsucker of some kind. I was not too sure which, he was almost as good at passing as I was and I've never asked because I don't give a shit. I'd seen someone ask him once if he was a vamp, they got a fist in the face for it, which was funny as fuck, though I was drunk at the time. I didn't know what his rank was either, I'd guess common though, maybe retainer. Certainly not royal, noble or guardian, I could tell that much. And most freaks were commoners anyway, so it was a safe bet. In any case, I knew I could take him, if that's what it came to.

There were a pair of doppelgangers in the corner. No threat to me, though humans beware if they were hunting for new skins. And there was a werewolf at one of the tables, who might have been a threat if he wasn't well on his way to being thoroughly sloshed. I doubted he would be able to throw a punch, let alone change into his other form. The other few patrons were humans, some of whom could claim to be downworlders by virtue of the fact they had some freak blood in them, that might or might not manifest in useful ways, but none of whom had enough power to even rank as commoner and therefore truly weren't of the world below. There were a few aboveworlders too, but given the bar was in above, it would have been strange if there weren't any.

The ratio of freaks to humans was almost never this high. Most of the time, I was lucky to go for days without seeing another downworlder, partly because I avoided them, but also because most didn't come above for anything other than hunting. Those that did generally stayed within communities around the gateway, all the benefits of living above, but with as little interaction with the ignorant aboveworlders as possible. This bar was right on the edge of one of those little neighborhoods. I personally found the communities as intolerable as downworld itself.