Look After You

The King

     Bo slid the heavy crown across the hard floor. Ralph watched its movements with ravenous eyes, starving for all of the things that it could offer. It came to a stop right in front of his shoe, centimeters away from his biggest toe. Ryan could see a few droplets of blood on the faux leather. He was suddenly aware of the planet's rotation.

     "There. Take it." Bo spat. "I don't want it if having it will put him in danger."

     "How sweet. There's more to our deal than just the crown though." Ralph dragged the flat side of the blade across a clean patch on Ryan's shirt, not that his hostage noticed. "Remember what I said over the phone? The kingdom, the money, the people, the power. If you want him back, you're going to have to return all of that to me as well."

     His jaw tightened, though he managed to suppress the pressure building up inside of him like a firecracker just by glancing down at the assassin. "Fine. You can have all of that too."

     "Not so fast, boy. Do it properly. You were taught the official procedure, weren't you?" He didn't wait for him to answer. "That's alright, I'll remind you if you forgot."

     Ryan could hear the grin in his voice. Before the mental image of his smile had the chance to make him sick, he noticed Ralph's other arm raise. He didn't see the gun in his hand until it was too late, didn't find the words to warn the king about the fingers curling around the trigger until after he heard his captor say, "First you start by getting down on one knee."

     Ryan shut his eyes.

     There was a bang that he often heard in his sleep, followed by a thud that dropped his heart down to the soles of his feet. The only reason why he decided to breathe out was because of the cry. That pained cry that quickly smothered itself as it turned into agonizing grunts in between gulps for air. If it weren't for that, he never would've opened his eyes. He never would've seen Bo kneeling on the floor, sweat rolling over his eyes as he brought his hands to his red left knee. It didn't take long for his fingers to become coated with blood, palms overflowing until it dripped down into the cracks between the floorboards. Ryan noticed that the air smelled like metal.

     Ralph kicked the crown across the room. It came to a grinding halt right in front of Bo's trembling body. He approached his son, ignoring his failed attempts to scramble away from him. He stopped before the tip of his shoe could touch a drop of his child's blood.

     "Do you remember the rest now, or do I need to give you another reminder?"

     Ryan had never seen Bo's pupils grow so wide. They reminded him of the terror in a deer's eyes when it found itself stuck in front of a pair of headlights.

     The king shook his head.

     "Excellent." He pushed the crown closer to him with his foot. "Then why don't you take this back and try it again, huh? This time from the top. And remember that time is ticking, boy. I don't have all day and neither does Ryan."

     Bo picked it up and held it with shaking fingers that left red smudges all over the gold. He raised it high above his head, out and ready for his father to take away from him.

     "I-I, Bo Ralph Cooper, hereby relinquish the throne and each of my assets over to you...." He struggled to get the words out through his sharp teeth. "By giving you this crown, I agree to permanently lose my right to power. I-I pass all that is mine to you and you alone. My word binds you to everything and me to nothing."

     Ralph took the bloody crown and set it upon his head.

     Then he laughed. Like a hyena atop a pile of dead wilder beasts, he laughed with the exhilaration of knowing that his hunt had been a success. He could no longer be bound to the rules conjured up by the common man. He could howl with adrenaline until his titanium throat peeled back into steel and there was nothing anybody could do to stop him. He couldn't be stuck down, couldn't be touched at all. Ryan's vision split into thirds from the echo of his hysterics. 

     Once he decided that he was done, he spoke with a voice that was discordant and harsh.

     "You must remind me, as I was a different man back then, but what did you say to me earlier?" He turned to his captive with curved lips that could've turned the blood all over him into ice. "Didn't you say that you'd rather die than address me properly?"

     The red crown got closer and closer. Ryan didn't realize that there was a gun in front of his face until the barrel of it was shoved inside his mouth. The warm metal burned the inside of his cheek, and once the pain of that began to compete with the throbbing in his shoulder, it moved down the length of his tongue until the handle was forced to stop at his chin. His body twitched as it tried to keep whatever he had eaten earlier in his stomach where it belonged. One spasm brought tears to the corners of his eyes.

     "Wait!" Bo shouted. "Wait, no! No, don't kill him! I gave you what you wanted! I've always let you take what you wanted, but please, don't take him...."

     Ryan noticed his finger on the trigger. His head was filled with radio interference.

     "Do not order me around." Ralph snapped. "Remember your place, civilian."

     Bo recoiled as if he had been shot a second time.

     They were both lucky that words came back to him before Ralph could press his finger down.

     "Wait, please!" Bo tried to move once again, but he ended up stuck on his knees once his joint grazed the ground. "W-What else can I give you? What else do you want? Please just kill me and leave him out of it. He has nothing to do with any of this...."

     "What do I want? You stole everything from me and now you have the nerve to sit there and ask me what I want? You think I want you dead?" Ralph glanced back at Bo and broke his son's eyes into shards. "No, no, 20 years ago, I wanted you dead. Now I just want you to hurt."

     Ralph glared holes into him until there were just enough to make his gaze falter. He tried like hell not to show it on his face, but the longer his father looked at him, the easier it was to get a look at the true reservation on his face. All of the effort he put into trying to keep up whatever appearances he had left was wasted the moment Ralph spoke again.

     "Actually, there might be something else that I want." He hummed and his voice reminded Ryan of a backward lullaby. "How has Kyle been?"