Chapter 7

As Will began to return to the world ofconsciousness, his thoughts swirled around. The dream he had been having was about the last dinner party he'd gone to, almost four months earlier. This was the time when Mia had offered him some nice fettuccine alfredo pasta with a special mix of spices she had added. Sadly, it hadn't just been limited to peppers and salt. The mixture had given Will food poisoning and left him stuck in his room ill for the next several days.

Deep in his heart, Will was cursing her. Freaking bitch! What the hell is proven from her poisoning me? If she thinks that'll get rid of me, she's sadly mistaken!

But farther up, he rationalized everything. The bitter anger and the annoyances she caused him had died down. Even higher up in his rationality, as it becomes the exposed part of his behaviors that he shows people, Will had become a push-over. He didn't care about what Mia did to him. She could poison him, beat him, slap him, anything. He'd take it. Verbal and physical abuse.

It didn't make Will sad. It didn't make him angry. Frustrated. Or even happy that she was acknowledging him in some way.

He had numbed himself to everything.

Four years. Maybe... Will thought as he returned to the reality around him. He could feel himself laying on something, and the pounding in his head. It created a hard pressure, and really hurt.

Could it have never happened? Am I someone else's son? But... I remember being with him on my birthday parties, hanging out in the palace with the King...

As the real world came into focus, waking Will up, the headache and the pounding became more painful. His second-guessing and doubts of his own memories stopped as the pain set in. With it came the nasty floral smell of lavender.

And then... voices.

Muffled.

Murmuring.

They were far away.

~*~

“That was not a slice of cake, Crow.” Isaac grumbled, sitting on a stool in a kitchen. He was leaning with his elbows on the counter, while the young man that had been the one to kidnap Will was standing across from him in front of the kitchen sink, rinsing his hair.

“I don't want to hear it.” He said through the water.

“What was it like in there?”

“Loud.” He answered pulling his head out and rubbed a towel over his head. After he pulled the towel down, rubbing some bits on his neck, he continued. “And it was crowded. And the food was shit. Even the kid said it was shit.”

“The kid said it was shit?” Isaac asked, raising a brow. “Yeah, right.”

“Well, he said it was made with bugs.” he answered.

“Crow.” came the third voice, the other young man that had been in all black. He came walking into the kitchen from the pantry with a slice of cake on a plate in his hand.

“Akiio~” Isaac sung happily, “Is that for me~?” He smiled, trying to seduce him to hand him the plate.

Akiio just sat next to him, and took a piece off with the fork, going to eat it.

Crow's eyes thinned with near annoyance as he watched them. “What's up?”

“He's out of place here.” Akiio answered.

Crow put his hand on the edge of the sink, annoyed. “So, what? You think I shouldn't have brought him here?”

“Obviously.” Akiio replied, turning the fork from his mouth. It had been hanging in front of it and now he turned it so it was aimed at Isaac.

“Yay!” Isaac bit the fork, taking the slice off, happily licking his lips afterward.

Crow kept talking like this odd display of close intimacy was normal. “I couldn't just leave him there like that. He looked like a drowned puppy.” He paused, “I mean, you should've seen how Adell hit him.”

“He hit him?” Isaac asked after he finished the next bite.

“Yeah, like, whap.” Crow gestured with his arm and hand, showing himself imaginatively hitting a figure hard. “It left a mark on his cheek- turning red and everything.”

Isaac gawked a bit, looking to Akiio and then to Crow again. “Did he cry?”

Crow shrugged, taking the towel off his shoulders to drop it into the sink. “I don't think so. He left after that and I couldn't follow him.”

“What'd Adell do?”

“He politely said I should get my ass out of there.” And he rolled his eyes. “What a jerk. Smacking his own son.”

“He doesn't remember him.” Akiio answered.

“Yeah, yeah. I know the logic of it.” Crow turned around, waving his arm to shut Akiio up. He turned back around suddenly, pointing at him. “But I still don't think it's right.”

“Well, it makes sense.” Isaac answered. “You can't remember the son if the mother of him has been forgotten.”

“Remember him as a nephew or a friend's son, some shit like that!” Crow waved his arms. “You can't just forget him like that!”

“He did.” Akiio answered bluntly.

“Yeah, Crow.” Isaac nodded, taking another bite of cake. “You can't just alter the memories like that.”

Crow looked to Isaac, clearly annoyed. “So, you can take memories out, but you can't change them or put new ones in that never existed?”

“Yeah.” Isaac nodded again. “It's too interconnected. I'm surprised he was able to remove his wife so completely anyway.”

There was a long silence. The only thing moving was Isaac eating the cake.

Finally Crow shifted and groaned, “Fine. I get it. It's a memory experiment and we're the grunt monkeys. But I don't think it's right that you should just forget someone that you love so much. I mean, suicide or something is better, right?”

There was a continued silence, and no answer. It was a touchy subject between the three of them.

Isaac had committed suicide and refused to cross over the Threshold or attain his memories, that's why he was here. Akiio had come to the Threshold to escape the world of the living, without dying.

And yet somehow, they all had performed the same crime that would trap them in the service of this messed up god until they were released, whenever.

“Isaac”, Akiio “Raven”, “Crow”, and “Dove.” They had been renamed by the god as a symbol of their imprisonment.

“You should make him some food.” Isaac broke the silence finally, breaking into the other's thoughts. “He'll probably be hungry when he wakes up.”

“And he'll have a killer headache.” Crow nodded, pointing to his temple. Then he busied himself getting things together for when Will would wake up.

Isaac glanced to Akiio, who had just been watching the slice of cake disappear off the plate, with no real expression on his face. “Are you worried?”

“There's a 53.7% chance that Crow will be affected by this young man in a negative way.” he answered.

Crow stopped cracking eggs in a bowl, looking up to him. Akiio was trained to notice things and make analysis'; a professional mercenary that could kill you with the least likely of weapons.

They all felt it. There was some greater plot in this experiment that the god was guiding them down. And with Will now being in the Threshold, he could strain his mentality far easier. All in the name of research.

With the disgusting taste settling in his mouth, Crow went back to making a healthy breakfast. He didn't want to speculate about what would happen. Instead, he turned the direction of the conversation back.

“Sorry about the suicide thing.”

Isaac smiled to him, “No worries. Just get me a slice of cake.”