Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2023 03:20:27 -0500 From: Fang Saito Subject: Welcome to Avernus - Chapter 15 This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any real people or places is purely coincidental. This story is the property of the author and is protected under copyright laws. The author retains all rights. No reproduction is allowed without the author's consent. Conversations and feedback are appreciated to Greyson B. via email at hokkaidohotel86it@gmail.com. I love hearing from readers. As always, special thanks to Johnny Kape for the excellent editing assistance he has been providing me. If you enjoy this story, please support the Nifty archives today with a thoughtful donation by visiting https://donate.nifty.org/. You can also consider buying me a coffee or two if you want to support me as well. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/GreysonB. It goes a long way to turning coffee into ink. You can find my other Nifty stories at: https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/adult-youth/cadence/ https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/highschool/a-ghost-finds-a-body/ I have begun a mailing list to notify people when a new chapter is posted. If you would like to be added, feel free to write and let me know to add you. Welcome to Avernus Chapter 15 If it was weird entering the house through a tunnel under the basement, it was even weirder leaving that way. You don't normally walk out of your generic suburban basement and immediately enter a tunnel that looks like you are in some science fiction movie or a government bunker. A few minutes after heading down the tunnel, Wren slowed, and we passed two women on another cart heading the other way. "They aren't heading to my house, are they?" I asked. "No, babe. There are plenty of other stops down that way," answered Wren. "Your school, for one." "I'm sure you have entrances into the town hall," I said. "What about the church on the square?" "No, we have the town hall on the north side of the square, and LGM on the south. Why do you ask?" "Just being nosy," I laughed. "Or maybe I'm gathering data on my enemies! Mwa haha!" Yeah, it was a shitty attempt at an evil villain laugh. I loved it anyway. Soon enough we passed through several more common areas, places that looked more like cafeterias, a few more pocket areas with couches and chairs, and lots and lots of side tunnels. Nothing was marked, labeled, or given directions of any kind. I guess you either knew your way, you had a guide, or you gave up and got lost. It seemed as good a defense as any. We finally got to the elevator for the hotel, which made me think of something. "Why all this security bullshit?" I asked. "What do you mean?" Wren pulled out a keycard, which he swiped. "I mean all this. You need a key card, then you are about to need a key. But before the elevator will move, someone is going to come on a speaker and say something in Chinese, I guess? that you have to answer. I guess it's a password of some kind?" "Yeah, that's pretty much it," said Wren. "But from every other end, there's no security at all! I mean, the entrance from the game store is guarded by a `Do Not Enter' sign, for god's sake." Wren started to say something, but I cut him off. "And don't give me some BS about some kind of mystical barrier, because if normal people never wandered into your tunnels, Gregor wouldn't have attacked me like he did." "There's a lock on that door," Wren said, a bit angrily. "It was left unlocked. There's also cameras on the door, inside and out. It's being looked into." "Cameras on all the doors, inside and out?" I asked in alarm. "Places like your basement, there is a camera on our side. But no, there's not a camera in your basement. Just the peephole." "Which is getting covered ASAP," I groused. "In fact, I'm figuring out a way to lock that shit down from the inside." "We'll get something- Sorry." Wren was interrupted by someone saying something over the speaker in the elevator. This time I paid more attention to what was said, even if I couldn't understand the language. After the female voice spoke, Wren leaned forward and spoke into the panel, enunciating "Jing-Kok.". The elevator started to rise. "So what did that all translate to?" I asked. "It was Mandarin," explained Wren. "She asked if I had business here, and I answered saying `correct'." The elevator reached the top and opened on the upstairs reception area. The sourpuss lady was sitting at the desk, and frowned when they exited the elevator. We quickly crossed over and entered the hallway to the right. I still had no idea what was behind the giant steel doors to the left. Maybe I'll ask for access. The second the door closed behind us and we were alone in the hallway, I whispered to Wren. "Damn, every time I see that lady, she looks more and more pissed off." "You mean Joyce?" "Yeah. I swear, if anyone needed to get laid, it's her. Either that, or she needs to cut back on the raw lemons." We were almost to the right hand door where I had met Dom for dinner when it opened. The goon that had given me the pat down stepped out, holding the door open for us. "I hear you're moving up in the world," he whispered as I passed him. I really couldn't answer without others hearing me, so I didn't bother. Stepping into the room, I saw that we were definitely not the only ones here. Dominic Tsui stood to greet us as we entered. There were two empty seats to his right, then Erin. To Dom's left sat Montgomery, and beside him was Garrett. "Come in, come in," said Dom, gesturing to the two empty seats. "Please, join us. Garrett, please, get them drinks." Sodas were poured for the both of us. It was pretty obvious where he wanted us to sit, so I took the furthest seat, the one by Dom, while Wren sat between me and his sister. I decided to shake things up by testing the waters, so I looked across the table at Montgomery. "Thanks for earlier with Gregor. You were a complete ass the first time we met, but you earned a handful of points back tonight." A look of complete incredulity crossed his face, before he and most of the table started laughing. Dom smiled, but it was easy to see that he was lost. "That's fair," smiled Montgomery. "Maybe a few more times saving your ass, and I'll be back to breaking even." "Maybe," I responded. "But I'm a scrapper, so being a dick to me puts you in my shithouse a lot faster than assault." Then I turned to look at Dom. "Sorry, Mr. Tsui. I should have thanked you for inviting me to dinner first. So thanks." "You are most welcome, my dear Assecla. It is I who am in your debt," he said. "Now earlier, you mentioned that you had, as you said, requests. Why did you fear to ask at the time?" "I figured there was no point in airing out our dirty laundry in front of people I didn't know." "Very wise," said Dom. "Would you care to ask now?" "Your call," I said, looking pointedly at Montgomery. "I know almost everyone in the room." Dominic smiled. "Montgomery here is my right hand. He has surrendered his seat for the night, in honor of your new position." It was interesting that he hadn't been around, acting as a go-between to help out when Dom was having his power control issues. Why was Wren doing all the diplomatic work with me? Well, I guess that was a question for later. "Alright," I said, taking my time to make sure I worded things right. I was going to treat this like one of those "evil, literal genie" kind of situations. I wanted no misunderstandings. "First, I've thought about what you said before, about my mom. Can you please arrange for her to get back to north Alabama, somewhere near my aunt, her sister? She's going to need a decent bit of money. Probably not millions, but enough to set her up for a year or two. And can anything be done to keep her away from whatever the closest Vampyre are? I'm sending her away to keep her from this whole world, not to get her involved in a whole new Warren, or whatever, yeah?" "Of course," nodded Dom. "That will be taken care of, along with your care and cover here. Your school and other authority figures will not interfere, short of you throwing drastic parties every weekend. I shall also arrange for assistance at your house. Would you prefer a housekeeper a few times a week? Or someone more permanently there to cook daily?" "Um, the first one's fine. And I'm not a party person, but I'll have friends over most weekends." "As would be expected. I'm sure your house will become quite popular with your school mates. What else would you like?" "Can I get like, a legal explanation for my money? Like a job and shit? I'd like something that I can explain and expand after school, ya' know?" "That can be arranged," he said. "And I like that you are thinking ahead. Anything else?" "Yeah, on that topic, am I actually going to have any responsibilities, any authority, anything like that?" "Not at this time," he replied with a smile. "Let's get you through school first. Ah, here's dinner." The door opened, and a couple of guys came in with trays of food. Me, Erin, and Wren had food laid out for us, while Dom and the other side of the table were served goblets, along with one of those plastic coffee pitchers they use in restaurants. Knowing what they all were, I was guessing it was blood. I honestly didn't give a shit about the food. I was too hyped about the day to actually be hungry. It was a burger of some kind, and I didn't care to dig through to see the toppings. Dom continued with what he was saying. "We will give you access to the Warrens, on a supervised basis. My understanding is that you already have cell numbers for Montgomery here, and for Wren? Please call one of them if you need anything. In addition, I will get Ms. Flanagan's number for you as well." "Yeah, okay," I said. "You mentioned money at one point, when you were tryin'a get me to go to bed with you," A few people choked in their drinks over that. Dom merely smiled. "You even mentioned millions." "Yes, I did," he said cautiously. "Is that what you are wanting?" "It sounds fancy, but really, I just want some spending money, maybe get some stuff for the house, you know? I mean, I don't have to be Richie Rich. I just don't wanna have to worry if I want to treat my friends to pizza and a movie." "Completely understandable," said Dom. "I'll get an account started, and get you a debit card for it. In the meantime, once I get a housekeeper set up for you, I can ensure you have a small amount of cash each week for, as you say, spending money. Will this satisfy you?" "Absolutely," I replied, absentmindedly picking up a french fry and nibbling on it. The next question was a little harder. "You said I won't have responsibilities or a job or anything. So how am I going to be useful to you then? Does our connection have a certain range limit or something I should be aware of?" "If you are within Avernus, I can draw what I need, when I need it," he said. "I would ask that you make arrangements if you wanted to go off on a road trip to Albany or anything." "Understood. One last thing, and I mean this in the nicest way possible," I stated, keeping my most serious game face on. "Proceed." "I'm nobody's bitch," I said earnestly. "We are agreein' on a working situation here. This doesn't mean I'm suddenly your property, to get bossed around." Dom was getting a bit of a smirk on his face. I have no idea how the others were reacting. "I'll do whatever is reasonable to help, like if you need to travel and need me to go. But you also don't get to tell me who my friends are, who I date, or nothin' like that." Yeah, I knew my southern accent was coming out, but right then I didn't care. "Mr. Docker, you have my word," said Dom. "I think we will both be able to bend where needed, to ensure this is a smooth relationship." I sat back and nodded, popping another fry in my mouth. I don't know why, but I was suddenly wrong footed. It felt too easy. I felt somehow like I had just been swindled, even though I had gotten everything I had asked for. I was back to that "evil genie" feeling. The rest of the "meal" felt a bit awkward, as if nobody really had anything to talk to me about, with other people around, and yet they didn't want to talk about their own Vampyre stuff, with me there. I wrapped it up as quickly as I could without feeling rude. It was especially weird, because the three Vampires kept staring at me, though with different looks. Garrett seemed amused at me, like I was some joke. Montgomery acted like he didn't like me, like I was trash he wanted to kick out of the room. And Dom, no matter what Wren had said before, looked like he wanted to eat me. A few days later, I said goodbye to my mom. It was such a weird situation, because while I was going to miss her and was seconds away from crying, she acted like she would have had more emotions about driving to the grocery store. It let me know that I had already lost her, which just upset me more. My dad, I didn't give a shit about. He had always been horrible to me. I don't think I was ever a real person to him. But Mom had always tried to find ways to reach out to me behind Dad's back, even if she wouldn't stand up for me in front of him. This last month or so since he died showed that, with how much she opened up. But then the mesmir took it all away. And that was it. She was all packed, the car's trunk and back seat filled, and just... drove off. I was left with the full intention that I was supposed to go to school, but I couldn't. I moped around the house for hours, desperate for a good cry to let it all out, but I just couldn't. I also couldn't settle down to any one activity. I tried painting models for a bit, then reading. I tried napping, and for the shock of it, even tried some homework. I just couldn't get my brain off the fact that I was all alone now. My dad was dead, and my mom had chosen to live in a fantasy rather than help me out. I was kind of surprised when the doorbell rang. I looked up and saw it was a bit after three. When I opened the door, I saw that the whole gang had come over to see why I hadn't been at school. I told them the story Dom had worked out for me, that Mom had gone to recover from an unnamed health issue, and that my uncle would be taking care of the house expenses and stopping in occasionally to check in on me. "Holy shit!" exclaimed Taki. "You mean you are going to get to live in this huge house all by yourself, with no parents?" Wheeler jumped in with, "Sign me up!" That seemed to be the sentiment of the rest of the group as well. Except for Boots, who stayed kind of quiet, and kept looking at me out of the corner of his eye. We headed down to the basement and fired up a couple of video games. The TV that was supposed to have been for my bedroom had never left, so we were able to keep two systems going at once. I was trying to remember a weekend that at least most of the crew hadn't stayed over here. I guess my basement had become our clubhouse. When I said I was going to run upstairs to grab some drinks for everyone, Boots jumped up and said he would help. I was glad, because I had decided on a few things during the day, and wanted to talk to him. It turned out he wanted to talk to me, as well. We ended up grabbing drinks and sitting at the island bar to talk for a minute. "Dude, are you alright?" he asked. "Yeah, I guess. Things have just been so fucked up ever since we moved here." Then I scoffed, "Not that things were exactly sunshine before." "I get what you mean," he said quietly. "And the other guys really aren't seeing the problems with what all you got going on here." "About that," I said. "Come upstairs with me real quick. I've got something for you." I grabbed his hand and started running up the stairs, dragging him behind me. "You said the game I started playing with Liam looked cool, right?" "Yeah," Boots said cautiously. We made it to the upper living area, and I pointed over to the work desk. "Mom left all these minis. I know she already started on them, but, I mean, do you want them?" He started shaking his head, ready to object, but I cut him off. "Please? I don't want to do that army. And besides, this way we can play together. Please?" I think he knew what I was really asking, because he didn't seem surprised when I pulled out a house key. "Will you come over and keep me company every once in a while? The rest of the guys only really want to come over to hang out on the weekends. I'm hoping you'll come hang out more often." He gave me a quick hug and slipped the key out of my hand, then grabbed my hand without saying anything more than his smile told me. I'm pretty sure he knew I was asking him so that he would have a safe place to crash whenever his home was problematic, and was trying to help him save face. But deep down, I also knew I wanted the company. We grabbed drinks for everybody and went back down to the basement. Through the little windows I could see that it was overcast and drizzling, so it was definitely a day for staying inside and gaming, rather than skating the streets. We all laughed and cut up. I had a bit of a thought, and pulled up my phone, looking up some ideas. Finally I found what I thought I wanted. I just needed to check. "Hey Liam, what are the sizes of the tables up at LGM?" I asked. "You mean for Hammers & Hordes?" he asked. "We play on four foot by six, but the tables are four by eight, so there's a foot on each end for books and shit." "That's what I thought," I said with a laugh. I showed the item I had pulled up on my phone to Boots, and when he saw what I was pointing at, he laughed. "Yeah, right. If only," he smirked. "Bet," I said, pointing at the empty end of the basement. He looked at me confused, then suspicious. "How?" he asked. By this point, Liam and Scott were looking at us curiously. Taki and Wheeler were too caught up in their fighting game to realize something was going on. I smirked at Boots, then started filling out the information to place an online order. While the others watched, curious as to what was going on, I pulled my wallet out of my back pocket. I whipped out the card Dom had given me, and entered in the payment details into the website. "There!" I announced when I was done. "No way," laughed Boots. "That's bullshit." I flipped my phone to face him, showing him the confirmation page. "How the fuck?!? That's like, a thousand bucks!" "What's a thousand bucks?" asked Scott. "What are you guys doing over there?" I flipped back to the item page, and then tossed him my phone. "Holy shit! You bought a pool table?" he yelled. "Better," I said. "It has a topper for it that is padded, that is a ping pong table. It will fit right over there just fine," I said, pointing to the other side of the basement. "And the best part is that they are both regulation size, which happens to be," and I looked right at Liam, "Four feet by eight!" "Fuck!" exclaimed Liam. "You're going to have your own Hammers table down here?" "That depends," I shot back with a grin. "Are you going to help me get some terrain for it?" Boots started telling Liam about the miniatures upstairs that I had just offered him. He was so excited, and I was glad I had been able to do that for him. The thought of him staying over here more often made me think about our little basement visit, though, and I turned to look at the spot at the bottom of the stairs where the secret door was. It reminded me that I needed to tape over that peephole, especially before we had another sleepover down here. I can't believe I forgot to do that already. After another hour, Scott and Wheeler said they each needed to get home. Liam took that as his cue, and he said his goodbyes also, but only after teasing me that we still hadn't played a proper game using my own models. I set a game with him for Saturday afternoon and we bumped fists. Taki and Boots ended up staying for a while longer, and I ended up ordering a pizza for us all to share for dinner. After we ate, we played some more games, but Taki would look around every once in a while, almost like he was waiting for a signal for something. I almost think he was waiting for Boots to say he was ready to leave, because eventually Taki started talking about needing to head home, and looked at us curiously when neither of us made moves for Boots to leave with him. Finally he said he was going to go, and I saw him up to the front door, just like I had for the other guys. I went back downstairs, where Boots and I could talk a bit better. Of course, he jumped right into it. "What's really up with the key? I think I'm missing something," he said, keeping his eyes straight ahead at the video game screen. I was a little surprised. I thought it was obvious. "Well, it's not pity, asshole," I said with a laugh. "I've told you a couple of times what my thoughts were. My best friend back home, Alen, always let me stay over at his place whenever I had to get away from my asshole dad. I'm just showing you that I meant what I told you before. I want you to be able to get away when you need to." He looked at me kind of skeptically. "And you also want the company, right?" I smiled. "Yes, I want the company." "How deep are you in with the Ravens?" I was taken completely off guard, and didn't have time to hide my nervousness. "What do you mean?" I tried to ask as cover. "I'm hoping nobody can hear us here in your house?" he asked, looking around. "Let's go upstairs," I said. I didn't think there were cameras or mics down here in my basement, but I hadn't had a chance to check and I didn't want to risk anything. I covered it by saying I wanted to mess around with the miniatures while we talked. I got my guys out and we both started to halfass work on them. "Why are you asking about the Ravens?" I asked once we were both seated at the work desk. "Oh, come on," he said in quiet frustration, not looking at me. "Your dad, now your mom? You're all alone with a house, you suddenly have money, and your `uncle' is taking care of you? Plus that Wren guy, or girl, or whatever, is always hanging around lately." He looked over at me, obviously nervous about the topic. "So how deep are you with the vampires? I'm guessing Wren is feeding on you or something?" "What do you mean, vampires?" I asked, trying to keep any worry out of my voice. I wanted to play it off by laughing, but I didn't want Boots to think I was making fun of him. "You don't have to hide it with me. I've seen them around, and I'm not going to say anything." He was keeping his voice quiet, but speaking matter-of-factly. "They like this time of year, late fall and going into winter? The sun sets so much earlier, especially up north here." Looking over at me, he picked up a new paint color and said, "I guess they aren't hurting you, and they aren't turning you, since you are still going to school. But is that why your mom had to go away? Did she object to what they were trying to do or something?" I sat there in shock. Finally I responded quietly, "Something like that. Do you know how dangerous what you are talking about is?" "Hey, I keep my head down, I don't go to the hotel, and I don't talk to the zombies about it." "Zombies?" I asked in surprise. "Yeah, zombies," he said. "All the people in town are all mind controlled, so zombies. I don't mean like `eat your brain' kind of creatures. But they don't get to think for themselves. Liam was free for a while, but he kept mouthing off, and they put him back under. I never said anything to him about it, but I liked knowing someone else knew." Ouch. That hurt, considering that was my fault. "So why are you talking to me about it?" "Because you're inside," he stated. "Apparently they don't want you as a zombie, but also not as a vampire. I just wanted you to know you had a friend on the outside that knows what's going on, in case you need to talk about it." "But why risk it for me, when you didn't for Liam?" "You're nice to me, and I like you," he said. "Plus like I said, you're involved with them. Liam was always on the outside, and always pissed off because of... Well, he was pissed off." Finally, a third party I could ask. "Do you know?" I asked. "What happened to his sister? Nobody seems to want to tell me anything." Boots was silent for a while, but finally said, "She, um, died. Everything was covered up and everybody was made to forget, but some vampire got ahold of her," he said quietly. "I didn't see her body, but what I heard before everybody got zombified was that she had her throat ripped out and drained of blood." He looked a bit pale as he said all this, and his voice stayed at barely more than a whisper. "Damn." "Liam was real close with his sister. She was a bit more than a year younger than him. Everybody forgot about it within a few weeks. But then a couple of months ago, right around her birthday, Liam remembered again. He held onto that memory, until a couple of weeks ago. I don't know what happened then. I guess he mouthed off to the wrong person, and a Raven heard about it." "Maybe," I muttered. "So, um, are you gonna be mad if I keep seeing Wren?" "Seeing him?" smiled Boots. "That almost sounds like you two are dating." "Kind of? But I promise, I swear, man, he's not a Vampire. He doesn't drink blood." Boots looked at me skeptically. "I promise, man. He's not." "Uh huh," he laughed. "Whatever you say, dude. As long as I don't find myself short a few quarts, I don't care. It's your neck, not mine." "I swear, he's not like that. You're safe." We were both silent for a minute, then he said hesitantly, "I guess that answers the other question though." "Oh? What question is that?" Quietly he said, "Whether you're taken." "We-ell..." He looked at me curiously, so I added, "He doesn't think he wants to be tied down by being exclusive." "So he's a player," Boots smirked. "Or maybe I am!" I laughed. "Nope!" he laughed with me. "If you were, you would have been hittin' on me already." "Is that your way of hitting on me, now?" "Depends on whether you would be interested," he said. "Otherwise, it's a joke, and you're a sicko for perving on me like that!" I laughed and socked him lightly in the arm. "Hey, fucker! You're going to mess up my paint job!" We painted in silence for another couple of minutes. Eventually I said quietly, "I do think you're cute, and who knows what might happen. But right now, you're too much like a brother." "Aww." His hands were full with a model and paintbrush, so he leaned over and tapped his head against my shoulder. "That's probably the nicest way anyone's ever told me to fuck off." We both laughed. Then my phone chirped. I set my stuff down and pulled it out of my pocket, hoping maybe it was my mom, letting me know she was stopping for the night. Instead it was a text from Wren, asking if he could come see me. "Wren wants to come over," I said, looking at Boots. "What do you think?" "I think I should go home." "Aww, please don't be that way," I said, kind of hurt. "No, it's not like that," he said sadly. "But it really is a school night, and I don't think I'm up for pretending to be a zombie again tonight." He started clearing up his work space, cleaning his brush and straightening the paints. I slumped my shoulders, and started doing the same. Obviously trying to change the subject, he asked, "Will you be in school tomorrow?" "Yeah," I sighed. "I should have been there today, but I just couldn't deal." "Dude, I get it. But tomorrow's Friday. Think I can come over tomorrow with you?" "I'm hoping you'll spend the weekend, dude." He smiled and let himself out. I stood at the top of the stairs, watching him leave, and heard him use his new key to lock the front door after himself.