Solitary Confinement: Truths

 

I finish my glass and turn around. Hughes is now talking to Matrel, about random happenings in the military. They're both soldiers, after all. I look out into the crowd for a familiar face, and all I see are very stoned people. Then the kid. Alone. Where's his fuck-buddy...Kimbley is his name? Where'd he go all of a sudden?

I take a few cautious steps away from the bar, trying not to run into anyone. I make it out to the entrance hall, and nearly run into Kimbley. "Holy Hell!" I blurt out. My heart pounds in my chest, he looks as if I pointed a gun at him. Double-whammy. "What are you doing out here? Aren't you with Insanity?" I lay a hand over my chest, as if to stop my heart from beating so hard.

"He went outside for some air and a smoke." Kimbley calms down awful quick.

"Isn't this a bar? Are you not allowed to smoke here?" I clearly remember seeing no anti-smoking signs anywhere in the club.

Kimbley looks as if he knew something naughty. "Yeah, they do allow smoking in here." He puts his hands on the back of his neck and starts to pace, slowly. "He may seem all tough and severe, but he's in pain all the time. More pain that he lets on."

He's really got my attention now. "How? What happened to him?" I find myself very intrigued, though I can't explain why. Usually I hate drama and shit like that.

"The Gate." He reaches into his pocket and drags out a battered pack of Camels. He offers me one, I take it. I've never smoked before, not like I can die from it, right? "They took his arm and leg before, when he tried to bring back his mother. His father tried to bring him back, and the Gate made the kid an offer." He took a drag form his cigarette. "They'd give back one limb, at a price." He exhaled, smoke drifting everywhere. I have yet to even light mine.

"Price? What did he pay in return?"

Kimbley took another drag and blows out the smoke before answering. "It sounds crazy, but it happened." He sighs. "They took his insides."

I had the cig inches from my mouth, which was now hanging open. His insides? Holy pig-shit Batman! "All of them?" My voice has a slight waver, but hell, the kid has no insides!

Kimbley nods. "I try my best to keep him calm, other wise, he'll vomit blood. He hates to feel weak and vulnerable, so he puts up that murderous front. To seem like he's the strongest person in the world." He stops pacing. "That's why I need the Stone."

"To make him immortal...blood loss can still kill a Homunculous. That's why we devour the red stones. They give us regenerative capabilities." I can barely remember when I forced down those horrible tasting stones. I nearly broke my teeth on them. But they saved my life, Wrath had killed me 15 times in the sewers. "He has eaten them, right?"

Kimbley shrugs. "I have no idea. He can't remember for the life of him." He points to the door. "I'd better check on him." He turns to leave, but I grab his arm.

"Why did he save me? I've never even met the real him before today."

"He said when he fought you, he felt you were different from the others. He said he had to have you." I hear a pang of jealousy in his voice.

"What?"

Kimbley faces me, staring me in the eyes. "I want him, but I can't have him. He wants you." He turns and leaves. I stand there, an unlit cigarette in my hand.