River of Misery

Christopher (5 years later)

I look up and see Rade, my “master.” He looks extremely pissed. Great, just the look I was looking for.

“Yes, Rade?” I ask insolently.

He backhands me, “What is my name, Chrissy?”

“Master or milord,” I respond. I’m starting to get tired of all the love taps he keeps dishing out to me. It seems that every time I turn around Rade is finding bullshit reasons to warrant physical abuse, whether I’ve actually done what he is angry for or not. Thankfully, I haven’t had a hard time hiding the bruises and other injuries from my family.

“I have an assignment for you, dipshit. If you screw this up, you will really regret it,” he says as he glares daggers at me, “Do you understand?”

I acknowledge him with a terse nod.

“Good. There is a girl by the name of Kie. Our Demon Master wants me to give her soul to you, you worthless maggot. Unfortunately, I cannot refuse him or else I would be taking this girl. Bring her here and Jaden will help you get her soul. Understand?”

I nod, confused. After Rade walks out of my room, I mentally call Jaden to my cell. While I wait for him, I look around my room to make sure everything is in its place. My small twin bed is made, the antiquated armoire is closed. My desk is cleared and organized. All the paper in one pile, pencils and pens in the holder, and my textbooks in one pile on the corner of my desk.

I turn when I feel Jaden’s energy on the other side of my door. Without knocking, he walks in and lays down on my bed.

“What is this that Rade is talking ‘bout? Why is the Master telling him that this girl’s soul is for me?”

He grins at me and answers, “He says that Rade has enough souls and servants for a while. So, instead, he is going to start giving us souls to hunt down and capture. Fun times, that. Anyway, I have my own assignment at our college. Different girl. Goes by Nyx. Do you know either of these girls?”

I nod sadly, “Yeah. They are both friends of the girls. They are outgoing and sweet, at least the few times I’ve met them. They’re both coming over this weekend. Oh, and that reminds me. My sisters invited you to the BBQ Saturday. Our targets will be there, and you can get some of Trinity’s cooking. Plus, you won’t be stuck here.”

He nods and says, “How’s your family?”

“Great. They still don’t know what to think when I’m not sleeping at home. I think they think I’m hiding a girlfriend. Though, they are trying to understand that I’m more secretive than I used to be. Especially when I’m at my “friend’s” house. But at least I don’t have to deal with parents snooping through my stuff like the young dude, Kiel. How’s your family?”

“Same. Though they threw me out yesterday. Said that they wouldn’t have me in their house if I keep secrets. They think I’m doing drugs and drinking. I don’t understand why they think that, but whatever,” Jaden sighs.

“You can move in with me and my family. We have more than enough room.”

“Are you sure? Would it be okay with the rest of your family?” He asks with weary eyes.

“Yeah. They love you. Plus, none of us wants you on the streets. Besides, I would hate to leave you here more than you need to be.”

He nods, “Only if it’s okay with everyone.”

I grin at him, “It will be. When do you get out? I have another couple of hours before my time is up.”

“Same. I’ll meet you here in about two hours.”

I nod to him then go back to my homework while he sits there for an hour then gets up to go get his stuff to bring to my house.

As I walk through the front door, I’m ambushed by a dozen pups and three toddlers. I pick up two of the kids and Jaden picks up the other one. They are so used to him picking them up that they don’t scream bloody murder anymore. And we both notice.

My cousins and uncles are sitting watching football as I walk into the living room. I drop off one of the boys in one of my uncle’s lap and continue to the kitchen where the other two toddler’s fathers are. I, also, find my sisters in there. I drop off the girl and while Jaden does the same with his bundle, I go over to hug my sisters, Trinity, and Mae.

“Hey, guys, Jaden needs a place to crash. I told him he could stay here.”

As soon, as they heard that, they rush to feed Jaden and push for information on why he was kicked out of his home.

I catch the bag he throws my way as I abandon him to the mercy of my family. As I walk up the stairs, I bump into my target. I smile as I catch her, keeping her from falling. She smiles bashfully back at my direction as she says thank you. Then she goes to the kitchen to find my sisters. I run up the rest of the stairs to get to Jaden’s room. I wait there for a few minutes, then I head back down the main staircase.

I found him on the floor in the living room watching out for my sisters and getting sucked into the game on the television. He glanced up for a second then back at the tv. Then, he does a double take when he registers my pensive look. Jaden gets up and follows me to the back yard.

Once we get out of hearing distance, he asks, “What happened?”

“I ran into my target. Have you seen yours?”

“No. And that doesn’t explain what’s wrong. You're avoiding the question. Why?”

“Will you report this to Rade? I can’t answer if you will.”

“No, I won’t. You know that. Almost all the things that you do doesn’t get reported by me. Now what’s wrong?”

“I got a reaction when I caught her from falling down the stairs. I felt something, and I haven’t felt anything like this since before Rade’s ceremony. My heart reacted to her presence. This is the first time this has happened in the last five years.”

He looks at me for a few minutes, thinking so hard I can see the gears churning, “I think that I can see what the Master is doing. He can’t do anything for Rade, he’s too volatile and could care less about harming people. Including someone he should protect. But you and me, we protect what’s ours. Have you heard of the Ror’on rumors?”

“Yeah. But I didn’t think that it was true. It’s basically the soulmate principle. The Thokos people spreading the rumor say a lot of bullshit. Besides, don’t you have to have a soul to have a soulmate?”

Jaden snorts, “You haven’t read those books I gave you...figures. Anyway, you can give your soul away but if it’s not truly stolen, then you usually keep a small part. You don’t have most of the functions that a person with a soul has, granted. Like most emotions. But we kept a sliver of our souls. At least, most of Rade’s slaves do. For you and me that sliver controls our free will, loyalty, and a few emotions.”

“That explains why the two of us are about the only ones with a will of our own. But that doesn’t explain why we have Ror’ons.”

“Well, a Ror’ons holds the other half of our souls. But if we are destined to only have a small part of our soul, our Ror’ons are born with a bigger soul to compensate for us. So, basically, they are more compassionate, honest, and pure. We only see the dark side of things. A Ror’ons will see the good side to everything. Our Ror’ons keep us balanced. But three people can tell if a couple are in a Ror’on relationship. The Demon Master and the two soulmates. And just FYI, the Demon Master is someone that people without souls intrinsically know. We all know him, do you understand?”

I think about what he’s saying for a few minutes while we continue to walk. At last, I nod to him, “I think I do, but the only thing I don’t is who the Demon Master is. And I don’t understand why Rade refers to me as “his demigod” when he’s not insulting me.”

“If we all know him, and you can’t think of a friend, what do you think he is to us? He is either an uncle, cousin, or father. In your case, the Demon Master is your father. But he doesn’t often have female children. Mostly, like you and me, his children are likely to be males. And we are brothers. The only exceptions are your sisters and mine that I know of. Rade knows this. He understands that we are all demigods or rather demi-demons. Now do you understand?”

I nod at him. He gives me a disbelieving look. I grin at him, just to irritate him. He shakes his head at me and we continue to walk but when we talk it is about more mundane subjects.