The Yaak House, Part Eight

“She…” Gerald’s voice had lost steam, though his eyes held a fiery judgement in their honeyed depth. Thaz’ra flinched at the sharp way these soft eyes snapped toward her, stepping back from him. Jasper felt his heart wince around the uncertain shape of her lips as they wavered.

“She agreed to a price,” the skull’s voice was a shudder against Jasper’s skin; a warm hand trailing ever lightly down his spine. Gerald cast his light around the room, to the dim phosphenes of the skull on the wall. It was a sound akin to Clipper’s voice.

"I have done everything I have to protect my boys," Thaz’ra trembled against Jasper. Gerald’s expression soured after a moment.

"But never our children... right?" Thaz'ra winced at the words and Jasper pulled her close.

"Gerald," he scolded, “She wouldn’t do something like that without reason,” Jasper snapped.

"None of you are wrong," Thaz'ra said, “the mark was to commemorate a miscarriage,” her voice was smaller still for the anger in Gerald’s eyes.

“A miscarriage of justice, a sacrifice you made,” Gerald countered bitterly; though he regretted the words a little, he and Jasper had seen her through a stillbirth the year before, and a miscarriage three years before that, back when Gerald had been new to the horrors of Clipper, when he had been learning how to live with being rejected by Jake, the man who had saved him at a time when he wouldn’t have bothered to do so himself… the duo had seen her through so much. He was left to wonder, with a disheartened feeling, if their child last year had been but payment unholy.

It had been his daughter... rather, would have been. Nelra, they had named her when she was born at 20 weeks, Nelra Lexian Ral.

“Only because Clipper and Tajra started this,” she hissed, glaring down at her feet, “He was going to sacrifice Rin and I… You remember how Tajra went missing just before Clipper took on their customer base?” Jasper and Gerald winced at the mention of Clipper’s business partner; Jasper didn’t like thinking back to those times, the things they’d been made to do to once another by the sadistic business partners.

“Don’t… Don’t defend yourself to me,” Gerald’s fists clenched as he looked around the chamber once more, finding the human torso of Clipper crawling into another cervid ribcage. Revulsion made him gag for a moment, seeing the skeleton alone crawl free of the remaining human leather, leaving it with the thing the trio had seen at the tent. Bone scraped over stone in a sound that would haunt Gerald as he shook the doors again, glancing back at the sound of bone clacking. The torso had slid into this new ribcage and was climbing the larger ribs like rungs of a ladder.

Jasper was watching in horror with Gerald as the Clipper beast stood again on cervid legs, one matted with fur and leather, the other bare bone.

This Cervidae was different; much larger, more decayed, more indeterminate in species, and -unlike the others- showed signs of predation. Hide hung loose about half of it, and Jasper saw it had no skull, though it had antlers clinging to the upper spine by but a scrap of bone… Clipper’s skeleton reached for the Irish elk, the antlers remaining on the wall while the rest nestled in against a seat of leather atop the neck, which bowed a little under the weight, the phosphenes glow wavering for a moment.

“I didn’t mean for things to lead to… to this,” Thaz’ra said in a wavering voice, her open palms beholding the horrendous thing before them.

Gerald looked revolted, “You…” Thaz’ra had done this, the wretched thing was of her creation.

“Gerald…” she whimpered. The blond held a hand up, hushing her as the abomination turned now to him.

“You like not the answer you have received, Stag, it is understandable,” it spoke with a new voice, soft and gentle, a spectral pastel glow filling the ribcage of Clipper- the same that had been Thaz’ra’s payment. That had been Jake.

Jasper heard a thud on the floor beside him, panic welling in his chest as saw Thaz’ra herself had collapsed. He rushed to kneel by her side, the chamber now lit fully by the glow of the candles, others having flickered to light throughout the space. He looked to Gerald, but the man made no move toward their fallen lover. In the mirror, Jasper’s heart wavered and broke over the sight of the thread that ran from Gerald to Thaz’ra darkening on Gerald’s end as he spoke again.

“She exchanged life to protect me?” Gerald asked.

“You, Jasper, Rin, and Boris,” the creature- Dvasia- answered calmly. The thread frayed from Gerald’s end, then snapped back to Thaz’ra like a rubber band to strike her chest. She winced, though she was unconscious.

“What is the price to buy it back?” Gerald asked, Jasper snapped his head around to look up at Gerald, pausing as he propped Thaz’ra up against his side as she blinked awake.

“Oh? Would you like to hold your child?”

“Yes!” Gerald cried out, “I’ve seen too many of my children die in this world!” anger welled in Gerald’s voice, but Jasper heard something hurt in the sound.

“The price has been paid,” Dvasia’s soft voice whispered from around the chamber, it echoed in the waver of the candles and the gentle way the moss hanging from the ceiling swayed in a breeze that wasn’t there, “but if it’s to hold your child you want…”  the human skeleton leaned out of the larger ribcage it hid within, bony fingers curling in a sickening come hither.

On the floor, Thaz’ra curled up, arms over her stomach, and cried out. Jasper pulled her close, paling when he saw the dark streak beneath her on the moss.

“Gerald!” he warned.

“Thaz’ra already failed me… I would hope she wouldn’t fail our child too.”

“She’s our girlfriend!” Jasper defended, holding her against his chest as she shuddered, gripping the fabric of his shirt.

“You still claim her after she murdered your own twin brother!?” Gerald seethed with lips drawn back into a snarl.

“You’re just mad because my brother wouldn’t fuck you!” Jasper shouted. Gerald flinched back from that, and Dvasia was, for a moment, forgotten as hurt filled Gerald’s honey eyes, “You’re mad because he loved Thaz’ra,” the words were fetid in Jasper’s mouth as they escaped, having sat too long in his heart.

“And look where it got him,” Gerald griped.

“I am alive because of that deal! So sorry I’m not my brother!” Jasper snapped, his mismatched eyes full of hurt.

In the tarnished mirror, the gossamer thread between he and Gerald began to fray, and Dvasia hummed as silence bled into the air like a wounded creature between the two men.

“And so the Willow Impales the Stag,” the skeletal being hummed. Gerald gave Dvasia a sharp glare, but found himself looking up as the unholy doors swung open.