Chapter 10

	I climbed onto the addition to the frat house. The early flirtation with summer had the fraternity president keeping his window open. I dove into the room, rolled, and came to crouch in a spot untouched by the light coming through the window.

	A couple of seconds were a worthwhile risk to let my eyes adjust. I did not smell a woman; there would be no reason for him to be brave. I opened my eyes and panned the bed with my peripheral vision. Being in the darkest part of the room, it would have been a mistake to look at it directly.

	With an open window, I would have slept lightly. The frat-boy, while more mature than others, still struck me as the type yet to discover his mortality.

	I moved to the side of the bed. Professor Ryan acquired everything I needed, but I only brought a couple with me. I pulled the eyeglasses case from my sleeve, removed the slightly moist, already folded rag from inside, and pressed it against his face covering his mouth and nose. He grabbed my hand and tried to sit up but my other hand was ready; I grabbed his hair from behind and pushed his face harder into the rag. He breathed deeply, trying to take in oxygen to power his struggle. It was the worst thing he could have done; taking in more gas into his lungs dropped him into unconsciousness faster.

	Placing the rag back, I walked to the window and let the light reflect off the case. A minute later, Michael and Professor Ryan crawled in.

	Michael carried the bindings. He moved to tie our victim's arms to the bed and gag him. He spread the president's legs to tie his feet to the bedposts. He walked up to me with his hand extended. I pulled the knife out and handed it over. He returned to the bed and cut off the frat boy’s clothes. He gave me back the knife and stood post at the foot of the bed. He had his instructions and was willing to see them through.

	Professor Ryan handed me the ketchup squeeze bottles before walking around to the other side of the bed. He was only an interested observer, or so he said.

	I looked down at the bed and sighed. I looked down at the bed, sighed, closed my eyes and whispered Jason's name. He was never far, but I needed him closer than ever.

	I pulled the vial out of my pocket and unscrewed the top. I placed the open vial underneath the boy's nose causing him to snap his head away. He gained consciousness and tried to get up. Michael was good with bindings so the frat brother only had a range of movement which allowed a view of what I wanted him to see.

	Professor Ryan turned on the bedside lamp. I closed my eyes as light penetrated the room. I opened them a minute later and stared at Gerald. He was going through a mental catalogue trying to recognize me. His eyes flashed when he found the card with my face on it. He struggled to escape while looking at me angrily.

	I waited for it to pass. He seemed hardheaded; his struggle was a waste of energy from my perspective. A couple of seconds should have told him it would take a concerted effort to escape and certainly not something he could do with his captor sitting on the bed. Finally, his eyes focused on the impediment to an immediate future. He tried to smirk around the gag.

	"You're not afraid yet," I said. "It will make things easier, as long as you're not stupidly brave, Gerald."

	His brow furrowed at hearing his name. I shook my head; he knew who I was but did not think I would know him.

	"Three of your brothers have placed you in a dangerous predicament. I could go after them, but clearly, they are among the dumbest frat-boys on campus. Not to mention, it would still leave the rest of you to deal with. I've heard you have some influence over your brothers. Convincing you that your continued well-being is tied to how little I have to think about your fraternity strikes me as a more efficient solution."

	I let the rant of curses pass before I continued, "So as not to have a misunderstanding, you do know what three of your brothers did to my..."

	I had thought about how best to phrase it for Gerald.

	"Toy, Doris Alex." He smirked again. I shook my head thinking it might have been a better idea to take him outside the frat house.

	"You're not taking me seriously, Gerald," I said standing up from the bed. "I knew you wouldn't initially, but I hoped you were at least willing to listen."

	I turned the top of one of the ketchup bottles. I remembered the smell from my high school chemistry class and the time Jason used it to convince a high school bully I was off-limits. I pointed the bottle at Gerald's torso and squeezed the clear liquid on him. I coated his upper body lightly. I thought about not doing his face but halfway was a dangerous luxury.

	"Close your eyes, darling," I whispered. "I'm not sure what will happen if this gets in your pretty blues."

	Jason spoke those exact words to my would-be tormentor. I could not say it with the scary concern he did, but Jason had been concerned--he caught me planning to kill the bully.

	Gerald looked nervous. The smell of the liquid became stronger as it evaporated. I put the bottle down on the bedside stand and reached into my pocket. A Zippo had a more impressive presence than matches in the situation. I snapped it open; a second snap lit it. I looked at Gerald before nodding to Professor Ryan, who turned off the lamp.

	"Gerald, I want you to know, I am not sorry."

	I moved the flame to his waist where the liquid had hit first. My hand approached the highest point the liquid turned gas reached. Blue sparked! It was slow burning instead of an explosion; the fire flowed down from the point of origin, spreading like lava over his body. I stepped back and watched with the azure lighting my face.

	Gerald screamed, but someone would have had to be outside his door to hear him. He struggled mightily; the blue light highlighted the desperate fear as he looked at the spreading fire. His mind did not bother with the nicety of noticing there was no searing heat or that the fire danced at least a half-inch above his skin. He screamed again as the blue wave licked up his chest to his neck. The fear would not let him close his eyes as the flame passed onto his face. He shook his head, trying to pacify the fire above his eyes.

	The fire burned longer than would have seemed possible, taking almost a minute to dissipate.

	Professor Ryan turned the lamp back on. Gerald was gasping and tried to move away from me when I sat on the bed. A fine sheen of sweat covered his body. I waited for him to catch his breath and for his heartbeat to get down to a pace more in keeping with the amount of danger he was in. He looked at me with fear, but the lack of pain registered; he had only felt some of the heat from his baptism.

	"I find it disturbing that I always have to convince someone of the gravity of the situation," I told him. "I would think waking up tied naked to your bed without remembering how you got there would be cause for concern. Getting someone in that position proves I'm competent enough to be dangerous, yet I always have to set people on fire."

	The fear was joined by the wariness of a cornered animal. I was right about him; Gerald had more brains than his brothers.

	"You're probably wondering why you're not hurting." I wanted to focus his mental process down the path I needed it to go. "I only needed to get your undivided attention, Gerald. The painful part is still a few minutes away."

	His eyes widened.

	"Now that you're willing to take me seriously," I said. "Let's get back to where this started. You’ve heard about the incident with Doris Alex?"

	He nodded slowly, reluctant to admit anything.

	"I'm not going to ask why your brothers did it. If you said or suggested something stupid, like she asked for it, I'd have to kill you," I said. "It's too late to undo it anyway. But Gerald, I need to believe, truly and faithfully, you understand the consequences of me thinking it might happen again."

	He shook his head in automatic denial.

	"Gerald, let me make this perfectly clear, you don't want anyone you know to put a pout on Doris Alex's wonderful mouth."

	He nodded vigorously.

	"For me to have faith, you have to believe I am willing to hurt you. Not only that I am willing to hurt you, Gerald, but that I’ve accepted any price I have to pay for doing so."

	His brow furrowed in concentration as he tried to get the convincing part started so I would leave.

	"I hate to lecture at a time like this," I told him. "The problem you and the boys have is none of you thought hurting Doris Alex would have consequences. Those three idiots probably thought I would get in their face so they'd get to kick my ass. To have really thought it through, they would have tried to find out if my ass was kickable first."

	Gerald looked worried.

	"In Cancun, I gutted a woman in a nightclub." I accentuated each word. "Left to right, then down; her hipbone stopped the knife. It was my favorite knife so I regret having to leave it inside her. There were about a hundred people around us when I killed her; some of them danced in her blood."

	I looked into his eyes and let him see the truth, if he could recognize it.

	"It's not information you access to, but you could have found out how badly I hurt the assholes on the bus. Since that particular incident was over a girl I didn't know, you could have inferred my reaction to hurting one who fucks my cock like a maniac."

	I sat up straight and looked around the room.

	"Do you read science fiction, Gerald?" I asked. He shook his head carefully.

	"Too bad, you won’t really understand," I said. "I'm going to give you a choice, Gerald: pain or death. Not over what happens between your fraternity and my toys in the future. I won't have a choice if something like this happens again and neither will you."

	I pulled one of the 9mm Berettas holstered at the small of my back with my right hand. My left drew the knife Michael used to cut Gerald's clothing off. I showed the instruments to Gerald. He pulled his bindings tight, trying to get away from me. I turned the gun in my hand to bring his attention to it.

	"This is what I'm going to use on any brother between me and the front door should you choose death," I explained. "You shouldn't think about them though. They're not the ones who have to suffer the gom jabbar."

	I turned the knife, "This is the sword by which you'll make your choice."

	I put the knife a couple of inches above his left eye. He tried to move away until I tapped his temple with the gun.

	"Here's what's going to happen, Gerald," I whispered. "You're going to hurt. Your instinct will be to sit up, if you do, the knife takes your eye. If that happens, there's no point in not killing you. If the knife sinks deep enough, it will probably kill you anyway. My fingerprints are all over your bedroom, so if you die I should just kill those three dickheads and any brother between the front door and me. What're thirty life-sentences versus one when I only have one life?"

	I leaned closer to him.

	"If I'm going to get a life sentence, why not get the dying part over with, right? Cops are like soldiers on a battlefield, extremely pragmatic. I'll only have to put a bullet in one of them before they do me the favor of foregoing the sitting in jail until I die part."

	I took a deep breath and placed the end of the 9mm at his temple.

	"People tend to think I'll pull the knife away before they kill themselves. That's why I close my eyes," I said. "I won't be able to tell you sat up until your eye hits the point of the blade."

	I tapped his head with the 9mm again.

	"I would keep your head against the gun, Gerald. It will help you focus by reminding you of the stakes. Plus I may think your trying to get out from the knife and kill you."

	Gerald shook his head frantically until I tapped him again. He froze with his eyes widening painfully. I smiled at him and nodded. Michael climbed onto the bed and moved up until he was by Gerald's hips.

	"Steel yourself, Gerald," I said. "Remember, pain is not death."

	I closed my eyes. I felt the impact as Michael punched Gerald in the groin. Michael was pissed at the brothers for what happened to Doris Alex. I knew he would not be able to hold back even if it would save my life.

	"The knife, Gerald" I whispered. "Remember the knife."

	Gerald whined as the pain washed over him. He sobbed, and I felt him move. I tapped him hard with the 9mm.

	"I WILL kill you, Gerald," I said. "If you touch the knife, I'll pull the trigger. The knife, Gerald! The knife is the end of your life. Look at it, Gerald. I want to take your eye. I want to punish you for Doris Alex. The knife, Gerald! Think about the knife. The knife is your death. Sit up and die, asshole!"

	He cried around the gag as he wrestled for survival.

	"Don't fail your brothers, Gerald," I said loudly. "Live! I know you want to live."

	I opened my eyes when he passed the point of control. His facial muscles were tight, almost in the rigor of death but not quite; tears flowed freely down his cheeks. I nodded at him and waited for the pain to fade. I kept the knife and gun where they were in case he lost it, even if he was past the hard part already.

	When desperation left his face, I backed off and put the tools away. He probably ached, but most of the pain had passed.

	"I expected to kill you, Gerald. I'm almost disappointed," I gave him more time to recover before speaking again, "Do you know why I did this, Gerald?"

	He shook his head; his eyes were slightly red from the ordeal.

	"Overly dramatic and drawn out isn't my style. I would prefer to burn your frat house down and roast marshmallows for Doris Alex." I stared into his eyes and saw he believed me. "The reason you and your brothers are not a cooking fire is those three idiots managed to change Doris Alex slightly. I asked her to take her robe off, and she hesitated. It was only about one point five seconds, but..."

	I looked away from him.

	"It was like having my favorite red train not go choo-choo as it went around the track." I turned back to him. "Unfortunately, I am a killer, not a toy repairman, Gerald. I don't quite know how to make my pretty red train go choo-choo again. I have an idea though. I believe if Doris Alex gets a heartfelt, sincere apology from you and maybe heard the words from the three dickwads, when I say 'Take your', her clothing will start flying in case the rest of the sentence is 'clothes off'."

	I turned the top of the second ketchup squeeze bottle. He shook his head frantically.

	"But I had prove I could trust you if I let you live, Gerald"

	I turned and upended the bottle over his groin. I squeezed and soaked his dick, balls, and inside of his hips. He shook his head violently, pleading with his eyes. I patted his forehead and waited a minute. Professor Ryan turned the lamp off again. I snapped the Zippo open in front of Gerald's face and lit it.

	He begged around the gag.

	I waved the flame over his groin. It was a slow burn from the top of the gas cloud towards his dick. Even knowing the fire had not hurt before, he screamed. I tilted my head to the side and watched as he pissed through the fire. He fought the bindings, shaking his hips to escape the flames.

	As I planned, the fire turned yellow as his pubic hair began to burn. He screamed; the gag could barely contain his fear anymore. His movements became wilder in a massive attempt to save his genitalia. Gerald was not hairy, but there was enough fuel to brighten the room as the fire spread. His dick flopped around as he inadvertently used it to beat at the flames. The blue fire petered out as the yellow flames burned down to the root of the hair they had a grasp on. The smell of the room changed from the burning gas to a mixture of urine, feces, and burnt hair.

	Professor Ryan turned on the lamp when darkness fell over us again. I studied the reddened skin at Gerald's groin.

	"He shit himself!" Michael said with obvious disgust. I reached to the floor and picked up the blanket Michael had thrown from the bed. I covered Gerald from his knees to the middle of his stomach to contain the stench.

	I sat down on the bed and looked into his eyes; Gerald was deathly afraid. I put my hand on his throat. He tried to shrink into the bed to avoid my touch. I squeezed, not enough to cut off air, but enough for him to feel the pressure.

	"Gerald, I am the reason there are laws," I said. "I do not believe life is precious, not mine and certainly not yours. I don't need a life-altering reason to kill you. If your brothers continue to fuck with my life, I will end yours."

	I squeezed, making breathing a struggle for him.

	"You will apologize to Doris Alex, Gerald. The three brothers who touched her will also apologize. If they don't, I will blowtorch your fucking nuts off. After those apologies, if a Tau even gives someone I know a mean look I will hold you painfully responsible."

	I let go of his throat and looked at Professor Ryan and Michael, "I am not alone, Gerald. I assure you, my Brothers will get to you if I cannot."

	I looked down at him.

	"You have until Wednesday night to get it done." He nodded frantically, his eyes almost popping out of his head. I nodded to Michael and my Brother. They picked the ketchup bottles up and slipped out the window. I took the gag off our victim. I pulled the knife out and cut his bonds. I stood at the side of the bed and put the knife in the sheath. He rolled away, falling off the bed trying to put distance between us.

	"Scream, Gerald," I said loudly, pulling out both 9mms. I cocked them and stood so my right hand could point at the door and my left at him.

	"Scream, I promise we will die together."

	He shook his head violently. I walked over to him and crouched down so our eyes were at the same level.

	"You're fucking crazy," he whispered in a terrified voice.

	"No, I'm perfectly sane. That's your problem." I stared at him, but he would not hold the eye contact. "Do you understand the difference between us, Gerald?"

	He shook his head.

	"You're not willing to die, even if it would mean my death too."

	He turned to look at me.

	"Scream, Gerald!" He shook his head as if his life depended on it. I sighed, got up, and slipped out the window.

	Professor Ryan was talking on his cell phone when I slid into the backseat of my car. Michael pulled away as soon as I closed the door. I stared out the window during the drive to the house. We walked in, and I sat down at one end of the sofa. Professor Ryan and Michael watched me. I turned to look at them.

	"I am the reason there are laws," he said.

	"Too much?" I asked.

	"I'm not one to criticize, but it did seem bombastic."

	I nodded thoughtfully. Michael was the first one to break with a small laugh. Professor Ryan joined him within a second.

	"I don't think Gerald noticed it was overdone," Michael said when they regained control, causing Professor Ryan to lose it again. I sat up and took a deep breath.

	"Jason taught you how to do that?" Michael asked. I nodded slowly; I preferred not to discuss Jason.

	"How bad was he?" Michael persisted.

	"How would you describe our relationship if you were one of those frat brothers?" I asked. Michael turned to Professor Ryan. Of the Siblings, he was the most laid-back around me, and at times, the most unsure.

	He shrugged before answering, "I'd say we run in the same circle but weren't really friends."

	"If I were Jason, the Taus would cross the street when they see you coming their way."

	I sat for a half-hour letting the combat high fade. I sighed and opened my eyes finally. I straightened to see Michael and Professor Ryan talking to each other. I got up, stretched, and shook my head to get rid of the grogginess.

	"David," Michael said, interrupting my walk to the door. I turned to look at him.

	"The woman in Cancun?" he asked. He understood he was crossing the line but had to ask.

	"She killed Jason.”

	"You can't just murder someone like that, David" Michael said, looking at Professor Ryan.

	"You can't kill people like that, Michael. It makes you a better person than I am."

	"Do you want to die, David?" Professor Ryan asked.

	I stared at the wall for a few seconds, remembering, before I replied, “I made a promise to live.”

	I drove back to the frat house and parked where I could watch Gerald's window. Minutes later, a car pulled up behind me. I got out and turned towards the two men who stepped out.

	Roderigo would drive a Jag.

	I did not recognize the other man, except as another Brother. I looked at him closely as they walked up to me. The way he occupied space fingered him for a cop.

	"Melisa's dad," I said. He nodded and studied me.

	"I expected a bonfire from you, Brother,” Roderigo said motioning towards Gerald's window. “This is almost subtle.”

	"I had to think of more than myself," I said.

	"Oh?”

	"Doris Alex seems an exceptionally well-behaved Sibling," I said. "I did not wish to see her ruined."

	"This isn't the end of it," Roderigo said. "Those three are not going to swallow apologizing easily."

	None of us doubted Gerald would try very hard to do what I asked.

	"No, they're going to have to get hurt to learn," I replied.

	"I'm sorry we lost Jason," Roderigo said. "He would have made an exceptional Sibling."

	Melisa's dad nodded.

	"Yes, he would have," I whispered.

	"Doris and Jason would have made beautiful babies," Roderigo said almost to himself.

	"Siblings are bred?" I asked.

	"Exceptionally well-behaved Siblings have a way of doing what they think a Brother needs or wants. Some extend the thought process to the Brotherhood," Melisa's dad said, shaking his head in amusement.

	I stared at Gerald’s window while considering his words.

	"At some point, the thought that the Siblings goaded the attack on Doris must have crossed your mind," Roderigo said.

	"To what purpose, Melisa would have nothing to gain," I said. "She probably didn't notice on any real level people were talking about her."

	"Why do you think Melisa Ranks enough to lead this?" her dad asked.

	"Ranks?" I replied.

	"Siblings have... politics.” Amusement laced Roderigo’s voice. “I supposed that’s the best word for their game.”

	"Melisa struck me as the one in charge," I said.

	"Melisa is your First, David," her dad said. "It gives her a lot of Rank with you living here, but there are Sibling rules she would never violate. I don't know all the intricacies of how Siblings decide who is in charge among them, but a Brother's favor is the most important factor.

	Doris is the only Sibling in their enclave having sex with Jeremy and you. Even with Melisa and Sheryl having more personal relationships, Doris should Rank until you move into the house. Things could get confusing at that point, with one Sibling being in charge inside the house, and another outside."

	I looked at him, like I was considering state of his sanity.

	"Siblings attempting to achieve higher Rank make things interesting for Brothers," he shrugged.

	I turned and leaned against the car, "Why would Doris Alex put herself through it? She got hurt."

	"Physical pain wouldn't matter to a Sibling with a Brother's interest on their mind. Like you said, Doris is an exceptionally well-behaved Sibling," Roderigo said.

	"There's nothing for me to gain from this," I pointed out.

	"It wasn't just you she was serving," Roderigo said softly. He and Melisa's dad looked at each other before turning towards Gerald's window.

	"Go home, David," Roderigo said. "We'll watch the boy for you."

	"Don't worry about him, David," Melisa's dad said with a hard smile. "I'll show up in a few places he can see me. Gerald will know you are not alone."
