Code Junkie

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

"Royal blood? Get the fuck out. My grandmother died of heart disease years ago and my parents are alcoholics—"

"Kevin, your grandmother died according to the plan. Your parents aren't who you think they are, either. They're gone. Your real parents are somewhere across the world. They were paid off. They don't care. They're content. Don't ask why, but the cycle skips a generation. Your grandmother was murdered... well, sacrificed. Her time was up. She fucked Joseph Banner. He chose her. She knew what her role was."

"Joe Banner... what the fuck does he have to do with this?"

"Mr. Banner was your grandfather, Kevin. He did everything that Sal told you he did, through his stories. He tapped into something otherworldly when he was travelling the world. When he was comingling with the elders on the African continent or fucking eating children in Europe. He was out there, harnessing some wicked dark energy. And he brought it back here. Joseph Banner's your grandfather, Kevin. And he lives at the assisted living home on the coast. The castle."

I stood at the sink and poured myself a glass of water. My hands were shaking. I stared into the woods. There was no nature hike occurring today. It was drizzling outside.

Mitch stood in the kitchen and waited for me to say something. I offered him no conversation. I moved to my computer and half-heartedly checked my email and my sites. I had no interest in facing the bizarre verbal-diarrhea that Mitch was attempting to feed me. He was still waiting for me to engage him. I offered no entrance to my psyche until I finally stood up from my desk and moved back in the living room and collapsed to the floor, my hands covering my eyes.

"What... do you mean it's a cycle?"

Without missing a beat, Mitch continued.

"Banner brought a deity back to protect Deptford. Simultaneously, it required a blood compensation. We keep good health and separation from a super-developed society, and remain tucked away, safe, in return for a few doomed lovers every few decades."

"I don't buy it."

"Kevin, that guy from the pharmacy?"

"What about him?"

"Art's 67 years old."

The fucker looked like he was thirty, maybe.

"So you're telling me that Banner killed his girlfriend years ago... and then my grandma? That's two people."

"I don't remember the ceremonial language used. It's something about 'the one they love and the one they kept' – it works itself out, Kevin. You cannot wish it away."

I stood up and confronted Mitch.

"Okay," I grit, staring him in the eyes. "Then where are my two dead broads, huh? Where are my two dead lovers, huh?"

Mitch's eye twitched and then he looked away, walked away from me and stood at the window, looking outside. He fidgeted with his hands and refused to look at me.

"Kevin... I know you don't talk about this a lot—"

"About what?"

"About Mariah—"

"Don't you fucking say her name, that girl broke my heart, she has nothing to do with this."

"I thought it'd go like this. Kevin, she didn't break your heart. She didn't 'leave you' when you were young. This is all the drugs... the medicine, at work."

"What are you trying to say?"

"You killed Mariah, Kevin. When you were both young. You murdered her for a higher purpose."

My world is spinning. I am on the floor. I am driving off of the Old Iron Bridge. I am drowning in my car. I am kissing Sara. I am fucking Mariah. I am working in the shop with Walt. I am watching Jerry bounce on the exercise ball at my old job. I am laughing with Ted at Jerry's antics in a convenience store. I am retrieving mail from a PO box with an old woman watching me, drooling. I am watching through the woods as a young boy, pointing out squirrels and bugs to Mariah. I am sitting in the backseat of a car in high school, as Sara smokes a cigarette in the passenger seat and some punk kid drives us around. I am talking to my mother on the phone as my grandmother makes dinner. But now this memory is tainted by Mitch's words. Is she an actress? Then I'm signing the will and accepting my dead grandmother's house. Did she do it for me, or for the greater good?

"You killed her, Kevin. And now you're going to kill Sara."

I look up.

"No," I stand. "What? How could you say that, as her... as our friend?"

"It's not my doing. And it's not to my liking. But you're protecting a lot of people. And ensuring happiness for a lot more by following through."

"Why? So I can go and be locked up with that old lunatic Banner on the hill?"

"It's... not exactly like that. He's... hell, Kevin. He's in paradise. Whatever Our Protector is offering him beats anything we could achieve here on earth, here in Deptford."

"'Our Protector' – listen to yourself!"

"Kevin, Sal was trying to get you to break the cycle. But that would have caused all of us to die. It might have even ended humanity as we know it. If Our Protector rises, who knows where his rage will end?"

"The protector... You're talking about the big manatee thing?"

"Yes."

"Fuck you, Mitch."

"It's true, Kevin. Let me guess? Sal gave you a bunch of stories that you ignored. Stories about lovers and failed kings and princes? And he told you to distance yourself from Sara or love her too, right? He was trying to break the cycle. If you loved her, you wouldn't kill her, and if you weren't near her, there was no sacrifice. If He rose, Sal would burn with the rest of us."

"But why would he do that?"

"Perhaps serving is not satisfactory enough for some people."

I sat down.

"Listen, Kevin," he said. "You can meet us at the fairgrounds tonight and see to your duties. Or I'll see you in hell."

Mitch went to the kitchen and washed his hands, forearms, neck, and face. As he opened the front door, he paused and looked at me.

"I know it's not easy. But it's how we fit into this world. We are pieces in a greater machine. And you are more than welcome to defect. Just remember at what cost. Oh, and that pink stuff that that tweaker gave you? It's legit. If you want to clear your mind a bit..." he shrugged and left, pulling his hood up as he closed the door.