The Thrill of Darkness

Part 13: Suit Up

Atticus' POV:

"The House? What are you on about?" I asked, retrieving my suitcase that I'd dropped. I returned to his side and stopped short at the deadly serious look on his face. His head was tilted slightly up as he stared of into space, deep in thought. I let him be for about two minutes, but that was all I could take.

"Antioch. What's going on?" I demanded. He finally turned his eyes on me and was quiet for a moment as I waited impatiently. When he finally spoke, his voice was soft.

"Come on. I'll explain on the way."

With that, he once again turned and walked away. I sighed and followed, used to his antics by now.

"And may I ask where we are off to?" I inquired.

"We have one more errand to run," he said before looking back to smirk at me.

"We need to get you a suit."

I blinked.

"A suit? Why would I need a suit?" I asked incredulously. At the same time, I had to admit I was a little giddy at the prospect. Such luxuries were unheard of in a life like the one I led.

"Because we're going to a ball. Come on," said Anti as he turned away to walk down the empty street, jerking his head to indicate that I should follow. To my relief, he didn't stop his explanation there:

"The House is a group of paranormal representatives from a couple different species, namely those that eat humans. The number of representatives and the system of choosing them depends on the species. For example, Unseelie Elves take volunteers that fight to the death for it, while Seelie elves are smart and just vote. There are royal families of both the Djinn and Vampires, while the Mermaids simply go by age. It's pretty hard to grasp unless you've been in the politics of it your entire life."

I silently considered his words for a moment.

"And what's the point of this, 'House?'" I asked finally. He shrugged.

"Survival, mainly. The humans have the Resistance to do population checks and maintain the balance, and the Paranormals have the house," he said, "humans are dangerous creatures; we needed a defense against their defense."

"But all of you are so powerful. At least, the few of you that I've seen," I ammended, reminding myself how little I truly knew about this previously unseen world that I was suddenly a part of. Antioch shrugged.

"Power, yes. We have that in spades. What we don't have is unity.
For many of us, regardless of the species, that same power and standing is our singular goal in life. We want control. We want to rule for the sake of ruling."

"But so do some humans."

"Ah, but only some," he said, raising his index finger before pointing it at me, "You, all the billions and billions of you across the globe, are more powerful because you work together, you understand each other. Sure, there are always gonna be the one-percenters that fuck up humanity's rep, but they're just that- the one percent."

He shook his head and chuckled.

"In my experience, if a human sees you beaten to a bloody pulp on the side of the road, if you come to their door wounded and hungry, then most of the time, they'll fix you up. They'll feed you, just because they can. And I think that's why your species has survived this long despite being the physically and magically weakest. Except for the elves, maybe," he said thoughtfully, "if the houses all learned to cooperate out of more than just mutual destruction, maybe we could thrive, not just survive."