Home Sweet Home (mxm)

Chapter 16: Slipping Away

Adon wasn't sure what was going on as his vision slowly returned. He could only see out of one eye, and as time ticked by, he remembered what had happened. He tried to shake the cloudiness from his head, but the action felt sluggish, as if he didn't really have control. 

"That's enough of that," a slightly familiar voice chided. 

This is my body, Nikolai. Give it back. 

Adon put as much determination as he could into his words as he tried to move himself from where he was now sitting. 

Wait. Where am I? 

Refocusing his attention on what was around him, Adoni used his one good eye to quickly figure out that they were in the basement, but considering where he was seated... There was no need to try and force Nikolai to let him turn his head. He didn't want to see the skeleton beside him. 

"What's wrong, banshee? Don't like seeing my true self?" Nikolai said as he turned so that Adon had no choice but to watch his hand reach forward and pick up a piece of fractured bone. 

He's better at talking now... and I can actually sense some sarcasm in his words. Is he getting emotions back? 

He expected Nikolai to speak again, but when the man just stared at the broken bone, Adon looked at it closer. There were no bite marks from rats gnawing on it. It had been broken before Nikolai had died. 

Who killed you two? 

There was a tense silence as Nikolai turned the piece of bone over in his hand several times. When he stopped moving it, it was sitting in his palm as faint glowing lines of light elongated from his fingernails, creating claws. 

"Caleb's mother." 

He'd expected it, but to hear Nikolai say it... 

"I would hunt her down and kill her if I could get out of this house, but I can't go beyond the door with you here." 

I'm sorry, but I'm not willing to die for your revenge. There are other ways to bring her to justice. 

A quiet, cynicle chuckle slipped from his lips as Nikolai let the shard of bone slip from his fingers, then raised his hand above his head, stretching his translucent claws toward the worn ceiling. 

"I care not for justice. Her and my father..." a deep growl rumbled from his chest as Nikolai began to lose control of himself. 

Adon's instincts told him to shrink back into Nikolai's mind until he was more stable, but he knew that he couldn't do that. He needed to get the guy to trust him, and in turn, stop trying to kill him. 

Focusing with his one good eye, Adon extended his own arm up through Nikolai's. He felt the man's flesh blocking his fingertips as his hand internally reached Nikolai's outstretched one. 

Nikolai gave a warning growl, but Adon ignored it as he managed to slip his translucent fingers through Nikolai's skin and gently grasp his clawed hand. 

Calm down. We need to work together to fix this situation. 

"Fix." 

The word was snarled as Nikolai withdrew his hand, the abrupt action forcing Adon's to return to his body. The man was suddenly on his feet, and before Adon could stop him, he had kicked his own skull. It slammed against the concrete wall, fracturing part of the back portion, then tumbled to the left before stopping near the tiny nightstand that had Caleb's dusty, empty fish bowl on it. 

"What can be fixed!" 

Nikolai turned back toward his skeleton, clearly intent on displacing more bones out of anger, but he abruptly stopped when they both noticed Caleb sitting on the edge of the bed with his head down, eyes half-lidded as they stared down at Nikolai's newly-damaged skull between his hands.