Oasis (OC Book)

Year Eleven: Cynicism

Setting the scene, the room is quiet, it's late at night, and the children have been put to sleep in the admittedly old edge of the suburb house. Inside an office, a few lamps are on, dimly lighting up an office littered in papers, two glasses of whiskey on the desk that seems to be just a rest stop for letters, books, and tables. Behind the desk is Che, aged a bit, his face tired. 

On the other side in one of the pristine wooden desks is Mateo, young, restless, and lost. 

So they began as they sipped on the spirit. 

"So you say this stuff is made of corn?" Mateo asked, sniffing it and shrugging. 

"Yeah, pretty good stuff if you ask me, especially when on the rocks, but alas, I got no rocks." Che shrugged and nursed his drink... energetically. 

"You're just too lazy to go to the kitchen, cousin."

"Guilty as charged." The glass of whiskey was empty and set down on the desk. "So tell me little cousin, why are you here?"

"I need a reason to visit family?" Mateo retorted. 

"Normally yes. I have been inviting you and that sister of yours ever since I found out a descendent of J was still alive."

"What does that matter anyways? I don't even know who this J is that you speak of."

"He was important. Very important. Kinda the whole reason we Hirus made it as far as we did. There was a hierarchy back when... Mateo, our ancestor, your namesake... Then his sons, the Hitachis... M, J, and I think we called him A. There were plenty of others. There was Mei, Aye, N, Jes, etcetera. J was the first though, he was the whole reason so much of the chaos, drama, and confusion happened in our early years. He was a tragedy too... His line... I'm glad it's one of the three that actually survived." 

"You can tell me all of this, but what does it matter?" Inquired Mateo, his patience already tested. He was not one for pleasantries. 

"I'm trying to say that you're kin, very close kin, and I wanted you and your sister to come around. To be part of the family again. So we can be a clan again. I don't know if you noticed, but we went from being in the thousands to the point I can count us on our fingers. Me, my two sons, you, your sister, and that crazy ass man whore in the middle of nowhere with his two wives and a brood of children. Sometimes I think he's lucky, but there's a good chance he's dead now. Thiago I think was his name." Sighed Che. "There's also that crazy ass wizard named Federico... A Marco too. We think he's one of us, but he ain't no wolf and ain't no Hiru... not anymore anyways." 

"So for political reasons?"

"NO! You're family... kin. I understand your boys didn't have a mother and not much of a father growing up... it's hard... it hurts... I know that." He sighed, becoming vulnerable again. "My mum... she... I kinda just keep losing her over and over again... I can't find her and I can find anybody... dad... he was a good guy. A good lesson on why you have kids young." He murmured mournfully. "Mateo... there's a reason I paid for all your and your sister's bills. You didn't tell your sister that, right? Tried to keep it all secret, but after your dad reached out to me, I knew I had to protect you. It was my job too. Whether you acknowledge it or not you kids are my family and I want this family to be tight-knit again..."

"Can we drop this, that's not why I came here anyways."

"Fine." Che sighed and ran a hand through his hair, if it was not for his mother he would have gone silver long ago. He did not know if his immortal blood made him lucky or not yet. "Why did you drop by?"

"I'm lonely," Mateo muttered. "I've been around for twenty-one years now... Gosh... I just... after my sister went off to school I got real lonely, very lonely.... so scared and sad. I kinda hated her... I'm happy for her, and I want the best, but I didn't know how to cope with her gone and now she's back and I don't know how to process any of this... You're older... you've been through stuff and emotions... those are things I don't know well and well... help... I feel like I'm gonna spiral again down the black hole that sent me going around this country and fucking around..." 

"Your journeys? Yeah, you caused up quite a stir, if it was not for me you would have been all over the news." Che sighed and stroked his beard. "It's okay... you're allowed to be angry, to feel confused, conflicted, lost... that's alright... that's okay. It's normal and there's nothing wrong about it." 

"That doesn't help anything! I just spent the last three months in the woods tormenting other wolves and messing with folks who need help, not my torment...! I knew my head wasn't right, but I just... I... I don't know what's wrong with me!" He groaned, his clutched his drink tightly, most of it gone. 

"I have answers, but I don't know if they're right." Che sighed and stood up, taking a seat right next to Mateo and wrapping an arm around the man, well Mateo seemed more like a child now. "But I'll be here with you and we can work things out."

"Thanks..." he murmured and finished off the glass. He set it down, then he just rested as he was, his arms on his legs, his eyes staring at the floor. "Che?"

"Hmm? What is it, kid?"

"I really think there's something wrong with me... in me... I'm trying that religion thing now... I am... but what can I say? It helps, but I feel like there's more that I'm missing before I can get anything fixed."

"It's always more complicated than that and you'd need to ask the Alvor-Villas or my kids because I'm in the same boat on that one." 

"You're not really that helpful, Che, but still thanks for listening."

"Things are still vague, want to try to clear them up a bit?"

"Maybe?" Mateo was now looking Che in the face, their eyes meeting. 

"You feel like you're spiraling down again... describe that."

"I don't know... It happens when I start thinking not-so-good things... mostly when I'm alone... I have no friends, no lovers, only my sister... only ever my sister... just my sister... then I think how she went off to college, she vanished from my life for four years. At first, I tried to see her, find her, just to visit her... She wasn't there... I couldn't find her... So I felt so alone... so tired... so empty... that emptiness is like this big black room. I can't see the walls, the doors, anything. All I can see is black, not even my own hands... I feel like that... then all the things start rushing in my head... I hear things like: 'No one loves you,' 'freak,' 'monster,' 'lonely,' and stuff like 'somethings wrong with you,' and 'you're fucked up, that's why you'll die alone...' Then I look at the way I lived, the things I do, the people that I hurt and I think the voices are right... I become so angry that I feel the world needs to know what I feel like... That I have to bring my rage to it... and well werewolves, vampires, and other monsters are like me... so if I hate myself why not just hate them too... hurt them... kill them... I've gotten my hands so bloody now and I can't even think right... that's why I tried religion... why I'm still trying... because they're the ones that seem like they'll take me." 

Che stared at the boy and just rubbed his shoulder, pulling him into a hug and saying. "You're just a kid, huh..."

"That's all you have to say." Muttered Mateo all teary-eyed. 

"Let me tell you a story Mateo, it's about a guy named Corvo... it starts like this..."

[The End]