C. Schmidt - Hock City

“You can’t fault me for dad’s actions! I tried to be a good brother, but you didn’t see me as such! You saw me as your enemy, or your competition – just like everyone else that you were jealous of! I stood up for you plenty of times. I cleaned up the messes you made. I took the blame for a lot of your shit! Do you remember nothing but what benefits you?”

“Sure you did. Enough of this! I’m done with this!” The Guardian stood from the chair, regaining his authority. The guards nearby pointed their weapons at Kinth. “I don’t have to explain anything. I don’t owe you anything . You’ve been gone too long brother. Take him away to the cellar for now! I will figure out what to do with him later. And bring the other two in here. Wait, no – just bring the human. Put the boy in the cellar too. I don’t need to speak to him. At least not yet.”

“Please no! Not Jesse! Don’t hurt my Jesse!”

“Shut up, Pearl. You know what – take her too. Tired of looking at your face. Lock her in the guest room and keep her there. Send a few of our guys to secure her casino. Lock up her lines. Kill anyone that gets in your way,” The Guardian snapped in frustration.

Pearl cried and squirmed as she was drug from the room. Mantodea soldiers quickly marched into the foyer, grabbing Langston by the arms, and made him walk towards the reception room. He watched on as Kinth was forced to exit by him.

“See you soon, stranger,” Kinth spoke candidly to Langston as he passed, winking his eye.

“Wait, what? What’s going on? Why they leaving?” Langston asked.

“Have a seat,” The Guardian stated with his hand extended toward a couch in the room, “Don’t worry about them. Let’s talk – you and me.” The door of the reception room slammed shut, as muffled shouting from Pearl covered the walls of the room.

“First, you threaten to kill me. Then you want to talk. Which is it? Man, all of y’all crazy. This place is crazy. I just want to get out of here. I want to find my way home. I don’t really care how I got here anymore. This shit is nuts. I – “

“Quiet! Look, I know who you are, at least I think I do,” the Guardian interjected.

Langston looked at the Guardian with disbelief, as he waited for him to elaborate on his statement.

“My father ran this place. He was Hock City’s first leader. But he had bad habits. He couldn’t control his flesh, and thus, impregnated a bunch of women. And um… I’m just going to be frank here. I had these women removed. See, I couldn’t let the good people of Hock City find out about my father’s affairs. It would have been a disgrace to Guardian’s Grove if his behavior was discovered. It would have ruined us. My family would have been stripped of the Guardian’s estate and benefits. You understand? The people here worship this place. You follow what I’m saying? His actions would have downgraded us. We would have had to live out there with the rest of those filthy, retched people. No, no – couldn’t let that happen. So, quietly – I did what I had to.”

“You son of a bitch.”

“No. Son of a weak man, actually. But I took care of that. I had each one these women removed, quietly. I instructed my men to take them to different places – to other corridors.”

“How could you harm women? What kind of person are you?” Langston stood to his feet.

“Sit down! Sit down!”

Guards approached Langston with their weapons drawn; Langston returned to his seat.

“I didn’t hurt anyone. I did these women a favor because my father wasn’t going to take care of them. No harm came to them by me. Now, what happens outside of those walls is not my concern.”

“Yeah that’s what I keep hearing. Nobody cares what happens outside the walls. Bastard. Pregnant women. What kind of a monster are you? And how did you even know for sure? How do you now know this actually happened?”

“A monster? Me? No. All I did was take action against contradictory behavior. And what more proof did I need?” The Guardian laughed at the comments, “To hell with proof. There was enough unanswered questions floating around. Suspicion was all the proof I required.”

Langston shook his head and mumbled to himself.

“I did what I knew my brother wouldn’t! I had to keep our crest pure! My father – such a weak man. But to most, like my brother – he had no faults – he was perfect in their eyes.”

“Sounds like jealousy to me.”

“I don’t care what it sounds like to you. You don’t know what this place was like. You don’t know my struggle. To me, it sounds like perfect justice. It sounds like decisiveness, action; an obligatory act to protect -”

“Your status and your greed,” Langston interjected.

The Guardian clinched his jaw at Langston’s statement.

“Ah, to be so young and stupid. So impressionable.”

“This would explain why I don’t recognize anything about this city.”

“You won’t remember anything. More than likely, you were brought into this world in one of the other six corridors. Most people don’t travel beyond the walls of their homes. The dangers in that desert is too much for most to bear. How you made it here, unharmed – for the most part – is an amazement.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“What more is there to understand?”

“No one ever told me, anything. About what happened, this place – nothing. And they call me human. I don’t have abilities like the people here.”

“Yes, yes – I noticed. Seems father enjoyed a variety. I heard about you people. Never thought I would be sitting here speaking to one of you in person.

“So I keep hearing.”

“Did you actually think that the world was only as large, as the walls you lived inside of? Pathetic. The world is much larger, kid. Much, much larger. Hock City is one of seven corridors that sit inside Pineville. They all operate differently, and under different leadership. The leaders, at one point, worked together. They developed the tunnels with doorways that bridged our worlds. But some didn’t agree to these arrangements, so they created their own tunnels. These tunnels lead to very dark and treacherous places. You were in one of those tunnels, when we captured you. So, you should be thanking me. But the other tunnels were available so that we could travel to different areas safely, and for some discreetly. My father practically built Hock City. But his behavior in the dark wasn’t that of a leader. He got around, a lot. We – me, Pearl and Kinth are the only three kids he had legitimately. In the beginning, he kept up with appearances, but he grew careless. He would go missing, neglect business and squander lines. People started to ask questions. So I put a stop to it.”

“You killed him, didn’t you? Your own father – your own family? What is wrong with you?”

“I did what was required! I didn’t just turn a blind eye to his conduct like most. That would have accomplished nothing!”

Langston stared at the floor and shook his head. His anger grew, just as much as the confusion.

“That explains nothing. Why was I in the middle of the desert with a hospital gown on of all things?”

The Guardian poured himself a drink, as he listened to Langston process what he had heard.

“That – my friend – is not for me to figure out. Honestly, I don’t really give a shit. But you are here now, brother. Let’s celebrate and talk business! You can work for me. We can figure out what we will tell people later. I’m sure people will have questions, like why a human is now inside of our city.”

“Brother? I’m not your brother!” Langston lunged at the Guardian, grabbing him by his suit lapel and the collar of his shirt. The grab caused the Guardian to drop the wine bottle, alerting security nearby.