Karma catches up

'HELLO, HUMAN.'

'...Shit.'

Elsewhere...

‘I wanted to talk to you all together. Now we have the chance, I figured I may as well take it.’

‘I… I’m gay.’

‘Oh… but I thought you were bi.’

‘Wait, you did? That’s news to me.’

‘I know I’ve never had a proper conversation with all of you about this. And I probably should’ve, especially when you came out, Zeus. The truth is, I always thought I was bi, too. It’s not that I wasn’t telling the truth… it’s more that I’m figuring more out about myself.’

‘I mean, it doesn’t matter to me if you like women, Mum. I wanna make that clear. I guess I just wanna know if you ever liked men at all.’

‘I did, sweetie. I’ve found them attractive, but… I just don’t think I’ve ever been in love with a man.’

‘I’m still just sad that you’ve never been allowed to be yourself. That you ended up in such a horrible marriage for so long.’

‘I know, love.’

‘I kinda feel like we’ve contributed to ruining your life…’

‘No. Listen to me. None of you are remotely to blame, and I would go through with it all over again if it meant I could keep you. If I really had a choice to go back, I’d just leave him sooner so I could protect you all better. But I would never want to give any of you up so I could have an easier life. Because I love you.’

‘But you’d be happier.’

‘Who says I would? I might have ended up in a long-term relationship with a woman, but I wouldn’t have had the four of you. And the one evil person who’s hurt all of us? He doesn’t get to ruin everything else good I’ve ever had from my life with him. And that’s not just you, it’s your other siblings too. It’s people like Edward, Nyla and Nalini. We can’t change what’s happened. All we can do is try to overcome the trauma we’ve been through and celebrate the good things we do have.’

‘Mum’s right. There’s no point in us just sitting here blaming ourselves for existing. We should just do our best to do her proud!’

‘I will! But Mum, you have to promise us something.’

‘I already am proud of you, but what’s that?’

‘That you start living the life you want. There’s a happy future out there for you that involves us too, and you have to take it. We’re behind you all the way. You don’t need to sacrifice yourself for anyone now. This bi son is proud of his gay mum.’

‘And so is this straight son.’

‘And this straight daughter!’

‘Thank you so much… There’s just one last thing I want to tell you. I am seeing somebody new. Well, I say new, but you already know her. I’m in a relationship with Maria. Logan’s mum.’

‘Oh wow! How long’s that been going on?’

‘A while now. We were together when she visited here with the others. I did want to tell you sooner but I had some reservations about it… I felt like I needed to explain the stuff going on in my mind about my own sexuality. I’m not used to dating another woman and I’m especially not used to being a lesbian mother. That, and I didn’t want to potentially cause more upheaval so soon. You’re all healing after everything that’s happened. We needed to settle in here before I introduced a new partner and a new relationship into the mix.’

‘That makes sense. But I still stand behind my last answer. I want you to be happy, so I’m glad that you’ve met someone and started seeing her!’

‘Me too! You deserve someone who’ll treat you right!’

‘She’s been a really lovely partner. I don’t think you have anything to worry about there. We’re long distance, but we’re going to make it work.’

 ‘So… when are you telling Julius?’

‘I don’t want to leave it too long either. It’ll be a different kind of conversation with him, so that’s why I wanted to tell the three of you first. You’re all adults now and he isn’t. So don’t mention it to him just yet.’

‘Got it.’

‘So. Back here again.’

‘By “here” do you mean in this particular situation? Because I’ve certainly never been to this place. It looks like a dungeon.’

‘Correct.’

‘…Where the hell is this?’

‘Do you really think I’d tell you that much?’

‘No, but… last time it was your house. A far cry from this.’

‘You walked into my house, Tate. I didn’t bring you there.’

‘…You were clearly expecting me, though. How do you do it?’

‘I’m not telling you that either. Do you know why you’re here this time?’

‘Because you’re a sadistic nutjob who wants to torture me again?’

‘More specific than that. And less of the nutjob, unless you want it to hurt even more.’

‘Really, I was under the impression it’d hurt no matter what I said or did. You were quite clear about me being able to do nothing to change your mind, so… what exactly does it matter what I call you?’

‘Oh, I see. You want to take some of the power away from me by resigning yourself to your fate and pretending it doesn’t bother you that much. We’ll see, won’t we?’

‘I suppose we will.’

‘There are a lot of different ways I can hurt you down here. Things you’ve probably never seen or heard of before. So don’t get complacent. This isn’t the kind of thing you can just get used to enduring.’

‘So why not space it out a bit more, since you intend to drag this on for years? The more often you do it, the less impact it’ll have.’

‘Because you tried to have me killed.’

‘Ah.’

‘Funny, I expected you’d try to deny it.’

‘What’s the point? You know what happened, and I know you know, as well. That’s why Abraxas is in hospital, missing a finger.’

‘I imagine you knew this was coming, then. That’s why you took off work. Why did you go back, then?’

‘…I couldn’t justify staying away from the office any longer.’

‘Mmm, they’d find it too suspicious, wouldn’t they? How would you explain to the council how your mortal enemy keeps repeatedly cutting you open because you killed his father? Because you used to be an assassin?’

‘How indeed.’

‘I can’t imagine it going down too well with those friends of yours, either. Well, I say friends, I meant that upper class group of people you have eating out of the palm of your hand. I dare say they would find it very interesting.’

‘And you think they’d believe you? The man who tortured Tristan? Because I wouldn’t hesitate to out you on that if you dared show your face there.’

‘You mean the son who doesn’t speak to you any more? Fine job you did of protecting him, hm?’

‘Shut the fuck up. He was innocent in this. You already took revenge against me years before he was born. It’s not my fault that you came back for more and dragged him into it!’

‘Yet you haven’t learned from it, have you? Your kids left and got to safety, so what do you do? You bring two more of them into your home.’

‘…You wouldn’t.’

‘Wouldn’t I?’

‘They’re four years old, you sick bastard!’

‘And while you’re in hospital, you’ll be out of the way. Nobody to protect them. What will you be able to do for them? I know you have your security, but they’ll have to leave the house at some point…’

‘No! I won’t have it!’

‘You’ll be powerless to stop it. You should have thought about those girls before you sent your little buddy Abraxas and his cronies after me. What goes around comes around. What’s about to happen to you and to them is entirely your fault.’

‘But thanks for the reaction. I was waiting for that. Come on, Rikard. Let’s take him through. I think it’s more than time.’