Chapter Text
Of course, the silence that followed was immeasurably heavy.
Travis sat on the kitchen floor. The sink above him dripped rheumatically, backed by the buzzing of the single lightbulb above it. The light dully illuminated the bare counters and the empty cabinets, making the room feel less like a home and more like a theater set. A facade.
The house hadn't felt like a home since Travis was blissfully ignorant of what remained in the house's basement.
Travis hugged his knees as he sat on the floor, grinding his teeth together as his mind raced and his father talked with a few of his followers about their next moves. He couldn't stop thinking about his classmates' futures as he watched his father explain orders. Did he just send Mike and David to their deaths? What about Larry? Would they kill him too, or was he exempt because of the prophecy? What would have happened if Travis didn't tell Kenneth?
Oh. That's right.
Travis would be executed.
A knock at the door stirred Travis from his anxious thoughts and he watched Kenneth pause to answer it. He payed it no mind, his father's familiar line of 'get off my property' followed by a door slam that reverberated through the house was oh so terribly familiar.
Travis sighed and burrowed his head in his knees.
But the knock came again, unfazed.
Kenneth, more than annoyed now, stomped back over and whipped open the door.
"I said leave, boy." Kenneth barked, "this is no place for you, especially at this hour of the night."
"I really don't mean to intrude, sir, but Travis told me he'd be at my place tonight for a sleepover three hours ago. Is he okay?"
Travis nearly jumped to his feet at the sound of the familiar voice.
"He's doing fine, thank you. No thanks to---"
"Sally face?" Travis inquired, stumbling up behind his father.
"Travis!" Sal tried to step forward, but flinched backwards when Kenneth blocked him. "Thank God you're okay!"
"Of course I'm okay, Sal, but now's really not the time--"
"Are you coming tonight?" Sal basically demanded, "it's urgent." He hesitated before adding, "you need to tell me what happened today, man."
"Tomorrow," Kenneth spat. "He can talk to you tomorrow."
Sal barely lifted a hand to argue when Kenneth slammed the door on his face, and Travis flinched.
The older blond let out a long sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose before dismissing the robed men and women who still remained in the dining room. They exchanged some final words before disappearing back into the catacombs.
Travis couldn't stop thinking about his two classmates being murdered in the temple below as he stood.
But even more so, he was appalled that Sal marched right up to Kenneth's doorstep simply to see if he was okay.
"He was worried for me," Travis accidentally muttered allowed, blinking at the door.
"Yeah? Don't get any ideas," Kenneth snorted, lighting a cigarette. "The little faggot's onto me, that's all."
"Don't call him that."
Kenneth whipped around, "what was that?"
Again, Travis's mouth ran before he could think, "I said don't call him that."
Kenneth's red eyes narrowed at Travis, and the younger blond eventually averted his gaze to the carpet. Somehow; he hated his father's silence more than his yelling.
To Travis's relief, he changed the subject, "and you're sure it's only the two who know?"
"Yes, sir," Travis lied. "I found out before they could spread the rumor."
"Right," Kenneth ushered his son back to the kitchen. "Let's get those wounds treated, boy."
"Yes, sir."
The sound of the pouring rain outside failed to calm Travis's raging nerves. He flinched at the quiet thunder that rumbled throughout the house, and he forced his exhausted legs to follow his father back to the kitchen where he sat at the table. Blood dripped steadily to the floor, backed by the gentle rhythm of Travis's foot against the ground.
Travis kept his head bowed; awaiting his punishment. His lecture. His beating. Just...something other than silence. His festering thoughts made him anxious. The flickering kitchen light made him annoyed. The shivering in his limbs made him frustrated. The way Kenneth slammed the door on Sal's face made him angry.
Travis was, in every sense of the word, tired of living this way.
So, so very tired.
And so, so very angry.
Kenneth pulled out a chair next to his son and sat down. Travis, as per usual, couldn't read his father's expression, his unnaturally red eyes blank and exhausted. Kenneth reached out to examine Travis's bruised hand to which Travis quickly pulled away.
"Travis." Kenneth's voice was stern, Travis flinched further into himself. "Stop being difficult, I'm trying to help."
"But where was this 'trying to help' when I actually needed it? Huh?" Travis snapped, his anger finally boiling over, "you're just...tricking me. I know you."
"Just because I have important matters to deal with doesn't mean I don't care for you, boy."
"Really?" Travis's voice wavered as he stood, "really? You care about me? You say that now?! After leaving me to take care of myself for however many fucking years with all these rules and guidelines? You don't care about me. You said it yourself, I'm just your goddamn backup plan!"
The younger blond's voice cracked as he stood, his fragile composure cracking. He had his head in his shaking hands. He said too much, now he couldn't stop. Kenneth was going to kill him. Kenneth was going to kill him.
"Do you how hard it is to keep up this act all the time? How lonely I feel constantly because everytime I get even the slightest chance to have a friend I always fuck it up? How hard it is to keep this fucking brand hidden?"
"You know the work we're doing is greater than us," Kenneth snapped. "You know neither of us chose to do this---chose to do what ensures eternal peace. You know I care for you---I just terminated two more teenagers for your safety for God's sake!"
"And you." The younger blond seethed, his fists tensing up again. "you're a murderer! And a liar! You killed Mike and David! You killed Megan! You killed Luke! You killed Sal's mom! All those innocent people! You--"
Travis froze when Kenneth launched to his feet and grabbed Travis by the front of his shirt, pulling him up to his father's height.
"You do not speak those names in this household."
"Oh yeah?" Tears continued to fall down Travis's face as he nearly laughed, "what are you gonna do, kill me too?"
With a lurch, Kenneth launched Travis against the wall. Star's exploded in the younger blond's vision as he fought against his father's fists. He kicked, squirmed, punched, and Kenneth fought back. The table eventually toppled over and with it came a bottle that shattered on the ground.
"You're sick!" Travis continued to wail, finally breaking free and stumbling to the opposite wall, "you ruined everything! You took everything!"
"I did what I had to do to protect you! To protect our plans!" Kenneth insisted just as Travis, again, stumbled out of reach. "I tried to teach you, I tried to guild you, but all you're doing is screwing things up!"
Travis tripped over the fallen table and landed in the pile of broken glass, his heart beating out of his ears and his breathing uncontrollable. He covered his ears with his hands, scooting backwards against the wall and away from his father.
"Why can't you listen? Why can't you understand the weight your existence has on the universe?" Kenneth continued, "why can't you be normal?"
Kenneth stumbled in front of his son, a kitchen knife now in hand. A flash of lightning lit up the house as Travis's heart jumped in his throat. He fumbled for something, anything, before his hand wrapped around something solid.
"And if you can't follow me..." Kenneth panted, raising the knife. "Then you're just as useless as the rest of our family."
Travis yelled out and threw the glass bottle in his hand, smashing it against his father's head.
Kenneth stumbled and fell with a crash. The knife clattered to the ground, flashing with Travis's reflection.
Travis stood in shock as the sound of the rain filled his brain with static. His bloody hands shook as he lowered himself slowly to the ground, overcome by a sense of relief as he laid in a pile of shattered glass. It was quiet. Travis's shaking, shivering body wracked with adrenaline.
Kenneth didn't move.
Kenneth didn't move.
That's when the realization hit him.
"No," Travis chirped lowly.
Kenneth didn't move.
"No no...." Travis stumbled up again and crawled to his father's side. Blood pooled across the carpet. "Don't, please. Please I didn't mean it I--"
Travis's bloody hands flew to his mouth, then to his hair, then back to shaking his father's unresponsive body. Mouth, hair, body. Mouth, hair, body.
Memories of him crawling into bed with his mother and father after a nightmare filled his mind. Memories of his father actually smiling and laughing as he made dinner. Memories of family trips where he could hug his mother anytime he wanted to. Memories of riding on his father's shoulders. Memories from before the cult, before his life was flipped.
His last, fleeting chance of a family was dying.
Kenneth was dying.
"Don't go please," Travis mumbled, holding his father's head in his hands. "I-I'll do whatever you want me to. I'll help out with the sacrifices. I'll skip school to join meetings, just---I need you here. I need you."
Travis melted into loud, ugly sobs as he held his father's head and cried into his shirt. He sobbed so hard his chest and his throat ached for him to stop. The end of the world may still be years off but right then and there---Travis thought the ground was tearing apart beneath his feet to swallow him whole.
Despite the pain, despite the scars on his back and the things he had seen---he couldn't bare the thought of loosing the closest person he had to family.
"Travis," came his father's slurred voice. Travis felt a hand on his back as his sobbing descended to sniffles, "you've got to leave."
All was silent for a second except for the rain and the sound of Travis's hiccups. Finally, the blond teen came to again, but he was too tired to remain angry. Far too exhausted from years of rage and despair.
"...you killed mom." Was all he could manage.
"I know. I know I did." Kenneth's face scrunched, but he didn't move. "But it had to be done."
"Why?"
"She didn't know." Kenneth answered, "I couldn't have her know."
Travis finally looked up again. The rage was back. A deep ache that made his heart burn in his chest. It was like Kenneth didn't know what to do himself, Travis had a hard time determining whether or not his father regretted his past choices and what he was going to do. One minute Travis would think his father was still there somewhere, and the next he wasn't sure he recognized him.
Nevertheless, he wiped his face, "I know, sir."
"They're coming," Kenneth rasped. "You've got to leave before they find out you did this."
There was commotion beneath the house. Footsteps rushed up the steps and would burst into the house any minute. Travis stumbled to his feet and backed up a few steps, his panic returning.
"You can still call me dad, you know." Kenneth replied, groggily, "I'm still me, Travis. Even though I know I don't act it someti--"
"I-I won't!" Travis exclaimed, surprising even himself as he stared down at his beaten, exhausted, wounded father. He didn't feel the same remorse as he had moments before. Kenneth stared up at Travis and, as usual, his expression was unreadable. Red eyes were unevenly dilated and unfocused as they stared right through Travis.
"I won't," Travis said again, before bolting out the door and into the pouring rain.
<><>
Travis ran until his legs buckled beneath him, and only then did he find himself on the front doorstep on the apartments. That was when panic resurfaced in his mind. What if the rest of the Devourers were after him already? Did they have cameras at the front, too?
Either way, he couldn't let anyone see him like this.
He couldn't endanger Sal with his presence.
But where else could he go?
Travis swallowed, breathing heavily as he wiped the rain from his eyes and stumbled further down the road. He ran past the apartments, forcing himself to turn his gaze forwards even as the light turned on in Sally's apartment window. He ran until the darkness of the woods filled his vision, until branches whipped at his face and his legs.
He saw lights in the woods. Flashlights.
He heard people calling his name.
Shit. They were after him.
The cult was going to have him found and killed.
Travis's muscles screamed for rest as he stumbled along the road, following the broken, yellow line that blurred through his blind tunnel vision. His breath burned in his lungs and his heart pounded in his ears. He swore he could hear the voices of his ancestors in his head---past Dogmas whispering curses and damning him for abandoning his bleeding father.
The cross necklace he usually kept concealed beneath his sweater bounced against his chest as he bolted, mocking him. It glinted in the light of the people with flashlights walking in the woods behind him, their yelling and footsteps growing quieter.
Travis eventually stopped once he reached a safe distance away from the people looking for him, leaning over to catch his breath. His stomach turned with nausea as he screwed his eyes shut. Sweat, blood, and tears dripped onto the yellow road lines at his feet.
He was safe at last.
"TRAVIS LOOK OUT!"
The blond looked up just in time to see Sal waving desperately to him. A car horn blared as headlights suddenly whipped around the corner.
Everything went dark before Travis's head hit the ground.