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William sat on the floor in a padded white room across from his mother, holding a triple bacon burger in numb hands. A crinkled, tipped-over Burger Mart bag lay between them. Where Mark got it from, William didn’t want to know.
“Honey,” his mother said. “You should eat.”
William would have, but the burger had ketchup. Too much ketchup. He dropped it even as his stomach rumbled, and it made a dull smack as it hit floor, before silently spilling itself onto the floor.
“Honey,” his mother repeated, “Please eat.”
William looked at the burger and its lurid meat and ketchup. Three weeks ago, he was wondering when Mark and Eve would stop being stupid straights and kiss already, and now… now. Just now.
He and his mother looked up as the room’s heavy metal door swung open, and Mark entered the room. There was blood on his suit. Across his chest, arms, flecks on his knuckles. As the door closed with a heavy thunk. With a friendly wave Mark said, “Hey guys. How are you holding up?”
“W-well,” Mrs. Clockwell said, putting on a nervous smile. “Very well. Thank you for providing for us so… well.”
“I’m happy to,” Mark said. “With everything that’s going on, I want to make sure you guys are safe.”
William snorted. His mother shook her head at him.
“It’s been a long day,” she said, “William is having trouble eating, that’s all.”
Mark frowned, and William met his gaze for a moment before looking away and crossing his arms.
Mark had rescued him and his mother from a pair of thugs who bashed his father’s head to pulp with an aluminum bat. Mark landed between the thugs, breaking the neck of one and crushing the head of the other. Too deep in shock, they let him fly them all the way to this white, padded room. He had brought them his father’s body, and the soldiers in the base dug a shallow grave that they put a makeshift coffin into. While his mother sobbed, William had watched smoke from whichever nearby city Mark had flattened streak the sky.
Twice a day, soldiers came in and gave them warm food. It seemed like that was more than most people had. On the occasion that he shuffled outside, William always saw families lined up for food rations. If someone tried to skip the line, they were shot. If someone organized a protest, the soldiers shot into the crowd. If anyone was caught resisting, they were shot. If anyone was suspected of resisting, they were imprisoned and then usually, they were shot. What other news leaked in from the endless flow of refugees never brightened anything.
“Can you give us the room, Mrs. Clockwell?” Mark asked. He added, “I think they have a change of clothes ready for you to pick up. I also got you guys pizza for dinner, no mushrooms.”
William watched his mother’s eyes widen as she took the hint. She mouthed “I love you” as she left. His stomach churned as she gave Mark another goddamn thank you, and somehow fell as the door closed with that heavy thunk.
William glared at Mark, even as his friend sat down next to him. He plucked a fry that had escaped the Burger Mart bag and casually ate it. He flicked off a white speckle on his shoulder, that William realized, with disgust, was a scrap of bone.
“Is there anything else you want?” he asked. “I know it’s going to take a while for things to get back to normal, but I want you to be comfortable. Also, I’d really like it if you showed some gratitude got what Dad and I are doing for you. Burger Marts aren’t exactly working well these days.”
“Where’d the blood come from?” William asked venomously, “Kill a few more babies today?”
Mark’s frown deepened. “Remember that kaiju my dad stopped a few months ago?”
William rolled his eyes. “Sure.”
“The GDA kept it,” Mark said darkly. “It escaped one of their black sites near Chicago and destroyed half the city before Dad and I stopped it. So, if you really want to know, this blood is from that thing.”
William said nothing, turned away from him again.
“William,” Mark sighed. “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that what my dad and I are doing is a good thing.”
“Tell that to my dad,” William spat.
Mark was put out, then he picked William up by the neck and slammed him into the wall.
“I saved you,” he grit out. “You were about to be killed by those looters and I saved you and your mom. I didn’t have to.”
William’s eyes grew to dinner plates, and he gulped. Mark glared at him.
“I gave you a safe place to live. You guys have food every day. I even recovered your father’s body so he could get a proper burial. I did everything right.” He squeezed, just a bit, and William began to choke. “I didn’t save you to get backtalk.”
Mark increased the pressure, and William tried to peel the hand off, but it was pointless.
“Mark…” he gasped, “… you… hurting… me…”
After a few more seconds, Mark let him go. William fell to the floor and wretched, and when he looked up, Mark was still glaring at him.
“Dad was right,” he said, “Humans don’t listen.”
Mark had hugged him when William came out; he played Clash Crash with him for hours after he got dumped by his first jerk boyfriend; every once and a while, he used his part-time job at Burger Mart to get sneak him triple bacon burgers; Mark had saved Todd from those corpse monsters at Upstate University only a month ago.
William rasped something that might have been a word, he didn’t know, but it pissed Mark off anyways.
“Go on,” he said. “Tell me I’m the bad guy. Tell me I’m crazy. Tell me that this is all my fault. Do it, William.” William didn’t say anything, and Mark leaned down to look him in the eyes. William couldn’t see Mark’s through the mask. “Are you scared?” he asked, voice low. “Do you think I’d hurt you? Kill you?”
William shook his head desperately. Mark scoffed, then stalked toward the door. Before he left, he turned back and said, “You’re still getting your pizza by the way. Because I do care about you, actually.”
Until his mother returned, indeed with a warm pile of new clothes, William sat there and looked through the door. He tried to remember when things were good, but that was a million years ago. Later that night, his mother would cradle him in her arms, tell him that she was here, that everything will be okay. William wanted to believe her, but while he’d taken his lukewarm shower, he saw the dark bruises on his neck, and for the first time since this all started, he began to cry.