He didn't know where it was, but it couldn't last. It was cold and dark and wherever he touched, it felt like the scales of some great, dead reptile. Then the whole of it seemed to squeeze on him, leak in on itself like some huge egg, and Konrad knew he had to get out.
He scrambled in the darkness, without sight, or hope, or direction, and finally he tore a hole in the scales. Water - gods, he hoped it was water - poured into the hole and it drenched him, smacking him in the face and filling his mouth but... but it was thick, and it sunk and-
"Wake up, you ugly little cunt."
Konrad threw up what felt like a lung as rough hands pulled his head up out the slowly flowing slick of human slurry. Fat, greasy globs of foulness were sliding down his face and he could fel blood pumping, pulsing, bleeding out of his head and hammers inside it-
Everything came back in a rush of horror and stank breath. The coins. Vect. The stone. Sorry. Sorry for what?
Sorry for this.
"N-Niles...?"
"Heeeey, pretty quick for a kid with half his head caved in! Gotta say, I'm impressed."
The bigger, older boy was happy, giddy, chuckling and giggling like a some goblin, cackles crackling off the wet sewer stones. Konrad's throat burned as he purged again, heaving more vomit into the river of shit. He felt his breath in his ear, close, too close, enough for him to feel every hot, wet word on his skin when he spoke.
"Then again, I always was. Fuck knows it wasn't cuza' yer looks-"
Konrad opened his mouth to beg, to scream, to something, but snapped it shut again when Niles jerked his head back towards the sewage and-
Blackness. Not empty anymore, but choking, filling every pore, every hole in his head, and he held his breath. Held it until it hurt, until his lungs burned and he had to breath, he had to, he-
Vomited. Choked. Purged and wept and screamed all at once and couldn't hear any of it until-
He was hoisted out again and Niles was still behind him, a slab of hot muscle at his back. Rufus' partner chuckled insanely and though his mind was shattered, Konrad's body was still working. He felt his hand slide under his arm, down his chest, almost as broad as his torso... slide lower... lower...
"But beggars can't be choosers, eh? Hey! Not bad, since yer a beggar, right? Never could stand to look at youse, kid, but t'ain't gonna matter with you bent over, now is it?"
"D-Don't, w-why would-"
The hands gripped his hair jerked him round hard, and he was helpless to stop him. Didn't dare close his eyes as a fleshy, ruddy face like a sack of burned flour filled his vision. It leered at him, pink tongue running along full, wet lips and Konrad hadn't even kissed a girl but he knew, some part of him knew what Niles wanted to do.
Would do. No matter what he said.
"Yer mate Vect? Came an' told Roof and me about yer extra coins. Clever boy, only not so clever. Trusting someone, Kon? In this fuckin' city? Tut-tut-tut... very silly. So Roof told me to come getcha, bring ya back to the tunnel for a proper flayin' in front a' the other runts. But ya know what?"
Cloth ripped. The threadbare, scratched and battered trousers that Konrad had taken such care of for a whole year, ripped off in an instant. He started to squirm and Niles forced him down, onto his belly, against the freezing stone that scraped against his bare chest. The push and pressure above him got worse, got heavier, got lower-
Konrad froze as he felt something hard press against his behind. Niles semed to shudder when he did, feeding off that primal, nameless fear.
"Yeah... Yeah, you gedit, dontcha? Youse understand. Good lad. Not gonna bother bringin' you back in. Fuckin' draggin' you back through the tunnels, pfff, fuck that. Gonna tell them you were a corpse when I found ya, lil' Vect had more oomf in his arms than he thought."
He free hand smacked out at Konrad's arms, knocked them further apart, and Konrad felt them sink into the trench of shit and garbage, push deep down until they touched the bottom. Niles lips were around his ear, sucking, biting, and Konrad screwed his eyes shut and screwed his hands-
-pain-
-in his hands, like shards, slivers of-
Glass? Felt like it. The one working part of Konrad's mind that wasn't a quivering wreck, that had dragged him from dawn to day to night for a whole year, identified the debris in his hand even as it pierced them. Niles was muttering and mumbling and his undergarments were nearly gone.
The hardness pressed closer to him. Konrad knew it would happen. Unless he acted. But Niles was a big boy, he was stronger, taller, and-
-and Konrad Venger let all of that vanish in a mad, blinding burst of white that he'd been holding onto for a year. He griped the trash hard and twisted under Niles as hard as he could-
-onto his side-
"Stay still, you fuckin'-"
-threw his hand up out of the muck and saw Niles' snarling, outraged face, that this little kid would dare fight back as he was-
Konrad remembered that expression. Confusion. Realization. Sheer, stunned surprise that, yes, a handful of turds were hurtling towards his face and he was half-naked and in no position to stop it.
There was a wet, filthy smack as Konrad opened his fist and slapped the turds against Niles' eyes and then-
-ground them harder, glass shards digging into his palm. But that was a hard, callused target. What was on the other side, however...
Niles screeched like an animal as the shit-covered debris stabbed through his eye like needles through a water balloon. Lust evaporated in an instant, agony sending him reeling back and forgetting about Konrad-
-letting him get his other arm free, pressing it to the back of the one shoving that nightmare into Niles' face and Konrad screamed-
-pushing hard, pushing him back, pushing Niles down until he was on top of him and-
"Cunt!"
It couldn't last forever. Niles had one hand pressed to the mud-and-blood ruin that used to be his eyes, but he only needed one to sweep Konrad off him and to the side, almost hurling him clear. Konrad skidded across the stone and came to a rest next to Niles' clothes, his tunic and breeches and-
Dagger. Double-bladed with its own scabbard. He was always showing it off, cleaning it, sharpening it, spinning tales about how he'd use it with the little kids in the gang. Konrad only saw that once, where he took Jeffries' thumb off for holding back a copper one day.
Now it was inches from his hands, and Niles was screaming and crying and-
-trying to get up.
Move! Move!
His head was being split down the middle. His lungs were flecked with shit and he could barely breath. He was naked and bruised and half-dead from cold but Konrad wanted to live. He was not going to die in a fucking sewer. He thought of Vect and his smile, their toast; he thought of Rufus and his constantly burning fuse; he thought of his mother and her cold, empty gaze when he'd tried to jostle her awake.
He thought of his father as he grabbed the hilt of the dagger and jerked it free. Eight inches of gleaming, meticulously-cleaned dagger sprang into his eyes and Konrad saw his father's own dagger when he'd shown him-
keep it tight to yer side, boy. yeah, like that. don't wanna wave it around, s'not a fuckin' wand. you go for the soft parts. the guts. the balls. his face. his legs. anywhere that bleeds and hurts. but if youse get the chance, if you can, you go one place. his fuckin' throat.
now... show me, boy.
Konrad had tried hard that day, but nary put a nick on his bad's tanned, walnut skin. He'd get a few, though. He'd learned. Now he had the dagger in his grasp and he tucked it tight, crouching like his father showed him.
Closed the gap and got closer to Niles, now up on his knees, one hand braced against the floor, gasping, souttering, vomit and blood and shit dribbling onto theg round, other hand trying to clear his eye away.
The one good eye he had left was swimming with tears. He blinked them away.
Saw a shadow through them. Barely even there through the pain and the darkness and the trauma. But it was there, and there was a silver shard in the middle of it.
"K-Kid?! Fuc-Fuck, fuck're you-"
Konrad lunged. Niles was bigger. Niles was older. Niles had tougher skin and experience in the gutters and the alleys.
Niles was down to one eye and naked and unarmed. Niles was helpless as a babe and Konrad had a dagger. He blinked and didn't see a half-blind man. He saw his friend, in that fleeting tick before the stone had smacked him around the head. He saw more, and the memories and images taunted him and goaded him and-
Niles fell back with a strangled gurgle as the blade buried in his throat, right up to the hilt. Konrad kept pushing and pushing until he was using the dagger as a fucking lever, both hands grasping it, twisting it and tearing a whole through his throat like he was a fresh side of beef.
He was snarling and spitting, lips curled all the way back from his lips like a demon and Niles toppled like a felled tree, onto his back, thrashing and grasping. Konrad straddled him, both of them naked and without a glimmer of sexuality between them. Konrad jerked the dagger free and it came with a sucking sound, spewing gobs of red with it and-
-he screamed again, both hands around the handle, stabbing down like a priest at a sacrifice-
The skull was harder. It wasn't so easy to sink the blade in, like the neck. The dagger bounced off the bone around the eye, under the nose, the cheeks, the jaw...
Over and over. Up and down. Suck and crunch. Until Niles wasn't screaming, wasn't coughing, or thrashing, or breathing, or even recognizable. Konrad stopped when he didn't have the strength to pull it out, and... and he remembered... he was in a sewer. He blinked and the redness vanished from his eyes. He felt the cold again, but through the red cloak of fresh viscera coating his chest. He looked down... around...
No more black. Just red. Red everywhere.
The thing that used to be Niles was a gaping, raw mess underneath him. Konrad got off him, limbs trembling, staggering back to the wall and sliding down as his legs just gave up the ghost. The dagger wasn't going anywhere. His grip was solid around it, even there, even after what he'd done.
And what have you done? He would have violated you and killed you. Fuck him. Fuck Rufus. Fuck Vect.
Fuck everyone.
Konrad looked to his side and found that he had, in fact, a new tunic, new breeches, and he'd wager a meager purse in a pocket somewhere. Not to mention a dagger. A new, proven blade. He turned it over in his hand and swiped his finger across it. A streak of silver across the clotted red... until it dripped back down... covered up that pure light in dirty blood yet again.
After he didn't know how much time, Konrad walked on his hands and knees over to the pile of clothes. He cleaned his dagger with the rags he'd worn before. He cut the bottoms off the trousers so they would fit. He did the same with the arms of the tunic. In the dark he dressed himself, after using the cutoffs to clean himself the bet he could.
He found a purse, and coins. Not much (as expected; Niles worked for Rufus, after all), but mayhap enough for a healer, or at least a bath.
Konrad stood, sheathed the dagger and stuffed the thing into his belt. He looked back one more time at Niles and tried to feel something. Something more than... satisfaction, that the boy was dead and he was alive. He waited there until sometimes stirred.
After a while, and without a word, he turned his back and walked back to the entrance of the tunnel.
