6. Javan

Javan

An alarm went off somewhere in the distance and I blearily opened my eyes. The sun wasn't quite up yet.

"Go get him," I muttered. "I told Koa we were all taking the day off. Don't let him go to work."

Calix yawned as he sat up. Without a word, he left the room. I rolled to the side of the bed and pulled open a drawer in the nightstand, tossing shorts and shirts over my shoulder. Koa wasn't actually a child but when he was Little, we treated him as if he were actually six. Which meant no sexy time in front of our kid. No bits on display unless they were Calix's because… well they did what they did.

The three of us sleepily struggled into clothes before falling back into the blankets again just as we heard Koa in the hall. He was not Little right now.

"I really need to get to work," Koa insisted as Calix—still naked—dragged a rumpled Koa in his one-piece jammies into the room by his hand.

"Be a good boy and get into bed," Calix ordered.

Koa scowled. " Calix?—"

"Now."

Koa's head fell back. He didn't move fast enough, because Calix was back, now wearing a pair of underwear, and gripping the back of Koa's neck. "Are you really not going to listen to your Daddy?" he said, voice low and filled with a growl.

Hell, even I shivered at that voice.

"Yes, Daddy," Koa whispered, though he was still very much an adult.

"We talked about this yesterday," I said. "I told you we were all taking the day off. You were going to remain our little boy throughout the day, and we were going to spoil you. Didn't I?"

"Yes, Dada," Koa said obediently.

Rue tried to hide her smile.

"Do you remember the house you ate the last time you became too stressed?" Calix asked.

Koa sucked in a breath and nodded.

"You don't want to get to that point, do you? There are a lot of people here that you care about very much. Including your husbands and new wife. Right?"

He took a deep breath. "There's just so much to do."

"There is. But you know what? As much as none of us want to admit this out loud, I'm going to—no matter what we do or how prepared we are, there are a lot of questions we just don't have answers to. The biggest being that we don't know when. Which means this is a big game of patience. You being in bed today, staying home with your family for one day, isn't going to change any outcome at all," Calix insisted.

"I hate that," Koa muttered.

"We all do, honey," Bryn said. "But this is the deadly game we're playing. Fact of the matter is, they're stronger than we are. They've been preparing and growing for generations. We were capable of splitting up and dealing ORKA a massive blow, but we can't split our forces between six facilities busting at their seams with monstrosities we can't even fathom. We know they have nightmares beyond our wildest dreams inside. Things we haven't even imagined and are not prepared for. We need to be at full capacity for every single facility. Which means we're always at the disadvantage."

"That's why you haven't attacked them yet," Rue said.

"Correct. They've already progressed and expanded beyond what we've been able to keep up with since the last time we did," I explained. "The reason we're sitting idle is because we just don't know what to do. We don't know how to do it."

"Don't interpret that to mean we're not also advancing," Calix said. "We are. By leaps and bounds. We're not actually idle. But where we're concerned about being humane, they're not… That's holding us back, I think."

Koa sighed. He pressed his lips together, closed his eyes for a minute, and then nodded. "Okay. Bed. But when we get up, I need to at least tell them I won't be in."

"I will tell them. Today is about you relaxing as my little boy," Calix said, kissing his jaw.

Koa nodded. His attention turned to the bed, his dark void eyes scanned over us before he climbed on. He laid on the far side of Bryn and Calix followed.

"Want to watch cartoons or sleep some more?" Calix asked.

Koa nodded. "Cartoons, but I might fall asleep again."

I could tell from his voice that he'd given in, and Little Koa was who'd cuddled up in bed.

Bryn and I curled in around Rue. Her eyes were closed, but there was a serene smile on her lips. The television turned on, and Calix flipped through channels until he found an appropriate one for Koa. With the volume super quiet, we settled in.

"I don't have a stuffie," Koa whined.

I reached behind me to where there were a few sitting on the shelf above the bed for just this occasion. Choosing blindly, I passed it down.

"Thank you, Dada," Koa said.

"You're welcome, Koa. "

He murmured quietly for a while. Talking to his stuffie. Every once in a while, I could see it pop up as he held it above his head. Rue's smile got bigger as Koa started to sing. I knew he was tired, but as with most little kids, he was awake now and the sun was out. That meant he wasn't going back to sleep.

Koa the man was exhausted. From work. From life. From trying to contain the monster inside him who didn't do well with the amount of stress that Koa carried. He got ugly.

We always joked that Koa's monster had a hangry temper, though it had nothing to do with being hungry for food. But there came a point where he reached a threshold of stress, and nothing could stop him from swallowing everything into his vast, endless, dark depths.

Based on Koa's stress levels and how often he went Little these days, he was reaching that limit. He'd probably reached it a long time ago, but he had his monster in a choke hold. There was only so long he'd be able to hold on, though. His grip was going to slip, and then it wouldn't be Silence we needed to worry about. The biggest threat to everyone around us was in bed with us.

I was right to force him to take the day off and give him the opportunity to remain Little for the day. It was rough on us as a family because when Koa was Little, almost all of Calix's attention was on Koa. Hell, most of mine and Bryn's were, too.

Our adult time became very limited when Koa got to this point.

The problem was, we were going to be stuck in this boat until Silence was no longer a threat. Koa was a beast of a monster. But he was a beast of a man, too.

My phone rang and I wasn't sure why, but dread settled into my stomach. I almost didn't answer. Even after seeing Yarak's name. My hand squeezed around my phone.

I couldn't not answer. What if something happened? What if someone was hurt ?

Taking a breath, I brought my phone to my ear. "Hello?"

"Turn on the news."

Chills broke out over my body. "Why?"

"Just do it."

I glanced at Bryn and crossed the room to pick up the remote. Whatever this was, I didn't want to see it. A second ticked by. Two. Three. Eventually, I found the strength to hit the power button.

I wasn't sure what channel we'd been on last night, but I was fairly certain it was something with a children's show. Which meant whatever was playing now was wildly inappropriate. Beasts like I'd never seen were running rampant down the street. Biting. Tearing into people. Death shaking them.

Screams filled the room as my blood ran cold.

"Oh, my god," Rue said, sitting forward. "That's a bear siege. I drew that when I was ten. And that one, it's a winged minion. No. No, no, no. That's not why I drew them!"

Bryn wrapped his arm around her shoulders, hauling her in close. But all I could do was stare in disbelief. In horror.

There was a voice commenting over the chaos, switching from city to city to show the same scene over and over again. Blood ran in streams down the road. Bodies lay broken. Not eaten. Just dead.

I forgot I had the phone to my ear until I heard Yarak's voice. "She drew them, didn't she?"

"Not for this purpose," I said defensively.

"I know that, Javan. We're not blaming Rue by any means at all." There was a muffled sound, scratches against the phone, and then he said, "We're heading to HP. Meet us there."

At first, I couldn't. I couldn't move at all. I stood there, frozen.

But eventually I found volition of my body and turned to find Calix in the door, staring at the television. Koa was at his side, gripping his hand tightly, eyes wide. I wasn't sure if he was Little right now or not, but he was just as stunned and mortified as we were.

"We need to go." I broke the quiet of the room, flicking the television off. "You want to change, Koa?"

His chest rose and fell but he didn't move. Didn't answer. Bryn got to his feet and pulled his hoodie over his head, handing it to Koa. But Koa still didn't move.

Calix took it from him and dressed Koa. Finally, Koa blinked, and he wasn't Little. "I should have been working."

"What would you being at work have prevented?" I asked.

Koa shook his head. I thought we could all see that this just added a thousand more pounds to his shoulders. The monstrous void was now staring out of his eyes.

Calix took his chin, forcing Koa to meet his eyes. "Listen to me. There was nothing we could have done to prevent this. Do you understand me?"

Koa's eyes closed. "Yes."

"Good. Come on." He took Koa's hand, glancing back at us, as we headed for the door.

We weren't the only ones headed that way. The Aves met us on the sidewalk on their way by. Just ahead were the Malaks. No one spoke. There was a heavy feeling of gloom hanging over us.

When our families got together, we were more than eighty-strong. That's not including the children. We were nearing 100 then. Thankfully, there were several enormous rooms in the HP building we built here, just for this purpose.

The scene we left behind on the television was being broadcast on the big screen, but thankfully muted when we filed in. The room was silent. With this many people, silence sounded eerie. Dooming. But no one spoke, no one moved. Even the few kids who had come were staring at the scene on the giant screen.

There were others present with our families. Others of The Harem Project. We were the families who had started this revolution, so we tended to be the ones running it. HP was there for manpower, resources, support, and whatever else they could offer.

But we were the army.

"What do we do?" Obry asked.

"Nothing," Iker answered.

"We can't just sit here and do nothing," Jennings objected. "They're being slaughtered."

"There are what—a hundred major cities around the world being attacked right now? Do you want to pick which one we help? Otherwise, that's one of us per city," Iker countered.

Chills ran over my body leaving goosebumps in their wake and making my clothes feel itchy. Fuck. And look at all the beasts per city! A hundred cities… a hundred—more—beasts per city…

The channel changed and we were looking at a military response. There was a tank rolling down the street. Its gun turned, cranking steadily toward a big beast that reminded me of a dragon. Or… bird snake.

"That's not going to work," Rue said.

Many eyes turned to her, though I didn't think she noticed, her gaze trained on the screen.

"Why won't it work?" I asked.

She shook her head absently. "Watch," she whispered.

The tank discharged. The explosive hit the beast in a blast that detonated like a bomb. It shattered buildings all around it, blowing out glass and taking out entire walls. But the beast remained.

Its chest expanded. Bigger. Bigger.

"Oh no," someone muttered.

An identical blast released from the beast's mouth back onto the tank. Being at such close range, the tank went tumbling ass over end as if it were a toy being flung across the room. It landed, rocked, and didn't move again.

Then the beast turned, its chest expanding again. Then released another explosion .

"That one absorbs impact," Rue said. "It learns and replicates what it sees. The humans just gave it ammunition. Literally."

"What will kill it?" Maryn asked.

Rue shook her head, eyes still glued to the screen. "I don't know. I created action figures, creatures of great power for manga books. That was my inspiration. That's what they were designed for. I didn't design weaknesses. That was not what I was interested in. I wanted to create the next manga that the world went crazy over. With little figures and stuffed animals and shows and games and stuff."

"They took a child's imaginings and made them real. Unleashing them into the world."

"Everything has a weakness," Ryker said.

"Hypothetically, yes. But if Rue designed them and doesn't know what they are, how are we going to figure it out?"

"How many did you design, Rue?" Bronte asked.

She finally looked away, her face ashen. "Hundreds," she murmured. "I was obsessed for like six years."

"Did your father pick and choose?"

Rue shook her head, shrugging. "I don't know. I had no idea that he took some of these."

"Took them from where?"

"I had a drawer of notebooks. When I filled one, I'd stick it in the drawer and begin a new one. I rarely looked back, since my drawing skills improved so much over the years."

"Are these early drawings or later drawings?"

Rue pointed. "That one right there. The one with massive horns? That's one of the last drawings I ever did."

"Why did you stop?" Javan asked.

She didn't answer for a long time. Finally, she looked at me with a frown. "I don't know. One day I just… woke up with a new interest, I guess. Or maybe I had more schoolwork that took up all my doodle time? I don't have an answer. But I stopped one day and hadn't really thought about it again."

She looked at the screen. "That one is old. Like… second no tebook old. It was probably one of the more lethal ones I drew."

It used its body like a spiked wrecking ball, curling up and rolling through buildings, taking them down as he went. When he ran out of momentum, he slammed to a halt, unfurled and got to all fours to find a new direction. Then it went again.

The beast took down entire city blocks this way.

"And now it's real," Rue whispered.