CHAPTER 27: Family and Family

Antigua listened as the leader of a small but elite group gave advice on the state of each gang and faction that resided in these halls. Arguments erupted, and the shouting grew out of control. How hotheaded they were. Though their inherent lust for violence had been satiated by centuries if not millennia of wisdom, their tongues were as sharp as ever.

"Quiet, I can barely hear my own thoughts! One at a time, please. We're all grown men and women here. We came to solve problems, not start them." Antigua boomed.

"It will cost a lot of money to gear my boys and girls up to standards. This was your idea, how about you pitch in and give us some support?"

Antigua cringed at the thought. He knew they had more than enough money to go around. But allies were allies, and stinginess was to be expected.

"I thought you all still had your pride. The TA had wronged us and threw us out from the moment they knew we weren't good at following orders. They purged us, but a few cubs managed to escape. We are here now as the lions that will hunt them down. Now is not the time for greed or thoughts of abandonment or betrayal. We must be unified not as many separate rulers who do their own thing, but as one hive mind that is codependent, as controversial as it may sound. Be prideful, not in yourself, but in the family that we are. That is why I will share some funds with you- hell, everyone here. We can share more than just the spoils of war. That is if, and only if, we can secure victory. Against the monster of an enemy that is the TA, we will need to be more than just allies-"

"-and who will be making our decisions?" a chairman said.

"We will usually have a vote. In the event of a tough decision, though, one of us will need to have the power to finalize a decision."

"Which one of us will it be?" another voice said. As much as Antigua wanted to tell them to shut up and just let it be him, who had the most rounded experience both on the field and away from it, he could not upset their temper. He laid to rest his elbow and forehead gently on the table, closing his eyes and staring off into the blackness of his eyelids, feeling the heat seep from his skin into the table below him. A slight rustled step he barely found audible piqued his curiosity, along with his long-standing paranoia. A split second to react. Thin golden needles with a rigid squared appearance dashed from Antigua's back to the front of him, catching the attacker by skewering his hands and arms mid-air. Bullets flew from his five and seven o'clock, only for every single one to be parried by one of the twenty sword-like pikes. The swordsman dangled from his arms, nailed together firmly by the multiple blades, his legs kicking about and straining. His hands dropped the blade, which used to be a foot from Antigua's face.

"Fuck you, Antigua, and all of your little games! All you do is at the expense of us. I never-" A sword through the throat silenced the man excellently. The gunmen dashed for their escape, shooting at the doorkeepers who were on guard. One of the men was suddenly grabbed by the arm and lifted like a doll. The sly-looking man who caught the deserter instantly finished the job. With one swift movement, his arms were around the man's neck. The head was twisted so hard that the right ear was touching the man's chest. But this wasn't enough to kill a modified human. The man left standing shot a bullet through the intruder's head, which promptly exploded and sent smoke out of the bullet hole. The remaining female intruder made it past the door and out of view, only for an echoing grunt to be heard, and horrified manic screaming. It persisted for a few minutes before a whacking sound was heard and the noise jolted to a stop. Then the clapping of shoes on tile. A person who had the appearance of a boy wandered back into the room an eternity later, stripping the bicep off a severed arm with razor-like fangs and gulping it down whole like a snake. The leaders watched, holding the armrests on their seat tightly in silent terror as the boy's throat expanded to fit the muscle sliding down it. Antigua took a deep breath and silently exhaled.

"More assassins… the next one that comes for me I won't let die so easily. Anyone else who came here for my head? Go ahead and try to take it. Anyway, the Braxif faction will now be barred from any further negotiation. Now, back to where we left off..." The room was abnormally formal and rather silent after that. The men and women's backs were locked straight the entire time, and they all agreed on who should be the decision-maker. No questions asked.

With the rattling of keys and door, Antigua entered his home. It was slightly larger than average, with a clean tan interior and multiple decorated archways leading into various rooms. As he walked to the kitchen, papers were scattered and thrown around the counters with no sense of organization whatsoever. He had not the will nor the energy to clean up his and his family's loose papers. He took the steps upstairs to hear the laughing of his daughter distorted and muffled through the walls. He opened the door to her room to see her on her console, playing a game and talking to strangers from who knows where.

"How's it going?" Antigua said in a quiet voice.

"Good." She said, clearly not wanting to be bothered. This was usually the extent of their conversation for the day.

"How is college?" He asked, wanting to check up on his daughter's progress. Unlike the new modified humans of the present, Thirty-sevens did not have perfect recall. They were only meant to fight, and that was their furthest extent. Only biological immortality, regeneration, and strength. It didn't help that they had the defect of abnormal aggression. When they became frustrated, their creativity would shrivel as their bodies relied more on fight or flight to solve the problem. They were instinctual, and that was their greatest flaw. The daughter paused for a moment before delivering a "great" that reeked of uncertainty.

"How're your grades?" He asked. He saw as her posture lowered slightly, possibly out of dread.

"They're fine." she said dismissively.

"Let me see them."

"I'm in the middle of a game."

"Then I'll watch. And after you're done, we'll check"

"But I'm playing with friends right now."

"You play with friends every day. This is more important."

They both sat there in complete silence until the game ended and she sat there, unmoving, a depressed look on her face. She slowly stood up and made her way to her PC. Rubbing one side of her temple, she leisurely pulled up the report card, as well as her current grades. Amongst the A's and B's, there were a few C's on the report card. The unfinalized grades were mostly D's

"Lana, please, give more effort and time towards your work. It was so damn hard, passing ourselves off as human. We must hide our fangs and our strength and our temper. We're worse off than the normal humans. We struggle more to get the same jobs. That's why I'm stuck in this business. I want you to live a life free of all the grime I have to deal with on the daily. Your mom already broke out of this horrible cycle, and I believe you can, too. Hell, I would've already done so, if it didn't mean abandoning many of my buds-"

"Those are all just excuses. Your friends are douchebags. And you are too, I suppose. Why else would we need multiple bodyguards to deal with assassins and thugs from our own race? Even among us 'vampires', we are not normal, YOU are not normal."

"It's a cycle of revenge and hatred. I kill one attacker, and two more appear to avenge him. I don't kill them, and they still come regardless. Most of the damage has already been done. I try to say to them I want peace, that I am no longer a fool like that man Elgar who passed away recently. They don't listen. They don't want to fucking listen. They want to tear me down, tear the success and money that I have, and that I have put back into my job. They don't pay attention that because of me they now have access to AG technology and better vehicles, and- " Antigua decided to end his rant there. He only then realized that he had slowly been raising his voice.

"I'm sorry, it's just that… work is tough. Everyone wants to achieve their goal and cares so little about what everyone else wants. I listened to them complain today, and that, along with other things, has put me in a pretty bad mood right now. Yes, school is rough. I can see that. Some of the things you're forced to learn are absolute bullshit. But just like our true identities, we sometimes must conceal our true feelings, too. No, it's not healthy. But the world doesn't care about what's healthy or not. It cares about how much it can slave you for the lowest price. It won't change, whether you accept it or not."

"What a thing for a leader to say."

"A leader knows most how little things can be changed. That's how they know things should be changed only a little bit at a time, and must not be rushed. They say bold things to improve their ratings and appease those supporters who are ignorant on the matter. Hell, sometimes, they believe what they say and follow through with it, only to end up in far more debt and further from both their enemies and allies. Big things can happen, but only with enough planning or time. Enough of this, you know what you need to do. If you have questions, ask me about it or just look it up. Who knows, maybe I've retained a thing or two in my millennia or so of life." Antigua said, hugging his daughter before going to his own bedroom. It was late, so his wife was already in bed, watching their favorite show without him.

"Oh, come on! You couldn't have waited a couple more hours? You promised me though!" He said in a joking disdain.

"Do I ever keep my promises, though?" Lilian said with a somewhat guilty smile.

"Besides, work was rough today. Let me watch my show and eat my ice cream."

"Same." He croaked tiredly. He took off his coat and undershirts, revealing scars across his otherwise youthful skin that were tattooed over the bulk outline of his muscles. These scars, like curses laid upon him over the millennia of his existence, were never present on the privileged newer classes of the modified humans. He flopped face-first onto the bed, not caring about how suffocating it was. After a few moments, he reached out his hand for the ice cream and motioned with his fingers.

"No! Yours is still in the fridge!" She said, swinging her ice cream away from Antigua's villainous clutches. A long, vocal sigh escaped Antigua's throat, which was muffled by the pillow. He reached up with his hands to pull up his upper body from the consuming softness.

"Fine… I'll go get it myself."

After watching a movie, the couple fell asleep with the ice cream safely tucked away inside the freezer. Pleasant dreams came to Antigua before he was pulled back into the morning and into reality. Another day, another struggle. His wife was already dressed for work. He stood up, and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Have a good time at work, or I at least hope everything's bearable. And wish me luck, too. I'm gonna need it." He lifted her up with an enormous bear hug for a couple seconds before letting her down and giving her a wet kiss on the forehead, only to have the taste of makeup enter his mouth.

"You don't need makeup, y'know. You look younger and more beautiful without it."

"I've had this job for a long time now. If they realize that I look the same as I have ten years ago, they might start getting suspicious."

"What about changing jobs? Don't let it control you like that."

"But I love my job..."

"Fair enough. If you're content with it, then that's all that matters."

As she left the room, he looked in the closet for different clothes to go with his elaborate coat. He said his goodbyes to his daughter, who sighed as she looked at the work laid out in front of her, and left for the biggest meeting the Thirty-sevens had in centuries, laying some of the groundwork for plans that had its roots far-reaching to the corners of the earth, touching each and every country and acting as a catalyst through which the human nations cultivated their own plans and connivings.