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tea-potato-gt · 1 month ago

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A Borrower at the End of the World Part 18

Word count: 4600ish words

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***

Now…

The early morning sun came through the green curtains, illuminating the room with a bright, almost sickeningly cheery glow. A particular beam seemed to have it out for Jace because it shined directly on his closed eyes. He scrunched his nose and sat up with a grown, his body ached and protested with every movement.

Then Jace remembered why: He was forced at gun point to walk for miles, from midday till the sunset with only a few breaks here and there. He even carried his sister on his back at one point. Layla had hit a growth spurt recently and was already too big to carry, but it was either he carried her or one of the other soldiers would. Jace didn’t regret protecting his sister from those beans— people—soldiers, he never would, but his body definitely hurt like nothing he had ever felt before.

Despite his physical exhaustion, Jace didn’t sleep well. He wasn’t used to waking up in such a squishy bed. It was too... nice. No bugs or mildew smell lingered on the plush surface. It tilted and sunk with his weight as he sat up and turned. His feet hung over the bed frame and didn’t touch the ground. The very fact they were sleeping in a bed with a frame was odd. The mattresses the kids slept on were placed on the ground, because Jace moved any bedding materials he could find into the room with a fireplace. The nights got cold out in the world, they needed to stay in the hearth of the house with a burning fire to keep warm. Any wood they could find in the house, including the bed frames would usually be burned at some point. But here in General Monroe’s mansion— their birth father’s mansion- the room was pleasantly warm all night. The blankets were thick and kept any chill from creeping in.

Jace rubbed his hands down his face and looked at his eight year old sister laying beside him. Layla was still fast asleep, arms and legs sticking out in every direction, like a tangled mess of limbs. He wished, as he did most mornings when he found his sister sleeping in a weird way, that he could take a picture. Maybe somewhere in this “Sanctuary for Humanity” there was a camera? If there was electricity and running water, what else was there? That would have to be a question for his father later.

Jace stood and tried to stretch out his back, then he heard it. It was soft due to the windows being closed, but something in Jace knew exactly what it was. It was a sound he hadn't heard in years. The distant memory made Jace grin wildly as he walked to the window.

It was the sound of beans. Lots and lots of human-beans. Busy, talking, living humans.

Just as Jace thought, in the morning sun the streets below his window had come alive. Hundreds of people walked about and chatted. Men, women and children alike. There were markets and shops open. People trading their goods, shaking hands, and making conversation. He saw a group of soldiers marching in formation down the street. The shoppers moved out of their way, smiled and waved at them as they passed.

Jace's breath was taken away, he hadn't seen so many people in so, so long. It didn't feel real. The previous night, this place was like a ghost town, the streets were devoid of life. And now in the day, it was a vibrant (mini)metropolis.

Jace felt a pull within his chest, he needed to be down there meeting and talking to those people! Experiencing what it's like to be surrounded by people bigger than himself (who weren’t trigger happy soldiers). He looked to Layla, the only other human-bean he had contact with for the past three years, she was still asleep.

Jace sighed, it wouldn't be fair if he went out there without her, she was just as deprived of human interactions as he was. He'd better wait till she woke up and they could go out there together. But Jace was too restless to try and go back to sleep. He decided to go to the bathroom where proper, functioning plumbing was waiting for him.

It was a nice change indeed.

***

Briar watched Jace’s large, socked feet walk across the wooden floor as the boy left the room. The borrower was sitting under the bed, his back against the wall. He promised to be here when the kids woke up, so here he was.

After Briar departed the night before, he quickly found an entrance into the walls. It was behind the bed, fairly accessible to himself and good sized to walk comfortably into without having to duck too much. Maybe there were rats in the walls, chewing large holes in the wood, Briar shuddered at the thought.

As soon as Briar was in the dark safety of the walls, he laid down, using his satchel as a pillow, and quickly fell into a dreamless sleep. He was so exhausted that he felt like he could sleep through the apocalypse all over again and still be none the wiser.

But unfortunately, he awoke with the morning light that illuminated from the hole in the wall. He sat up with a crick in his neck, and his body hurt like nothing he had felt in years.

Borrowers have a naturally fast healing factor, definitely faster than beans. But as Briar had aged in years, his ability to bounce back easily slowly diminished. If he sustained injuries like he experienced the previous day 20 or even ten years ago, he’d be back in action in a day or two. But now it usually took his body three or four times as long to heal. He huffed and started to stand, trying to ignore the massive headache coming on, and made his way back into the room the kids stayed in.

Briar couldn’t bring himself to sleep too far from the children, sometimes Layla would have bad dreams and cry. Sometimes she would call for Briar in her sleep. Most of the time Jace could calm her down enough for her to go back to sleep, but other nights, she couldn’t relax until she saw, heard, or touched Briar. The nights where she needed to feel Briar were the harder nights. Her dreams were so vivid, but once she was fully awake— usually when Briar was in her grasp— she couldn't recall what she dreamed about or why it was so distressing.

One night a few years ago, she was in such a daze and began desperately searching for Briar that she was crawling on the floor groping in the dark. She was screaming Briar’s name into the darkness like if she didn’t find him she might die. Jace had to hold his sister until she fully woke up, and at that point, Briar felt safe enough to come out when she calmed down. She held the borrower to her chest for what felt like hours and sobbed. Briar didn’t know what exactly she dreamed about that upset her so badly, but he did his best to scare away her night terrors.

Layla hadn’t had night terrors like that in over a year, but he couldn’t bring himself to sleep too far from the kids. Yet he refused to sleep in the same room as beans. He found it too vulnerable, even if he trusted the children, his instincts would never let him relax enough to sleep near them. So as a compromise, he stayed in the walls close to where the kids rested.

That was on a normal night, but the place they were staying was not normal.

Briar refused to leave the kids that night when the beans who lived here were potentially dangerous. In fact, they most likely were. Never trust a bean, Briar’s Pa’s distant voice warned.

They were in an unknown, possibly hostile environment, given the way the kids were treated by those beans yesterday. But here they were, occupying space in the mansion of The General. The man who is apparently their real father.

The memory of that man holding, hugging, and kissing Jace and Layla left a sour taste in Briar’s mouth and irked him to no end.

The borrower let out a steadying breath as he felt the return of giant footsteps. He was pretty confident it was Jace. The boy had a distinct way of walking, modeled after how he watched Briar move. Borrowers were naturally light on their feet. Their steps are carefully placed to cause the least amount of sound or disturbance as possible. They were quick too, not pressing too heavily into the earth.

The way Jace walked made his steps mildly quieter and softer thuds than the average bean, but even with all the practice, there wasn’t much the boy could do about his giant size and weight. He was able to keep the earth tremors to a minimum though and Briar was thankful for it. At this point, the borrower walk came so naturally to the teen that he didn’t even have to think about it.

Jace slipped into the room and shut the door behind him as he made his way back to the bed. Before the teen could crawl back onto the mattress, Briar whistled like a bird four times. To the untrained ear, this might have sounded like nothing more than a distant morning sparrow, but Briar watched Jace’s socked feet freeze. Then like a building falling over in slow motion, Jace bent down and settled his large body on the floor. He extended his legs to the center of the room, as he peered under the bed. When Jace’s eyes finally saw the small form moving out of the shadows his smile grew.

Briar gave a little smile as he came within reach of the boy.

Jace placed his hand out, palm up. After spending years with the kids, Briar (for the most part) no longer felt fear when the kids reached out to him. Even though he was roughly as tall as Jace’s hand, the kids had practiced over the years of proper treatment of their older, much smaller companion.

Briar nodded gratefully and took a seat on Jace’s palm with a grunt, his legs sticking over the edge of Jace’s hand. He felt his small body sink a bit into the squishy, leathery surface. Jace’s fingers twitched, but other than that he didn’t move.

Jace put his chin on his other hand so the pair were at least a little on the same level. “Are you feeling any better, Boss?” Jace asked, his voice was a little hoarse from the early morning and the chaotic day before.

Briar nodded and looked down at himself, “I’ve felt worse.” He wasn’t sure that was entirely accurate, but anything to get that worried look off Jace’s face. The borrower didn’t like to be pitied. His head had stopped bleeding the night before, but it still pounded with a dull, distant ache. His back felt like he slept in the wrong position and his legs still shook if he stood on them too long. His left hand was out of commission given the terrible rope burns, meaning he probably shouldn’t go around climbing anytime soon. His injured hand (probably) wouldn’t stop him, Briar was nothing if not stubborn. Borrowers needed to climb like they needed to breathe. Though the lack of string and a proper hook might stop him. The Colonel had ripped off the string and thrown it aside like it was nothing the night before. Briar sighed. That was a borrowing problem for later.

“How’s your sister?”

Jace glanced up over the curve of the bed, the only thing he could see was her right foot creeping over the side of the mattress. “She's fine, just asleep.”

“And you?” Briar reached out and patted the pad of Jace’s thumb. “How are you feeling, boy?”

“Fine I guess— Well as fine as I can be when it feels like I was hit by a truck.” Jace let out a breathy laugh that tousled Briar’s curly hair.

“Yeah,” Briar tried to rub away the oncoming migraine by touching his temples. “I feel about as bad as the day I fell off your shoulder.” (That was probably the closest comparison Briar could get to being hit with a truck.)

“Okay– Briar, that was one time,” Jace dramatically sighed, “And I’ve already apologized for that more times than I can count. How many more times are you going to bring that up, old man?” He pulled the hand Briar sat on closer to his face, brought up his other hand and gently poked the borrower in the chest, mock accusingly. It was a rare day when Briar admitted to the pain he felt in his own body, even if it was at Jace’s expense, bringing up one of his earliest regrets when it came to traveling with the borrower.

Briar snickered and pushed the intruding digit away, “I will stop the day borrowers learn to fly.”

Jace snorted, “Like that’ll ever happen. Though you are light enough that you might just… float away,” Jace lifted his palm up a bit as if he was weighing the borrower, the man was very light, barely making an indent in his hand.

Briar smiled good naturedly as the surface he sat on was rocked a bit and was set back down.

“But if you could float, maybe I could tie a string to your leg and we could go outside together," Jace giggled at the idea. If briar could float, they wouldn’t have to worry about colliding with other humans and accidentally hurting Briar, knocking him off the kid's shoulders or crushing him in their pockets. If Briar could float, he’d just be coasting above it all.

“Outside?”

“Yeah in the town!” Jace didn’t pick up on Briar’s hesitation. “There’s so many beans out there, Briar! Real human-beans! I can’t wait to go with you and Layla!”

Briar paled at the mention of the kids going out there. Then he began to sweat when he realized Jace wanted him to come too. His borrower instincts were kicking into overdrive, he hadn’t had to worry about being in a house with dangerous beans in a long, long time. Now they were in an unknown mansion with psycho soldiers and there was an entire city outside crawling with giants. It was something straight out of a borrower horror story. “Y-You can’t go out there,” Briar spoke in a hollow voice.

Jace cocked his head, “Why not?”

“You— you might get picked up by a hawk!” Briar blurted out the first thing he could think of.

“Briar, I’m five and a half feet tall, I don’t think I’ve ever had to worry about being taken by a hawk,” Jace laughed incredulously and shook his head. “In fact, I don’t think any bean has ever had that fear.”

“W-well, it’s a pretty common worry among borrowers.”

Jace rolled his eyes with a smile, “But you know I’m not really a borrower, right?”

“Oh.” It seemed Briar had forgotten he was literally sitting on a giant hand. Well not forgotten, it was still in the back of his mind that the kids were huge compared to him, but he somehow forgot how different Jace and Briar really were. “I know. I know,” Briar chewed his lip, “It’s just good to have a healthy fear of things that could have the potential to kill you.” He wasn’t just talking about hawks now.

Jace paused and studied the borrower’s small face. “Is everything alright, boss? You look worried.”

“To be completely honest, no.” Briar looked up at Jace’s big brown eyes, “It’s just— I don’t want you to go out there.”

“What?” The fourteen year old frowned. “Why?”

Briar sucked in a deep breath and grasped Jace’s thumb, showing how important his next words would be, “Something isn’t right about this place. I can feel it. Even in this house,” he gestured around them, “every instinct in me is saying something is deeply wrong, it’s making my skin crawl.”

“Hey, maybe I can help,” Jace offered, he didn’t fully understand the borrower’s concerns, but he wanted to at least make him feel a little more comfortable. “Maybe I can ask my father about what this place is or – what’s going on–-”

“No!” Briar bristled at the very mention of the General, the thought of that man irritated him to his core and burned with white hot ire. He cut Jace off, “No— no, don’t engage with that man unless you absolutely have to.” Briar stood up from the boy’s hand, to be more at eye level with him. “And even then, stay out of arm's reach from him. I don’t like that man— I don’t trust that bean.”

Jace’s fingers curled in after the borrower’s small form departed from his palm. “I… I can understand why you might not like him… I mean, sure my father was a bit… intimidating last night, but after he realized his mistake he let us go. He fed us and we slept in a real, proper bed.”

“What do you think might have happened if he didn’t realize you were his kin?” Briar questioned. “Do you think he still would have let you go?”

Jace paused. He wasn’t sure. He was so grateful to be out of that jail cell, it hadn’t occurred to him what might have happened if they didn’t leave.

“For all you know, you are still prisoners here in this house. This bean house might be nice and all, but a gilded cage is STILL a cage.”

“Briar, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jace spoke in a cold whisper. “He’s my father. You just— you just don’t know him like I do.”

Briar huffed and ran his hands down his face, “I have said my peace about that man.” He breathed. “And I don’t want either of you to go outside till I know it’s safe and I don’t want you to talk to ANY beans in this house if you can help it.”

Jace’s mouth gaped open, “How can I not talk to any beans?” He pulled his hand back to him chest and clenched his fist. “I’m a bea— I’m a Human Being for crying out loud! We haven’t seen another person in nearly three years!”

“Am I not another person?” Briar laughed bitterly.

“Briar, you know what I mean.” Jace said exasperated.

“I do,” Briar conceded. He was mostly joking of course, he knew what Jace meant, but if he wasn’t also a person, then what was he, chopped liver? “Understand this boy, if we bumped into a colony of borrowers, believe me, I’d be overjoyed, but I still wouldn’t trust them. You never know what people are capable of. Especially not Beans.”

“Well, you trusted us,” Jace pointed out.

“That was different–”

“How? You didn’t know us, and yet you stayed.”

“If I remember correctly, I didn’t talk to either of you for weeks until I trusted you a bit. And even then, I would only talk to you through the walls before I ever let you get anywhere near me, let alone touch me.” Briar was getting all riled up.

"Briar, please, this means everything to me— to us," Jace practically begged. "I mean— for a long time, I thought we were the last human beings in the world, and come to find out there is a whole town of people who were out there! And— and my father— OUR father is alive, Briar, and you're asking me not to even talk to him.”

"I'm doing it for your own good."

"My own good?" Jace laughed through gritted teeth, "For my own good." His face darkened and his frown deepened. Briar watched the giant opening and closing his fists with a strength that could crush a borrower's body instantly. Briar took an unconscious step back. It wasn’t often the kids made Briar nervous, but he was getting a real sense of danger forming in his gut. "This isn't for my own good and you know it. You're just asking— ordering me to do this because you're scared." Jace pointed an accusatory finger at the borrower.

"Of course I'm scared!" Briar practically shouted. Jace's eyes widened, it wasn't often the borrower raised his voice OR admitted to any form of weakness. Briar took a deep breath, trying to speak in an even, calm tone as he chose his next words: “Boy, all I’m asking for is that you and your sister keep a safe distance from them, until I know for sure if it’s safe or I find a way to escape ‘bean-town’.”

“Oh! So you're saying it's just up to YOU to decide if my people are safe? Don’t I get a say? Doesn’t Layla get a say–”

“Jace!” Briar raised his voice with a sense of finality that silenced the teen immediately. It wasn’t often Briar called either children by their first names, let alone shouted it. “I’m asking you, as a friend with many, many years under his belt to just be cautious.”

“I’m not a kid, so stop treating me like one." Jace rose up on his elbows, putting a good foot between their eyes. Whether or not he was indenting to be intimidating to the borrower, he definitely was. "I know what I'm doing," he said through gritted teeth. This wasn’t the first time Jace had talked about feeling he was being treated like a child, and it definitely won’t be their last. Briar liked to make executive decisions without either kids’ say. It was always Briar who picked where they stayed, rarely taking Jace’s ideas into account. The teen knew why the older man did what he did, but he still didn’t have to like it.

“I’ll keep treating you like a kid as long as you ACT like one." Briar spat back. A bean using his size to intimidate another person seemed pretty childish to the borrower. "Especially if you are going to make half-cock decisions that put your life and your sister’s life in danger.”

Jace instantly deflated.

The small man saw the hurt in the boy’s eyes, maybe Briar had gone too far. He let out a deep sigh and rubbed his uninjured hand down his face. Briar was the adult between them, he needed to act like it too. “I know you’re not a child. Of course, I know that.” Briar sighed, exasperated. “Just – just give me some time to figure this out and stay as far from those beans as possible. Please.”

In reality, Briar knew he had no control over the actions of beans, not even the kids he took care of. No matter how much he begged or kicked or screamed, the power of ultimate choice would always be in the hands of those bigger and stronger than himself.

Jace huffed, rolled his eyes and pushed himself to stand. They were just going in circles. Jace had to step away, his body was practically vibrating with anger and irritation. Briar always hated being near when either kid was experiencing 'big feelings' as Jace’s mother used to call it. The teen looked down at the small man from his full height. "I can do what I want, boss." He spoke the title 'boss' with such a venomous tone, never spoken out of his mouth before.

Last resort. The borrower really didn’t want to do this. Briar had to speak louder than usual to be heard by the towering bean, "I hate to pull this card, boy, but you promised me when we met that you would do anything I ask as long as I traveled with you."

Jace scoffed, "It was a stupid deal anyway. It's not like we need you around anymore--"

Oh.

Both the bean and borrower froze. The silence in the room was deafening.

The ground felt like it had just dropped out from underneath Briar. He couldn't breathe no matter how hard he tried. Dread and desolation coursed through his small body. A nagging fear that had steadily been building inside Briar's mind for months, was now all consuming.

They don’t need me around anymore…

It had been spoken into the world and there was no taking it back.

Jace paled. His throat constricted like his scarf was too tight. He stared at the borrower, who looked so small in such a gigantic room. So far away. "Briar... I--" Jace was cut off by the sound of rustling sheets on the bed. Layla was awake. Jace was surprised she didn't wake up sooner, what with the fight between him and Briar.

Layla yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She looked around expecting a small man to appear before her. Briar had promised to be there when she woke up, and Briar always kept his promises.

Jace took a deep, steadying breath and looked back down at the floor, the borrower had disappeared under the bed. Probably for the best, Jace was still pretty upset and he didn't trust himself not to say anything else horrible. The teen didn’t like feeling guilty, but he was much too proud to apologize. Even if he tried to apologize, it was all too fresh that it would probably come out sounding backhanded.

Jace spoke in an unsteady voice, “Layla, the boss is und–”

A distant voice called from under the bed. “I’m right here, child.”

Jace’s blood pressure rose for a second at being cut off. Ugh! Does that man take delight in pissing me off? The teen thought as he opened the bedroom door and stomped out of the room.

Layla perked up and looked down to her left, there was a couple inch space between the bed and the wall, there peering up at her was the borrower. He waved, though he could only see part of her face, he could tell from the crinkle in her brown eyes that she was smiling at him.

Layla’s face was suddenly replaced by her chubby hand as it descended towards Briar. The borrower took a step back, not out of fear, but respect for the powerful appendage. It finally stopped a couple of inches away from the floor. Layla most likely got stuck and couldn’t go down any further.

Briar smiled, he wasn’t sure if she was going to try to pull him up, but he walked to her chubby hand and gave her middle and ring fingers a hug. He wrapped his arms around the digits, and he distantly thought that her fingers would be about the size of an eight year old borrower. Her thumb gently tapped his back, not enough pressure to be able to lift him, but it felt nice and reassuring. She probably still remembered the painful reaction he had the previous day to her trying to hug him. Briar hated when he upset the kids, it seems like that was the only thing he could do in the last 24 hours.

When he felt he was done, he gave her fingers a quick pat. She released him and gazed down at him from the crack above.

“I’ll be back, but it will be a while, okay?” Briar called up to her. “I’m going to explore the walls. Stay inside the house if you can and don’t talk to any beans, okay?”

Layla nodded in reply.

With that, Briar glanced one last time at the space where Jace had previously stood before he stormed out. Briar let out a hefty sigh and entered the crack in the wall behind the bed.

When he was finally inside, he had to lean against the wood for support, his legs shook like they couldn’t carry him far. Was it from exhaustion? Anxiety? Anger? Fear? Briar wasn’t sure, but Jace’s words echoed in his mind as he pushed himself to a stand and forced his body to move.

“It's not like we need you around anymore…”

He felt empty, like the cold, dark tunnels around him.

***

A spoonful of angst for my lovely readers 🎁😌 (sorry, not sorry) 🥰

Next chapter will be posted next Monday!

***

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