Inescapable History, Inescapable Fates

Henry dies at the end

Henry was waiting for Alex impatiently, a stack of documents in hand. He paced their dorm, dropped the files on Alex's desk, picked them up, dropped them on his own desk, picked them up, dropped them on Alex's desk. He scrolled through clips of the great British Cake off on Instagram. He rolled onto his bed, stared at the ceiling, jerked off to old videos of Han Solo from A New Hope, cleaned up. He was pacing, pacing, pacing.

Alex finally entered their dorm at 2 AM, at which point Henry was tightly tucked into his bed, pretending to read Jane Eyre. He had been staring at the same page for ten minutes. He usually loved Charlotte Bronte's writing, its winding metaphors and backstory. The pace of her book was so – fucking – slow. He had never noticed before. His eyes scanned the book up and down. Alex entered the dorm. Henry looked up, towards him. Alex shut the door behind himself. Firmly. He clicked the lock shut.

They were locked in together.

Locked in their tiny sterile dorm room cube. Alex's mess of dirty clothes, worn out books, and underused binders, spilled onto Henry's side. Alex's pants were crumpled at the foot of Henry's bed. Henry grabbed at them with his toes, absentmindedly. They had never figured out the territory dispute. It had become less and less important as Alex got closer and closer to Henry. The latino boy had crawled right into Henry's skin, and his things had migrated with him.

Alex met Henry's gaze, his eyes held a strange weight. He leaned down, lording over Henry for a moment. He cupped Henry's cheek hard, and kissed him upside down. It felt off.

A muffled explosion sounded from down the hall.Henry dropped his book. Alex pressed Henry down into the bed with one hand flat on his chess. The fire alarms went off. Henry could hear footsteps, shouting, running, someone saying, "Everyone calm down!"

Henry kept his eyes on Alex. Alex straddled him, kept him pinned. He was working efficiently. Of course he was, Henry thought. Alex had a plan. He probably had a bullet point list on his phone that he was working his way through. Step 1. Set off explosion. Step 2. Pin down Henry.

"Whatever is going on?" Henry asked, finding words. He pushed up against Alex, "Alex. Tell me." Henry knew what was going on. Alex was a spy, Henry was a soldier who knew too much.

Alex took the book from Henry's chest and threw it at the wall across the room. Thud. It fell to the floor and left a dent in the drywall. A threat, Henry supposed. It seemed cruel and unnecessary to take out geopolitical angst on Jane Eyre. The Victorian protagonist probably couldn't find Belize on a map, surely she was an innocent bystander. Henry could feel his heart in his sweaty palms.

He shoved against Alex. But not with his full strength. He was terrified, but a small part of him needed to see how this would play out. Henry needed to know Alex wouldn't harm him. Because he was in love with the boy.

Alex caught Henry's arms and efficiently tied him to the headboard. He had brought rope.

"Do you intend to kill me?" Henry asked him.

"Yes." Alex answered, not looking at Henry's face, but his chest.

"Oh." Henry said, and then, trying to catch Alex's eye, "Darling."

"Don't fucking call me that. Baby." Alex said. The pet name came out long and mocking. Alex took a knife from his night stand. "In 1983, a young man from Guatemala was arrested in Mexico, outside the Cuban embassy." Alex ran the knife lightly down Henry's forehead, over his lips. He didn't break skin, but Henry felt like he was being cut open. "He was carrying a message for Cuba. The Guatemalan military had murdered more than a hundred thousand Maya at that point. They dumped entire villages into mass graves. The young man was asking for aid to fight back." Alex cut through the buttons on Henry's button up, leaving his chest exposed. It was hot. If Henry wasn't so focused on not hyperventilating, he would feel himself get hard. "The Mexican military put him in a black hood and handed him over to the British. Your father tortured that man for weeks." Alex took the knife and pointed it into Henry's sternum. "When they couldn't get more information out of him, they recorded his confessions and handed him over to the Kaibiles." The Kaibiles, Guatemalan soldiers known for being extra genocidal. Henry knew from his research. "They watched the Kaibiled shoot him forty three times with machine guns supplied by Israel and paid for by the U.S.." Alex cut a line into Henry's sternum, and then another. A bleeding cross. The sting brought tears into Henry's eyes, "Those recordings of torture, that was the evidence my parents stole. That is why your father killed them."

Outside the room, Henry could hear the fire alarms and sirens. Over the loudspeaker, the headmaster told everyone to evacuate. Over and over. It all sounded very far away. And then someone was banging on their door.

"Henry! Henry get out!" It was Pez.

Henry knew he should shout for help. He should tell Alex he quit Sandhurst. He should tell Alex he quit his job, and his country, and quite possibly his family. But first, he needed to know... something. That Alex was not a killer, that what they had was real, that Alex loved him more than he hated the British military.

"Alex, you are not going to do this." Henry said, calmly regarding the blood on his chest.

Alex shook his head. "You are still a British soldier. And I am the child of my people, people your country treats like slaves and kills like roaches." He wiped blood down Henry's chest, "When they find your body, I want it to be destroyed. I want your people to see mine, carved into your skin."

Pez was shouting at them to get out. "Alex is going to kill you. No more spy games, please," Henry had never heard him so serious. "Henry!"

Alex dropped the knife. He reached under the bed and pulled out the lockbox. He slid out a gun. It had been custom made, then stolen, then kept, then found.

"Alex, you're not going to do this." Henry said, "I know you." Alex was going to put down the gun. Alex was upset, like he had been on the bus from London. Alex was going to put down the gun. "I know you."

Alex held Arthur's gun to Henry's head. He pulled the trigger.