The Law of Malthus

The natural law of Malthus (or Malthusian constraints) says that when the population in an area is too high, something happens that lowers it.

That is what happened way back at the end of the twentieth century. The newly populated country of America tipped the balances too far, and the balances tipped back. Wars started springing out of nowhere and bigger more destructive weapons were created (this was the time of the Atom Bomb, a primitive but still deadly weapon). Then AIDS hit Africa and a strain of the virus Influenza ravaged multiple continents. Lots of people died, but peace was restored around the year 2015. But there were still too many humans on the earth. We still had not developed rational space travel, so the Malthusian law found a new way of manifesting itself.

In the year 2030 about 10% of he world's population was Homosexual. By year 2130, 90% of the world's human population was Homosexual. No one was having babies, so the population dropped drastically.

Suddenly, because there were less people to endorse the economy (buy stuff) the entire world plunged into a depression. The nations of the world reverted to the economy of the year 2006. Along with the economy went the life style. Soon the world looked as if it had gone back in time 124 years. Trees, breathable air, wood floors, brick houses, grass lawns, jeans, tee shirts with logos. All quite boorish. Everything was the same as 2006, except some minor things.

Computers were better, Healthcare was better, and everyone was middle-class. Oh, and the Hybrids. Starting about 2020 there were babies born that were half-animal. These "Hybrids" had children, and they were also half animal. Evolution had taking a flying leap out the window and was souring on new wings.

We start our literary journey on the desperate streets of New York. The city's population is an eighth of what it was in 2006, at least its permanent registered population was. The cities thousands of abandoned buildings were filled with squatters. According to the history books, the world was filled with a few very well off people, and that everyone had the same amount of money. But the truth was that there were a few very well off people, and lots of poor people that only their fellow poor knew about.

And so a sub culture developed. All the well off, ignorant people, lived in the country, and the cities were filled with the poor and dirty. So, on these streets, in the middle of New York, a story began.

Charlie:

I slunk out of the alley. The vic was still groaning as he bled out behind me. All I needed to do now was go back to the client's house and collect the other half of the cash. I pulled my coat around me. It blew around my shins as the wind whipped through my mane. My nose was freezing. I hated being covered in blood. My shirt was soaked, but it was the only thing between my chest and the blowing wind except my inadequate coat. I growled at myself. I should have brought an extra set of clothes. I always said the same thing after a job, but never took action on it beforehand. I shook my head as the wind blew a strand of my mane into my ear. It was cold enough, the thin membrane didn't need to be tickled too. I humpfed a blast of white steam in front of me. I was almost there.

I turned the last corner and jumped up the steps of the boarded up town house. I knocked three times and the door opened a crack.

"Did you finish the job." A husky disembodied voice enquired.

"Yah. I did it. Now, where's my money." I huffed at the lackey.

"Do you have proof?" I sighed and passed my proof through the slot in the door. The man on the other side gasped and retched.

"Okay, okay, I believe you. Here's your money, now go away." I threw the bloody body part in the snow and took the bundle of red bills.

"My pleasure." I turned and stalked off into the night.

I was almost home, if you can call a hole in the wall that was too hot in the summer and ball-freezingly cold in the winter with peeling walls and a little running rust that came out of the faucets occasionally, a home. I was waking through one of the worst parts of the city, where the scumbags lived. This was the area where you came to buy some easy flesh. I was craving flesh, but not the kind that was sold on this street. I was hungry. I wanted steak. I never fed off my victims. Some of my ilk thought that we Hybrids could feed off inferior creatures, like humans, like humans feed off cattle. I just fed off cattle.

I was also craving another kind of flesh. I had been celibate since I was called upon to kill my last boyfriend. That was not fun. I craved the flesh of a loved one. I didn't even care that much about the flesh any more. I just wanted someone to call my own and give my life to. I wanted someone who I could hold and comfort and be comforted by. It wasn't easy on the psyche to be an assassin. I longed for someone to caress and worry about. I needed someone to love.

As this thought crossed my mind I heard a strangled cry. My head snapped up. I halted in my tracks. I heard it again. Sounds of passion and fucking weren't out of place, but this was a sound of real fear. If there was something I knew, it was the sound of fear. I had heard it too many times for my liking from my vics before they died bleeding.

There it was again. I pinpointed it then. It was coming from the third floor of a dilapidated building a little way back. I sprinted to the door of said building and smashed through the rotten wood. I stormed up the stairs that were presented to me. I continued up the stairs, the sound growing louder. In between screams of pain there were whimpers of distress. It took me seconds to pinpoint the room once I was on the correct floor. I burst in and found the most horrifying scene of my life.

There was a boy in the middle of the room. He was tied to the ceiling, hanging by his wrists. His legs were tied to the floor far apart. He was bleeding. Most of his skin was in ribbons. He was completely naked, and his cock was bleeding too. His head was hanging as he slowly dripped onto the floor. I saw two floppy ears hanging over his face, and short brown hair. I noticed a tail drooped behind him, and a light fuzziness that covered what skin wasn't ripped apart. He was Hybrid, a dog by the looks of it.

He let out a low whine. That was when I noticed the other men in the room. Four men. Each had a different kind of whip. Most were decked out in all kinds of leather straps and crap. They were all looking at me, in shock. These men had done this to that innocent boy. I roared and my claws shot out as I pounced on the nearest offender.

I sank my teeth into his neck, then jerked my head away quickly ripping his thought out. I turned on the second and slashed him through the belly with my claws. The third came at me from behind with a whip. I snagged the end out of the air and used it to pull him to me. I quickly broke his neck and looked around for the last one. He was standing, dumbfounded, next to the boy. I walked up to him and grabbed his face. I squeezed and his head burst. I wiped my hand on my shirt and went to the boy.

"Child, are you alright?"

"NO!" He wheezed.

"Sorry, stupid question. Let me get you out of these." I gingerly freed him. He instantly crumpled on the floor, and screamed. He tried to hold as still as possible while not touching anything bleeding to the floor.

"Why are you here?" He grunted around his pain.

"Why? I don't know. Who knows why anything happens. How I came to be here is entirely more answerable. I was outside, walking back from, well, my job, when I heard your screams." I sat down beside the boy while he tried to master his body.

"Who are you?" He grunted. He was trying to find something to distract him from his pain.

"My name's Charlie. I live not far from here. Can I help you?" The boy was trying to stand. He couldn't manage the sheer strength to lift himself off the floor. With a cry of anguish, he fell. I caught him as gingerly as I could. He yelped and crumpled limp in my arms. He was unconscious. This was a blessing for him because I had to carry him. I picked him up, trying not to wake him. I ran down the stairs and back along the street to my apartment.

I burst through the doors and bounded up the stairs. I broke through my door, not bothering with the knob. I gingerly lay him on my couch (or so it was called) and got a cleenish towel. I doused it the clearest water I could find and went back to the boy. He was groaning and had shifted to a less painful position, on his side. I dabbed at some of the deeper wounds with the wet cloth. He winced and so did I. Luckily nothing seemed to still be bleeding. Most of the smaller cuts would be better by morning. Luckily, this was a Hybrid, so he would heal quickly. I got out my healing salve and smeared it all over his body. I had used it many a time when I had been injured on the job. It numbed the area it was applied to and helped the healing process, as well as protecting from germs.

The boy sighed as the cool gel began to numb his pain. He looked up at me then.

"Why are you helping me?" I smiled down at him and continued to apply the gel to his entire body.

"Are you looking for the big Why or the little why?" He closed his eyes.

"What's the difference?" He relaxed under my caring fingers.

"The big Why is the greater scheme. I could be helping you, or have found you, because it is a vital part of history, or a prophecy. The little why is the here and now. I am helping you at this moment because you need it."

"Those men that you killed need it now." He smiled.

"No. They are in need because they were needed to be in need. Helping you, a good soul as far as I can tell, is a just enough cause for killing four men that disserved to die." The boy snickered.

"Do you have any idea how self-righteous you sound?"

"Oh yes. I have every idea. But it is not self-righteousness. I in no way insinuate that I am in any way less deserving of death than those men. I do not know enough of them to make that decision. I have killed countless times before, some justly, some not. I do indeed disserve to die, it just doesn't seem to be happening." I shrugged and smiled when the boy laughed again.

"You are truly singular." The whispered.

"We try." I petted his head, and scratched behind his floppy satiny ear. He pressed up into my hand and made a little noise of want. He suddenly froze and his eyes shot open.

"Wow, you're feline." He growled. He shook his head and lay back on the couch.

"Is that a problem?" I asked carefully.

"No, it's just that you are so feline, I've never met anyone so cat before. I have to give my inner canine a kick in the hiney." He smiled.

"You're hiney's damaged enough, child. No kicking is necessary." He smiled.

"I'm not a child." He gently stroked his stomach where a particularly large red spot was. "I'm nearly twenty. I haven't been a child for a very long time. I don't think anyone in this city is really a child." He frowned and shook his head. "My name's Kane. Nice to meet you." He smiled.

"Well, Kane. It's nice to meet you too, I wish it had been under better circumstances. Consider this your home, at least until you're better. I'll be you're host, Charlie. Try not to move." I smiled and so did he.

"Thank you so much. I have no way to pay you, but anything that you want that I can give, it's yours. I don't have anything. I don't even have a place to stay any more, come to think of it. Wow. I'm screwed." A total look of horror appeared on his face.

"This is your home now, for as long as you want. And there's no need for payment. You're the first good deed I've done for a while, you're good for my soul." I petted his hair again. "Now, get some rest. I'm going to bed, but it's just over there, so if you need anything, just groan." He closed his eyes and nodded sleepily. I bent and kissed his forehead. He opened his eyes again. That was the first time I really noticed his eyes. They were a deep shocking blue. At that moment, though, they seemed to be pools of water, ready to spill over and flood the white. I stroked his face and went off to burn my clothes.

He did groan during the night. The numbing effect of the gel only lasts so long, and that time had run out. I applied another coat and Kane drifted back into sleep. I watched him for a while. He was really quite pretty. He had a boyish face, and smooth skin, covered lightly with a little haze of peach fuzz. He had nice lean muscles and curves that made him oddly feminine. He wasn't more than five and a half feet tall, but he looked taller, being long and willowy as he was.

The ears were floppy and covered with silky fur, as was his head and neck, tapering down to a point between his shoulder blades. His tail was twitching slightly in his sleep and he nuzzled into my couch. He had a nice dick too. That was the one thing that didn't look young about him. He had a good seven and half inches soft.

I couldn't help but be attracted to this adolescent looking creature. I didn't dare push him, though. I didn't really want to either. I would love to make love to this fuzzy little boy, but I didn't require it. It was really just secondary. To what, I couldn't tell you, but it wasn't the most important thing to me. Just sitting there and gently caressing his fur was much more agreeable to me right now.

I felt more like feeding him and bringing him back to health, watching him grow and regain freedom, than fucking him. I wanted to feel him curled up against me, breathing quietly as he dreamt about grass and flowers, a tall blue sky and little puffs of clouds. Running through clovers, rolling down hills. Sex was abundant in the real world. It had lost its luster. It was still yearned for, but there were other things that were so scarce people barely remembered that they were supposed to want them.

Happiness was one of these, the feeling of a child in your arms. Since no one was having reproductive sex, there were no children being born. I didn't like the idea of sex with a woman, but how I longed for a child to call my own. This soul on my couch was like that to me. He was so fragile, yet so canine. He was like a child, and a fierce lover. He looked so young, and at the same time, so old. Like he couldn't hurt a fly, but I saw when he opened his mouth in sleep, that he had sharp dog teeth, and a straw jaw, ready for biting.

If only he would stay, maybe he would allow me to be a part of his life.

I, woke up with the sun looking in at me and Kane gazing at me with a mix of admiration, wonder, worry, appreciation, and thanks. I picked my head up off the arm of the couch and smiled at him. I stretched slowly, unknotting my legs from having them folded all night. I checked him over. He was healing well. Most of the sore spots, and smaller cuts, were healed already. I reapplied the gel to the larger cuts and helped him eat some breakfast.

"Thank you so much, for doing this for me. I promise that I will repay you, as soon as I get a job, somewhere." He smiled coldly.

"Enough of that. I told you. You need not repay me. I don't use this couch much, and the food you eat would soon be eaten by the rats any way. Helping you is good for my soul, and besides; I don't mind. I kind of like taking care of you. It makes me happy." I smiled at him. He relaxed a little and allowed an inch of his shields down.

"If you don't mind me asking, why were you covered with blood earlier? Had you been out hunting? It doesn't look like you eat people." He motioned at the cereal that I had given him. I basically lived off of cereal and steak for most of my life. I liked it.

"No, I don't mind. I'm a, well; I guess you could call me an assassin. I was bloody because I had just killed someone for money. I hate it, but I'm good at it, and we've all got to make money some how." Kane nodded.

"Does it pay well?" Idle chitchat, or job searching? I doubt that anyone would take this boy seriously.

"Enough for food, this place, and I give a good deal to some of the people on the streets that are good at heart. I've got a few kids out there that are trying to make a decent living, but sometimes just can't make ends meet. When I have time, I sometimes help some people that are trying to break bad habits, addictive ones, and if they make it, I give them some cash, and then pay someone else to make sure they don't get hooked again. But I've not done anything as personally as this for quite a while." He looked at me as if I was crazy, and then just shook his head.

"I didn't think people like you existed outside of story books. So pure and good, yet the means for this goodness is provided by murder. A philosopher's hay day." He chuckled and smiled at me.

"Good thing I'm a philosopher, then." I smiled back at him and scratched his head.

"Do you want to hear what brought me to where I am?" I wasn't expecting this. I was expecting to hit a brick wall, I was expecting for him to withhold like it meant his life. Maybe it was this whole payment complex he had going. I told him about me, so he would tell me about him.

"Only if you really want to." He wrinkled his eyebrows for a moment and his eyes blurred.

"I think I do." He said as if it hadn't even occurred to him that he had a choice in the matter. I nodded. He looked back at me, then at the ceiling. "Well, I was born a little less than twenty years ago. My mom was a Hybrid Colley; my dad was a Hybrid Retriever. My mom and dad were lynched by a mob of Hetrophobes when I was six. I was sold into prostitution, and things went downhill from there. I'm naturally submissive; I tend to not know what to do if I'm not told. So I was instantly introduced into BSDM. I've been whipped almost all my life, but those last guys were the worst. They were going to kill me." He shuddered. I gently petted his fur and felt tears prickle in my eyes.

"I'm so glad I got there in time." I wiped my eye and he looked at me, puzzled.

"Why?" He was asking why I cared.

"You're so pure, the world would be worse off without you." I stroked his cheek and smiled.

"I'm not so pure." He pulled the blanket up and looked away from me. "I feel so naked." I quickly got another blanket and lay it over him.

"I didn't put any clothes on you because of the cuts, but if you want them, I'll get some." I got up to fetch some, but he shook his head.

"No, I'm used to not wearing clothes. I just," He reached up and rubbed his neck, "I'm not wearing a collar. I wore one all my life. Even before my enslavement, I wore one; it made me feel safe. Then when men were hurting me, it would keep my neck safe from the lash. I just feel, helpless without it." He looked up at me, embarrassed. I closed my eyes and nodded.

"Any particular kind?" He looked puzzled. "Is there any particular kind that you would like. Also clothes, I doubt mine would fit you, so I need to know your sizes."

"You'd do that for me?" His eyes were wide with astonishment.

"Well, yah." I shrugged. I went over to the wall safe and opened it. I took out a packet of small bills and closed it again. "So, what'll it be?"

I came back two hours later with a bag of clothes. Good clothes were scarce in the city, but I had connections. I had gotten him a pair of black denim jeans, a few tee shirts, a black button-down, and a leather collar with little metal spikes in it. It also had a ring for hooking things onto at the back. I didn't plan on using that, but they didn't have one without it.

I showed my loot to Kane, he approved heartily. He had been practically in a constant state of nudeness since the age of six, so he was happy to have some real clothes. I also had splurged and bought coats for both him and me. His was leather, and was just long enough to be able to sit on. Mine was wool and ankle length. Both were black. I almost always wore black; it was helpful in my line of work.