BREATH . OF . LIFE . ~ { ReGenisis Chronicles Book I }

Chapter Seven [Part 1/3]: Engulfed In Night

                      -Kate Andersen -

I felt cold. I was shaking. The noise of the van engine was hard to shut out. It rumbled through me, every bump in the road making me bite my teeth together as my brain rattled against it. I'd never seen so much death in my life, or so much blood. Yet it was easier to weigh up those quick red flashes against the slow and agonising. Both made me tremble, my body reacting as if each blow I saw had hit me personally, for a while.

In front of me the girl who'd been thrown into the wall by that Mead, she was dying. I'd tuned into her lulling heartbeat as it got slower and her blood pressure dipped. Her breathing was shallow, her lips pale. Her brown eyes closed, unable to stay conscious I guess. Watching death was as painful as experiencing it, scarier perhaps. When I died, I remember letting go, not having to live with the pain anymore. Both times.

I was disappointed twice, the first because I was brought back to boredom and a cage, the second because I was brought back to, well...

I ran my hand along the healed up slice in my chest. The memory still stung. The only thing I could take from it was that it hadn't ended me this time. That should have made me more confident. It didn't.

Watching someone else slipping away, even a girl I couldn't remember the name of because I'd barely heard it once, was haunting. I'd have to live with it whilst she may become unaware.

I heard Jake mutter something to himself. About taking off Mead's head, I think. It brought me back from whatever circle my mind had itself going in. I stared up at him. He'd seemed so threatening when I'd first seen him in Bowbrick woods. Now, after seeing him in action I was somehow less afraid. His threats had been bravado when aimed at Griffin, I could see that after hearing something real and guttural rip from his mouth at Mead. I'd seen him kill, I'd seen him do so thoughtlessly. Like Griffin and that Scavenger that came back. But he didn't seem like the sort to kill, just sitting there. He was simply doing what he had to do. I had questions about his reasons for helping, but one of them was very blatantly answered. The rest I hoped to get the chance to dig for.

"He said you weren't evil. Your ethics were just different. So far, I haven't seen a difference." I muttered as our eyes met, his pupils pulling in as the blue expanded around them to lock out a little light as my pale face probably caught what little there was in the back of the van and reflected it back.  The worried frown that had been fixed on his face softened a little.

"That can be said of many where you're going." He agreed complacently, his eyes glancing off, pupils widening in the darkness. "Do you have your story straight?"

I felt a lump forming in my throat. I nodded my head, remaining silent. He closed his eyes; an unconscious action that denoted relief, or regret, maybe both. The van was filled with his rich scent, peppery, perfume, it was enough to burn the top of my nose. I tried to quell it, after a while I was used to it and just trying to read the emotions from him. All I got was a thick blanket of confliction. Sadness and anger mostly. Two things he was quickly trying to mask as he shuffled forward and slipped the rucksack that had been behind the now stone dead girls head.

"You two... good friends?" My words were choked, shaky as they left my mouth.

He shook his head. "Not really. She's a replacement." He'd kept his voice even, until a little bubble clogged it halfway through the word replacement.

"Oh," I had no idea what exactly that meant. I believed he saw her that way, but I could still hear gravity in his breath as much as I could see it in his expression. "How long has she bee-"

"Almost a year." He grumbled, sitting back from her again and staring away into the corner near the door. "We went through a couple sets of replacements before, she's lasted the longest out of the lot."