Cellar Sheep

Chapter 19

I've had the same dream about a million times since everything happened. Sometimes I'd be at my home with my family, other times I'd be at school with my friends. Today I was at the hotel with my classmates in my room. It starts out pleasant and like how a normal day would be, but they all went the same direction.

I told Anita to wait on me before she went down for breakfast because I had to use the bathroom real quick, but once the door was shut it began.

"Hello, Karma." The voice said. My eyes flickered to the mirror to find myself staring back. Except it wasn't entirely me, it was infectee me. Pure black eyes, sharp teeth for ripping into flesh, clawed hands that were caked in so much blood they were black; this thing wasn't human. "How have things been since last time?"

I glared at the mirror.

"So not good, I suppose." It said with a chuckle. "And still resisting, I see."

I looked away, but that didn't mean I could escape. Its hands gently wrapped around my neck and chin, forcing me to turn back to it.

"Why are you still resisting? You know all I want is to help you."

"I don't want to lose myself." I told it simply. "I want to stay Karma, not some monster."

"Ah, but after that nosebleed you didn't really have a choice." It told me. "Humans won't see you as one of them no matter how hard you try."

"I know."

"And they've done nothing but made things worse for you." Both hands slid up to cup my cheeks. "But you already know all this. You know the infectee will welcome you with open arms but no matter what you do humans will always have a bullet ready for your skull. So quit holding on."

"I can't."

"Can't or won't?" I pried its hands off me, stepping back.

"Infectees hurt me too, you know. They've taken everything from me." I growled. "Just because I'm slowly becoming one of them doesn't mean that I'm going to accept it. There's people who don't deserve this fate and I need to save them." Yale, Amari, the twins, Hunter, Thomas, the herd; all those who don't deserve it.

It gave an unsettling chuckle.

"Your time is ticking, Karma." It told me, tapping its claws on the sink. "Every day you stray further from human and one day you won't be able to resist me."

"I will not kill anyone to satisfy you."

The reflection gave me grin, exposing sharp teeth.

"Let's meet again soon," It told me. The lights above started to flicker and by the time I looked back in the mirror it was just my original reflection. It was gone but its echo of laughter wasn't. I frantically looked around the room to find it, but there was nothing.

Nothing until sharp, hot claws clamped around my throat and mouth. My eyes widened.

"Shall we?"

My eyes flew open with a sharp gasp and I had to take a moment to calm myself down as my memories came back and I realized where I was. I was lying down in the back room of the ski lodge. The room where extra skis and gear and whatnot where at.

I slowly sat up with a wince of pain as I'm sure I was still growing a couple things back. I found only Thomas in the room as he was siting on a bench, cleaning his weapons of blood. Whether it was an infectee's, mine, or one of the others, I couldn't tell.

"Where's—"

"Mary and Jesse went to scout for the communication room, even though Mary's back is pretty banged up." Thomas said. "They wanted me to hang back here just in case." Just in case I turned and someone needed to be there to put a bullet in my head.