As soon as I'm through the front door of the flat the next morning after Eddie drops me off at dawn, Robin dives on me like a hawk. I scream and she slams her hand around my mouth, hissing at me to be quiet as she pulls me to the couch.
"Why didn't you come home last night?" She whispers, checking over her shoulder to see if Steve had stirred in his bed. I groan, my whole body sore and aching. My head pounded, twisting my stomach into knots of nausea. I'd only ever felt like this after testing. I was wracked with twinges and muscle spasms. It was like my entire being had short circuited.
"I was with Eddie." I said, rubbing at my bleary eyes. "We got tattoos." I offered Robin my arm. She sucked in a deep breath, her eyes popping out as she stared at my inked skin.
"Holy shit!" She gasps excitedly.
"I know right." I smile sleepily, fighting back a yawn. Robins face suddenly wrinkles and she stares at me disgustedly.
"You smell like crap." She states bluntly. I nod my head in agreement, pulling a twig that had twisted into a clump of mud in my hair. The mud is streaked along my hands. Tugging at my hair, Robin suddenly yelps like a dog whose tail had been stepped on. I flinch.
"Your neck..." She says through her hands. I remember flashes of Eddie's teeth there. Sliding my fingers along the bruised length of skin, I carefully heal and knit back together the broken blood vessels, clearing the puddle of blood from beneath the surface in seconds. My nose bleeds. My head screams.
"Please tell me you're not screwing them both." Robin pleads with me, grabbing fistfuls of tissues and thrusting them into my lap. I stuff the soft squares against my upper lip, bleeding out into them.
"Robin..." I groan. "It's not like that."
"Then what is it like?" She pushes. I can feel any energy I had regained from the sleep I had on the floor of the forest ebbing away and fast. I didn't want to attempt to explain my polyamorous nature to her right this second so I just shrugged.
"Robin I'm so tired. Can we talk about this later?" My voice is whiny. Childish. Robin stares at me hard for a few seconds before buckling and nodding her head.
"Fine. Go shower. You reek." She huffs. I flip her off over my shoulder as I make my way over to the bathroom, hauling my bags from my shopping spree with me.
The shower is bliss. Hot water passing over my skin in waterfalls. I scrub away the dirt built up beneath my nails and matted into my hair. It surprises me to run my hands through it now. Expecting a jungle and greeted with a garden. My fingers run along the sides of my head, revelling in the soft bristles that massage against the palms of my hands. I find Eddie's hands bruised into the soft ripples of fat at my hips and leave them there. A dirty little secret. Between just us two. The flashes of memory from last night flickers through my head: his skin on mine, mouth at my neck.
I wanted to be devoured.
When I'm finally squeaky clean, towel dried and into some new pyjamas I had bought for myself yesterday, I lean against the sink, wiping my hands through the condensation to study my watery appearance reflected back at me. My eyes are ringed with dark purple shadows that stretch down my face, making me look hollow and sickly. My neck is milky white, untouched, veins like blue lightning racing along beneath the surface, pulsing and throbbing with every beat of my heart. The rings that line my ears that had been previously hidden by my hair glint in the dim fluorescent light. A tiny piece of attitude stabbed through my flesh.
I brush my teeth, wincing as the strong mint bursts through my mouth, assaulting my tastebuds. It's painful. The sensation quickly becoming unbearable. I spit and stick my mouth beneath the running tap, washing the paste from my sensitive swollen gums. I attend to my tattoo, carefully peeling back the cling film. A small gooey top layer has formed over the top of the design. A mixture of platelets and white blood cells, blurring the outlines and bleeding through the colour. I wash it away with cool water and a delicate soap, noticing the tightness of the skin as it slowly began to repair itself. Sure I could heal it right now, but I knew from experience that the ink would be wiped clean from my body like chalk off a slate. And so I rubbed a soft butter across the surface and left it alone.
ВЫ ЧИТАЕТЕ
3-27 (A Stranger Things AU)
ФанфикIt wasn't just the American government that were making weaponised children; NATO ally- the UK were too. 3-27, a product of human experimentation, able to kill and heal people in seconds became the biggest success of the programme. Shipped out to Ha...
