The Unnaturals

Chapter 17

In the second before I reached him, the gun fired, the sound resonating off the walls. But then I was grappling with the man on the floor, knocking the gun from his hand and punching him in the nose. Blood spurted out and that savage, wild part of me came out and suddenly the world got darker. My inhuman strength ripped flesh and broke bone, and all the while I was barely aware of what I was doing.

Slowly, I started to hear a distant screaming, and I paused to assess it.

As soon as I stopped, though, weariness and fatigue washed through me. Standing up, I looked down and saw myself covered in blood, and the body of what had been a man. I had literally torn him apart.

Sick to my stomach, I focused on the screaming and slowly the world came back into focus. It was the girl who was screaming, not at me, or what I'd done, for I was behind her, but at the slumped form in the chair next to her.

"Roy," I said, getting up and limping unsteadily to him. The girl looked at me with horror, and I couldn't blame her. I was pretty horrified at myself.

Crouching down next to Roy, I put my hand over the bullet wound in his chest. "Roy," I repeated, louder this time. "Heal. Come on, heal. You're the wonder boy, not me. You can survive. Live. Live!" The last word was a screech that rose from my throat and cut off the girl's screams. His eyelids fluttered.

Hope flared in me like the sun. Quickly, I broke the chains that bound him and then untied the girl. As soon as the gag came off, a full wail escaped her lips, and she stared in utter shock at the ground behind her. I couldn't bring myself to look at her.

"Come on. I'll drive you to a hospital." I glanced at her, and then glanced again. Something wasn't right. She wasn't looking at the floor. She wasn't looking at me in fear and disgust. Something in her expression just didn't match the circumstances. It was almost as if she was looking for something that wasn't there.

Mustering the strength, I turned my head towards the spot where I'd ripped apart a human being.

My jaw dropped, and my eyes widened in shock.

The man, the blood, the pieces of him that had been strewn across the room were gone. I looked down at my clothes and my hands. The only blood on them now was Roy's. Nothing like what it had been before.

For a moment, we both stood speechless. Me, because the man I'd just killed had somehow put himself back together and walked away while I wasn't looking, and the girl, because she was expecting him to come back and shoot us all. All she had seen, I suddenly realized, was my lunge at him, and then he'd been gone.

"Come on. We need to get him to a hospital!" I said, and then realized my mistake. "A working one!" I added. This spurred her into action, and at my instructions kept pressure on the wound while I carried him to my car.