The Uprising (Book #3 in The Inception Trilogy)

chapter nine

(**unedited** because I'm lazy and it's nearly one in the morning. but hey, you can check out my rant book if you want more crazy--it's called "a book of everything" on my profile, and there's more to it than angry, incoherent thoughts. just a hint. okay I'll leave now. enjoy xx)

CHAPTER NINE

EVELYN CAN HEAR THE fire crackling outside the cabin, enormous flames licking up to the sky from the abundant amount of bodies that continue to feed it. There are people hovered around it, laughing and talking as if it's a casual bonfire rather than a mass burial. Granted, the experiments burning now were trying to slaughter their camp, it's still a bit spine-crawling for Evelyn to hear so much flesh pop from heat.

Months ago, she probably would have been out there with the rest of the crowd, believing they'd deserved it.

Perhaps they had.

But who is she really to judge?

As far as she can tell, the only person outliving his luck is the doctor, who she'd like to see down on his knees begging for mercy. She'd like to see blood pouring from him, whether from a slashed throat or cuts here and there to bleed him out slowly, painfully. She's thought a lot about his death, how long it should be, how torturous. Maybe that makes her just as monstrous as he is.

She doesn't particularly care at this point.

When she and Max had a sit down earlier after the elder woman groomed her, concerns about both of their mental states were voiced. Max believes he has a new temper that's hard to control, especially when the safety of his people depend on it. Evelyn told him that's normal. It's she who should be worried, having no fear of death, however random it may be. The only thing she fears is death taking someone close to her, but she could hardly care less about herself. The world would go on without her, but if she were to lose Harry or Robbie or Sasha, the world would end and she would suffer indefinitely.

Somehow, she even ended up telling Max about the time she was captured and forced to face a child. An innocent child who had once probably been lively and pure spirited, and the doctor had crumbled that innocence in a matter of months, creating a demonic and soulless creature desperate for blood. Seeing a twelve year old grin maniacally at the sight of someone else's pain is the most unnerving thing Evelyn can ever imagine witnessing.

She wasn't sure how she felt after departing from Max, but she hadn't been relieved. Both of them had shared horror stories from the past few months, and both of them were now stuck reliving them all over again after trying to push them away for so long.

She lifts her gaze up to Harry, who's sitting in a chair across the room. It wasn't a hard decision that the two of them would share one, along with Caroline and Robbie, who were both passed out in the second bed by the window with Poppy curled at their feet. Maxie has made close acquaintance with Killian, so she is staying with him and Micah. Harry said Gavriel liked to patrol at nights because of his intense distrust of new places. Evelyn doesn't blame him.

Harry has been awfully quiet since then, though. Like something is plaguing is mind. He was so happy after reuniting with his best friend, so it's strange to see him so distant now.

She hesitates only a moment before saying, "Come here."

He jumps like she startled him, which another odd thing--no one ever catches Harry off guard. "Huh?" he says quietly, like he hadn't heard her.

She blinks at him like she doesn't recognize him at all. "Come here," she whispers, careful not to wake the children. "Come sit with me."

He seems reluctant at first, then pushes himself out of the chair and almost cautiously walks over to her. She has to tug him down by his wrist to get him to sit. The bed creaks with his added weight and it's aging wooden bed frame.