Falling Skies

Seven

It's an alarming sensation, watching the deformation of a mind unfold before you, the sickeness rapidly spreading as it digresses from a small pain to an outburst. His body is pressed tight against the wall behind him as Ryder forces his full body weight onto the boy. His dark eyes a deep and violent black devoid of the feelings they once beheld. There's a panic in the calm, just a slight fidget as December attempts to nudge himself away from the boy, to attempt to calm him down and deescalate the situation before it takes a turn for the worst.

Gingerly, his own hands grasp Ryder's at the wrist to pull the maddened child off of him, yet the limb is devoid of all feeling, just pinpricks and slight pressure pulsating through the deadened limb. Whatever Wren had done to him had made his left hand too weak to use, the limb falling weakly back to his side as Ryder continues to hold him in place.

Wren. The name brings an onset of emotions for the both of them. Ryder's a bitter film of residue left in his mind as his memories flicker like an old film. Flicker through all the times that boy had been called Subject, monster, creature, as if somehow he were less than them, purely because he happens to be magic.

The thought hits Ryder too closely and he lets go, stumbling backwards a few steps as he places his hand on his knee, mind a pure daze before he slowly falls onto the ground an empty shell. Quietly, he begins to cry, shoulders shaking slightly with each sob as his cousin plops to the cold floor with him. Though cautious of another outburst, he pulls him into his open arms nonetheless and holds him in the middle of the hall, his cries echoing for corridors down.

December can only smooth back Ryder's hair, slightly rocking the two against the floor as he pushes them towards the wall and out of the middle of the walkway, his own conscious being pushed under as he pieces together what to say.

"Ryder," he sighs, the boy answering with yet another sob as he buries into December's chest, his lab coat nearly soaked from the onslaught of tears. "I know that you're scared of something...happening." He whispers the last part, cautious of anyone who may be lingering in the labyrinth. "I know you don't think that you belong, or that one day it won't be some creature on that operating table...." December pauses as the words struggle to find themselves, the mental image of Ryder cold and still, chest flayed open and wrists slit on an operating table stifling his speech. "But I need you to know that I would never let that happen, that no one would let that happen."

Ryder's sobs still for only a moment, words hiccuping out his throat as his fears overtake him once more. "Y-you're letting it happen to Wren."

"Subject A-"

"Wren." The boy barks against his chest, December stiffening as he embraces for an outburst that never comes.

"Wren isn't like you, Ryder. We need him, we need to at least try to find something in him. If all else," he breathes, tip toeing over his next words. "sacrifice Wren for the chance to save yourself. We won't need any more operations if we can find what we need within him, which means you won't have to fear any longer.

Ryder finally pulls away, facing December eye to eye with a hint of shame at his outbursts, his gaze averting down to the floor to hide his rising blush. He's still downcast, tears welling in his eyes while he wrings his fingers as December might. He pulls himself further away from his cousin until he's nearly in the center of the hall again, voice a mere whisper as he mumbles his response. "I'll always have to fear."

He doesn't wait for December to attempt to make him feel better, or for him to try and talk himself out of the conversation and throw it to someone else. Rather just standing on his own and brushing off his jeans, the white of the floor dusting them so they appear almost gray now. With an outstretched hand he helps December up, arms folding as they release one another as he continues to keep his stare to the floor, still too embarrassed from his outbursts to look into the eyes of the other boy.