Evolution

Evolution: Chapter 28

But it wasn't, it was me.

"If you'd known me before, you'd have liked me," I confidently claimed. Because she would have, I don't know, she seemed like someone who would have liked Subject Six, "I was a better person."

Less complicated, less issues. Looking back, I found much more to like about myself in the past, than I did now. I'd made too many mistakes to still be a good person, I wasn't awful, but I wasn't clean like I had been before.

Red stained my hands, and my mind, now.

"Probably not." Gwen grimaced, turning the lick into a spark. Her expression remained completely at ease, giving nothing away on her face, "If you were so good before, you must be truly something else now."

I was. Instead of engaging her, I just slipped past into the bathroom. Steam warmed the air, making it harder to breathe. Locking the door behind me, I stripped from the shorts and shirt I'd been given. Having baths was new to me, and I wasn't keen.

Because whenever I settled into the water, all I wanted to do was slide back under. Either that, or I could swear I felt the feeling of Zero's hand's slamming me down.

An ache released itself throughout my body, leaving me alone with my pain. It almost made me feel too lazy to scrub myself clean, but I knew I had to. I couldn't afford giving into any weakness, even the minuscule ones.

My mind went to the same place it always did whenever I stopped. Is this who I am now? I'd never felt like this before. Like a cretin caught in a trap, and I was slowly bleeding out. This wasn't who I was before, wasn't who I thought I'd ever be.

All I ever wanted was freedom, how was I meant to know this wasn't worth it?

By the time I was drying my hair, I'd changed into the clothes Gwen had left out for me. It didn't take a genius to realize that I was wearing Delia Ripper's clothes. I could see it in the bitter woman's eyes whenever she looked at me, or sometimes when Ripper paused when speaking to me.

It's a sad thing to be someone's living ghost.

A fist pounding against the front door made my movements pause. Ignoring the itchy fabric against my skin for a moment, before stepping towards my door. I heard Ripper's deep sigh from the lounge and didn't need to guess who it was.

"Where is she, Ripper?" Eric's voice was a granite sword. Steady with a slicing sharpness to it, "She needs to be with her own kind. It's been weeks, this isn't healthy for them, and you know it."

Had so much time passed already? Huh, I guess I never noticed. Yet, I had started to feel the itch that came from being away from my pack. I found myself missing the security blanket I had when I was with them.

I missed them, but I wasn't ready.

"She's doing just fine." Ripper cajoled, his voice smooth like silk. I heard the ice cubs in his glass clink together, "Well, better than she was. I'm not going to lie, it's been a troublesome journey, what with the effects of that last cycle tearing through her."

Silence transpired between them, the dangerous kind. It smothered the air downstairs, where I'd slowly been moving. Over the staircases banister, I could see Eric, and it startled me.

It'd been forever since I'd actually looked at him.

His dark hair was wavy than it had been before, longer too. Almost falling all the way down the nape of his neck, the same dark shade as the stubble on his strong jawline. Which was clenched, immediately giving away his anger, or maybe his flaring nostrils done that.

"You administered her last cycle, at this age?" He hissed, fury colouring his words. I didn't need to look to see the vein popping out his temple, because I knew it would be there, "I swear you're doing this just to piss me off- you could have killed her!"