(REWRITING) The Skylar Experiment : Coveting

Chapter Twenty-Nine - About The Hunters...

Tension leaked away from me. It must be hard to deal with all that and I felt the guilt of not being there.

"I'm really sorry I didn't see this. And I'm sorry I yelled at you..."

She instantly slid closer and hugged me. "I'm just happy to know you're doing okay. I was worried and didn't know how to help with what you're dealing with. For that, I guess I'm... grateful that Miles was there."

We both squeezed and I released a choked laugh. I missed her so much! Riley broke away and her face turned serious when I looked at her.

"But I need you to hear me out on this. You really need to listen to the end, no matter what you think, because this is important."

I could anticipate what this was about, but since we just managed to talk to each other without hurting ourselves, I nodded in agreement. It was worth a chance with the urgency written on Riley's forehead. 

"Okay," I assured, not liking where this was going. "I'm listening."

She hesitated. 

"I'm worried about what Miles is making you believe," she said. "They... They're really not who you say they are, Emma."

We argued over this a million times, but I played along. "How would you know? How can you be sure it's not just Luc feeding you the crap he wants you to believe? For all we know, hunters never hurt any mutant and he's probably just being his normal anti-social self."

I wasn't bashing Luc for the hell of it, but I didn't agree. It didn't surprise me he loathed the hunters without questioning it. I was mostly disappointed Riley was buying it. Her pale blue eyes mirrored a stormy gray ocean, vindictive and upset. She wiggled on the bench.

"Because they tried to kill Luc and the others. It happened right outside of town."

Her voice reduced to a whisper. My mouth opened to contradict her before it sunk in. At first, I imagined this was a misunderstanding or... or something along those lines. But Riley of all people had no reason to lie about that. 

"W-what...?"

"I was there, Emma."  

"How did they...?" I gulped and the tightness in my throat prevented me from finishing, but she knew what I meant. 

Riley chewed her lip and straightened. Pure anger crossed her features unlike anything I've seen before on her; it seeped out of her pores. Slowly, I began to believe more and more that I had indeed missed the whole picture. 

"They surrounded us and subdued us with some sort of device with a frequency... And then they held us down with chains and darts that were painful." She shuddered. This stuff couldn't be invented. She was describing the weapons I'd seen in the garage. "I've never, ever felt anything so painful in my life.... Emma, they're a hundred times worse than Wanderers. Whenever they come around, one of us disappears."

There was no doubt judging by the fear in her eyes that she'd gotten closely acquainted with those devices. And frankly, if I were a mutant, I'd also get goose bumps.   

"I'm hearing about Luc's family members being ambushed every other day like I was. Thankfully, the attacks were close calls so far. Spencer's still trying to provoke me in class and he's watching me. They're trying to corner us," she added. "And we have no options right now."

My mind was imploding and the possibility that I'd been manipulated while my friends were being chased knocked the breath from my lungs. This couldn't be real, this couldn't be real...

Riley told me about how some of them absorbed mutants' abilities, killing them in the process. By the end of our discussion, my body shook from indignation at the fact that I'd been taken advantage of. My friends suffered right under my nose and Miles blindfolded me when I was at my worst.  

"That's not all..." she said slowly. "Lauren... they killed her. They were the ones who killed her."

A trance enveloped me in its cold embrace. Riley tried to comfort me, but I couldn't respond. Time paused. My heart shattered in a thousand pieces. I envisioned Lauren being forced to her knees, dark shackles pulling at her limbs and the panic in her last breath. 

Luc had refused to explain how she died and I was never able to forgive that. I'd demanded answers but he only said it was Wanderers, denying me even the most basic detail. The mystery surrounding her death had tortured me every day. Now I knew.

How could I have been so freakishly blind? 

I rose onto numb legs, feeling betrayed and fooled. Tears streamed down my cheeks as a hole bloomed in my chest. Lauren, the sweet and compassionate girl everyone loved... Gone. Brutally murdered. 

Could I imagine the hunters ruthlessly trapping mutants after seeing them drink beer and joke together? No, and that made it all the more harder to accept. But Riley had been struggling to tell me the truth this whole time. They got between us and I let it happen. 

They've been lying to me. From the very beginning.     

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Who's happy about this development? Because I am XD. I'm so here for the girls sticking together and finally talking it out. May I make you notice that Riley didn't tell Emma about the unknown number and the whole visit to Freecore? Don't worry, it'll be addressed. 

So how did this make you feel? I know the last two chapters were just dialogue, really, but those were all things that needed to be said. 

 Lastly, I have an early announcement but since most of the stuff is ready on my computer and waiting to be launched, Ima fill you in :) When I finish Coveting, I will release a prequel named Roots. A super drafty version is at the end in the same book here, but the real, polished and developed version is its own book on my profile. 

Roots will follow Luc and his twin sister and the mutants' lives in Oakwood before Hurricane Riley arrives. To give you an idea, the prologue from this book where Lauren interacts with Emma at the cafeteria is what comes close to it. It narrates all the way to the moment Lauren disappears and even beyond, but it'll be in two parts (all in one book).

It is ofc not an obligatory read. I'm just including an extended version of the timeline and some shitpost chapters that're not vital for the main plot. It seemed worth it for me to write, and it's so fun to do so. 

The following three chapters here were intended for Roots, actually, but in a different POV. I figured it had its place in Coveting and changed my mind.