The Diseased Heart

Chapter 9

The light filtering through to my eyes was suddenly gone, and Olive removed her hands. I took down my own hands too and carefully opened my eyes, squinting to see. Olive looked genuinely concerned as she knelt beside me, "Are you okay?"

I hesitated, why was she so calm about this? I hadn't thought about it before, but now I realized just how strange that was. For her to run over and touch me was a whole other level of crazy. I slowly nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. Thank you."

She smiled a bit and nodded, before turning her head to glare at Jack, "I'm glad you're okay. Despite Jack's efforts."

He tried to speak, but only got out illegible babbling as he tried to justify himself. Maple hadn't said a word yet, just pressed her back against a display in the center of the hallway and refused to take her wide eyes off me.

I side eyed Olive, "Why are you okay with this, exactly? I mean, I was just chasing you guys...and I am a Crawler. Those two had reasonable reactions, but you barely seemed afraid at all."

Olive shrugged, "Well, to be fair, we weren't supposed to be here, and something tells me this isn't the first time you've moved around at night, so if you were dangerous you probably would have done something to one of the security guards by now."

Jack was dumbfounded, I just nodded, understanding her reasoning, it was fair enough. I suddenly smelled a faint, familiar, scent. Well speak of the devil and he shall appear with a flashlight.

I looked at the slowly approaching security guard, he still hadn't seen us. I simply let out my Crawler legs and hopped into the ceiling. They looked up at me in confusion, before Jack saw the guard and ran into the room, Maple followed.

The guard saw them run and looked over, Olive was still in plain sight, so I quickly grabbed her with a Crawler leg and pulled her up to the rafters with me, it was a completely impulsive decision. She yelped and I covered her mouth with one hand quickly. She looked at me with a fearful look, and I put a finger to my lips signaling to stay quiet, before pointing down to the approaching guard. She nodded and looked down to where he was making his rounds across the hall.

He was looking back and forth for anyone or thing in sight, so I made sure to keep still, lest I creak one of the rafter beams up here while he was right below me. After what felt like much too long, he finally continued on his way, muttering incoherently.

I hopped down from the rafters once he had left, and carefully let Olive down. She nodded thanks, though her legs were shaking as she stood. the other two left the room, staring in shock as I put Olive down on her feet. Maple stared at me in astonishment, "How did you hide those before?"

I looked at my Crawler legs, "Not sure how it works, but Crawlers are able to hide their Crawler legs in their back. Feral ones never were able to though, so I guess only sane ones can? My guess is Ferals just never thought of it. I'm pretty sure the exhibit explains it somewhere."

Jack seemed both unsettled, but also curious, seemed he was finalmy starting to calm down around me, but his voice still shook as he spoke, "So you really are from the book, you knew Maria Krale?"

I nodded, "Yes, I knew her. I would have been left to die if she hadn't decided to try helping me afainst her own better judgement."

He nodded and muttered, "So you did infect Harris."

I cringed, "Don't think I wanted to. I wasn't exactly...there, mentally."

Olive nodded, "Yeah, the way it was described, with you going mental because if the pain from the bandages, I felt so bad reading it."

"I think it was also my instincts reacting to how I couldn't extend my Crawler legs although they were healed. The way my instincts saw it, I could potentially just start running, but something was artificially stopping me, therefore I had a handicap which my instincts did not like."

Maple looked at her watch, "Geez, it's already past eleven, I really think we have to leave now, the later we stay the more we risk people seeing us. That run in with security was way too close a call."

Jack nodded, "Good point, I'm thinking it was a bad idea to come here anyway, I mean, Olive even said she wasn't allowed to do this."

Olive shot a death glare across the hall at Jack, which was pissed enough I was surprised he didn't turn to stone under her gaze, I sighed heavily, "I heard you guys talking earlier, I know you convinced her to come here."

He laughed nervously before turning and speed walking back to where the main entrance was, looking to escape this conversation as fast as he could, Maple soon followed, and Olive did after her, she looked back at me, "See you tomorrow morning?"

I looked at her and paised for a moment. She must mean she would come back to the exhibit in the morning. I slowly nodded, and started sprinting back to the Crawler exhibit. So she did come during the days. Good to know I wasn't feeling she was familiar for no real reason.

It was definitely nice to finally talk with someone.