[REND] 7.2 - Inhuman Besties

I blinked, trying to make sense of what was happening. “What are you talking about? Save me from what?”

Kind of sudden to break down. Then again, after we had been through, this was probably a normal reaction for normal people. I had never experienced breaking down or crashing out or whatever was the term used by the younger generation nowadays.

Was I going to be subjected to Deen’s emotional bullshit all the time I’d stay here? Maybe it would’ve been better if I died inside that locker. Just kidding.

Though if Deen continued this nonsense, I’d have to apply Rule #4. But how do I bother her back? Be an emotionally exhausting leech?

“It should’ve been just me.” Deen nestled her head on the curve of my neck, deflating from stress. I involuntarily shivered as she exhaled on my skin. I wanted to punch her so bad; I tensed my body to lock my arms. She didn’t notice anything odd as she continued to whine. “You shouldn’t have gotten the Core, too. I… I should’ve stopped you. I should’ve stopped them.”

I can use this to latch hooks onto Deen. I’d play into her guilt and cement her feeling of indebtedness to me, even though she had done nothing wrong.

But I shouldn’t be accusatory. First, I should pull away the blame.

“Deen, we had no choice,” I said. “Dario would’ve pressured me to test the Core’s compatibility anyway, so I volunteered before that happened.” Now, to subtly return the blame to her. “Even if he’d agreed to only you trying the Core, I can’t leave you alone. We stick together because we’re best friends, whether we’re human… or not.”

Deen surfaced from my neck. “I should’ve tried harder. I don’t know what I could’ve done, but—” 

“Enough of that.” I gently knocked on her forehead. “Unless you gain the powers to turn back time, we just have to live with this.” Now, to take on some of the blame again. “If anyone is at fault, it should be me. It’s because I got on that stupid train during the Adumbrae attack.”

Deen shook her head. She grabbed my shoulders and looked into my eyes. “Erind, the Adumbrae attack wasn’t your fault. Neither is the 2Ms looking for Kelsey. And it was Dario who was insistent on testing the Core on us. Stop blaming yourself—I order you, as your best friend.”

“I’ll stop it if you also stop blaming yourself,” I said with a smile. This whole exchange should deepen our connection.

“Deal,” she replied.  

After establishing I was an innocent angel, it was time to point fingers. “If only Dario and his group didn’t reveal themselves to us. I mean, yeah, I’m super thankful that he saved us. But he should’ve just kept his mask on and wiped our memories instead.”

“Won’t work. We wouldn’t remember that we’re in danger because—”

“Maybe they can just leave a note,” I said, shrugging. “Something like: ‘These girls have amnesia. Adumbrae kidnapped them.’ Just any message.”

Deen chuckled as she sniffled. “I’m not sure if Dario would be fine with that. He didn’t want the authorities involved.”

“Because Kelsey is an Adumbrae. Right. Plus, the Core testing thing—that’s really his goal. I don’t think… he’s a good guy.”

“He’s not,” Deen firmly said.

“What if we do get the authorities involved?” I had no intention of doing so, but the face I presented to Deen would undoubtedly worry about this stuff. “I guess that the BID might not trust us since we have—” I touched my chest “—on us. We do look like Adumbrae. But with your family connections, maybe we can find a way to…”

Deen shook her head. “Too risky. The McHunters, the Hudsons of Utah, oh, and the family that owns the biggest solar farms in the country. The Wildons, I remember now. All wealthy. But they couldn’t do anything once the BID found an Adumbrae among their family.”

“Ah… you’re right. And there’s that secret organization, whatever, too. They’ll probably kill us if we step out of line. Dunno if they’re government or a 2Ms rival or what.”

“The government has done many highly illegal things in the past,” Deen said. “We’ll learned about some of them in Legal History. Plenty of laws have morbid backgrounds.”

“I suppose that even if the BID doesn’t kill us,” I said, “they’ll experiment on us. The organization that made the artificial Core will most likely do the same.”

“Someday.” Deen pointed at a fancy clock on the wall with ornate pendulums. “They’ll experiment on us someday. Not soon. We have time.”

“Time for what?”

“Time to be stronger.” She stepped back and confidently nodded. “Yes, that’s it. We’ll go along with Dario’s group. We’ll train with them. Learn about fighting and controlling our powers. I suppose that we’ll have to join their missions. We’ll be stronger someday, and we will strike back.”

“Strike back? As in, we’re going to fight them?” I shouldn’t be surprised that Deen would suggest this. She could be quite headstrong. And this was something the main character would think of. Me, I just wanted to see how Dario’s group could help my Adumbrae infection.

Deen nodded. “We will. In some ways, we’re lucky that they’re a secret organization. It means the fact that we have artificial Cores is also a secret. We just make it so that all who know about this secret… disappear.”

Woah! Scary shit. I didn’t know Deen had it in her to think of something like this. She was planning to fucking wipe them all out! She should really be on my side.

Deen held out a raised pinky finger. I questioningly tilted my head. “It’s a pinky promise,” she said. “It may be childish, but I don’t know any other expression of commitment among friends. Let’s promise we’ll be there for each other no matter what.”

Fuuudge cake with chocolate drizzle, Deen was going to trap me in a face. No matter what? She’d lock me with Rule #2.

“We’re not going to abandon each other,” she said. “And we’ll save each other. No letting go. Promise? This is the way we’ll get through this—together.” She wriggled her pinky at me.

“Together. Promise.” I hooked her finger with mine while cursing in my head. If it ever happened that Deen was in danger and helping her was risky, I’d be forced to do it as her best friend, who had promised so. My face wasn’t a betrayer, and I had to stick with it.

After we pinky shook on our promise, Deen winced. She held her chest. “It’s… the Core. I can feel it burrowing into my sternum. Are you feeling anything?”

“Uh, a mild numbing pain,” I lied, grimacing as if also in pain. Was my Core still getting restricted by my superhuman body? I thought I had already solved this. “Dario did tell us we’re going to experience stuff like this. I think we should get some rest. Take a bath and get this blood off of us.”

---------

“So pretty…” I was inside the ensuite bathroom of the room Deen gave me.

After taking my clothes off, I stood in front of the mirror to examine the artificial Core. Unlike Dario’s Core, it wasn’t bordered by pulsing veins. Deen’s Core also had some disturbed skin around it. Mine just looked like a gem stuck to my chest.

Was something wrong? This would be bad if this dumb thing just fell off.

“Ugh, I’ll think about that later,” I murmured, opening the glass door of the shower room.

I sorely needed a hot shower after getting kidnapped, meeting artificial Adumbrae and Corebrings, and being implanted with a supposed Core. Just wash away the dirt, blood, and sticky sweat from my body. Nothing could beat this. Okay, that wasn’t totally accurate because a lot of things can beat a hot shower, like a ComExo unloading lead on a target. It was also a fact of life that showers normally don’t fight back, so they were pretty easy to beat.

But this shower was nothing to scoff at. It had a full body system with eight body massage jets and an overhead rainfall shower, all of which had independent controls for pressure and temperature. Just saying, I could do a lot with this shower.

Wondering how expensive all of this was, I turned on the shower. Warm water massaged me. Steam clouded the glass.

I was supposed to relax, but couldn’t. I traced a finger around my Core. I remembered what Deen said about feeling like the Core was digging into her bones. I could feel a gnawing sensation. Maybe? Not sure. Was I imagining it? My Core might be like a plant, having a hard time taking root in compacted soil. I had no idea about plants, but Mom did have a gardening stint to take her mind off Dad’s disappearance.

According to Dario, the artificial Cores would eventually enter our bodies. Meaning, it’d continue digging, even if the body had turned superhuman. My Core would develop stronger roots someday, but it was struggling now.

I turned off the shower, groaning in frustration. I couldn’t relax until a pressing matter was dealt with.

I returned to the sink and held up my pinky finger. Much better than a knife. I’d have some explaining to do if I broke Deen’s knife while digging into my flesh. And if I used my finger, I would feel the Core’s tendrils. This didn’t sound like a good idea, but what else could I do? I couldn’t ask for help from Deen or Dario or anyone else. I also couldn’t just let this Core fail.

“This is going to be freaking messy,” I said. This’d just be like Mom transplanting her marigolds from a pot to the garden bed, taking care not to damage the roots as she’d dig them out.

I stabbed my pinky right where the Core met my skin. My pinky finger got bent a little, but it wasn’t able to break through my skin. It wasn’t sharp, duh. I clenched my teeth as I switched tactics to scratching. My super-strong fingernail scraped off skin, then flesh. Blood started to dribble.

Ignore the pain. Ignore the pain. I tried stabbing myself again. My finger broke, though it had penetrated a little into my chest. I didn’t wait for my finger to heal because my chest was healing too. I stabbed once more with everything I had.

Blood spurted out. I gritted my teeth. Painful, but tolerable. There were some stringy things in my flesh. I hooked my finger outward, digging out a small chunk of flesh. The bloody mush got flicked to the mirror. This was it. Just continue this.

Ten minutes later, the bathroom had a Halloween motif. The mirror had flecks of blood and bits of my flesh. The sink and the floor were bloody too. Bloodiest of all was me, with my entire front streaked with blood, the red vibrant against my paleness.

I had made a hole straight to my sternum, even breaking the bone with a sharp stab of my finger. The Core was still attached to my chest. I must’ve snapped some of its tendrils in the messy process, but the Core was still glowing. Must be fine. As I pulled my finger out, the Core established deeper connections into my body as the flesh healed. I could feel it wriggling about, like an itch inside me that I couldn’t scratch. There was also that grating sensation as it dug into bone, like dragging a fingernail across a chalkboard.

The cold grasp of uneasiness enclosed my heart. Something was wrong, but it was the right kind of wrong. The Core must be affecting my Adumbrae body.

Now, it was really time for a shower.

------

In hindsight, I should’ve cleaned the bathroom first before showering. Oh well, I got it all finished, and there was no speck of red anywhere. There was just a hint of a bloody smell, but it should be siphoned out by the exhaust fan soon enough. I had used Deen’s expensive handwash to lather away the mess, and used my already bloodied shirt to wipe everything spotless clean. Living on my own, I was quite capable of cleaning stuff.

A smile flitted on my face. This was a chore. But I also had fun because I imagined myself cleaning the scene of a murder.

“Well… this is my blood,” I said while rolling my dirty shirt and wrapping it with my torn school notes. I’d find a way to dispose of this later.

I jumped into the bouncy bed and swam through the fluffy pillows.

I lay across the sea of softness and stared at the ceiling. Blank thoughts. Tired of using my brain. Social battery drained.

Hey, that rhymed! If I became a rapper instead of a law student, I would still be a normal human now.

The small clock on the study table ticked the minutes by. I remained still, looking up while letting the bullshit of the past few days settle down.

The sides of my lips slowly curled up. Then the giggles started. I bobbed my head in a valiant attempt to stave off laughter, resulting in stupid snorting, which only made it funnier. I rocked side to side on the bed as I finally laughed out loud.

It didn’t last long. I settled down, lying on my side as I looked at the clock. Chuckles surfaced once in a while.

An unsettling feeling…laughing to this extent. It was as if another person laughed, and I was just observing.

It was all so stupid and funny.

“What the fuck, world?” I asked the clock. ‘Why me?’ was the question people tended to ask when they felt the world was piling everything on them. And I also ask that question now, “Why me?”

The answer was simple—I’m the main character.

Was my dream finally coming true? Would I finally become the main character of my life’s movie? And why the hell were the clock’s hands not moving?

It was working before—I heard the ticking. I also saw the clock’s hands moving before… I think. Weird that it suddenly broke.

I reached out for it, but my hand moved slowly. Too slowly. The clock was also moving further and further away. My hand couldn’t reach the clock even though the table was just a foot away from me. Hazy and dreamlike. Was the artificial Core making my mind go on a wild trip?

My eyes moved beyond the clock. The walls of the room weren’t there. Only darkness speckled with distant lights.

“Oh, come on…” I said, but not really speaking. I couldn’t make a sound, nor could I breathe. But I was fine.

Yet another visit to Spooky Erind’s domain.

So soon, right after the first one. Or was that the second time?

I had wanted to meet her again because I had many questions. But I didn’t want to know. Would Spooky Erind be angry at me for having a Core on my body?

So… how are things so far? At the foot of my bed stood—or rather, floated—Spooky Erind. Her half-and-half mask dissolved to reveal her huge grin. I didn’t like how she was so happy.

“You should know because we’re the same,” I said. “That’s what you keep insisting.”

Yes, you’re right. You and I are one. Meyou—

“Meyoumeyoumeyou,” I dryly sang with her. This was getting old.

It’s good that you’re learning. She jumped on my bed and crawled to me.

“Hey! You know I don—”

You don’t like anyone else climbing on your bed. I know. But this doesn’t count…because you and I are the same. And this isn’t your bed. Spooky Erind grabbed the lower half of my face before I could speak and forced my mouth shut.

Her grip was strong; my jaws were getting squished. I wanted to try to peel her hand off my mouth, but I moved as if in slow motion. It was that annoying dream thing where moving was slow as fuck and distances appeared to warp and distort.

Spooky Erind looked into my eyes. I didn’t avert my gaze. Her eyes were like blazing coals peering into my soul. You’re odd… Very odd. Then she released me.

“Why am I odd?” I asked. I bet Spooky Erind was feeling the effects of the artificial Core. Did that mean it was working?

You’re wrong.

“Wha-what?” Whoops. She could read minds. “I mean, you already know that I took the—”

That’s not what I meant. How odd that you’re the first me… who took the Core.