The woman wiped the mirror clear of the condensation. Her wet face was revealed, she just couldn't dispel the disbelief of what she had witnessed only a few hours earlier. It wasn’t just the room that was nightmarish. The laundromat was a bloodbath, intestines were hung across the ceiling like some sort of sick joke. If she knew what kind of horrors had awaited her, she’d have just accepted being turned into a drug addicted sex slave. She shook her head, even if she was going to be mentally scarred from this she could still say that she escaped from a life on the run and is mostly debt free, but that mostly still entailed the person that was currently in the living room of her apartment.

She opened the door from her bathroom to peep. He’d never said anything since they’ve gotten back to her apartment. He certainly was creepy considering he also never moved from the couch. She’d properly address the matter concerning him a little bit later. She closed the door and got dressed. She emerged wearing shorts and a tank top. Very little had been left to imagination, after all this was her more modest wear for being comfortable. She looked to the couch and he was gone. Her eyes opened wide, “Oh no.” she audible said and ran to the scene, she checked under, behind and double on top just to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. But yup, he was nowhere to be found. In her head she wanted to cry badly, losing sight of him was akin to losing the spot a poisonous spider ran off to. She probably wouldn’t feel safe sleeping tonight. That was until she heard heard a noise coming from the kitchen. She sprinted to the area using the wall to stop her. Before she had a chance to ask her first question he said something first.

“Do you have any juice?”

“Huh? Uh no.”

“Fruits? Apples, lemons, anything?”

She reached over to her countertop keeping her eyes fixated on the boy. “Here.” she tossed him an apple from a nearby bowl. He took it and took a bite. She watched him in suspended disbelief. The boy innocently focused on eating an apple was the same one that caused a massacre. She shook herself out of that thought so that she could figure out whether or not she’s a prisoner in her own apartment.

“You’re an evolved, right?”

“Yes, I am.”

“I heard that evolved crave things that their bodies stop producing, is that why you need fruits?”

“I lack glucose, but that is correct.”

She decided that if he’s willing to talk about his body like that he’d have no problem with her asking the blunt question. “Why’re you here and not at the arena?”

“They were asking me too many questions.” He replied plainly.

Her mind screamed. This was a bad idea to ask him questions. She wanted to go to bed and forget this night ever happened.

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“My name is Nikos, by the way.”

His calmness got her caught off guard, perhaps he understood that she wasn’t trying to invade on him, either that or she dodged a landmine.

“Lily. Short for Lilith. She said remaining on the far side of the kitchen. An awkward silence arose between the two Lilith being too scared to really try anything. And Nikos who had the social skills of a brick. But, she knew this for a fact if she didn’t ask now she doubted that she’ll be able to sleep comfortably tonight.

“If you hold this debt over my head...what do you want with me?”

Nikos stared at her not producing an answer. She was sure not even he was thinking that far ahead. It was silent for only a few seconds though.

“Nothing?” he questioned.

“Nothing?” she repeated.

The two once again stood there in silence. With such a great exit last night surely he had something that was worth killing for. Maybe this kid was just a psychopath.

“I’m going to use your couch until the season starts.” He said walking up to her. That was more than enough of a reason for her to not stand in his way. She also had no reason to object well, more like she had no means to oppose.

Nikos laid down across the seats. It really wasn’t long before he was grasped by the black hands of slumbers.

***

Nikos stood with a paper in his hand, it was a medical document containing everything of his medical history, past diseases, blood type surgeries within the last twelve months. He approached a receptionist area. A male with glasses and hair slightly covering his right eye. He held his hand out to receive the documentation. Sweat fell from his face. After all the success rate for surgeries to become an evolved was far lower than anyone would hope it to be. The man with glasses looked up from the paper with a genuine smile. A smile that said everything that and frankly, this made Niko uncomfortable.

The receptionist stood up and shook Nikos' hand. “Welcome to Gene Corp. you’re just the patient we were looking for.”

“Fuck,” he muttered underneath his breath Nikos was happy to have been accepted into the program, but acceptance was the easy part, compatibility with the surgery was the real deterrent. But he still put on a smile and shook the man’s hand.

“Nikos. My name is Dale, but you can just call me Dee. I’ll be your butcher today.” he let out a laugh. Nikos wasn’t entirely amused by the joke. Dee picked up a tiny sign that read ‘closed’ not that it was needed, Nikos had been the only person in line.

“Now that you’re gonna undergo genetic modifications through Gene Corp. I’ll let you know a company secret” Dee began guiding him towards a back room and behind a pair of double doors. Behind those doors was a glass case containing a meteorite shard. “This is what we will be putting in you tonight!” The meteorite glowed faintly.

Nikos squinted for a second. “This doesn’t look like a normal shard.”

“Good eye! Yes, this isn’t a normal shard. Honestly, we don’t know why it’s different. But we do know that we had to find a person that was at least eighty-two percent compatible.”

“Where did I stand?”

Dee didn’t say anything, he just smiled and slammed the doors behind them.

Nikos woke up, it was morning, and the sun bled through the blinds, he touched his face he could feel the cold sweat, a reaction he hasn’t felt in some time.