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Crimson Haze
Chapter 11. Calm Before the Storm

Chapter 11. Calm Before the Storm

Chapter 11. Calm Before the Storm

As Jordan assessed Emily I quickly made eye contact with her and then made a quick gesture towards Jordan. I hoped this was enough to let her know he was onto us and to be careful but Emily just looked at me confused.

"So, Emily, Xavier over here, yes he remembered his name, told me everything about last night." Jordan declared.

Everyone at the table looked confused but also intrigued by the statement. Emily made a face of mock shock at the news of my name. And at the mention of being told "everything about last night." She was momentarily actually shocked but quickly gained a stoic interested expression.

I was starting to wonder if this guy was a detective or something. First, he knew something was up with Emily when she had said she didn't remember anything for three days. And when he caught me up sneaking around in the late hours of the night he immediately interrogating me.

Quickly trying to get the upper hand I laughed it off and was about to explain it all. "Haha, yeah I had just gotten up in the middle of the night to find my-" but before I could finish Jordan glared at me and shut me up without saying a word.

"I'd like to hear it from Emily to corroborate your story, Xavier," Jordan said, his tone and face deadly serious.

We're so fucked, I should have just told him and had him keep it secret. Instead, he was now suspicious and pressing the issue in a public place. I wasn't sure how to fix this situation, I trusted him enough for him to know so that was definitely a possibility. But Emily probably wants it to be kept secret from her friends and everyone else here. Considering the twin's interaction with people that have powers it made a lot of sense.

"You caught us, I'm not sure what he told you but it was probably some tacky story that he made up as he went," Emily confessed.

"Wait, Emily-" but before I could say anything more she gave me a confident look.

"Amnesia bo-, no, Xavier woke me up last night by rudely knocking on my door. He told me he couldn't sleep due to some flashes of memory that wouldn't go away. So we talked about it. I'm sure he just didn't want to bring it up with you and made up some story." Emily stated, confidently but hesitantly.

If I didn't know the truth myself I would have thought she was telling the truth. I wonder if her experiences forced her to be so good at lying. This also made me question everything she had told me up until this point. If she could lie so easily and convincingly how could I trust her?

"I see, I apologize for making a whole scene about it, when I saw Xavier up and about last night I found it suspicious, an old habit I guess." Jordan apologized.

I was glad he stopped pressing Emily about all this but it seemed too easy. I tried to take my mind off it by eating lunch, the constant hunger gnawing at me. Emily was right, this hunger seemed different and only subsided briefly after eating, only to come back...more.

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After lunch, we fell back into the routine we established, cleaning up and organizing the kitchen for dinner. I wanted to chat with Emily about everything that happened with Jordan and also more about us, but I kept psyching myself out. After dinner, I decided to speak up and discuss things with her.

"Hey, so about Jordan, he caught me sneaking back to my room last night and I indeed came up with a story. I had thought he believed me but he knew something was up, evident by him essentially interrogating you. I would have trusted him enough to tell him the truth but I didn't want to break your trust. But I do believe it would actually be beneficial to tell him, he told me he had a friend who also had powers and how he didn't immediately turn into. monster. He still had but Jordan said he pulled him out of it somehow. Maybe he could give us some useful insight or at the very least be another perspective." I argued, pleading my case.

"I'm not sure, I mean, you barely know the guy right?" Emily retorted.

"Yes, but I saved his life. He would have most likely died if I didn't miraculously heal him, and he seems like a genuinely good guy."

"I'll think about it," She responded, after mulling over her response for a few awkward moments.

"Alright, please do. If we wish to stay in control and potentially control the power we were cursed with we may need Jordans' help." I said as we finished up. "And you aren't going to choke me out again right?" I laughed out, half serious.

"Not tonight, but no promises for the future." Emily chuckled, chopping me on the head as she left the kitchen.

Before she had left I fully assessed her form, being fully conscious of every detail I found important. The first, and most prominent thing I noticed was her mechanical face mask that she didn't seem to take off. I hadn't asked her about it and nobody else had mentioned it so I left it at that. The mask covered most of the bottom half of her face, had two vents placed on the sides, and a section that opened up to allow the wearer to eat and drink. Her ivory hair flowed down both sides of her head to just below her chin, the hair further back being shorter. It matched her pale skin well with her brilliant sapphire blue eyes accentuating everything else.

She had dark eyeliner around her eyes that made her look either emo or goth, I wasn't really sure which. For her outfit, she had a necklace that laid atop her black crop top that seemed to double as some kind of protective armor. A few scars were scattered down her arms with there being a few armbands. Further down she had a wristband on both of her wrists and fingerless gloves adorning her hands. Finishing off the outfit, she had grey and black leggings, where a knife sheath was attached to either side of her hips.

Overall she had the appearance of an emo/goth ninja, which made for a pretty intimidating look. This combined with her cold body language and tone you could tell she had been through quite a lot.

For the next week, life went on in the shelter, with nothing unusual or interesting happening. I quickly fell into a nice routine which started with me waking up earlier and earlier. It was strange how I seemed to need less and less sleep but I didn't put my thought to it. I would maybe ask Emily about it if I didn't forget again.

After waking up I would read for a bit before getting ready for the day. I would shower get dressed, and tidy up my room if needed. I would then head to the dining room to help Dennis get ready for the day. Sometimes I would have to wait for him, catch him on his way there, or be there after him. We made light small talk which was always nice and he would tell stories from his past. Handing out rations to people was probably the best part of the day, I got to see and get to know most of the people in the shelter. It also made me feel at home and that I had a place in it.

The rest of the day was spent reading, eating, and working with Emily. I had checked out some of the other jobs I could do after meetings but nothing really seemed like something I would want to do. I was thinking about picking up something new though just to keep things fresh. It wasn't like I was getting tired of the same routine, it was actually good, but I thought some diversity could be good as well. However, day twelve of being in the shelter was far from uninteresting.