Episode: 3.15

--- Rai ---

Charlotte turned on him, her emerald eyes almost glowing with her rage.

“Why the fuck did you have distilled Malice in your house?!”

He risked a glance at his father, who was watching the two of them with confusion.

Shaking his head, he began signing, (I’m a Malcontent, and you knew I had some stashed here!)

Charlotte glanced at his father with a scowl before (thankfully) signing herself, (I was expecting you to have like… bodies in the basement freezer, not…) She clenched her hands into fists for a moment, before continuing, (Not distilled Malice, like an idiot.)

(Distilled lasts longer, and means we have to kill fewer people in the long run.) He refused to feel guilty about that.

Charlotte continued to scowl at him before finally relenting with a bitter sigh. (Fine. I can’t fault you that… but you’re still the idiot you let it get dumped.)

[Agreement]

He shot a glare at Chess, while biting his lip to keep his eyes from flashing in front of his papá.

[Irritation] (Not helping.)

[Amusement] [Irritation] (Not trying to.)

Charlotte snapped her fingers. (Eyes on me. First things first, how long do you think until we get a Bleed?)

He glanced at the sink, once more ignoring his increasingly concerned father, as he let his other self do a bit of math.

(Bleed probability at 43.7% and rising.)

He didn’t like that answer.

(Not long, maybe five minutes if we’re lucky, it’s at about half-stability.)

Charlotte bit her lip and frowned.

“We need to get everyone out of here.” Chess pointed out, as she increased the static enough that only he could hear her.

He nodded. (With Sanctuary nearby it’s best to clear the place out and let them handle this mess.)

Charlotte looked like she’d eaten something bitter. (You’re not wrong but…)

He shrugged. (It’s their job, better to let them risk their lives then our own.)

While he hated the idea of leaving something so important up to them, it would give him a chance, no matter how small, to keep his secret. Something that would be known by everyone present within four seconds of him taking a fight seriously. And that wasn’t counting the fact that he barely knew half the people in his house at the moment, let alone trusted them.

“Fine…” Charlotte actually growled out.

(Okay, so she’s on the less human side of the Deviant spectrum, good to know.)

“So, how’re we doing this?”

He ran a hand through his hair, before glancing at his frowning father. “Chess help her. Dad we”

A scream cut through the air and his sentence.

“Damn it it’s my birthday, can I please catch a break!”

He spun around and didn’t even need to leave the kitchen to see what the panic was about.

“Oh, god!”

“What the fuck is that?!”

“Is, is that a rift?!”

A six-foot-wide gash tore through the air, a red substance slowly bleeding out of it, as more screams of panic filled the air.

“Pinche infierno.”

That one while quieter than the rest was enough to draw his attention to his father, who was (suicidally) walking towards the Bleed.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” he hissed grabbing Raúl’s arm.

Raúl blinked, caught off guard by both the fact that he grabbed him and that he’d actually cursed in front of him.

“I, we, someone needs to calm those kids down, and Sanctuary is just down the street we need someone to get them.”

“Yes, well going near the tear in the fabric of reality is not how we do that.”

Charlotte patted his shoulder, and he didn’t bother hiding the flash of his eyes from her. “What.”

“It doesn’t look that bad, maybe two or three creeps… One big one if we’re lucky.”

“Yeah, but with the number of people in there, one little one is enough to probably kill someone.” He didn’t bother with signs, there was enough context in the situation she’d get his protests regardless of if she could read lips.

“What?!” Raúl turned to him in shock, but he had more important things to deal with at the moment.

“If worse comes to worst, I’ll step in. I’m registered… technically.”

“Technically?” Chess asked stepping up to get a better look at the Bleed, her static ever present, though from the glance Charlotte gave her, she was unaffected.

(Curious.)

The blonde smirked. “I’m ranked a lot lower than I actually am.”

Chess laughed. “Nice.”

“Fractured, actually.”

That… made him blink.

It also explained a few things and raised a hell of a lot more questions.

“Something ‘s happening!”

He glanced back at the Bleed and winced as four metallic claws slowly pushed through on either side.

“About human in size, and form if the hands are anything to go off.”

He ran a hand through his hair before glancing between the slowly opening Bleed and the (idiots) not smart enough to run out the front door the moment reality started bleeding. Idly, he noted Nadya, Des, and Clara all seemed to fall into that category.

(Damn it…)

His eyes jumped back to the slowly opening bleed.

(We’ve got another minute or so before it escapes… unless someone drags it through…)

He glanced to his side, before tilting his head as he stared at Charlotte for a moment.

(Well, if she’s a fractured then…)

After a moment of thought, he put his thumb in his mouth, and bit hard enough to draw blood.

Noticing Chess attention on the Bleed, he went ahead and jabbed her with his tail, so she’d see what he was doing. She turned on him with a glare, only for her eyes to widen in understanding as she saw what he was doing. Those same eyes narrowed in thought as they flashed black and white.

[Query] [Apprehension] (Really?)

[Resignation] [Query] (You got any better ideas?)

Chess watched him for a moment before sighing and biting her own thumb.

He tapped the back of his hand against Charlotte’s shoulder to get him, before offering his thumb.

Charlotte looked at his thumb before moving her eyes to his face, a look of reluctance on her face, as she glanced at Chess doing the same as him, causing a resigned but determined expression to settle on her features as she turned back to him, before finally nodding.

Biting her own thumb, she reached forward and wiped her blood against his own, before bringing her thumb to her mouth and shuddering as she licked off the mix of their blood.

It took less than a moment for him to feel something foreign ping against his consciousness.

[Query] [Apprehension] (You picking up?)

After so long of only ever feeling his connection to his sister, feeling a third person on their little ‘network’ was… invasive to put it mildly. But it was his idea so…

[Agreement] [Resignation] (Yeah.)

Charlotte rolled her shoulders before repeating the same with Chess.

They both gave a shudder when their line on the pack bond formed. The feeling of a stranger in your head never a pleasant one, no matter how necessary.

(At least it’s temporary…)

Another shriek drew their attention back to the living room as the Creep finally open the Bleed enough to fall through the tear in a spray of crimson that would’ve stained the floor if it was real.

The creature stood up shakily its body alternating every few seconds between standing inhumanely still and shaking in rapid motions that would throw a normal human’s joints out of socket.

His eyes roamed the creature as the false blood it wore evaporated into the air, revealing the true nature of the monstrosity before them.

It had pale leathery skin and a body wrapped in bloody bandages. Each finger had a long metallic claw with patches of rust randomly covering each digit. The top half of it’s face was covered in more bandages, mostly obscuring a pair of sickly yellow eyes, but leaving just enough space uncovered for its mouth, full of dozens of too big teeth, to been seen by all.

“A Ravager…” He frowned.

“Not particularly rare, or unique,” Charlotte pointed out.

“But still a threat.” He argued, not liking the way the thing was sniffing the air, every few cycles.

“A high-C, right?” Chess asked, watching a few kids finally realize they should’ve left the room when they had the chance.

“Yeah, but it shouldn’t be a problem to take out so long as no one pisses it off.”

“Right, just wait for it to turn around and snap its neck.”

“It’s the ones after this that are going to be a problem…” He ran a hand through his hair, “They’ll spawn almost instantly after we gut the first one, so you two ‘ll have to keep them off the crowd.”

Charlotte watched him for a moment, “I can handle frontline if you want? I’ve got a bit of a… Bruiser/Blaster combo going.”

That made him pause, after all it was a tempting offer, but…

He shook his head. “No, this isn’t your town you get caught acting up you’re fucked, besides this is my mess, might as well clean it up.”

“You two are too calm.”

He blinked before glancing to the side where Raúl was watching them apprehensively.

(Almost forgot he was here…)

“There’s a… There’s a… fucking monster in the living room and you two are, are…” Raúl seemed to struggle to find the words before finally giving a defeated sigh, “You’re too calm…”

That made him grimace.

(I can’t really, get out of that talk any more…)

He ran a hand through his hair, before shaking his head.

(No, I’ll have to deal with that later.)

“Look… there are things… we need to talk about, but… now really isn’t the time.” He made a gesture to the Creep for emphasis, hoping the situation would be enough to keep any demands for an explanation on hold for the moment.

Raúl gave him a hard look, before glancing at the creature in his living room.

“Fine.” Raúl practically spat, “But we are talking about this after this mess is settled.”

(If Sanctuary doesn’t haul my ass back to Asylum…)

He didn’t voice that thought, it wouldn’t really help the situation. Chess wrapping her tail around his own did though, just a bit…

 After a tense moment, he finally managed a nod.

Raúl’s look softened up, “So, you said you have a plan?”

“Right, like I said I’ll-”

(Secondary Bleeds detected.)

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

He froze, before his eyes shot back to the living room as two more Bleeds tore open in the air, spurring the first Creep into action as it lunged towards one of the closer teenagers. Something that would’ve torn the kid apart if she hadn’t slipped and fell on her ass when she did, though that didn’t stop the Ravager from drawing an arm back to impale her on its metallic claws.

“Fuck!”

Without even thinking, his tail shot out, grabbing a nearby knife from the counter before throwing it and catching the ravager on the back of its head, piercing several inches into the Creep’s skull. An action that did very little to stop the creature, though it did serve to piss the thing off enough to cause it to turn on him, one of its bloodshot eyes staring at him from beneath its bloody bandages.

“Rai!” he risked a glance at Nadya, who Des was (smartly) holding back.

[Unit: Chess] [Objective] [Targets] (Chess, get these idiots out of here.)

[Unit: Charlotte] [Objective] [Targets] (Charlotte, on Des, Nadya, and Clara.)

He let his bone claws slip through just enough to cut into his skin and draw blood. Something that caused the Ravager’s enraged gaze to lock onto him as it shifted into something… hungry.

“We both know what you’re really after…” he whispered to reality’s little abomination, “And we both know I’m made of the shit.”

The Ravager licked its teeth and he couldn’t help but do the same as old instincts half a decade buried began to claw to the surface, just dying to be set free as his teeth began to itch and his fingertips burned like the hell they wanted to inflict upon his (prey).

He had just enough self-control to keep from (ripping into the throat) of the creature opposite of him.

A level of self-control his opponent seemed to lack.

He ducked under the Ravager’s lunge, a move they always made when there was any level of distance between them and their targets.

(Claws up.)

His first instinct was to put his claws together and ram them through the Ravager’s neck, a bloody display that would’ve one-shot the low-level Creep, something a regular teenager wouldn’t be able to do. An uppercut to the jaw, however, was a completely different story.

When his blow made the creature stumble, and fall half-on top of him, he used the opportunity to throw it over his shoulder and into a nearby coffee table, shattering it under the monster’s weight.

(Hope, they don’t take that out of my allowance.)

He watched the Ravager lay belly up and motionless on top of the table. Most people would think he knocked the Creep out with a couple of lucky (or skillful) blows. Anyone who’d really fought a Ravager though… They’d know the creature was playing opossum, waiting for the ideal moment to disembowel its more idiotic prey on its bloodstained claws.

The same people who realized this, however, well they’d also realize he was in an ideal position to break the Creep’s kneecaps.

He was one of three people in the room who didn’t flinch at the sight and sound of bone snapping.

Not even a second later the Ravager lunged at him, not even bothered by the fact its actions were pushing its own bone through flesh, a sight more than one viewer was horrified by.

(Wonder what they’d think of me walking off my status as roadkill?)

The thought brought a smirk to his face as he drove his knee into the Creep’s face, its low lunge rendered useless as he stepped forward rather than back.

The Ravager rolled over ready to rip apart whatever it could get its hands on. Something he prevented by stomping it back onto the ground.

He pressed his foot into down, eliciting several cracks from the still struggling Ravager’s spine as it continued to fight and claw at the ground in its attempts to get up.

(Almost forgot how hard Creeps are to put down…)

Despite the mad monster pinned beneath him, he took a moment to glance at Chess and Charlotte, while also being sure not to actually look at anyone else’s face.

Chess was standing between him and a crowd of teenagers she was ushering towards the door and based on the faint trace of Malice coming from them he’d bet she had to use Persuasion to instill something resembling survival instincts in them.

(Fucking idiots…)

Charlotte on the other hand was standing between him and his friends, eyeing both bleeds in case the Creeps within decided they’d rather go for easy prey. He’d prefer it if she got them out of there but given their position, they weren’t able to leave until he pinned the Ravager and based on their personalities even with the Creep pinned, they wouldn’t actually leave until he did.

(Damn it…)

He felt his foot begin to lift as the Ravager finally realized it needed to push off the ground rather than claw at it.

With a scowl of annoyance, he raised his foot, and stomped down hard enough that he knew he’d broken the creature’s spine this time.

(Learn your place.)

It may’ve been overkill, but the thing was beginning to annoy him, and that wasn’t including the fact it already ruined his friends party.

He gave both girls another glance.

[Query] [Apprehension] [Excitement] (You girls ready for the hard part?)

[Apprehension] [Agreement] (Let’s just get this over with, Rai.)

[Agreement] [Amusement] (Whenever you’re ready Morales.)

He nodded back to them.

[Agreement] (Then let’s get started.)

He shifted his weight, before raising his other foot and stomping down on the struggling Ravager’s already cracked skull.

Idly, he noted someone vomit at the resulting explosion of gore.

(Oh, come on! That’s going to stain, worse than the blood!)

Before he could say anything to the rude party guest, both Bleeds began screaming as they caught the scent of blood and Malice in the air. What little blood had been previously pouring from the wounds in reality, began to boil as the Bleeds violently tore themselves open so they could birth forth two more Ravagers in a gruesome display straight out of a horror film.

Like their brother before them both Ravagers lunged at him the moment, they found stable footing, allowing a pincer attack that most would have to either dodge or be torn to shreds.

(Unless they have A-Rank Agility at least.)

He smirked as his heart finally began to pump in his chest.

Taking a step towards the closer Ravager he caught the Creep by its wrist and its throat, before twisting to add even more momentum to the creature’s lunge causing it to overshoot him. He then ground his foot against the floor, being sure to avoid as much gore and debris from his previous fight as he could, before pulling on the Ravager’s wrist, dislocating the entire arm as effectively switched places with the Ravager.

It couldn’t even react as its sibling’s claws tore through its back.

The first Ravager coughed blood, as the second glared at him, and the moment they were both looking him in the eye, he couldn’t help but let his eyes flash black and white as he gave them a downright feral grin.

(This… This is what we’ve been missing!)

The uninjured Ravager growled, before tearing its arm out of its sibling, and tossing the bleeding Creep to the side like garbage.

“Come now, that’s no way to treat family.” He tsked the Ravager, as he took a step to the side so both Creeps would stay in his line of sight. An action that let him notice the injured Ravager begin to pick itself off the ground, as the uninjured one began to crouch closer to the ground, waiting for the ideal moment to lunge once more.

He half crouched too, though for him it was less to leap at his opponent and more to pick up the kitchen knife half-hidden in the quickly evaporating gore from the first Creep.

(Got to love the easy clean nature of Malice…)

That thought made him pause, as he remembered what exactly the Creeps were after, leading him to glance at the knife in his hand and then to the injured Ravager.

(That… That could work.)

Slowly, so as to avoid pissing off the Ravager into striking first, he took the blade and wiped it against his jeans, cleaning as much Creep blood as he could.

Inhaling he began twisting the Malice inside him, nothing that could be spotted be a random onlooker, but a neat trick he picked up from the one Bad Blood he’d ever met.

(Shifting [Passive Parameters]: Reducing healing factor… Temporarily increasing blood flow in right arm…)

Calmly he placed the blade against his skin, before wrenching the knife and drawing blood, to the horror of all but two of his on lookers.

Both Ravagers stilled their eyes locking onto the Malice infused blood pouring from his arm.

Keeping his eyes on both Creeps in case of any sudden motions, he waved the blade through the air, and after making sure both Ravagers had their eyes on the blade, he slowly pulled his arm back, before throwing the knife into the uninjured Ravager’s shoulder.

The injured one didn’t even hesitate to try and eat its brother.

Both Ravagers fell to the floor as they began to tear into each other, fighting over the knife, or more accurately the blood on it. Claws tore through skin and fangs feasted on flesh, as both blood and Malice stained the floor.

He watched the two Creeps tear each other apart, before noting the most dangerous part of dealing with a Ravager.

Every time a claw or fang tore into one of the Creeps, for the next few seconds the offending Ravager’s flesh would begin to rapidly mend, as if held together through sheer bloodlust and sadism.

(Which isn’t too far off the bat, all things considered…)

Regardless, the two were healing faster than they were harming each other, and when they realized that they’d probably go back to fighting him for more of the already evaporated Malice.

(Better kill them before they get the chance then.)

Bending down he picked up one of the pointer legs of the coffee table he’d broken earlier and walked over to the wrestling Ravagers. Being sure to stay out of the way of their claws, he waited as they continued to roll about and mutilate each other.

When an opportunity finally presented itself, he stepped up to the Creeps and with both hands, drove the table leg through the back of the topmost Ravager, giving the bottom one the ideal chance to decapitate its sibling.

 Before the Ravager could recover from its attack, or even really register his presence, he kicked it in the temple, stunning the creature long enough for him to raise his foot and stomp its skull, much like he had the first one.

Only thanks to its previous fight, and the resulting healing factor, this Ravager took an additional three stomps before its skull finally caved in, and its body went limp.

He held his foot down for a good four seconds, waiting until both the Ravager’s blood and body had begun to evaporate into the cinder and ash of its home on the other side.  

As his heart finally began to calm down, he ran a blood-stained hand through his hair, before looking around the room.

He wasn’t particularly surprised to see the few strangers Chess hadn’t managed to get out, watching him in a mix of fear and awe. After all you don’t learn how to do what he could, without becoming as scary as you are awesome.

(Though the rumor mill at school is going to be nightmare…)

(Maybe I can convince everyone I’m training to be a hunter?)

He had considered the job before, given its general description, but given its proximity to Sanctuary, he’d also decided to stay the fuck away from said job.

[Concern]

His eyes locked onto Chess as he gave her both a nod and ping of reassurance, before gesturing towards the door with his head.

Chess nodded back before grabbing the last few stragglers by their arms and forcibly dragging them out of the house.

Which left him with the few people he couldn’t just throw out of his house.

Nadya, Des, and Clara were all watching him with wide and shocked expressions, as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Which was fair, since his goal for the past decade or so, was to make sure they never ever found out what he was really capable of.

(Hell, they still haven’t.)

The thought brought a half bitter chuckle from his throat.

(Who knows maybe I’ll be able to convince them with that hunter bullshit too…) Though he doubted that plan would work for very long.

When he caught sight of Charlotte standing half between him and his friends with an arm stretch out to protect them, from the now disintegrating Ravagers at his feet, he went ahead and sent her a ping of [Gratitude] for keeping them safe.

She nodded back before slowly lowering her arm.

He was half terrified of what he’d see when he finally managed to turn back to his pa… Raúl…

Luckily the yelling from outside prevented him from finding out as his eyes shot to the door.

He glanced around the room, before reaching for Chess’s pack bond when he realized she was outside still.

[Query] (Chess, what’s going on?)

[Panic] [Objective] (Shit, Rai you have to-)

He didn’t have time to finish piecing together Chess’s message as his front door was thrown open so four fully armed Sanctuary soldiers could march in.

Even as he watched the Sanctuary soldier burst into his house, he couldn’t help but smirk as they pointed their guns at him and told him to get on his knees.

(Of course, the cops show up after the fight.)

Despite every instinct screaming at him to either flee or fight the (threats) in front of him, he did what they said and put his hands behind his head as he got on his knees. If worst came to, he had enough tricks to escape, he’d be vomiting blood and Malice afterwards, but he’d escape.

“Rai! Raúl!”

His head snapped up as he once more heard someone shout, ‘Rai’ and ‘Raúl’.

“Fuck!” he cursed before looking towards Raúl, “Get to the door and stop her!”

Raúl blinked his human ears, unable to piece out his wife’s voice from the crowd outside.

“Damn it!” He half-stood before freezing as a few of the soldier put their fingers on the trigger of their rifles.

He glanced around at the various soldiers just looking for a reason to shoot him before swallowing, and once more meeting Raúl’s eyes.

“You need to get to the door and keep her from making this worse.”

One of the soldiers glanced between him and Raúl before asking, “You know this kid?”

It took Raúl a moment to register that the soldier was talking to him. “Yes, he’s, he’s my son.”

(Damn it…)

“Alright, we’re sorry for this but based on the reports we’ve been given, your son was just involved in a Deviant incident, correct?”

He wasn’t sure whether he wanted Raúl to answer in the positive or the negative, both had issues, and both would only make this situation worse. One by putting the attention on him and the other by putting it on Raúl…

“Y-yes…” Raúl finally answered, before glancing between him and the soldiers surrounding him, “There were these tears in the air… it was like they were bleeding… and these monsters came out of them, and my son, he… he fought them…”

He waited a moment, before letting out an internal sigh of relief.

(At least he didn’t mention, me and Charlotte having experience with this kind of thing…)

“Okay,” the soldier clapped his hands together before turning to a different one, “Send out a drone, have it run a scan, see if we can’t figure out what happened here.”

The other soldier nodded back, before typing something into the controller attached to his forearm.

A moment later a drone flew in through the door.

A moment after that so did his ma… María, while calling for him and Raúl.

She took one look at the scene in front of her before walking towards him with a scowl on her face and a glare at the soldiers.

“What do you think you’re doing to my son?!” María yelled, trying to force her way through the soldiers.

“Mam, mam!” The soldier Raúl had been talking to tried, “We’re dealing with a deviant threat, if you just do what we ask we’ll be out of your hair.”

He already knew what the drone was going to say but that didn’t stop his heart from stopping as its light changed to yellow gaining the attention of the soldiers, “Deviant energy signature detected… Processing…”

 “That’s no reason to point a gun at my son!” his mamá shouted walking forward.

His eyes locked onto the drone begging it not to say what he knew it would, but the cold machine gave no mercy as its electronic voice said, “Large amounts of Malice residue detected… Lethal force has been logged and authorized.”

María was the only person whose eyes didn’t widen at that statement, her focus on dealing with the soldier in front of her.

The soldier arguing with her however glanced at the machine before turning back to her, while shifting the grip on his gun, an action mimicked by almost all of the Sanctuary soldiers.

It didn’t even take him a full second to realize what was happening.

(Oh, no…)

 “Sounds like you’re not cooperating man,” The soldier growled, before aiming a gun at his mother, “and there’s only one way to deal with an uncooperative Deviant.”

(No, no, no, notagainnotagainnononononotagainnotagainnononononotagainnotagainno!)

The sound of gunfire echoed through the room, before giving way to a deathly silence.

No one moved. No one could move, each stunned for a different reason by what they’d just witnessed.

 “Rai…” his mother gasped, her voice filling the silent room as dread set in.

He glanced down at his chest and saw several bullet holes, each with black mist pouring out of it.

Slowly, inhumanly slowly, he turned to look at the soldier who’d just tried taking his mother FROM HIM!

(RiP oUt HiS FuCKinG ThRoAT…)

For once… he agreed with his other self.

“Oh, shit he’s the Devi-” the soldier’s words were cut off as he grabbed the corpse’s throat and slammed him into the floor, before pulling his hand back, ready to ram it through the (suicidal dumbass’s fucking SKULL!)

Instead his hand erupted in a burst of black mist, before rapidly shifting through the air and catching several bullets, fired by a soldier stupid enough to shoot at him. An act that earned the soldier little more than a snarl from the already (pissed monster) in front of him.

(TeAR hIS FuCkINg LiMbS OfF!)

The start of a whirring sound caught his attention, just long enough for him to react by shrouding his hand in black mist and throwing the bullets out of his hand and into the drone above. Sparks filled the air as the machine began to spin and sputter.

Reacting faster than any human could, he lunged at another soldier, before grabbing him by the belt of his pants and throwing him into the falling drone, causing both to crash into the far wall, before the soldier’s body muffled the sound of a small explosion.

He turned on the final soldier, his teeth itching and his fingertips burning, as he walked on the cowering (mother killer) in front of him. As neared the soldier, his tail began instinctively unwrapping itself from around his waist, as a guttural growl began to emit from his chest, his next (prey’s) fear bringing a feral smile to his face.

(DeVouR HiS WoRThLeSs HeART!)

The soldier started raising his gun, but he was already there.

One hand pushed away the man’s gun, the other wrapped around the man’s heart, a mist of black shadows pouring from where his hand pierced the man’s chest, allowing him to fully circumvent all that annoying armor and bone as he gripped the man's still beating heart.

Just before he could rip out the (mother killer’s) heart, a flicker of movement caught his eye.

What he saw, killed whatever Malice high had consumed him.

Nadya was watching him, no longer watching him in shock or awe, but rather terror as she held her hands over her mouth.

(Shit…)

He glanced to the side and saw similar expressions on both Clara and Des’s faces.

(No…)

The dread building in his chest forced him to take a step back his empty hand phasing out of the soldier’s chest, as his eyes roamed across his friends, the people he’d grown closest to over the last six years of his live, all of them wearing that same look of shock, and fear.

(No, no, no…)

Finally his eyes fell upon the two people, whose expressions he dreaded the most, and as he watched Raúl pull his wife closer, and away from him, he managed to see into his her tearing brown human eyes, and his own inhuman black and white ones, and only saw a single thing…

Fear.

(No…)

And so, he without looking back he turned and ran, before he could do worse.