"I never should have trusted you..."

"That love was your mistake" he mused taking the knife from the table, metal on metal scrapping raising the hair on my arms. He ambled about the room taking in my shattered body. It was his lack of emotion that scared me the most, rage, hatred I would have expected but not this apathy. 

Vulnerable as the frog in science class I shivered against the fear rising in my throat. At last I managed to croak out, "What will you do to me, what more can you do that you haven't already done?" Shutting my eyes at the sting of sweat and blood, I took a shuttering breath blocking out the pain.

"I want to know, are we the same?" His monotone voice peaked with just the bare hint of curiosity. Squinting through one eye up at him from my position on the cold operating table I noticed his beautiful golden hair fall over his piercing blue eyes as he tilted his head in consideration. At one time I would have given almost anything for him to look at me like this, really notice me. Funny how sometimes our wishes become our worst nightmares.

With the delicacy afforded to the dead he gently washed my face, cleansing the filth from my mottled hair. I dreamed of his soft touch, even with the fear I held now I leaned into it. It was such a contrast to the hard cold of the metal table or the scratchy rough rope that bound my hands and feet. Breathing deep as he leaned over me I could still smell his unique scent of vanilla and cinnamon transporting me back to better times. 

He had worn a mask then, I know that now. Hindsight let me see the signs, how he would only smile and laugh after the others. His strange humor, forced as though he had looked up jokes the night before. The careful way in which he studied all of those around him. His strange almost obsessive need to have things be just right at just the right time. I could set my watch by him, every day I knew my shift was almost over when he walked through the door. Pausing just inside to listen to the soft chimes as the door closed behind him. Usually he had a crowd of others with him, endless chatter seemed to be his constant companion. I can see these things now, taking a shuttering breath I whispered, "We are nothing alike. You're a monster, you hurt people."

A soft snort drew my attention to his impassive face. "The world is full of monsters, they just aren't all in plain sight...as for hurting people, you've done your fair share of damage. Toying with others always looking for new conquests." A line of ice followed down my chest blooming from the light pressure of the knife. Eyes widening at the crystals I looked up at him, his face splitting in a grin, "There it is, there is the truth." Before I could speak the ice froze in my throat, the sharp pain of winter air taking my breath away. The temperature in the room fell, freezing puddles of blood beneath me. "Yesss" a stream of fog flowing over his lips his eyes bright with wonder. 

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Images flashed in my mind, faces I had never seen, places I had only read about in books, memories that could not possibly be mine. 

"Come out, come out, where ever you aree..." his gleeful voice sang. A sharp pain rising from my gut, glancing down I could see the shallow cuts he had made with his knife. A circle with overlapping triangles, with each slice the pain rose, not from the cuts but from deep within. Line after line the pain bubbled up into my chest, rising to my throat. Lights exploded from my eyes from lack of oxygen as a lump of ice scraped the inside of my mouth. In a silent scream the object spewed up, time almost stopping the room had to be well below freezing, yet somehow I did not feel the cold. I only felt heat pouring into me from the bizarre symbols now etched into my stomach. I gazed in wonder at the dazzling crystal floating just above my head. Closing my eyes, I sighed in relief as my world turned black.

___________________________________________________________________________

A slam behind me caused me to turn away from the shining specimen now carefully enclosed in one of the lab's many glass cases. 

"You have GOT to stop killing the patents!" Eliza hissed behind me, her fury emanating off her in waves. Stalking up to me she looked over my shoulder at the newest specimen. "At least you got it out this time instead of shattering it" she huffed making notes on her clipboard.

"You really ought to calm down, they may look human but these creatures are anything but." My lack of emotion, of empathy made me ideal for this job. Long ago I would have been labeled a psychopath, but now I am only science's butcher. Collecting these creatures so mankind may understand their new rulers. "Call me when you find another, as always, I'm happy to do your dirty work. Payment, now" lifting my hand palm up in front of her.

Rolling her eyes she all but tossed a silver card to me. "2,000 credit as promised, you could at least pretend like all this bothers you" she sniffed. I had grown used to the looks of contempt from those like her, they always felt they were above the rest because they could identify these things and study them. They would be nothing without those like me, those willing to get their hands dirty and kill to get them the specimens they need to cure humanity of this new plague. 

Turning I flicked my hand in farewell, "Until next time Doctor" I called out as I sauntered from the room and down the clinical hall leaving the scent of vanilla in my wake. 

The end