God, how many days has it been since that fight with Carnie, maybe a week or two? The days seem to blend together with as much as I'm sleeping, but the training and healing process takes so much out of me I can't help but sleep. I look at the new scars that were recently added to the collection of them that is my body. They ran up and down my arms unlike the older ones that ran across, across my chest, and it was the same for my shoulders. I had sustained so many injuries from the fight with Carnie that it was too much for the healing solution to fix, I'm healed up fine but all the injuries left scars. Veronica said if I had some of her more powerful healing solutions it would have healed completely but since it healed with scars there was nothing she could do now. Honestly, I didn't even care about the scars when she told me, I was more amazed at how close I had come to death. Just a little further and I might have ended up dying.

Looking back at it I could say Carnie hardly touched me if you count all the times she attacked and missed, but even with a couple of hits, she was able to put me on the brink of death. Why is everybody here so fucking strong?!

Y'all mother fuckers just wait, I'm getting stronger by the day! My lifts have improved greatly and so has my body's reaction time. My brain is leaps and bounds ahead of my body in reaction time but I can feel my body holding me back less and less while I have my perception on. My movements are becoming quicker so I'm able to make better use of my ability. I don't feel like I have put on much size but I know from how much my eating has increased that I must have. Wayne says I've gotten bigger but I don't see it, it might help if I had a fucking mirror in this cell.

"(Click) Do to your recent good behavior and the handling of the most recent incident I have decided to give your hour of free time back. Please feel free to use it as you see fit."

"How nice of you..." Bitch.

My door opens and I step out. It was now mealtime and I would be able to tack my hour of free time on right after it to maximize the time I get outside of my cell. Wayne and I make our way to the cafeteria as we always do, it was our routine now. What wasn't in our routine was to have Red already sitting at our table when we entered, heck she's never even sat at our table, only on it, once.

"I'll let you handle that... I'll grab a tray for you!"

Looks like I'm going at this alone, I can understand since he doesn't have the best relationship with Red, wait, neither do I. She's beaten the crap out of me more than once and she always catches me looking at her ass somehow. How am I not supposed to look, even if she wears something baggy... It's like a vice grip--dammit stop thinking about her ass!

I approach the table and of course, she notices me heading her way. That wouldn't normally be a problem but I'm still a good distance away so now we're in this weird 'I don't want to stare at them too long so I'm avoiding looking at them until they get closer' game. I reach the table after a long and awkward exchange of looking away from one another and sit down across from her.

"..."

"Was... there something you needed Red?"

"Come with me."

"Where are we going?" Wait why am I just agreeing without asking why?

"A room, just follow me." Red gets up from the table only moments after I had reached it, I look between her and Wayne who is in line for food before following after her.

We walk out of the cafeteria and down a couple of halls I'm not used to. I don't think I've ever, oh, this is the hall that Red's cell is on. Is this really happening right now?

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

While I'm staring at her cell and thinking about... something, I bump into the back of Red.

"Oh, sorry... Why are we stopping here?"

Red looks at the door, it seems to depress her for some reason, "She's in here."

"Who?"

"Carnie."

"Oh, okay, why did you bring me to her room?"

"She won't come out, not since what happened with you and her."

"What, but that was a while ago, she has to come out to get food unless they bring it to her?"

"No, she doesn't have to eat as often as us. Tom."

After hearing my name come from Red I can't help but feel shocked. She seems to notice.

"That is your name right?"

"No, that is my name. I've just never heard you say it, I didn't realize you knew it."

"What, I've... Nevermind, I need you to talk to her. Nothing I say seems to make her feel any better."

"And you think I'm going to know something to say? I'm not really good with this kinda stuff."

"You have to, the reason she's like this is because of what she did to you. She wasn't in control when she did it. You have to tell her your fine and it's alright."

"I can't even get in there if she doesn't want me to, there's no point."

Red looks up towards the ceiling with a hard stare, the sound of a door opening follows shortly after it. She opens the door the rest of the way and ushers for me to step in. Inside the room, Carnie is curled into a ball while resting her back up against the wall next to her bed.

"Go away--" She sounded like she was going to say something else but stopped. Is she sniffing the air?

Without looking up she speaks, "What are you doing here?" The sound of her voice is muffled by her legs and arms but I can still make it out.

Do I smell that bad that she could tell it was me? I quietly sniff myself before responding.

"Red brought me here."

"Yeah, that part is obvious."

While she sounded annoyed there was a strong sadness in her voice. There is only one thing I know to do in situations like these, me and... Tobie had a few.

"So why are you hold up in here like a little bitch."

Her head shoots up, with her eyes wide, and yells, "Excuse me?"

"I was just wondering why you were sitting in the corner crying like a little bitch?"

"I wasn't--who are you calling a little bitch, bitch?"

Well, at least she's looking at me now. "I'm guessing the way you acted back then has something to do with your ability right?"

"...Something like that."

"Well guess what, you're not the only person to lose control. I've done my fair share of losing control and my ability has nothing to do with it, just me. So when I see you in here crying about losing control for a little bit, all I see is a little bitch."

"What the fuck do you know? You have no idea what it's like, to hurt people you would have never, and the worse part is that while you're doing it... you actually like it. There's nothing worse." She quickly puts her head back into her knees.

If only I didn't know, I guess me and you have something in common. Who would have thought."Oh, I see. So this isn't about me, it's about the people you've hurt in the past."

Her head shoots back up, "What, this has nothing to do with that! Stop trying to act like you know me!"

She's definitely angry now, I can almost feel Red panicking and staring at me through the small window in the door. "Well then, you had no problem throwing me around and scratching me up before you went all carnal. So what's the big problem with doing it after? Besides, it's not like you did any real damage."

"What are you even talking about? look at your fucking arms!"

I don't know why but when she said that it made me laugh, just thinking back to what I had put these arms through, if they were people they would have stopped working for me a while ago.

"What, you think these little scratches bother me? If anything they just covered up some bad memories for me."

She now looks at me flabbergasted, she must not have expected me to act like this. I have no right to be afraid of her after what I have done. If she had killed me she would have done the world some good as far as I'm concerned. But I can't let that happen just yet.

"Come on get your ass up!" I walk over to her and grab her hand. Pulling it out I notice that all her nails on it had been chewed off.

"What the hell are you doing! let go of me!"

What is this? Normally she would have me outclassed in strength but right now her pulls feel like that of a normal little girl. Is she deliberately holding back or really not able to escape my grasp?

Pulling her out of the room I'm greeted with Red's worried face, "What are you doing?"

"Her and I are just going to train for a little bit."