Entering the room and locking the door behind her Evelin saw Emma lying peacefully on a big bed in the middle of the room, her breath weak and haggard. Coming closer she brushed a strand of hair from Emma's face away, whispering, “Everything will be fine.”
Quickly getting to work she grabbed a glass of water that stood on the nightstand beside the bed. Throwing the water away she grabbed the pouch from her belt, slowly pulling a blood-stained cloth out that wrapped around something round.
She slowly unwrapped the cloth it stuck to the object for a moment before breaking free, revealing the heart under it. Pulling the knife from her sheath she held the heart above the glass, inserting it until it was halfway through.
Pulling it out a small stream of scarlet red, that seemed to glow in the dimly lit room, trickled into the glass. After waiting for a moment the last drop fell into the glass. It wasn’t much, maybe a hundred millimeters.
Coming over to Emma she opened her mouth, putting the glass on her lips, slowly pouring the scarlet glowing liquid into her mouth, until the last drop left the glass and was swallowed by Emma. In the process, some blood trailed down her lips and fell on the sheets.
Evelin was on absolute edge at this moment, not knowing what would happen. She couldn’t trust the words of Isabelle but it didn't matter, she was desperate. For Evelin, it was better to try this inhuman method and have a chance of success instead of watching until certain death took Emma.
The first minutes nothing happened and Evelin believed for a moment that everything was just wild thinking and that drinking this blood would not change anything, but she was soon proven wrong.
Lying on the bed Emma first rapidly moved her eyes under her eyelids, before her head began convulsing at a rapid speed, then her chest, and lastly her limbs. This was nothing unusual for a transformation so Evelin was somewhat relieved after seeing Emma convulse like this.
The blanket was getting restricting her movement so Evelin removed it so that Emma would have the room to spread her limbs. In their recent mad advancement of the survivors, they noticed that this convulsion was not only normal but necessary for a transformation. If you tried restricting someone undergoing transformation you would only make it worse for them.
During this transformation, changes were normal, even if they varied from person to person the most affected region of the body were the muscles and organs. They experienced the biggest changes as they were broken down and healed repeatedly, in the process they are strengthened; refined. They were even some people that grew or shrunk in height.
The changes were different for each individual but there were some parallels between all of them like the effect of healing and the refinement of the body. Evelin was only waiting for something to happen that was out of place but the process was very smooth.
Soon after the convulsion began Emma’s body began to heal, as the hidden internal injuries clotted and closed themself in seconds. Even her liver was mended together and healed like the injury was never there, to begin with.
Evelin couldn’t see this healing with her eyes but she could feel it. Color returned in Emma's corpse-resembling body and her aura previously very weak grew in strength once more. Suddenly Emma awakened with an ear-piercing scream. The moment Evelin had waiting for finally arrived.
Normally the hardest point of a transformation was in the first few minutes and this was also where most people lose their life. During this convulsion, the body is broken down and healed rapidly, and afterward calms down, taking some time to rest and properly adjust the body to these new changes, but rarely someone dies in these last steps.
This meant that Emma was currently at the most crucial point and to Evelin’s shock awake. Normally people quickly lose during the convulsion their consciousness but Emma instead awoke during this moment.
Worried Evelin came beside her saying, “Emma everything is fine. You are healing.” But Emma didn’t seem to hear anything as the convulsion got only worse and she stretched her chest into the air, while her limbs stretched in abnormal angles.
Evelin could hear how bones snapped and deformed themself. She wanted to help do something – anything but she knew best that she couldn’t do anything besides praying that Emma would survive herself.
*BAM, BAM, BAM* It was during this time that frenzied knocking came from the door. Following the knocking was Jim’s voice, “Who is in there? What the fuck is happening?!” Jim just wanted to check on Emma only to find an unconscious Charlotte lying before the door.
Overwhelmed by the situation, Evelin didn’t know what she should do. She couldn’t possibly explain herself. Emma's screaming got only louder as the continuous knocking on the door drilled itself with each hit into Evelin's brain. She couldn’t concentrate as her breath quickened.
Looking at Emma she got a really bad feeling, realizing that she may have made the wrong decision. It was true that she wanted to save Emma at all costs but she didn’t account for the possible pain that could bring this transformation with it.
She didn’t want to think of it failing, in her mind failure was not a possibility but if it did fail it meant that the last moments of Emma’s life would be spent in immeasurable pain, while she was forced to watch.
The nails on Emma’s body began to grow before she eventually peeled themself from her fingers, as new ones grew, below them. Her long brown hair slowly turned black, as it got longer. Her eyes opened wide, bleeding profoundly.
Emma wanted to hold her eyes and accidentally scratched with her nails which resembled claws all over her face. This only increased the pain as her voice grew only louder. Using her wrists she covered her eyes in the hope to somehow stop the bleeding, throwing her body around to distract from the pain.
Watching over this Evelin felt her throat begin to throb as a hot, acid-like liquid rushed from deep within her up to her mouth.
*Through* Puking all over the ground Evelin felt her head spinning. How could she do this? Something so inhuman and wrong? Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
Repeatedly slamming her head for her stupidity Evelin felt helpless, as tears rolled down her cheeks. She wanted to touch Emma, in the hope of doing something but didn’t – fearing that it would only make the situation worse.
Emma bent over into a ball, lying on the sheet that was drenched in red. The pain from her throbbing, itching, and burning eyes was too intense as Emma used her claws to scratch over them again and again. She ripped her hair out just to distract herself from the pain. Due to the mutation, she was still healing as her self-inflicted wounds closed seconds after appearing. “Someone end this! Please someone end it! End this pain! I can't anymore!"
*RUMPH* The lock of the door was ripped open, as Jim fell into the room, only to see a crying Evelin and a bloody Emma sprawled on the bed, gouging her own eyes out. Completely overwhelmed by the situation Jim was frozen in place.
Emma continued her pleas, which were only broken by her spitting blood and teeth. Under her wide open mouth, grew new much sharper teeth, and spit and blood flew through the air that landed on Jim’s face.
This finally broke his frozen state as Jim shook his head. Ignoring everything else, he rushed to Emma and restrained her arms so that she can't hurt herself any further. Jim was surprised by the immense strength she could muster having to use his full strength to restrain her.
Emma was kicking with her legs trying to somehow break her arms free. It was hard to hold her in place but by leaning on top of her to ball her together Jim could finally restrain her. “No! You have to let her go!” Evelin screamed from the side.
Jim couldn’t even understand the situation properly as he was pushed away from Evelin falling hard onto the ground. “What the fuck! Evelin, what is wrong with you? What the fuck is happening!?”
Moving frantically in the same place she shouted, “She is mutating!” Taking a moment to realize what this meant Jim grew furious holding Evelin by the shoulder. “Did you lose your mind!? This is madness! How could you do something so stupid!?”
Stuttering with her words Evelin pushed Jim aside. “Fuck I don’t know! What was I supposed to do? Watch how she dies!?” Holding his template Jim shouted, “Yes that is better than turning into some monster!”
For a moment there was silence, apart from the still-screaming Emma. Both were rapidly thinking about how they possibly could salvage the situation. If this went on Emma wouldn’t survive for long. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find a salutation before a change accrued.
Pushing her back up, one could see Emma's spine as each vertebra produced a cracking sound as they deformed themself. She was bending her spine further and further, while her limps stretched and seemed to extend. *Crack!* Her elbows snapped into an unnatural angel with one sudden motion, as another ear-piercing scream numbed both Jim and Evelin.
The scream came to a sudden end as Emma fell into a fit of coughing that only grew in intensity as time passed. Each cough brought with it a mouthful of blood. Looking one last time at Evelin, with her vertical yellow shining eyes, she smiled. Her expression suddenly changed, as her eyes widened. Afterward, an expression of relief appeared on her face as she collapsed on the bed; dead.
Both Jim and Evelin were frozen as gradually people appeared around the room. The commotion Emma caused was not little but it was too late. She couldn’t be saved.
At first, Jim didn’t want to believe any of this, this was all a dream, a very cruel dream. But even Jim couldn’t imagine in his dreams the scene before him. On a dark red-drenched sheet laid Emma. Her brown hair turned into a horrible black, with only some patches of hair remaining making her appear like some lunatic.
Her bright green eyes turned into a predatory yellow, as her vertical eyes stared in the direction of Evelin, having lost their luster of life. Her face was smeared in blood, while teeth and nails lay scattered across the sheet.
Due to her constant convulsion, her claws ripped the sheet and mattress open giving the expression of a wild beast running amok. Her elbows were turned into weird angles, her limps seemed unnaturally long and her spine protruded out of her back, so that could count each individual vertebra.
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Jim didn’t know what to feel. First shock, then horror, disgust, followed by sorrow, and lastly furry. Furry directed at Evelin, the one responsible for this mess. Jumping her, they fell to the ground.
Evelin didn’t even try to resist as she landed on the ground and punches rained down on her. The others were quick to react as they stopped Jim from seriously injuring Evelin. They didn’t understand what happened but knew that Jim couldn't think straight right now.
Most tried to ignore it but the scene before them was truly gruesome even for them. Everyone saw their fair share of dismembered and mangled bodies over the last two and a half months but it wasn’t the wound that made this body so frightening.
No, there was this atmosphere emitting from it like a veil of darkness, that was hard to describe. It felt like something pressing down on you, robbing you of your breath as you feel death, disgust, and most of all horror. The corpse before them was anything but human.
Soon members of the Vanguard arrived taking control of the situation. Under them were Solaire, Max, Jake, and Clay. Solaire calmed the restless crowd down, Max cleared the scene making sure nothing was changed, while Jake stopped Jim from doing anything reckless.
Lastly, Clay was observing the room with a mix of horror, disgust, and… curiosity. He looked intensely at the corpse of Emma for several minutes, before Solaire snapped him out of his daze.
Having controlled the situation they knew that it would be impossible to hide this matter from the rest of the people, which was a huge problem to them. They somehow had to come up with an explanation for this whole mess and the only one who could tell them more was Evelin – who was currently blankly staring at nothing particular.
Shortly discussing with Dave, Solaire decided to imprison Evelin before questioning her about this… horrendous situation.
***
The morning of the next day broke in, as Solaire arrived before the cell of Evelin who seemingly has not slept for a single second after being imprisoned, not moving even a bit from her original position.
She seemed like a statue that was frozen in time or a puppet that would not retaliate no matter what you did. Looking at the two guards standing directly beside the cell Solaire gave a short nod, before opening the cell.
Stepping in Solaire said, “Evelin could you please follow me?” At first, she didn’t react but under the relentless stare of Solaire, she broke down and eventually slowly arose from her sitting position, several bones cracking in the process.
Without any resistance or speaking a single word she followed after Solaire, the two guards from the cell, following closely behind, both of the third rank. They would not make the mistake of using too few guards twice.
Arriving upstairs and opening the final door outward a wave of shouting, yelling, and roaring could be heard. The people were in an uproar and as soon as the light hit Evelin's eyes, she was momentarily blinded before this wave of sound rushed over her, crashing upon her like a hammer on hot iron.
After her vision adapted and she could see again she saw a seemingly endless crowd of furious people cursing and insulting her. They were like a mob that grew only more aggressive when they saw their object of hatred.
“You monster!”
“Burn the witch!”
“Feed her to the beasts!”
“We should hang her!”
The complaints and insults were endless and impossible to determine from who came what. The crowd was only getting more heated as the insults increased, eventually, stones were thrown and one landed on Evelin's head, leaving behind a small trail of blood.
Exhaling exhausted Solaire took a deep breath before shouting, “Silence!” Hearing the normally calm, positive, and merciful Solair shout to such an extent that his voice resounded through the complete vicinity of the church that it even left an echo behind the crowd grew silent at once.
Solaire was the most trusted and respected person by the majority of people. They were furious but they would not dare to disrespect the person that had given them so much. Many were saved by him and even more believed that he was the reason why they weren't dead yet.
Without saying any further words the people cleared a way wherever Solaire stepped, as he made his way to the church. Evelin closely followed behind, her eyes still unfocused, while her expression remained hard to read.
Under the watch of the hateful gazes of the crowd, they slowly moved to the church. Stepping inside the heavy oak door fell into its lock behind Evelin, causing the murmurs of the people to fade at once. At long last silence returned. Unknown to her, she relaxed her tense muscles as the light shined through the beautifully colored windows which gave her a sense of peace.
The grand hall of the church with its delightful decoration was completely silent as they were the only two people inside. Solaire slowly walked forward before halting through a window depicting a magnificent sun.
Grabbing his silver necklace that revealed a similar sun, Soalire rose it above his lips, muttering a short prayer before sitting on the first bench, patting the place beside him. “Come sit with me.”
Hesitating for a moment Evelin sat down beside him, still not muttering a single word. For a moment Solaire just said nothing while looking at the glass of the sun in front of them. Eventually, he asked calmly, “Evelin, my child, why did you do this?”
She had a lot of time to think over the night and analyze, trying to understand where everything went wrong. Leaning on the bench Evelin folded her hands resting them on her lap. “I wanted to save Emma.”
“Even if this meant sacrificing another human? Even if that meant Emma would be this... mutant for the rest of her life?” Solaire asked calmly, still looking at the sun.
Evelin took a moment to think before resolving herself saying, “Yes, if I could redo everything I would have done the same.”
For the first time showing surprise on his face, Solaire asked, “How do you come to such a conclusion?”
Being eerily calm about this Evelin said, “Sacrifices have to be made if we want to survive. I quickly realized that kindness and generosity will not lead us to survive this catastrophe. For me, Isabelle was no better than the beasts we slaughtered. She was the one who even put Emma into this condition. If her death gave the possibility of Emma surviving then I would do it again, without a second thought.”
Inhaling and pausing for a moment, Solaire asked, “Do you not believe that everyone at least deserves a second chance?”
Shaking her head Evelin spoke, “Times have changed. It is not that I don’t want to give second chances, but that it would be impossible. We don’t have the leisure to be merciful. If people can not obey the rules then they are better off dead.”
Solaires’ forehead wrinkled and an unsettling feeling grew in his heart. “Evelin I have spoken to you before and I have been to every festival where you have sung for the people and I have witnessed firsthand the kindness and hope you gave people. What changed?”
Hearing this Evelin couldn’t help herself but chuckle. “What changed? Solaire please look around you. We are surrounded by seemingly endless beasts, most of us are dead, and I don’t even want to know how the rest of the world is doing. There is no return. This is the beginning of a new era and something like forgiveness or kindness has no place in it. There will only be one rule and that is the one of the strongest.”
Nodding Solaire said, “You may be right, but the unity of humans is also a form of strength. History has proven that we humans are at our strongest when we work together as one, that helps and cares for each other, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, that is exactly why we have exterminated scum like Isabelle or Troy from this world. They are nothing but poison to our society and in our situation, we can’t risk the lives of all just to save a few individuals because you hope they redeem themself.” Evelin replied with deep resolve.
Before Solaire could ask another question Evelin was the one who asked a question. “Solaire, do you believe what I did was wrong? That I should have acted differently?”
Flustered for a moment, Soalire eventually nodded his head replying, “I do. I can understand your desire to save Emma but turning to such cruel methods speaks against everything we stand for. Especially in times like these, we have to spread kindness and hope, help the ones that swayed from the path and guide them back to the light.”
Turning to Evlein and looking her for the first time, directly in the eyes, Solaire grew very serious as he asked, “Do you regret your decisions? Do you want to redeem yourself? Do you want a second chance?”
Not breaking eye contact for even a moment Evelin shook her head smiling slightly, determination engraved on her face. Determination to stand to her opinion until the very end. “No, I don’t reject it. I tried my best to save Emma and even if it failed in the end I believe that my path is the right one. This time I may have failed but next time I could succeed.”
Standing up with a straight back she continued, “In my opinion, the human race right now has no chance of surviving. Not only are the beasts stronger than us, but they are also evolving at a pace that no human can match. We too have to evolve and adapt if we want to survive.”
By now Solaire’s face darkened and his eyes widened, the folds on his forehead showing the deep furry inside of him. Following the action Solarie too stood up towering above Evelin, as he took a deep breath that relaxed his muscles.
His calm composure returned as an expression of disappointment and rejection was clear on his face. Nodding Solaire said, “Very well, so be it. Evelin Madison I hereby declare on behalf of the people your execution in the morning of the next day. You shall think for today if you want to stay to your decision. Do you have any last wishes?”
Having expected something like this to happen from the beginning Evelin wasn’t the least flustered or angry. That was just how people functioned. They feared everything that didn’t go into their norm or was in their opinion dangerous. Fools, all of them! They shall experience for themself that survival is impossible.
Thinking this Emma said, “I actually have a last wish. If possible I want to speak with my classmates one last time. They are the only ones left I could call friends and I want to say goodbye. Everyone else that meant something to me is dead after all.”
Solaire’s face eased a little after hearing this. It seems like Evelin wasn’t completely lost, maybe she would change her mind over the course of the day. Solaire could only hope so because the people were furious, understandably so.
Evelin essentially experimented on her best friend not only a very dangerous method but also one that was extremely immoral and inhuman. The people were angry but most of all they felt fear. They felt that Evelin was a threat that had to be removed similar to Troy who was a threat that had to be removed.
Solaire didn’t want to execute Evelin, especially not at a time when they needed every hand they could get. He was trusted by the people but even he couldn’t prevent them from calling for justice.
Solarie feared that if Evelin was left alive without showing any sign of remorse or will to make up for her deeds the people would revolt. Solaire was trying to give her a way out but if she refused there was nothing more he could do than oblige to the will of the people.
One by one the surviving classmates entered the church, speaking with Evelin under four eyes. There was only one person who refused and that was Jim. Even Charlotte, who was knocked out by Evelin, spoke with her to try and understand why all of this had to happen.
But Jim was different, he was present when this brutal mutation unfolded and he knew that if he saw Evelin he wouldn’t be able to control himself. In his perspective, Evelin did something unforgivable.
In total, five people visited her; Charlotte, Max, Clay, Chirs, and Jake. They were together with Jim the only people left in their class. Everyone except Jim spoke with Evelin, some longer than others but they all eventually returned from the church with various expressions and feelings.
After Jake the last of them stepped outside, Solaire returned to Evelin guiding her back to her cell. Over the course of the day, he tried multiple times to change her mind – all ending in failure.
It seems like she made her decision. She was resolved to lose her life and as the sun set under the horizon Soalrie finally gave up, hoping that in the morning Evelin had a revelation that changed her mind, that was truly her last chance.
***
The next day arrived and Solaire stood up early, even before the sun fully rose, wanting to visit Evelin to finally bring her to her senses. Arriving before the house that led to the small prison Solaire immediately felt something amiss as the guards outside were missing.
Rushing inside he found the four people standing guard all unconscious – cleanly knocked out. Storming down the wet stone corridor, Solaire saw the hall with the three cells on the left side come into his view.
Lying unconscious on the ground were another two guards that watched directly over the cell. Looking in the cell with gasping breath, Solaire found it empty. “Oh, by the sun…”