"YOU'RE DIFFERENT NOW..."...."A MONSTER"...." A HYBRID..."...." YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A DAMNED SCIENCE EXPERIMENT".... "WHY DO YOU DESERVE HAPPINESS?".... WHY DO YOU DESERVE TO LIVE, TO SURVIVE?"....."WHY??? WHY YOU!? WHEN YOU TOOK THE LIFE OF OTHERS? WHEN YOU WATCHED THEM DIE!"
"YOU SAVED YOURSELF. YOU LEFT THEM BEHIND. YOU LEFT THEM THERE. YOU BETRAYER, YOU MONSTER!... ERIC. ERIC! ERIC!!!"
Eric's eyes snapped open.
The silence in whatever room he was in was thick and damning
The nightmare that had just woken him up was so raw and loud, in contrast to what he was hearing ow.... Nothing.
The silence was too clean. The room was too still. The air buzzed low, like electricity lived in the walls. His chest rose slowly, like he was waking up from drowning. Something stung the inside of his throat, burning like he hadn't tasted water in days. Or weeks. Or years.
He laid on a hard mattress in a room that wasn't a hospital, wasn't the lab, wasn't… anywhere familiar. He could not recognize the rust colored walls. Low light overhead. Exposed wires ran like veins through the ceiling.
Eric sat up slowly and immediately immediately felt it.
Strength, coursing through his veins. Not the kind you train for.
The kind that doesn't belong in a human body. The kind that's wired into your bones like lightning.
Eric looked down at his hands. The skin was darker, rich brown, but now veined through with something almost black, like ink blooming beneath the surface. His fingers twitched.
His breath caught at how new and scary even his own skin looked to him.
"What the hell happened to me?"
The door hissed open. and a boy Eric has never seen before stepped inside.
Thin. Barefoot. Eyes too sharp for someone his age. He didn't say hello. Just leaned against the frame like he was checking to see if Eric had bitten through the walls yet.
"You're awake," he said flatly. "That's fast."
Eric blinked. "Where am I?"
The boy didn't answer. Just held Eric's stare like he was calculating whether or not to reach for something behind his back. Like he knew Eric was a threat. Like he'd seen what Eric was.
Another voice answered from behind him.
"You're in the Den."
Two more young people walked in. A guy with arms like steel pipes, tattoos crawling across his shoulders like vines, and a girl with white-blonde hair and eyes like frostbite. They looked older than the first boy. They even looked more unfriendly than him...
"We pulled you from the forest," said the girl. "Right before you went nuclear."
Eric's heart thudded.The girl.... "Elara. Where is she?"
The room shifted. The silence they offered him meant something.
"She's safe," the blonde said. "For now."
For now.
That broke something in him.
His vision blurred, then sharpened too much. He could see the flicker of their pulses in their necks. The scent of their sweat. The sound of blood moving under their skin.
Something inside his chest twitched.
"What did you say?" Eric growled, voice deeper than it should be.
"She's fine," said the barefoot boy. "Calm down."
But Eric couldn't What had there done to Elara? What if she was hurt? Tied in a cold basement, shivering and waiting for death?
His chest rose fast. Breathing harder. The burning in his throat exploded into hunger. Something alive stirred under his skin, like a beast pacing just beneath the surface.
And then it happened.
His spine cracked.
His arms jerked forward as if pulled by invisible strings.
Veins bulged across his skin, black, and pulsing, and wild. His hands contorted, fingers stretching. Claws burst from beneath his fingernails. His jaw split with a sharp snap, teeth tearing through gum and flesh.
The girl stumbled back.
The other big guy raised his fists.
But Eric didn't see them. In fact, he saw nothing. Everything went red.
Power bled out of him like heat. His body shifted, bulked, twisted into something too strong, too fast, too hungry. He slammed a hand into the wall. It cracked down the center like glass.
The air around him shimmered.
He could smell her.
Elara.
Not bloodied. Not in pain. But close.
Her scent was so clear it cut through the rage like a blade. Lavender. Smoke. Fear. Not terror, but worry.
It stopped him.
The beast inside him twitched again, sniffing the air to make sure she was truly safe before it settled finally.
Eric stood there, chest heaving, claws dripping blood from where they'd broken through skin. His eyes glowed red in the dim room. The three others stared like they were watching a bomb tick.
The door behind them opened again and an old man entered the room.
He was tall. Older, he looked to be in his late forties or early fifties. His eyes were like burnt coal. A heavy metal brace wrapped around his leg like armor.
When he looked at Eric in his semi-transformed state,he didn't flinch.
He even looked at Eric like he'd expected this. Wanted this.
"So," Boss said, voice low. "You're the one."
Eric didn't answer.
The growl in his throat was still fading.
Boss walked forward, slow, steady, as if daring Eric to move.
"You smell her, don't you?" Boss said. "The girl. Elara. That's why you didn't kill anyone yet. That's why you stopped."
Eric's fingers twitched.
"If anything happens to her," he said, voice like smoke and knives, "I will tear this whole place apart."
Boss just nodded.
Then smiled and turned away, leaning his body on what of rhw walls while watching Eric like he was a reality TV star.
"I'm Zaya, by the way." Said the blonde girl, "...and this is Rafe" she pointed at the boy with pure muscle in his arm. "...and the first boy you met is Fenn, and That is Boss. He's like our father. One person is supposed to be here, but he generally hates crowds"
Eric could not even fully understand what she was saying stood there, shaking, chest rising and falling like a war drum, claws half-formed and slick with his blood. The walls of the safehouse trembled behind him. Dust hung in the air. What the heck was his future going to be?