Looking round the room I tried to find something that I could arm myself with, I knew I had my claws and speed but I was already feeling slightly unstable inside with the fear and panic that roamed freely under my flesh. I found a rather solid looking candlestick which I thought might be made of bronze or some other fancy metal, as long as it could land a solid punch and crush a creature’s skull it could have been made of gold and I wouldn’t care.
Walking over to the large wooden door which in itself was a sturdy weight as I found out as I tried to slowly push it open, the hinges creaked ever so slightly which made me cringe and freeze on the spot. Then I sensed them two infected heading my way, turning to my left I spotted a staircase that headed upstairs away from the infected, no need to kill them and use wasted energy unless needed. I took the stairs two at a time and flinched as the wood echoed my steps like an elephant trying to walk silently over egg shells, slowing my pace and trying to be as graceful as possible I made my way up the rest of the stairs with no more noise. I could feel the creatures reach my room just below me standing there confused and heading back out into the corridor, ‘Suddenly a flash entered my mind, hands in front of me lifting up a large golden cup and drinking a red liquid from it, the mouth wasn’t mine as I couldn’t taste the fluid and neither were the hands as they looked younger than mine with no scars. The sleeve of the arm came into view, the grey sweatshirt that Kaley liked to wear…Kaley’ I came back to where I was standing and had to make a mad run for it as the creatures where close behind on the stairs, as I ran the other doors of the strange house blurred past me until I came across one that read ‘Library’. Sneaking inside I hid behind a large writing desk and sensed the two monsters run past the door and vanish down another hallway.
Stepping out from my hiding place I held my head, what had I just seen? Had I entered Kaley’s mind and her thoughts or had she somehow entered mine? Whatever it was that had just happened I knew I needed to find her and warn her about the infected that were running around all over the place she could be in grave danger.
I took a quick glance round the posh looking library, salmon red sofa’s sat in a half moon shape aligned round a dark wood antique coffee table, antique looking lamps sat strategically placed round the room so where ever you sat you would be able to happily read. Large book cases lined a few of the walls filed with hundreds of old leather bound books, I walked over to them and looked at some of the titles, most I had no idea what they were or what they meant but I soon reached one bookcase and found that some of the older books were missing, like whole rows of them. Then as I turned I could see a pile of books holed up in a wheel barrow, maybe the people who had been here had used the books as fuel, burnt them in the fireplaces to keep warm.
Not finding anything of much use in this room other than the books which if I had the time and safety to read I might have I took to the hallway once again and decided to try and follow the way the creatures had gone, maybe if I stayed one step behind them they wouldn’t find me, although I knew that was wishful thinking as my scent would be in the air but then…my scent would have been in the air now how was it they walked right past me?
I came to a long gallery like room, it held suits of armour and many models of Tudor men and women, mainly Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, it hit me like a shovel to the head, I was at Hever Castle, did that mean all those creatures I had sensed wondering round were actually half breeds like me? Not taking any chances just in case the feeling in the pit of my stomach was right about these people maybe not being trust worthy or as great as they sounded I ducked down low and took to rushing through the rest of the room not really taking in any of my surroundings.
Another staircase came into view after searching around a few of the rooms for a more suitable weapon but I found none, taking the stairs slow and steady I made it to the bottom, hiding behind a large wooden pillar I looked around the new room I was in which was just as spooky looking and as extravagant as the rest of the castle. Making my way through the downstairs part of the building I could hear talking, chatting, laughing and eating, the sound of mouths chewing flesh.
Panic rushed over my body in prickles of cool sweat, sneaking ever so slowly to a wide wooden door frame with the door which was wide open I heard the noise getting louder and louder, my senses prickled with fear but also excitement, were these people really like me, could me and Kaley really be accepted by others and if they did, could I, would I stay? Would we even want to leave to go to where Kaley supposedly needed to go?
A loud cheer erupted through the room sending vibrations through the floor boards and into me, I felt sick with the anticipation of not knowing, I hated not knowing what was going on around me, I needed to know. I stuck my head round the frame barely making a whispers noise, glancing in I came across a dining hall complete with people, the large table was full of people and food and drink. The food was mainly vegetables and some random meats some of which I couldn’t recognise from here, the glasses and bottles that floated around the table were of alcohol which was a rarity but a great sight.
Suddenly I had another flash rip through my mind, ‘the owners eyes looked over the food and picked up pieces and ate, their stomach near bursting but this much food could not be sniffed at seen as there wasn’t hardly any food like this around anymore. Then their eyes turned to the doorway and they spot me a mile off, I stand there like a frozen zombie in a trance as my mind tries to understand what I am seeing. My hair has been tied into a plait down one side over my shoulder, the blonde of it gleaming in the candle light that I hadn’t noticed was flickering in the dining hall. The night dress is reflecting the light and I look almost ghostly’. “Stacie”, Kaley’s lone voice cries out from over the laughter.
The whole dining table went silent and I held my breath as my mind came back to me, I looked over at the young girl who was sitting next to two women, she looked happy and warm.
“Good evening Stacie, please come in take a seat, we don’t bite, often”, a velvety rich voice called out from by the fire place which like I guessed was burning books. The voice belonged to a rather well to do man who wore a perfect white smile along with his dirty ash blonde hair, his pale skin hid his age well but I knew he must have been around the late thirties, early forties mark although by eye he could have passed for late twenties. His clothes were very well kept, almost old fashioned in the sense that he looked like he belonged in a Tudor court. He held a glass of red liquid in his hands, he swirled it around breathing in the aroma of what I thought was wine before taking a long sip, placing the glass down and heading my way.
He reached me with such speed I hardly noticed him move, it took me by surprise which made me jump making the rest of them laugh at me. I didn’t like the fact they were laughing at me, it made me look vulnerable and I didn’t want them to think I was vulnerable as who knew what they would do if they did think that. “Welcome Stacie we have been waiting quite a while for you to wake up”, he placed a hand on my shoulder which made me pull away.
“How long was I out for?” I asked him watching his emotionless eyes as I tried to read him but he was very well trained and hid everything from me.
“Two days, don’t worry about your arm we took care of it”, he smiled.
Confused I looked down at my arm I could see where the glass had cut it but only just, there were some stitches there but with my faster healing abilities I didn’t really need to have them. I could now see by his expressions that he was intrigued by my fast healing ability, maybe it wasn’t an every half creature thing.
Holding my arm and looking him dead in the eye I had to ask him something, “How did you know we were at the hotel?”
He kept his expression plain and the smile on his lips but he spoke with a slight hesitation, “How do you think we found you?”
“I asked first, you tell me”.
“Very well, we were on the hunt”, he replied.
“The hunt?” I asked confused “For what?”
“Dinn
er”, he replied bluntly.
“Right…so…”
“So we went out to hunt and came across the grounds for the hotel and heard the window being broken, we saw young Kaley here trying to help you but you were drowning. Tristan over there”, he pointed to a big huge man with muscled arms and tight fitting clothes, he looked like a security guard maybe he was, security for the half infected breed? “He pulled you out”.
“Yes I remember”, I said.
“Do you remember what you did to ward Tristan off you?” he asked me a hint of amusement flashed across his eyes before being swallowed up the emotionless persona.
“Yes”.
“Your claws, I have never seen anything like it before”, he almost drooled over me as he took one of my hands in his trying to find the exit and entry point of my weapons.
Pulling my hand away from him I fired another question, “So your all like me right, half breeds, half infected and half human”.
He nodded, “We are the evolution”.
“Evolution?”
“Yes we are the only people in the world to take hold of the virus and evolve it in our own bodies, we have adapted it for our own use and we have grown into better and stronger people from it. The normal people have succumbed to the virus and let it destroy their minds and their bodies but we are the future of this world, we can rebuild it, together”, he looked so proud to be telling me this.
“I don’t think we have evolved, we are the minority, just a freak accident in our own bodies. We can still infect others and turn their minds, if we were truly evolved we could turn everyone like us not to be monsters”, I said.
“But don’t you see”, he said taking my arm again in his, “This is evolution, you are evolution! I have never seen one of us heal so quick from wounds, I have never seen one of us produce claws from under the skin…What else can you do?”
“Nothing”, I said and looked over to Kaley who gave me the eyes that she hadn’t let on about my not being able to die secret, I just hoped she had kept schtum about hers too.
“I don’t believe that for an instant, you are different to us, I can feel it”, he spoke softly.
“How? What can you all do?” I asked him.
“We have a mixture of talents really, Tristan over there is stronger and faster than before, he can smash down walls, snap people in half with no bother, even lift cars and other objects out the way, Katherine over there, well I guess hers is a little similar to yours in a way, Katherine why not show her what you can do”.
The girl called Katherine stood from her seat and walked over to me, she was in her twenties like me, short, petite with short pixie cropped flame red hair, she was pretty with brown eyes and freckles, then suddenly her skin paled and the veins became more pronounced, her eyes started to bleed and chunks of her skin swelled up with infection and became pustules, her finger tips as she raised them bore bone and tendon no flesh. I took a step back away from her and she laughed at me.
“She’s nothing like me”, I snapped.
“What do you mean? She can change into the creature side and come back to the human”, he replied, “Just like you can”.
“I can’t do that, I don’t change and look like that”.
“Hmm well Kaley said you can, she told us that you can flip into a creature mode and not know who you are”.
I looked at Kaley and she shrugged, maybe she had spilled all after all, “I can do that yes but I don’t change like that, it’s all mentally changed when it happens not physically”.
“I see”, It was silent for a moment then he spoke again, “So you heal pretty quickly, are you sure there isn’t anything else you can do?”
I looked him dead in the eye, “No”, then I said, “Don’t you all heal faster than normal?”
He shook his head.
Then I looked back at Katherine who was changing back to herself, her face and veins calmed down and went back to normal and the blood stopped dripping from her eyes but her finger tips remained the same. I hadn’t noticed her taking off some gloves but she must have as she placed a pair back on as her fingers failed to heal up, they looked saw and infected with other infections other than the obvious one.
“Can’t you heal them?” I asked her.
She shook her head, “No, I was caught out by the acid rain but only my hands as I touched some water that had collected in a bucket, I thought it was normal water I could drink but before it reached my lips my hands started to melt away. They have healed a little but it has taken six and a half years to get this good and I have taken so many antibiotics that they now have no effect on me now”, she gave a nervous laugh but I could see this pained her and not just because it hurt but by how it looked.
“So none of you can heal faster than a human?” I asked.
“No you are the one and only person that we know who does it. What is your trick?” he said.
I shrugged, “I don’t know”.
“How were you infected?” he asked me.
I shifted uncomfortably I didn’t really want to tell him in case he knew more about the crushers and other creatures than what he was letting on.
“Well?” he asked again.
“A Crusher, I was infected by the spit of a Crusher”, I replied and the whole room fell into silence, even Kaley looked shocked.
“A Crusher?” he said quietly, “No one I have known has ever survived a Crusher infection and we have quite a lot of half breeds as you put it here”.
“I met an insane doctor who thought he had created a cure and I guess in a way he had, the supposed cure stopped me from turning completely but it didn’t take it away, it made it stay there in the back ground slowly coming out more over the years”.
“Interesting”, he said.
“So how were you infected and what can you do?” I asked him.
“I got infected when I cut my arm, I was washing away some infected blood that had splattered on me during a fight and it got into my wound. I felt something in me change but it never came like the others, all of them lost their minds but me, I stayed like this”.
“But what can you do?” I asked.
He smiled curiously at me then stared deep into my eyes then frowned, “I can’t do it to you either”.
“Do what?”
He looked at me then at Kaley, “I can’t do it to either if you two, why?” he said but more to himself than to us.
“Um excuse me, do what?”
He blinked at me, “Normally I can connect with the minds of the infected and tell them what I want them to do, with my people, my half breeds they are all under my rule because I can tell them what to do and make them do it”, he looked at me hard, “But why not you two?”
“Maybe it’s the way we were infected, or the mutation of the type of infection”, I suggested.
“Hmmm maybe”, he said still staring deep into my eyes as if I would just come out with some explanation that would appease him.
I had a slight idea why, Kaley could block me with her gift like she had done to Albi when he followed me or maybe because my mind was connected to the Crusher’s that he couldn’t get in because he was on a different wave length, like a different radio signal than the one I was compatible with.
“See I can understand your theory with you but not her”, he said.
“Why not her?” I asked looking at Kaley, suddenly a scream echoed in my brain, “DON’T TELL HIM, I DIDN’T TELL HIM”, it was Kaley screaming at me not to say anything, her lips didn’t move but I could hear her so clearly inside my mind.
“Do you know something I don’t?”
I shook my head, “No but why don’t you think my theory would work with her?”
“Because you were infected by a mutated breed of creature that I can believe, but she was just merely bitten by a melter, by one of the acid rain victims. And she shows no sign of infection and holds no special ability other than being infected and not turned. I know she is as I can smell the infection in her but noth
ing else, no great ability”.
“Maybe her part of the evolution is just showing normal people can experience not turning too”.
“Maybe”, but he didn’t sound convinced by this.
Hoping he bought it I turned to smile at Kaley, she smiled back and waved her hand at an empty seat next to hers.
“How rude of me you must be starving”, he smiled, “Go ahead sit down and feast”.
“What is your name?” I asked him, “You know mine but I have no clue of yours”.
“Again how rude of me, it’s Christian”, he purred looking into my mind and trying again to see if I broke but nothing, my mind was not his to listen in on. Thinking to myself I knew it had to be down to the Crusher version of the virus, I could communicate to other Crushers and command them to do my budding but I couldn’t cross wires with other creatures, that had to be the reason why he couldn’t get to mine because he wasn’t infected by the Crusher gene pool.
Walking to the seat Kaley pushed out for me I looked over all the people that sat in this grand dining room, they all looked grand in their well to do outfits, most of the women wore corsets and dresses that would have been all the rage when Anne Boleyn was around, they might even have been her old dresses. All the men wore strange frilly looking men’s clothing, I had to stifle a laugh, I think they all thought they were royalty, the new half breed royal family. I sat down, one of the girls next to me handed me a plate. Looking at all the food I tried to find something that would tickle my taste buds but I felt dazed, the meat didn’t look like meat I recognised, it wasn’t deer, pig, chicken, fox, rabbit or anything I would consider edible yet it smelt so familiar. Deciding to stay away from the meat I took a plateful of vegetables and other meat free things.
“You really should try the meat it’s delicious”, Christian said to me lifting up a hunk of meat from his own plate and taking a wild bite, as he chewed he again tried my mind. Giving him my fakest politest smile I carried on with my vegetarian option.
Something didn’t feel right here and I knew to go with my gut instinct, something about Christian and his merry men was off.
Alone (Book 2): Lone Page 19