"Evan, I know you've only been awake for a couple hours. "But I want you to answer just one question for me." He shrugged, as if to say "Why not?"
He's been human for barely a day and has already surpassed me in strength.
"Don't feel bad if you don't the answer to this, because I know the state you're in." I gripped the railing harder. My eyes fell to the long, stitched up gash that ran from the center of his forehead to his left cheek. That, plus the innocent, doe-eyed look in his eyes hit me like a sack of bricks. He wouldn't have a coach to pep-talk him through the pain that would no doubt come with the healing process. No mother would be there to comfort him which, despite his mature age, would be needed. Everyone we had known and trusted had died or become one of the infected.
If he didn't remember me; he would have absolutely no one.
My front teeth dug into the tissue of my lip. "I can't do this." The curtain of darkness eyes often provide wasn't enough, not in this situation.
I had seen his dance partner and friend die; at my hands.
I had killed my own without mercy.
I had contemplated my own suicide.
Death was easy to pull off with the well-timed stomping of a boot, the pulling of a trigger, or the slitting of a vein.
Life couldn't have been more torturous.
"It's okay." Frigid, barely alive tips touch my knuckles. I looked up.
That crooked, laid-back smile I'd seen many a red carpet event was back. Even when you were just looking at it from the bright screen of a cellphone, it was contagious.
He's been human for barely a day and has already surpassed me in strength.
"Don't feel bad if you don't the answer to this, because I know the state you're in." I gripped the railing harder. My eyes fell to the long, stitched up gash that ran from the center of his forehead to his left cheek. That, plus the innocent, doe-eyed look in his eyes hit me like a sack of bricks. He wouldn't have a coach to pep-talk him through the pain that would no doubt come with the healing process. No mother would be there to comfort him which, despite his mature age, would be needed. Everyone we had known and trusted had died or become one of the infected.
If he didn't remember me; he would have absolutely no one.
My front teeth dug into the tissue of my lip. "I can't do this." The curtain of darkness eyes often provide wasn't enough, not in this situation.
I had seen his dance partner and friend die; at my hands.
I had killed my own without mercy.
I had contemplated my own suicide.
Death was easy to pull off with the well-timed stomping of a boot, the pulling of a trigger, or the slitting of a vein.
Life couldn't have been more torturous.
"It's okay." Frigid, barely alive tips touch my knuckles. I looked up.
That crooked, laid-back smile I'd seen many a red carpet event was back. Even when you were just looking at it from the bright screen of a cellphone, it was contagious.
