Shai Soi

Chapter 39

Sadie threw us in a cell. Rebecca lashed through the bars and gripped Sadie's arm. Her voice was cold. Rebecca's words made my gut twist. "What are you doing? I thought we were getting rid of him. " She wouldn't even look at me.

Sadie did. Her prodding brown eyes searched my face. She grinned and said to Rebecca, "I'll get you out as soon as I have clearance. We can't have any spies releasing our new captives."

Sadie turned to leave but Rebecca slammed into the bars and yanked Sadie closer. Sadie's eyes widened. She looked almost afraid. Rebecca growled through gritted teeth. "Don't leave me with him."

Sadie removed Rebecca's hand from her arm. Even from here I could see crescent moons gouged into her skin. My heart twisted. All I did was protect her. And attack her friend. And indirectly got her parents captured. And... kiss her. And her friend.

I ran a hand through my hair. The cuffs had since been removed, but it still felt like I was bound. I caught Sadie's eye. She smirked. "I'll get you out as soon as I can. Try not to kill him while I'm gone." And she clipped down the hall.

Then everything was quiet. I felt the hatred rolling off Rebecca. The ice in my stomach creeped up to my heart. Its soft tissue turned brittle. I didn't even care that my voice wavered. "Bec-"

"Don't. Talk. To me." Her knuckles were white around the glowing blue bars of the cell. The same thing keeping us from using our shai  abilities like those guns. I was surprised the bars didn't bend under her grip. How could she hate me so much?

I took one step. She whipped around. I flinched. Her expression was fierce. Rebecca's lip curled and her face twisted. Her eyes, usually vibrant and beautiful, had turned the darkest shade of molten gold. I couldn't make out that tiny fleck of black in her left iris. "If you come closer I will snap your neck. Just like you did with that guard, but I'll make it a hundred times slower."

"B-Bec-"

"STOP CALLING ME THAT! I'm not your pet! I'm not your toy that you can mess around with! You ruined my life!" I picked up Sadie's footsteps from the floor above. She could no doubt hear Rebecca's screaming... and my breaking heart. "Now Sadie's going to help me put it back together. And I can finally get your smell out of my nose." Her glare was inhuman. She looked more like a bloodthirsty lion than the sarcastic caring girl I...came to know.

Sadie appeared around the corner grinning ear to ear. She didn't clear anything with anyone, she just wanted a show. She got one. Rebecca completely and utterly despised me. The air rushed from my lungs all at once and I doubled over choking. Both girls glanced at me. And- and I thought that I saw Rebeca's eyebrows knot, but then she leered. She leapt toward me and slammed my nose into her knee. I reeled clutching my nose. She didn't break it, but the ferocity of her strike left me dizzy. How long had she been holding this in? For a time I thought she may have... that we may have...

Where did my Rebecca go? 

"Rebecca," Sadie swiped a thumb over an identification scan and the door swung open. Rebecca rushed out and slammed the door shut. She ripped off her scrubs and threw it on the floor. Her black tank top was still covered in mud. The same mud I'd tried to rub off her cheek only to make it worse. That was when she'd smiled despite the circumstances. Something abnormally normal in the middle of this mess.

"You've been cleared. I believe you'll make an excellent comrade." She'd said comrade like it was a rat in a lab to be poked and meddled with rather than rewarded. I gritted my teeth.

Don't you dare lay a hand on Rebecca-

Sadie smirked. "Don't worry, Nathan. She'll be safe with me."

Rebecca bared her teeth. Once again, a punch slammed into my gut. She was supposed to smile, smile and shake her head. Then her long bangs would fall in her face and she'd blow them away. "Where are we going? Where are my parents? How can I help?"

Sadie put her arm around Rebecca like they were best friends. I tensed, but Rebecca seemed perfectly fine with this and leaned into her. Sadie smiled. "Don't worry. I need to take you to the labs to familiarize the staff to you. Unfortunately, your parents escaped with the rest but my team is out hunting them now. We'll fix them in no time."

They started walking off. Rebecca asking, "Sadie, I don't understand. Why is everyone running if you're making them better?" She stops and pulls away. My spirits lift when I see a glimpse of the old Rebecca. Sadie's arm drops and the girls glare at each other. "What exactly are you doing to them?"

"Nothing, yet." Sadie's voice was clipped and now alert. I sensed something from Rebecca, like she was about to scream and shout or attack. Maybe she was just faking it. But she did nothing but observe Sadie as she said, "I was the first and only volunteer. It hurts, sure, but its amazing. I can feel everything, see everything, hear everything. When I was twelve I broke my nose after fighting a neighborhood bully." She gives me a pointed glance. Rebecca doesn't look back. "Even changing couldn't fix it. But this, this  could. It's like all the animals are living in my body. I'm strong, and fast, and... invincible."

Sadie's face lit up, but not in a good way. Her piercings glinted and a vein popped out of her buzz cut. She took Rebecca's hands in her own. Anger flared in my chest. "Please, do it. It's the best thing that will ever happen to you." She leans into Rebecca's good ear, the one closest to me. She knows I can hear her, and she looks right at me when whispering, "Imagine you can do anything. You could be better than any Namuh or shai." My gut plummeted. She can't be thinking of that--she can't do that. Not to Rebecca.  Sadie watched  my  reaction and smiled. "Imagine it. You can punish anyone who ever hurt you. You can show everyone that you can't be touched. You'll no longer be bullied. No one would ever call you Reject."

Rebecca, don't do it. There's something she's keeping from you. Please-

"Just because I was different, just because I wasn't like others I've been bullied my whole life. People always telling me what I should do and who I should be. I'm sick of it." This time, she looks right at me. Rebecca's eyes blazed. Her own thoughts overcrowded mine. I felt her anger at being an outcast, her determination of getting her parents back, and her passion for being something better.

Rebecca still stared at me. Even when she said, "Sadie. Let's go."