Nexus [COMPLETE]

28. Winston

August 2013

I emerged from the depths of drowning into the world of reality, snapping awake with the cold press of tiles against my back and the faint gleam of fluorescent lighting overhead. Where the hell am I?

I stood up from the floor and glanced around worriedly.

This was not my apartment.

What floor was I on? Had I slept-walked?

I picked a direction and walked for a few moments, eyes finally landing on a placard that read: 4-15C. I was on Deck 4. How had I ended up down here? I spun around worriedly, looking for guards. The lights were dim, which meant that it was still after hours. No one, save those on watch, was meant to be up in the middle of the night wandering the halls. It was against Pluto rules.

Suddenly, worry and panic slammed into me. It was a psychological force, but it bowed me over physically. I leaned against the wall. It was Domare.

Where the hell are you? His worried tone cut through my head.

Deck 4. I don't know how I got here.

Sleepwalking? Domare surmised, leaving our room. Shit! Winston, are you okay?

I'm fine, I... It was then that I noticed something unusual. I glanced down at my hands.

Red.

They were covered in blood.

I panicked. My heart thundered in my ears. I was short of breath.

Calm down! Domare commanded. I'm coming. Stay put.

"What did I do?" I said out loud. This sort of thing had never happened to me before.

Yes, it has. I thought vehemently, but squished my eyes shut to stop the flow of angry memories. I crumpled on the hallway floor, curling into myself.

"Domare," I called desperately. "Domare!"

He emerged from the end of the hallway in a blur and was next to me in an instant.

"It's okay," he insisted, but I could feel his worry coursing through our bond. I leaned against him.

"There was a guard in the dream," I told him. "Remember?"

"Yes, but you didn't touch him."

I looked at him with pleading eyes. "Check?"

He nodded and rushed off down the opposite end of the hall.

I waited nearly thirty seconds before I felt recognition flutter through me. He had found someone.

Trainee. He's unconscious, but alive. Nose is bleeding. The thoughts came at me in a frenzy, and I looked at my hands. My knuckles didn't look bruised, but as fast as I healed, I wasn't surprised. Domare continued spouting off thoughts, as usual. He's not enhanced. That's why he hasn't healed yet. He was probably shadowing someone. Training. Something's wrong his jaw – ah! Dislocated.

I sucked in a sharp breath.

"I'll get Hazel," I said shakily, standing up.

No! Domare growled. If you go anywhere like that, you're going to cause a panic.

Then I'll come to you, I told him, and he didn't protest. I made my way to Domare and the unconscious Trainee as fast as my body would allow. Domare looked calm, but the man on the floor looked horrible.

I felt nauseous, and Domare was conflicted. "Someone has to go get help, but if someone else stumbles upon you with bloody hands and this idiot all beat up, then they might assu-"

"-what?" I snapped. "That I attacked? Well, apparently, I did! So what's your point?"

"Stop getting angry with me," Domare ordered, standing up and approaching me. I made to move away but he got me by the shoulders and held fast.

"This is my fault, too," he explained, and I let his thoughts into my head, remembering as he did that he had chosen to sleep in his coffin for the night. I tried to control my own panic as he finally came to a decision.

"We'll leave him. Come with me," he instructed.

I didn't argue, just reluctantly followed Domare to the closest staircase. We ascended to Deck 3 and walked straight to Hazel's apartment. He knocked on her door. She appeared in a scarlet robe and her dark eyes immediately fell on me. Her nostrils flared. Domare explained quickly what had happened, and Hazel ran off in search of the injured Trainee. I moved to follow her, but Domare stopped me.

"No," he said, dragging me in the opposite direction.

"She'll be mad later," he commented, as we re-entered our apartment at last. I headed straight for the sink to wash the blood from my hands. I was digging the mess from under my fingernails when I felt pressure on my shoulder. I glanced wide-eyed at the mirror over the sink and met Domare's eyes.

"It's not your fault," he said softly.

I grimaced. "How can it not be?"

"You cannot help what you do in your sleep, and I should have been there."

"It's not your fault!" I snarled. "And even if it was, you don't exactly look upset about it!"

He pulled away enough for me to spin around and face him. His expression was blank, but I could sense his annoyance.

"I have done far worse than that, Winny, and I am not human. I am no stranger to violence."

A flash of memories hit me of people I had never seen: humans and vampires alike. All were bloodied and broken, some even dead, but above all I felt some sense of justice. Domare's own guilt had long since been overpowered by acceptance of his own nature.

"I don't have the excuse of not being human," I retorted, a bit horrified by my vampire's comfort with violence and death.

"Winston DeBrock," Domare growled, flashing his fangs, "you no longer have the right to call yourself completely human. You are chemically enhanced by the Nexus and enhanced further still with my blood. You are practically a vampire yourself."

"But I am not a monster," I hissed, tears stinging my eyes.

Domare looked pityingly at my desperate expression, but he agreed: "No, Winny. You are not a monster. Never you." He reached forward and grabbed my hands.

I shall bare that burden for us both, he assured me, dark eyes meeting mine, for I have never been human.

I stared at our hands, mine tanned from all the years spent in the sun, and his bleached white from living his life under fluorescent bulbs. Emotions took control, as the thought really sank in: he was my friend. My dear, stupid, insane vampire friend.

I felt a furious desire to get him out of here, to show him what the real world could be like. Pluto seemed less to me like a prison for vampires every day, and more like a safe-haven that they could never leave, but to those who had lived in sunlight, it truly was terrible.

I cannot spend my life here, I realized with a surge of emotion. And neither should you, I told Domare determinedly. Spending forever within these walls, trapped with no way out, and seeing the same thing every day...I can't stand it. It will drive me insane.

Domare's worry coursed through me, slightly triggering my anxiety. I did my best to ignore it.

What do you want to do, Winston?

I stared at him determinedly, all my dearest memories collecting behind my eyes. This wouldn't be easy. I'd be giving so much up, but I couldn't fathom it: him, stuck here, forever. And I'd be here, too. That was truly unacceptable.

"We have to escape."