Trial X6

Hiding Among Humans

Seattle, Washington- 2020

  "Shadow! I need you to come here for a second." Logan's irritated voice echoed through the apartment. There was a silent pause as he waited for a reply. "Shadow?"

  "What?" I grumbled while rolling off the couch.

  "If you're going to come in, do you mind doing so more discreetly? You broke my window. Again." I stood behind Logan in the hallway.

  "I was discreet. You didn't even notice I was here until now." I crossed my arms while talking. Since Max had died and Manticore blew up, Logan's hair had gotten long, and his face had grown scruffy. He mostly just moped around but continued to do the Eyes Only broadcasts.

  "Oh, don't give me that look." Logan rolled his eyes. Setting a hand on one hip, he pointed with the other hand at the broken glass. "Clean it up."

  "Whatever, old man." I made my face into a snarl and walked past him toward the kitchen.

  "Oh! I didn't know you had a guest, Logan." A woman's voice brought my head up. A short-haired blonde was standing just outside of the elevator with a bag slung over one shoulder as it rested on the opposite hip.

  "Um.... She's my cousin." Logan quickly came up with a passable excuse for my presence.

  "And I was just leaving." I shoved my hands into my pockets while going toward the elevator. She looked at me as I passed her, but her eyes widened as she looked to be staring at my eyes. When the light hit them just right, they reflected like a nocturnal creature's. Maybe she saw the reflection and was trying to determine if she was just seeing things or not.

  I stood in the elevator, and just as the doors were closing, I heard Logan let out a sigh.

  Outside on the streets, I let all emotions leave my face. Truly, I never showed emotion because of my reptilian DNA, but with Logan, I had to do something. He would constantly say how he felt weird when he saw my blank stares and vacant expressions. He'd explained it feeling as if he was being watched by a snake.

  So, to quell his primal fear of predators, I mimicked things I saw off the streets. I chose to imitate the people who showed the most emotion, and so far, it was working. But Logan would often tell me to stop acting like a teenager....as if I even knew what that meant.

  However, normal humans were interesting, to say the least. Watching them from time to time, studying their mannerisms and behaviors, I could see how they evolved from primates. They acted like it, being so social and expressive.

  Yet, so far, there was one human I really enjoyed watching. She tended to talk in the third person as if she was a narrator and the world her stage.

  I had just stumbled upon her when I was looking for Max's den after the Manticore incident, and she piqued my interest from the very beginning. She walked in on me rummaging through the refrigerator two weeks after Lydecker drove the survivors back to the warehouse. She saw my clothes, my haircut, and my barcode, and she just knew. She knew all about Manticore and about what they did- Max must have told her.

  But after she saw the back of my neck, she smacked my hands away from the refrigerator and made me an actual meal.

  She called herself Original Cindy, and I didn't know why. Now I would always drop by near the end of the day, and she'd make me dinner. She had offered to let me stay with her many times, but I simply couldn't. So, to waste my time when I wasn't checking Logan's security or eating with Original Cindy, I just roamed the streets or worked.