The Genetic Code

Chapter 33

Juliette

Grey. That's the word to describe where we are — The carpark of his gym building. It's just a large space with grey walls on all sides, with enough lots to hold more cars than this place will ever see. It's relatively clean, but obviously doesn't get maintained often, evident from the sound of a leaky pipe dripping droplets of water into a puddle, clinking steadily in time to my nervous heartbeats.

Dull, lifeless, cold. Now I'm not just talking about the atmosphere of the basement area; It's the expression in his grey eyes, the way he looks at everyone and everything around him, except for me. But currently those two chilling lasers of steel are directed straight into my hazel orbs, and I can understand why so many people are afraid of him. That look alone is enough to send shivers down my spine.

He'd gotten Hershel (one of them — I think this one was named Brian?) to pick me up from my house without any prior notice or telling me where we were going.

'We need to talk.'

That's the only cryptic message he'd spared me. For some reason, reading that text already made my fingers tremble. I could sense something off.

Hershel dropped me off outside Sterling's gym building, and told me he was waiting down in the carpark. As I descended the slope leading from outside into the dim and silent alcove of grey, the shadow of his tall, lean figure revealed itself in the middle of the enclosed area. He had his arms folded tightly across his chest, standing rim-rod straight, eerily still.

Even now, I feel like he hasn't moved an inch, from the moment I arrived to the time I took walking across the carpark to stand right in front of him, keeping a few feet between us. I shuffle my weight from left to right, flustered under his foreign stare, feeling like I'm being put under interrogation beneath the spotlights overhead.

I wasn't wrong.

He inhales deeply through his nose, sets his jaw, and the prosecution begins...

"We should stop seeing each other." His voice cuts through the air like a shard of ice, striking a blow straight to my gut.

"I... I don't understand—"

"Are you stupid? It was a simple statement. I don't want to see your face anymore."

I reeled back as if his toxic words physically burned me.

I took a few seconds to recover, then started again slowly, "I meant that... I don't understand why... Why have you been ignoring me recently? Why... Why are you saying this? Did I do something wrong?"

"It's your fault I got roped back in by Marco that night."

"I know that, and I'm sorry, but—"

"You're just a liability to me. I teach you to fight so I don't need to have you as a burden anymore, but you're still far too weak to protect yourself."

That stings like rubbing alcohol poured into an open wound.

"And that's not all I realized that night. When they revealed you behind that pile of boxes after a car went through the other..." His eyes are cold, empty, just two glassy silver orbs reflecting back my own image. "I felt nothing. I realized that I honestly didn't care if you lived or died."

I feel like I'm being choked, like hands on my neck are crushing my windpipe. "I don't believe you," I squeeze the words out of my burning throat.

"Believe whatever you want."

"Why would you save me then? Over and over?"

"At the start you just reminded me of my little sister, and I felt like I was obliged to protect you. You were a replacement for her. But now that I've found my actual sister I don't need you anymore."