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Tiger
We have been on the road for six hours. Kristina has not said a word to me since we rushed away from Rose’s property. Their farewells brought to my attention how close they are, and how much they care for one another.
Rose and Kristina have a meaningful relationship, which contradicts everything I was made to believe. My concept of people was basic, thinking of them as evil, despicable beings capable of the worst atrocities imaginable in their quest for power or conquest.
A day with Rose and Kristina was a huge eye-opener.
Salvation has been my motivator, my incentive to continue down the path, which will eventually guide those imprisoned at the Radcliffe Institute, as well as myself, toward true freedom, once and for all. But something in me is changing, growing, developing, the more I’m around Kristina.
I’d grown accustomed to not feeling anything. To monotonously do as I was told in order to avoid the butt of a gun to my face, or being whipped, or beaten. It is not so anymore. Sympathy, guilt, compassion continue to plague me.
Without Kristina, it would be harder to move about in the human domain. Everything is new to me here. Visits outside of the Radcliffe Institute were few. Gerard only took me out when he wanted me to kill one of his biggest threats.
And I have killed many of them.
Many years passed before I came to realize the wrong I was being forced to do. Until then, I was unaware monsters like me don’t exist in the human world, and the fear in the victims’ faces whenever they saw me for what I am, was justifiable.
The sound of Kristina’s stomach rumbling draws my attention away from haunting image of those people, and to her.
“You’re hungry,” I point out.
My voice startles her and she jumps. Turning to glare at me, she says, “How would you know?”
“I can hear your stomach rumbling.”
Rose packed two bottles of water and what she called granola bars into my bag for us. However, Kristina has stopped but a few times to refuel and quickly resume our journey. She has refused food, water, or discontinuing long enough to rest.
Night has fallen since then and she looks exhausted. But not once has she suggested we stop to stretch out our legs.
“You can hear that?” she asks in disbelief.
“Yes. I can also hear your heart beating.”
“What?” She curls her lip in disgust. “That’s creepy.”
“We should stop,” I say. I hope to sway her into resting for a bit. We could both use some reprieve from the truck.
“Can you drive?”
“I know nothing about how to operate a vehicle.”
She winces as if in pain. “Wonderful.”
“How long before we get to the first address in Rose’s list?”
“Eight more grueling hours,” she whispers in a harsh tone. “It would’ve taken us a lot less had we been allowed to travel using the main freeways, but since we have to take the longer route...” her voice trails off.
I spot a sign up ahead as I glance out the window.
“Why don’t we stop there?” I point in the direction of the sign.
She leans over the steering wheel, squinting to see through the glare of the lights of the oncoming traffic.
“I guess we could stop for a quick bite.” She slows the vehicle down, takes a turn to the right, and parks in front of what appears to be an eating establishment.
Kristina removes the keys from the ignition and relaxes against the seat, shutting her eyes.
“I’m exhausted,” she finally admits.
I look around, observing our surroundings. There are a few scattered cars in the lot, which means we won’t be alone.
“Let’s get this over with.” She opens the door and climbs out.
I do the same, following her to a pair of glass doors in the front of the building. We walk in and a woman with short blond hair and apple-red lips standing by a table greets us.
“Welcome to Mariah’s Dinner. My name’s Mandy and I’ll be your server today. How many?”
“Two,” Kristina replies.
“Follow me. I’ll lead you to your table.” The woman walks off. We pace, quietly, behind her.
Mandy shows us to the end of a row of tables and turns to Kristina to say, “I’ll be back with your menus,” before striding off in the direction we just came.
Kristina sits directly across the table from me, shunning me out by staring at her hands, which rest on top of the wooden surface. I have the urge to say something, but fail to come up with anything. I doubt anything I say will bring a measure of comfort to her, in any case. She blames me for having to go on the run and separating her from her next of kin. The hateful glare she directed at me in Rose’s house told me all I needed to know.
“Here you go.” The waitress reappears, handing us the menus. “I’ll give you a few minutes to decide.” She scurries off again, leaving us alone.
I inspect the menu cover to cover, beginning to end, before closing it and setting it on the table.
“What are you going to order?” Kristina asks, her gaze on the menu.
My shoulders lift.
She looks at me. “What do you want?”
“Whatever you’re having is fine.”
Her eyes darken with anger. I’d rather have her telling me exactly what she thinks, rather than sit there and direct every ounce of disdain she must feel toward me via a disapproving frown.
“Do you have a food preference?”
I offer her my menu. “I can’t read.”
A look of surprise replaces the scorn on her face. “Oh.” She sets the menu aside.
“Meats. Something with meat will suffice,” I say.
Kristina’s gaze goes over the list of options one more time. “Cheeseburger sounds good to you?”
I’m not really sure what a cheeseburger is, but I agree anyway. “Yes.”
Mandy returns, notepad in hand, and asks, “So, what will it be?”
“Two cheeseburgers, please.”
“What will you have in terms of beverages?”
“A coffee for me and a...” Kristina looks at me.
“Water,” I finish.
Mandy picks up the menus. “I’ll go run this ticket through and be return with your drinks. In the meantime, if you need anything else just holler.” The woman’s lips split into a wide smile before she takes off.
“Isn’t she overly cheerful tonight?” Kristina adds with a huff. She rubs her hands over her face before setting them down on the table.
Comfortable with sitting in silence, I add nothing.
Restless, Kristina squirms in her seat as if she’s contemplating running away. “I’m going to ask you a few questions and I want you to be really honest with your answers,” she says at last.
Mandy returns before I can reply.
“Water and coffee for the gent and lady.” She places a cup of coffee in front of Kristina and a large glass of water in front of me. “Will be back soon with your orders.” The woman giggles before strutting off.
Her action, I find odd. Outside Rose and Kristina, the humans I’ve known so far have done little besides yell and frown.
I scan the room, taking a moment to observe the other humans enjoying a meal. Most talk in hushed tones, smiling or laughing occasionally at their companions. A couple with a pair of children, two tables to the right, appears perfectly content to sit and converse while the boy and girl point at each other and laugh.
So this is what humans with no preoccupations look like. While I realize these people might have their fair share of problems, at the moment nothing seems to matter, other than the need to fill their stomachs and unwind.
It would be nice to live like this, with little to no preoccupations. I’m always conscious of whether or not they can tell I’m different. No one here has bothered to observe me in depth yet, but they have no reason to believe I’m anything other than what they see.
Kristina knows I’m not like her and she’s apprehensive about it. What does she think of me now? I’m curious about every aspect of her life and personality. I shouldn’t be, but it doesn’t change the fact. For once, I’d like to see Kristina smile.
“Are you?” Her voice settles me into reality.
“What?” I focus on her once again.
“Going to answer truthfully?”
“Yes.”
She reaches for the cup of coffee and takes a sip. I leave my water untouched for the meantime.
“What exactly am I up against?” Her hand shakes as she settles the mug down on the table.
“Gerard Radcliffe is a very callous and dangerous man. He will stop at nothing to get what he wants when he wants it.” In twenty-five years, I have come to know him fairly well.
“Great.” Her hands shake even more. I recognize fear when I see it and she’s terrified.
“So, uh—wait a second. This Gerard Radcliffe guy...is he the same Gerard Radcliffe who owns the Radcliffe Pharmaceuticals chain and that Radcliffe Institute for Internal Medicine?”
“He works with medicine.” That much I do know. The nature of all his experiments, I do not. “He’s tested some on me before, but they haven’t yielded the results he’s looking for. At least that’s what he has told me.”
Kristina appears at a loss for a while. “He’s a well-known individual yet he’s anything but noble. If I were to take a guess, I’d bet his intentions have nothing to do with finding the cure to cancer or developing more effective medication and all that bullshit he’s claimed in interviews before. If people found out he was conducting some type of shady tests...and with people...” She’s talking, but more to herself than me.
“Not just with people.”
Startled by my statement, she looks at me and frowns. “Clarify that for me.”
“His experiments don’t always include people.”
Her eyes widen at my implication. “You mean...How many others like you are there?”
“For what I’ve heard, I may be the only one.”
Kristina keeps silent as she ponders this new information. After a brief pause, she asks, “So, were you created in a lab, too?”
“The only information regarding my birth that I have is...my mother died during childbirth and there is a mystery surrounding who fathered me. Although, Gerard has told me one of his greatest specimens is responsible.”
Kristina reaches for the cup in front of her and brings it to her lips. When she sets it down again, I can see she has swallowed half the contents inside.
“There’s something that’s really bothering me—aside from the obvious, of course. Grandma Rose said she saw this man—Gerard—when she was a little girl. I’ve seen him on TV too, but you can’t be talking about the same guy. If he was in his mid-twenties then, shouldn’t he be over seventy now?”
The only special abilities Gerard possesses, he’s gained by what he’s achieved in a lab—including the lack of aging.
“It can’t be the same man.”
I open my mouth to respond but Mandy shows up with a large tray, our food served neatly on a couple of white plates.
“Here you go.” Mandy carefully settles our orders down in front of us. “If you need anything, just holler,” she says before sauntering away again.
“Or can it?” Kristina looks at me. “You know him better than I do. Who is he, really?”
“A man obsessed with finding the cure to death,” I respond as I reach for what Kristina called a cheeseburger. The tantalizing aroma emanating from the meat is mouthwatering.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Cure? For death? What is he, insane?”
I take a bite, and relax against the chair as an array of flavors assaults my taste buds. This is my first time trying a cheeseburger and I find it to be delicious.
“You might say that,” I say, once I’ve swallowed my food.
Kristina hasn’t touched hers. “So you’re one of his experiments? As in successful experiments?”
I nod and take another bite.
“Then what does that make you? Immortal?”
I nod again, the food in my mouth keeping it sufficiently busy.
A look of surprise darkens Kristina’s features. “Seriously?”
I take a sip of water before responding. “Yes.”
“How did he manage that?”
I settle the glass of water on the table. “I couldn’t begin to guess.”
Her eyebrows pull together. “Do you have any special abilities?”
“I’m not sure what you mean by special abilities?”
She lets out a prolonged sigh. “Like, can you read minds? Do you have superhuman strength?”
“I can’t read minds.”
She blanches. “You can self-heal too, right?”
“Yes.”
“What else can you do?”
I shrug. “Not sure. My full potential hasn’t been tested.”
Kristina grabs the mug and gulps down the rest of the coffee. “So I’m up against a smart, savvy lunatic with a Frankenstein complex?”
I look on in confusion. She notices.
“You don’t know who Frankenstein is?”
“No.”
“What do you know?”
My right shoulder lifts. “About what?”
She finally scoops up her cheeseburger and takes a bite, ending the conversation. She finishes half and what she calls fries, before setting the plate aside.
I do the same. Once the food and water is gone, I lie in wait for her to continue prodding.
“So you’re not human, but you’re immortal. Gerard created you in a lab somewhere and by doing so, somehow managed to decode the answer to life and death. Am I right?”
I straighten up in the chair, focusing on the determination on her face. “Yes.”
“But he’s doing this on the sly—hidden. It can’t be legal.”
The word “legal” prompts a memory of a conversation I had with Castiel not long ago. He’d mentioned Gerard keeps many people on his payroll, including law enforcement officers, scientists, and lawyers.
“He pays to make people disappear or stay quiet,” I say.
She pales. “So not what I wanted to hear.”
“Kristina.” I lean in closer to her. “The best line of defense we have right now is to keep moving. Rose knew this. She was prepared for it. As long as we keep moving, Gerard won’t know where we’re going.”
Her fingers intertwine on top of the table. Her gaze automatically locks on her hands. “I don’t want to live the rest of my life on the run like Grandma Rose or without knowing whether or not I’ll ever see my brother or Grandma ever again.”
“You won’t have to,” I murmur, though I can’t assure her of what will happen tomorrow. Castiel only advised me as to what steps to take. He never said what was going to become of us.
“I’m really angry at myself right now.”
I search her face for answers, but she keeps her gaze lowered.
“I want to blame you for all this. I tell myself it’s somehow your fault, but...it isn’t. I decided to bring you home and now I have to live with the consequences of my mistakes.”
A string of sensations I can’t quite understand courses through me. Human emotions are so complex and difficult to cope with. Castiel assured me I had them too, just never learned how to sort them out, but unbeknownst to Kristina, she is slowly forcing each of them to surface and coercing me to deal with them at the most inopportune times.
These emotions make me feel weak, vulnerable. Compromised. I have a mission I cannot fail. I need to stay grounded, but it’s proving difficult. I find myself siding with Kristina because I’m the one who stepped into her life and turned things upside-down. And I did so on purpose.
“I will make this up to you,” I find myself promising. The reason for this eludes me, but as her gaze meets mine, I realize I’m going to help free her of Gerard no matter what the odds are. Somehow she has turned into yet another being I have to pull from Gerard’s clutches.
Kristina’s response is a shake of the head. She has no faith in me, but far from deterring me, it only helps my determination grow.