Muts, page 10
“What made her upset this time…?”, she asked slowly as she delicately approached. Jess held her eyes for a second, communicating silently, then Caroline nodded in understanding.
“Will you tell her I’m coming in, Samuel?” He nodded at her, eyes never leaving Abby. She pressed one finger to the back of his neck and within a moment Abby’s hair had settled back onto her shoulders. She slowly slumped down onto the tile, and let her head drop into her hands as Caroline hurried over to wrap her arms around her. Samuel gave a deep sigh and shot me a cocky smile as he flexed his fingers in front of him.
“Well, Jess, I’d say she’s making excellent progress.”, he chirped happily at her. As he studied Jess though and he saw her standing next to Carrie, his brow crumpled in confusion. He focused on Carrie and his eyes widened, quickly noticing the similarities that took me too long to notice. Before Jess could even open her mouth to explain, Clint was clambering to his feet, using Samuel’s arm as a source of support, much to Samuel’s displeasure.
“That’s progress?!”
“Well, for her, yeah.” Samuel rolled his shoulders to shake off Clint’s grip, still keeping his eyes on Carrie and Jess, “She’s usually much more of a grump when she comes out of sedation. Really hates the stuff, she does. Personally, I could go for a light coma right about now.”
His humor fell flat, but he just shrugged it off as he carried Abby over to the little chaise Carrie just vacated. Caroline immediately jumped into the seat next to her, their heads close together. I had a feeling that these two girls never went anywhere without touching each other, it was as if they were each other's security blanket. The men watched until they were settled then Samuel turned to me and asked what happened. After a brief explanation, his eyes were riveted to Carrie. Apparently, Abby destroying the room was old news to him, and he was shocked to realize that Carrie was the sister Jess always talked about. After a happy introduction between Samuel and Carrie, Abby was looking at the destruction she caused. I couldn’t tell if Abby’s head hurt or if she was just embarrassed, but she seemed unable to make direct eye contact with anyone for longer than a split second. Caroline patted back Abby’s hair before looking up at them.
“May we go outside, please?”, Caroline asked us sweetly. I could tell she was trying to show proper manners, but the idea of being outside caused happiness to pour out of her. I don’t know a single soul that could’ve told that little traumatized girl no. After the door swung shut behind Clint, Samuel, and the girls, I turned to talk to Carrie and update her on what she’s missed since she was knocked out. But she had both hands pressed against Jess’s shield, and both of their eyes were filled with bittersweet tears as they inspected each other’s faces. I decided to make a sneaky exit when Jess turned to look at me.
“Sasha. I hate to ask, but can you walk upstairs with us? I’m worried about her head, and I can’t exactly catch her if she falls.”, Jess chuckled lightly, and it was unnerving how much she sounded and looked like Carrie when she laughed. Now that Jess was with Carrie, all of her previous anxiety that was keeping me from trusting her fully was completely gone. She looked content and relaxed just to be home if I ignored the tear streaks on her face. I returned her smile warmly and gestured for the two of them to head out of the door before me. The second they started walking, they started talking to each other so fast it seemed like they were talking at the same time over one another. As much as I adored Carrie, and as much as I couldn’t wait to get to know Jess, I did not want to be in a room with the two of them for too long. Seemed like a recipe for a headache. I get enough of those by just existing.
The whole way up to Carrie’s room, I tuned their voices out and watched them with my eyes. Carrie was practically bouncing with every step and gesturing violently, any pain from her concussion quickly forgotten except for occasional moments where it showed on her face. Jess kept delicately touching everything within reach with an almost dazed look. When she ran her hand up the wooden banister as they walked upstairs, she seemed to caress the polished wood with her fingertips.
“No way!” Jess exclaimed as Carrie explained who was here, “There were eight of you already here? This house only has four functioning bedrooms, Car! Where have you been letting everyone sleep?!”
“We have it all figured out, well most of us, it was mostly rearranging. I’m still working on Samuel and Caroline’s rooms.”, Carrie confessed, but she brightened quickly, “Your room is still exactly how you left it, though.”
“Caroline can stay with me then!”, Jess said excitedly, clapping her hands, “She’s been my roommate for a long time so it’ll be a nice comfort to her. It’ll be perfect!”
“You were roommates?”, I couldn’t help but to ask. From what I saw of the cold, clinical place it didn’t seem like they would room their patients together. I realized my mistake immediately though as they both swiveled back to me and spoke in perfect unison with mirrored grins.
“Oh my god. They were roommates!”, they both exclaimed before dissolving into giggles. Well, she’s definitely Carrie’s sister. She constantly made obscure references that I didn’t get, at least now she had someone who would understand her nonsensical humor. Our feet sank into the plush rug that flowed down the middle of the hallway as we headed towards Carrie’s door.
“Do you still paint? Or are you too busy making grown men cry again?”, Jess asked with a chuckle. Carrie’s face nearly split in two with a smile, and she nodded her head eagerly, speeding up towards her room.
“First off, I’m never too busy for that, but you’re going to love the pieces I’ve been working on! A while back I started a portrait collection of all of us.”, she babbled as she opened her door and strode through, waiting on Jess and me to follow. As she walked in Jess gave a short laugh, looking at Carrie’s messy room.
“Well, freaky fake vamp or not, at least you’re still an absolute slob.”, she commented as she stepped over one of Carrie’s old shirts, still chuckling at her sister as she gazed around her room with fondness.
“Yeah, yeah. We can’t all be neat little clean freaks.”, she commented with an eye roll before directing Jess to where our paintings were all proudly hanging. Jess covered her mouth in awe and slowly walked from one portrait to the other, studying intensely. Carrie stood beside me, lightly bouncing in the balls of her feet and intertwining her fingers nervously as she watched her sister inspect her work.
Carrie decided to focus on our mutations in these portraits, but she also wanted them to reflect who we were. Maria’s portrait was a copy of the traditional older style paintings with the woman reclining dramatically on a chaise in a garden. But, Maria wasn’t wearing her usual gloves that prevented dirt from trailing behind her. Instead, Carrie had placed her arms delicately on display as she lounged, greenery stretching almost longingly at her soil covered fingers. Matthias was up next. His mutation wasn’t as flashy as ours, so Carrie opted for a closer look at him. Palm facing us, his headphones jutting out of his palms, his thin brown eyes glaring out from between his fingers. She even painted each red rimmed wire that criss crossed up and down his forearms. The woman really liked fine detail in her work.
Jess reached mine and gasped lightly, before swinging her head back to me to verify that it was, shockingly, me. Personally, I think Carrie made my features a bit too delicate, but it seemed like a good enough likeness. I had to admit, she did an excellent job showing not only my dark, kinky curls, but also the way that the deer fur seamlessly faded into my hairline. I just wanted Jess to skip over mine and go right to appreciating Allana’s portrait. Mine wasn't even going to be finished until my antlers grew in anyways, and Carrie worked absolute magic with Allana’s mirrors. It was by far my favorite piece Carrie had ever done, and all she really does is hide up here and paint so that says something. When she started studying Allana’s, I squeezed Carrie's hand in excitement. She clung a lot harder than I thought she would as she waited for Jess’s verdict. Jess slowly walked closer to the canvas, and softly stroked the swirls of paint where the sunlight shattered. When she turned around she had wonder in her eyes and a teary smile.
“These are breathtaking. You’ve improved so much!”, she gushed, while slowly walking backwards to get a better view of all of them, “They’re absolutely gorgeous Carrie.”
The two smiled at each other happily, but Jess’s face slowly slid into solemness.
“So, this… this is your family now. Mom and Dad…?”, Jess let the sentence hang there as she pulled her words together. I slipped my hand out of Carrie’s, I had a gut feeling that they were about to have an emotional moment and I wanted to step out before I had to witness more truth telling and feelings today. I laid a hand against Jess’s shield, then nodded to Carrie as I quietly stepped out of the room. Before I shut the door, Carrie’s voice floated out softly:
“Well, uh…Jessie, everyone is dead...”
Chapter Eight
Carrie
I hid in the shadow of the open front door as Maria approached Sasha with a steaming mug in her hand.
“Thanks, Maria.” Sasha smiled up at her. Her knees tucked to her chest in one of the old, wooden rocking chairs on the porch.
“We’re just lucky that they had pennyroyal and some lavender left growing in the greenhouse after all that drama. That poor, poor girl...”, she shook her head softly, then she patted the top of Sasha’s head and smiled as she turned to head back into the house, “I’ll leave the kettle on the stove for you.”
Sasha smiled in thanks and inhaled the sweet steam rolling off of the mug. I caught the door just before Maria closed it and stepped outside before she could comment on my lurking. I snapped the door shut, took a deep breath, then silently contemplated the dark yard with Sasha. Even though night had fallen, there was still enough red moonlight to cast the trees in ominous shadows. Sasha always had a thing for being outdoors, she said it brought her peace. I still think that hanging around outside with wild cannas running around isn’t the best idea in the world, but that’s not an argument I’m going to win so why start? Thinking about the cannas gave me fearful shivers, but I need to talk to her and this might be our only chance for a time alone for a while. At least I knew that her hearing was improving so much that nothing could approach us without being noticed. Definitely helped me breathe easier being outdoors, even if it is stupid to leave the safety of the house.
All of the new muts were settling in well enough, but the house was too full of heartfelt emotions for me to be comfortable. All of us originals were letting them be, and I felt a tinge of jealousy at Clint who hadn’t left Abby’s side since we arrived earlier that day. But, I just couldn’t be with Jess right now, I needed Sasha. I needed to talk to someone about all of this. I rolled my eyes to myself and Sasha took a tentative sip of the tea. She definitely knew I was here, but that’s the best part about Sasha. She leaves the silence until I break it. And that gives me time to figure out if I wanted to talk about Abby or Jess more. I’d vote to discuss a freaky telekinetic kid over a talk about my feelings anyday, but there wasn’t anything to say that wasn’t already known.
She was insanely powerful. I was sure that she could level this entire house with a casual flick of her fingers. While I was talking with Jess she painted a clear picture of just how strong that little demon was, and I honestly felt lucky that she didn’t smash me like a bug in the green room. All of that power on top of her temper was making me more than restless. After she had a nice sit down with Clint, Jess, and Samuel she promised to try to stay as calm as possible and to practice more control over herself. The three of them were going to spend all day tomorrow practicing with her. I wasn't planning on letting Jess out of my sight, and I had to worry about how that would make Abby react. She seemed like an incredibly possessive type of person, and she does not like me in the slightest.
Leave it to me to make an enemy of Abby the second she shows up. She said that she understood that it was just a misunderstanding, but I still didn’t like it. I don’t know her well enough to know if she was lying, and Clint kept staring at her with hollow eyes as if he didn’t recognize the child in front of him. Watching the damage that had been done to her had to be killing him. I was just hoping that that much trauma didn’t drive her completely insane, and that the stress of everything else wouldn’t either. The poor girl was ripped away from the only family she had ever known, been tortured for years on end, and then escaped just to learn that whatever dream of a normal life she held onto was now a nightmare. Which, of course, made me think of Jess again which made all of this so much worse.
I paused and watched the shadows dance on the tree line before turning my eyes to Sasha. She took another sip of her sweetened tea, trying to enjoy the comfort it brought. She noticed me staring at her and smiled slightly, but she didn’t look directly at me. An almost tense silence followed while I planned what I wanted to say, there was a lot that Jess and I had covered in the hours since she left us alone. I was lucky that she didn’t pressure me into talking immediately.
“I really like my night vision now, but those shadows always make me on edge. I keep seeing things out there and it's making me jumpy.”, I offered.
“Yeah, some of those lighter patches moving around almost look like someone’s out there.”, she agreed in a monotone, still waiting. I nodded then dropped my eyes to my shoes.
“I think I need to talk…”, I hesitated. Sasha stopped rocking and turned to give me her full attention. I hated it, but I could hear something about my voice that seemed almost brittle.
“I take it you and Jess talked about how she ended up there?”, she began, leading me.
“I… fully understand what Clint was talking about now. The hopelessness… of realizing that your family is the reason that you lost a sister.”
“What do you mean?”, she asked. I could tell that she truly hoped that what she was thinking wasn’t true. Sasha knew I never really talked too much about my life before the bombs hit, but she knows how deeply I love my family. Especially when I finally showed her Jess’s room. I took a deep breath. Let’s get this over with.
“You remember how I told you that there was no way she could survive because of how the truck destroyed the back of the car she was in?” I questioned her. She nodded and I took another deep breath before the words started to tumble out of me. I could feel anger growing in every syllable.
“There was a truck in the wreck… but it never hit their car. It was her, it was Jess. They almost collided and she reacted by throwing her shield out for the first time. She didn’t even know that she could do that, I can’t even imagine how terrifying that would be for her. When she woke up in the hospital my parents told her that she killed everyone in the car, and that she wasn’t safe to be around anymore. They convinced her to go to the institute. They told her it was rehabilitation for people with powers like her and they’d be able to cure her so she could go back home. They told her that she’d be safe.”
I was so agitated I had to stand and I started pacing angrily in front of her. Sasha’s eyes widened at my sudden movement, but she didn’t interrupt my tirade.
“They drugged her and when she woke up she was alone in a cell there. They realized why she was able to throw her shield out, and they tortured her to see if they could get her to throw it further or pull it back. Constant, unbearable torture. It didn’t even matter to them that her shield wouldn’t move no matter how hard she tried. They… there’s no words to explain what they did to her. They kept her in permanent handcuffs since they couldn’t get through her shield, and now her wrists are completely scarred. She’s so different now. She flinches at every unexpected sound.”
I paused to see how she was taking all of this. At first, I was distraught at these revelations, but now there was a dark, burning fury in my chest that was trying to claw its way out. For the first time since I met her, Sasha actually looked afraid of me for a flash, and I immediately made myself calm down. The last thing I needed to do was to seem like I was losing it. We were all worried about one of us turning rabid like the others, we still didn’t know what caused a mut to turn canna.
"Our parents did this. We both knew that I was the favorite, Jess has always been too soft for their tastes, but to lock her up…? Then for them to look me in the eyes and tell me she died... They watched me mourn for her for years. I don’t think they even told Terrence what they did to her either.", I shook my head in disgust, and stared out across the yard.
"Carrie, I'm so sorry…."
"No, don't be. They're just lucky they're dead. Otherwise, they would be meeting a much more violent end right about now.", my eyes flicked back to hers, “And I would make sure they felt every moment of her suffering ten times over.”
Sasha handed her mug to me, then stood up and stretched.
“I definitely don’t blame you on that. But, I think you need this more than me.”, she gestured to the mug, which I just realized was over half full and still warm. She laid her hand on my shoulder and smiled at me softly. “I know you don’t want to be away from Jess any longer, but do me a favor and sit out here and finish this tea. You need some alone time, even if you don’t want any. Just chill out and process for a while, okay?”
