Flesh

They were silent for the rest of the night. So quiet that you could hear the crickets chirping within the fallen night. After the Mnemosyne dosage had worn off, Summer passed out. This left Leon on watch for the night. He still hasn't told Summer of the plans he had for her within the coming weeks. Soon, the tribe would find out where they were hiding and Leon knew that with each passing day, he was running out of time. Leon had to make sure that she was going to live. If she was attacked again within her current state, all bets would be off.

But he knew that Summer's hospice wouldn't last long. Leon walked over to her during that peaceful slumber and touched her hand with that contained the broken fingers. She flinched within her sleep but it wasn't enough to wake her. He looked at the limp fingers as one by one, they began to heal themselves. This was only one of the reasons why the Shishu tribe was after her, as if they obtained her flesh, they would be invincible. Leon watched the rest of Summer's body repair itself within her sleep.

He sighed as he sat back into the corner of the room. He wasn't able to switch back into his true form because they would have followed the trail of his scent. Leon looked down at his hands, these hands that weren't his to begin with, and became disgusted in himself. He didn't want to do this anymore.

"Leon?" Summer had stirred awake. Her quiet voice was able to fill the whole room. "Why haven't you tried to harm me?"

He didn't know how to respond to her as the words continued to flow out of her mouth.

"You didn't try to attack me when the others did. It was you that tried to save me, wasn't it?"

"Yes." He nodded.

"But why?"

He paused for a moment and thought about the words he was going to say to her, "My tribe has done things that I am not proud of. I have seen things done that you wouldn't even be able to imagine."

He waited for her response as the time for his plan was dwindling away. But her reply to him wasn't at all what he was expecting.

"I have seen it all. Remember? I watched Arthur change into my brother right before my eyes."

He was speechless but curious as to why she had this sudden realization of him. Was she no longer afraid of them?

"Summer, do you trust me?"

Summer lightly laughed at this, "barely."

That was good enough for him. He gave her a lopsided smile as he came closer to her.

"I was born as Leon from two tribe members of the Takinawa. I was only three when my parents had died. Soon I was taken hostage by the Shishu tribe, where I found out by the age of five that I possessed these demonic feelings inside of me. I ran rampant, wanting to kill any human who came into my path. Then I figured out that I would be able to blend into the humans with the help of human flesh. But I always wondered why I was taken hostage in the first place. I was born an Takinawan, why did the Shishuan want me?"

Summer listened intently to him, "Maybe you were a Shishuan after all?"

"I was. My father was a Shishan, apparently one of the alpha males of the tribe. But when he met my mother, he ran off with her and never returned back to his home. He was deemed a traitor by the Shishuan and that was when they had went after my father and tore him apart limb by limb." Leon's eyes grew dark with anger.

"As I grew older and more wiser of the actions of the tribe, that's when I started to notice that they had their sights set on you. I watched over you every time they had tried to attack, making sure that your parents had kept you safe from us when we were around. Just look at yourself."

Summer peered down at her limbs. She noticed her fingers were back to normal. Her leg was undamaged, her arm reconstructed.

He lifted her chin up to look him in the eyes, "Your flesh has to ability to heal at an impeccable speed. My tribe wants it, because it will mean that no one could stop us. That would call for your friends, family, anyone you've ever known to die at the hands of my tribe. But as long as I am alive, I won't let them get to you. Therefore, I need your help and you have to be in this one hundred percent. You have to help me kill Arthur."

The name made her body freeze at first, the recollection of memories flooding back. She couldn't believe what he was telling her, more than ready to shake her head "no" as the plan would be too risky. Plus, how would she be able to stop a beast like him?

"I will keep you safe. I promise." Leon whispered into her ear.

Summer knew that she wouldn't be able to return home. That the parents she had known and loved all of her life were now changed. The people she went to school with were slowly being killed, one by one. She had nothing else to return for. So what more was there to lose besides herself? With that thought, she hesitantly nodded. Summer peered up into the glowing eyes of Leon who stood before her. They had nothing else to return to. They knew what they had to do; it would soon be them against the world.