Immortality Carcinoma

.005

“You sure seem to have got that one good,” Sky pointed out as Charlie sat down onto the cold steel table, her feet dangling from it, high heels scathing the floor barely. Sky held her hand, collecting blood and tissue from beneath her fingernails. “And you say you didn’t morph?”

“Didn’t have to,” Charlie shrugged. “Either they’re getting weaker or I’m getting stronger, I guess.” Secretly, she hoped from the first to be the case. Too much attention was bad for her, she was already well on her way of becoming another test subject in the lab pit three stories below.

“You know I’d keep this a secret from Blaine if I could, but this shit has to be documented properly, especially in these times, Charl,” Sky sighed and let go of the female’s hand, letting it fall to her lap soundlessly.

“I understand Sky,” try as she might to disguise it, silent judgment still managed to taint her words.

“You’ll probably wish to kill me once I say this… but, Charlie, wouldn’t you be a hundred times better off if you just played along and accepted his offer?”

“If I became one of his… wives?” The last word had Charlie’s face wrinkled in disgust. The whole monarchy concept that pup had established pretty much made her gag. Just because they had animal DNA, they didn’t have to act like animals. “Damn right I want to kill you right now, Sky, I thought you were on my side!”

“I am, and I hate to see your talent and potential smothered and restrained by his selfish libido!” Sky hissed quietly and stroked Charlie’s face with his big, rough hand.

“You don’t know the entire story, Sky.”

“There’s a story?”

Charlie slid off the examination table, “Wow, Sky, this time your precious lamp survived!”

“If that was your attempt at changing the subject, you failed miserably. The story?”

Charlie turned her back to the Northman, milky skin showing through the slit in the blue hospital gown. The black stiletto boots remained on her feet, however. She had no idea why she wore them, it wasn’t like they were of any use in combat. Yet there weren’t many things that made her feel like a woman in this job. Blaine’s constant coming on to her aside, she was just a utility here, a mercenary, a soldier, something unisex.

Her mind diverged a lot when it came to sharing her personal life.

“Sky,” she sighed, “You’re the only thing close to family that I’ve got, I don’t wanna lose you too.” And it wasn’t his life that she feared for. As open-minded and as loving to her as Sky was, he was still capable of holding grudges. There was one in particular that he had been holding onto for as long as she could remember him. It wasn’t the classical I-despise-the-bloodsuckers-because-I’m-a-lycan thing; it went much deeper than that. He never told her, but Charlie simply knew.

“Don’t be such a pup, you know I love you more than any other furball in this place,” he smiled and covered both her hands with his big paws, making their eyes meet in a soft gaze, “Tell me, kid… You can’t carry that shit around on your own, let me be there for you.”

Charlie felt the tears scald the insides of her eyelids as they attempted to brim over. She closed her eyes and leaned against her comrade, letting her guard down for the first time in… years.

“Skylar,” the girl whispered pleadingly, “tell me of the time you found me, again.”

The blonde male smiled into Charlie’s hair and nodded, “You were a curious thing, Charlie,” he started with a laugh, stroking the youth’s cheek. “You smelled like a woman and looked like a boy, a beautiful boy.

“We found you in the Scandinavian forests, a tiny black spot, your body screamed against the pristine snow. When we neared you, you looked up proudly and turned your head away, thinking we were the ones who hurt you like that. Every strand of this white hair of yours was matted with blood, we couldn’t even make out its color right away. Funny thing about that, though – there wasn’t a single scratch on you and yet the blood was definitely yours.”

Charlie bit her cherry lip, her canines producing blood in the corners of her mouth. A funny thing indeed, she thought forlornly, bitterly. It was only a matter of time before someone connected the dots, she pondered, before her own body betrayed her. Skylar continued, unaware:

“You didn’t make a sound once one of the soldiers made you stand up on your feet. Your body was clothed in rags and when you stood straight, you glared at Blaine,” the man laughed, his shaking chest making Charlie smile as well. “I’ll never forget about that, kid, you disliked him from the very start.”

“You know, you all seemed tremendously scary to me, but Blaine, he looked scary and insane. Like a man who has all this power and no moral to put it to good use. I thought you were going to kill me.”

“Nah, I feel so badly that you can’t remember, Chaz, perhaps adjusting to this life would have been easier on you then.”

Charlie separated herself from her old friend and sat in the metal gurney behind her, still looking at his piercing blue eyes. She remembered the time when they found her, but more importantly, she remembered that time which preceded it. Charlie knew where all the blood had come from, just as she knew why she was growing exponentially stronger each day.

Although she knew she had a slim chance of getting any sleep this morning, she peeled off her clothes and let her body fall into the silken sheets. Her azure eyes searched the warm darkness of her chambers, dancing over the burgundy walls while her fingers toyed with the black canopy that tickled the firm muscles of her stomach. With her eyes finally stilling on the silhouette of her desk and the window behind it, her breathing deepened and a restless sleep came over her.

It smelled like snow and it indeed did snow once she opened her eyes. She’d been traveling through this forest for days now, trying to reach home and bring the news of the massive death she had just witnessed. Its stench still stained her. The enemy let her go, figuring “a little boy” like her wouldn’t be able to make it through this wilderness. With her hair tied in a firm pony-tail and her chest hidden by tightly wound bandages, she indeed looked like a boy. And only heavens knew why she wasn’t executed like the rest of the survivors.

The weight of her sword and shield exhausted her, and the weakness wouldn’t stop washing over her arms once she stood up again, shaking off the fresh snow that drenched her clothes. Her combat boots were too big for her, her crossbow felt heavy, strapped to her back and she sat back down again, tired and bound by immense sorrow. The sounds of battle-cries and the clanking of metal against metal wouldn’t leave her ears. And neither could the image of the heads of her father and her brothers stuck on their own spears leave her eyes.

Her weary body collapsed again and time passed slowly, twilight melted into night when she woke up again. This time she wasn’t alone.


Charlie’s eyes snapped open and she sat up in her bed. Her blood was boiling, but despite of that, she was stone cold all over.

Saint Stephen’s cathedral felt colder and more desolate than usual with the long faces of its saints plastered all over the high ceilings, their sad eyes gazing down upon the wallowing sinner who had just entered. Her head covered by a hood and steps resonating off the wide walls, she slowly stirred the sleeping priest awake.

Charlie’s eyes were blazing with azure fire when the young clergyman’s head peered out from behind the ornate altar. The inner fever of her dream was still scorching her from the inside while the damp coldness clung to her skin like a veil of liquid unease and the appearance of this simple mortal man soothed her in so many wrong ways. The man’s charcoal locks and piercing gray eyes made him stand out in a crowd and even though unwilling to admit it to herself, his body gave out a distinct scent – his essence mixed in with something that reminded her of her childhood, but she didn’t quite know what.

“You,” the priest said under his breath, a barely noticeable smile curving his thin lips.

“You sound disappointed, father,” Charlie retorted and sat down in the pew, intertwining her gloved fingers in her lap, her eyes resuming their regular bright blue hue.

But he was far from disappointed, in all honesty, he was afraid her lifestyle had gotten the better of her. And it would be such a waste of life’s energy and beauty to have her dead to this world.

“I thought you found someone else to listen to you by now, stranger. Truth be told, I feared it,” he confessed and sat down next to her, their knees touching accidentally. His robed body scooted away a moment too late as the coldness of Charlie’s skin made his own skin crawl.

“I’m sorry,” the wolf-girl whispered, not really knowing what she was exactly apologizing for – her betraying coldness or the long pause in her visits.

“Why is your skin so cold, are you ill?” He turned with the intention to grasp her face in his hands, but the beauty avoided him nimbly, eyes wide in terror.

“I’m fine and I didn’t come here for medical advice.”

“Then for what?”

“Father, do you believe in monsters?”
♠ ♠ ♠
Guys, seriously. Not fair.