The Corrupted Soul

Chapter 20

Clementine had to have some sort of magic powers, because I had no idea when or how she had pulled out that notepad, but she was definitely making sure she didn't loose a single detail I gave out. Over the past fifteen minutes she had accumulated about five pages of notes in that thing. I had no idea how she could write that fast, and focus on three things at once. What she was writing, what I had said, and what I was currently saying.

I let forth a growl as my fists tightened further. I had explained most if not all of what had happened, from taking Martian to the park, to running through the forest blindly, hiding in the semi, and meeting Martian in the bottom of their nest, "I'm almost positive they wanted me to join them for one reason or another, but I have so many questions."

The woman nodded slowly, finally looking up from her notes, "I'd say that is why they reacted the way they did to Victor punching you. They wanted you to join their pack, and he almost ruined that chance from the get go."

I stared at her, baffled, "Sometimes I forget your job is to study the fine details of things. Even I didn't put that together until you just pointed it out, and I'm the one who got sucker punched."

She grinned slightly, clearly amused she could still catch me off guard with her observant nature. She analyzed things from every angle, where I commonly took things at face value, like most Crawlers. I tilted my head, "Something still doesn't make sense to me though. If they wanted me to join their pack, and kidnapped Martian specifically to get me out there, why do you think they didn't just try to talk first? Or act as though they didn't know I was Sane?"

She paused in thought for much shorter a time than I expected, "I believe that was their plan. They didn't try to talk because they knew, you've lived here since we accidentally woke you up. If you wanted to leave, you would have done so at some point in the last two years. They likely knew how you would react to the speculation of Martian being gone, and were relying on the fact you wouldn't see it as wise to return to the city and potentially have Olive behead you."

I shuddered in disgust. She was probably right. They had been watching me and knew how I would respond to their plans, it was all calculated. They may have even been watching since before the sightings in the city started rolling in. Creeps...

Ot was also possible Harris and Maria told people about me, and those stories were told to each new generation of Sanes. But that wouldn't make sense given the circumstances. The humans and Harris would have no way to tell them I could be alive, they never knew. Crawlers had never been beheaded, and still have their head and neck touching in such a way they could regenerate. I was literally the first Crawler to come back from a beheading.

They would never know to look into the city to find me, unless they had been watching the city and saw me within.

Clem continued, "As for the incident with the truck, I think that was also planned out. They wanted to make you think he had problems with control when in the city, so they could use the excuse of never having seen you before. If they said they knew who you were, and that you were Sane, you would rightfully refuse their offer seeing as they had been stalking you. I agree with your thought that they would use Martian as blackmail had you refused, otherwise they would have killed him."

She no doubt saw just how this was triggering me. What I hated most about this was that they had almost gotten away with it. Had I not thrown that stone at that particular angle, I would have never found Martian down there. My instincts hated them from the moment I saw them, and even forced me awake by reminding me of the first nest I had encountered. Pack dynamics were not something to trifle with, not with Ferals, and not with sadistic semi-Sane mystery Crawlers either. From this point on, I was trusting my gut no matter how farfetched it seemed.

Clem stood up slowly, "You should get rid of those old glasses. They don't look like they're going to hold together much longer. Here, I have a pair over here you can have." She walked towards a shelf with several baskets on it by the front door, and began to root through them.

I watched her out of the corner of my eye, "I don't need to have a new pair, I can just grab one of my spares from the treehouse later."

"Well, then at least borrow these for the time being, I swear if a shard of that lense gets lodged in your eye socket, I am not getting it out."

I chuckled a little, Clem turned a small dial on the wall and dimmed her livingroom lights down to a fairly dark level, they might as well have been off, which was much darker than it needed to be for my comfort. Even so, I reached up and took the glasses off. I stared at them, silent rage steadily building up inside my core.

Clem turned back, having located a pair of grey sunglasses. She lifted her head to look at me, and her eyes widened before she jumped back against the wall. I stared, jumping back myself at her strange behavior. I quickly turned back, wondering if she was looking at the large sliding glass door behind me, but there was nothing out there of note.

I turned back to look at the terrified human, whose scent strengthened with building fear. My own anxiety rose, and I tentatively asked, "What is wrong...?"

She blinked quickly a few times, her voice shook ever so slightly, "You may want to check a mirror."

I jumped up and ran towards her bathroom, I only knew where it was by the smell of shampoo. If Clem wasn't telling me, it was one of two things: a bad joke, or something very bad. Based on her sudden fear, I was forced to settle on the latter.

I looked into the mirror and pressed my back against the wall. My heart rate was steadily rising the longer I stared at my own reflection. What looked back at me was not the black eyes of a Crawler, but instead two bright red dots.