Diamondback

7: Honey, I'm Home!

"Just breathe, Eliza. You won't mess up again this time. You can't mess up again this time."

The more I focused, the more clear a physical image of Eliza appeared in front of me via holographic form. She seemed to be sitting at a desk, maybe? It's not like I could really tell. From my point of view, her transparent body was floating just above a few of my attic boxes.

Her hair still fell down her back in silk blonde waves like I remembered, tied in a loose ponytail with a bow I had given her before this whole disaster. It's only been a day (really doesn't feel like it), but I missed her like crazy. Part of me felt a sense of relief seeing her in a safe state.

I wanted to open my mouth to say something, but it didn't sound like the best idea in the world. She may shut me out again and block off my access to her thoughts like Magneto or somethin'.

Her hands moved through the air as if to flip a book.

"'Alan Zahra, fifteen, Toronto, Canada. Cause of death...leukemia.' Oh dear...his poor parents..."

She must be looking for someone to replace me. Well, it was only a matter of time. Whatever she had to "protect Roseorn from" must be urgent, so it only makes sense.

But still.

Does it have to be some other guy who so happens to be the same age as me? I'm not jealous or anything, I'm just sayin'...

"What would his powers even come out as? I can't be too sure. I really can't mess up again like with...Eliza, stop it. Move on... 'Kris Obekpa, thirteen' -- THIRTEEN?? Oh, this cruel, cruel world..."

She hit her head against what I can only assume was a desk, groaning to no one in particular. By second nature, my hands reached out automatically, but only passed right through her. She shivered and stood, rubbing her bare arms and passing over to where I remembered the air conditioner to be.

She stopped.

Oh no. She must sense me.

Her pink eyes darkened as she glared down to the floor.

"'Zypher Cho, fourteen, Roseorn, California. Cause of death: Gunshot wound. Background...' Background...Why didn't I throw this damn paper away?"

Her fingers shot up to cover her quivering lip as tears rolled down her cheeks. I half-expected her to crumple or tear the paper when she picked it up, but she brought it with her to the desk, wiping her tears as she stared down at it.

"It's my fault. It's my own fault for being so selfish. I should've told him. I should've said something, anything. God, Zypher, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry..."

An apology? An apology is what I wanted, but why don't I feel any better? Sorry won't fix where I am. Sorry won't fix what I am. I should take the apology, I should be happy with an apology. I should move on too. If Eliza's trying to, I should as well. It's just...really hard not to still feel hurt about it. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to know she doesn't hate me and I don't like to see her cry over me, but sending me away with no answers isn't all she could've done. It doesn't make any sense.

That paper.

If I can get to that paper, I might know what to do.

A'ight, so that year of training my powers with Eliza wasn't for nothing, okay? A cool little thing I can do is expand my line of sight to a small (like, really, really small) area of my choice. Crappy Clairvoyance, if you will. Imagine it like you're a race horse. Your peripherals are totally cut off and you can only see a dark circle of whatever's directly in front of you. I can't hold it too long or else I get a serious migraine and who knows what that could do to me in this new body. Ain't no way on this earth I'll risk hurting Eliza.

The world around me darkened and shrank down to nothing but a limiting hole as I activated the ability. With a few blinks, Eliza's room materialized in front of me. All pink and fluffy pillows. If my Crappy Clairvoyance worked any better, I might've been able to smell a faint hint of the flowery perfume she wore everyday. Forcing my eyes to shift over to Eliza, she still sat dead-eyed at the contents scattered messily on her desk.

The book she was reading earlier was huge and red, engraved with some sort of fancy insignia I couldn't recognize. Despite it looking relatively old, the pages she had open were freshly printed. It feels a little unreal to see pictures of dead people. Like, literal profiles of their lives. If I knew my life would be recorded and seen over by a cute girl sitting between life and death, I would've been more careful about my actions. Not that I've done anything regrettable or whatever, I just wish I didn't lead such a largely uneventful life.

My page appeared to be forcibly torn out as if Eliza had the intent of getting rid of it entirely. Can't blame her, it must be hard to look at.

Focusing all my energy onto that spot, a somewhat clearer view of what was written popped out.

Okay, so...

"Zypher Cho, fourteen, Roseorn, California. Cause of death: Gunshot wound. Background" -- Bla bla bla Born May 27 bla bla bla INFJ bla bla bla High School Trackstar bla bla bla Sociable Yet Easily Drained From Interaction (WTF, why they gotta call me out like that, man?) -- "Status: Failure. Must be terminated immediately."

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Did I read that right?

"Status: Failure. Must be terminated immediately."

No. No, that's not correct.

"Status: Failure. Must be terminated immediately."

I don't...I don't understand. What do you...

"Status: Failure. Must be terminated immediately. Dangerously high risk of improper transformation. Symptoms will include: extreme physical change, hypersensitivity to loud/sudden noises, aggressive temperament, reasonless bloodlust, hallucinations, disturbed subconscious desires, obsessive behavior, memory loss, pathological lyi-"

You mean to tell me Eliza knew this whole time — this whole time — that I'd turn into this? And she just let it happen?

I watched her cry in that chair.

She must've been too scared to tell me. She said she loved me. And I believed her. I still believe her. There can't be some other motive. But...why didn't she just do it the moment I showed up? She didn't have to spend time with me to get to know me. It wouldn't have been so hard if she just...

Eliza mentioned how I was her first "passion project." She messed up. She messed up and she was too afraid to deal with the consequences. It's not about me. It was never about me. It was-

"Zypher?"

Shooting my eyes back up, Eliza was staring straight into my minimal line of sight. Her hands reached out to me.

"Zypher, is that..."

Squeezing my eyes shut, I forced my vision back to my attic.

Crap. That was close.

A frustrated sigh escaped me as my head fell into my lap. So that's how it is, huh? Doomed from the start? No fighting chance to begin with? You've gotta be kidding me. There's nothing I can do. Absolutely nothing.

Eliza didn't mean it. She's not evil, she's not twisted, she's just as confused as I am. It'd be so, so easy to give up right now and I'd be lying if I said this wasn't awful, but not everything's completely bleak. This is my situation and Eliza did all she possibly could, I guess. She gave me this "human contact" phrase-thing for a reason and I've gotta make the most of it.

...God.

If only it was easier to understand. 

~~~

A/N: Wellll, then. Tfw ur somewhat-now-ex-girlfriend had plans to kill you. Yikes. What do y'all think Zypher's contract could be? Thanks for reading and don't forget to drop a vote <3