Never Close Your Eyes

DTM 🐊 : C. 16

|| Chapter Sixteen ||

"Over seven-feet-tall, red eyes, teeth like a mountain goat. He walks around on all fours, and he can blend into his surrounds like a chameleon." Sketchy sounded very prideful in the bullshit he spat to us as if we had no better knowledge to compare.

Murphy definitely isn't close to seven feet, his eyes aren't even the slightest resemblance to red. His teeth is a little yellow, but not like a mountain goat.

I have seen him bear crawl, though, and he reads people good enough to know how to change his personality to favor theirs.

Yet, he's nothing like the creature these two gossip about.

"Yeah, when we saw him in Louisiana, he was green as moss. We saw him again a week later in Texas, and he looked like dirt." Skeezy agreed with more of their own facts, trying to get us to believe there was a beast out there for our heads.

When he spoke of a monster in moss, I thought back to the Weed Z. I wonder how things ended up back there, after we left and after the King was killed.

In my seat, I was on the verge of tears as I kept myself composed. It looked like everyone else was amused with the tall tales.

"You don't say." I coughed, clearing my throat of this bull they wanted to continuously shove down my throat.

I could feel myself begin to tap my foot against the only thing that kept me from the water, wanting to say something snarky in hopes they'd retaliate the way I wanted them to.

Boy, do I have a surprise for them.

"And he's dangerous as all hell." Skeezy said, which triggered something in my memories.

"You'll fail her one day too, and I pray to God it doesn't take her life away like it did all of those people."

For once, Murphy had nothing more to say, which shocked me. He didn't say anything back. His face was blank as his mind played my words over.

"You're just mad." He whispered but it felt like he was trying to reassure himself.

"And you're dangerous."

The dangerous part of their sentence was the only true thing they spoke, but that didn't help the core memory that both Murphy and I shared as we looked up at each other.

Eye contact that spoke more words in a novel was shared, but our mouths couldn't keep up. I didn't want to apologize, but I knew in some degree, he was also hurting from Cassandra's death.

It may not have been a health relationship, but it was still a bond that was forced.

"I saw him turn a man inside out, using his mind." Sketchy fueled the fire in our laughter, but I was no longer laughing.

The memory ruined my mood, and the fact that it was no longer funny to tell stories about the zombie that cried power.

"Literally, the guy's spleen just hanging out over his waistband."

A small production of guilt was in the back of my heart, but I believe I felt this because of the way I said it.

I know Murphy didn't offer himself to be one of the only humans that survived the vaccines, but he had choices to make once the responsibility turned into power.

No waiver was signed, he didn't get told how it would change his body. From what he tried to lie about, he was probably bounded by the wrists and lied to about what was in his dosage.

I can hold him accountable for the mental strength that's gone to his head, though.

"Most people don't understand." Skeezy sighed, shaking his head in disappointment at all the people he couldn't trick with their stories.