Hellbound - 001/Henry Creel/Peter Ballard

005

The door opens again with a creak. "Yes Papa?" I say without looking at him but when I earn no response I look up at the person standing on my door frame.

Henry.

He enters my room and shuts the door behind him. I don't know for how long I was unconsious in the infirmary after the day that he visited me, it couldn't have been too long ago but his whole demeanor has changed. Something has happened that I am not aware of.

His hair is different, as if he has combed his hands through it too many times and now it frames his eyes and face. His face looks different, more sharp and dangerous, his undereyes have significantly darkened over time and there is a clear distress in him.

Something is wrong. I can feel it in the air around him.

"Hi." I whisper, cautious of what to say.

"Eve." He sighs and a huge smile erupts on his face.

My eyes shift quickly over to the corner of the room, where the wall meets the ceiling where the camera is located. The red light is once again not flashing. I am not stupid or naive not to know that this is not a coincidence anymore. There is something much deeper than this.

But I let those thoughts behind as I gaze at his face, the boyish smile on his face that lights up his features and those crazily blue eyes of his.

Only at the mention of my nickname I feel human again. My name is a number, a number tattooed on my wrist and as the years pass I realise that my name is not a name but a way to register me as an experiment.

But with Henry I am human, I am not a walking experiment but someone with a beating heart and a soul.

"Henry." I rise from my bed and rush into his arms, engulfing myself in his hug. His chin rests on my head and I inhale his clean smell, intoxicated by him.

"Oh Eve, I have so much to tell you." He pulls away and cups my cheek with his palms, looking deep into my eyes.

"I have more." I gleam up at him, my happiness no where near contained.

"Tell me."

With just two words the water spills over the edge and I blurt it all out. "I have powers. I can finally control my powers and I exploded the lights in the infirmary. Oh, I also sort of fought Papa with them and moved loads of marbles."

His eyes widen and then an even bigger smile covers his face.

He hugs me once again this time lifting me and spinning me around, laughing away with me.

"I am so proud of you Eve, I knew you could do it."

My heart erupts in a thousand different butterflies at the sound of those words and I seem to be floating weightless from the immense happiness he brings me.

Both of us are smiling, staring at each other, no words passing through but yet we communicate in our own way. The room is charged with our energy and I can feel it pulsing between us.

"What did you want to tell me?" I break the comfortable silence.

"It's not good news, do you want to hear it?" His smile flickers like a light but this time it's not my doing.

I brace myself for what he's going to say next. "Yes." I whisper.

"Papa doesn't want you here. We were right about your time running out but I thought it was because you didn't have power and to them you were not useful. But things now have changed." His smile drops altogether and for the first time I truly notice the stress behind the perfect polished mask of his.