Rotten World

Chapter fourteen

" It's like pitch back out here how do you know where the fuck you're going?" I ask roman as I trip over a tree root, he catches me before I fall on my face "super senses remember" oh ya, right " lucky" he laughs " hey who knows you might get night vision as your next mutation, you never know" I huff "ya or a tail" we both laugh at that

"You sure this is the right way?" Now it's Roman's turn to huff " for the love of god Reagan, yes I'm sure. now would you please stop asking me that? oh, I have an idea, how about we play a game? it'll stop you from asking me the ask question over and over again" I stop for a second and look up at roman " ok fine, what do you have in mind?" after I ask my question his whole demeanour changes and he all of a sudden becomes nervous and looks away from me while scratching the back of his neck "uh, well I was thinking that we could do like a question type game. like I ask you something and you answer honestly then you ask me one and so on"

I just continued to look at the nervous man in front of me, well not a man but still, he reminds me of a shy teenager. or at least what id imagine they'd look like. " you're really different from our first in counter, you're actually kinda a decent person. and sure ya we could do that. you go first." with his nerves calming down roman looks up at me and slightly smiles, then continues to walk with me beside him as he says " first off I'm not a man, not completely anyway. ok first question, um until recently had you ever travelled off of your farm." starting with the mellow questions I see " uh not much, no, my parents would sometimes bring me to the closest markets but other then that I wasn't allowed to leave, not even if I had logan with me. my parents were too scared that id get attacked by something."

I glance his way to just see him nod his head, I know he feels bad about my parents and I appreciate that but he needs to know that he's a different person from the thing that killed them. he's changed so much in such little time. "ok I guess it's my turn now, uh do you ever separate yourself from the thing that killed my parents?" I was gonna try and make that sound better but there really isn't many ways to make it sound less harsh. but I'm curious and am not one for mellow questions. roman physically stiffens and lightly slumps his shoulders while bowing his head to look at the ground, he then answers "i.. uh.. no I don't separate them, because they're one and the same. it's me and I'm it. I may have changed a little Reagan but I'm still the monster that killed them, I just feel guilt and remorse towards my actions now rather than not feeling anything at all."

I think about his words before I nod my head " thank you for telling me that, but I stand by what I believe and I believe that your two different things. you're a man but also a monster. I believe that it had been so long since you felt human emotion that you just cut them out completely and allowed the monster to take the front seat. I forgive you roman for what happened to my parents but I don't forgive the monster, and I probably never will." I stop again but this time I put my hand on his shoulder so he'll stop with me, I lightly push his shoulder so he's facing me but he refuses to look up at me so I place my other hand on his redish scabby cheek. his cheek isn't ruff as I originally thought its kinda smooth with patches of bumpy skin that make up the scabs. he leans his head into my hand as he raises his eyes to meet mine " I don't understand how you can look at me the way you do and not have an inch of disgust on your face, I've hurt you and I've caused you so much pain and you can still look at me like I'm a person. how?" I slowly start to rub my thumb over his defined cheekbone as I say "it's your eyes, something different and almost human. Like when I first saw you your eyes were bloodshot and almost black, they showed no emotion and no trace of the man you used to be, just the monster riding your skin. but now they're so blue it's almost alien-like, and in them, I can see emotion, sympathy and admiration. I can see a man and not a monster. I can see a soul whereas before I couldn't."