Monster Like You

Chapter 27

The only unconditional advantage of his "rebirth" Nathaniel sincerely considered the ability to get enough sleep in three hours. In the current situation, it was enough for him to rest and two, after which he carefully extricated himself from Vet's embrace. He managed not to wake her up at the same time.

It was still dark outside, only streetlights and billboards illuminated the empty streets of London, washed by a fine rain. But this deep night Nathaniel felt like early-earlier morning. While video camera recordings were being copied from various cards to Vet's tablet, he brewed himself coffee and made a couple of sandwiches. The dried meat Vet had bought the day before came in handy. Nathaniel didn't really feel a special need for caffeine, but some habits were firmly ingrained in his mind. Such rituals gave a sense of peace and comfort, which both he and Vet lacked now.

He did not turn on the light, so as not to attract the attention of observers. Nathaniel could see quite well in the dark, but the tablet screen was still illuminated. It took a lot of time to sort out the files and skim through several hours of recordings from three points, but by the time it began to dawn outside the window, the picture of what had happened was Nathaniel clear.

An unknown man came to Alyss last morning, after nine.

No matter how hard Nathaniel tried, he couldn't catch a single frame in which his face could be seen. A cap with a long visor got in the way, and he kept holding his head all the time as if he knew where the cameras were and deliberately tried not to get caught by them.

It was strange that Alyss calmly let him in, although she was not particularly happy about the visit. But she did not expect a trick from him, calmly allowed him to follow her into the kitchen, where she continued to cook breakfast, and turned her back to him.

For which she paid. The man waited for the next moment when she turned away, and shot Alyss in the back of the head. She didn't have time to understand anything. And most likely, she didn't have time to feel it.

It was the only consolation Nathaniel could count on.

At the moment of the shot, he involuntarily looked away from the screen, feeling anger mixed with bitterness boil up inside. From the first, everything inside was bubbling, from the second, it stung my eyes. He rewound the recording. To where Alyss was just a woman, a young mother for morning cares. The cameras didn't record sound, but from the way she moved around the first floor, dancing slightly, Nathaniel guessed that she was listening to the radio and maybe even singing along to him.

Against his will, their conversation, which had taken place in the laboratory shortly before his escape, surfaced in his memory. They already knew about the baby then, and about Alyss' changing nature, and what Penn was going to do. Alyss was as depressed as Vet was today. And he was hugging her in the same way, hugging her to him. Burying her face in his shoulder, she quietly fantasized:

"If we could get out of here... To run away far, far away, where no one would know us. And no one found us. Maybe to Scotland or Greenland. Somewhere where a couple of hybrids wouldn't scare anyone, where you could apply your knowledge of magic to work... I would make you breakfast in the morning and stay with the baby, and you would come back to me in the evening..."

Such a simple dream seemed fantastic to both of them, but it was those words of hers that inspired him to escape.

Nathaniel stopped recording shortly before Alyss went to open the door for her last guest. Her face was just caught in the frame. She looked happy and calm. Even if she didn't get the whole dream for a short time, but, like him, she felt free for several months. At least relatively. And this was also partly comforting.

"You should have run away with me like I suggested, you stupid girl," Nathaniel muttered, smiling at the same time and feeling a lump rise across his throat.