The Many Regrets of a Cyborg Werewolf

Mercury - VIII

Normally Luke would sit near the back of the bus, where he was more out of the way, but a group of friends had occupied the area. They were loud, rowdy, and made the few other passengers uncomfortable. It also meant most of the empty seats were near the front. It was annoying for Luke, but with only two stops left until his destination it didn't matter, but it did mean he was forced into proximity of every new and departing passenger. This played against his need for seclusion and discretion. It also meant he had to smell everyone, which wasn't particularly pleasant either. Every person's scent was a story, a biography of sorts, both where they came from and what they were doing at that moment. Feeling in that moment. It's how Luke knew the few people left were bothered by the group of boys. Their anxiousness, and even a bit of fear, was palpable in their scent. It was getting dark, the overcast weather and snowfall made it feel even later than it was, and the few passengers left were outnumbered by the group of friends at the back. They chatted, commented, and in general just wouldn't shut up. As the bus came to a stop many of the remaining passengers excluding Luke and the boys departed, with only a single new person entering the bus. It was a young girl, a student going by her bag, and as she stepped onto the bus and noticed the group of boys she hesitated to take her seat. She coughed, either from nerves or the sudden cold, then glanced at Luke. Not purposefully, just enough to register him, and how distancing herself from either or would put her in the middle of the bus and both parties. Luke watched as she took the seat opposite him, her posture tense and straight. She gripped the railing separating the seat from the steps as the bus accelerated, and didn't let go.

Luke sighed, took his hands out of his pockets, and stood up. The girl flinched slightly until she realized he was moving more towards the middle of the bus, away from her. He took his new seat closer to the boys but farther from her, and could tell she relaxed slightly from the gesture. Luke didn't take offense. To her the scruffy man in the worn out jacket was probably just as unnerving as a group of thuggish young men, and since it was just them and the driver left as the only souls on board it was only natural she'd like to stay close to the exit.

"It's wonderful, isn't it?" A voice came from beside Luke. He snapped his head up, looking to either side, but there was no one there. Yet the voice had been so vivid it was like someone had whispered right into his ear, and this was all the more clear when it continued, "how utterly ruled by fear they are. Wonderful, pathetic, and illuminating."

"Salary man," Luke muttered to himself. It was the same voice from the undersea research lab. The one that communicated on the ultra high frequencies only Luke could hear. The same one who had him chained and took samples of the Lycan Shots, and turned those scientists into hideous mutations.

"Actually I'm paid in stock options," the voice said with a slight hiss to every word that made Luke deeply irritated. It was a voice trying to sound intimidating, mocking, the kind of ego that Luke so desperately wanted to break.

"You're not on the bus," Luke noted.

"No, not even close," the voice continued. "Well, relatively speaking. I am aware of what's going on, though. How gentlemanly of you to move your seat, by the way."

"Why not meet me face to face?" Luke asked, "I can demonstrate my etiquette while I peel you apart."

"I'm not here to fight you, at least not today," the voice continued. "Miss Wintergreen has a vested interest in you, and now so do I." The voice went silent as Luke refrained from answering. If whoever this was had no interest in fighting then it seemed likely all he was here to do was annoy Luke and possibly pry information. Two things he wouldn't facilitate.

"Who do you think is more afraid on this bus?" The voice asked. "The young lady all by her lonesome? One could argue she has plenty to fear. Yet she braves the uncertainty of solitude to make her trip from home to school and back again, regardless of what's out there." Luke glanced at the girl. She still held the railing, looking away from everyone else, occasionally letting out a nervous cough.