Beautiful Wilting Flowers

New Recruit:

Ina POV:

I tell it like it is. There's something off about this new guy Vek; something odd he's hiding that I can't figure out. It's not paranoia, I swear, this is something new. It's a feeling. And it's not a good one. The kind that makes your stomach queasy and your eyes glance around for axe murderers. That kind. He's got a secret; and I want in on it.

He gives a wide smile as Greigh shakes his hand, and beams at the extra power support.

"S-so... Not to make things weird or anything," Heyden looks as queasy as I am. "But how much of the person are you as what you told me?" He frowns, probably feeling a little betrayal. I would be.

"It was all true." Vek says sincerely, "I was interested in your friendship-"

Cue Heyden's flinch at the word.

"As much as I was suspicious about if we were all... well, you know, immortal." He says knowingly, missing Heyden's discomfort.

"O-oh." Heyden tries a smile, and we can all tell it's fake, but he looks like he believes it was convincing, so none of us says anything. "So... not to impose, but,.. what gave our cover away?"

"Well," Vek sits down in a chair strewn in rope for some reason, "This might take a while. et comfortable." He laughs.

I take a seat on the fuzzy rug floor as the two Coal siblings perch themselves on one bed, and Dean and Heyden on the other. Vek claps his hands together.

"So. When were you all injected with the serum?" He asks to start off.

We all spew off general dates, and Vek nods.

"Right; so I was last. October." He nods.

I make a mental note. So I wasn't last. Take that, bypassing strangers who give me the you're so lucky to get a chance look.

"How did you know Dr. Black?" Greigh asks.

"Eh, close family friend." He shrugs. There's that evasive tone again. "She was a close friend of my dad's."

"How close?" Greigh purged the thick layers of the story further.

"They met in college and had been friends ever since." Vek rolled his eyes. "And she said she would 'bless' me with one of her incredible serums as well. Did you know we all have a certain point in our lives where we stop growing? I've been twenty for an entire year now, and the state of my body hasn't changed a bit." He sighs.

"What?!" Dean yelps. "I was looking forward to the day I looked old enough that I could retire early!" He shouts incredulously in shock.

"These walls are pretty thin, so if you keep talking that loud, I swear on everyone's mortality here, I will-" I was losing it as Liana gave me an 'are you serious right now?' voodoo glare.

"Okay, okay," Vek laughed, unbothered by my intrusive thoughts. "We all have those thoughts, but lets focus right now. Have you guys seriously never noticed the lack of growth?" He looks at us like were crazy.

"I noticed it." Greigh says at the same time Dean blurts out "Nah, were typical teens who think we'll stay young and hot forever so we don't have to wear sunscreen or helmets when we ride skateboards."

We all stare at him for a while. Heyden, his eyebrows scrunched up, says,

"You amaze me with all of your speedy and out of the blue responses to everything, Dean. I really admire it in a way." He holds an awkward smile upon his face.

"Aw, thanks man." Dean brings a hand up to his heart, beaming. "That makes my life easier knowing it matters to someone."

I honest to goodness can't tell if he's joking or serious so I shake my head and turn to Vek.

"Continue." I wave him along.

"Anyways. I noticed that part of the serum more recently. But when I was fifteen... well, I lost my mother.. and anyways, the following months after that, my best friend who had been diagnosed with a lung disease passed away.. and I was very hazy after that. I never committed seriously to any of my jobs I needed to pay off my apartment mortgage for the month, and I eventually got kicked out, and had to live with my dad again. Some days I couldn't get out of bed in the morning, and sometimes I skipped regular meals. Which was very unhealthy." He sighed heavily. "Anyways, one morning where I was particularly depressed, I decided a walk to the park to do a few laps would be good for me. Fresh air. On the way there when I was crossing a road, BAM, a car hit me."

Greigh saw where this was going. 

"You didn't die, did you?" He asked Vek.

"Obviously." He rolled his eyes. "Otherwise I wouldn't be here right now. Not even a scratch of pain; I'm pretty sure I gave the driver a heart attack for nothing. It was honestly sad. Anyways, later after that, Black heard about my incident, and reached out to me about my abilities. Well, through pen and paper. She explained everything, and my first thought was I AM IMMORTAL. WHAT KIND OF DEATH TRAP WILL I SCARE EVERYONE BY SURVIVING FIRST? But that clearly wasn't how it worked, and this whole low profile thing didn't really work well with my ego."

Dean's eyes watered in appreciation about someone who understood the big ego difficulties that they endured. I'm sure he'll make a remark about embarking on their humble ego-ed adventure together, so I cut in before that happened.

"So then I heard that there were five others like me out there, and I went searching for them. Day by day, night by night, nothing to be found." He laughs. "I was coming home to finally give up when I met Heyden in the plane, getting friendly-"

Cue Heyden's flushing.

"And from there it just kind of... made sense. So I stalked this guy." He pointed at Dean. "'Cause he's pretty hard to miss, and yeah. So here we are."

"Wow," Greigh spoke softly, "I am so sorry about your mother and best friend. That must have been awful to live through."

"It's okay." Vek shrugged, and I could tell he was trying to cover up a lot of sadness. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Well..."Heyden sighs. "We sort of lost our immortality."

Vek's eyes widen like saucers, shock clearing up everything on his face.

"You guys too?"