Imperfect Life: Arc 7

Chapter 9

Two nights later, Crys once again woke up in bed. As soon as she opened her eyes, she knew what, and who, to expect. She sat upright and glared at the man in the chair.

"Stop taking my sleep from me." Crys said, extremely frustrated.

Seinhou gave a restrained laugh. "Hilarious." He said with severely obvious sarcasm. "Unfortunately, your sleep does not matter to me. You work on my schedule, not the other way around."

"Your schedule?" Crys blurted out, borderline furious. "So far all you've done is wake me up in the middle of the night and threaten me! So are you ever just going to get to the point!?"

Seinhou gave a somewhat vague smile. "You're fierce, that I will concede. You're quite the mix of bold and idiotic, too, I might add."

Crys sneered. She didn't care about the insults, she just wanted to be left alone. "Just get to the point."

"Now where is the fun in that?"

"I want you to leave me and my friends alone. I don't care what you say, I'm not a threat." Crys said sternly.

Seinhou's demeanor shifted, turning much more serious. He shifted his weight and leaned forwards slightly. "You don't get to make the decisions, anymore. You, despite your protests, are a threat. All werewolves are threats. Perhaps you didn't come to learn that when you were mauled in the forest, but then again, I suppose you wouldn't care considering you managed to get your revenge."

Crys hesitated. She was thinking back to what happened the night of the Werepocalypse, and it made her deeply uncomfortable.

Seinhou gave a singular chuckle, content in his foe's hesitation. "You see, we make sure ignorant, hormonal, emotion-driven, loose cannons such as yourself don't go out of line. We don't want humanity to collapse in on itself, and a werewolf is certainly a surefire way for that to happen." Seinhou paused for a brief second to let his information sink in. "You are a teenager, and you have already caused enough trouble. You killed the CEO of a major company, who, albeit corrupt and vile in her own right, was still a very public figure. Not to mention, you managed to kill the most vile werewolf to exist, of course, only after the entire city was infected."

"Everyone was cured." Crys spoke up, hoping to use that as a good defense.

"Oh, yes, everyone was cured. A miraculous feat, wouldn't you agree? A miracle cure appears immediately after everyone had a taste of what it was like to be a lycanthrope. Now, how would a teenager manage to get their hands on such a cure? Oh, and of course, why would that teenager still be a lycanthrope herself?"

Crys scowled still, trying to think through every word she was going to say very thoroughly. She couldn't afford to let any information slip. None whatsoever. "I'll let you figure that one out, since you're so smart." She mocked.

Seinhou returned the scowl. He looked rather bothered by Crys' remark.

Crys saw Seinhou's look sour. She knew that she managed to get under his skin. It may not have been much, but it was at least something.

"That's exactly what I am doing." Seinhou said in a harshly serious tone.

Crys thought for a moment. She figured that Seinhou wouldn't be asking her all these questions if he already knew the answers. The fact that she managed to get under his skin with her remark was proof enough of that. The fact was, Seinhou didn't know much about anything that had happened. Crys grinned a little.

"I'm finding out quite a lot about you, Crystal." Seinhou continued. "I'm not just here to take your oh-so precious sleep." He mocked. "I'm going to prove that you are a threat."

Crys' little smile faded. Horror took its place.

"You act so smug, so brave." Seinhou continued in his deeply serious tone. "I know better. You may deny it, but you are a threat. I am going to prove it, which is something your guardian angel should have done the moment you went public. Instead, he swept your existence under the rug, and now, it's become a clear problem."

Crys took all the information in. She had no clue how to react. She couldn't even begin to think clearly about it.

"You're scared." Seinhou said, commenting on how aghast Crys looked. "That's good. It's exactly what you should be." His expression faded from his face.

Crys felt the wave of exhaustion hit her again, and just like that, she was back asleep.

In the morning, before the alarm even rang to wake Crys up for school, she woke up. As soon as she snapped out of her sleepy spell, she bolted upright and screamed out in terror. She clutched her mattress with an iron grip. Her mind was racing. The conversation from last night had sunk in, and the dread it gave her was overwhelming. Crys could barely think as she trembled in fear. Her breathing was sporadic, and her heart was racing.

Only a few seconds later, Brandon ran into the room and went up to Crys. He put a hand on one of her shoulders and tried to look her in the eyes. "Crys?" He asked, trying to help. "Crys, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

Crys could only respond with gasps for breath and sounds of terror.

Brandon could tell Crys definitely wasn't alright. It wasn't exactly difficult to figure out. "Crys." He said, a lot calmer, trying to be soothing. "It's okay, I'm here for you. Everything is going to be alright."

Crys' eyes darted about, but they soon settled on her friend. She was still horribly panicked, but she wasn't alone.

Brandon scooted in a little closer. "I'm here for you." He continued saying calmly.

Crys continued to panic for several minutes. She was horrified, but having Brandon there for her made things slightly better. It would take quite a while, but eventually she would calm down just enough to lean forward and wrap her arms around her friend for comfort as she broke into tears. The uncontrollable panic was over, but the fear was still there. She felt exhausted even though she had only just woken up.

Brandon wrapped his arms around Crys in reciprocation. He patiently stayed with his friend as she continued to calm down.

Later on as they walked to school, Crys spoke up. It was the first words she had said all morning.

"Thank you." She said. "Seinhou returned last night. I-I guess I just didn't get a chance to take things in until I woke up this morning."

"I'm just glad you're okay." Brandon replied.

Crys nodded a little and sniffed. She was still a bit stuffy. "He said he was going to prove that I'm a threat."

"That's not good." Brandon said, being serious.

Crys shook her head slowly in agreement. "I-I don't know what he's going to do." She said, still a little shaky. "I'm scared."

Brandon took a moment before responding. "I am too." He said genuinely.

"I'm sorry I got you involved in all this, Brandon. If you didn't find out I was a werewolf-"

"Don't apologize." Brandon interrupted. "You didn't know any of this would've happened, and like I said before, I'm glad I know."

Crys took a deep breath. "I-I just..." She tried to say.

"It's okay." Brandon replied.

The two friends kept walking.

"You're always there for me." Crys spoke up. "I'm sorry if I'm being a burden at all."

"We've been over that, Crys. I'm more than happy to help you."

"It just feels unfair. You're always there for me, what have I ever done?"

"A lot, actually." Brandon replied. "You're there for me as much as I'm there for you."

Crys nodded a little. She believed her friend.

Both Brandon and Crys went quiet for the rest of their walk to school.