Calva Aurea

Amissa Silvis ~ Chapter 5

When I'm back down on the ground, everyone looks at me expectantly.

"Well? How close are we?" Armin perks up, and holds a desperate tone.

"Uh.." I don't know how to respond without her getting mad. "I didn't see anything.. But- maybe it was there! I could've seen wrong!" Armin storms over to me, it looked as though she was going to grab my collarbone, but changes her mind.

"You bastard! All of this is on you! Getting hurt, helping a fucking Vampire, and now getting us lost." I had hoped that she would've ignored the 'helping a Vampire', but instead she glares down at me.

"What's so wrong with helping a Vampire, anyway? I understand that you're mad because we helped him and not your brother, but you keep emphasizing on the Vampire aspect of it all." She looks stunned at me, and for a split second, her face changes from confused to amused.

"Ha- haha!" She starts to laugh, and even brings her hands up to her face, in an attempt to stop herself from continuing. I look over to see Sueki embarrassed, and looking to a random spot away from us. His face unreadable.

"Vampires.. They're all terrible! They're hunger-craved lunatics, who use their abilities only to eat more." She pauses for a second to adjust her composure. "They're gluttonous assholes. All of them."

I press my lips together tightly, and attempt to keep tears from exiting my eyes. Is that why she was disgusted when I told everyone I was a brain-eating zombie? Vampires and Zombies.. We really aren't that different, really—we may not have powers, but in Armin's eyes, and everyone else's, we're the same. In gluttony, hunger, and desperation. We really are desperate. Maybe not for the same reasons, but every Zombie and Vampire in life is desperate for something. It has literally been proven, with the Human's tests and machines.

A couple of tears are able to slide through my defense, and I raise a hand to wipe myself off while still holding eye contact. When I pull my hand back down, I look back at it, noticing that my cut is still bleeding.

"I can fix it." I hear Sueki in a low tone, Armin and Nova now talking a few feet away. She's clearly getting onto Armin, but Armin seems to ignore her.

"Leave it." I speak in a hushed tone, knowing that if I spoke normally, my voice would sound tear-stained. "Let it be, it'll heal on its own." After letting my hand drop to my side, I raise it back up to me again, and lick my finger, hoping to clean it off. But some blood has dried, and with my catlike–sandpaper tongue, I can't clean it fully.

I look back over to Sueki, expecting him to say something more, but he only gives me a somber look, and ignores me. He raises his hand up and leans toward me more, but I only back away. He has to grab my arm to keep me still, and I can feel his bright skin burning into mine. Literally, it's like his skin is on fire. He squeezes my arm tightly and presses his thumb on my cut. It stings, and I start to tear up again, before the pain goes away, as the bright blue light appears again. I can feel it better now. It's warm, not like his burning skin, but warm. The only other way to describe it is that it feels bright. He looks bright.

It doesn't hurt anymore when he pulls away, and he loosens his grip on my arm. He doesn't let go, but rather grazes his hand down to my own hand, and interlocks his fingers with my own. My face unknowingly twitches at the unfamiliarity of this affection.

From living in a white room for so long—only interacting either with the other prisoners there, or the Humans, this feels as something I've never experienced. Which is not true, as I remember the affection from my aunt clearly.

"You remind me of someone."

"Really? Who?" He tilts his head slightly, and looks deep in my eyes.

"My aunt." For a moment, there's a silence between us, me trying to gather my words, and him just confused. "She always felt warm, like you do." I look back down at his hand in mine, as I reflect back to the memories of my Aunt Papaya. "She had a silly name, her parents named her after a fruit. It's coincidentally her favorite fruit as well. Papaya."