The Eden Projects (FINAL EDITING)

Chapter 44. Dismal-land.

- Kasper - 

"I'll kill you." Kasper shouted. "You hear me?"

"Stop looking at me like that." 

"Not today, but a month from now, a year, maybe a few days, when you don't expect it. I'll kill you." 

Ace ignored him and pulled a syringe from one of the padded pockets on his vest.

"HEY-" Kasper splashed water at him.

"Yeah I hear you-" He moved to Zak and found his neck under his mess of curls. "-do what you want."

Two skeletal wings protruded like half dead spiders from Zak's back, they twitched and shuddered as he breathed. "-unfortunately for you-" He flicked the vial. "-or fortunately for me... You'll kill Zak as well. You may not need me, but he does."

"Ace-" Kasper tried his best to slow his crashing heart as he searched around the second bullethole for that tiny fragment that was turning his blood into razor blades.

"This is your fault."

Kasper's gaze shot to him. "What did you just say?" 

"Exactly." 

"This is your fault." 

"Nnnnope. You brought this on." 

Every now and again Kasper grimaced, or shook his head, eyes flitting around the room. "You aren't good for anybody." What he could see was lost between them.

Ace only glanced at him. "Truth is absolute." He pushed the needle into Zak's neck.

"Truth doesn't matter when you're a snake." 

"Oh it does." There was silence between them as Ace pulled out his knife, cutting two slits down Zak's back. He grabbed and pulled at the wings as they began to move and push themselves out. It was all quiet except for the grinding of bones as they built up and settled into their new homes. His freshly formed muscles anchoring them down. Zak's posture changed. Kasper could see it from where he laid, his shoulders and chest rising and righting themselves. "You proved my point about that a long time ago."

"Tch-" Kasper gritted.

If it was one thing Ace was, on all things that regarded person(s) other than himself, he was honest. "What is this, we had the depressed quiet version, the repressed and confused one, and now a manic asshole. You're giving me whiplash."

"I'm not manic." 

Ace's brow raised. "This is better than that pathetic cowering dog you were. Archer must have been the moral clock huh."

Kasper's temper fizzled.

"A thank-you for cutting that tether would be nice." He tugged one last time. and the second wing locked into place. "Between us, I never liked him anyway."

Kasper only glared at him. As if glaring alone could cause spontaneous combustion or heart attack. 

"Done." Ace sat, rubbing Zak's back. 

A membranous webbing had begun to grow between the fingers of the fleshy supports now better resembling true wings. Ace licked the blood from his fingers as he watched small feathers prickled along each of Zak's shoulders. His breath hitched and caught when the larger feathers began to grow. It was all so forceful, like the protrusions were a creature all their own, unwillingly stuck to him.

"About your brother-"

Kasper held his breath. "-I could have tried to find him. Gone back- done things differently."