Shifters (Feline english version)

Chapter 27

Having no other choice, I forced myself to move. Aria was counting on me, I couldn't break now, I had to pull myself together. A bit like an automaton, I lowered down to pick up the rifle and fumbled to remove the safety catch. You can never be too careful... especially after what had just happened to me! Something tried to rise from the depths of my consciousness, but I stopped it. Everything seemed blurry to me, like unreal, as I went to make sure that Aria was fine and that she hadn't seen the whole scene. To her frightened look when she saw the blood covering me, I understood that no, otherwise she would not have been surprised.

- 'Where was Adam the last time you heard him?'

- 'In the cell next door. At first he was talking to me, but the bad guard silenced him, so after... he would gently tap on the wall to let me know he was there and reassure me,' she told me with a small voice full of contained tears. 'I hope he's all right!'

She looked at me both questioning and frightened, but what could I possibly tell her? And how was I going to get her out of there without her seeing the body?

- 'Aria, I'd like you to go wait for me in the hallway with Feline while I inspect the other cells. Would you mind?' I asked gently.

She nodded and followed me obediently. I was careful to screen her and the rest of the antechamber when we went out and quickly took her through the door, before going back alone to control the other cells. Unfortunately, they were all empty! So it was with an aching heart and by avoiding looking and thinking about the body lying a few meters away from me, that I joined the others.

- 'Sorry, Aria... but there was no one else but you,' I told her gently as I squatted down to be on her level. 'I'll take you to a safe place, the police are outside. You'll be safe with them and then I'll come back for Adam. If he's still here, I'll find him, I promise.'

She nodded trembling, her exorbitant eyes fixed on me. We turned back to the elevator without meeting anyone. It was then that my telepathic connection with Feline was suddenly restored and my state of shock dissipated as quickly as it had come. I found myself sitting on the floor in front of the elevator door without even finding the strength to press the button. In my head, "I killed him, I killed him, I killed him" was spinning in a loop and didn't seem to want to stop, even though I knew that technically it was Feline who had ended him. On the one hand, I was horrified by what we had done, and on the other hand I was satisfied with it, happy to still be alive and relatively untouched. That bastard got what he deserved. Deep down, it was this last thought that terrified me the most.

« We both killed him, little sister. He wanted to hurt you, we killed him. I'm proud to have been able to help you do it and it shouldn't bother you. »

In Feline's mind, her only regret was that she had wasted such good meat. It was stupid to kill without eating your prey, another human thing!

Curiously, her " animal " analysis of the situation did not really help me. I finally got up and started to feel everything that my state of shock had kept from me. Considering the sensations my body was sending me, I must have been in pretty bad shape. I preferred not to think about it for the moment and the three of us went up in the elevator, which Aria had had the presence of mind to call during my little moment of awakening. All the way up, something important tried to pop up in my mind, but without success. It was there, on the edge of my mind, but it didn't want to emerge. When the cabin stopped, it came back to me in a flash... The camera! In an instinctive move, I prevented the door from opening by keeping the floor button pressed.

- 'Get in the left corner on the door, quick! And above all, don't move.'

- 'What's going on?' Aria asked fearfully, while still obeying.