"Kasper." Zero's voice was barely more than a whisper.
"Don't call me that."
What did I think would happen?
"If you aren't with me..." Kasper's jaw tightened. "...then you're the enemy." A coldness settled over him. The lines in his face smoothed into something he'd only been a few times in his entire life.
Calm.
Settled.
In every sense of the word.
"You died a long time ago."
This is it.
"Kasper?" Zak's voice muffled through the door. "Are you still in there?"
The handle rattled.
"Hey- unlock the door."
Kasper ignored the sound. "I shouldn't have brought you here."
Zero didn't speak. He simply watched Kasper think, waiting as he slowly talked himself into doing exactly what he feared he'd have to do.
"I was wrong."
Stupid.
I'm so stupid.
His shoulders sagged. "Let me do it."
...Kill him...
I'm going to kill him.
Kasper nodded to himself.
Slowly, he walked forward.
Zero didn't move.
Kasper reached out and wrapped both hands around the boy's throat. "I'm sorry..." His arms trembled. "I'm so sorry..."
Zero's hands grabbed his wrists.
"...Fight back if you want." His grip tightened. "I don't care."
"Stop." Zero whispered.
Pain.
Everywhere.
"It won't work." Kasper's voice had gone flat.
Zero's blood peeled him apart wherever it touched. His fingertips were nails being driven into his weeping flesh. Deep down he'd known it. Felt it. He couldn't save Zero. Not then, not now. All that was left was to bury him. "I'm sorry." He couldn't even tell where one want ended and the other began. Kasper's hands had drawn so tight now that every attempted swallow from Zero rolled his fingers up and down again.
A violent slam shook the door.
The hinges groaned.
Someone was trying to break in.
Kasper shoved Zero back. His shoulders struck the wall. He lifted him clear off the floor, pinning him against the concrete.
God... I look like Dad, don't I?
Blood poured from the shredded meat of Kasper's hands, smearing across Zero's pale neck in trembling inky streaks. His grip softened for the smallest instant.
Are these even my hands?
He was bigger.
He was stronger.
Holding someone much too small to fight back.
"Fight!" He shouted.
Zero clawed weakly at his wrists.
"Fight back!" Kasper's breathing hitched. "...Fight back."
Zero only stared.
"Come on!" His voice cracked when his tears swallowed Zero's pale body. His hands drove forward again, knuckles striking concrete with a wet scrape, skin peeling back, bones cracking against the wall. Kasper drove Zero harder into the concrete, maybe it would give where neither of them could.
YOU ARE READING
The Eden Projects (FINAL EDITING)
Action"This story has no hero." Set in the distant future, where the government has been overthrown, and a new world power has risen, known only by the Moniker "ARK Corporation." We follow Kasper as he fights to survive in a nightmare where wrong is made...
