Obsolution ✔

Chapter 7.2

When they returned home, Ty practiced how to tell Jennifer it was over.

He went over what to say, what to do, how to gesture. Don't waver. And for God's Sake, don't close the bedroom door.

His problems with Jennifer dissolved immediately after peering into Damon's bedroom. The door was open, and Damon poked around the computer equipment, probably checking it over to make sure Ty hadn't tampered with it.

"Ty?"

Damon was calling him, but he kept on walking. Don't waver, remember. First, talk to Jennifer. Then talk to Damon.

"Whoa, who are you?" Damon asked.

Ty heard that and whirled around. Standing in the hallway was Samantha, holding onto Helia like she was a mother (which, in a way, she was).

"Am Sam!" Helia crowed.

A terse second passed, with Helia still babbling on while Damon stared slack-jawed at Sam.

"Hey, I'm your cousin, Samantha," she finally said, offering a handshake

Even as she held out her hand, Damon ignored it. He continued staring, and Ty waited.

And then,

"Ty!"

It was a one-syllable name, but Damon stressed it to sound like two. Ty's hand rested on the bedroom doorknob, ready to turn it and deal with what was more important. He could put off his brother for a few more minutes. In the next second, he decided.

He turned the knob, and entered a very empty bedroom. Jennifer's sour smell lingered in the air, but she was gone. Not just gone-for-the-night gone, either. There was a small luggage bag and some clothes missing from her side of the closet. Jennifer was gone-girl gone.

Suddenly, Ty forgot about the mess he made with Damon and his double. All he could think was, the mother of my child. My love.

"What the fuck, dude?" Damon asked.

The words cemented the situation. Until hearing them, Ty was unaware he had sat down on the bed. He put his hands to his legs, legs that were heavy as stone.

Damon punched him in the shoulder, hard.

"God damnit, Ty, what the hell did you do? Do you have any idea of what that thing is?"

Jennifer's departure had sapped his brain of responses, so he sat there.

Back and forth in his eye line, Damon paced.

"Think you're Frankenstein, and he's, damnit, she's," he grimaced, "you're end product? Is that it?"

Ty zoned out.

Damon ranted on anyway. "The legal ramifications be damned, think of the moral lines you've crossed! Imagine what's gonna happen to it when someone finds out, if those Prominent fuckers find out!"

"What's gonna happen to me?" Samantha loitered in the doorway.

After a non-verbal, staring-filled moment, Damon acted as though she hadn't spoken. "It's a miracle the thing can talk, let alone act human."

"Hey fuck-tard." Samantha hovered inches from Damon's face. "I am human. Ty might've done the stupidest thing in the world, but I have a name."

Damon blinked rapidly as his brain sought to catch up with his mouth.

"Uh, no, you're right. Sorry." He seemed to have issues addressing her directly. "What's your name?"

She eyed him. "Samantha. Don't act like you're a genius, when we both know it was you who started that fire in living room."

Damon exploded, "It has your memories! Holy fuck, do you know what you did?! Answer me!"

"I know," Ty said quietly. "Every day, I'm scared Samantha will be dragged away, and it'll be all my fault. Trust me, Damon, I know I'm a piece of shit."

Ty's admission knocked the anger from Damon, and he blew out his breath. For the first time, he noticed Ty's bedroom. "Where's Jennifer?"

"She's gone," Samantha answered for him. "The cunt."

Damon shared an about-face, one she smirked at.

"What? Just because I have a cunt doesn't mean I can't use the word against other people." She paused, then very deliberately repeated, "Cunt."

"Christ, you're defective," Damon said.

Ty wanted to defend Samantha. He wanted to shield her from Damon's scrutiny, and the many questions and tests his brother would surely want to run. Ty could protect her from that much at least. She wouldn't want his protection, but he would force it on her.

"She's not defective. She has quirks like any human being, including slinging the word cunt around," Ty said.

Damon nodded, but his face conflicted with his body language. "Yeah, but no two people have duplicate knowledge of one another, such as remembering house fires from grade school."

Ty shrugged. "You can ask her stuff. Learn about the human mind. Think of her as an opportunity."

Physical tests and psyche tests would be going too far, but he saw he had to give his brother a piece of her. If he didn't, Damon might do something stupid.

"I don't remember being such a prick," Samantha said to Ty. "Offering me up like a farm animal."

The conversation ended there. Helia tottered into the room, rubbing her eyes and asking for mama. Damon gently pushed her towards Samantha, who shied away.

"Are you kidding me, bro? She said 'mama', not 'anyone with a set of tits'!"

Damon held up his hands. "It was a natural reaction."

Samantha bestowed him with a condescending glare.

Helia hopped around, looking for an adult to pick her up.

"Where's mama? Want mama."

Damon and Samantha ceased their bickering to assess poor Helia. Her mother wasn't coming back anytime soon.

Ty picked up his child and buried his face in her tiny shoulder.

~*~

Damon checked the CAD message boards, not sure of what he was looking for.

He clicked around, scanning appeals from different groups, but nothing caught him.

Ty is an idiot. And that thing...

His brain still refuted the existence of it. What would happen to them if it was discovered? Their status would decline, and little Helia would be put in a home. Maybe there was a way to deflect attention.

Suddenly, a message caught Damon's attention.

LOOKING TO PROVE YOUR WORTH AS A PROMINENT?

He clicked, and read on.

Nothing concrete was typed, just a meeting time and a request that all attendees wear dark, non-descript clothing.

Damon shook his head. 'Cause that's not weird at all.

He plugged the meeting time into his interface. Weird or not, the opportunity might be the right one to protect the family.

~*~

A/N: What exactly is Damon getting into? Click on the vote button, and read the next chapter to find out!

Afterward, skip on down to 502leah's profile. Her novel Found is a dystopian story about citizens living their lives locked away in spheres. One girl is curious enough to escape to the outside...

https://www.wattpad.com/story/55141697-found