Charlotte watched as the remaining likeness to James Alexander faded away and the man she had known as Alastair Ramsey appeared before her. He retrieved a pair of glasses from his pocket and set it on his nose, before wiping the blood from his chin with a white handkerchief. His lips quirked at the corners as he met her gaze with cold disinterest.
"Where is James?" she growled.
"Do you honestly expect me to think you care?" Ramsey laughed. "I mean you were so ready to kill him tonight". Outrage rose in her stomach and her cheeks seared with embarrassment.
"I was ready to kill the person who would allow the carnage downstairs to happen. Who would harm Ethan, Annakiya, Matt... the person who would change Cary into... into whatever that was down there!"
"I just returned Carrick to what he was meant to be, an obedient, disciplined soldier".
"I should have been more careful with my shot," Charlotte growled. Ramsey chuckled.
"Maybe you should have just killed me the first night I arrived at the compound," he breathed. Tapping his head, his smug smile widened. "Alexander's memories revealed how close you came to ending me then and there. I knew of course that you were the biggest threat to me the moment I felt your alteration that night. Naturally I had to take precautions to protect myself. So many of my followers are honoured to hand over their alterations to me... I believe you met the man who let me evade your alteration thus far".
Charlotte's jaw tensed. She of course recalled the attack at the campsite and the altered that had wrapped his hands around her throat in the icy darkness. He had been as invisible to her as Ramsey almost always had been. Her failure to detect him had almost killed her and now her stupidity not to have made the link between his alteration and Ramsey's was going to risk her life again.
"Where is James?" she breathed, trying to hold on to her composure.
"Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte, why do you even care? He doesn't love you anymore," he said with a catlike grin. "I made sure of that".
"I'm not playing your games anymore Ramsey. Tell me where he is or I'll..."
"You'll what?" He opened his hands innocently to her. "You can't touch me Charlotte. Your alteration doesn't work against me and I can control your every move. I can wipe your memory. I can change it. I could teach you to worship me, to love me, to die for me. I could become you," he said and he morphed to her own likeness and back to his own gleeful expression with only seconds passing. "You would become the villain everyone already believes you to be".
"Just kill me then," she growled, taking a step towards him.
"But I have such better plans for you," he whispered reaching towards her and tracing a gloved finger along her cheek again.
"You are repulsive," she hissed.
"You won't think that for long," he exhaled. Charlotte felt her body turn rigid again, her muscles locking into place as he took control of her movements. He turned from her and strolled across the room. Charlotte watched him, trying to think of an escape. To her alteration there was nobody else near her. It was blind to Ramsey and he had control of her body. He paused at the other end of the room and ran his hand along the wall. The carved vines and leaves began to snake and slither along the wall, coming to life beneath his touch. The wall turned liquid and from its depths the vines retrieved James. The snaking tendrils from the wall wound tightly around his torso and limbs, his head hanging limply against his chest. Blood trickled from his temple and clumped in his blonde hair.
YOU ARE READING
Feared
Science Fiction'Play the game, she thought, remembering the only three words that had helped her to survive at Kingston. Only back then she had known the game, she had known what they wanted her to be, what they had wanted her to do - this man was different. She d...
