Shards of Kairos

X - Evils of Eden

Mitch had zero intentions of sleeping. He felt more than a little tired from all the driving and his face was killing him but he felt too tense to even think about closing his eyes now. Overall, he’d lasted a lot longer on far less sleep and though it had been awhile since he'd pulled an all nighter, try years - he wasn’t relenting his hold on the shotgun in his lap.

The Mossberg was loaded and the weight of it felt good in his hands. It felt like a sense of security that Mitch hoped wasn’t completely false.

And while Evie had been pretty awake earlier, she was sound asleep now. And Julian was dead to the world. Thankfully not literally.

But all the same, Mitch was watching the man close. It didn’t seem natural for someone to sleep that hard and not have something actually wrong. But Julian wasn’t injured, not that Mitch could tell.

Exhaustion was the most likely cause, combat fatigue. But there was that nagging feeling again. Persistently drawing his attention right back yo Julian like a blinking, lit up sign. Maybe it was the gut instinct of a former soldier. Maybe it was something else.

Mitch had been a commanding officer back when he'd served in the Marines and as a sheriff. He’d had men to look after. He’d had to be more aware of his men than they were. And Julian... Julian seemed broken. Something didn’t feel right when Mitch gave a hard look at the alien soldier. Like he had been injured, that he was hurting, but the wounds weren’t visible.

Mitch could understand that too. But in this case - whatever was possibly wrong with Julian didn’t seem to be entirely from emotional wounds only. Disease? Illness?

Considering that Julian was their strongest line of defense against the Blight, the feeling that something was wrong with him wasn’t a comforting thought. But Mitch didn’t even know about how to go about fixing the problem, how to try, or where or with what the problem even was. And it wasn’t like Julian was going to give out that information readily.

But Mitch was this close to pushing…

Mitch was looking out the only window through the bent blinds when movement pulled his eyes away, how much later he wasn’t sure. Hours had passed, maybe five, and the sun had set.

Julian - like something out of a horror movie - was sitting up with his legs over the side of the bed, unnaturally still, facing the opposite wall with his back to Mitch and Evie. And he was looking where Mitch’s eyes had been moments ago, on the windows, or at least - Mitch thought he was.

When Julian stood up, fluidly and quietly, he wasn’t moving at all like someone that was blind. But his eyes… when Julian started walking to the door, his eyes were just like Evie’s had been in the basement of her grandfather’s library when she’d borrowed some of Julian’s ‘abilities’. Pitch black.

Mitch debated a hard second, glancing over at Evie - who was still sound asleep. Mitch didn’t want to wake her and Julian already out the door before Mitch was standing to follow.

Julian looked to be sleep walking or something much worse but Mitch couldn’t just leave Evie in the motel room by herself. And he didn’t want to let Julian just leave either. So he decided on one instead of the other - for the time being.

Mitch followed Julian out of the motel room door, debating a bit harder on the situation as he cast his eyes to Evie - still sleeping soundly on the bed, oblivious to what was going on.

Mitch shut the door as best as he could without waking her and caught up to Julian, taking the shotgun with him. On this lonely stretch of interstate and with Julian walking right towards the woods, Mitch wasn’t concerned about anyone seeing him with it. He was far more concerned with what was happening to Julian or rather, where the hell Julian was going.