SHADES of GREEN ↬ m. wheeler

XXIII. EXODUS

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
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❝EXODUS❞

　
　

GENESIS flashed him a look so cold that it was surprising. She was acting a bit different now that she could touch her granddaughter of Earth. He didn't quite understand it, but he had never had a human family, either, one that crumbled so easily.

　"I don't care how long it's been," Genesis snapped. "And I don't care what the Law says. Bring him back."

　He nearly stumbled back. It was unnerving how much she could sound like them, sometimes.

　"Do it now."

　Without another word, he obeyed.

　

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THE HEAVY DARKNESS fell away to nothing. Slowly, Jade regained her senses. She could hear several voices, hear the crunching of gravel beneath many pairs of feet, before she opened her eyes.

　Jade first spotted Mike, for her head rested in his lap, and he hovered over her. His eyes were fixed at some point to his left, behind Jade. When she tried to rise to find out, she felt his hands tighten on her shoulders, pressing her back down.

　"Jade," he said, relief traveling on his breath. Mike's hands loosened on her, but he held onto her nonetheless. "Your eyes are green again."

　"What?" Jade made another attempt to pull herself up into a sitting position; this time, it worked, though the action sent her head swirling. Closing her eyes, she placed her palms against her forehead.

　She felt Mike's fingertips brush her arm, but when she opened her eyes again, he was only watching her, hands tightened into fists at his sides. The expression on his face was not one of anger, but there was something that did not fall in her favor, she could tell. It sent chills up her spine—and she recalled, then, everything that had happened.

　Esme, and the terrible burning Coldness. Her grandmother, Genesis, and the Ochrona. The Darkness, the Mind Flayer, and the way it had burst to bits beneath Jade's flame-enveloped body.

　Eleven.

　Jade remembered, too, the night Mike had told her the story. Not the words he spoke, but the way with which he spoke them. He could recount it like Jade could read It aloud, but there were times when he would go soft, when his voice would pour affection, even if he tried to stifle it. Those times were reserved for Jane Hopper. Only her.

　It had always been clear how Mike had felt for Eleven, even if he'd tried to mask his tone with the indifference of reading a story. Jade recalled a terrible thought she'd once had, of how she was, in some horrible way, grateful that she had come along when the girl was gone. Otherwise, she never would have caught Mike's attention.

　"Your eyes are green again," Mike repeated.

　Jade blinked. Fought the emotion from her voice. Everything going on made her head swirl and swing, but she knew that she must return to normal sometime. Now that it was only Mike around, she could fall into something similar to normalcy, though she had a feeling if Genesis came around—if she'd been there in the first place, Jade slightly feared—it would shatter.

　"Weren't they always?"

　Mike's mouth twisted, only slightly. "When you woke up the first time, they were like that lady's, but brighter. They were really gold."