The Transcended: They call him Lucius

Part 3: Blood ~ Chapter 6

Zoey jerked up when she heard the door close. "Who's there?" she called out.

"Hey, it's just me," Gwen said as she walked over. The moment she saw Zoey's face, she frowned. "What's wrong? Why did you remove the bandage?"

Zoey pointed at the purple eye, its position still unchanged. "Did you know it was this bad?"

Gwen sat down next to her with a sigh. "Yes, I did."

"How is this supposed to heal? I can't see anything with it—not even light—and it doesn't move at all." She looked away and hugged herself. "It scares me."

"Oh, Zoey." Gwen placed a hand on her shoulder. "Give it some time. The athanasia is still merging with your cells and repairing the damage throughout your entire body. If there's no change two days from now, we will coax your eye into recovering."

"H-how?"

Gwen hesitated before answering, "We damage it a bit, to trigger it to heal, and cover up your good eye. With any luck, that will force it to restore your sight."

Zoey stared at her. "You're serious...?" She hugged herself tighter, for as much as the sling would allow.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Gwen rose. "I'm going to bandage that eye again for now—it's freaking me out."

"It's freaking you out?" Zoey shuddered. "That does not make me feel better at all."

"What? You expect me to not find a ghastly, purple eye staring at the floor creepy?"

"I... I guess. It's just you're transcended and been around for a while."

Gwen raised a brow. "Just because I've lived a few lifetimes and seen all sorts of stuff doesn't mean I can't be creeped out."

"A few...?" Zoey shook her head and sighed. "Never mind." She released herself. "But what you said just now, shouldn't we try leaving it open? I don't want it to heal and still not see." She shuddered again. "The idea of needing to damage my eye for it to properly function is ... unpleasant."

Gwen considered this for a moment. "I suppose you got a point. Fine." She wrinkled her nose. "Let's keep it uncovered then—but you better not suddenly regain muscle control and look straight at me." She smiled and stuck out her tongue in jest.

Zoey grinned. "If I can manage to scare a transcended by merely looking at them, I'll try my best to do just that." She glared intensely at Gwen with her good eye but the bad one just kept staring at the floor.

"Yeah, no, stop." Gwen giggled. "You just look silly now. Silly and creepy."

Zoey relaxed and sighed. "You're probably right. But, to what do I owe this pleasure?" Gwen's questioning expression caused her to add, "The pleasure of you visiting me so late."

"Oh, several things really. Khalida asked me to look after you for now as she has other matters to attend to. She took some blood samples the other day and it seems your stress levels are rather high. Want to talk about it?"

Zoey pointed at her bad eye. "Well, there's one reason."

Gwen raised a brow. "You only figured that out, like what, tonight?"

"I still jumped off a building expecting to kill myself. Not being able to see with one eye was—is—a constant reminder of that."

"Fair enough." Gwen plucked at her shirt. "Considering I need to help put you at ease, do you want to talk about it? Would that help?"

The corner of Zoey's mouth twitched. "I doubt it. Not now at least, maybe another time. However, I do want to know why you need to put me at ease."