Snake Skin

The Waiting Game

The surgical waiting room was dull and depressing. The only color in the grey room were two brightly lit vending machines on the far side of the room. A couple hours after Sebastian was taken back, a man named Jesse came into the waiting room. He was tall, but not as tall as Sebastian, and built like a linebacker. When he first came in Käärme noticed the way he walked, the way he looked around the room, Shed seen it on the streets before, a "fuck with me ill fuck with you" kind of attitude. Willow jumped into his arms, wrapping her hands around his neck dramatically and Atticus rolled his eyes.

"I'm gonna go have a smoke." He got up and left without another glance to any of them. Now here Käärme sits, a good twenty feet across the waiting room from Willow and her boyfriend. She's trying to ignore Jesse but the cold way he staring at her with his coal colored eyes makes her shift uncomfortably in her seat, while Willows head is buried in his shoulder.

"Do you think hes gonna be alright?" she asked for the millionth time.

"I'm sure he'll be fine, Will." Jesse said with the same amount of interest he used the first time she asked. 

"I'm going to ask how Much longer it will be." She got up and walked over to the receptionist desk all the while Jesse's eyes not leaving Käärme . She sat there for a moment. Trying to make eye contact with anything other than Jesse's cold eyes, but the pressure from his gaze was too much to bare.

"I'm gonna go use the restroom" she whispered loud enough for him to hear just in case anyone asked.

The hospital bathrooms didn't look any better than there waiting Room counterparts. Then again who is Käärme to talk. With the fluorescent lights she looked worse than she had in months, which is truly an achievement. She huffed out a breath. Just then there was a slight knock at the bathroom door.

"Oh um... there's someone in here" Käärme said meekly. Someone knocked again "Hey um.. it's occupied" Then the door knob started to rattle. "Do you not understand what occupied means?" she swung the door open and was meant but the cold eyes of Jesse. "Hey man this is a woman's bathroom."

"I know what it is." a push her aside and shut the door behind him. "You know, I like this whole look you have going on. I mean is not usually my taste but where's the fun in going after the same thing all the time?"

"Excuse me?" Käärme said confused. He slowed down he speech and leaned in.

"The whole goth thing you have going on. I mean you're not someone I'd take home to mom but that ass." he bit his lip. "I tend to go for girls like Willow, you know posh and proper, but every once in a while, a man can get a taste for something a little more wild." He gestured to her.

"Sorry but I'm not interested." Käärme crossed her arms. "And you really shouldn't be in here."

"Oh come on I saw the way you looked at me as soon as I walked in the room. Those strange eyes have been eating me up. You sit in there, in the waiting Room acting all innocent, but I know how you really are. I can smell it on you."

"What the hell are you talking about?" He pushed up her against the wall caging her with his arms.

"I think you know what I'm talking about." He leaned in and sniffed her neck. "Wow, I mean Sebastian is a major ass but, his taste in girls are on point. If you do good I might finally let him take a shot at Willow." Käärme started to shake. She begged that anyone, anyone, would come to the door and save her but, no one would. He wrapped a strand of her blue hair around his index finger and tugged it lightly. "I bet you like it rough too." He leaned in, Käärme's fight or flight took over. She kneed him hard in between the legs. He doubled over Grunting in pain when, with the same knee, hit Jesse in the face, toppling him to the floor, unconscious. 

Käärme jumped over the man and ran out of the bathroom. she grabbed her jacket from the waiting room and darted to the exit, earning a strange look from Willow, which she ignored. If this is the kind of people that they associate with then Käärme wanted no part of it. Sure Sebastian had seemed nice, with his perfect teeth and gold eyes and dark complexion but that could all be a ploy. He turns into a fucking lion, she thought, Hypocrite, her inner voice answer back.

 She slammed into the glass doors of the hospital into the cold night air, the smell of cigarette smoke filling her lungs.

"Going somewhere?" Atticus's lazy gaze slid to Käärme cigarette still lit in his mouth. She didn't answer. "Kind of rude is it? You almost killed my brother and the don't even stick around long enough to see him pull through?"

Her eyes flashed to his. "You don't honestly think it was my fault we got in that crash do you?" She said breathlessly.

"It has to be somebodies, and I don't see you with the multiple broken ribs." He looked her up and down. "I don't see you on an operating table with your chest cut open and a tube shoved down your throat." He was right. It might as well be her fault, might as well all be her fault. He threw his cigarette to the ground and locked eyes with her. 

"Wait wait I'm sorry." He went to reach for her when his fingers clenched in pain and he jumped away grabbing at his arm. He ripped off his jacket revealing patches black crystals, fading to a milky white and slowly seeping back into his skin. He yelped out again, clutching at his chest but this time Käärme felt it too and her body mirrored his. She grappled to the outdoor railing for support while Atticus fell to his knees. Like a heart attack It felt like a heart attack. Like a white hot burning cage was finally being torn from her chest, one she didn't even realize was there. It felt like truly being freed, being found. His wide eyes flash up to hers after the feeling had subsided but the remnants of it were still coursing through her veins. He shakily stood up to his feet, his face a mask of confusion when his lips said "Y- You're my familiar?"