The Last Victor

Chapter 33

Round Four - Part 1

I stare into the mirror as I try to tie my hair back into a ponytail with shaky hands. 

In only an hours time, round four will start and I'll be face to face again with Kaiden.

I was shitting bricks.

I guess my nerves are a combination of everything.

Everyone thinks I'm dead..... hell, I should be dead...... but now I have to make my debut to the contestants again, plus the entire enclosure.

No pressure right?

Everyone's going to be asking a thousand questions. A thousand questions that I can't answer because I'm mulling the same ones over on a loop.

I let out a long breath of air, placing my hands down on the table as I stare back at my own reflection. I notice for the first time to how my light green eyes now stand out in contrast against my darker hair color. My hair has grown out a little bit since my haircut from Cayenne, but it is still short enough that strands of dark, brown hair are loosely falling out of my ponytail.

The difference in my appearance from the last time I've looked in a mirror is unfathomable. If I didn't know any better, I'd say I was placed into a whole new body. For the first time in weeks, I look healthy. My skin has color to it, my eyes are rounder and more lively, and my body appears stronger.

But not only do I look it, I feel it too.

In the corner of the mirror my eye catches Pax as he paces around and taps a finger on his chin, deep in thought.

He looks like he's about to explode, and not from fear of round four but of biting his tongue with his research any longer.

I know I have been avoiding him..... I guess I'm just scared of the answers he's going to tell me.

I let out a huff and with much reluctance, swivel around to face him.

"C'mon, just let it out." I lean back against the bar's counter as I let out a defeated sigh, "I know you've been wanting to talk to me."

He looks a little caught off guard at first, but doesn't hesitate to seize the moment.

"Kyla..... I need you to understand that what's happened to you is scientifically impossible in today's day and age."

He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he stares off in the distance, clearly caught up in his own thoughts.

"Everyone who has either been exposed, gotten bit, and has been recorded of catching the disease has died. There has never been a case where someone has bounced back or even survived until..... well, you!"

He strides across the room and sits down at the bar's counter, right in front of all the research he has compiled.

"I've been studying your new blood cells all night and every trace of the virus in your system is gone. You're completely back to normal! And if anything you even seem stronger!"

"Do you think it was something you did?" I ask him, but I know I'm just grasping at straws. "You know, you were trying to find a cure for me."