Separian - Book 1

Chapter 29

I was being kept from Samuel. Nobody trusted me enough not to run through him again. Even though every one of them wanted me to. They all agreed it was what he deserved. Especially with so many more questions surrounding him now. Still, because I'd been the one to attack him, not them, I'd managed to isolate myself in some way. So I had done exactly what everyone wanted, and now they were all terrified of me for having actually done it? This clan made no sense.

I wasn't a killer -even if I had killed and regardless of how recently. I had no desire to end Samuel's life, despite how severely he'd detached me from my own. These circumstances, whether instigated by him or not, were likely an eventuality. So, not actually his fault. Had he not taken me away from my family to be here, I likely would have found it on my own. And as you already know, because of him, I'd encountered Amy. I'd fallen in love, or at least whatever my 16-year-old mind interpreted as 'love'. But that was now far from the focus of this story. 

Mike's subconscious mind never failed to remind me, This is not a love story. I wonder how seriously he believed that.

Thirty minutes I'd been here and already I felt as if I'd known him, all of them, for my entire existence. There was not a single secret any one of them held that I was not privy to and the inverse was also true. An additional reason many of the Separian were so wary of me. Yes, what happened with Samuel was unnecessary and definitely over the top, as well as out of character for the type of person I wanted to be portrayed as, but, it only solidified everyone else's fear of what I'd done in Arizona at the police station to those who I assumed were as dead as Casey. The difference was, Casey wasn't my fault. The others were. So, the official label? "Unstable". Perfect.

Not long after I passed Samuel off to Marissa to tend to him, Quinn offered me a room to calm down. Let's be honest: it was less an offer an more a request. I declined and instead found the basement to seclude myself in, as a sort of compromise. Nobody was down here when I'd entered. It was through the main hall, complete with bright, palace-red carpets, down the circular staircase following the circumference of the oversized chandelier hanging over the main hall, and down a hallway with over a dozen identical wooden doors leading to bedrooms, staircases, bathrooms, more hallways, and even outside into the back yard.

The ceiling of the first floor was easily twenty feet high and the basement's was just as tall. I'd glanced up the staircase before coming down and caught a glimpse at the second floor as well. Judging from the size of this place from outside and the area within, I knew there must have been a third floor somewhere. There were at least ten more feet in height not accounted for. But I would address that some other time.

Blake stayed materialized, in the event Mike wasn't enough to handle me on his own. I was, apparently, ready to snap again any second. If, and this was a mad-sized 'if', I changed my mind about beating Samuel to death, were they so confident they would be able to stop me before i made it to him? 

Neither of them had left my side since I'd entered the lowest floor. I was told that I wouldn't be bothered for as long as I wished, but still, they were here. Quinn asked the two of them to leave but they remained, still. She chose not to protest for fear of upsetting me further. You'd swear I'd run a tyrannical reign over this place for years the way everybody now cowered in fear of me.

I'd yet to say much since my episode earlier, except to ask where I could leave Samuel's practically dead body. Mike and Blake had been sharing their thoughts with me, quietly since then. Giving me faces of people throughout the grounds and a list of names to match with each of them. They knew I wasn't paying much attention but that didn't seem to deter them from their task. I'd subconsciously learned more than a third of the people's names and faces on the floors above.