The Degenerate (Mythics Book One)

7

 Theo and I sat face-to-face in a booth, staring down at our plates. He had ordered a giant plate of what looked like just whipped cream, but I knew deep down there was some semblance of pancakes. I got myself a stack of dulce de leche waffles and already the smell of cinnamon and caramel was making my mouth water.

I refused to be the one to dive in first.

"I'm sorry, Theo," I started. I felt the urge to cry, because if I didn't have him, then there was nothing left for me. Clearly I was feeling slightly emotional, but it was true. "You have no idea how sorry I am! I didn't mean a single thing I said---"

His metallic eyes met my own as he glanced up from poking his whipped cream. His lips tilted up in a small, crooked sort of smile. "I already forgave you."

"But it was such an awful thing to say. How could you forgive me?"

Finally, he cut into his pancakes and held up a bite-sized piece impaled on his fork. "Because I care about you, weirdo." He ate the piece and glanced to the side. "It's not like you were completely wrong, either."

"You said---"

"I said I would never do something like that," he said. "Doesn't mean I haven't thought about it. As much as I try, my true nature will always be destruction and darkness. Just like my ancestors, all the way back to a couple hundred years ago. This is my curse."

I pressed my lips together and nodded. "I understand." And I did. I really, really did.

Suddenly, he grinned at me. "We're almost at the end of the line," he said. "How are you doing?"

"Excellent question," I said. "I have absolutely no idea."

"No idea? Not even nervous?"

"I feel...numb, I guess." I cut up my pancakes and stared at them so intently it was like they'd magically start dancing or something. "It's been a couple of years...I-I guess I've just been ignoring it." Even now, the oily black pit of dread opened up in my stomach. Every time I blinked I saw images of her. She claimed to be my mother but we never looked anything alike. She was a paler, colder vision, all blue eyes like ice chips and bobbed blonde hair, slick as a model. Her voice was a carefully aimed barb, her actions thought through and articulated.

That was how I knew without a doubt---she had sold me. Sent my picture straight to the government.

I shook my head. I couldn't really remember anything before the newspaper incident. Had the mother act been a ruse the whole time?

"Ivy?"

I opened my eyes and sat up. I had been curling in on myself and hadn't even noticed.

"We're stronger than her now," Theo reminded me.

***

After some extensive searching, I was able to find my mother's address. Really, the best thing she'd ever done for me was keep a public social media page and tag her location on all of her posts. I found a kernel of satisfaction in the fact that her compulsive need to show off had played a role in her soon-to-be downfall.

She looked exactly the same.

It only took a few minutes to drive to her neighborhood. It was a giant, gated-off community with a posted guard and everything. The gates were the height of at least three of me, and made of thick beige metal. The guard sat in his tiny rectangular booth and fiddled with his radio set. As we sat in the car, I tried to peer over the gate and the large brick walls on either side, but all I saw were the tips of gabled mansions and shiny slated roofs. A slitted view through the gates didn't offer much more, just the hot asphalt road paved through the middle of it all.

"I forgot about the security guard," I confessed.

Theo thought for a moment. "Then I guess we'll just have to wait."

"Until what?"

"Until the guard falls asleep. I know his type. He's bored. Once the sun sets, it won't be long."

I scoffed. "We can't just sit here until nightfall."

He seemed to consider that statement.

"I already know what you're going to say," I told him, placing my hand on the seat belt buckle currently holding me back. I clicked it and the belt zipped back into place. I did my best mock-impression of him. "This is the safest way."

Theo squinted. "That's a horrible interpretation of my voice."

"Whatever. You know what I mean."

"There's no reason for you to go out there and be reckless."

I barked out a laugh. "You've grown so lame since we first met, did you know that? What happened to that guy? The one with a horrible addiction to adrenaline and stupid decisions?" He seemed slightly stung as I popped open my door and swung my legs out. I smirked at him. "You need to trust that I know what I'm doing."

"That's not the issue," he protested, snapping out of his trance. "It's not just myself I have to worry about anymore."

I shook my head. While what he said was genuinely sweet and touched me a little, I had to stay focused on the goal here. I was going to see my mother and I was going to find some answers, whether he came along or not. I jumped out and shut my door in his face.

Immediately the engine turned off and I heard his door open and close. He raced over to me.

"What's the plan?" he asked.

I shushed him and he huffed.

Avoiding the gate completely, we crept around to the far right wall. Ivy adorned the rough-hewn bricks, giving it a mystical, maybe rustic, kind of vibe. Gravel was dispersed everywhere, the same boring brown-gray color, and bushes gave tiny splashes of green in periodic bursts. If my faulty memory served me correctly, we'd be reaching a notch in the wall soon, almost like a ladder rung or a foothold. Before the incident, I used to climb up and over the wall all the time in my backyard. From pretending to be Rapunzel climbing down her tower walls and escaping to freedom in the night, to walking the plank with my wooden sword by my side, I remembered a period when my time here was warm...loving, even.

I grinned when I spotted that foothold and quickly made to explain my somewhat insane plan to Theo. The ledge in the wall was more worn since the last time I had been here due to weather and the environment, but I hoped it would prove to be useful one last time.

"I'll go first," Theo said and took a few steps toward it.

I held him back with a hand to his chest. He glanced down at it and blinked a few times, letting out a hitched breath. I pulled my hand back and said, "I'm going first because it's my house. She'll recognize me."

"It was your house," he corrected me. He turned a critical glare on the wall before us and the tips of shingled turrets peeking above it. "We still don't know if she turned you into the government or not, either."

Why did he have to be so right about everything? I didn't want logic right now. I just wanted to get this over with so I could rest easy--- er, easier--- for once in my life. Was that so much to ask?