Cute but psycho paranorm.., p.39
Cute But Psycho: Paranormal Asylum Reverse Harem, page 39
I’d felt so betrayed. I’d promised myself after that day I’d never make things easy for him. But here I was, twenty-three, and letting him control me still. A grumble resounded from my chest as I looked at him. I wouldn’t give him power over me anymore.
Another sedative slipped in and everything went black as I saw the vague shape of Orson being dragged from the room unconscious.
I slid to the floor, my hands cupping my head. Nemo ran out of the room with Bree clutched in his arms. Orson bent down, getting in my face. His fingers dug into my cheeks as he grabbed my jaw and forced my head up.
"You'll wish I killed you if she dies." The words slid off me. What did I care? Nothing mattered. Nothing.
Orson sped from the room, following after Nemo and Bree. Alone. I was all alone.
“You knew it would happen,” a hissing voice said. I closed my eyes and tried to shake the voice from my head. “You’re the snake in the nest. It’s your nature to bite.” My fingers dug into my scalp, fingernails sharply pressing in.
“Shut up,” I said through my teeth. My door was wide open, my mask off, but I didn’t care. Didn’t care if everyone looked and saw what I was. Looked over each feature and knew without a doubt I wasn’t what I should be. Wasn’t right. Their eyes always lingered and I hated it. Hated wondering what thoughts swirled when they saw me.
“Accept it,” the hissing voice demanded. I looked up at the shelves of masks. The glimmering red gemstones of the Kukulkan eyes sparkled down at me. Its stone serpent face was painted a glittering green, the red feather headdress shooting from the sides like knives. I could almost feel its sentience and my lips peeled back from my teeth.
“She might be okay,” I told it.
“No, you made sure of that, didn’t you? Buried it deep inside,” it hissed with laughter in its voice. I shook my head and covered my face with my hands, not wanting to see its vicious face. I wasn’t sure how long I sat there, my consciousness barely in my body.
The voice was right. I was the snake that bit. I knew this would happen. I encouraged it. My mind spiraled and swirled, my emotions trying to eat me alive.
I felt like I was suffocating in the clothes that covered me. They all felt too tight. I tugged my gloves off, tossing them on the floor. I unzipped my hoody, pulled off the tee-shirt and the dry-fit black turtleneck underneath until I was naked from the waist up.
“Accept it,” I said, repeating the serpent’s words.
Accept that I’m just a killer. That I was the cause of my own torment. I allowed myself to act half-normal and now these fucked up emotions were killing me. I pressed my finger into the boombox and Queen’s Don’t Stop me Now came on.
“Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time. I feel alive. And the world I'll turn it inside out, yeah…”
My fingers flipped the music on max.
“Turn that fucking shit down!” Gary banged the wall between us and my eyes focused on the door.
“Don't stop me now,” I murmured in time with the song. A calm washed over me as I looked at my open doorway. I walked out into the hall. My black jeans wrapped below my jutting hips. My big clunky ass boots stomped lightly on the floor. My eyes fell on Gary’s door.
“I'm having a good time. I’m having a ball,” I mumbled.
Accept I’m a basilisk. Accept I am worthy of all the fear in everyone’s eyes. Accept I’m the snake in this nest and all the little birdies would be gobbled up.
Why let us all hang in anticipation of the inevitable? It was time to do what I was made to do.
I ran towards Gary’s door, adrenaline beginning to flush into every part of me. The air on my chest, back, arms, face, hands… It felt nice to be free from all that confinement, from all the concern. I was free. I was me.
My desire to let people live slipped quietly into the back of my mind.
My rubber-soled boot hit the door, making it bust open violently. I stepped into the room with a wide, manic smile stretched over my mask-free face.
A fat, short man was sitting in his bed, a porno magazine featuring busty Asians open with one hand. His other hand was under the blankets and there was a lot of suspicious movement going on.
He startled and dropped the magazine. His eyes turned to me and confusion took over his face as he looked me over. There was zero recognition as his eyebrows furrowed together.
“Who the fuck are you buddy?” He asked and my smile grew wider.
“Good morning, Gary!” I sang with a manic bite. Gary’s eyes grew big, his mouth opening in shock and horror. He looked like a gaping fish.
I leapt into the room, jumping on the bed, and giving Gary a little pat on the cheek. He didn’t even have time to fight or scamper. Gary began choking and foaming at the mouth.
I looked over my shoulder as he seized underneath me. My eyes fell on the door across the hall.
My boots smacked the floor as I jumped off the bed. I slid across the hall as my music bled from my room. I twisted the knob and saw a nurse and some patient going at it in the bed. Bare man ass pumping between two long legs.
“Ain’t this a sight,” I said. The man hopped up and punched me in the jaw. My head was jerked to the side as pain radiated from the hit. I rubbed at it.
“That’s one way to do it,” I chuckled as he fell to the floor, his hand black. The nurse screamed as I reached out and grabbed her hand, running my thumb over her knuckles. I smiled as she fell over, her hand slipping from mine.
Most of the rooms were empty as I popped them open and did what I do.
This was me and it felt freeing to be myself without concern. I was the most feared and deadly creature in existence.
I followed the noise of the dayroom down the hall. When I walked into the room I realized it was lunch—there were a lot of people in here. A lot of prey. I ran my hand over my chest and abs. Damn, it felt good to be free of all that cloth. Most of the patients turned to look at me as I smiled maniacally at them.
“Fresh meat?” Some guy asked and I saw eyes raking me in. Keep looking, boys and girls, it’s about to get real fun real fast. A few licked their lips, some winked. A wild laugh bubbled from my lips. I was used to the looks of hate and fear. Or eyes watching me in panic. Of bodies leaning away. The juxtaposition of their reaction now was startling. I ran my hand over my mouth, stopping the laughs that still wanted to bubble out.
“Oh, now you want to touch me? Who’s up first!” My voice clued them in and the entire place descended into immediate chaos. They were like a burrow of bunnies, all big, wide eyes, scurrying around on top of one another to get away from me. I laughed and ran around, running my hands over them and not even bothering to watch them drop to the floor and die.
It was like shooting fish in a barrel.
Screams, gurgles, dropping bodies. Plenty got away, but plenty didn’t.
The patients, the nurses, the orderlies, the fucking janitor. I didn’t care. I grabbed all I could. I jerked my head behind the food counter and lunch-lady Carol was pressed to the floor mumbling prayers and caressing a small cross pendant. I frowned and left her, turning back to the room and choosing a hall some had run down.
When I turned the corner with dead eyes, my hands itching to kill, I was faced with two orderlies and Stein glaring at me from the back. My ears finally picked up the blare of alarms. Despite how grating and loud they were, I hadn’t even noticed.
I stopped and took a step back, my eyes sweeping over them. They had those poles with sedative, probably feeling all safe with a five-foot weapon in between us. I grit my teeth as anger rolled over me. How fucking dare they. They wanted to sedate the basilisk? I’d show them their mistake.
One leapt forward and I narrowly dodged. The other came forward and stuck me like a stuffed pig. I grunted as the needle pressed into my abs. I reached out and wrapped my hand around the pole attached to me. I felt the sedative sweep over my body like a plague. My metabolism wasn’t much different than a normal man’s.
“Wrong choice,” I said sluggishly to the orderly. An evil smile cracked my face as I pushed my venom into the pole he held. It leaked into it without him even being aware, at least not until his hands were changing colors and burning, a scream ripping up his throat. He fell to the ground, flopping like a fish thrown on the shore.
The other orderly took a look at his friend and then took a step back. That’s right, I’m the evil basilisk and the only thing I offer is death.
“Whattya going to do,” I slurred, jerking the pole out of me and stumbling forward. I pushed my hair behind my ear and smiled at Stein. I stepped forward and the orderly backed out of my way now fearing his life. Stein watched with bored eyes as I got up in his face, looking down at the man who tormented this place.
“It seems all of my kindnesses are coming back to bite me today,” Stein said. “I’ve been too lenient.”
“Oh? What’s that mean?” I chuckled as my head swam. I stumbled a little, the floor felt like a rocking ship. I lost my footing and fell over, slowly going all the way down to the floor, panting on the ground as I tried to keep my head above water.
Pain on my scalp had me hissing and I realized Stein had grabbed me by my hair. My hands flew up and I grabbed his wrists with both hands. He ignored it, dragging me onto a thick canvas cloth. My hands fell away and I couldn’t muster the surprise that he didn’t react to my venom.
He dropped me on the cloth and I looked over to see Stein looking at his blackened wrist in intrigue. Green and black veins spread out and curled up the bottom of his face. Other than the physical evidence of my venom in his veins he acted completely normal.
“Stings a little,” he commented before turning to me and offering one of his disturbing smiles. Then he threw the corner of the cloth over my body and I passed out.
Chapter Thirty-Five
I woke up sucking in a sharp breath and hacking. The room I was in was completely dark, machines were hooked up to me, giving a steady beep in time with my heart. I ripped the stickers off my chest and the pulse thing off my finger. My mouth was dry and my hunger was killer. When I tried to get off the bed my legs gave out and I clutched the bed. A throbbing headache ached behind my ears and traveled all the way down my spine.
A door opened up and light spilled in. I closed my eyes as the brightness hit them, making them ache.
“Bree Hamilton, you’re awake,” I heard Doctor Stein say. The sound of his movements in the room was unbearably loud. The sound of fabric hissing, his shoes squeaking on the linoleum tile, the steady inhale through his nostrils. It was all so overwhelming. I could even hear my own heartbeat in my chest.
For the first time, I smelled a different scent under Stein’s normal one. On the top, he smelled like parchment and ink. Under that though, a subtle smell of formaldehyde hid. I felt like I was scenting a secret.
“What happened?” I asked, clinging to the bed so I didn’t fall onto the floor.
“You’ve been asleep for two weeks, or more precisely resting in an induced coma. Do you remember what happened?” He asked, his voice was smooth but it still hurt my ears.
“No,” I whispered, pulling myself up on the bed. Stein offered no help or explanation.
“Do you remember where you are?”
“Do you always ask that when people wake up?” I snapped, thinking back to the first day I woke up in this place. I’d been as confused as I was now. At least this time there wasn’t a straightjacket.
“Memory mostly intact then,” Stein commented dully.
“Am I sick?”
“You came in contact with basilisk venom. You’re lucky to be alive.” That helped kickstart memories. I’d had sex with Baz but something happened right after.
Well, play stupid games and you win stupid prizes. This was not the first time I did something ridiculous and suffered the consequence. It seemed that I was rather lucky that it wouldn't be the last. That’s just how I played life—compulsively. If I had a hunger and an interest, I didn’t much like fighting against it.
“Lucky me,” I rasped. I laid back in the bed, still tired. I only just woke up and felt like I needed to sleep another two weeks.
“I’m injecting some blood. It will help you feel better.” A sharp pain hit my arm and I jerked back, opening my eyes to see Stein pulling back with a depressed syringe in his hands. His eyes were wide and calculating as he watched me closely. I rubbed my arm and sat there breathing heavily, trying to stay awake.
“Amazing,” Stein said with a lizard man smile. His keen interest in something involving me set alarm bells off in my head.
“What?”
“That was basilisk blood,” he said and I sucked in a shocked breath. Panic tried to flood my weak body. I looked down at my arm and saw nothing different about it. There wasn’t even any sign that a needle had broken the skin. I ran my fingers over the spot.
“You’re completely immune,” he said, turning his back to toss the syringe in a biohazard can. He peeled one layer of gloves off and then another, tossing them both in the trash can. “Vampires have a natural resistance to his venom but in the end, they can still die if they drink his blood—no matter how much of an immunity they build up.” My thoughts were hazy still, slowly being organized as sleep continued to fade.
“You’ve been asleep for two weeks,” Stein repeated, making my eyes widen as I finally let that sink in.
“Two weeks…” I gripped my throat, massaging it with my fingers. My tongue swirled around in my dry mouth. I looked down at my hands, turning them over. There was pressure in each finger that felt odd.
My tongue moved over my teeth. My canines were sharp and hung down farther than a human’s, even though my fangs weren’t activated. I snapped my mouth closed shut in shock. My teeth were permanently longer now. That would definitely freak people out, constantly walking around with extended fangs.
“I feel…” I trailed off. I didn’t know how to describe how I felt now that sleep fell away entirely. Strange—on the verge of something, energy brimming under my skin. It put me on edge and made me grit my teeth. I felt like I was going to explode into a manic fit, yelling and laughing and running around the room to expend energy.
“Yes?” Stein asked, looking at me.
It wasn’t just the energy that felt different. My very skin felt different and everything was so much louder. The overhead light was off. There was only a small table lamp on a counter in the corner. I could hear its electricity and its light seemed to press annoyingly on my eyes.
“My mouth’s dry,” I finally said. Two weeks… were the guys okay? Orson wouldn’t leave without me, right? And poor Baz. I’d kept goading him into tempting fate and then fate stepped in and did the job for us. A broken condom. Of fucking course.
“Can I go?” I asked. Stein’s back was to me. Then suddenly he turned around and plunged something into my neck, making me jerk back and hiss in pain. My vision swam and I had to press one hand into the bed to stay upright.
“Your medications will be upped from now on. Your metabolism has changed.” My thoughts spun like a windmill caught in a breeze. “Nurse Rachel will take you upstairs to help collect your things. You will have a new room down here.” His words swirled around, their meanings there but the impact of them elusive. Live down here? Like Nemo? What had happened?
“How am I immune to basilisk blood?” I asked, my words slow. Stein snapped off the plastic gloves he’d put on for the new shot. His shoe tapped the trash can pedal and he tossed them in. “Why do I have a new metabolism?” Stein ignored me, pulling a walkie-talkie from his pocket.
“Nurse Rachel, please come in,” he said and a few seconds later the door peeled open loudly and brighter light filtered in, making me wince. “Take her upstairs. She needs to collect her things. Then she can be settled down here.”
“Yes, Doctor Stein,” Rachel said. Her eyes flipped to me, simmering hate clearly evident. I pulled my feet over the edge and wiggled my toes. I pressed my feet to the cool floor and slowly got up, expecting I might spill into the floor again. Instead, I felt fine. The shot of blood—Baz’s blood—must have strengthened me.
I followed Rachel out of the room. The sound of her white Keds stepping on the floor was loud. Her heartbeat was absent and I wondered if it was like that the other time I saw her down here. I’d been too concerned about what was happening with me to pay attention.
With her hair pulled in a tight braid, I could see the side of her neck as she walked ahead. There was no pulse. I inhaled and the soft scent of formaldehyde was buried underneath the other scents.
Rachel tugged the door open for the stairs and its sound was grating. I slammed my hands to my ears and winced. She clicked her tongue and rolled my eyes.
“So dramatic,” she mumbled as she encouraged me up first. We ascended the stairs and I was forced to cover my eyes with my hands as we came out into the brightly lit hallway.
“It’s too bright,” I snapped, barely able to open my eyes a crack without them throbbing in pain. I had to look at the floor while squinting, following the sound of Rachel’s shoes as we went to my room. It all looked the same as when I last saw it. Even the bedsheets were crumpled in the same way.
Quickly, I went into my wardrobe and found my steampunk glasses. My eyes had always been sensitive so I liked buying sunglasses that had more coverage. These pair not only had the round front shade but glass also wrapped around the eyeglass frame, giving them a more goggled shape. I slipped them on and could finally open my eyes and look around through the tinted gray glass.
“Stein gave me another shot, didn’t he?” I asked Rachel. That was the only conclusion I could come up with from everything he just enlightened me on. I’d been hurt from Baz’s venom and he gave me an early shot of the genetic therapy.
“Hurry,” she responded, offering me no explanation. I peeled my lips from my teeth in a grimace before doing what they wanted. Moving downstairs didn’t sound fun. It sounded more permanent and hopeless. The only person who lived down there was Nemo and apparently he wasn’t an actual patient. He was an experiment and a guinea pig. Was that my fate now? Was I going to be forced into an addiction to medications and constantly injected with new drugs?
