Hello there, it's nice to talk to you again.
I must admit that today, July 6th, isn't a really good day to me. Why? That's simple: Darrel told me that he's going to leave England and go to America to start a new life there. What's so great about that place anyway? I'm sure that there's nothing there that doesn't exist here.
But, I don't think that's what you want to know right now… you must be wondering what happened in our escape from the castle, right? Let me tell you then.
My cell was the first one to be opened by Chamberlin; the marquis looked as happy as before, but (fortunately) he kept his distance from me this time. I simply walked out of the room and waited for him to open Darrel's cell.
I won't lie to you, I was shaking a little in anticipation; after seven years just talking through the wall, I was finally going to find out what Darrel looked like. I had asked one of the scientists before, but he told me he couldn't say.
As Darrel walked out of his cell ( he had a loaf of bread in his right hand and an apple in his left), I felt my jaw drop. I must admit, it wasn't the image I had in my head. The Darrel I imagined was like Kent or Chamberlin: tall, well-built and handsome. Given, Darrel is quite cute. The thing is: I was expecting someone more… well, bulky.
Darrel looked me up and down and smirked at me.
"Ya're taller than I thought." He said before taking a bite of the fruit.
Indeed, he is an inch or two shorter than me, but what really caught my attention was his built. Darrel is extremely thin and by that I mean: HE LOOKS LIKE A SKELETON! Not even Emma was that thin in her worst days.
I couldn't help but stare at Darrel with my mouth opened in shock for a few seconds before incarnating Chamberlin and embracing him. It took the blonde some seconds to return the action.
"It's nice to see ya too, Elli." He spoke between chuckles.
"This is so cute." Chamberlin spoke in a sing-song voice. "But we should be doing something else right now, so why don't you leave the greetings for later?"
I know, trust Chamberlin to ruin a good moment. Nonetheless, Darrel and I let go of each other.
"Thank you." Chamberlin said with a charming smile as he walked into my cell. Once he was inside he threw me the key. "Now, lock it up and go to the laboratory."
"Yes, Marquis Chamberlin." I said, not being able to suppress the annoyance in my voice. Thankfully, he chose to ignore it; I can only imagine what Kent would do to me if he found out I disrespected Chamberlin.
Darrel had finished eating his apple as I locked the door and was now muching on his bread.
"How come you're eating right now?" I couldn't help but ask as we started to walk towards the lab's entrance.
Darrel threw a big grin to me. "If I don't eat I lose weight." The brunette spoke with a mouth full of bread. "And that's something I can't lose."
"That's true." I quickly agreed.
As soon as Darrel and I entered the lab, the scientists panicked.
"Code 109!" One of them screamed. "Code 109! Quick, let-" But the scientist was interrupted by Darrel's left hand going through his stomach.
"Shut up." Darrel spoke annoyed, taking another bite of his bread.
Kent was on one of the corners with a suitcase on his hand. The butler looked at me then at the scientist's corpse in a silent message; it was my turn to show what I was capable of, and so I did. From the 13 scientists who were there that night, Darrel killed 4 and I killed 8.
I was about to kill the last scientist, who was right in front of me, sitting on the ground in fetal position and trembling like a leaf, when Kent grabbed me by the neck and threw me to the other side of the room, much to my surprise.
Standing a few feet behind the butler was Darrel, who seemed to be as shocked as me with Kent's reaction.
"I won't allow you to take anymore lives, monsters!" The butler screamed dramatically, and then he turned to the young scientist and helped him up. "Are you alright, sir?"
"Y-Yes." The scientist answered shakily.
But, as soon as the scientist turned his back to Kent in order to glare at me, the butler hit him on the neck, knocking him out.
"Bipolar much, Kent?" I couldn't help but ask; my answer was a charming (and annoying) smirk.
"What the fuck was that?" Darrel demanded angrily as he stomped towards the butler. "Why did you push Elli like that?" I must admit that I wasn't happy either, but, being the ridiculously resigned person I am, I settled for glaring at Kent.
"I apologize." Kent said quietly as he picked up the fainted scientist. "But milord and I need at least one of the scientists alive to serve as a witness to our innocence in this 'incident'." Kent turned his gaze to Darrel. "That's why I pushed Miss Davis out of the way and said those things. When this man wakes up he'll think that you, Mr. Basset, were able to defeat me and knock him out."
At hearing Kent's explanation, Darrel scoffed and rolled his eyes, but also dropped his glare.
"That's something ya could've mentioned before, ya know." Turning his back to the butler, Darrel walked towards one of the corpses and pointed to the man's wrists, around which was a gold watch. "Ya don't mind if I take the watch, do ya?"
"You may take whatever you wish, Mr. Basset. Also, I brought some clothes for you two; they are in the suitcase that is lying on the room's right corner." Kent spoke with a polite smile on his face. "Now, if you excuse me, I have my own matters to take care of, down stairs."
Carrying the scientist over his shoulder, Kent walked towards the door. Before going through it, though, he turned to me with yet another smile on his face. Honestly, who is that guy trying to please? I liked him better when we just talked about books and he kept a normal expression on his face.
"I hope to see you in a few days, Miss Davis." Kent said charmingly.
Before I opened my mouth to give him a reply, the butler was already out of the lab. Sighing, I turned to Darrel; the blonde had the dead man's watch on his wrist and was admiring it with a satisfied smile on his face.
"Nice." I heard him say, most likely to himself. I couldn't help but giggle, getting his attention.
"What?" Darrel asked/demanded, raising his eyebrows inquiringly.
"Nothing." I answered. "It's just that… you look like a child receiving its very first birthday present. You look very cute."
"I know I'm an eye-candy, Elli; no need to tell me." The blonde said smirking. But, surprisingly, his smirk turned into a very serious expression. "Now, Elli, let's raid these guys' pockets and get whatever they have that looks valuable; aka, money and jewelry."
"Why?" I asked confusedly, but started searching the scientists' pockets nonetheless.
"Just trust me, okay? I'll explain everything to ya later. Now let's finish this, change our clothes and get outta here as fast as possible. I'm starving."
We were able to leave the castle very quickly; as Kent had said, there were very few guards on the surface. Darrel was carrying all of our 'profit' with the help of the suitcase Kent had used to bring our clothes. The clothes were very simple; Darrel got black pants and a white shirt while I got a black dress.
"Man, he could've gotten me a shirt and pants too." I complained as we left the castle behind us.
"Don't be ridiculous, Elli." Darrel patronized. "A woman wearing pants is strange; it'd get us too much att-"
BOOM!
Darrel's little speech was interrupted by the castle exploding. We turned our wide eyes to the burning construction; the dark night sky made the flames look extremely bright and beautiful.
"Wow." Darrel whispered, just as entranced by the dancing flames as I was.
On our way to the village, I couldn't help but gaze with curiosity and wonder at everything around me; the trees, the stars, the flowers… even the wind seemed to amaze me. Darrel, on the other hand, only paid attention to the trees and bushes, and that was only because he wanted some fruits to eat.
"I can't believe that, after twelve years in that place, the only thing you think about is food, Darrel." I said outraged. "And you've eaten less than an hour ago."
"Ya don't understand, Elli." Darrel groaned. "I NEED to eat constantly. Thanks to those fucking injections they gave me, my body isn't able to produce energy enough to keep me alive if I eat what a normal person does. That's the main reason why I wasn't a complete success in the experiments."
"Oh." Needles to say, after hearing that I felt like an idiot for complaining. "I'll help you look for some kind of food, then."
Darrel forced a smile. "Thanks, Elli. Appreciate it."
Soon we found a plum tree and stopped for Darrel to eat some of them; and by 'some', I mean all the fruits that were on the tree, mature or not.
"So…" I began. "Are you going to tell me why we took those people's money and jewelry?"
"Okay, okay." Darrel agreed with his mouth full, not that I minded it. "Ya know, Elli, my extremely big need for food isn't the only thing that shouldn't have happened to me with those experiments. My hearing was also very developed; to the point I was able to hear anything that anyone said in that fucking lab when I was there."
I felt my eyes widen at hearing that, but kept my shock to myself and allowed him to continue.
Taking a bite of one of the plums, Darrel resumed talking. "Because of that I know quite a lot about the Lucifer Project, as they call it. That fucking butler told a little about it to ya, right?"
I nodded my head. "Yes, but I didn't really believe him. I mean, trying to create demoniac humans? That's hard to swallow."
"Well, it's the truth. And that butler is the origin of this project." Throwing the fruit's lump away, Darrel turned to me dead-serious. "That fucking butler's a demon, Elli."
First, I thought it was a joke. Come on, a demon? You understand me, right? But Darrel's serious expression told me that he was saying the truth. Second on my list: shock. Trust me, finding out about demons' existence and accepting it isn't something easy to do. Finally, after assimilating this new fact, came the terror; I had spent time alone with a demon for God's sake! Who knows what he could've done to me?
I must've been hyperventilating or something, because Darrel quickly took a hold of my face and stared right into my eyes.
"Calm down, Elli." He said firmly. "No need for ya to be scared; he's not anywhere near us. And we'll keep it that way."
"Why? Better yet; how? I mean, we are suppose to meet him and Chamberlin in a few days." Darrel just smirked at me, making me understand his plans. "We're going to ditch them? That's crazy!"
What can I say? I understood his plan, but didn't agree with it... at first. I mean, ditch a demon? AND survive it? That's a task far too hard and dangerous. But, of course, Darrel had a plan and a surprisingly good reason to propose something as crazy as that.
"As to why…" Darrel said, getting on his feet with many plums on his arms and resuming to walk down the road. "This week, during on of my fucked-up times in the lab, the butler and nancy-boy were talking quietly on one of the corners of the room and staring directly at me. Obviously, I pretended I didn't notice it; but I was paying extra attention to everything they were saying."
Grabbing the suitcase I followed the blonde. "What were they talking about?"
"Nancy-boy said that the best way to convince you to go through with the escape was letting me out too. The fucking butler said that it wouldn't be a problem. He said, and I quote: I can easily eliminate the nuisance and make a perfect tool for your plans out of Ms. Davis; she'll be totally under your control, milord."
Needless to say, that pissed me off to no end. Chamberlin had planned to kill Darrel! Using me as a tool didn't bother me much; I was used to that already. But to kill Darrel! He had dreams for God's sake!
Noticing my enraged expression, Darrel said in a mocking voice. "Relax, Elli. It's not like ya're capable to hold a grudge anyway."
"I am!" I complained glaring down at him.
Honestly? I'm not, but that makes me look naïve and, contrary to most of the books I read, things don't work out just because you're pure and innocent (something I'm not since I've already killed many people). One thing I'd learned in that castle is that the smart and selfish people are the ones who truly succeed.
"Whatever ya say, Elli." Darrel said grabbing one of the plums he was carrying. "Now, can I tell ya my plan?"
I took the fruit away from his hand and angrily took a bite. "Yes."
He rolled his eyes at my antics and grabbed another plum. "Ya know the village nancy-boy talked about? We'll pass straight through it and rest for a day in the next one we see."
"That's why we raided the scientists' pockets… This way we can afford a room somewhere." I said mostly to myself.
"Yeah." Darrel confirmed, taking a bite of his own plum. He resumed talking with his mouth full, but, as I said before, it didn't bother me (like him, I was chewing my fruit with my mouth open). "Once we're settled in an inn, we gonna change our apper-, appearn-, the way we look like."
"That's actually a good plan, Darrel." I complimented him.
"Of course it is." He said smugly. "By the way, I got a copy of our files back in the lab so we can base our make-over on them."
I must admit, Darrel surprised me a lot with his thinking. I never imagined him as the smart type due to his attitude and dislike towards books. What can I say? Don't judge a book by its cover.
"Where are we going to after we change our appearances?"
"To America!" He answered cheerfully. "We gonna start a new life, right? What better place to do it than the once called New World?"
"You mean we'll leave England?" I asked indignantly. "No way! I don't want to leave my country!"
And, with that, we began screaming at each other, arguing over what we'd do. We argued for a good two hours of our walking before falling into a very uncomfortable silence, which was kept until we got to the next village a few hours later. Needless to say, it wasn't a pleasant walk.
The sun was starting to rise by the time we reached the village's inn. It was simple and somewhat dirty, but, after spending years in that dungeon, it wasn't a problem for me. Darrel got some money and paid the place's owner for a room.
"Second floor, third door to the right." The owner said mechanically.
The room was small and its furniture consisted of one bed and a chest of drawers; granted, it was cleaner than I thought it would be. Darrel got some money out of the bag, and turned to the door.
"I gonna buy something to eat." He said dryly. "Be right back."
"I'm sorry, Darrel." I said before he exited the room. "I shouldn't have exalted myself like that."
Darrel sighed. "Doncha worry, Elli." He said, tiredly smiling up at me. "We both were just tired."
"I guess." I agreed and, before he could blink, gave him a quick hug. Man, had Chamberlin's essence entered me or what?
"Hehehe, I told ya; ya don't know how to hold a grudge, Elli." Darrel said amusedly, returning the hug. "While I'm gone, take a look at our files so ya can tell me what it says; ya know how much I fucking hate reading."
"Will do." I agreed smiling down at him.
"It may take a while for me to find some kind of market open at this hour." Darrel said frowning. "No need to stay up."
Now here I am, laying on the bed and staring at the ceiling.
I don't think Darrel will change his mind; after all it's his dream to live in the country and have a big family. And what better place to get some lands it than in America? I remember seeing many pamphlets encouraging people to go there when I was a child. But still… I don't want to leave England.
I know what you're thinking: why would I want to stay here so bad? I spent most of my life locked in that damn place, so it's not like I'll be losing much if I go to America, right? Well… I guess you're right, but I still don't imagine me living somewhere else.
...
Well, better don't think about it now…
Guess I will take a look at those files Darrel talked about. Let's start by Darrel's one.
Name: Darrel Basset
Date of Birth: 22/07/1861
Height: 1.72m
Weight: 51kg
Appearance: Extremely thin built.
Well-defined jawbone structure.
Blonde, straight hair that reaches his shoulders.
Blue eyes.
Has many scars on his body due to his test-fights and is missing his right foot's little finger.
Personality: Normally calm, but has his moments of rage (yeah, I can see that); must be dealt with carefully and by highly-trained people. Has a curious nature and seems to pay attention to everything around him. Has shown to possess a good intellect, winning many of his fights because of his strategies.
Family: Unknown.
Year of entering the Lucifer Project: 1869
Status on Lucifer Project: Not a total failure; may still be of use. Has developed great strength and speed, as expected, but his body isn't able to keep up with the demon's blood that is pumping through his veins, due to his extremely accelerated metabolism. Because of his metabolism, the activation serum (so that's what they injected us before the fights) isn't able to keep him in berserk state for more than five minutes.
Historic: I'll skip this one, ok? Don't worry though, everything that's written here is scientific jibble jabble, like dates of injections, symptoms, prognostics and stuff like that. That's why I'm skipping this one. And, also because I kind of… you see, I… I don't really understand what is written in here due to the amount of numbers and scientific terms.
Let's just go to mine, ok?
Name: Eliza Davis
Date of Birth: 26/02/1865
Height: 1.77m
Weight: 72kg
Appearance: Muscular built.
Average sized breasts.
Soft features.
Straight black hair that reaches her knees.
Green eyes.
Personality: Very calm and cooperative; she doesn't complain about anything and obeys orders without a second thought. She is very social and has immense interest towards books.
Family: Deceased (so… uncle's dead?).
Year of entering the Lucifer Project: 1874
Status on Lucifer Project: Success. She has developed great strength, speed and regenerative capacity, which allows her to survive extremely severe wounds and doesn't let any scars form. Her bones are very dense and resistant, making it hard to get her defenseless in a fight. Her berserk state can last from twenty to thirty minutes with one dose of the activation serum.
Historic: You know the drill.
So my uncle had died while I was in that place, huh? As I've told you before, we weren't very close or anything, but I can't help but feel sad; I mean family is family, right? Talking about family, I miss mom, dad and Emma... a lot. I hope they're doing well in Heaven.
I felt something hot streak down my face. "What the? I can't believe this."
You must've guessed already: there was a tear streaking down my face… man, I shouldn't cry over things from the past. I must be tired.
Guess I'll just go to sleep now; after all, today was pretty tiring with all the killing, walking and screaming. Darrel won't mind if I take the bed, will he?
I felt like singing to relax a little, but decided against it since the walls here don't look thick enough to muffle it. So I decided to hum myself to sleep.
Indeed, today wasn't a very good day, but I can't help but look forward to what will happen tomorrow.
Hope you liked chapter 2.
Now, the pamphlets encouraging people to go to America Elli talked about are a reference to the Homestead Act created in 1862. I actually don't know if the marketing reached England or not (searched in the net, but didn't find anything conclusive), but I thought it made sense. If I'm wrong, please let me know that I'll fix it.
Merry Christmas in advance to everyone! =)
