*Author's note: Oh man. Such an emotional and dramatic chapter for all of you :D We get to find out some of Quinn's new powers as well as the beginnings of some major internal conflict! Fun fun fun! Enjoy!*
The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the fact that I was no longer on the ground. I was in my room, laying on my bed, under my blankets. For a couple of seconds, I thought maybe it had all been just a nightmare. Until I opened my eyes.
My ceiling was tinged in a red shade. And so was the walls. And so was everything I looked at. Something was very wrong with my eyes.
I sat up in bed, holding my slightly throbbing head. The springs in the bed groaned in protest from the motion.
The memories of what had happened suddenly hit me and my headache, a sort of stream of moments that didn't quite connect together, like a dream.
There had been screaming, anger, yelling, crying, and the strongest feeling of hate I had ever witnessed. Hate was something quite alien to me, and it wasn't normal for me to feel an abundance of it.
Suddenly, my eyesight turned a darker shade of red, and as if another side of me was taking over, I told myself that my family and everyone else deserved my hate. I hated them for being there, watching me suffer, trying to tell me things were okay without knowing the immense pain I was going through. They must all be destroyed, forced to feel the sensation of being burned alive from the inside-
I quickly snapped out of it. These weren't my thoughts. I would never feel that way towards my family. They had been doing their very best to ease my pain. They didn't deserve any anger from me. I was beginning to become scared, afraid of what was happening to me.
In an attempt to wake myself up from whatever had its hold on me, I walked into my bathroom. I turned on the sink, splashing my face with cold water.
I stood there for a couple of moments, looking down at the sink as water dripped off my face. I finally reached over and turned off the faucet. I was afraid to look at my reflection in the mirror, but I knew I had to face myself at some point. I slowly raised my head to look at myself.
What I found looking back at me made me almost scream in terror.
A dark brown haired sixteen year old stared back at me with bloody, crimson red eyes. Although he seemed completely off guard, his face seemed to still be contorted into an angry sneer, as if he always looked that way. This… Person had milky pale skin, almost somewhat translucent looking. He looked… Scary. Evil. Sick. I couldn't make sense that this person in the mirror was also me. This couldn't be happening.
I heard my bedroom door creak open, and I scurried out of the bathroom, coming face to face with Wu, who was carrying a tray of food. My eyesight grew redder as we made eye contact, my hatred boiling up once more. He was the one that was supposed to get the katana. This was Wu's fault. The way I looked…
Wu stared, wide-eyed, into my crimson eyes. He seemed frozen in complete shock. My anger couldn't be contained at that point, and spilled over my control.
"Is this some kind of JOKE?" I screeched, as my stupid brother stared at me, dumbfounded. However, at the sound of my voice, he dropped the silver tray on the ground, scared out of his mind.
My voice sounded… Dark. A gravelly tone, an edge to it, that made each word a sharp dagger. A venom in my voice, an echo that shocked me out of my intense anger, scaring myself into speechlessness.
"No… Quinn… This isn't a joke." Wu stuttered quietly.
I sighed in stress, and sat down on my bed, the springs groaning in protest once more. I looked down at my milky pale hands, before putting my head in my hands, gritting my teeth.
"It was the snake," Wu said, as if he thought I hadn't already figured that out, "We were able to heal the puncture wounds… Everything else isn't fixable, though."
"Has Misako seen me yet." I said flatly. The last thing I wanted was for her to see me. I had become something from nightmares. I couldn't see her.
"She heard the screams… She doesn't know what's going on and she's getting really angry at us. Do you want to see her?" Wu asked. My eye twitched, as he casually thought scaring her would make anything better. He probably wanted her to see me, so she'd scared of me. Then he could have her all to himself.
"I'd much rather be left alone right now." I snapped at him.
"I'll tell her th-" Wu began.
"That means you, too." I growled.
Wu stopped talking mid sentence, snapping his mouth shut quickly. He nodded, picked up the silver tray and the ruined sandwich, before leaving without another word, closing the door behind him.
I sighed once more, my voice rattling darkly in discomfort. This was too much for me to take in. One tiny, insignificant snake. That's all it took to change my appearance, my voice, my personality; It wasn't even supposed to be me who had gone over that wall. It was Wu's katana. Wu's destiny. Not mine.
I lay down in my bed, and slowly fell asleep to the sound of the dripping faucet, trying to escape my reality for a couple of hours.
I woke up to the sound of arguing outside my door. One person seemed to be resisting someone else, and the other one seemed to be hushing her, trying to keep her quiet. I immediately realized this was Misako and Wu. My brother sounded like he was doing his very best to keep her away from coming into my room, but I knew Misako would get her way sooner or later.
"I think I am obligated to see him! I'm allowed to know what happened!" Misako hissed at Wu from outside the door.
"We can't tell you. We're not even sure what to tell you. We don't understand much about it!" Wu protested.
"Then I'll get Quinn to tell me."
"But Quinn said-"
"I don't CARE what Quinn said! I'm going in to see him NOW!" Misako screeched at him. I could almost mentally picture him cowering in fear of her wrath.
I only had a few seconds to pretend to be asleep before she opened my door, coming into my room. I tried my best to be convincing, my eyes closed and my back facing her. I heard her close the door behind her, and walk over to me in my bed, sitting down on the end and putting her hand on my leg.
"What happened to you?" Misako whispered softly, "What happened to your skin?"
I didn't answer, trying to keep my breathing as calm and even as possible. She withdrew her hand.
"I know you're awake." She deadpanned.
I huffed in defeat, and layed on my back, no longer facing away from her. However, I didn't open my eyes. That was something I didn't want her to see. Something I wasn't ready to show her.
"Is there something wrong with your eyes too? Or am I just too ugly to look at." She teased. I mentally rolled my eyes. She was just as bad as anyone else, prying and questioning and wanting me to say things I didn't want to.
"I'm choosing not to open my eyes, if you don't mind." I said back, in a strained sort of manner. Her breath caught at the sound of my new, odd voice. I winced. I was beginning to scare her, and she hadn't even seen the worst part yet.
"Come on Quinn. Please. It couldn't be any worse. Open your eyes." Misako pleaded, her voice seeming to have become less confident and demanding. Weak with fear and nervousness.
"Define worse, Misako." I muttered.
"Please. For me?"
"I'd rather not." I spat back. I felt her freeze for a couple of seconds at the rude venom in my voice.
Her weight left the end of the bed, as she got up to leave. I waited for a couple of minutes, waiting for the door to open and then close behind her as she left my room. It didn't happen though. I was almost about to crack my eye open, to check if she was still there, when I suddenly felt something on my cheek. Something smooth and soft. With a deep inhale, I could smell a strong scent of hazelnuts and coconut, a hint of lingering mint.
And then my slow mind finally put two and two together.
That soft thing on my cheek was her lips.
My eyes immediately snapped open, a strong, electric feeling coursing through my body. And suddenly, the electricity zapped through me, becoming a physical energy, that blasted Misako off the bed and onto the ground.
"Oh crap!" I exclaimed, shooting out of the bed as quickly as I could to help Misako.
When she looked up at me from the ground, her face immediately contorted in horror, as if the last thing she ever wanted was for me to touch her again. Her eyes bugged when seeing mine, and she covered her mouth with her hand, tears welling up in her eyes.
"No, No, I didn't mean to hurt you! I'm sorry!" I exclaimed. My new voice, however, twisted my plea into a dark anger, of which seemed to scare her even more. Desperately, I reached my hand out to her, to help her up off the ground, trying to help. She cowered away from my hand, which was jumping with electricity, out of my control. I pulled it away quickly, and turned away as her tears spilled over on to her cheeks.
"I'm sorry." I whispered, which came out as more of an angry, low growl.
I felt completely useless, and without knowing what else I could do, I ran into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. My anger lashed out, and I screamed in frustration. This new me wasn't me. I didn't belong in this body anymore. I was no longer human.
Without knowing what I was doing, I began to destroy my bathroom. Kicking things with more strength than I ever thought possible, cracking mirrors with my fists, and breaking floor tiles with each stomp I took. I was losing it, when suddenly, the door flew open. It was Misako yet again, putting herself in danger.
"GET OUT! GET AWAY!" I screamed at her, my hands covered in electricity, sparking and fizzing with each second that my wrath fueled them.
Without warning, my body immediately decided that it was time to let go of the said electricity built up in my hands. I couldn't unleash it, that much I knew. Misako would get hurt. Instead, with all the control I could muster, I held it in, releasing the electricity into my own skin.
I felt as though I was frozen, the electricity hitting my muscles and making them spasm out of control. I was buzzing, fizzing, paralyzed, and dizzied.
The electricity finally depleted itself, and I fell to the bathroom floor in pain. Misako screamed in horror, and ran to me, diving to the ground and wrapping me in her arms, tears traveling down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She cried, hastily stroking my hair as her tears hit my face.
"Go.. Away.. I'm not safe…" I managed to tell her. I was right, I wasn't safe. I was a bomb, that could blow up at any moment, without warning. Yet she still clung on
"I don't care." She whispered, breathing shakily. I closed my eyes to her rhythmic stroking, and my breathing began to calm down, along with hers. There was a couple moments of silence before either one of us talked again.
"It's okay. We'll… We'll fix this." She said.
"How... How will we fix this. I'm a monster."
"No-" She began.
"Yes, Misako... Yes. I'm a monster." I said, as a single tear went down my cheek.
She protested, saying something, but I suddenly couldn't hear her. Her voice faded away, into the background, as I slipped into unconsciousness.
I woke up once more to the sound of my father's voice, and to a warm heat that I was wrapped around.
"This is too much stress for the boy," My father said quietly, "His body is going through a rough transition. His heart is trying it's very best to reject the venom, along with his brain."
"Monty… What do we do?" Mom whispered, her voice sounding pained.
"I'm not sure there's anything we CAN do, Carina. This is something beyond our realm of knowledge. He's gaining powers… He's changing internally. I'm not sure what the venom of that snake does to people, or whether the effects it has on people stays constant through all humans. It's too unknown to predict what's going on." My father said. I felt my mom's warm hand caress my back in worry. The warm heat that I was wrapped around moved slightly, and I instinctively squeezed it closer to me.
"Misako…" My mother whispered, as I realized what, or rather who, the warmth in my arms was, "She was able to bring him down from his anger. That's a feat to undertake."
"He injured himself to the point of unconsciousness. She wasn't able to really stop him from bursting," My father pointed out, being the typical insensitive man that I always viewed him as, "But I DO think that she'll become a vital part to his recovery. If there is any, that is. There's only a few people our son lets them get close to him. He trusts her. I mean, look at them…"
There was a quietness between my parents for a couple of moments.
"Let's leave them alone. Quinn needs his sleep, and it looks like the only rest he can get is with her. We'll wake them up in the morning." My mother said. They both left the room, and I drifted off to sleep once again, holding Misako tight in my arms, feeling safe, as long as she was around.