It'd been two months since my best friend made my worst nightmare come true.
He wasn't my best friend anymore. I didn't know what he was anymore.
I stared at the little test, willing it to be the answer I wanted.
These three minutes had to be the longest three minutes I'd ever had in my life.
"Max?" Iggy called, "are you okay in there?"
"I'm fine, just feeling a little nauseous," I said back. It was extremely true. I'd been throwing up almost every morning.
I looked around at the plain beige hotel bathroom. We were in another hotel in middle-of-nowhere North Dakota. Why? Because the voice told us to go there.
I swear, North Dakota was only made because they needed South Dakota to have a north to its south. If that makes any sense. Yin-Yang, Taoism. You know?
I tapped my fingers against the sink counter.
I didn't want to be carrying the devil's spawn.
He was the devil. He'd hurt me in a way I didn't think he would ever dare. I didn't think he'd ever hurt me, especially like that.
He'd promised to never cause me any pain. When we were twelve and Jeb had just disappeared, we promised each other that we'd look after the other and we'd always have each other's backs. That we'd never do anything to hurt each other.
He can't have remembered that promise. If he had, he wouldn't have done anything.
For the last two months I'd kept severe mind blocks up all the time. Angel couldn't know about this. It would devastate her. And it would overload her six-year-old little self. That was way too much for a little girl to carry on her shoulders, even if they were genetically-enhanced.
I stared at the test again; nothing had changed.
Only a minute left now.
Either way this test turned out, it was going to change me forever.
Thirty seconds.
Please, I begged the God I didn't know if I believed in, please do not let this test turn out badly.
Five seconds. Four, three, two, one….
Holy fucking shit.
I threw the test against the wall, slid down against the door, and cried.
I was carrying the devil's spawn.