Persephone often headed down to the basement to tend to those turning into Molded. While she did indeed help them to remain stable and to turn, she also often took samples to analyze back at the lab from both living successes and dead failures. And, while she was it, she took the time to read through documents and learn as much as she could about Eveline, the E-series, and the past D-series.
Lucas seemed more than happy about her taking such an interest in the mutamycete, and rarely questioned what she was doing. For now, she was in his good graces. She wanted to keep it that way.
Which made getting a hold of Zoe difficult. Persephone deliberated for a long time to decide how she wanted to relay messages to her. She studied the cameras again, for the fifth time that week, memorizing where they recorded. It had been a couple of weeks since she and Zoe had spoken outside of the trailer. On the camera feed, it was recorded as dead-air as Persephone cut the power during their conversation. She feigned ignorance, but Lucas was suspicious—perhaps not of her in particular, but in general.
She decided to use Zoe's cigarette habit to her advantage. Persephone slipped notes into the cigarette boxes that weren't in view of the cameras. She tried to time these notes when Jack was out and Zoe was on the prowl. Today, she filled out paperwork in Lucas's office, sitting on the floor and covertly watching the cameras as he tinkered at his desk.
"Once I get this mechanism workin'," he said, "I'll need to test the puzzle again."
"That new guy we got hasn't turned," she said, noticing that Zoe exited her trailer. "If you get it done soon enough, I can wake him up for you."
"Yer done with him?"
"Nah, but I'll have plenty more comin' in, so you can have him."
"Pers, yer th' best, ya know that?"
She smiled, and her heart gave a little unwanted flutter. "Thanks, Lucas. You can be sweet when you wanna be."
She watched Zoe sneak around into the house. She'd be headed for those cigarettes, no doubt. She turned around, watching Lucas finally put his little machine down. But she couldn't have him seeing Zoe picking up that note. Persephone walked up behind him, hands running down his shoulders and chest.
"Lucaaas," she gently sang his name.
"What is it, baby?"
"I need more lab rats."
"What'chu workin' on now?"
"Just some…" She paused, thinking of how to put it. "Insurance. I have this idea. See, it's currently impossible to turn from Molded back to human, which means if Evie's little gift backfires on one of our family members, and as we've seen: the mutamycete samples don't do well without her, they won't be going back. So if I can make a concoction—"
"All right, all right," he said, getting up and stretching, "I don' need a long-winded explanation. I've been thinkin', actually, about killin' off those pesky scientists."
"Oh, that's quite the turn."
He put his arm around her shoulders. "I mean, why not? These guys experimented on little girls like Eveline, n' I just don' like 'em."
"Ah, the moralist has spoken. Luckily for the two of us, I don't really care if those guys die. You'll wanna turn them Molded, right?"
"Hell yeah I do."
"Good, I can use them, then."
"I'm sure I'll have a few leftovers." He held her under the chin, fingers caressing her delicate flesh. "I could make a whole new Molded fer you, baby. Just tell me what ya want n' it's yers."
If there was anything truly special about the lust Lucas had for her, it was how his grey eyes twinkled with a familiar old emotion, one which she had seen in him in their younger years. It made her want to appease him, just to continue seeing that spark.
Persephone sat in the basement the day she was to meet Zoe, after telling Lucas she was ensuring their newest Molded were still alive and kicking. The gross rotten fruit stench was overpowering but she refused to let it get to her. She'd rather puke and still relay her plan to Zoe than have everything fall through her fingers. Not now, not when she was so close.
Zoe seemed to have the same idea, as she came prowling around the corner. Her narrow eyes softened when she saw Persephone sitting atop one of the coolers.
"Hey, Persepenny," she teased, her voice low.
"Oh god, please don't."
She snickered. "Sorry. Can't help myself. Kind of a good nickname, though, ain't it? Like a codename. Penny."
"So what's yours? Lonely Lesbian?"
Zoe covered her mouth in both hands and let out a rancorous, muffled laugh. When she calmed down enough, she said, "Okay, okay, I see your point. So what's this plan a' yours anyhow?"
"I'm in the process of makin' a remedy," Persephone said. "In case the whole Eveline thing goes south. What no one's told you is that the mutamycete is extremely volatile, especially without Eveline. But you're under her influence, so I can't tell you much more."
"You're riskin' it all already, tellin' me this."
"I'm not afraid. She wants me alive, for Lucas. But I know you're made of tough stuff. You're one of the few who can actively resist Eveline without the vaccine. Not even I could do that, Zoe. In that sense, you're my perfect partner in crime."
Zoe had just lit another cigarette and took a few calming drags. "I appreciate that. You're in the good graces of the family, n' more mobile than I can be. So I guess in that sense you're also the perfect partner in crime."
"Yes, well, now that we're done fellatin' ourselves—"
Zoe laughed so hard that she nearly ate her cigarette.
"You remember pickin' up Mia for the first time?" Persephone asked. "She had that case with her?"
Smoke furled around her face as she spoke. "With that creepy shrunken baby?"
"Yep. And Eveline so desperately wanted to go back for that fucked up taxidermy-ass little girl, too."
"What's that got to do with anythin'?"
"It's got everythin' to do with this. I can't tell you exactly what's goin' on, but I know from a trusted source—"
"Lucas."
"Not exactly."
Zoe's brows lifted.
"These artifacts are what we need to make the remedy. With them—"
The upstairs door creaked open. Persephone and Zoe glanced at each other with widened eyes.
Persephone whispered, "The answer is in the D-Series."
But they could say no more, and had to carefully scurry up the stairs. When they reached the door to the entrance hall, Persephone tried to act like she hadn't even noticed Zoe (and Zoe seemed to be doing the same in tandem).
In the threshold of the door was Lucas, who motioned with a finger for Persephone to come over. She didn't like the look on his face, stern and cold. It reminded her of her dad and she felt like an obedient little wind-up doll again. She played her part and hurried toward him, letting him pull her out into the yard, away from Zoe. Then he rounded on her.
"Pers, what in the hell is goin' on with you n' Zoe?"
Persephone willed her heart to remain calm, even in the face of his scrutiny. "What d'you mean?"
"You think I ain't noticed you just been disappearin' lately? I saw you n' Zoe walkin' out the foyer together, n' yer gonna try t' tell me ya don' know what I'm talkin' about?"
God, dealing with someone as smart and meticulous as Lucas wasn't easy. Persephone had to keep telling herself that he was accusing her of something she'd never do—kicking a puppy, eating a steak, having a tea party with Mia—just to ensure that she could lie properly. Above all else, she needed to remain calm.
"So I met up with her on the way back from the basement. I don't see the problem."
"N' why were ya in th' basement?"
She put her hands out as she shrugged, acting like it was obvious. "I was tendin' to Harold, of course. He's so close to turnin'. Remember what happened to that Ben douche when we didn't keep an eye on him?"
His gaze dropped for only a moment in understanding but then it shot right back to her. "So nothin's been goin' on? You ain't been schemin' behind my back?"
"No."
He took a step closer to her, his body just an inch or two from hers, and glared into her eyes. "Then tell me so."
If something as dumb as 'were ya teachin' Diane t' waltz again?' had been asked of her, she would have released a vexed sigh, so she did. It took every ounce of willpower she had to maintain some eye contact, only leaving enough room to roll her eyes.
"No, Lucas, Zoe and I ain't been schemin' behind your back."
He stared at her still, making her heart rate increase with each long second his thoughtful eyes were upon her. But she was used to being interrogated like this—his examination of each little twitch of her eyelids or tensing of her muscles reminded her so much of her dad. She had to stop herself from smirking, knowing life had prepared her well for this moment. When Lucas breathed deep to relax himself, Persephone relaxed in kind. He hugged her, and placed his face in her neck.
"Sorry, Pers."
She returned his embrace. "Don't worry about it."
"Sorry," he repeated, "but I don' believe you."
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, and even more fuck—no. Don't get flustered. That's exactly what he wants. Any faltering now would confirm his suspicions. A quick mental search through her personality told her any reaction she could have and why, but if she didn't hurry and blurt something out fast, he'd know just by her hesitation.
"That's okay, Lucas," she said softly, cuddling into him. "You don't have to. Just believe that I'm here for you. And we're gonna get you that fuckin' job as Head Researcher by next year, guaranteed."
A gentle laugh came from deep in his chest and reverberated pleasantly through her entire body. "Ya make it hard t' be mad when ya say stuff like that."
She stayed in his arms for a moment. That laugh, the feeling of his warmth around her, her face pressed into his chest and surrounded by his hoodie hit her with a tsunami of nostalgia. She tried to bring herself back to how things used to be. She'd gotten good at that, her mind taking her to simpler days. The grimy sludge around her morphed back into the lush swamps of the Baker ranch; the sun came out to tear apart the ever-present dingy, foggy air; the smell of flowers and water and Marguerite's jambalaya overpowered the muggy mildew—
"LUCAS!" Jack shouted from inside the house.
Both she and Lucas jumped. Jack's voice didn't have his usual gritted rage, nor did it have his other usual psychotic tones. What frightened her, and surely Lucas, too, was the desperation, the knell, foreboding and gut churning. She and Lucas exchanged furrowed brows, before they rushed into the house.
Jack was running toward the back door, and stopped when he saw them. His face was so strange to Persephone now—it looked like fatherly concern once again, hitting her with another unwanted wave of nostalgia, and a longing for that time. But Jack snatched Lucas' arm and pulled him back into the house, toward the kitchen.
"It's Evie!" He shouted as she and Lucas followed him. "There's somethin' wrong! Somethin' really, really wrong!"
They shot around the corners of the hall, and rushed into the dining room, where Eveline was sprawled on the ground. But she wasn't Eveline anymore. In her place lay an elderly woman, shaking and trembling with wisps of white hair flitting past her deeply wrinkled face. Zoe's old clothes hung loosely across her skeletal form, collar and hip bones jutting out.
"Lucas," she whined, her voice still childish until she kept talking, where it seemed to age within a second or two. "Please. Help me…"
Lucas stood there in shock for a moment. Persephone watched the color drain from his face. Marguerite knelt beside Eveline, her own face a ghostly white. Lucas blurred past, helping the now elderly Eveline into one of the dining chairs.
"She just—" Jack started, hurrying toward them, "—I-I dunno, she just started growin' like that an'-an' fell an'—!"
Persephone watched from the threshold of the door.
"Persepenny," Eveline moaned, reaching out to her. "Sis, it hurts."
Persephone had no reason to run to her. She was an abomination.