All Eveline wanted to do was draw and play with dolls. Most of the time, she could get Jack or Marguerite to do her bidding, play with her and dote over her, and all was well. But there were times, especially if she saw him getting amorous with Pers, she would demand Lucas play with her. As much as he hated being bossed around by some stupid kid, he had no other choice but to oblige and keep up the charade.
Today, she wanted to play house with her dolls. She knelt on the floor across from him, two dolls in her hands. He had one as well and he tried his best not to look bored as he played with her.
Eveline spoke in a deep voice and mimicked Jack's accent. "Aren't we just so happy ta be a family?" Then she took over the other doll, shaking it gently to show it was speaking, which sounded almost like his mom. "Well, I would be, if it weren't for Persepenny."
Lucas looked at her strangely and said, "Whatchu got against Persephone?"
Eveline cleared her throat and pointed at his doll.
He felt himself want to roll his eyes but channeled this desire into a forced smile. He spoke with the same voice, dropping it only an octave or two, bouncing the doll up and down. "What's wrong with Persephone?"
Back to imitating Marguerite, "She's a real handful. Evie feels left out because you spend all your time with her, Lucas."
Lucas bit his tongue, quite literally so he could hold back a sigh. He tried to act like a concerned big brother. "Ya don' think I spend enough time with Evie?"
"Well," said Eveline as Jack, "come ta think of it, you do spend an awful lot of time down in yer room with Persepenny when you could be spending time with Evie instead."
What Lucas wouldn't give to be able to walk away. "Aww, I'm sorry. I didn' mean t' make her feel that way."
Now with quivering lip, Eveline put her dolls down and crawled over onto Lucas's lap to give him a hug. Lucas forced himself to hold her and pat her back. She put her face in his shoulder.
"We should play together more," she said.
"Okay, Evie. We'll do that."
"You're the best big brother." Her arms held him tighter. "Love you, Lucas."
He grimaced, expertly hiding the displeasure in his voice. "Love you, too, Evie."
She placed a kiss on his cheek and he pulled her back, standing her to hopefully convince her to get off his lap.
"All right, all right," he said, "we gonna play house with these dolls 'r not?"
Eveline giggled and jogged back to her dolls, picking them up to resume play. The faster he finished with her stupid games, the faster he could get back to the lab.
Eveline wasn't the only pain in his ass, though. He often found himself dealing with an absolutely psychotic Mia. The bitch was far too entrenched in Eveline craziness, and Lucas wasn't sure her brain would ever work right again. She would punch and kick basically anyone and start a fight, but Lucas was her favorite target, followed by Diane (by association?).
Today was no different. Lucas was headed to fix the garage door that was on the fritz to get Jack off his ass about it, where the bitch cornered him and Diane. But the bitch acted like he was in her way and started screaming at him like a lunatic. When he told her to go fuck herself, her face contorted with red rage. She threw her fists at anything in sight, including Diane. The moment she connected with Diane's nose, Lucas lunged at the bitch and grabbed her by the arms. He grappled her to the ground, knee in her back.
"Get off me!" The bitch screeched, kicking and thrashing.
"Pers!" Lucas called, struggling a bit. "Persephone, get in here!"
She called from the basement. "Yeah, yeah, I'm comin'!"
Her footsteps echoed upstairs until she reached the landing, and she took her sweet time rounding the corner. She stood in the doorway, hands on her hips as she stared down at them.
"What?" She demanded.
"Help me get this bitch outside! I'm takin' her t' th' guest house!" He had to exert more force to keep her down.
Pers sighed. "All right, lemme get the duct tape."
Lucas was getting tired of the bitch's struggling—both physically and mentally. Once the bitch got put away, though, he wouldn't have to worry about her again. At least, he hoped so. The psycho mold bitch may not be very happy about it but he would try to talk to her.
One of the bitch's arms broke free and swung around like a hammer, hitting everything—the floor, the wall beside them, and his side and arm as he tried to grab for her.
"Persephone!" He called. "Hurry the fuck up!"
She came jogging back into the room, duct tape from the garage in hand. Lucas lifted the bitch, who dug her feet into the floor and wrenched herself briefly from his grasp. She screeched, growling like a wild animal as he threw her into the wall. He pulled her arms behind her back and Pers taped them together at the wrists.
"All right, get her legs, too," he said.
The bitch kicked, hitting the wall and his shins. She turned her head and spit in Pers' face, a glob of saliva landing on her cheek. Pers frantically wiped it away with her shirt.
"Fucking gross!"
"Fuck you, whore!" Mia spit again.
Pers side-stepped it, then sneered. "You know what? I'm done with this."
Pers grabbed the back of the bitch's head by her greasy hair and slammed her face into the wall over and over. Her expression held a very calm but very potent anger at the sound of bones and wall layers cracking. Once the wall was splintered and broken, and the bitch's mouth, nose, and ear were bleeding, she was finally subdued. Her body went limp in Lucas's hands and he let her drop to the floor.
He panted, rubbing his aching shins. "Damn, Pers. That was kinda hot."
"Just grab her and let's go."
Lucas dragged the bitch by her tied wrists, letting the rest of her scrape along the hardwood floors. Diane followed them with a happily wagging tail.
"All the way to the guest house?" Pers questioned, opening the garage for them. "You sure about that?"
"Jack n' Marguerite'll be more than happy t' tend t' her. I'm just worried about Eveline goin' psycho when she finds out." He dragged the bitch through the overgrown carport and the muddy front yard.
"You kiddin'? Eveline has such a crush on you—there's no way she'd be mad."
Lucas chuckled deviously. She sure had that right. Eveline was just some dumb kid. He had this place wrapped around his finger.
Down in the basement, Pers finally got to see what he had been doing for the past week or so. There was a cell down there now, carved out and fitted with a barred gate. He tossed the bitch carelessly inside, shutting and locking the door.
"There," he said, wiping his hands together. "Feels like a weight's been lifted off my shoulders."
The bitch stirred in her cell. She met Lucas' eye and flew into a rage, tearing the duct tape apart.
"Get me the fuck out of here!" she shouted, throwing herself into the gate and shaking it. "Let me out! Let me OUT! You scrawny, disgusting bastard, LET ME OUT!"
"Ah, shuddup," he snapped, kicking the gate.
Diane barked and lunged.
"Fuck off, stupid dog!" The bitch hissed, throwing a punch that hit Diane in the cheek, causing the pooch to yelp.
He'd had it. He stomped on her arm, making the bones crunch and her elbow bend unnaturally across the bottom support bar. "Don'chu dare hit Diane again, cunt, 'r I'll rip yer fuckin' hands off!"
Pers was suddenly all over him, tongue in his mouth, hands running along his back up to the nape of his neck to keep him close. He wasted no time in returning the kiss. She pulled back to say, "Now that was hot," before continuing their impassioned display. He lifted her and pressed her against the wall, groping wherever he could reach.
Just like he and Pers had figured, Eveline didn't seem to mind at all that the bitch was being kept confined. Actually, Eveline often went down to talk with her and play with dolls, as if nothing even happened. Now, Lucas knew he was a fucked up guy, but seeing Eveline's behavior and knowing she was some bioweapon experiment—well, he knew that was all kinds of wrong. Eveline made it even more difficult than usual for him to have sympathy for her, though, given how often she reveled in the fighting, and turned screaming, begging people into Molded. The psycho mold bitch was even more morally stunted than him.
Which was saying a lot, considering he and Pers often joined in on the fucked up fun. They were dragging an unconscious body into the foyer. The dude had been wandering around outside of the Ranch for a few days, thinking he was Sherlock Holmes or some shit, and was gonna pay the price for it.
"Think this guy will even last?" Lucas asked. "I mean, look at him, he looks like a total pussy."
"He might need extra tendin' to, we'll see."
"I hate when they need tendin' to, it's such a pain in th' ass."
Tiny footfalls interrupted them, as well as the gentle sounds of sniffling. Eveline approached from upstairs.
"Lucaaas," she whined, rubbing her eyes.
"What's wrong, Evie?" He asked numbly.
"I-I," she hiccuped, crying, "I was looking for you. It… it hurts."
"What hurts?"
Eveline sobbed louder. He was about to head over to her, when she started screaming. Just screaming, ear piercingly. He slammed his hands over his ears in hopes to muffle it and called out to her over her desperate screeching. But she refused to stop. Soon, her throat-shredding shouts were interrupted by projectile black vomit. It coated the foyer and splattered across him and Pers. He rushed over and grabbed Eveline. The screaming didn't cease, making his ears ring and his head pound. He pulled her toward the basement to keep the mess contained. She kicked and yelled and bit but did nothing in all her actual power to stop him.
He stayed down there with her, trying to calm her as she grew taller and sprouted zits all within a couple hours. She cried and screamed and gave him a splitting headache. Eveline kept telling him that her entire body ached. He believed it, seeing as she'd grown by over a foot.
After it was said and done, and she seemed to stop, the washing area and generator room were filled with vomit. Dripping with the moldy bile, he and Eveline headed toward the laundry room where she could clean herself up with a damp towel. He waited outside with Pers, trying to keep quiet as they talked about what had happened.
"Why is she so tall now?" Pers whispered. "What happened?"
"You fuckin' got me. She's got pimples n' crap, too."
N' crap was the best way he could describe her… Chest.
He continued, shuddering at the thought. "I'm puttin' her back in her room, then I gotta go t' th' lab n' see what the hell's happenin'. Wish they'd fuckin' tell me these things 'stead a' leavin' me in th' dark."
"You're tellin' me. This shit's—"
The door opened and the now taller Eveline came out wearing some of Zoe's clothes, though the pants were still long on her.
"Persepenny," she whined, still sounding like a child. "It hurts…"
Eveline grabbed onto her lower stomach, whimpering at Pers in particular. The hell did she mean? Lucas glanced at Pers, who stared with a deeply furrowed brow.
"Evie, come with me." Pers held her hand out to Evie, who took it. It was the first time Pers had shown any concern for her. "C'mon, we're gonna go head to the bathroom. Your big brother's gonna stay in your room and wait for us, okay?"
What?
Eveline nodded, wiping her eyes and sniffling. Pers gave Lucas a stern look, and he rolled his eyes and just did as she said.
It felt as though he'd been waiting in the corner of Eveline's room for half an hour—and when his eyes glanced down to the time on his phone, he indeed had been. He'd cleaned himself up before waiting and had been looking through news and social media sites ever since. What a crazy year, 2016. Not just for them, but outside, too. Bursting his Eveline bubble always served as a shock. Everything seemed to revolve around her, whether he liked it or not.
The door to Eveline's room finally opened and she and Pers walked in. Eveline was gripping Pers's hand tight, other clasped around her lower stomach. Pers led her to the mattress and put her to bed. Lucas approached them, glancing at Eveline whose brow was knitted, with her eyes shut tight, and an expression like she was on the verge of tears.
Pers said, "Don't worry, just go to sleep and remember what I said, all right?"
"Okay, Sis…"
When he and Pers were down the hall and far enough out of earshot, he finally questioned her.
"Th' hell was that all about?"
"You really wanna know?"
"Yes, Pers, I really wanna know."
"You really, really wanna—"
"Pers, please, I need t' be thorough in my report."
"She's on her period."
Lucas stopped walking—and for a moment, his brain stopped working. Gross. Gross, gross, gross, "Gross! I don' need t' hear anymore."
"You asked. If you didn't wanna know she's on her period, then—"
"Pers, stop!"
"Okay, okay. I'll stop."
What an extremely unpleasant thought. He never cared if Pers was on hers—actually, having the heads-up was nice, and he didn't mind the blood—but something about Eveline's upset his entire body. He shuddered.
"I wonder," Pers said, "if this is what the Fuckin' Company meant by 'cellular degradation'."
"I guess so," he agreed, trying to keep his mind off… That. "Dunno what else it could mean. 'Course, they didn' exactly tell me about it."
"It makes sense," she said, seeming to be in her own world. "Reed showed me that mutamycete. It wasn't doin' well. If that's what happens in people when it breaks down…"
She stared at the ground, hand up to her chin, eyes no longer with them but stuck inside of her own mind as it traversed all the possibilities. He didn't know how she never turned her brain off. Much as he thought her smarts were hot, he also knew she sometimes went too hard with things that intrigued her. True to her nature, as they tramped through the sticky grounds, Pers headed off toward the main house again, while he went toward his room to type up his report.
"Gonna check out that mold in the foyer," Pers said. "I think I'm on the verge of somethin' here. I'll catch up with you in about an hour."
"I'll hold ya to it."
Seeing Pers get so into the Molded and want to experiment with it all was one of the most erotic things he had the pleasure of witnessing. Still, he had a nagging feeling in his gut that something was off. She still acted like the same ol' Pers, though. Right?