Page 47 of The Cannibal

Do I dare read it? Do I want to know what these experiments consisted of? I had a complicated view of my father, but did I want to risk hating him even more?

Slowly, I flipped the pages back to the beginning.

The Vipera are a species of great longevity, and in exchange, incredible infertility. In this study I will not only explore their standard fertility, but physiological markers that may predict the fertility of any pre-transitioned person. If fertility can be measured by distinct genetic markers pre-transition, they may prove to be just as fertile comparatively when they develop their full Viperic condition.

I leafed through the pages, looking for the results. Luckily, it didn’t take a keen eye to find it.

There was a results page, a data table.

Mostly death numbers.

By the end, a summary.

Can we predict or encourage overall population fertility through selective turning? The Vipera are an especially barren species, yet still possess great diversity in genetics, mutations, and other variations in the gene pool. Finding the correlation between fertility before and after turning could increase population numbers as well as add another factor for artificial selection. For our experiment, we used two hundred and fifty individuals who have the Mellifluous blood mutation and were shown to have three or more adult children. Out of the two hundred and fifty Mellifluous Hosts turned, fifty-seven percent expired before completing their turn. Our sample size was reduced drastically as a result. Out of the surviving forty-three percent, fifty were able to become pregnant within a six-month period; a third of them survived the birth. This is a significant average, considering that only one percent of the Vipera population have a single spawn, even less for those with multiple blood-related offspring. The significance of the results implies⁠—

I closed the booklet.

A banging on the door was so loud, I thought my bones would de-sleeve from every limb. Was Phoebe here already? I checked the clock on the wall, ticking away. It hadn’t even been thirty minutes.

With quiet hands, I placed the booklet down on the pile of literature.

The banging ensued again, the locks chiming against the frame.

“Alina!” Rebecca yelled—no, more like a bark.

I rushed to my feet, but the scraping of the key beat me to the door just as my hand was about to grasp the cold brass.

A hand lunged for what I thought was my throat. But Rebecca’s grip on my arm was so forceful, I was practically tumbling out of the room as she dragged me.

“What in the name of⁠—”

“Shut your mouth and walk.”

Rebecca’s words made me nearly swallow my tongue.

The smooth house shoes were no match for the brisk walk on smooth floors. Even the descent nearly made me slip on a few steps before we finally made it to the bottom floor. There was a deafening, blunt noise. Repeating and becoming louder as we approached the final staircase, opening up to the grand receiving room. As we turned the corner to the last flight, people dotted the ground floor, frozen in place as the noise became louder.

“Stop it!” Phoebe screamed.

And there it was, the source of horror smeared across the floor.

The cause—a flash of gold.

Rebecca shoved people aside with her body, not one sign of a loose grip as she pulled me through.

When the crowd finally parted and we reached the opening, everyone was still. It was not the type of silence that was vacant. No, it was the loud kind that rings in your ears, that makes you all too aware of every sound you make when you breathe, or wondering if the rushing in your ears could be heard by everyone else. The loudness that comes with knowing if you make a sound, you’re finished.

I stared at the back of Rebecca’s head, then the floor tiles.

The marble was strange. It was pink and gold, a natural cut. Something resembling pink salt. But there was a crust. I pushed my shoe on it, the blood smearing a slick black when disturbed.

“Silas!” Rebecca’s voice commanded the room, a tone that felt like cold water on feverish skin.

She moved away from me. I watched her shoes shift, then step fully away. A forceful tug forward on my arm before letting go.

I could hear breathing. Everyone’s breathing. Or was it my own paced breaths?

When I looked up, a dark figure stood over a slack pile of clothes, dark blood spread across the floor like the body was used as a brush. A slow yet quickly deepening chittering echoed around the room. It pulsed in my ear, invaded my bones and made them rattle.