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Painlessly.
Maybe it won’t even hurt.
Maybe I won’t realize what’s happened until it’s too late.
“I want my life back,” he whispers.
“I didn’t take it,” I tell him quietly. It’s the truth. I worked at Lucky a total of one week before I was snatched up by Fablestone and brought to the clan. One week of experience. That’s all I have to offer. That’s all of the information I have. I don’t know where the Lucky facilities are all located. I didn’t know they were hurting dragons or other shifters. I didn’t know they were performing experiments on them.
I thought it was a good company.
A safe company.
I thought it was a place I could do a little bit of good in the world.
My entire career has been about helping other people. I’ve always dreamed of saving the world and I thought I finally had a chance at doing just that.
Now I know better.
Each night, I fall asleep curled in a ball. I try not to cry, but I can’t help myself. I’ve been staying with Cameron’s mother, Henrietta. She was kind enough to take me in and when I’m not at the bakery, I’m helping her with anything she needs. I don’t want her to know I’m still crying myself to sleep at night. I don’t want her to notice I can barely eat.
I can barely handle the pain I caused.
And now I’m staring into the eyes of someone who looks like me.
He looks lost.
He looks hurt.
He looks like he’ll do anything he can to get his world back, but it’s not coming back. He’s going to kill me, but it won’t make him feel better. He’s going to hurt me, but he’s still going to have pain. I don’t know what he walked away from. Maybe it was a family. Maybe it was a great job. Maybe he had a girlfriend. Whatever Lucky stole from him, it’s long gone now. It’s not really safe for him to go back. Not now.
“You worked for the people who did,” the man says.
I didn’t know they were bad.
I don’t say this.
I should, but I don’t.
“I’m sorry about what happened to you.”
It’s all I can muster right now.
Somehow, I know my words are going to do nothing to ease his pain. Besides, since when has denial ever worked? It might be true. In fact, it is. I didn’t know it was an evil corporation.
Just like I didn’t know Micah was married.
In the end, none of that mattered.
People still got hurt.
And I’m tired of being the one to do the hurting.
Maybe this is it, then. Maybe this is my penance.
The man walks further into the bakery. He lets the door close behind him, albeit gently. The bell jingles ever-so-slightly, but that’s it. He just looks at me. So many things fill his eyes: rage, sadness, pain. He has a world of hurt in his eyes and I can’t imagine what was done to him. Apparently Dragon-X isn’t a miracle drug like I was led to believe. It was tested on people – shifters – like this man, and he’s out for blood.
He’s out for me.
