"I'd broken his skull. Before that moment, I'd never even so much as gotten into a fight at grade school. I knew guards would show up any minute, so I ran out of the room. Shouts and footsteps followed me and corridors spun like a maze. Finally, I found a window, the ocean spread out below, as a squad of guards rounded a corner. With nowhere else to run, I jumped.
"With my new strength, I swam for hours—swam until I reached this island, though I didn't know it was an island at the time. I thought I'd reached the mainland, so I walked inland. Over the days, my skin hardened. My fingers grew longer and my hair grew thicker. I didn't know what Bill had done to me, but I'd worked with paranormals before. Had he turned me into one? Why? I'd pissed off Rent-A-Kid, and thought they'd been punishing me with the serum, but they'd actually been experimenting, trying to create something new—something else. I saw my reflection in the water one day and never looked again. At one point, I had to cross a river, so I walked in, and the current swept me away. Something was different. I floated to the top, felt lighter in the water, but couldn't get out before the waves threw me down a waterfall. Eventually, I drifted to shore—here—and managed to drag myself onto a patch of grass and fall asleep. When I woke up, I couldn't move."
Lucy's eyes filled with tears as she looked at Mr. K's body, how it had become the tree, how his skin was now bark. How he'd never be human again.
"My feet had dug into the earth. My toes had turned to roots. I struggled for hours, but the soil only gripped me harder. That night, I imagined escaping, but could only think of Bill.
"I'd killed him."
The whipping of branches slowed to a soft sway as Mr. K's voice lowered. "You could argue that I didn't mean to, that it'd been an accident, or even that it'd been self-defense. You could say it wasn't me. But deep down inside, I wanted to kill that man. I wanted to squeeze the life out of his eyes. You could say whatever you like, but that was me. Still is.
"Hell, I can change. I hope so, anyway. But honestly, if I were to see Bill again, I wouldn't just kill him. I'd hold him down with my roots, drive a sharp stick in him every night, and say, 'Hello, Bill. Good job, Bill'—and I'd enjoy it."
Lucy shivered at the cold, hard rage in Mr. K's voice, made so much worse by the fact that she identified with it. Those bastards had tortured him beyond imagining, and instead of helping him, she'd used her powers against him too. What kind of person did that make her?
She walked up to him and hesitated. Finally, she put a hand on Mr. K's trunk, touching him for the first time. Then she leaned in closer and hugged him.
Branches wrapped around her as he did his best to hug her back. "You can change, Lucy, but never pretend you're not yourself. When you pretend, your actions will always be for someone else's benefit, and change will never come."
Chapter 95 – Sam
I sit in the backseat of a car, strapped in tight, and play with my Transformer. It's me, but it's not. The body I wear belongs to the Seeker. Steele sits at the steering wheel, hands clenched tight as he drives.
The boy I embody clutches his—my—blankie close, tears in my eyes. "Daddy, where are we going?"
"To our new home, Son."
"Isn't Mommy coming?" Sadness fills me.
"No."
"Why not? She didn't do anything, Daddy. Is this about the broken vase? I'm the one who did that, not Mommy. Don't blame her."
"No, it's not that. Your mother betrayed me. Betrayed us both."
"How?" I'm confused.
"She had another child, another son." I feel Steele's rage.
"I don't understand, Daddy."
"She had another baby with another man. She loved them more than us."
Stunned, my eyes leak, I—the young Seeker—cry and cry, inconsolable.
"Don't worry, Son. I swear one day I'll get her back."
***
I woke with a start, again unnerved by the Seeker's memories. Steele had been talking about the Seeker's mother... and Drake's mother. He said he'd get her back. Did he find her and kill her? The Seeker had told us that his father killed his mother for betraying him.
And now he wanted Ana. Would he kill her too, after he'd gotten what he wanted? Both Drake and the Seeker had grown up without their mother. Of course, I had too, but then I didn't have a mother at all, only a test tube. That thought made me sick to my stomach, as if I were missing a vital cord to humanity.
Now a mother myself, and I had to protect my baby.
My anger once again flared at having to wait to start the mental interrogations of the mansion's residents, but I had no choice. I tried to sleep, but the green glow of the clock kept me awake.