[REND] B2. 11.3 - A New Roommate

“Wha-what are you talking about?” Kelsey asked, her voice wavering. “I don’t understand.” Her pupils flickered as her scales darkened their colors. Did her body reflect her emotions? I’d be super pissed if she were powering up for an attack.

“I may have rushed my story.” I tensed, wary of a fight. But it didn’t appear like Kelsey would start one. “The day of the Adumbrae attack… That’s the day you also disappeared, right? Cut off contact with Myra and everyone else?”

Kelsey looked at the blank TV screen as she nodded.

“You were riding the train when the Adumbrae attacked.” It’d be equal parts hilarious and annoying if she wasn’t. How many other ‘fourth Adumbrae’ could there be?

“I… Yeah. I fought one of the Adumbrae.”

“And saved the passengers,” I said, recalling that Tower Cop mentioned that everyone in that train car died. The police didn’t have any surviving witnesses of this supposed ‘fourth Adumbrae’. I decided to keep this a secret from Kelsey for now.

“I hope that most of them got out. I heard that there were other Adumbrae in the tunnels.”

“Why did you run away?” I diverted the conversation to Kelsey’s story. I wanted to know what’s what, so I could adjust my own story if needed. “Was it because people saw your face?”

“Partly that. It’d be easy to track me down—gather witnesses and review security camera footage. The police would be interested in a someone with superstrength fighting the monsters.”

“Partly?” I asked, leaning forward to show interest in her story. “What’s the other part?” I dug my fingernails into my palm to stop myself from giggling. My brain was coming up with scenarios of how to reveal that all the people Kelsey had saved ended up dying anyway.

She raised her arm. “My scales had started to appear. I mean, more of them. Parts of my body already had scales before, but I could always hide them under my clothes. After fighting the other Adumbrae, scales crept up my neck and covered my cheeks. It’s probably because I used my powers, like the forcefield, during the fight.”

“I thought you only had, like, grab-projection power? That’s what Myra told me. I assumed that you got the forcefield thing and the teleport stuff after you became, uh… like that.”

“I didn’t share everything with Myra. She’s worried enough about the progress of my seeding. But I couldn’t stop it… stop myself from changing. Afraid that I’d lose myself and eventually become a complete monster, I went off the grid.”

“By off-grid, you mean going to the PCM?”

“I hid under the city for around a week. Tried to keep my mind together. Then I approached the PCM for help. I’ve been in contact with them for… some time. It’s quite complicated how it came to be, but I was desperate. The PCM were looking for Adumbrae—real ones, unlike those made by the 2Ms—to experiment with their cure. I thought, ‘Hey, if they could save me, I’ll be their test subject.’ But I didn’t expect what becoming a test subject entailed.”

“They imprisoned you and did horrible experiments on you,” I softly said, hoping that was how an empathetic person sounded. “They also killed lots of innocent people in the process. The ends don’t justify the means,” I added, channeling the spirit of Deen.

Kelsey looked at me. “How do you know about that? Their process?”

“While looking for you, we ran into an active, uh, session. Don’t really know what to call it. Several people hooked up to a vat containing an Adumbrae or something. We couldn’t save the innocent people. I also had to kill the Adumbrae.”

“You killed…?” Kelsey’s eyes dimmed for a moment. Did she know Illusory Eyes? Though it appeared to me that the PCM kept each Adumbrae in different parts of the tunnel.

“I had no choice,” I said. “The circumstances were different with our fight. Her powers were, uh, complicated. I couldn’t try with her what I did with you. I tried my best, believe me. I want to save other Adumbrae, too.”

It’d actually work to my benefit if Kelsey were scared of me because I killed Illusory Eyes. But I also had to show that I was a good person. This could be a brand-new face—Erind Hartwell, Savior of Adumbrae. I’d be dangling a cure for those who wanted to join me.

Well, I didn’t exactly have a cure. But my artificial Core plus link thing was the closest thing that I had encountered. Not counting having my own Core, as an Adumbrae.

But I wasn’t going to advertise to other Adumbrae that the Core was the source of the ‘cure’. I’d say that everything was exclusively the power of my mannequin form. If I discovered the cure for a zombie virus, I wasn’t going to tell anyone how to make it. I’d even start a zombie infection to sell my cure—that was the predictable plot of a few zombie flicks.

How to make Kelsey keep my Core-Adumbrae thing a secret from others? Tell her that other Adumbrae would want to kill me?  

“Did the PCM do the same thing to you?” I asked, throwing the ball back to Kelsey. “Like, connect several people to you and stuff?”  

“I asked them to stop,” she replied, bowing. “To let me go. I didn’t want to be cured if it meant sacrificing others. Fucking messed up. But the PCM just went on with it. I was a prisoner by then.”

“Did it actually work? Their experiments? I guess not, given that…” I flicked my eyes at her horns.

“It didn’t slow the seeding down. My body changed day after day. Keke also became stronger. I’m not really sure how or when it happened, but I just found myself curled up in a corner of my mind. And I went to sleep.”

Is that what’s going to happen to me, too? A gradual takeover. I wouldn’t even know when Spooky Erind was already in charge. Maybe that was why Spooky Erind seemed to be playing around. She wasn’t rushing things. Eventually, she’d win.

“Just like that?” I asked. “Did your Adumbrae, this Keke, talk with you before that? Offer to help you?”

“Uh, yes. She wanted me to survive because she also lived in my body—that’s what she always told me.”

“So, she offered you more power?”  

“Something akin to that. The next thing I know, I’m already getting taken over. I know that’s the modus operandi of Adumbrae, and I still fell for it.”

“Can you explain more?” This was another benefit of having Kelsey as my friend. Maybe I could learn which pitfalls to avoid and keep Spooky Erind at bay. To be honest, I didn’t think of this when I decided to bring Kelsey here. I was just excited to have a minion to manipulate and emotionally destroy.

“I’d rather not talk about it.” Kelsey shook her head. “Where were we? Oh, yeah. The Adumbrae attack. What happened to you at that time?”

I shrugged. “Nothing much. I just ran with other people. I didn’t even see the Adumbrae.”

“Huh?”

“The problem came after. The 2Ms learned about you, an Adumbrae that they didn’t send.”

Kelsey covered her mouth, gasping as she figured out what happened next. “They realized that I was a real Adumbrae! Fuck. They must’ve wanted to capture me so badly. Did they interrogate possible witnesses?”

“Interrogate. Yeah. But before the interrogation, they, of course, had to kidnap people. A few days after the Adumbrae attack, the 2Ms’ goons took me and my best friend, Deen. You know Amber Deen Leska from law school?”

“Oh my god! Even Amber Leska got involved in my mess?”

Why did it sound like Kelsey considered Deen more important than me? I let it slide because I had drama to cook up. “The 2Ms kidnapped many people. Like, a lot. No one really knows where you went or who you were. So… the 2Ms’ goons—” deep breathe before the bombshell “—killed them all.”

Kelsey’s eyes widened. Her scales bristled like a startled cat’s fur standing on end. I didn’t know she could do that. “People died… because of me?”

“Yes—wait! I didn’t mean it like that. No, no, no! The 2Ms are to blame for this.”

Kelsey massaged the base of her right horn. “But if I didn’t fight the Adumbrae in the train…”

“Then you wouldn’t have saved all of those people.” The ends of my lips threatened to curl into a smile. Kelsey would be so fucking devastated when she’d learn the truth. “Your choice is separate from what the 2Ms did.” I’d do my best impression of comforting Kelsey. “You can’t control their actions. Likewise, Deen and I have no say that we got kidnapped… and that the 2Ms tried to kill us.”

“This was the catalyst for your seeding?” Kelsey asked. “That happened last month. You’re a new Adumbrae.”

“Very new.”

“Yet, you’re far stronger than me. Is it the effect of the Core?”

“I don’t know. They say that Adumbrae powers are reflected by the trauma suffered by the individual. Could be that.” Just making shit up. Making it appear that I could match her traumatic past of being taken into a cult. This could be our common ground. “I-I’m not comfortable with sharing more about this yet. But my powers did save Deen and me.”

Kelsey reached out and touched my hand on my lap. “It must’ve been an awful and confusing experience. You were kidnapped. Then you became an Adumbrae.”

I wanted to break Kelsey’s horn and stab her with it. However, I wasn’t that annoyed by her touch. Perhaps the inhuman scales fooled my inherent disgust at physical contact with other humans. Kelsey also didn’t feel warm like a human. The scales had a familiar coolness to them, like window glass during a cold night. They were scratchy, though.

“And I met Dario,” I said, willing myself not to pull my hand away. “His group attacked the 2Ms’ place shortly after I gained powers. They were looking for you.”

“Johann must’ve tipped them off about the kidnappings,” Kelsey guessed. “Myra then thought that I had already been captured. But Dario found you and Amber instead.”

“Along with the dead men who kidnapped me.” Hint, hint that I was a violent person.

“How did you explain the situation to Dario? You didn’t admit that you’ve turned into an Adumbrae, did you?”

“Of course, not. I told him that you did it.”

Kelsey blinked in surprise. “Wait, what?”

“Well, I didn’t mention your name, specifically. I didn’t even know that you’re an Adumbrae back then. I just made up a story that a mysterious woman with superstrength saved us. After all, the 2Ms’ goons questioned us about her—you. Myra jumped to the conclusion that it was you.”

I narrated mostly the truth to Kelsey, restraining my urge to lie for the sake of it. I had to explain why I had an artificial Core despite being an Adumbrae, and any alternative story I could come up with, though dramatic, couldn’t match the believability of the truth. I also had to keep in mind the large chance that Kelsey would reunite with Myra. It was just better to sync my story with Myra’s view of what had happened.

“You wounded your chest so the Core could take root…” Kelsey said, making a face of repulsion and wonder. “I don’t think I can do that. I wouldn’t even have thought of that in the moment.”

“I was afraid of Dario and the others,” I said. “No choice. I had to take the Core.”

I didn’t mention my vision stuff with the Core. Nothing about Golden Blanchette either. I told Kelsey that my Core power was my mannequin form, while Blanchette was my Adumbrae power. It was my first time linking with an Adumbrae, and my Core hadn’t acted up like that when I linked with Deen before.

“Does Myra know that you’re an Adumbrae?” Kelsey asked.

“Nope. She asked me for my help as a fellow artificial Core, uh, wielder. User? Not sure what to call us. We learned about the PCM’s Adumbrae stuff from rumors spreading amongst the gangsters.”

“The crowd that gathered around us. Are those guys gang members? Why were they calling you their boss?”

“Oh, it’s a wild story. While looking for clues about you at Marsh Row, I had a run-in with the gangsters. I decided to reveal to them that I was an Adumbrae. Displayed some superstrength and stuff. Their guns couldn’t do anything to me. The gangsters were super scared, of course.”

This was just a shortcut of what really happened. Too complicated to narrate all that about Teflon and Overdrive and whatnot. I told Kelsey what she’d expect to hear, given that she had eavesdropped on me talking to the gangsters.

“I was supposed to look for you,” I continued. “They did give me some stories about Adumbrae lurking underground, which led us to the PCM base. But then, I also thought of forming my own organization to help me hide someday, being an Adumbrae and all. I’m under no illusion that I could continue my normal life forever.”

“That’s great foresight,” Kelsey said. “They can also help us find other Adumbrae to save someday.”

Oh, she’s warming up to me? “Yep, I’ve thought of that, too. Anyway, the PCM were bothering the gangsters. I decided to do some cleaning up—the PCMs inside the building where we fought. That’s why I was there, by the way. But you already took care of them for me.”

“Not me. That was Keke,” Kelsey said. “I’ve never used my powers… to kill a person.”

 A lie. I knew that she killed her parents. Kelsey could argue that Keke made her do it, I suppose. Such a convenient excuse to blame the Adumbrae within us.  

“How long have you been talking with Keke?” I asked. “Do you two talk often?”

“She first talked to me a couple of years ago,” Kelsey said.

Another fucking lie. I viewed some of your memories. Or were those the Adumbrae’s memories? Either way, Kelsey wasn’t truthful to me for some reason.

“I had an accident while hiking up a mountain,” Kelsey went on. “Myra must’ve told you about this story. And I wouldn’t say that Keke talks with me all the time. Maybe once or twice a day. What about you?”

“That kidnapping incident—that was the first time the Adumbrae in my head spoke to me,” I answered. “Since then, I’ve talked with my Adumbrae only, like, three or four times.”

Kelsey raised her thorny brow. “That few? Can you talk to her now? Maybe you can ask her how your powers worked.”

“My Adumbrae starts the conversation if she wants one to start. I can scream in my head for an hour, and she won’t reply to me. Also, I don’t think she’s going to answer any of my questions.” I nonchalantly leaned on the sofa’s armrest. “What does Keke say about me?”

“Nothing,” Kelsey said a bit too quickly. “She hadn’t talked from the moment I woke up. It’s… It’s been a jumble. One moment, I didn’t know I was existing. Then, all of a sudden, the pain of my severed limbs overwhelmed me.”

“So… Keke isn’t talking right now? What if you called for her?”

“I’ve tried to,” Kelsey said, shaking her head. “She’s not answering. I think she’s probably cautious of you.”

Gotcha, bitch. Why would Kelsey call for her Adumbrae? Shouldn’t she be rejoicing that she regained control of her body? She should be showering me with utmost gratitude. Kneeling before me was a start.

It sounded like Kelsey aimed to convince me that Keke wasn’t around anymore. Which meant the opposite.  

Why?

Was Kelsey siding with Keke because she feared me? Or did the Adumbrae manipulate Kelsey into believing the lies of a monster?

“Keke’s right to be cautious of me,” I said, “because I’ll save you. I’m going to use my powers and connect with you again.”

“Right now?” Kelsey’s scales bristled for a moment before flattening into an almost smooth texture. “It’s been a long night for both of us. We should rest. You still have law school.”

“I’ll skip it. My priority is helping you so that you can return to school.” I began to summon my mannequin mask. Name still pending. “You don’t have any problems with it, do you?”

“N-no. Why would I? I’m ready.”

(Author's Notes: I considered having a twist that the Adumbrae on the train wasn't Kelsey, but it would probably be too twisty. And we don't have much space for new characters. In this chapter, Kelsey is lying about her relationship with Keke. Which ends up confusing Erind. But Kelsey has her reasons. After all, Keke did save Kelsey, while Erind had eaten Kelsey. Next chapter, I think we'll have a Myra POV to switch things up. I’m hoping for a freer schedule this month. We’ll have more REND and ExD chapters. Thank you very much for your support!)