Page 108 of Pet: Genesis

Iris

Someone is screaming. The sound is warbled as if I’m underwater and someone above is shouting directly at me, but I can’t make out the words. My consciousness comes and goes, not quite wanting to settle on me being awake.

“No!”

The word cuts into the darkness but dissipates almost instantly. I know that voice. I can’t quite decipher who it belongs to, but there’s a familiarity to it that pulls my attention.

“You can’t!” There it is again.

The sound of that voice. It sounds desperate as if it’s holding onto something for dear life. The throb in my head is beginning to dampen, allowing me to feel my surroundings somewhat. The taste of dried blood in my mouth slowly hits my senses, as does theheavy ache in my chest. I know why I’m like this. My body turned against me during my attempt to be with Jude.

The sound of a scream rips me from my unconscious state, and I jolt awake, flying upright on the floor. The sight that greets me isn’t one that I expected. Iriel is here along with two Leviathan and the human leaders. Even Cypress is in a corner of the room, his weak form looking at me in horror. My eyes slowly drop to the gun he has aimed directly at me.

“Wha—”

“She did nothing! She did nothing wrong!” The sound of Jude’s voice hits me, and I turn my gaze in the direction of his screams. My eyes widen as I take him in; his face is bloodied, and his body holds hideous bruises. But he doesn’t seem to mind them as he screams at me, his eyes desperate as he’s held back by humans. It takes me a moment, but I finally realize that all the weapons in the room are aimed at me.

Before I can get a word out of my mouth, Iriel rips me up from the ground, smashing me into the wall. I cry out just as his forearm lodges into my throat, cutting off my air supply. I look Iriel in his eyes, expecting to see only rage there, but I also see desperation. The kind that is accompanied by fear.

He’s scared.

“Where is he? How long have you been working for him?” Iriel screams. I look around the room in confusion, and everyone’s terror is directed at me.

“I don’t—” Iriel pulls me off the wall only to smash me back into it. I cry out as pain ripples up my backside, his Leviathan strength beginning to peak through.

“Iriel—” Cypress starts, but Iriel whips his gaze to my brother, silencing him immediately. Iriel looks back at me, his grip tightening.

“Tell us what wrath you have brought upon us, or I swear...” he leans in close to me, his lips inches from my ear, “I will slaughter every last human in this mountainside before I make my escape,” he growls. He pulls away from me, studying me before he finally drops me. I cough, trying to catch my breath as I look around the room.

“I... don’t know... what you’re talking... about,” I manage, holding my throat. Cypress’s gaze narrows, and he looks away from me just as Iriel steps around me, and the humans set a mirror in front of me. I look terrible. My hair is wild, my face bloody, and my eyes are bloodshot from the constant suffocation. My heart leaps into my chest, not from my appearance, but from the now glowing purple symbol etched into my flesh. It wraps from the inside of my shoulder to my collarbone, dipping into my clothing—Remus’s symbol.

The breath feels like it’s been ripped from my lungs as I look at myself in the mirror.

“It just appeared tonight! As if it was activated, you don’t know what we went through behind those walls. She didn’t know!” Jude screams from the corner.

I look at Jude in confusion.

“When did this happen?” I ask. I don’t have time to get the words out as Iriel roughly kicks my back, causing me to sprawl on the ground.

“Don’t feign innocence,” he growls. For the first time, one of the human leaders steps forward with a scowl.

“We spent years building this colony. We let you be a part of our new world, and you betrayed us,” he snaps. My anger slowly rises to the surface as I listen to them.

“What about us? Jude and I risked everything for you people. We thought you were going to take back the world with the information we gave you! And yet you’re all cowering behind these walls,” I snap.

A Leviathan steps forward with a chuckle, her eyes roaming over my face. “Cower? Do you think this wasn’t all planned? Did you think we would waste time and resources liberating humanity when Remus was doing fine rounding them all up for us? Those who live within these mountains are the future. Not those outside of it. You have destroyed humanity’s future on this planet,” she snaps.

It takes me a moment to understand the meaning of her words, but it finally dawns on me. And as I look around the room at the faces of people who have not seemed pleased with my presence, I finally understand why. Ezra was right. I ruined their plan.

“You were never going to save any of us,” I say. My eyes drift to the charts on the walls, and I finally see them for what they are. I turn my gaze to Cypress, who has been allegedly liberating towns. But the liberating he’s been doing is not what I thought originally.

“What have you done?” I whisper. Cypress looks away, his grip on the weapon tightening.

“You don’t understand, Iris. We spent years trying to help everyone outside, but it just wasn’t working. We had to make a choice—”

“And you chose genocide?” I ask in horror. Cypress’s expression shifts into anger.

“It’s better than letting them live as slaves. Look at what your time with him did to you,” he snaps, gesturing to the symbol.

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