Chapter 224 B4. 17.2 – Some Sense of Normalcy

“I’m Erind?” I turned to the mirror above the sink. “Whoa! I really am me.”

“What was supposed to happen?” Deen asked, entering the bathroom to check my reflection in the mirror. “Just tell me your power.”

“Well, I wanted to surprise you with it. Anyway, when I wear that glass mask, I turn into—” I paused, not wanting to explain about my naked body encased in glass.

Deen would try to analyze its meaning. She might assume I was a closeted exhibitionist or some worse interpretation. Me, I had no idea why it turned out that way and didn’t care. And I didn’t particularly appreciate people psychoanalyzing me.

“I turn into a glass creature,” I decided to say. “But you won’t be able to see my true form because the moment that someone looks at me, I immediately turn into someone they’ll want to talk to. I’m not really sure of the exact specifications, but that’s sort of how it works.”

“A very useful ability.” Deen pinched my cheek. “But I can feel you. You’re not glass.”

I leaned away from Deen, even though I had lessened aversion to touch with this transformation. She reached out to continue pinching my cheek. “Part of the illusion,” I said, trying to swat her hand away. “I can make fake blood, maybe even fake DNA for bio-scanners. That’s how I infiltrated the Roost.”

“Extremely powerful for stealth purposes.”

“And it doesn’t end there. I can also copy someone’s form.” I held Deen’s hand on my cheek and concentrated.

Deen didn’t react. Her eyelids drooped a little as she bowed, appearing sleepy with a little off-balanced sway on her feet. Then, she perked up and rapidly blinked. “Try copying me,” she said, as if nothing had happened.

“Already did.” I looked at the mirror and thought of myself as my best friend. In a blink, I became Deen. “It worked!”

“Wow…” Deen ran her fingers over my face. She pinched and tugged my skin as if I was wearing a mask she could pull off. She also tested my hair, investigating the golden strands.

“Don’t pull my hair. I can feel that.”

“It looks incredibly realistic… This is an eerie experience looking at my clone. Is this also—?”

“Hey! Don’t grope me, you weirdo!” I scrambled away from Deen, covering my chest with my arms. My cheeks burned, phantom sensations of blushing.

Deen mischievously chuckled. “Don’t overreact. I was merely curious. It shouldn’t count as groping because that’s my body you’ve copied. I should copyright strike you.”

“You can’t copyright a likeness,” I countered. “I mean, photographs can be copyrighted, but I’m not copying a photograph. This will count as a violation of the right to publicity or something.”

“I have an idea.” Deen’s eyes shone with excitement. “We can go shopping together and pretend to be twins. We can wear the same outfits, and it’ll look super adorable. People will be so confused.”

“And suspicious that Amber Deen Leska has a twin out of nowhere,” I said, though I agreed it was a fun idea.  

Deen’s face fell. “You’re right. Let’s think of what else we can do with your power. How many forms can you copy?”  

“I’ve copied Adrian earlier, but I hadn’t tried to turn into him. I’m not sure if I kept his—” I changed into Adrian while thinking about him. “Oh, I can store the likeness I’ve copied in previous transformations. Still don’t know how many, um, personal files I can keep. What’s wrong?” I asked, noticing Deen’s frown.

“Change out of that body,” Deen said. “Don’t disrespect the dead.”

“This isn’t disrespecting the dead.” I wanted to argue more, say that I was just testing my powers and Adrian didn’t deserve respect. However, I realized that Deen was doing her moral high ground thing. I shouldn’t engage. She may be my best friend, but I was tired of her nonsense.

And so, I took off my mask and returned to my original body.

“Did you switch disguises?” Deen asked.

“This is really me.” I waved the crystalline mask before letting it go in the air. I disintegrated into shimmers that soon disappeared. “And that’s my new secret that’s no longer a secret.”

I didn’t want to tell Deen about the Corequip I had stolen. It was my secret weapon, and I’d rather keep it an actual secret. What if some Adumbrae or Corebring would read Deen’s mind someday? Or what if Deen herself betrayed me?

And I really didn’t want Deen to fuss about having an indigestible Corequip in Blanchette’s stomach. She already looked like she was concerned with a new issue.

“Three different forms,” Deen said, her face full of worry. “Your seeding is progressing faster. Have you taken a pill?”

“Yeah. Five left. I’m not taking another until there are visible changes.” I checked my neck in the mirror. Deathly pale as it should be.

“How do you feel?” Deen asked.

“Normal? My current normal, which is being a monster.” Deen opened her mouth, but I talked over her. “I’m kidding, okay? You don’t need to convince me that I’m not a monster. Uh, what about you?” Just doing my best friend duties. I had to outwardly care about Deen.

Deen shrugged. “Stressed. Who wouldn’t be, in our situation? But I’m also happy that we’re in this together. I must’ve said so many times.”

“I mean, like, what about physically?” As much as I wanted to stop fake caring, I knew that I should exert more effort. This was my investment to keep Deen tied to me. “How’s your artificial Core?”

Deen touched her chest. “Nothing has changed. I’ve asked Cecilia to make a covering for this. It’s time that she should prove her usefulness to us. I need a reliable way to hide it from Corebrings and the BID.”

“Right. So that I won’t have to strangle you.” A stroke of inspiration hit me. I forced myself to tear up. And I started to shallowly breathe, a mix of hiccups and gasps to simulate the onset of sobs.

“Erind? Are you alright?”

“Don’t make me do that again. I-I don’t want to strangle you. I… What if I had killed you?”

“Oh, that’s what you’re worried about?” Deen patted my head. “Gabe would’ve warned me if I was in any real danger.”

“Bu-but I still hurt you!” I exclaimed so that I wouldn’t chuckle. “I could still feel your throat… You were in pain.” I made my lips tremble to disguise any smirk. I intentionally crushed her windpipe even if I didn’t need to—that would’ve hurt like a bitch, but Deen wouldn’t admit it because I’d feel bad.

“There, there. Don’t cry.” Deen stroked my hair as if I were her daughter. Very weird setup, but I didn’t swipe her hand. “We have a higher tolerance for pain with our superhuman bodies,” she continued. “I have already regenerated my injuries. You should forget about what happened.”

“Okay…” I meekly nodded. I was playing to Deen’s protective instincts.

“You should sleep,” Deen said. “You’ve had a long night.”

It was Monday, and the first person to greet me with ‘Good morning’ was Cecilia.

“How’s your body?” I scrunched my nose at the smell of her science fair project.

“Stabilized and improving,” she proudly said, posing with her arms up like a bodybuilder. “I’m not in any danger of dropping dead due to failing organs. Immediate danger has been averted. Nevertheless, we’ll need to revisit my lab at Barstow Station for finishing touches to my masterpiece of a body.”

“You do look healthier,” I said, noting that Cecilia no longer looked famished. “What about Adrian’s arm? Where are the, erm, leftovers?”

I’ve heard Cecilia continue her experiments through the night. She must’ve used and consumed much of Adrian’s flesh.

“I’ve melted the remaining flesh and bones and frozen them.” Cecilia jabbed a thumb at the fridge. “You don’t mind that I preserved organic matter in your freezer, do you? That’s its function after all. If you do mind, then I’ve already done it. I cannot turn back time.”

“There are Adrian popsicles in the fridge right now?” I didn’t know if I should be amused or grossed out. “Ugh, I’ll just clean that when you’re done with—” I gestured at the beakers and test tubes “—all of these. Don’t mix stuff with our food.”

Deen was the second person to tell me ‘Good morning.’ She shuffled out of Mom’s room, her hair a messy bird’s nest. She went to make coffee, ignoring Cecilia’s paraphernalia.

“And good morning to you, too,” I said.

I’d say that my morning was good because I didn’t have to go to university. Classes had been moved online, but most professors didn’t continue with their schedules out of consideration for the students.

The exodus out of La Esperanza continued. Furthermore, most students weren’t in the right mental space for learning. Trauma and stuff—I couldn’t relate to that. Someone from our class was even a casualty of an Adumbrae attack.

Deen, ever-present in Snippet chat groups, told me that Carlos from our International Law class got his legs squished by falling debris when an Adumbrae destroyed a building. More tragic, as Deen emphatically emphasized, was that the parents of Meryl from Criminal Law were zombified by an Adumbrae and got killed by the BID.

Man, I wanted the power to turn people into zombies. Couldn’t I make werewolf minions? Didn’t werewolves spread through bites, as vampires did? I wasn’t sure if I got my folklore right.

I had to pretend to be devastated about this horrid news while we ate breakfast. Super annoying. I couldn’t enjoy the chocolate chip pancakes that I freaking made in peace.

More annoying, International Law class wasn’t canceled—to be fair, no one expected otherwise from Professor Gallagher. But his schedule was tomorrow, yet he sent us an assignment for today! His email to the class had bullshit like, “now, more than ever, all of you need to focus on your studies.”

Sure… Only that he wasn’t actually lecturing us. He’d be interviewed on TV about Madagascar—or, by now, it was the African Adumbrae crisis. I had almost forgotten this was a thing. Surprising that we Americans cared about it given our own escalating Adumbrae problem.

Given the professor’s past as an advisor of the Free Will Initiative, a non-government organization conducting research to combat seeding, XYTV invited him over. Our class became watching his live interview bullshit.

And to make sure we tuned in, we were tasked with submitting a paper today, Monday. Professor Gallagher’s class was Tuesday! Have I already mentioned that?

Pick any International Law topic discussed during the interview, including concepts we hadn’t touched upon in class, and give our impressions on it. This was quite easy and way better than if we had an actual online class with Professor Gallagher. Still, a dick move. I wasn’t in the mood to use my brain today.

I couldn’t just record the show to watch later, after I had ingested more sugar than the recommended dietary intake, because of Deen. She did some emotional speech about taking our studies seriously even though we were no longer human. I didn’t buy her spiel, but she was too pushy that I watch the interview with her.

Fortunately, I had bought strawberry ice cream with our groceries.

“Let’s write this stupid paper,” I said, placing the tub of melted ice cream on the coffee table. This was all mine.

“Don’t call it stupid because that’s your work,” Deen said.

“What? I meant the task is stupid. Professor Gallagher just wants us to watch his interview. I bet he’ll—Cecilia? Are you going to watch, too?”

Cecilia sat on the other end of the sofa, nursing a beaker of liquid laced with Adrian’s Adumbrae essence. She raised the beaker. “I want to keep abreast of current events. I do reckon that Madagascar’s Purple Bloom is connected to Red Hood.”

I tilted my head. “How?”

“She is rumored to be preparing to cultivate a Purple Bloom. Isn’t it too much of a coincidence that she appeared shortly after the Adumbrae attacked Madagascar?

“Red Hood appeared after Big Marcy and Mark released Adumbrae in the train stations,” Deen said with a bit of edge to her voice. “Was it a coincidence the first Adumbrae attack that occurred in La Esperanza for the past seven years happened shortly after the Adumbrae appeared in Madagascar?”

I wanted to roll my eyes. Deen was being too defensive for Red Hood.

“Are you asking if I knew anything?” Cecilia asked. “No, I had no part in that operation. I presume it was a field test. Auron wanted to learn of the artificial-seeding technology to counter it, but Red Hood happened. She attacked the docks, and Big Marcy fled.”

“The timing of the Adumbrae attack,” I said. “It was really a coincidence?”

“I’ve mentioned seconds ago that I don’t know,” Cecilia exasperatedly replied. “If you’re asking for my opinion, it was likely timed for maximum panic. A Purple Bloom abroad. Could one be forming in the country? And, so on.”

“What about the current Adumbrae attacks?” Deen asked.

“I also don’t know,” said Cecilia. “To test your theory that I’m at fault, we need to capture an Adumbrae from La Esperanza.”

“Capturing again, huh?” I shook my head. “The news is starting.”  

Lately, I’ve watched the news for anything related to me. I hadn’t really cared about the happenings elsewhere in the world.

The good news was that the Corebrings have pushed the Adumbrae out of mainland Africa and back to the sea, where they assumed the Purple Bloom was hiding. UN forces had also secured large portions of Madagascar, protecting millions of people remaining there, while evacuating tens of thousands per day through secured routes across the Mozambique Channel.

The latter portion of the news focused on the humanitarian aspect of the war, the refugees, food and water, and reconstruction. It was time for our annoying professor to be interviewed.