When I finally woke up, I didn’t know where I was. It wasn’t the Box.
I was sitting in a chair by a wall. My whole body felt like a big, ache-y block of wood. There weren’t any restraints on me; if I hadn’t felt so bad I could’ve run away.
Toll was standing in front of a mirror across the room, combing his hair. Gross.
When he saw that I was awake, he smiled at me. Grosser.
“Good morning, Knell,” he said to me. “You’ve been asleep for about fifteen weeks. How do you feel?”
I didn’t answer him. I wasn’t sure if my eyebrows were working right, but I tried my best to glare.
“…I guess I’ll have to assume you’re fine. Although it saddens me to see that you still resent me for bringing you here. Hopefully, what I’m about to explain to you will change your mind.”
Then he did something really weird. He reached into his back…and pulled out a little metal bar. His wings disappeared.
But the weirdest part was that both his hand and the bar were dripping colors.
“From now on, everything we do will be off the record,” he said. He crushed the bar under his foot.
I couldn’t stop staring. Colors coming from his body could only mean one thing.
But that meant I was in danger. Maybe that’s why I didn’t have any restraints: if he was a half-demon too, then it wasn’t like I’d be able to escape him. If I even tried to run, he could kill me.
…I could kill him, too, though. If he was a hybrid, I didn’t have to hold back. I could fight him. I could fuse with him and control him. I could win.
I didn’t say any of that out loud, though. I just kept staring.
“You see, we’re the same, you and I,” he said. “Once I had an encounter with a demon, just as you did, and I came away from it as something…more. For the longest time, I thought I was the only one of my kind. But then you came along.
“You are the proof that it wasn’t just an accident. That there are certain people among the humans and angels that are simply…”inclined” to Synthesize with the demons. We can speak to them on a level that others cannot understand; we can convince them to go against their own nature and fuse with us. Protect us.
“I have no doubt that there will be more of us. They may already be out there, hiding from those who would persecute them, just as your parents persecuted you.”
He leaned in close to my face. “Yes, I know what they did to you. Even before your outburst at the gala, I knew. Since my own Synthesis, I’ve always been on the lookout for demons that exhibited unusual behavior. The story of a demon “impersonating” a child intrigued me, but when I’d heard that they’d buried you alive, I decided that, if you couldn’t survive a small-town angry mob, you probably weren’t worth my time anyway. How wrong I was.” He rubbed my hair, even though he knew I hated it.
“You hate them for that, don’t you?” he said. “Don’t you want revenge on them for the way they hurt you?”
“…Well, yeah,” I said back. “But Clarion would never want me to do that.”
“Clarion was a lesser being who was trying to keep you weak. He was your greatest liability in more ways than one. Think about it: if it weren’t for him, I doubt I would ever have been able to capture you.”
“Don’t try to twist this around!” I yelled at him. “You did this; this is all your fault! I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for YOU!”
I turned away from him then. I could tell what he was trying to do. Just because I was a kid, he thought he could manipulate me. Well, it wouldn’t work.
“Listen to me, Knell,” he went on. “The human brain is ruled by fear. It’s what makes them so stupid, so irrational. You can’t depend on them. You saw what happened at the gala: when you were a cute little boy, they loved you; and when you turned into a monster, they ran from you. Multiply that reaction by hundreds of millions of people, and you will understand what kind of world I’ve saved you from. Your ‘friend’ is probably glad to be rid of you.”
“Shut up!”
“You don’t believe it? Well then, why hasn’t he tried to visit you at all? You were right there when I gave him your contact information, and yet, since then I haven’t even heard from him. You would think he would be at least a little concerned…”
“You’re lying,” I said. “Besides, it doesn’t matter. Even if he forgot me; even if everyone in the whole entire world hated me and wanted me dead, that doesn’t mean I should side with you. You’re garbage.”
Toll sighed. “Children,” he said. “So ungrateful. But don’t worry: I will soon be teaching you those manners I promised.”
He jerked my head around. “You should be aware that my sponsors have gotten all the biological data they need. So now I’m free to do whatever I want with you. You won’t be able to sleep through the next experiments.”
I was scared, but I didn’t cry. Instead I asked him: “What do you still need me for? If it’s not for the Synthesis project, then what?”
“The Synthesis project was just a distraction. Artificial Synthesis will never be as good as what you and I have. And even if it could be, it won’t have the chance to get to that point…anyway, I’ll explain your destiny to you as soon as you’re ready.”
He rubbed my hair again, then carried me out of the room.
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