Watt sat in front of me on my desk chair that he dragged to the corner. He had one of the tablets that Astrid usually brought with her. I had sunk to the bottom of my bean bag chair. At least Hellana didn’t come with him. I didn’t want to listen to them fight.
Watt flipped through different charts. “Hmm….” He sighed and rested his head on his palm.
The inside of his hand was much lighter than this skin. Did he tattoo his palms? Astrid wouldn’t even try that on me because my energy would build up behind it and cause all my seals to break. My fingertips brushed his wrist, causing him to jump and making me aware of what I had done. I froze in place.
“Is there something on me?” He examined the area I had touched.
“No, your—”
He flipped his hand back and forth.
“Did you tattoo your…” I scratched at my palm.
“Oh,” he laughed. “No. That’s natural.”
I settled into the bean bag and stared at the bookcase. That was embarrassing.
“Have you seen an African before?”
I shook my head. “No.”
He smiled. “Have you met anyone with dark skin?”
“No.”
“Not even when you were younger?”
“No, they were Cacasusion. A couple of others were Asian, like me.”
“You’re half Asain.” He read the list. “Your dad is an officer in the army, right?”
I shrugged. “He could be. I don’t care what he’s doing.”
Watt smiled slightly. “Completely understand,” he whispered. “My mom was an aster too, but super low level. It can barely be detected, so the government never found her until I messed things up,” said Watt. “My dad ran an auto shop when I was growing up. He’s really good at fixing cars. He’d have to go and fix vehicles for the government from time to time. It was better than having to be a soldier, though. That was his other option.”
“You don’t have any tattoos,” I said.
Watt shook his head with a smirk. “They tried, but I’d remove them. I learned how very early on. I wasn’t going to let them put that shit on me.”
Taking in a shaky breath, I shifted in my seat. “Can you remove these?” I rubbed my forearms. “I keep throwing up. They won’t stop squeezing.”
He motioned for me to come closer. I froze instead and felt the urge to crawl up the wall. Watt moved to the floor and knelt, clasping my face. I froze in place and waited. I had no idea what he was doing.
His energy seeped into my skin. My breath caught. My eyes darted around the room so I could avoid looking at him.
Letting go, he picked up the tablet. “They are faulty. There’s an error with the design. I’m sending in a report to have them move because they are causing additional stress to the individual and not serve their intended purpose.”
I stared at him, confused. What did all of that mean?
“So...” I swallowed hard. “Can you?”
Watt chuckled. “That was the long way of saying I’m going to get those pieces of shit off you and inform Astrid that you are not a test subject. I have to make it sound professional. Big words tend to do the job.”
A smile slipped out.
“Come here.” He pulled on my legs so the bean bag wasn’t consuming me.
I moved to the floor. Watt grabbed my upper arms, and relief filled me when the black ink was sucked out. I had to fight to keep from falling with my eyes rolled into the back of my head.
“Better?”
Nodding, I rubbed my thighs—so much better. Watt gripped them and did the same. I watched the bits of black flack off. The aching pain was gone. I fell onto my side and rested my head on the bean bag. I was going to sleep great tonight.
“What is this one?” He pointed to the one on my lower stomach. “I’ve seen most of the others, but not that one.”
I draped an arm over it. “Hormone blocker.”
Watt arched a brow, looking confused and also concerned. “A what? They didn’t let you go through puberty?”
Turning around, I shrugged. “They did, sort of. It keeps it low.”
“So, they let your voice drop and then said that’s good enough? Fucking bastards,” he said under his breath. “We’re not toys.” He roughly ran a hand through his buzzed hair. “They can’t leave our bodies alone for two seconds.”
I rubbed the tattoo. “My energy did enough. I grew, my body—” I touch my abs. “That’s what they told me, at least. I don’t need much because I’m an onabi. If I didn’t have it, they said I’d be even harder to control.”
“Well, they say a lot of bullshit,” he stated. “I’m tempted to remove it, but by the looks of it, the damage has been done.”
I glanced at Watt to find him reading something. Sitting up, I knelt at his side and looked at the screen. An image of my tattoo was at the top. Smaller images of different tattoos were stacked along the side.
“Created to limit testosterone spike in males and stop females from menstruating,” he read. “The warning says side effects can cause permanent damage to the reproductive system.”
Moving back, I shrugged. It didn’t matter. I didn’t want children. They’d inherit my curse and end up locked in some institution. It was probably for the best that they made that decision for me. “I don’t care about the side effects.”
“That’s not the problem. You weren’t given a choice.” His eyes met my gaze. They flickered from dark brown to white.
His eyes did it, too! I grabbed his face and stared at them. They did the same thing as mine when I was upset. I hadn’t seen anyone else’s eyes change.
“Eiko?” he whispered.
Jerking my hands back, I climbed to my feet and escaped to the bathroom. I didn’t know what to do, so I grabbed a brush to keep myself occupied.
Watt stood in the doorway. “Did something happen?”
Ignoring him, I continued to comb through my hair.
“Did I do something wrong?”
I shook my head.
“That’s good to hear.” He glanced at his reflection. “You have very nice hair.”
Smoothing the top, I stared at the counter before sneaking a peek at him. Our hair was the same color but his was much shorter. The little strands seemed to have a slight curl to it.
Leaning against the door frame, Watt put his hands behind him. “Did my eyes change colors?” He turned to me. “You wouldn’t be the only person to freak out when they start glowing.
I scratched the corner of my eye. “They changed. Mine… they also change. It’s not weird. I’ve never seen anyone else’s change so it was surprising.”
“You’re not the only one with that problem. The high level asters have a lot of energy, and when we get upset, it does things.” He rubbed his face. “When I was younger, my tattoos turned white when I was mad. I got so tired of people making fun of me. They’d rile me up on purpose to make them change. It was some kind of sick game the other kids like to play.”
I frowned. “When I was allowed to be around the others, they’d treat me like I was diseased. When my eyes change, they’d run away screaming that I was going to blow them up.”
Watt shook his head. “Kids are brutal. It was the leading factor why I was determined to learn how to remove them. I was dealing with enough shit at the time. I didn’t need snide remarks from people who were also trapped in the same hellhole as me.” He motioned around the room.
“Have you lived here before?”
Watt shook his head. “One similar. They all look the same. They’re all filled with the same depressed people just living day to day. ”
“I’ve always been here. It’s too dangerous to move me,” I breathed, putting the brush down.
Watt scoffed and motioned to my lower stomach. “Now that I think about it, they put something like that on me. It didn’t stay for long. I wasn’t going to let them control me any more than they already were, and now that I know what that seal does, it pisses me off even more.” He stared into the bedroom. “Well, I’m going to call it good for today. I don’t want to upset you anymore than I have.”
“I’m okay. I’m not upset.” I replied. “I was the one acting weird today.”
Watt smiled to himself. “I’ll come back later. Probably tomorrow or the next day.” He started to leave.
I poked my head into the bedroom. “Thanks.”
He stopped at the door. “Hmm….”
I motioned to my arms. “I feel better.”
Watt smiled. “Good to hear. I’ll handle Astrid, so don’t worry about her. If you throw up again, tell Hellana. Those seals might have caused some internal damage.”
I nodded.
“I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Watt,” I called.
“Yes?”
“Are—” I took a deep breath. “Are you getting me ready for war?”
With a chuckle, Watt grabbed the door handle. “I’m getting you ready for something.” He opened it. “Let’s say life.”
Comments (4)
See all