I don’t know how I’m supposed to go back to carrying on after seeing that, but aside from being Joseph’s next victim, I don’t have any other choice. I also know two more things now. He knows the librarian, and he calls the librarian ‘Santi.’ Good enough name for me.

Fuck it, I have to kill him now. If he lives and tells anyone, I don’t think anyone would believe him, and I have the cannibalistic tendencies of his on him. I lift up a hand and a few strands shoot out from my fingertips, faster than usual. He moves himself sideways and my veins come back to me. I don’t know if vomiting makes your heart rate go up or something, plus I guess I’m really freaked out- something’s making it go up, but I think it’s helping. I’m just now realizing that I have no idea how to control my veins, but I must be able to if he’s so worried. He believes I’m able to, anyway.

“Come ooon, Eveeer,” he lilts, continuing to walk this way. I’ve just noticed that his voice is uncomfortably pleasant when he’s carrying a tune. “Don’t get all nervy on me now. I won’t hit ya that hard.”

Bullshit, you’re a psycho. It just dawned on me that somehow, his heart is… different. Yeah, I’ve noticed that everyone has their own percussiveness, timbre, and usual rate, but something is… wrong with his pulse. Nothing obvious, it just doesn’t feel good to listen to. There’s some kind of stringency to it, and there’s a sound underneath that sounds like voices murmuring. Others’ voices. I take a few steps back, then hold my arm out toward him, aiming for the hand he’s got the knuckles on. I manage to grab his wrist, quickly taking hold and his pulse is even louder as he panics. I can’t help but smirk a little- I’m gonna give him what he deserves. I pull down, but he reaches for something else in his pocket and-

“Fuck!!” I shout, and my veins zip back. It burns, my veins burn. I didn’t think that veins had nerves, and it’s weird, feeling pain that isn’t in my body. It’s like my arm was way over there, I saw it happen, but I still felt it inside my arm… Like if you worked out really hard and the searing you felt all over the place was concentrated in just one spot. “What the hell did you do!?”

“I came prepared.” He held up a lighter, flicking it on and off as he laughed. “Just kiddin’, that was on the spot.”

I… don’t know what to do. I didn’t realize how useless this ability really is. He didn’t even use anything fantastical against me; anyone can use a lighter like that. Why was the librarian- Santi- so afraid?

“You look lost. Aren’t you gonna try somethin’ else?”

I couldn’t answer. His pulse relaxes. I really am no threat.

“Nothin’, eh?” He’s walking toward me again, but between the burning of my veins and the panic I’m feeling now… I can only freeze, overwhelmed by what few options I have. Run, but where to? How fast is he? Can he run for longer than I can? I don’t know anything. “Yeah, you don’t wanna kill. It’s just not in you. Good for humanity, I guess. I’m sure Santi’ll be right pleased it was just a false alarm.” What the fuck is he talking about? Humanity? False alarm? He’s getting too close now. I take a few steps back. “What’s ‘er name- Rhea?” My veins are burning again, but not because of the lighter. “Yeah, I’ll help you get to ‘er. All you’ve gotta do is fall right into my arms, eh? Your heart’s already done the hard part.”

Nothing he ever says makes any sense. I shake my head, still stepping back slowly. “You’re fucking crazy—” FUCK! Whiteness. Whiteness floods my vision as I feel a cracking sensation against my right eye. Brass against my skin, maybe bone. I don’t know. There are layers to the pain. He’s faster than I expected. I start falling, but something thuds against my chest. I cough, seeing blood stream onto the grass beneath me, and it sprays lightly from my mouth. Fuck, he really got me.

“Sure. All I’m sayin’ is that you’ve already let me in.”

Let him in… Heart’s done the hard part… No, this really isn’t time to muse on riddles. I hold my hand up and shoot straight for his eyes. My heart’s pumping so hard that the pressure sets them off like bullets, and I hear an agonized shout as I turn away and scramble back up, fucking booking it.

“You fuckin’ twat!!”

I think I have some time. I have no clue where I am; I’ve never been around Harbor City before, but it’s got plenty of buildings I can run into. Shit, but it’s so dead, I can only assume they’re all locked up. No houses around, just corps and businesses. He’s following me, I hear it, so I guess I didn’t really blind him, but I definitely stunned him for just a second. Looking back over my shoulder for a second- he’s catching up, and fast. I turn the corner of a store- one of the many- and try the door. Locked, just as I knew it. I shouldn’t try to keep stopping and trying all the doors, I just have to run. I don’t even have a map of the place- what was I thinking coming to look for Rhea here? Crap, he’s coming. Run, run, run, move. I hear the shattering of glass as I barely evade another punch. I feel some shards fall into the back of my shirt. Can’t shake them out now. Joseph turns around to try again, seemingly unbothered by the glass he’d just hit. Right, his hand is protected. I duck, then realize I’ve made a terrible mistake, but what else was I supposed to do? He knees me again, and I’m quick enough to only get slightly nicked on the lips. More blood in my mouth. I don’t know how much more my face can take. I was already so tired before. I’ve got to escape. There’s a street light.

It happens in the split of a second. I know he’s right behind me, and I hear the blaring of a horn as it speeds past. I don’t even catch what color the car is- my right arm just shoots up, and before I know it, I’m on top of the street light, balanced by my veins. I look down and see Joseph just barely avoid getting hit, but now his eyes are on me. My heart’s racing, I can’t catch my breath, and now I’m stuck up here, but at least he can’t get me. The car grinds to a stop and stops. I don’t think they saw me use my veins; they’d already driven past when I got up here. Some guy comes out and starts yelling. I know he’s not, but I can’t help but think he must be the only other person alive in the neighborhood.

I don’t like the look Joseph’s giving me.

“Ah, damn, that was smart. You’ve got me. Looks like you’ve won, eh?” Brits and their sarcasm. What could he possibly do from down there? “Suuure wish I had some inexplicable abnormality about myself right now…”

I’m nervous again.

“What the hell is going on here!?” the old man shouts. No. God, no. A woman comes out as well. 

“We have to get him down from there!” the woman exclaims. She turns to Joseph. “Do you know him?”

“Yup, we’re mates.” Immediately, Joseph grabs the both of them by their necks. No, no, no, no! They both claw at his hands. “I can only make you feel one of their’ses pain, Ever,” he calls up to me. “Choose one.”
So he has some fucked up power too. A pain transfer. I just shake my head. I can’t get my veins to act right now. I’m tired. I’m so tired. I want to help them. I do. I really do.

I can’t.

I shake my head at him. “Let them go! Please!” I can feel my neck straining. It doesn’t feel internal, it feels exactly what I imagine either one of those poor people feel like. Subconsciously, my hands go up to my neck, just as the two victims’ hands do. They didn’t deserve to get roped into this. It was my fight, not theirs.

Joseph sighs. “So dramatic.”