Is this still a dream? Maybe he woke long ago but stuck himself within the recesses of his mind's palace. If so, then why wasn't this a palace? Why wasn't the soothing lullaby from his sister playing over the loudspeakers instead of the grating dissonance of continuous phrases on a piano?
Her skin never got better, her eyes never opened to greet him with their splendor, and the bills only wracked higher and higher. The point became blatant when Father Bentley couldn't bear entering the same room as her so would retire to the window sparing a glance. Hospitals valued the lives of Evolved immensely which furthered their greed to where an Evolved's stay in one of their beds was thrice the cost of an ordinary human. Already strained funds strained more so making Lisa's fate sooner rather than later.
Father Bentley failed to honor his promise. His promise to stick by and protect them using his own life as insurance, which was not lost on Kage. Shelved to a far yet obtainable depth for the time being.
There was never enough time for the good to last. Therefore, why should such destiny predilect his life?
"Kage… please turn around… talk to me!" It was a familiar voice, one of feminine descent, filled by pollutants stoked by a sob or three.
'Oh, Sophie's here. Hopefully she's brought food, I'm starving, and this plastic shit the staff brings tastes like the fumes from a freshly manufactured product.'
Despite his grumbling stomach, Kage did not meet Sophie's jabbing speech. She was nothing but white noise sounding to lull him into a slumber. The low lights emphasized by only a glint of light peeking through the curtains made a stillness overtake the room. By happenstance that light fell on his uncovered arm. His arm unmoving in that spot for hours caused a sensitive burn to develop.
Other mother's punishments always involved a high-powered light to burn the flesh. He needed to be judged for his miscalculations as not a soul was willing to do it. They all came, apologized, offered no help, then left. Headaches quivered his temples with each example that added to this growing list.
"It's enough to drive a man mad." Kage steadily rotated to his left, swallowing the spit ingrained to his throat. William's hair curled into twin braids; Merissa must've done the braiding herself a night ago. Chunky purple gunk made smacking noises between his teeth. Bits were chewed off to be spat into the nearest receptacle, in this case a titanium bucket which was reinforced for acidic saliva, sitting at the boy's foot.
Wavering pupils outlined by the mascara of consequence dotted in the shadow of his outcome. Widened they got as William slathered the gunk across his lips giving them the chance to drip with its venom. Kage's attention was snatched away by the end to his old friend's finger wafting to a perpendicular stance silencing those notions from devising.
"Let's listen to the girl. Bitches be fine in their drivel." William wiped either hand on the sides of his face sensually flowing off. "Their soft touch and creamy skin. You remember, don't you? Those fine bitches in the ward, this one may just show you a good time. That's what you need right now; some relief to relieve you of nasty ambitions." Face to face, Kage remained transfixed by the twitch in his right eye. The twitching rapidly sped up while the rest of him withered to a gaunt recreation of the human structure.
"Kage… What can I do for you?" He finally keened in on what Sophie continuously begged of him, perturbed by the scratch to her voice. "Tell me, I'll do it if it'll make you look at me. Please just show me your face. I haven't come this far to lose you because of someone else." She was caught mid breath by the gaunt crook to Kage's expression. Him obeying her request became instantaneous yet her worries were not soothed.
A quake controlled her bottom lip while she stuttered her excuse, "I-I-I n-need you. We n-n-need each other, right?" Reaching out, Kage yanked a braid of her hair to just an inch away from his eye. There he curled and twisted the piece wondering what such texture would feel to the sensitive tips of his fingers, how blessed is she to know this experience.
"Are we alone?"
"Wha-
"Are we alone?"
"I don-
"ARE WE ALONE!" No sympathy remained in his wrinkled brow. Empathy thereby sympathy evaporated due in part to the bulging gleam in the bloodied eyes that swirled within the girl's being. "What are we doing? Are my answers unable to be taken in and understood by your feeble mind?" His grip on her hair tightened as his face twisted perpendicular to her own, leaving only the outline of Kage's pointed jaw for Sophie to capture. "This can't be true. None of it can, each second I stay desperately grasping to something I know to be rotting before my sight. I'm supposed to accept this?"
'Clank!' Kage pushed away his stool falling to Sophie's sightline. "Why must I repeat myself again and again and again and again until I'm surrounded by barriers of self-speech? I'm not even in reality anymore, I've lost the plot in spectacular fashion." Sophie felt her bladder loosen as the boy she once knew transformed into a different thing. With terror under his gaze, Kage made remarks out of the corner to his mouth. Remarks to an indiscernible person.
Orange hair meshed together with the brown, decorated by tips of red, as skeletal bone squeezed her skull. All the while, violet makeup blotted her creamy skin into a marionette's mask. Lastly, golden framed glasses with its left lens missing fell onto the tip of her nose.
Her voice layered by three others enticing Kage to a sodden conclusion. Both of her hands clasped to either side of Kage's gaping mouth.
"Kage! Just look into my lips/eyes/tits/eye. I will kill/help/love/punish you no matter what happens. Please, try to hate/trust/hear/understand me just like I have done for you." Rattled, Kage punched his fist at the shapeshifting monster, calling him to a scintillating cove.
Out of its grasp, he fled to the opposite end of Lisa's bed, twisting to see that its possession of Sophie had finished but left an unconscious body in its wake.
A cockeyed nose bent with an excess of blood causing a slip to the otherwise pure floor. "Sophie?" The door abruptly slid open forcing the focus of the boy to draw upon a nurse. She dared not to take a step further into the room, instead stilled at the frame as she was shocked by the girl sprawled before her feet, effectively dead in her tracks. Jumping to the woman, Kage unclenched his fist to an open palm directed toward the newcomer's trachea but ceased at the arrival of another from behind the nurse.
"Ma'am?" She turned as fast as the rusty gears to her neck would allow. "Can you please forget this. This is simply a misunderstanding; it will be straightened shortly." The nurse stood still, the hands gripping her clipboard shaking to a degree that the papers were at risk from falling out. A solemn thought entered then exited when she saw the poise Kage had taken to steal her breath. Then, the woman picked Sophie up and left for another room where she could take the girl out of harm's way.
A static spread over Father Bentley and Kage.
The boy stuffed his hands into his pockets, an act not lost on the priest. "I hope that those fists were only a mistake." He averted his face to the side viciously biting his lip drawing a strip of blood to leak.
"This time has been difficult." Father Bentley passed Kage without another glance then adjusted the stool Kage had left on the floor using it as a means for a seat. "Very difficult."