Chereads / RADIOACTIVE / Chapter 14 - Changes and Reality

Chapter 14 - Changes and Reality

Everything around me felt unreal for an instant. When Sasha stepped back from me, I glanced at the man standing silently behind her and Lilianne. I had been overwhelmed by strong emotions a bit ago, my mind hadn't fully acknowledged him yet. 

Blond, silky hair and goat's eyes… he would wear fancy European clothes, with a large coat on his shoulders, as if he was out of the Victorian era or something. With a crimson red which harmonized with his sweet dark, soft and flawless skin but splattered of golden patterns, I didn't know how I could keep up with all those beauties around me.

I had that weird feeling when I glanced at him. Not because of his face, or style, but because of the familiarity submerging my heart and mind. Yet again, I've never met him before, though it still felt like I did, like we were friends, longing for each other for years.

…Him. Who is he?

 Like a fuzzy vision from a dream, I couldn't remember where that familiar feeling came from. I gazed at his honey eyes. By his expression, he was probably thinking the same thing. Maybe I was imagining things, however I had the strong belief that he too, was aware of my identity or at least, my looks. This was quite strange. Where have we met before? Where, when? At this point, I even wondered; is this a dream?

Oh, yeah, that dream! He was one of the people with me back there. That made sense. But still, this pressing question endlessly storming and tormenting my head wouldn't cease, not even a mere minute. Just why, why did I get this dream? What was the meaning, its purposes?

I felt like there was a message behind this dream. I mean, it was pretty obvious. So far, I've met with all of them. Jay, Lilianne, Eli… And now, the last one was here too. 

"Yuri, your eye!"

"Yuri? Hey, Yuri! What's going on?"

As the distant voices reached my ears, I snapped back to reality. Right, Sasha. She was back.

Kind of flustered, I stepped back and with a confused voice, I started talking.

"huh? My eye what? What is wrong?"

"Um..."

Nice! Something was wrong with my eyes. Though, I didn't feel anything… Except for having a 'night vision', there was absolutely no difference. 

As the confusion peaked in my mind, I forgot about those stressful questions and began looking around. The sudden curiosity devouring my thoughts needed to be satisfied, it was hungry for truth. The question was, where could I look at myself? It's not like I had a mirror on me or something, and I couldn't see anything similar around.

I started walking, a little nervous. After a few steps going nowhere, I decided to head to the main entrance, which had a lot of windows. I could feel everyone's eyes glued on me, I felt like an animal in a zoo. Eli, who joined us a bit ago, was covering his mouth in shock, or maybe just for mockery. Was it too bad I was worth laughing at? Eli… Please don't scare me more than I am already, I muttered to myself.

I looked through a piece of a broken window, half-hoping to see my reflection in it. Honestly, I was scared. I mean, what if I looked like I was beaten up by gangsters? Or what if it busted out and was hanging from a pitch black hole with blood all around it!!? Since I had my bandage covering half of my face for about the whole month, I barely saw it and couldn't look at myself while cleaning the wounds, besides Jay almost always did it for me. However, based on Sasha's reaction, it seemed in a really bad state. Why didn't Jay tell me anything? Oh God… First my green hair, now my fucked up eye. What's next, a long Pinocchio nose? 

Hesitant and anxious, the denial clashing the curiosity, I slowly approached the broken window and held my breath. 

Oh.

Wait… what? 

Oh!

With a deathly-pale iris lacking a pupil, one of two eyes were glaring back at me. The white of the eye was filled with red, bloody vessels open within. From forehead to cheek, cutting the soft eyebrow into three parts, two thin and long scars stained the right side of the face. It felt like I was looking at a total stranger, but it was mine. My face, my eyes.

I felt my heart dropping. Cold and warm waves spread all around my body, I felt both heavy and light. This couldn't be real. It just couldn't.

It's as if, at that moment, the harsh reality of our new world smashed my face with all its strength.