I quietly stared at the scene in front of me. I covered my nose from the smell of decay before taking a step further into the barn.
"Ronan did this?" I asked Cooper and he nodded at me.
"Yeah. He killed fifty hulks without any help. Pretty gruesome, isn't it?" Cooper asked me. I stepped into a puddle of rotten brains and retched at the realization.
"I'm gonna throw up." I uttered before leaving the barn.
"Same. Me too. I might throw up again." Cooper uttered while covering his nose with his forearm.
"Why are you showing me this again?" I asked Cooper as I was unable to get the image of what I just witnessed out of my head.
"I need you to talk to Ronan. Ask him what's going on. You're the only person who can get through to him. I can't lose another brother." Cooper told me.
"You won't lose him, Coop." I tried to assure him but he shook his head at me.
"Yes, I will. If Ronan loses his humanity he'll be just as good as dead to me." Cooper argued so I caved.
"He doesn't want to talk to me."
"Then make him talk." He desperately told me.
"I don't know if I can. I think Ronan blames himself and me for Luke's death. I mean Luke stopped taking the serums because I left the facility, it was basically suicide and I didn't hide my feelings for Ronan either."
"Please, Hailey-Jade. All I need to know is that he's gonna be okay. He could've gotten himself infected yesterday. He's too reckless and being reckless will only get you killed." Cooper pleaded with me.
"I'll see what I can do but I'm not promising you anything." I told him and he smiled at me.
"You know, Hailey-Jade. You're a little crazy but I love you regardless. You're like the sister I never had." He told me and I laughed at him.
"Don't go soft on me now, Coop. Not yet." I jokingly uttered. "And I'm not crazy." I snapped at him.
"If you say so, Hailey-Jade." He muttered under his breath. "By the way shouldn't your arm be healed by now? Here let me take a look." Cooper uttered as we started walking back to the house but I was quick to hide my arm behind my back.
"I checked it this morning, it's still not- healed properly." I slowly told him and he frowned at me.
"Alright, relax." He told me while staring at me as if I was an alien.
"By the way who's gonna clean up the mess back there?" He asked me.
"The one who made the mess." I uttered in a 'duh' tone.
"Or-- we could ask the new guy to do it." Cooper told me.
"Remind me why you hate him so much." I narrowed my eyes on him.
"Uhm- maybe because he's a wimp. He just doesn't seem like the survivor type."
"Neither do I," I reckoned.
"Yes, you do. Point is, that guy's gonna die soon and drag all of us down with him." Cooper matter of factly stated.
"Or he won't. I mean he's survived this long." I argued and Cooper just hummed in response to my words. We reached the house and went our separate ways.
I made my way upstairs to my room while mind racing, wondering how I was going to get answers out of Ronan.
He's spiraling and I don't know if I'll be able to stop him from unraveling.
I never wanted any of this to happen. I didn't ask to fall in love with Ronan back then. I didn't ask for Luke to become obsessed with the idea of us being together.
Yet, somehow, it's still my fault.
I guess I should've had that conversation with Luke a long time ago. But I didn't want to complicate or make things awkward between us.
And now the damage is done and the truth is that Luke committed suicide. He gave up on his life and I wasn't there to stop him or to keep him sane.
This will haunt me for the rest of my life.
I froze in my steps when I saw a small carton box sitting at the foot of my bed. I walked over to it before sitting down next to the box and looking through it.
I soon realized that it was Luke's possessions and let out a shivery breath before throwing the box across the room and it crashed into the wall.
I crawled backwards onto my bed until my back hit into the headboard. I started crying hysterically because who would be as cruel as to open such a fresh wound again.
Discolored veins started to appear under my skin again, pulsating to life.
How could someone be so cruel?
I looked over to where the box was lying and my eyes zoomed in on the contents. I frowned before focusing on the curtains hanging in my room and saw a dust mite crawling along the edges of the material.
Loud laughter coming from downstairs suddenly filled my ears.
"I gotta go make dinner!" I heard Ellie telling someone, her voice loudly ringing through my ears.
"Don't burn the house down!" Oliver told her and she laughed at his words. The sound pierced through my ears and I tightly squeezed my eyes shut.
"Get out of my head!" I screamed in agony before hitting the sides of my head with my fists. "Get out of my head!" I repeated before screaming into my pillow.
"Hailey-Jade! Are you alright?! Open the door!" Someone yelled from the other side of my bedroom door. I couldn't recognize their voice, it was too loud.
"Go away!" I aggressively yelled at them. "Be quiet," I whispered while crying into my pillow. "Please just be quiet!"
"Alright, we'll be quiet!" They said and then everything went quiet inside the house. I tiredly lifted my throbbing head before going over to my bedroom door.
I turned the knob and crashed into Oliver's chest.
"What's wrong?" He asked me in a gentle tone before wrapping his arms around me.
"Please be quiet," I begged him and he frowned at me. I pulled away from him before ripping off the bandage around my arm.
"I got bit by a rotter in New York!" I cried into his chest.
"Hailey-" he breathed out.
"I'm immune, Oli. But I can feel it moving- and crawling under my skin. I can feel it changing me. I can hear people from miles away-- and it sounds like drumming inside of my head. So please just be quiet." I begged him.
"Ronan!" Ellie called Ronan in panic before disappearing down the hallway and Oliver gently rubbed my back in a comforting manner.
Now the whole world will know what I am.
An abomination.