Of Monsters and Humanity: The Genesis

Chapter 71 - Xander

Two days after....

I left the attic bedroom and headed down the staircase. I felt a sort of peace as I left her alone in the room--she was safe and in my home. I never thought that I would see the day where Terra would be in my house, but I suppose that doubting day came before I realized that it would.

As I walked down the left hallway to the French doors of my bedroom like I had done hundreds of times before, I felt a sort of sweet nostalgia. Nothing had changed, it was almost like I wasn't even gone. The walls and railing and furniture all the same.

I took a deep breath and opened the doors.

The room was dark, the back wall being complete windows and displaying the early morning night sky. I looked around, smelling the familiar scents of my bedroom. The large, black-sheeted bed, the tall wooden headboard, the modern structural architecture of the room, the deerskin rug on the polished wood of the floor, the tapestries on the walls, the lights hanging from the ceiling. Everything was exactly the same as I had left it.

I walked slowly around to the small table to the right of my bed and picked up my phone. I had left it here before I visited Eris. The familiar rectangular shape filled my palm as it had all of those many months ago. The battery was dead.

I started to switch on a few lights by the time I heard the door open and close again. He set a backpack onto my bed.

"I wish I never talked to her," I smirked, walking to the door leading to my closet and entering. The side walls were lined with suits of all different styles--mostly black, blue, and grey--next to shirts, pants, jeans, jackets. The back wall was lined with dress shoes, boots, running shoes, and sneakers. I pulled one of the grey drawers open and found my ties, which were next to the drawer with my watches, which were next to my sunglasses, and then my wallets. I had so many clothes--how did I have so much time to wear all of it?

He walked in behind me but didn't speak. I heard him cross his arms across his chest.

I turned around and sighed. "You have no idea how nice it is to be home," I said. I meant it to sound reminiscent or at least a little happy, but it sounded mostly dull and pained.

"Does anyone else know?" he asked quietly, walking closer to me.

"No one other than the American and Russian governments."

Alistair's jaw dropped.

I sighed and then proceeded to explain what Damian had explained to me that time ago. Gods, it seemed like forever--at least a month. But it wasn't even two weeks ago. I told him about Dr. Balcom boasting about me, displaying me to humans like some circus animal, experimenting on my body and showing Russia.

As if me mentioning the motherland summoned her, Kerensa slowly entered the room. She had a guarded, depressed look about her.

"Balcom's nephew, Damian, told me. And then he told Terra. And we realized that Agent Byligan and Dr. Fahim knew all along, and they asked us to help them get everyone out--"

"They were going to leave all of you before?" Alistair asked sourly.

"No. But they needed help. They all were under contract threatening treason if they went against Project X," I explained, then a thought struck me. If Terra supposedly died at the Project X building, then how the hell was she still under contract? A dead girl can't be sentenced to treason by the government.

Unless Balcom knew that she was alive after the bomb.

My eyes widened and I bolted from the closet. I ran up the stairs of the attic and was about to sprint right into the bedroom when I heard the shower running. I was breathing heavily, my heart pumping hard and unevenly in my ribcage. I listened closely, hearing someone upstairs walking around the shower stall. There was only one person in the attic.