Chapter 4: [Chapter 3] La Pluie

One day in September, I was by myself at lunch due to Sam leaving early for an appointment. It was something that happened almost every month that took him out of school for a day or two. He was never clear on what exactly was going on and left me to form my own theories on his health. I wasn’t one to speculate, however. To me, it was just another day; overcast skies with a chance of rain.

I happened to see Blinds walking through the lunchroom holding a brown bag of free lunch on his way down to the lower level. I was always curious how he could see despite being blindfolded, though I never bothered to ask out of fear of looking stupid to the others. I decided to wave him over since it was my best chance at finally asking him about it. He tried to ignore me at first, but reluctantly came over when he realized Sam wasn’t around.

Blinds sat across from me at the booth and asked, “What do you want, Eli?”

“How can you see when you have that blindfold on all the time?”

He was perturbed by my question. “Seriously? I get enough crap about it from the others. I almost appreciated the fact that you seemed to not care about it… What a waste of time.” He started sliding himself out of the booth to escape the situation.

“Wait,” I said, “You can actually see, right?”

He remained seated despite being visibly displeased. I could hear his spaded tail tapping against the plastic booth—a sign he was losing patience. “Damn you, Eli. Yes, I can see—”

“But how do you see? Is it magic?”

Blinds scoffed at me and slammed his fist on the table. “I swear you humans ate the serpent. Why try to understand something you know absolutely nothing about? Life is easier if you don’t try to know every little thing…”

He wasn’t budging. I tried to calm him down and do what Sam would do to ease him into conversation: “Isn’t trying to understand each other a part of coexisting? We’re all on Earth together. May as well get to know each other better.”

My statement only made him more upset. Not the yelling in your face kind, but the cold, calculated assholery that showed a glimpse of how little he really thought of others. “Like anyone would choose to live on this miserable planet. We’re stuck here because of you damn humans. You think you have a right to know about us? About anything? You have no idea the kind of hell you put us through. And now I’m going through hell having to listen to your inane questions.”

It wasn’t unusual for him to say such things in jest, though I did feel a bit of hidden resentment from him. “I can drop it if it makes you uncomfortable. But to be clear, you devils did choose to be here; your people even tried to invade. Don’t see me holding that against you. It wasn’t your fault.”

“What’s your point?”

“I’m trying to say that I’m your friend—or at least want to be.”

Blinds made a subtle frown and looked down at the table, then rested his head in his arms. “Fine,” he said with a muffled voice, “I’ll tell you.” I watched as he raised his head and drew an infinity symbol in the air with his index finger. “I used magic to gaze upon the throne of God and He struck out my eyes as punishment. While I can still see, my eyes are now branded to show my hubris. The blindfold is to hide my shame. One might consider it a curse, or a disease, but it only serves as proof that all sin originates in desire.”

I had a hard time believing him. “Is that what really happened?”

Blinds went back to digging into the brown bag for food, pulling out a red apple. He took a bite and said, “No, but I’m sure you believed it, you stupid Catholic.” He then looked at me with such a shit-eating grin that I wanted to punch him.

Still, I knew that there was always some nugget of truth in his lies—even if the meaning was lost in allegory. “What is it, really?” I asked gently, turning the other cheek.

“I can see the mana that surrounds us. It’s not as detailed as normal eyesight, but it’s enough to know the shape and movement of everything around me. I can tell people apart due to the unique glow of mana accumulating inside of them. And yes, even you humans have one. It’s often very faint and subtle around the face.”

I tried to imagine how he saw the world, but it proved as futile as imagining a new color—like shmurple or greeb. I could see distortions in the sky when mana builds up, but not the mana itself. For me, it’s like seeing light reflect off the ripples in the water after a stone gets tossed into it. Sometimes it gets scattered like a rainbow—something beautiful if not so dangerous. Kind of like your mother.

“What does the glow on Sam and I look like?” I asked, curious of how it affected our body and how he perceived us.

Blinds looked off to the crowd of the cafeteria. “It’s like night and day, actually. Sam’s is so bright that you could mistake him for a monster. I’m actually surprised he isn’t sick all the time, but then I guess that’s why he goes to the doctor so much. As for you… you’re the only human in school without the glow. It’s pretty obvious you’re one of the few mana-resistant humans, but it’s also a bit unsettling to not see one in you at all.”

“Unsettling? Why?”

“Because pretty much everything alive has one. It’s pretty faint in a lot of things, like plants and small creatures, but not having one at all makes it seem like you’re not really there—especially for me since I see you as empty space. To others, you probably look no different than an inanimate object. I guess it helps that you hang out with Sam so much since he’s much more approachable… No offense.”

I was a bit hurt by how blunt he was, but I appreciated his honesty. It was always hard to understand what monsters were really capable of even with the curriculum at Mary Rose; especially since the public use of magic was made illegal.

I said, “That much I can understand. It’s probably why I had so much trouble making friends before I met him. I had no idea it was like that for y’all. Thank you for telling me.”

Blinds nodded and ate in silence. He then looked dissatisfied at the portions of his meal upon finishing it, picking at the scraps of his apple, and loudly sighing when there wasn’t much left to eat.

I told him, “Those free lunches barely have any food. I could spare you a couple dollars for a snack.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I’m trying to get my mom to take me to the new pizza place but it’s damn near impossible to convince her to go out for food. I figured she might change her mind if I save enough to make it a family night.”

“You can still have the money since I was already willing to give it.”

“Thanks, Eli, but I don’t need your charity.”

A small crowd started forming at the glass wall which faced the racing track and grass field in the middle of campus. The sky had grown dark and there was a distant rumbling of a storm coming as predicted that morning. The administrator made an announcement on the PA system in his normal, tired voice. “Attention all human students and faculty: Sorrow is currently experiencing a spike in ambient mana. I ask that you remain inside the building until the rain passes and clears the air. Thank you.”

Blinds scoffed. “This place goes into lockdown over the tiniest things. You should run outside and show the other humans that they’re just being paranoid. Most you’ll feel is a slight tingle, I bet.”

He wasn’t particularly wrong about it being an overreaction to a common occurrence, but for the vast majority of humans, it’s a matter of survival. Less than a percent of the human population is able to resist the mutagenic effects of mana, so any risk of overexposure is treated with utmost seriousness. The fact that humans can’t see mana furthered the danger it poses as uncontained pockets of mana still appear somewhat randomly—and by Blinds’ account, builds up inside of the body too.

Blinds pointed to refocus my attention. “Look at how they’re putting their hands on the glass. It’s like they’re begging to get mana sickness. They should all just run out there and weed each other out—two birds, one stone.”

The crowd was growing and included more than humans. “It’s strange, though. Seems like there’s something else going on.”

I got up from the booth and walked over to the window to see what was happening below. Beth was outside on the track; her black hair was shiny and wet with contaminated rain. She spread out her arms, twirled, and danced in the downpour. The others were commenting how she must be another mana-resistant human, relating her to me, unaware of her true nature. I watched as she looked towards the sky and smiled. She then glanced up at us and winked, causing me to feel a tug in my chest. Blinds silently nudged me in the back to join her. Water and sun, I thought. I decided then it was time to talk to her and made my way down to the lower level, walking through the double doors to the field.

“Beth!” I yelled to get her attention. The rain was warm. The air was thick and heavy. I felt conflicted, both welcomed by the warmth and feeling the urgent need to stay dry. I held my hands in front of me to see a tiny glimmer of mana clinging to my skin, captured inside of the water.

Beth walked up to me. “How interesting,” she said as she took my hand. “Did something awaken inside you?”

“This feeling…” I placed my other hand over my chest.

Beth smiled. “It’s freeing, isn’t it?”

“It is, but…” I looked up at the window where I once stood. “It sets a bad example.”

“To the humans? Why care about them?”

“Because I’m a human.”

Beth giggled. “So you claim. The only humans I know live in fear of things as natural as the rain.” She grabbed me by the side and led me through her waltz in the grass. It was an intimate closeness, one combined with my heart’s yearning for a familiar environment—one of dampness and filled with mana. Beth’s bangs fused together in the wetness, revealing that her eyes had a red aura to them. I felt a similar invigoration that was a mix of exciting, tempting, and even lustful.

In a whisper, I said to myself, “This is wrong.”

And in my mind was an intrusive thought: Il fait un temps de cochon.

“Get ready!” yelled Beth as she used her inhuman strength to both raise and twirl me. I was sent away like a top across the grass, digging up mud from the force, yet retaining some amount of grace as I kept my balance until I eventually came to a halt. I don’t know how it looked to those that saw it, though I imagine any regular human would’ve been torn apart at the hip.

I walked towards Beth with a bit of a wobble and said, “That was—”

Phhuuweeet!

The gym teacher, a centaur, blew her whistle, beckoning us to come back inside. I immediately started walking back while Beth remained outside a little longer, only returning at the threat of being dragged inside by the gym teacher. We were sent to the office where Beth was given a stern warning about her conduct, especially for being so new. I, however, was punished by a call home to Rosa for my lack of better judgment.

❦                     ❦                     ❦

Rosa was angrier at the elven administrator for calling her over anything I could possibly do at Mary Rose. Her voice came through the speaker phone on the administrator’s desk as she said, “I thought I made it clear you are to never bother me over matters concerning Elliot.”

“But the policy on humans getting exposed—”

“You know damn well he’s an exception. If he gets in trouble, then write it up in a report and send it with the others. I shouldn’t have to tell you how to do your job.”

The administrator seemed flustered yet remained professional. “Yes, Ms. Oni. I’ll write it up right away.”

“Is Elliot there now?”

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“Yes,” I replied.

“My sweet, sweet nephew. Bring Beth home with you today. If she tries to get out of it, tell her that she does not want me to go looking for her.”

I was sent out of the office with Rosa continuing to admonish the administrator in my absence. “You’re supposed to come with me,” I said to Beth as I saw her leaving the school grounds in anger. She didn’t refuse and didn’t say much of anything on the ride home. It wasn’t until I let her into the kitchen from the garage that she changed attitudes.

Beth looked around at the apples and bread I had sitting near the sink. She nearly teleported in front of my fridge and opened it. “What the hell is all this?” she asked. “Where’s the meat?”

“In the top drawer. Feel free to try any of it… Not that I could stop you.”

She pulled out a slice of dry-cured ham and waved it around. “You call this food!?”

“I’m not usually picky with what Rosa brings, but yes.”

She scoffed. “No wonder you’re so weak.”

I placed my things on the kitchen table and pulled out a chair to sit in. “What you got there is called prosciutto. Tastes a bit salty, but it’s also pretty fatty. I like it with goat cheese sometimes.”

“Whatever,” she said as she looked at the meat. She pulled some of it apart and put it into her mouth to chew it, then rolled up some into a ball to really get the flavor out with each bite.

“How is it?”

Beth looked at me and then back at the fridge. She then grabbed the whole bag of slices and started to scarf down each one quicker than the last. I started to get worried at the voracity of her appetite. “It’s good,” she mumbled between bites. “Much better than the shit they served at the lab…” She sent a curious gaze my way. “Were you there, too?”

“Lab? Hm… If you’re referring to Project Scarlet, I was never a part of it.”

“But you know about it, then? What your mother did…”

I nodded and looked at the curio cabinet in the corner by the kitchen table. Inside were picture frames of me and my mother, but more importantly was an album filled with my mother’s travels and her colleagues at Somni Solutions. “Enough to know that I’ve lived a relatively privileged life. But I don’t know anything that happened after my mother died… or what experiments you were put through.”

Beth finished eating and closed the fridge door. She leaned against the counter to reflect, possibly wondering if she should share that information with me. “I guess I had it better than most. I was given to an adoptive family to see how I’d adjust to living as a human. As for the ‘experiment’, let’s just say it was a failure. I ended up getting sent back to the lab. I don’t particularly care to talk about it beyond that… I have to ask, though, are you really human?”

I wasn’t sure how to answer her. “Yes and no. I’m a chimera, so I’m as much a real human as I am… not.”

“What do you mean?” she asked while looking me over.

“A chimera’s life cycle… starts out as a fungus that eats detritus and stone. The fungus then blooms and births ravenous mycanids from a pod. Those mycanids eat other lifeforms, taking their DNA into themselves, and find somewhere to form a cocoon. A chimera is then born, an amalgam of whatever the mycanid ate, with their memories and intelligence to match. I am the result of that.”

She seemed ready to laugh. “Are you telling me you’re a mushroom?”

I looked away in embarrassment. “I’m a human. Dr. Lynch raised me as her own… I didn’t know any different until Rosa took me in and told me the truth of my existence; that her actual child was stillborn. My mo—Dr. Lynch thought that if chimeras had human DNA, they could be human. And while Rosa spared me the details, I know that she was desperate enough to use her own child to prove it.”

Beth shook her head in disbelief. “Use her own child? How?”

Rosa’s voice came from the doorway to the living room. “She fed the body to a mycanid in an attempt to bring him back—but there is no bringing back the dead. No amount of magic or otherworldly eumycetes will ever change that. I tried to tell her. Instead, what she created was a monster. A monster that fueled her obsession in creating new life.”

We all gathered into the living room. I half-expected Rosa to be angry but she remained in a placid mood as she asked Beth, “How are things at school?”

“It’s been okay,” replied Beth. “I can’t say that I enjoy the classes, but the people there make it worth it.”

“Have you made any friends?”

“A couple. I mainly hang out with three people, though.”

“What species?”

“Lamia, manticore… and a junko.”

“A strange assortment. The two liminals I can understand; lamia are numerous in this region, and the manticore is probably from the mountains. Why did you befriend a demon, though?”

“I didn’t mean to. I thought she was a human at first. Then the crazy slipped out when she started talking…” She smiled. “We just kinda clicked after that.”

Rosa laughed. “That is one way, but the most immediate tell is the eyes. Even the most human-looking monsters can be told apart by the eyes alone. There are differences in structure, patterns, color, or sometimes just the feeling that something is off. Humans can perceive it better than anyone—it’s the uncanny valley effect to them. Take a look into Elliot’s eye and see for yourself.”

Beth got awkwardly close to my face and stared. “I’m not sure what I’m looking for. All I see is my reflection.”

“Now look into mine.”

Beth sighed and did as Rosa asked. They were both silent, almost in a staring contest, until Beth pulled back and said, “There’s… nothing.”

“And in your eyes is an immense hunger. The kind a predator would have. That’s why you need to be careful in bringing attention to yourself.”

In a return to her usual demeanor and spot on the couch, Beth asked, “Am I in trouble or not?”

“Depends. Do you need to be in trouble to learn your lesson?”

“No? What kind of question is that?”

“You’re not as mature as you think, but you’re more mature than most will give you credit for. I find it better to treat kids your age like the adults they’re going to become. If you need to be punished, I’ll do it. Otherwise, I would prefer to talk it over.”

Beth looked away without a response.

“You should know better by now, Beth. Becoming a spectacle is not how you want others to find out that you’re a vampire—and it’ll mean disaster for more than just you if the humans see you as nothing more than a bioweapon. You know what happened to the others that became deviant… I don’t want you to suffer the same fate.”

Beth gritted her teeth. “I’d rather die if the alternative means I never get to live.” She got up and returned to the kitchen to eat her fill of what was left of the prosciutto before stomping out the back door.

When I was alone with Rosa, I asked, “What did you mean by deviant?”

Rosa bluntly answered, “Using blood magic.”

“But plenty of races can use blood magic—”

“Not like them. For the majority, it is a dangerous practice which often comes at a cost. For vampires, well, blood flows as freely as mana does for demons. In practice, blood is the antithesis of mana, and that gives them an advantage against certain species—mara included. And it certainly doesn’t help that they’re an almost parasitic existence.”

“Why go through the effort of protecting her, then?”

“Because she has the potential to be something much greater.”

“It sounds to me like you plan on using her.”

Rosa tilted her head in thought. “Not using her so much as guiding her to a higher calling. Your unique existence carries that same potential, but your short life limits what you can do. Consider that next time your grandparents force you to squish grapes.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I waved my hand to jokingly dismiss her. “As sinister as you may be, your altruism still bleeds through.”

Rosa smirked. “Just because I treat you well doesn’t mean I’m all that kind. Even your mother, who dearly loved you, had convictions that some would consider evil. Somni Solutions is a subsidiary of SomniCo. And SomniCo’s main goal is to find a way for humanity to survive the rise of ambient mana—even if it means the eradication of all non-humans. Project Scarlet was just a single step in that direction… and regardless of whether it was to create meta-humans or bioweapons, it certainly won’t be their last attempt.”

“Ethics aside, I can’t really blame my mother for believing what she did. This world is basically a post-apocalypse for the majority of humans. Any measure seems reasonable when the alternative is extinction.”

“I know.” Rosa got up and hugged me, then walked towards the hallway. She said, “That’s something we always agreed on,” before leaving the room.

I don’t know what future awaits you, my child. Even if the world seems beyond saving, life has many simple joys that make it worth living; like feeling the rain on your skin. But if there is any wisdom to be given, then it’s that existence alone is never enough.

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