BREATH . OF . LIFE . ~ { ReGenisis Chronicles Book I }

Chapter Five [Part 1/3]: The Unwanted

                      -Kate Andersen-

After hearing who I was, Griffin's attitude had changed drastically. What had been warm and friendly, turned cold and rigid. His shoulders had arched, anger rolling off of him in heavy waves and hitting into me across the room like a wrecking ball to old, crumbling brick. Even his sandalwood scent had become polluted by a stronger, less appealing note that made my nose curl. He stormed out of the room, his hands fists at his sides, his jaw visibly locked.

I stared after him, my mouth opening to say something. No words came.

There was a sinking feeling in my stomach. Like a weight being thrown into an abyssal ocean. There was no end to the descent. The sugar in my bloodstream was dropping, but I could still feel the adrenalin spike of fear. Like being high on gas and air at the hospital: body heavy, head floating.

"Why's he so angry?" I shivered, trying to refocus my view on Rin's face, but everything was a little blurry.

"Maybe because he just found out that on top of being the reason for ReGenisis. You are also the catalyst for all the suffering that surrounds it." Nicodemus was the one to answer, his voice gruff, emotionless all but a sharpness that stabbed.

I turned to look at him, unable to breathe, my lungs felt constricted. Nicodemus Garner shot me a look, neither pity nor anger resided in it, instead the dead in between. The kind of look that meant I wasn't worth either. Then he turned for the door and shuffled out after Griffin.

"W-what does he mean?" I stuttered.

Rin's features were unmoving like fine porcelain as she took a step back and towards the door. "Come with me," she invited with a glance back over her shoulder.

Reluctantly I followed her, my arms wrapping around myself. How could I be the cause of suffering? I hadn't done anything. Nothing but exist. I hadn't even been given a choice in whether I wanted to or not, or what I'd like to do with the existence I'd had.

As if anticipating the need to give me some small comfort, Rin placed her hand on my shoulder for a brief moment, but her expression remained the same.

We stepped out into a long white hallway. The same neon glow as was in the room I'd woken in. There were about twenty doors that lined the corridor, ten on each side plus one that sat squarely between the narrow walls. From the hum I could detect from it, I guessed it was the elevator.

 Rin lead me silently towards one of the doors at the farthest back of the corridor where the light level decreased still.

"The sanctuary exists not simply for King, Garner and myself, we could disappear if we so choose. But there are others who cannot." She explained, her eyes to a panel next to the doors. Her fingers tapped a code into it so quickly even my new eyes couldn't catch it as they blurred with the speed of her actions.

The doors parted, two groans and a loud, unholy shriek curdled the air in the hall and made me jerk back from the opening.

"It's alright," Rin's voice softened, not addressing me. Her eyes were searching the inhabitants within.

My heart was a deranged monkey in a tiny cage, clamouring to get out at this point. I couldn't move any further forward on my feet to see what was inside the room. But, she held her arm forward for me to join her and sheepishly my feet shuffled along the floor until I was stood before the pitch black room.

Inside there were four hospital beds and four resident's. Two seemed confined to their beds, squirming and shrilling away from the minimal light let in from the hallway. One of them, a man, looked as if his body had been covered in acid. The skin melted and wrinkled and still red in places. He was writhing, holding his scarred up arms over his eyes and moaning.