Later on, I would just tell her I was in the shower or something.
Speaking of which, I sincerely did need to take a shower. Something about killing people always made me feel really dirty, even when no blood got on me. Certainly, slaughtering this serial killer hadn’t been my first time, although I had never taken the life of someone innocent. Thus far, I’d only killed people who had committed murder at least once, viewing it as an eye for an eye.
And I never felt remorse for slaughtering a murderer, although I did always feel filthy afterward.
Dropping into our secluded backyard, I allowed my body to quickly deconstruct my wings and turn back into my human form. I was glad our house was surrounded by trees without any close neighbors. Otherwise, it would be difficult for me to come and go in this manner.
I then dashed inside and quickly got in the shower to begin rinsing off, in order to get rid of the sensation that was beginning to plague my mind. Unexpectedly, it was washing my hands thoroughly and roughly that seemed to help.
Satisfied that they were clean — and that my conscience felt clean — I let the water cascade down the back of my neck and along my spine. After a moment, a deep sigh escaped my chest and I felt my muscles finally relax. I was glad Gabriella was safe, and that she would probably recover without any physical scarring. However, I knew she might be mentally scarred for life, depending on what she had endured prior to me rescuing her.
Sighing again, I sat down in the shower and tried to clear my thoughts of her, because thinking about the hot redhead was both arousing me and making me pissed again. For one, part of me just felt wrong about jerking off right now, but then I was sincerely pissed at the dead man who might have taken advantage of her, beyond just touching her.
I wanted to stab him in the heart again. I almost wished I had killed him more slowly. Made him suffer more before he died.
‘Stop,’ I chastised myself. ‘She’s not yours. And she never will be. Just stop it. She’s alive. You did a good thing. Now move on.’
I cleared my mind again, and remained like that for a long time, letting the sensation of the water running over me be my only thought. This was the fourth time I had killed someone, with the last three times all happening within the last three and a half years — because that’s about how long Serenity had been a detective. Prior to that, the first and only other time that I’d killed someone, it had been truly an accident when I stumbled upon the scene. At least, an accident in the sense that I hadn’t gone looking for it, knowing what I would find.
Although, me killing the murderer certainly wasn’t an accident. It was also the only time I’d been too late to save the victim, and thus the only time I’d killed out of revenge instead of defense.
At the time, I’d only been nine years old, with the incident happening nine years ago. There had been a full moon that night, which meant I was struggling to sleep, as usual — that always seemed to happen once a month, as if the moon wanted me to come out to play. Or, at least, that’s what my nine-year-old self thought.
I snuck out of the house at about 2 AM, only to have my nose catch the trail of some weird smells that confused me. Within thirty minutes of running on foot, I’d discovered the source, shocked by the scene I stumbled upon.
I’d never been a fan of scary movies, since being afraid or startled could make me transform, so it had been especially traumatizing to discover a horror scene in real life.
Except that was the difference — it was real life. It wasn’t a movie, it wasn’t pretend, and I wasn’t helpless to change the plot unfolding before me. Nevertheless, even though I prevented the monster from dealing the finishing blow, the pregnant woman still died in my small arms just before the paramedics arrived.
Traumatizing indeed, for a nine-year-old, human or not. I didn’t return home that night for almost three hours, and even then, I didn’t act normal for months. Everyone knew something was wrong, but I wasn’t willing to share with any of them what I’d experienced. Nevertheless, the extra affection I got from my mom and sister were what helped me eventually recover.
Unexpectedly, I heard my sister’s car pull up to the house, which snapped me out of my trance, prompting me to realize the water had long since gotten cold. Extreme temperatures didn’t bother me as much as it seemed to bother normal people, so it wasn’t unusual for me to not notice the cold water. I certainly could tell that there was a temperature difference when I was paying attention, so I preferred hot showers like anyone else. But, whether scalding hot or freezing cold, the extremes were easily bearable.
I quickly turned the water off and jumped out.
After drying off, I glanced at my phone to see that I’d showered for over an hour and a half. I grimaced, as I mumbled to myself. “Well, hopefully she won’t be too pissed I used up all the hot water.” Although, I knew it should be warm again within an hour, so it wasn’t like it was the end of the world.
Quickly brushing my short hair, I then got dressed in black gym shorts and a dark gray t-shirt, before exiting the bathroom to head downstairs when I heard the front door crack open.
However, just as I took the first step, I realized there was a second heartbeat with my sister — a heartbeat that was pounding rather quickly. Serenity appeared in the doorway, catching sight of me frozen at the top of the stairs.
“Oh, hey! I tried calling you. They found her!” she announced.
I only nodded, trying to smile as Gabriella stepped into sight, looking straight down, her face actively turning red. Serenity noticed my odd reaction, but continued with her statement anyway.
“She’s been through a lot, so she’s going to stay with us tonight.”
Despite Gabriella’s embarrassed reaction, I honestly wasn’t sure if she knew who saved her. After all, she’d only met me once, although my face still looked the same when I was transformed — the only difference was the coloring. I was glad it was dark when I found her, because that meant it was possible she might not realize it was me. However, I still didn’t want to hang around too long and give her the chance to figure it out.
After all, I’d spoken to her too, so even just talking too much might tip her off.
“Right…” I said hesitantly, looking away. “She can sleep in my bed.”
“Kai!” Serenity exclaimed.
Suddenly confused, I looked back at her, noticing that Gabriella’s face was now even more flushed too, almost matching her red hair. Which was so red that I would have thought was dyed were it not for the fact that I could detect the difference in smell between natural hair, extensions, and dyed hair.
And then it finally dawned on me what it sounded like I was saying.
I quickly held up my hands in shock. “No, no, no! I didn’t mean it like that. I’ll sleep on the couch, obviously. Jeez sis, way to make things awkward.”
But I knew it wasn’t just my sister. Gabriella had misinterpreted what I meant too — that much was obvious just from the color of her face. Was it because of how I’d said it? Maybe my tone was off?