----Sam----

On my way to the kitchen, Lily rolls over on the couch, telling me she's awake. Grabbing a glass of water, I sit next to her as she sits up.

"So, what are you doing up so early?" I ask.

She shrugs. "I'm always up early. Every night, I wake up at three, go back to sleep, wake up at four and so on."

"You've only got yourself to blame for that one. Bad sleeping habits." I take a sip of my water.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." She waves me off. "Just wondering, why don't you have any pictures of your family anywhere? Yeah, I know, bad past and all, but don't you want to remember what they look like?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Just 'cause."

"Wow, that explains everything."

I push her, a small smile finding my lips. "Shut up, I'm not a morning person."

"Yeah, I can tell," She says, and I take another sip of my water. "With that crazy hair, it's obvious."

I almost choke on my water. "You think this is crazy? Wait until you see Simon."

"He wears a hairband, he's fine."

I look at her deadpan. "Not when he sleeps."

"Oh god..."

"And I'm always the one who has to deal with the knots."

"Tough luck."

"You're lucky you don't have to take care of him, he's psycho."

"Or is it the other way around? Because I'm sure that if I asked Simon, he would say I'm lucky that I don't need to put up with you all day."

I laugh quietly. "That's true too."

Neither of us says anything for a while, then I ask "Why do you dye your hair rainbow?"

"I don't."

"Then why is it rainbow?"

"I don't know, I was born a weird mutant."

"You're not weird."

She laughs humorlessly. "Yeah right. I'm a freak. I fangirl over binomials and Pythagoras."

"Hey, it's better than thinking about using things for research when you see a dead animal."

"Excuse me?" Someone says, making me jump. "Wow, that's rude."

I look over the couch and find Jacob and Jay up, a black cat in Jay's arms. Neither of them could have said it, the voice was feminine.

Jacob laughs quietly at my reaction. "It was the cat."

"Cats can't talk."

"This guy is offensive," the voice says, the cat's mouth moving in time with it.

My confusion must show on my face because Jacob laughs again.

"What the heck?"

"Just go with it," Jay says.

"Do you mind if I get a blood sample?"

The cat jumps out of Jay's arms, standing in front of me. "Yes. If you dare touch me, I will claw your face off."

I shrug. "Fair enough."

"I honestly expected you to freak out more," Lily says.

I smile tugs at my lips. "You've been missing out on a lot at school. Nobody knows what reality is or why any of it is happening."

Jay looks down quickly and Jacob shifts from foot to foot uncomfortably. I look at Lily, who pulls her shirt down like it wasn't already down.

"You guys know something..."

"Yup. But Jay won't tell you, and these two won't because it's for Jay to tell," the cat says.

"So is it safe to assume it has something to do with Jay?"

"Yeah."

"Did the cat talk?" Simon asks drowsily, walking in.

"Yes," the cat and I say in unison.

Lily and Jacob burst out laughing at his hair that's everywhere, making him look like a mad scientist. His cheeks turn rosy pink.

"Shut up."

"You're lucky I'm not like them every morning," I say, and he rolls his eyes. "Well, since everyone is up now, let's have breakfast."

"Don't you normally fix my hair first?"

"Yeah, but I'm gonna let these guys have their fun," I say, smirking. "It's probably been a while since they have."

"And what exactly happened to cause that?"

Walked right into that one.

"I don't know. What happened to me wasn't what happened to them, I'm certain."

"What happened to you?" Jay asks.

I look at him and he understands, nodding his head.

"Sam, you use to tell me everything, then you disappeared and when you came, you wouldn't tell me anything. What happened?"

I look down, unable to meet his gaze.

"Leave him be," Jay says. "Just be glad that he has a soul. Be glad that he wasn't gone too long that everyone assumed he died. Be glad that he found his way back to you."

Simon doesn't say anything, silence filling the room.

After a minute, I say, "Well, let's get breakfast."

————

"You're probably going to say no, but I'm going to ask anyway. Can I fix those cuts?" I ask Jay after breakfast, lifting my legs onto the couch.

He hesitates, and after a full minute, says, "Fine."

"Really? Why the change of mind?"

He doesn't say anything.

"Alright," I say, getting off the couch even though I got comfy. "Well, you're going to want privacy, so we'll go in the bathroom. Everything's already there."

He follows me to the bathroom silently. I pull a stool in front of the mirror, and motion for him to sit down. He does, still close to my height. The guy is a tower.

I take the cloth, running it under water to get it wet. "Shirt off."

After a moment's hesitation, he pulls his shirt over his head, fiddling with it to calm himself down. Acting in a dramatic way will only make him tense, so I fight the urge to gasp at his appearance.

Whip marks line his skin, patterned to form words engraved into him. Slave, peasant, mute, slut... Some carved into him from a knife. Dried blood covers him like a base coating of paint, the background of the words cut into him.

Added on top of the list of health issues, he's all skin and bones. His ribs and shoulder blades are clearly visible. The only ok thing about him is his muscles, well-defined. Despite his skeleton-like figure, he's strong enough to kill me. His height was already intimidating, I don't need another reason to fear him.

"Don't just stand there and stare," he says, his deep voice bringing me back to reality.

I squeeze out some water into the sink, then get to work cleaning off the dried blood as gently as I can. No matter how hard I try not to hurt him, it's going to hurt. He doesn't say anything and doesn't flinch when I do hit a sore spot.

"Why won't you tell Simon what happened?" He asks after a few minutes of silence.

"What do you mean?" I squeeze blood out of the cloth into the sink, running it under water.

"You found your way back to him, why aren't you taking the chance of a better life?"

I go back to cleaning. "I only got here a week ago, I just need time."

"What if there is no time?"

"There's time."

"You should talk to him. You still have him, don't let it be for nothing."

"Who's your family?" I ask cautiously.

"When I was three, I followed a tiger, got kidnapped, and escaped when I was eleven. By then I didn't know who my family was and everyone thought I was dead. I don't have any family, but you do. You have someone who will listen, why won't you talk?"

"I'm supposed to be there for Simon, not the other way around. I can't give him more problems to deal with."

"You're going to lose yourself."

I put the cloth down, wishing I could be as controlled and calm as Jay is.

"I held everything in, and look how well that turned out for me."

"I'm not as strong as you, ok? There's a lot of things the nobody knows about me because Simon depends on me for support. He has a hard time dealing with the wolves as it is, he doesn't need anything else holding him back. The one time I held him back, my sister died."

"No, that's not what he needs. He needs the old you back."

"Well, that's not happening because that place is going to haunt me for the rest of my life."

"But they didn't do anything to you."

My heart stops. "What?"

"I know that place more than anyone. If Nico is going to do something, he's going all in. You look ok, which means they didn't do anything to you physically."

"No, but I know biology."

"And?"

I sigh. "They treated me fine, but only because they wanted to use me. I know the ins and outs of the human body. They came to me for advice. They wanted to know what chemicals reacted with people and those types of things. I didn't know what they wanted it for, but it was probably used on you."

"Now you just told me, a complete stranger, why don't you tell Simon?"

"You didn't agree to me fixing you up to actually get fixed, did you?" I say, finally catching on.

"It was twenty-five percent of the reason.

"And seventy'five percent to tell me to tell Simon..."

"No, that's only twenty-five as well."

"And the other fifty percent?"

"Secret," he says, and I smile a little.

"You're saying that to annoy me," I say, and he looks down. "Your eyes give you away."

"Why do you think I always avoid eye contact?" He says as I resume cleaning.

"Now it's my turn to be annoying. You just told me how to know if you're lying, thanks."

"Everyone already knows that. People will talk to me and look directly at my eyes for some type of reaction, they never get any."

I laugh quietly. "Of course not, you're Jay. It'd be a miracle if that happened."

I take out medicine for cuts out of the cabinet. "Now this might sting."

"Wow, never would've guessed. Chemicals might hurt, really? My life is a lie."

"Shut up," I say, putting some on my hand and gently applying it to the cuts.

After a while, I ask, "Why do you hang out with Jacob?"

"I ask myself that every day."

"How did you two meet in the first place? You're opposites."

"Well, I walked out of the woods, probably looking like a caveman, and Jacob saw me because he had recess. Since it was normal for everyone to beat me, I just stood there petrified."

"Even if you hadn't gone through anything, Jacob is still scary. I swear, one day he's going to self-destruct because of all his energy."

"That too. Anyway, since I looked like some psychopath, he saw me as an animal more than a person. I was familiar to that, that was all I'd ever known so that oddly comforted me...Somehow..."

"It's not odd, it makes sense."

He looks down.

"So what happened next?"

He shrugs. "I adapted to society."

"You're an interesting person Jay..."

After ten minutes, I finish with the medicine.

Ok, I am sorry for not uploading in forever. I had a big social studies project to do. I will try to update a little faster than I did this time. Actually, was it four days since I uploaded? That's not a long time...Never mind!

But really, sorry.

Anyway, vote, comment, etc. 

-Mc out