People have started to let their guard down by staying out later or not keeping such a close eye on the desert land when the sun goes down. Some even bail out and head for the hills; not wanting to protect their colony, but hide. It’s driving me mad, but there’s nothing I can do. They won’t listen to me because I’m not human; something which I try not to think about.
On the fourth day, when I stop by to check up on Mathew, I decide to talk to him about it; to see if he’ll talk to them about being more careful.
“You need to talk to your people,” I announce as I enter his lab. “They’re…” I trail off at the sight of the mess that surrounds him. Empty vials are strewn everywhere, flasks, garbage, spilt liquids on the floor, and Mathew stands in it all with his eyes pressed to that strange device he pointed at the other day; the one he said would help him study our blood.
“What on earth,” I say, maneuvering around the mess. “Don’t you ever clean up in here?”
He falters back with his hand pressed to his heart, his elbow bumping the counter and putting a dent in it. Strange. “Goodness, I didn’t hear you come in.”
“I said something as I walked in,” I say, glass crunching under my boot, eyeing over his extremely healthy state. I mean, he’s been looking healthier and healthier by the day, but he’s almost glowing with strength. “Didn’t you hear me?”
He shakes his head, looking distracted. “No… no… I was…” He drifts off as he puts his eyes back on the strange device, turning the knob on the side. “Well, I was having an epiphany.”
“Over what?”
He glances up at me, his eyes shining with excitement. “Over a cure.”
I rush up to him. “You figured it out?”
“Well, yes and no.” He gestures at himself as he squares his shoulders. “I’ve been studying my blood and well…” he trails off, glancing around with a puzzled look. Then something clicks in his expression and he hurries back to the wall.
“What are you…?”
I trail off as he rams his fist through the wall. Bits and pieces of brick shatter and fly through the air. My jaw hits my knees as I gape at him, stepping back as my hand moves to my knife.
“What are you?” I ask, drawing my knife out of my back pocket.
He surrenders his hands in front of him. “Kayla, relax. I’m still me, simply stronger… just like you.”
My arm falls to my side. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
He lowers his hands and rushes towards me, beaming from ear to ear. “Yes,” he says. “You’re blood didn’t just cure me; it turned me into a Day Walker.”
“That can’t be possible,” I argue against the bluntly honest truth in front of me. I can see it in his eyes; the power, the strength, the confidence. “Sylas didn’t...” I trail off, remembering how he seemed to be stronger as we ran here and how, when he kisses me, there is so much more behind it I thought I’d bruise. I’ve never felt like I could bruise before. Unlike Mathew, however, I’m not happy. “Well, that doesn’t do us any good,” I say. “Because we’re not trying to turn the world into a bunch of Day Walkers. We want to be human again, right?”
“Of course,” he says and I can tell he means it, that he wants the world to return to what it was. “And we’re one step closer to it.”
“How so?”
“Because…” He hurries over to the cabinet, unintentionally smashing things in as he goes. “Now I understand the way the virus and the cure work.” He takes out a few vials and the leftover papers of Monarchs with his handwriting scribbled all over them. “Monarch kept rambling in these,” he says, staring down at the papers. “How he managed to make you immune to the vampire virus even before you were changed into…” He peeks over at me with an apologetic face. “Well, before he turned you into whatever you were before you were a Day Walker.” He taps his finger on the papers. “It means at one point you were still in human form and withstanding the virus.” He gathers the papers and vials and then moves over to the table, arranging them out.
“When I was injected with your blood, my blood took on the structure of yours,” he says. “Therefore, I became a Day Walker, so if I can return you to your human state, then your blood could turn any person back to their human state.”
“But wouldn’t you be making a cure by turning me back into a human?”
He shakes his head. “There’s something in your blood, Kayla; something that kills the virus instantly. So if we can break down the various viruses in you and eliminate them, then we might be able to get you back to your human form,” he says. “It would make you a viable host and cure because your blood would not only heal the infected person and change them back to human, but it would also protect them when getting bit again.”
“But what if when you turn me back,” I say. “Then I’m no longer the cure; what if it’s my Day Walker blood that’s the cure.”
He shakes his head. “I already told you, Monarch said you weren’t responding to the virus even when you were a child,” he says. “But honestly I don’t know, not until we try it.”
“But what if you try it and then I change back and I’m merely useless.”
“I’m not going to lie to you, Kayla. It’s a risk. You just need to decide if you want to take it. And I’d make sure to have a lot of your original blood on hand as backup.”
I’m not sure how to respond. He acts like he’s playing mad scientist, which is what started this entire problem in the first place. So many things could go wrong. “And how would you even do it?” I ask. “Figure out how to turn me back to human?”
He swallows hard, his cheery demeanor darkening a little. “There was this thing we used to do called a fading,” he says. “Back in my experiment days, after a subject had been tested and tested on, we’d try to wipe the virus out of their bodies so we could start the testing process on them again; make them usable again, like a clean slate.”
I give him a dirty look. “And did they live?”
He bites on his lip, looking guilty. “Most didn’t, but a few strong ones did,” he says.
“And what were they like?” I say coldly. “These people that you faded. Were they normal humans again?”