Chapter 21: The Scarlet Hand

Everyone’s focus snapped to the raven-haired girl as she rested her head against her arms, showing pointed, elf-like ears and pointed fangs.

"I’m not a vampire... I’m a vespertine reaper."

Anthony held up a hand. "Cool. I’m a legendkin, which is why Rachel sought me out to see what I’m about... What? We’re all confessing here," he laughed as she gave him a dull look. "I can take the heat, too. Oh, and she’s just a beastkin domestic cat," he said, jabbing a thumb at Zoe. "No threat."

"Thanks for the depression," Zoe grumbled, lowering her head, ears, and tail; Scarlet chuckled at her melancholy groan.

"I’d much rather be a beastkin domestic cat... Wait! What are you—Mrs. Peck?"

Scarlet’s wide eyes shot to the door as it opened, revealing the volunteer scientist with glasses who came bustling through with a guard, carrying a tablet and wearing a smile. Curiously, the first thing out of her mouth was a lie, drawing Rachel’s mouth in; what was going on?

"Whoa?! Scarlet? I didn’t know you were the..." She froze, blue eyes drifting from the stunned girl—somehow even paler than usual—to Anthony, Zoe, and settling on Rachel. "You’re not supposed to be here—why are you here!? You need to leave!"

Utterly taken by surprise and feeling whiplash from her lying tone to anger, Rachel’s ears went straight up; this woman had given her no reason to follow her until now. "Excuse me? Uh...who are—"

"Leave now!" she snarled, nose flaring and causing the soldiers to straighten at her sudden outburst. "Remove her from the campus! Lt. Herrero, she will ruin everything—she is a mythickin!"

Mind accelerating at the rapidly evolving situation, Rachel had no idea how she should respond; she’d never met this woman in her life, and no matter how she spun it, her brain drew a complete blank. Still, a weight pressed against her chest, telling Rachel this person was dangerous.

"How do you know she’s a mythickin?" Anthony cautiously asked.

Zoe shrank in her chair. "Yeah, that’s weird... Do you know her, Scarlet?"

The soldier held her back, and Mateo watched silently; a few of his men were now on alert from her sporadic ravings, in case they needed to force her out.

"She isn’t supposed to be here!" Mrs. Peck shouted, throwing a finger in her direction and making Rachel recoil a little as things escalated. "Scarlet, kill her! Kill her now before she ruins everything!"

Mateo held up his hands. "Okay, Vincent, get her out of here and figure out what the hell is going on..."

"No! No, there’s no time!" the woman cried, trying to fight the muscular soldier’s guiding arms without much success. "Lt. Herrero, you don’t understand—she’s the Bringer of Misfortune! She will destroy everything!"

"Uh-huh," Anthony muttered, likely recalling the Feats Rachel had shared. "You don’t know her, right, Rachel?"

"No... Scarlet?"

The fanged girl dropped back into her seat, mouth open and fangs showing from the gaps in the muzzle as the woman was hauled out, practically screaming. "She...was my science teacher... This is the weirdest nightmare! Please...please, just let me wake up," she cried, burying her head in her arms. "I want to wake up!"

"What was your take on that, Rachel?" Mateo asked, now standing and staring at the door. "She knew you were a mythickin."

Gears turning again, Rachel crossed her legs and folded her arms, gaze lowering to the floor as she thought aloud to kill two birds with one stone. "It doesn’t make sense unless she has powerful sensory abilities like me. She could have listened in on the conversations I’ve had with Zoe and Anthony; the problem is..."

"She didn’t know you were here," Anthony finished, making Zoe’s mouth slacken in realization. "Yet, at the same time, she appeared to know about your transformation before even meeting you. Future sight? She said you weren’t supposed to be here."

Zoe swiftly nodded. "Yeah, yeah! Future sight is a really good guess—like, clairvoyance, or something. But wait, she also didn’t know Scarlet was the vampire—eh, vespertine reaper."

Rachel shook her head, tone brooding. "It was a lie; I heard it in the way her heart fluttered. She definitely knew Scarlet had changed."

They could still hear her yells continuing down the hall, drawing a lot of attention before settling down when Mateo radioed his man who was forcing her out.

"Vincent, take her to a room and keep her on watch; I have questions for her."

Expecting the task to be done, considering he had his hands full, he centered on their discussion again.

"What are you saying?" Scarlet asked her, suddenly invested in the conversation as each of the Green Berets’ attention was pulled to whoever spoke. "Are you saying s-she’s also a part of the Scarlet Hand? No, that’s, heh, that’s impossible... She was my teacher last year!"

Rachel’s ears tilted forward, a smile lifting her lips as the girl gave her a lead. "The Scarlet Hand? You have my attention, and Vincent is taking her down the hall to an empty classroom, Mateo," she commented.

He nodded, now taking up a position against the wall. "The Scarlet Hand is a cult that Scarlet’s parents operated, so far—"

"It’s not true!" Scarlet hissed, blood suddenly flying out of her body to hover around her.

"Scarlet!" Mateo warned, the men’s rifles swapping to the girl, eyes wide and breathing heavily. "Stand down!"

"It’s not! It’s... It can’t be real! I didn’t kill him! Why is this happening to me?" she suddenly whimpered, crimson tears falling from her eyes to land on her straitjacket before sinking back into her skin.

Tail stiffening with the sudden threat she felt from the black-haired girl, Rachel’s gut tightened as she got up; instinctively, she knew this girl could cut her to ribbons if she wanted. If things went on like this, she could have a full psychotic break, which could make Miami turn out like Seattle.

Instead of retreating with everyone else, Rachel slowly walked closer, holding out her hands to show she wasn’t a threat; she knew it wasn’t possible to be a threat to this vespertine reaper.

"Scarlet... I know this all feels like a nightmare, and I wish it was, too. Hehe. I lost all my muscle, and I know that can’t compare to whatever you must be feeling... I think I can help you, though."

"How?" Scarlet cried, a bloody pool cycling to form a cocoon around the panicking girl. Rachel had seen people have panic attacks before or even during fights, and the first thing you had to do was get them to focus on something that could bring them out of the loop they were stuck in. "This can’t be real!"

"Sir?" Cameron muttered, waiting for the order to fire.

Mateo snorted. "You saw her take a shotgun to the back, Cameron; I don’t think anything less than a focused charge is going to blow through that blood field she can make."

"Yeah..."

"Help me understand," Rachel pressed, keeping Scarlet’s attention. "Talk to me—tell me about what happened."

"My parents, t-they weren’t, heh, cult leaders. That’s, eh-heh—that’s insane! No, my dad’s just a-a... He does stocks and investments. It’s a hobby—"

"Slow down," Rachel whispered. "What hobby?"

"D&D! Ugh. Ah-hah. Yeah," the vampiric girl gulped, feverish eyes darting to the floor. "I hated it. They’d have their f-friends over—roleplaying stuff... D&D isn’t demonic or evil... They were just...just weird," she choked. "But they never h-hurt anyone! V-Veronica’s not dead—my mom couldn’t kill her... It wasn’t a cult!"

Legs quivering, Scarlet fell to her knees, ripping the sleeves of the straitjacket reflexively as she reached up to wipe at her blood-stained cheeks and rip off her muzzle. "I didn’t kill my dad! I didn’t! Why is this happening to me? It’s Scarlet’s fault—it’s not me! It’s not me..."

"Scarlet’s fault?" Zoe mumbled, clearly thinking she had some kind of mental issue or dissociative disorder.

Rachel wasn’t sure if she had that impression, but she also needed to be cautious. There was something impossible about the girl, dissociative or not; she had to calm her down if she was going to get answers. Moving slowly until she was close enough to kneel down beside her, Rachel carefully pulled the weeping girl in.

"It’s okay... Everything’s going to be okay." The blood closed around her, sealing them in a dome and blotting out all noise from the outside world. "It’s okay... Do you want me to call you Scarlet?"

"It’s... It’s not fair! Why am I possessed by—mmgm!" She dug her fingernails into her head, alarming Rachel for a second, but they instantly healed. "What is she? Why did my parents pray to—summon this...this evil thing?! It wasn’t them... It’s not me—it couldn’t be me... Why..."

Letting her release the scars on her heart, Rachel drew her in. She could sense her death from every angle, making her body want to move, but she fought past the instinct; quick action equaled death.