26. Chapter Twenty-Six Lakey #3
The doctor's face shifted from smug to genuine fear, and satisfaction curled in my gut. "You truly are amazing, Lakey. A pure weapon of rage. You were one of my finest projects."
I dug the blade in deeper, flicking it upward and slicing off a piece of his cheek.
He bit back a scream. "Talking by two, reading by three, doing full blown mathematics. You were... marvelous. It's a shame you don't remember. You can come home you know. The key lives inside of you."
Pulling the knife away, I paused. He was telling me things, things I had no access to. I wanted to know more. Until he followed it up with:
"Chimera will welcome you home, little lamb."
A scream resounded in the room as I drove the scalpel through his eye.
"Lakey," Cam's voice cut through my rage as he grabbed my hand, preventing me from taking the doctor's other eye. "We need him alive."
I turned to look at Cam, my grip on the scalpel never wavering. Blood dripped down my hand, splashing on the white tiles. "No, we don't. This stupid fuck won't tell us anything else."
I didn't want to know anything else. Not from him.
I was done. I'd track down the girl, alone if I had to, and the rest would be left to fate.
I was through with this little mission. Cam sighed and released my wrist and with a savage grin I swung the blade down, through his eye, twisting, forcing it into his brain.
The doctor died a death that was too easy for the pain he inflicted.
This asshole no longer held secrets that could destroy me.
He was empty. I stood over his body, probing it with my foot before stomping on his leg for fun, grinning as it snapped under the force.
My breath came in slow, measured inhales and exhales.
The rage that had consumed me moments ago ebbed away, leaving a cold, detached clarity in its wake.
I wiped the blood onto my pants, admiring what a pretty pink it stained my hands.
As much as I tried to shove it all out of my head, my mind raced, piecing together the fragments of information we'd extracted.
The Vessel. The girl. Patient X and Y. It was all connected, a twisted web of secrets and lies that I was determined to unravel, without the help of the likes of him.
No, these animals deserved death, not redemption. Certainly not salvation.
"Well," I said, my voice unnervingly cheerful, "that was certainly informative."
Cam grunted, already rifling through the doctor's files. "You could say that. Though I think we might've gotten more if you hadn't, you know, eviscerated him. Maybe I wanted some answers, Lakes. Did you think of that?"
I shrugged, a small smile on my lips. "Details, details. Besides, dead men tell no tales... but their paperwork might."
As Cam stuffed files into his backpack, I turned my attention to the filing cabinets lining the wall. My fingers trailed over the labels, searching. Two folders, side by side, marked simply 'X' and 'Y' sat there taunting me.
"Bingo," I said, snatching them up.
My heart hammered as I flipped open the 'X' file. Inside here was everything about me, I hoped. The truth about my past, about the child that had been ripped from my arms.
But as I scanned the pages, it hit me. This wasn't just about me. It was about us. Cam and me. Patient X and Patient Y.
As one.
"Cam," I called out, my voice tight. "I think you need to see this."
His expression darken as he skimmed the files. His eyes narrowed, a muscle twitching beneath his skin. I'd seen that look before. The calm before the storm, the moment just before he unleashed hell.
"Well, isn't this just fucking great," he said, slamming the folder shut. "Looks like we've been lab rats our whole lives, Lakey. And here I thought our childhood couldn't get any more fucked up."
I laughed, but it was hollow. "At least we're together, right? No matter what they did, we ended up together." I reached out, intertwining my fingers with his. The touch grounded me, even as my world tilted on its axis.
We stood there for a moment, processing. Then, almost in sync, we snapped back into action mode. There'd be time to unpack all this later. Right now, we had a job to finish.
"Let's get our sleeping beauty and blow this hellhole. We can comb through all this shit later."
Cam nodded. He grabbed the laptop that had been sitting on the desk, stuffing it in the front pocket of his backpack before zipping it shut and affixing it to his chest.
I did one last sweep of the room. My gaze fell on a small teddy bear, tucked away in a corner. It was worn, one eye missing, stuffing poking out of a torn seam. Without really knowing why, I grabbed it, shoving it into my jacket pocket.
We didn't talk as we went back up the stairs and exited the orphanage. Grabbing the girl off the grass, I helped Cam strap her onto his back using strap downs he had in his tail bag.
"Ready?" Cam asked, adjusting his weight as he started his bike.
I nodded, my mind already racing ahead. "Yeah. Let's go home and see what other skeletons we can drag out of Chimera's closet."