—
It took Reya a moment to calm down. Her mind was still a bit of a mess due to what had occurred during… whatever that was.
She glanced at Evonie before looking over herself. Immediately remembering that she hadn't changed, she ignored the bandaging around her left thigh and shifted to get off the bed.
However, she felt a hand on her shoulder, preventing her from moving even more.
Evonie cleared her throat, making her presence known.
"Reya, you literally just woke up. Where are you going?"
Reya shook off Evonie's hand, stubbornly trying to stand.
"I'm just going to clean up. It'll do the wound some good if I wash up as well."
Reya walked out of the infirmary, trying to ignore the ache from her wound. She knew Evonie followed after her. Reya could feel that Evonie knew something was up with her, judging by how puzzled Evonie looked as she stared at her.
"Are you sure you're fine? You were suddenly trembling in your sleep. Did you…see something? I mean, just any symptoms. Did you experience any—or…?"
Reya had been silently walking into their bedroom and was rummaging through the drawers to get some clothes. When she saw that Evonie was still pestering her even when she was near the bathroom, she rolled her eyes and shot Evonie a glare.
"Ev, I can answer you in due time. But are you going to follow me into the bathroom, or will you shut up and wait for now?"
She saw Evonie pause and look at the bathroom door in front of them, thinking for a moment. Reya raised an eyebrow, expecting Evonie to leave her alone. However, Evonie had once again proven her ability to be ridiculous at times.
"Is me following you into the bathroom the problem, or is it that you want me to shut up? We've changed together a few times in college—"
Reya blinked slowly.
Is this idiot being serious?
"Ev. I'm being serious. We can talk about this later," Reya interjected, her irritation slightly fading due to how blunt her roommate was.
"Besides—that was in college. And it was just changing together," she continued. "I'm pretty sure joining a bath is different.
After scolding Evonie a bit, she finally had the freedom to enter the bathroom peacefully.
—
While Reya was showering, Evonie took the time to casually lie in Reya's bed. She was too lazy to climb into the top bunk and get onto her bed, after all.
She huffed softly, tilting her head to the side. While waiting, she couldn't help the ridiculous thoughts surging into her mind.
Reya often wore loose clothing nowadays, but there was a time she preferred wearing tight sports clothing. She remembered Reya was quite slim and lightly toned, since she was quite sporty even during college
Perhaps she'd grown a few more muscles from having to fight ferals, but Evonie had been joining in with Jun-liang to work out on some days. Did they have similar builds now?
Hm, what does she look like now?
She eventually shook her head, trying to think of something else more urgent.
Right, about Reya's symptoms.
During the time she was fidgeting with Reya's hands, she noticed a sudden change in Reya's expression. Her originally calm face twisted into one of distress, and her hands started shaking.
She didn't know whether to try waking up Reya or not, but before she could settle on a choice, Reya opened her eyes. She couldn't tell if she was imagining it or not, but there was a tinge of red in the corners of her eyes.
But Reya seemed to calm down within a few seconds, and the expression she saw had already been long gone.
Reya… What happened while you were asleep?
Evonie started to speculate a few things, recalling her own experiences. After she had been mixed up with feral blood for the first time and passed out, she also had a series of strange… dreams. It had been so long that she had forgotten, but some of her oldest memories had been carved out of the back of her head and forced to resurface during that time.
—
What the hell? I was just doing my experiments when everything turned black. What happened?
Evonie looked around the surrounding space. She was still in the exact same area. After seeing her tools being exactly the same way they were left, she got back to working.
She didn't notice anything off besides feeling a little lost and woozy. Probably just fatigue catching up.
As she was staring through the microscope, twisting the fine adjustment knob, she noticed something strange with the specimen. When she focused it properly, she saw a bunch of cells dying off and turning black. It continued to spread, and she pulled away from the microscope to see what was going on.
Did I introduce a foreign substance by accident? I was sure I sterilized everything correctly…
She was appalled by the sight of a black mist surrounding her entire worktable. It grew so large until the only thing she could see was black.
Then, she heard a few voices to the right.
"Reya, can't you see what's going on?"
Evonie looked to the right, speechless. Rain was pouring down, almost drowning out the frantic shouts at the scene.
There, she saw their younger selves, soaked in rain, as Reya struggled and tried to run off to her injured mother.
Her own body was holding back the shorter Reya, barely overpowering the shoves and squirming from her.
This memory… so this entire thing is a dream, huh? I should've known.
She remembered desperately holding back Reya, holding back the urge to give in to Reya's demands when she heard the unfamiliar tone leaving her friend's voice. So much hurt and anger—is it really fine to hold her back like this any longer?
Reya's mother had been attacked by a feral back then. The first day the news came out about the existence of these creatures, Reya's mother had encountered and been attacked by one. Although the older woman was bleeding profusely and still had the feral attacking her, her eyes never left the two women a few feet away from her. Evonie paused, seeing the woman smile weakly at her.
Reya was too blinded by emotions to notice, but Evonie saw the older woman shake her head, signalling for them not to get any closer.
Even throughout Reya's struggles, she stuck to the mother's wishes and eventually waited until Reya was exhausted. She gave the woman one last look as she left, noticing the unwavering bright look in those eyes.
Evonie had been silently watching this scene. Her hands trembled a little, and perhaps she felt a small twinge of ache in her heart. But the past had already happened, and she couldn't do anything. It was a memory, after all. From that day on, Reya never looked at her the same way.
—
Reya emerged from the shower, a towel hanging off her shoulder. She noticed Evonie on her bed again, and she scoffed at the sight.
Walking over, she gave Evonie a hard smack on the arm.
"Ev, your bed is on the bunk above."
She saw Evonie's eyes slowly raise up to meet hers. After releasing a small smile, Evonie sat up straight.
"Your hits have gotten weaker."
Reya gave her a glare, thinking Evonie to be ridiculous.
"Do you think the same force I'd use against a feral would be used against you as well?"
Reya sat on the bed beside Evonie, giving up on trying to stop her from lying on her bed.
"Reya, did you dress up your wound after you took the bandages off? " Evonie asked.
Reya paused for a second, and Evonie knew what the answer was.
Eventually, Evonie got to redressing the wound. Reya didn't let out so much as a complaint of any pain as Evonie bandaged her up, but she did wince a few times.
When Evonie was done, Reya sighed softly.
"What was it you were asking about?" Reya started.
"Oh. Your symptoms. You've been bitten. Although not the same as exposure to feral blood, it's likely that something will end up wrong. Have you gotten any symptoms?"
Evonie sighed. What happened really was unfortunate.
Reya paused to think whether she should answer or not. After a second, she mumbled a reply softly.
"Maybe. I don't know what counts as a symptom or not."
"You… fine. You know what? I'll take a different approach. Right now, you can go ahead and do whatever you usually would. Just lay off any missions for the next few weeks. However, I'm planning to bring you to the lab on a regular basis. You had a unique feral encounter, so I don't know what the outcome will be."
"The lab?" Reya frowned, wondering what Evonie was planning.
"Well… to put it roughly, I guess I'll have to perform experiments on you to monitor whatever's happening. We can discuss it at the lab, but we'll start going there tomorrow. And before you object, this is honestly just for safety. Cooperate, for the sake of the group, won't you?"
Reya stared at Evonie's face for a while. She hadn't seen Evonie in such a state for a while. For once, it seemed, she realized the future was indeed uncertain. After a while, Reya decided to nod.
"Fine. We can start with the important things in the lab. But for now, I'll go check things out with the members."
Evonie paused to think. After a bit, she nodded and stood up with Reya.
"Go ahead. I'll head out to check on them as well. They were doing their own thing earlier, so they should be pretty quiet right now."
However, it wasn't long before Reya stumbled after opening the door, feeling Evonie bump into her back as she stopped walking abruptly.
All the members had conveniently noticed that Reya had woken up, and they were standing right in front of the door, staring at her.
—