Chapter 92: 92-Gentle Touch And Another Mate.
Clementine:
However, before the monster could attack me, Yorick grabbed him by the neck and tossed him into the shelves. One shelf toppled into another, and I knew it would cause a lot of noise. Yorick quickly ran to hold the other shelf, stopping it from falling, but the products still rained down. I got up, grabbed the butcher knife I’d used earlier, and swung it at the creature’s neck. Its head rolled under the counter while the body collapsed on the spot.
I booked over to Yorick, who was holding the shelf, and tried to lift the one leaning on it.
"Yorick," I said. He nodded as I reached for the tilted shelf and began forcing it upright. With most of the products spilled, it was lighter, and I managed to set it back in place. Yorick was free. He stepped away from the shelf and stared at the creature’s head and body.
"What do you think these things are called?" he asked, examining it.
"I don’t know. Do you think we should give it a name?" I asked, feeling so weird in the presence of a dead monster.
He nodded while I walked past him to check outside the shop, making sure more weren’t coming after the noise we’d made. Thankfully, there weren’t many creatures around, so we were safe. But, like Yorick said, we needed a name.
"How about Fleshmingo?" he suggested and I began to laugh a little.
"What do you have against flamingos?" I asked, trying to pick up the head. The sight made me gag. Yorick must have noticed, because he gently pushed me aside and covered it with a brown paper bag.
"They just look like flamingos," he said with a shrug.
"Well then, Fleshmingo it is," I agreed.
We walked around, checking the windows and then the food on the shelves. One by one, I realized everything was expired, some as far back as 2000.
"It’s been so long," I said, showing him the date on a can.
"I wonder what these people were eating," I added, thinking about the mothers who had just given birth.
"I’m pretty sure the fleshmingos were eating them," he said, trying to be corny.
"I’m sure I saw you go into the mansion. How did you end up outside?" he asked. Now that we’d explored and knew we were safe for the night, he faced me with his hands on his waist.
"The white squad kicked me out," I said, keeping my answer short.
"Why? Why would they just kick you out?" he asked, looking me in the eye. I tried not to give him the satisfaction or say anything that would stroke his ego, but he was being pushy.
"Fine. I was trying to open the door for you," I admitted, noticing a smile spread across his face. "Don’t get me wrong. We only did it because we were already short on squad members." No matter what excuse I gave, he seemed happy with my answer.
"But you shouldn’t do that next time. You know it’s dangerous here," he said, his tone shifting to genuine advice.
"Don’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t do. You know I do whatever I want," I replied, more sharply than I intended. It was my way of coping after he made me confess something. Now I had to act bitter to balance it out.
"Boy, Haiden must be freaking out." Yorick rubbed his hands a little more excitedly as he mentioned that Haiden had become too aggressive and possessive about me, and worried, too.
"They were also fighting the white squad so they could let you in." As soon as I said that, his smile faded.
"Well, sometimes things get so messy you don’t realize who’s your friend and who’s your enemy," he said, and I agreed. I had no idea why they had turned against each other, and I didn’t like it. From the hints and arguments, most of it was about me, and I didn’t want to be the reason they were fighting.
"Anyway, I hope they’re fine. There are only two of them, and there’s a whole white squad in that mansion." I groaned, sitting by the window to look at the moon. The window was high enough that the Fleshmingos would only see us if we stood up. Yorick sat beside me, leaning against the wall with his back to the window, facing away from the full moon.
"So are you really thinking about giving him a chance?" The question came out of nowhere. I didn’t expect him to care so much about what I planned to do.
"No, I haven’t thought about it. I just don’t think it’s a good idea. We’re in a place where any of us could die at any moment, so why build a connection that will be left broken once one of us is gone?" I kept my eyes on the moon as clouds slowly filled the sky. It was going to rain again.
North was strange and scarier. Every time I was here, it felt like a dream, but not a pleasant one, the one with nightmares and monsters.
"You know, I did bet on you," Yorick said, finally bringing up our past. I didn’t expect it, but I listened. We were stuck in a shop full of expired goods, starving, and talking was better than thinking about food.
"But halfway through, things changed for me," he continued, catching me off guard. "That’s why I reacted so aggressively when I saw that clip." His elbows rested on his knees, head down, hands clasped together.
His confession caught me by surprise. It might have mattered if he’d said it earlier, but too much time had passed and things had gotten complicated between us. I’d started to have mixed feelings toward him and his behavior, to the point where I saw him as a red flag. Still, that didn’t change the fact that I found him attractive. Maybe it was just physical. He’d been good to me during the first two weeks of our relationship, but what he did after finding that clip was insane.
"I began to fall for you, Clementine," he said plainly. My body jolted slightly, but I didn’t move. I acted like I was invisible.
"I fell hard for you, and then when I started to bully you, it was revenge for cheating on me. I hated that I was falling for you, so I tried to make you hate me. I thought if you pushed me away, I could hate you back. But it didn’t make sense, every time you were in front of me, I still felt this pull toward you."
He spoke with his head down, fists clenched, muscles tense. Whatever he was feeling, pain, anger, aggression, it was real.
I began to feel suffocated in the moment. I didn’t know why, but I did. I started to get up, and I guess he noticed, because he turned to me in haste and grabbed my arms.
"Wait, I didn’t want to freak you out."
The moment he said that and held my arms, a strange coldness spread through my body. We were standing close, his grip having pulled me toward him. Our eyes locked, and I wasn’t sure what he was feeling, but I was caught in something strange. The full moon hung high in the sky, and my body trembled under his touch. My heart skipped beats, then began to match his heartbeat, the one I wasn’t supposed to hear but could hear clearly.
And then I heard it. The haunting word my wolf spoke froze me where I stood, like a corpse.
"Mate."