Nobody is stupid enough to venture into unknown territories, except for Ilya. Don't get him wrong! He never meant to enter that mysterious village.
Fate led him there to save, or be saved.
"Peekaboo!"
Beast is a cruel creature that used to be human...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Ilya stayed quiet. Confusion was written all over his face.
How? He was sure he took a New York City subway. Did I sleep all the way to another state?
Then the looks the hybrid creatures gave him made his skin crawl. He hated being the center of attention. And mostly, he hated the way Pig and Beast waited for his reaction to the news.
A little smile tugged at their lips. They were enjoying it.
He sipped his tea, eyeing both mutants from the corners of his eyes.
Then he spoke, "Will the nuclear leak affect me too?"
That was the question that disturbed him the most. If he was in this mysterious town in Pennsylvania, then he was close enough to the location of the nuclear accident. And if the effects of the accident were still happening in this town, then he'd eventually turn into one of them.
Pig and Beast burst out laughing.
Chills ran through Ilya's body. His stomach churned. He left the teacup on the table in front of him and further curled upon himself, wrapping the blanket securely around him.
His suffering was merely a joke to them.
Ilya felt lonlier than ever. And trapped. He was surrounded by two beasts, not just the one he had been stuck with.
"No, boy." Pig wiped a tear from his eye, then ended his laugh with a sigh. "You don't have to worry about that."
A sigh of relief rattled the boy's chest.
But Pig added, "That's not how we turned like this."
He stopped to stare at his hands. Those hideous fingers. That thick skin. His huge belly.
"It was the Russians," he said with a heated breath filled with anger. "They did this to us."
Ilya's hand shook as he tugged at the blanket. Again with the Russians. And Ilya was one of them. He knew that he had to remain calm, especially in the presence of the beast. A slight change in his heartbeat might give away his secret. He had to be careful... or else.
When Pig got too overwhelmed by the memory of his transformation, Beast took it from there.
"People got sick," Beast said, but Ilya was too scared to look his way. "Doctors came to the rescue, claiming that we have all been exposed to nuclear radiation. They built this town in the middle of nowhere to treat us from radiation poisoning."
"But we shouldn't have trusted them," Pig said.
A dark aura surrounded him. Its dangerous energy frightened Ilya. He felt Greg's hate towards those people, towards his people. He was ashamed to be related to them in any way possible.
