Of Monsters and Humanity: The Genesis

Chapter 75 - Xander

Five days after....

I knew she would be angry with me after the flowers.

I had stood in the hallway, listening to Alistair give them to her. He came down and told me that she seemed less angry. When he went back up, I waited and listened. But he was wrong, she actually was angry. She just wanted to talk to me, and understandably. I sulked back into my office.

I wasn't about to sit back and pretend that her anger was ungrateful and rude--I was ungrateful and rude. She just didn't want to be hurt anymore, but I kept going in and reopening wounds. The night before was so dangerous. I couldn't even begin to think to describe how absolutely idiotic and dangerous it was for her to touch me as a wendigo. And I couldn't believe how idiotic and dangerous it was for me to turn in the house in the first place.

I let an hour or so pass as I studied current stocks. Surprisingly, a lot hadn't changed. A lot of the same were going up just as others went down. Everything was consistent, almost like I never left them. I felt drained as I mindlessly put money into stocks and sold others to online bidders. Sleep was a joke--I had barely slept since I got back home. I blamed my rudeness on the lack thereof, but the mature part of me knew differently. There was a change in the inner workings of my mind. If that change was fixable or not, I was unsure.

As I worked, I began to smell the spice-induced aroma of curry waft into the office. I cracked a smile, remembering how many times Alistair had nearly burned the house down trying to remember how his mother cooked it. Not only did he finally remember the recipe, but he at last had someone to taste his food. I turned in my chair, listening in on the sounds downstairs in the kitchen. Terra and Alistair were talking as he cooked. She offered to help, standing from her seat at the counter and starting to look through the pantry for the spice that he needed. Their friendship had been so quick that it nearly scared me. I thought there would be more enmity, but they were better friends than Alistair and I had been at the start.

I felt beyond guilty for my behavior the night before. So much so that I nearly didn't go downstairs to spend time with them.

But I would be rude and a coward if I did that.

I followed the scent of curry downstairs and to the kitchen.

"I can't believe I forgot garlic," Alistair cursed himself.

Terra laughed. "I got it. Can I assume you keep your garlic in the fridge?"

He scratched his head, looking down at the boiling pot of brownish red liquid. "Is it supposed to be kept somewhere else?" he asked.

Terra went to the fridge and opened the doors. She was wearing paint-stained jeans and a cut grey sweatshirt. Beautiful without trying. "Wow," she murmured as she pulled a clove of garlic from a drawer. "This is nearly empty."

Alistair handed her a knife and she expertly began to cut the edges of the garlic, peeling it, then slamming the heel of her hand down on the side of the knife to crush the garlic under it. He watched her, entranced as she worked expertly.

"You must cook a lot," he observed as she started to mince the garlic.

"She makes a mean chicken alfredo," I put in, leaning across the countertop and setting my chin on my arm.

Terra stopped working, surprise dawning on her face. She then pulled her brows together and started on another clove.

"I thought you were vegan?" Alistair asked her.

"I usually am, but I decided to indulge that night," she defended, then looked up in thought for a moment. "How would you even know what it tasted like?" she suddenly asked angrily, collecting the minced garlic in her palms and throwing it into the pot with the curry.