(Reyes/Reaper x Reader ā Part II) (Previously?)
āHow did you get out?ā
Moving first in small increments, you make a full visual sweep of the area; thereās theĀ usual equipment and sterilized surfaces, a perimeter of clinical white walls, lights blanching everything beneath them. Glass, chrome, and stainless steel in abundance.
The stillness kindles a fear, one feeds the other.
āWhat do you want to show me?ā
An inhale breaks. His.Ā Shallow and rasping, fighting for air. Then, speech:Ā āFind meā¦āĀ You canāt see a mouth, let alone a face or a body, but you donāt need to; his smugness is all too evident.Ā
āIf I find you,ā your thoughts suspend with an uncertain halt, resisting the urge to turn in the direction of his voice,Ā āwill you go back to your room?ā
āYouā¦ want to make a deal?ā
You donāt like how he sounds pleased with this, so, you clarify. āNot a deal, just a game.ā A less threatening concept. Unfortunately, still competitive. The win-loose element provokes.
You take his non-response as agreement before announcing youāll start looking, checking the most obvious of places first. Inside cabinets and under desks, graduating to cupboards and drawers. Impossible hiding spots.Ā
Having exhausted the room, you stand defeated and lowered to the point of paranoia, not without the idea that he had cleared the laboratory and was traversing the base, moving further and further away.
āIs ourā¦ little gameā¦ over?ā
This time his voice hits your ear, spilling over onto the vulnerable flesh of your neck. It coaxes a tremendous shiver from your core to the surface of your being. He can see you shake and it makes him laugh.
āIāve been hereā¦āĀ
Handsāno, not hands, though it feels comparableāmove over you.Ā
Looking down, oil-black smoke wraps around your waist, rendering you motionless. It slides, grips; these are sensations you quickly lose track of.
āā¦Ā the entire time.ā
And once again, everything goes dark.
You wake to OāDeorain hovering as youāre sprawled out in a swivel chair, all flailing limbs as you come back to consciousness.
āWell,ā she pulls back, āa continuous surprise, you are.ā
Cognitive pile-up welcomes you, disorientates. You try cataloguing the last events you can rememberāthe subject freeing himself when the power cut, agreeing on a game for his compliance, searching, losingāthen, a nothingness. A loss of light, ripped away from you like a tablecloth, timeless as a blink.
As you summon the courage to admit that you had accidentally done something you shouldnāt haveāinterference at its finest and most bluntāa door at the far end of the room slides open.
āGabriel,ā OāDeorain says, prick-eared as a cat, knowing before she checks.Ā āYouāre early.ā
āFor once,ā comes the reply, not without a scoff.
Peering around the geneticist, you find the subject, Gabriel, has let himself in. There is no residual smouldering, no ink or shadows. Even his voice is different, less guttural.Ā
With a half-smile, enduring the wild-eyed stare, he makes a point of speaking to you directly:Ā āHey.ā
You know you mouth āheyā in return but you canāt hear yourself. You can hardly make sense of what youāre seeing let alone pretend.
Thereās an awkward parenthesis of nothing where you assume heāll say something about yesterday, if only to help you fill in the narrative for OāDeorain,Ā but he doesnāt. In fact, he tips his head back, focus anchored, then says,Ā āI donāt think weāve met yet.ā
āAnd weāll keep it that way, if you donāt mind,ā Moria says, giving you both a kind smile. Youāre introduced as her assistant but he does not get your name; this is not out of rudeness, this is her policy. Formal dynamics you are obligated to follow.
Still, another moment passes where he seems to consider something, then it leaves him with a shrug. āI mean, Iām not the one in the lab coat. This is your domain, Iām just passing through.ā
Social convention out the window, you continue to scrutinize; itās beyond you how he appears so remarkably human. Nothing like witnessing the impossible,Ā scientific or paranormal, to make you forget how to behave. As far as you were concerned, the world and everything in it had irreversibly departed from normal last night. All that was left was to gauge just how abnormal things has become.
āNice meeting you,ā Gabriel says before OāDeorainĀ ushers him away. You watch the two leave, falling prey to your own questions that will go unanswered.
Like how, for whatever reason, the subject is set on keeping up his convincing act as if he doesnāt remember who you are.
Unless, he reallyĀ isnātĀ acting.
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