#mutant character

Ivan woke up with an angry grunt, feeling as though he’d been thrown through the air as his bed shook with the bass of the music from downstairs. The boy groaned into his pillow, dragging himself up to sit and check the old watch on his wrist. 5:43, great.

He briefly considered going downstairs, asking Todd to turn his music down. As if it worked last time, he thought.

Instead, he paced to the bathroom with a grumble. He winced as he brushed his teeth, noticing the dark bruise forming under his eye.

He remembered the face of the man who’d hit him, light eyes and a scar across his nose. Ivan had taken the punch and fallen, knowing the brief skin-to-skin contact would be enough.

He’d watched as the poison set in, as his assailant went to hit him again and collapsed. Ivan had pushed himself up and watched, totally silent, as the stranger suffocated. He was told he’d done well.

He pushed his hair out of his face, eyes continually drifting back to the bruise. He’d see the man’s corpse every time he looked at it, wouldn’t he? Why did that make him feel nauseous?

Ivan found his thoughts clouded by the man until he could distract himself with breakfast, scrolling through social media as he ate his cereal at the counter. There were a few news stories about recent Mutant incidents—he scrolled past all of them, only stopping to watch the stupid joke videos his friends had sent.

He finally finished his food after a while, sighing in frustration. It tasted wrong, like the dead body from last night was still following him and poisoning his senses.

Ivan tugged his jacket on, careful to cover the back of his neck and then pulling his gloves on. He’d mastered his many layers at this point, not needing much thought to cover everything.