Species Unknown [Book 1: Aves]

EIGHT

AFTER MY TALK with Dr. Pierce, I left the lab and hopped in my car. With one last look at the journal she had given me, I decided it would have to wait and tossed it onto the passenger seat. Flooring the gas pedal, I drove at a borderline illegal speed back to my apartment in the city. Throughout the drive, I kept glancing over to the black journal on the seat beside me. No matter how loud I turned up my car radio, I couldn't stop the word metahuman from repeating over and over in my head. My thoughts reeled with all the possibilities of what that word could mean.

As soon as I got home, I flung open the door and rushed inside. Taking off my shoes, I hung my car keys on the wall hook and rushed inside.

My apartment wasn't much, just a simple two-bedroom loft that I shared with my mother a few miles outside the main city. Walking across the sleek hardwood floors, I made my way to the living room. The familiar sound of a drama series was the tell-tale sign that my mother was home. Following the hallway into the kitchen, the smell of cheese and tomato sauce enveloped my senses and I took a deep inhale. My mouth salivated.

"I'm home," I said. The ruffling sound of movement came from the living room. I looked up to find my mother stiffly twisting from her seat on the couch to greet me. To my surprise, her face was smeared with a white paste. The flowery scent of her skincare product invaded my nose, temporarily distracting me from the allure of food.

"Hey, I made some pasta. I set some aside in a bowl for you," She announced, her speech slightly slurred by the tight facial mask. The couch squeaked and groaned as she lifted a sun-kissed arm and jutted her perfectly manicured finger towards the kitchen.

I nodded and walked to the counter where a bowl of warm cheesy pasta awaited me. My stomach growled in approval. Picking up the bowl, I glanced back over to my mother. She was attempting a smile to the best of her taught face ability and I couldn't help but smile back.

Sure she wasn't perfect, but she was all I had. It was just us, it had always been just us. That's part of the reason I went to the Recruitment Expo for C.R.O.S.S. Laboratories. I wanted a chance to make my life interesting.

Raised by my mother, I didn't have much experience around men so I never tried dating. The idea was too foreign to me. My mother was always relaying her bad relationship experiences on me, saying that all men are heartless after my father left us to pursue his career in Alaska.

Though despite not having a father, I didn't feel like I was missing out on much. My mother raised me well. She taught me to be strong in the face of adversity and stand up for my opinion, not matter how unpopular it was. She always said that if I didn't put myself down, then neither would anyone else. She was hesitant at first to encourage me to pursue my dreams in science, since apparently that's what my father left to do, but after she saw how much it meant to me, she reluctantly gave in.

"How was your day?" She questioned, twisting her body to face away from me as she settled back on to the couch.

With the pasta bowl in one hand, I grabbed a fork from the drawer with the other and begin making my way to my bedroom. "Good, uh...love to talk but I have a lot of work to do. You know how they like to torture new interns," I said forcing a fake laugh before rushing away, not bothering to wait for a response.

I climbed up the white spiral stairs and rushed into my bedroom, slamming the door behind me. My room was large, with a giant bed in the center, a full sized couch and tv, and even private bathroom with a jacuzzi tub.

Plopping onto my bed, I took a bite of pasta, and with my free hand, opened the folder labeled METAHUMAN TRIALS. I chewed as I flipped through pages and pages of time logs written in stiff masculine handwriting. Looking at the earliest log, I shoved another fork full of pasta into my mouth and began to read the time-faded ink...