Chương 198: B4. 7.2 - A Dinner Between Best Friends

Amber Deen Leska Amber Deen shushed Erind and quickly scanned the diner. Everyone had their eyes glued to the news.

"Don't say that word, Erind," she said, kicking Erind under the table again, with more force this time. Erind got pushed back. The legs of her chair squeaked against the floor tiles.

"Relax, no one heard me," said Erind.

"And, 'ow'. That hurt a bit."

"So-sorry." Deen wanted to scold Erind, but Erind would accuse her of being controlling. To be fair, she was. If there was anything she should control, it'd be her temper. It was quite difficult to keep her promise to change.

"And good job attracting attention." Erind subtly nudged her head towards the kid looking their way because of the noise. The parents continued watching the news broadcast, likely worried for their children. Deen sighed.

"Sorry for that, too. What did you want to tell me? More of Cecilia's wrongdoing?"

"Not sure if this is her intentional wrongdoing," Erind said.

"Our friends, the 2Ms, left the city, right? And their friends, the other group also with an M, stayed around. My group … got sort of bullied by the other M. Uh… okay, I'm getting tired of talking like this." She gestured for Deen to come closer as she whispered, "The PCMs were selling pills. Cecilia mentioned them." Deen nodded.

"Drugs to slow down seeding. Similar to what the government is distributing."

"The PCM took over the distribution network of the city gangs to sell their own pills. The gangsters used to peddle their nasty stuff in places where these Adumbrae attacks occurred." Deen recoiled when Erind said the word 'Adumbrae' again in public. But she decided to let it pass.

"Your theory is that the PCM pills cause… seeding?" Deen kept her eyes on the other people while continuing her whispered conversation with Erind. The other customers loudly shared among themselves their own theories about the Adumbrae attacks, foremost of which was the existence of a Purple Bloom.

"A lack of the pills," Erind said.

"All of these started to happen when the authorities started hunting the PCM. I assumed their pill-peddling activities also ceased. Some sort of withdrawals leading to this?"

"It could also be the side effect of Cecilia's pills mixing with the government's pills," Deen said.

"This is another question for Cecilia, and another reason not to work with her."

"Are you having second thoughts about this?"

"Why aren't you? She might give you a pill that worsens your… condition. She'll claim to make a booster that actually poisons us." Deen stopped herself from accusing Erind of being reckless. This wasn't the time to start a fight.

"She might not even be malicious. But her experiments could be failures with negative consequences for us." Erind drummed her fingers on the plastic laminate covering the wooden table.

"That's the thing with experiments; there'll be failures. Our regeneration will handle that."

"You're too lax about this," Deen said, and nothing more. She had more words held back.

"We'll first see how things go, Deen. As I've said, Cecilia will be nice at the start, be actually helpful, and stuff. We'll squeeze any use we can out of her before the betrayals begin."

"When the time comes to cut ties, what's the exit plan? Make sure Cecilia's gone for good? Why not skip everything and end her now? Allying with her might not be worth the effort at all."

"Yeah, it'll be much easier to let her rot in her flash drive coffin. But why waste her death like that? Someday, when we get the vibes like she's ready to backstab us, we offer her to Euphonia."

"Wha-what?" Deen couldn't believe the insanity her best friend suggested. Erind shrugged, continuing to lazily tap the table.

"Maybe we could exchange Cecilia for something from Euphonia. Or Cecilia might actually turn out to be a great ally." Erind waved her hand.

"Ah, we'll figure that out someday. Lots of stuff are going to happen beyond our control. We adapt when problems come."

"Yo-you're right…" Deen couldn't help but crease her forehead. She decided to say her often-repeated line, "What's important is we're together." Erind smiled, parting her lips to show her front rabbit-like teeth. She looked like a mischievous imp rather than a seeded individual. Was she really the same Erind whom Deen became best friends with last semester? This is normal Erind, Deen thought. Erind was accepted into Cresthorne Law—she had the makings of a lawyer, intelligent and strategic.

She wasn't so naïve and innocent that she couldn't scheme. In actuality, Deen should be happy she was seeing this side of Erind. Didn't Deen want to know Erind more? Deen kept telling herself this, but couldn't convince her heart that everything was fine. An Adumbrae was inside Erind! How was Deen supposed to accept that everything was normal?

"Are you okay, Deen?" Erind asked.

"Is the bossiness in your system trying to get out?" Deen shook her head.

"No bossiness of any sort is getting out. I was thinking how we can get Cecilia out of her laboratory to our car. People will see us."

"What if we just do it? Like, buy some clothes, dress up Cecilia's spare body, and walk back to your car. Our cop friend can't stop us. Then we'll drive off to Vegas."

"A third person suddenly joining us might prod Auron to report to Euphonia. Accept Euphonia's anger and deal with this development. The PCM won't know who this newcomer is, but Euphonia would."

"Yeah, I guess so… There must be another entrance into Cecilia's base. Some way to kidnap all those people who had gone missing without any witnesses. That was definitely Cecilia's work. If only she could've captured the frat boys instead. So annoying…" Deen turned her attention to Erind. Rare for her best friend to express irritation. It wasn't too surprising, given their experiences. But… what if this aggression was caused by seeding?

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"Erind, those guys may be annoying, but—" Deen stopped talking as if Erind choked her again. Her hand turned cold with worry as she reached for Erind.

"But, what?" Erind asked.

"Uh, what do you think you're doing?" She leaned back to avoid Deen's hand.

"Sit still. There's something on your neck."

"You're not going to strangle me, are you? Just slap me as revenge or—""Why would I want revenge? I asked you to do it for me." Deen half stood up and bent forward, reaching across the table to hold Erind's shoulders and push her down on her chair. Erind didn't struggle, looking at Deen as if she had gone crazy. Deen gently tilted Erind's chin diagonally to the side and touched her neck. Deen warily brushed her fingers against a small shiny patch on the left side of Erind's neck, about an inch and a half across.

The texture? Most positively not human skin. Out of the shadow of Erind's chin, the patch had a slight purple hue. Deen tried to scratch it with her fingernails. Could this be scraped off? Deen dug her nails into Erind's skin.

"Ow, cut that out!" Erind pushed Deen's arms away.

"Your neck is—""I can feel it's all weird." Erind covered the inhuman patch.

"Don't draw attention to it." She flicked her eyes to the side, indicating that people were looking at them. Deen couldn't process worrying about multiple problems at the same time.

"Was that already there when we were at Cindy's? Probably not, or I would've seen it."

"Why were you looking at my neck? Weirdo."

"Be serious, Erind," Deen snapped. Erind's seeding was progressing, and they didn't have access to pills from Dario. How could they strengthen Erind's Core to counteract the transformation? Was Cecilia the remaining answer?

"We should leave."

"Don't make a big deal out of this," Erind said.

"We've already ordered our food, and we're going to eat it. I'm hungry." Deen and Erind maintained eye contact for several seconds. Gauging that Erind wasn't going to relent when it came to food, Deen backed down.

"Fine, we'll stay. But let's switch places." With Erind transferring to Deen's seat, the transformed patch on the side of her neck was no longer visible to the rest of the diner. Deen combed Erind's hair to hide the patch better. Erind glared at Deen, clearly angry at the continued touching.

"You've overused your power yesterday," Deen whispered, checking that the patch was no longer visible.

"Stay calm. The food will make you feel better." She prayed that the other manifestation of Erind's seeding, her aggression, wouldn't also increase.

"I hope so," Erind said with a tired sigh.

"It's just nonstop annoyance. The traffic, the frat boys, the cop… Who else? I guess it's also annoying that Everett was looking for us." Deen wasn't referring to any of that, but it made her think. The patch on Erind's neck didn't appear before their road trip—if it was caused by Erind's transformation last night, it should've been there since this morning. What if the cause was something else? Annoyances … Erind mentioned being overwhelmed.

Did the stress lower her mental defenses, allowing the Adumbrae to gain ground? It'd be similar to stressed people catching illnesses more easily because of weakened immune systems. This theory explained many things, including Erind's recent aggression. If Erind continued to be stressed— Deen noticed Erind's sudden grimace. She followed Erind's eyes, looking towards the door. Everyone in the diner jolted as the door forcefully swung open. Glass rattled, threatening to pop off, as the frame creaked along the hinges.

Six people piled in. Six problems. Apparently, the PCM cop let the frat boys go, perhaps thinking that Deen and Erind had already met their contact. This showed that no PCM member followed Deen and Erind inside. Deen would've preferred PCM members to these frat boys. In the lead was the guy with the skull tattoo on his arm. The twig-like man sporting a disgrace of a goatee followed him, holding yet another beer can, its contents dripping on the floor.

The mayor's nephew, an unkempt brown-haired kid, brought up the tail of their group, timidly shuffling his feet. His eyes were cast on the floor as if he didn't want to be with the other idiots. Deen guessed that the three older guys in front were upperclassmen, senior frat members. The three at the back were sophomores, or likelier, freshmen, pledges of their fraternity. The curly-haired waitress grabbed a mop behind the counter.

"Don't make a mess here."

"Hey, girls!" the frat boys' leader loudly called, ignoring the waitress. He waved at Deen and Erind with a creepy leer on his face. What do I do? Ignoring them hadn't worked so far. Deen knew that they should avoid the frat boys entirely, finish their business at Cecilia's lab, and be on their way. Continued stress would worsen Erind's condition. However, Erind was adamant about staying to eat. If they left without eating, Erind might lose control of her Adumbrae side and attack humans.

If that happened, Deen would do her darndest to cover up the evidence to save Erind. But the better option was preventing it from happening in the first place. She didn't want the monster in her best friend's mind to win.

"Where are your manners, guys?" The man with the skull tattoo gestured to his bastard pack, his words slurring.

"Say hello to Blondie and her friend." The frat boys greeted Deen and Erind in varying levels of enthusiasm, the freshies less so than the upperclassmen. They stumbled over each other as they moved forward. Erind shifted in her seat. This was the first time the frat boys had referred to her; infuriation was evident on her face. This was bad. Deen glanced at Erind's neck and face, hoping no more transformations would occur.

"So, I'm the 'friend'," Erind mumbled.

"Surprising that they noticed me." Deen didn't share Erind's amusement. She pursed her lips and squeezed her brain for a plan.

"Continue to ignore them." She started to scroll on her phone, letting her golden hair fall to partially hide her face, stealing glances at the frat boys to observe them. She didn't have any better plan.

"We'll finish eating and leave." The waitress strode forward to block the rabble, tightly grasping the handle of the mop. She parted the group with the mop and cleaned the spilled beer on the floor.

"If you're not gonna eat here, then you better scram." The two older men sitting on the barstools turned to face them, ready to help her out if the situation got out of hand. The frat leader raised his hands and put on an innocent face.

"Calm down there, ma'am. We're customers! We got money, and we're buying food. Isn't that right, guys?" He looked over his shoulder. There was a slurred murmur of agreement.

"See, ma'am? We're here to eat. I'm hungrier than a horse… I mean, if the horse was starved." The frat boys managed to sit around a table without anyone falling over. They chose the spot at the center, next to the truckers.

"You must have good food if Blondie over there chose this place. We want to have a taste of that, if you know what I mean."

"Then what're you having?" The waitress still mopping, didn't give them a menu book. Instead, she pointed to the signboard above the counter. The frat boys quieted as they gathered their remaining focus to read the menu above the red-tiled backsplash of the sink. Deen watched them from the corner of her eye. It was the upperclassmen who were drunk and probably high on drugs, too. The freshies had their wits about them.

One of them was probably tasked to drive, else all of them would've taken the highway to the afterlife before getting here. Their leader said, "I'll be having a double cheeseburger. Uh, for all of us. Six cheeseburgers, yeah. Wings? Uh, what else do you guys want? Burger?"

"You already said burger," pointed out one of them. After ordering, the frat boys talked amongst themselves. They didn't catcall or try to take pictures of Deen. It was as if they had forgotten about her. But the situation didn't turn peaceful—they conversed loudly as if they owned the place, their drunken laughter grating on Deen's nerves. The other customers were likewise visibly annoyed with them. This was the best out of the worst outcomes.

"Think of the food you're about to eat," Deen told Erind.

"Happy thoughts."

"What'll be a happy thought," Erind said, "is me turning into a giant werewolf and having them for dinner."