The golden warmth of the past didn't fade,it was ripped away, replaced by the harsh, flickering hum of the Stronghold and the smell of scorched ozone.
I blinked, the taste of my mother's cooking turning to ash as the present rushed back in. I wasn't a toddler anymore. I was a soldier in a dying world, sitting at a cold metal table.
In front of the stove, Leon was moving. He was humming a melody that didn't quite match the rhythm of his body, swaying his hips side to side like nothing could stop him and shaking his tush in a ridiculous, over-the-top dance as he stirred a pot of greyish stew. He was grinning, but it was a jagged, frantic expression.
"God, Leon, shut up! Your singing sounds like a dying Skitter-claw caught in a trash compactor!" Maverick barked from the corner of the table, He was aggressively sharpening a combat knife, his brow furrowed in Concentrated scowl.
"You're just jealous of my artistry, Mav!" Leon chirped back. His voice was a little too high, sounding like a string pulled too tight. He turned to us, holding a ladle like a microphone. "Once we wipe out that nest in the sector-four ruins, I'm going on tour~. Right, Aaron?"
Aaron didn't look up from the workbench. He was hunched over a pile of high-tech scrap he'd salvaged from the old laboratory. "If the pulse-emitters work, we won't need a tour," Aaron whispered, his fingers glazing over a glowing blue core with a soft and sensitive touch "These weapons will tear their molecular bonds apart before they can even scream."
"See? Science!" Leon laughed, but the sound didn't reach his eyes.
He began ladling the stew into dented metal bowls that we have gotten not so far from the stronghold.sliding them across the table with a proud expression When he set mine down, he leaned in close, his face just inches from mine. "Eat up, Jay-bird. Can't fight on an empty stomach." He whispered while smirking
I looked at him—really looked at him. As he smiled, his lips pulled back a little too far. His teeth weren't just white anymore; they were sharper than before, his teeth sharpening into points that looked capable of snapping bone. I looked away as soon as I recognized that but in the corner of my eye I see some black line under his turtleneck.
The tension in the kitchen was a thin wire, stretched to the point of snapping. Jay stared at the bowl of stew, but all he could see was the way the light glinted off Leon's mouth,a flash of something that wasn't human.
"Leon," Jay said, his voice cutting through the forced cheer. "Your teeth. They look... different."
The singing stopped. The room went quiet, save for the rhythmic scritch-scritch of Maverick's whetstone. Leon froze for a heartbeat, his back turned, before he spun around with a grin that was almost too big for his face,I flinched
That's not normal..
"Oh, these?" Leon laughed, a bright, barking sound that felt like it had been practiced in a mirror. He pointed a claw-like nail at his canines. "I may have used a bit of the metal file from the workshop. I wanted to see if I could get 'em sharper than Maverick's attitude! Pretty cool, right?"he said laughing off my concern
Maverick snorted, finally looking up from his knife. "Typical. You're such a dork, Leo. Don't come crying to me when you accidentally bite your own tongue off." He says scoffing
Maya rolled her eyes, a small smile breaking her serious mask. "Honestly, Leon, you're like a child. We have high-tech pulse emitters to worry about, and you're playing pretend with a metal file. Just don't break anything we actually need."
Jay watched them laugh, and for a second, he wanted to join in. He wanted to believe the lie. He forced a dry chuckle, nodding along as if it made perfect sense. "Yeah... just be careful, man. You look like a shark."
But while the others turned back to their food and their bickering, Aaron didn't move. He sat in the shadows of the workbench, his pale eyes fixed on Leon's neck. Aaron knew the anatomy of the creatures better than anyone, he knew that no metal file could create the organic, sharp knife's now hiding behind Leon's lips.
Aaron caught Jay's eye for a split second,a silent, chilling look that said, 'We both know he's lying.'