[UNEDITED]

"How dare you even say that?" I clutched the pillow hard, "What is the proof that my uncle killed your father?"

Dylan crossed his legs on the floor, "Dad's journal says that his condition was worsening. He was bleeding frequently, and was constantly losing consciousness. The day before he was lost, he wrote that he was going to frame your uncle, and that he had found some evidence in your uncle's lab that he was administrating the same medicine into him instead of treating him. He had cheated my father."

I fumed, "But that does not prove that it was my uncle who killed your father that day! From what you say, he could have fallen in that lake and bled to death!"

Dylan stood up all of a sudden, and I gasped as he crossed the room and hunched over me.

"Do you really think my father would have died if your uncle had not even given him those so-called preventives?" Dylan asked me, his eyes scorching, "He forced it onto us, we never volunteered!"

I breathed heavily. He was correct.

He moved slowly, and sat on the bed with his back to me.

"This is where I answer your question," he said quietly, "No, I wasn't born a monster. Your uncle's vaccines turned me into one."

I did not know what to say.

"We were about five when dad left us forever. We cried and then readjusted out lives around the family we had here with us. There was grandma, aunt Mel and uncle Sam. There was our cousin Riley. We had learnt to live with them once again," there was a small smile in Dylan's voice, "But then one day, Daniel had those seizures. The same circle started happening to him, but to a lower extent.

"My symptoms followed. But along with these, we also found other qualities in us. We had strength, and we could change temperature of our body. Dad had never spoken about all these things. Maybe because he was not even given the chance to experience these. He was given too much of those shots which worsened his conditions."

"So, the way you are today is because of that vaccine or whatever?" I asked him.

Dylan did not look at me, but nodded.

"What else can you do?" I asked enthusiastically.

"I am not sure. I have been able to figure out the strength and temperature thing so far. We don't really have a list of things. These...powers...present themselves in certain situations. We don't control or call on them.

"Aunt Mel is a doctor, a real doctor and not a paramedic, and she did some research on us. She concluded that the virus that were injected into us not only took ahold of our system, but they also altered a few of our genes. That's why we are capable of doing what we do."

"Oh..." that was all that came out of our mouth.

"So now you know," Dylan looked at me sideways, "Now you know why I am a monster."

I swallowed. Monster was probably a bad choice of word.

"So, that's cool right? Being able to do all these things?" I asked, trying to level out things between us.

"Yeah. It's really cool," Dylan gave a dry laugh, "Except what we do drains out our power since the viruses live off of our blood and strength. Do you think you are the only one who slept through the day today?" he turned his head toward me.

"Oh..." I said again, rather stupidly.

"If we use too much strength, we faint. I am lucky that I could bring you home today before crashing," he looked away.

"Yeah, freezing a hundred feet lake should have its drawbacks," I supplied.

"Also, my skin peels off every month, and tends to be that way for about two weeks. It hurts like hell, and most of the time we forget who or where we are. I ended up hurting Nicole twice."

I smiled to that.

"But other than that, the pain I mean, I think you have powers to brag about," I offered him.

Dylan shook his head.

"What?" I asked.

"It's complicated," he said.

"I'll try to understand," I probed.

"I am dying," Dylan said at once.

The words hit me so hard it knocked me out. Dying?

"What?" I shouted.

"Naomi," Dylan said my name, and I felt a tug inside, as though something built and broke at the same time, "This vaccine, this preventive, unfortunately comes with an expiration date. We used to feel the peeling and pain roughly once in a month, but now the time is really infrequent. The bleeding has increased, and some of our cuts are not healing properly. Aunt Mel has given us a verdict. She did some tests on us, only to find that roughly a hundred among one million viruses of our body are dying out. And surprisingly enough, a bunch of our cells are dying with the viruses. The calculation is simple: once these viruses die, we die with it."

I felt a dark veil of sadness drape over me, and something inside me snapped. Dylan was only two when his fate had been decided, and he did not get to choose the best for himself. And now he was dying? What could have been a normal childhood for him was filled with pain much bigger than he could handle, and all these happened because my uncle needed someone to test his vaccine one. I felt shame engulf me, and I wanted to disappear in thin air.

"I am...sorry," I reached out to him, but could never touch him. Being related to my uncle felt like a curse, and I felt that I would further taint Dylan with the disease if I touched him.

"Don't be," Dylan laughed, "Some people are just not born with so much luck like you."

The words stung. I was safe because I was related to my uncle. Dylan was not so much lucky because he belonged to a deprived family in need. I wish I could change something, rip his skin and flush out all viruses out of his system, but knew it was impossible.

"So, is this why you are holding me back here?" I asked after a long time, "So that you can take revenge on my uncle?"

Dylan shook his head, "He does not know we exist. He probably thought we have died as well. And he also does not know that we have any powers. I am not sure if he is still working on this project, but I am sure that he will kill us once he finds out. He has a nation to lead. He will never want people to go against him. From what we are, there is a possibility that people will overthrow him because of his crimes."

"Where do I fit in, in all of this?" I asked.

"You are just an accident of my life. I shouldn't have brought you here," Dylan said coldly.

The words hurt beyond imagination. I was an accident?

"And I thought you would kill me, just like you did with that...why did you kill that girl?" suddenly memories from a few days back flooded my mind, and the first thing that I remembered was the skin of the girl. They were also peeling off...

My eyes almost bulged out.

"Was she...?" my voice trembled.

"Yes. She was one of the children who were given those shots. She was Daphne, she was our elder sister."

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