Addicted Life

As they drove into the driveway, the house looked abandoned. The windows were smashed, and the rails rusted.

"Hey man, you sure this is the right house?" Keller asked Lee.

"I mean, this is the address that the head master gave us." Lee swallowed his spit as he knocked on the door. Someone unlocked it then opened it. Standing there was a skinny, pale, hybrid Bangle Tiger.

"Diana?" Lee looked concerned. Her orange hair was dull, and her eyes were blank.

"Lee, is that you?" She asked, there was a tremble in her voice.

"Yeah, yeah. What, what happened to you? Are you okay?" Lee walked through the door way and Diana stepped back a little. She had lost tons of weight. Her skin drooped from the lack of fat and muscle.

"No, I don't think so." Diana said.

"What happened to you after we left?" Keller asked her.

"Well, I fell into a bad spot. And started taking substances that I shouldn't have. And now, I can't go a day without taking any." She said.

"Fucking hell. How did you start taking drugs?" Lee asked her.

"Well, these gang members forced me into it. And after that, I was hooked. And if I didn't buy their stuff, my house would be raided and I would be killed. Even worse, they threaten to do other stuff to my body." Lee and Keller listened with intent.

"Fuck. Who are these gang members?" Lee asked.

"It was the dropouts from school. Daniel, William, Jackson, Ryan, and Mu." She told them, but as she did she looked down in shame. She was scared to the point where she couldn't hold still for a second.

"Fine. Come outside and get in the car." Lee told her.

"Wait what?" Before she could finish, Lee grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her into the car.

"Where are they located?" Keller asked.

"The abandoned factory down at the Jin Bank." Diana pointed to the location on their GPS, and they started driving. As they got closer and closer, Diana started shaking and whimpering.

Lee patted and scratched her head, "It's going to be okay. Don't worry."

As they drove up to the factory, two men stood at the front in jeens and black leather jackets. Lee recognized them, it was William and Jackson.

"Who the fuck are you!" Jackson demanded a response. Lee stepped out of the car and they took a step back.

"Woah, hey man. If you still hold grudges, then we're sorry okay?" William apologized and he stepped back.

"I'm not here for childish conflict. You threatened Diana, a member of the BHPA, and forced her into consuming narcotics." Lee said.

"Well, if you say it like that." Jackson shrugged nervously. Lee marched up to him, and pushed his finger into his forehead.

"You should know, that if anyone has any connection with me, you would leave them alone. And rest assured that if this gang attempts to act on those threats, there are graves designated for all 5 of you. Do you understand?" Lee pushed him back and signaled for Keller and Diana to follow him. As they passed them, William made a silent remark, but not silent enough.

"Fucking bitch." He said quietly. Lee jerked back and got in his face.

"Fuck you say? Cause from what I can see, you two are the bitches right now." Lee punched him in the gut and he fell to the ground. Lee squatted down and grabbed him by his hair.

"Keep your mouth shut, and the authorities will not get involved. Lee stood up and continued into the factory. Inside there were rusty machines, busted pipes, glass all over the floor, and 2 men smoking cigarettes. As they noticed Lee and the other two, they dropped their cigs and twitched in fear.

"You motherfuckers! Where's Mu! He's your leader, so why won't he show himself!" Lee yelled angrily. Daniel and Ryan pointed to a closed door. Lee walked up to it and knocked. He could hear grunting from the other side.

"I'm busy!" Mu yelled from inside. Lee was having none of it and kicked down the door. Mu pulled out of the woman and stood up angrily.

"Hey man, what the fu-" Lee punched him in the face and he dropped to the ground while naked. Lee kicked his face while he was down and blood splattered on Mu's girl.

"AHH!" She screamed in fear.

"Fuck out of here bitch!" Lee commanded her. She frantically got up and grabbed a towel. She ran outside trying to cover herself up.

"So, when I was gone. You thought you were in control, huh?" Lee said.

"No, no. It's nothing like that." Mu whimpered.

"Then how the fuck did you not recognize my voice?" Lee asked him.

"Well, it's been years. And we've all grown. So our voices and pitch have changed." Mu tried to defend himself.

"Ok, ok. Well then, if that's true. Then why did Diana tell me that you and your men forced her into taking drugs?" Lee asked.

"Hey man. It was all them, it was their ideas not mine." But then Lee snapped and slammed his face into the concrete.

"Say some retarded shit like that again and I'll bash your balls in with a bat." Lee threatened him, "Instead of putting the blame on others, take the blame and face the consequences. Clearly you were ready to face the consequences of fucking without protection. So why can't you take the blame for something your men supposedly did?"

"Ok, ok. I'm sorry. I'll never do it again." Mu collapsed from fear.

"Good." Lee said and dropped Mu's head. He got up and walked back to the car. They drove off and the gang were left shocked.

"Fuck, these dumbasses!" Lee yelled as they rode back to the capital.

"Lee." Diana said quietly.

"What is it?" Lee asked her with a lot less aggression than he had earlier.

"Thank you." Diana said.

"..." Lee didn't know how to respond. He'd never seen her in such a state. Back years ago, she was the outgoing and bossy kind of girl. But now, she's quiet and scared. Lee couldn't believe it.

Back in the capital, Lee set Diana up with an apartment and sent her to a rehabilitation center where she would spend a few months getting back to her normal life. Lee regularly went to her apartment and cooked for her. He took care of her, fed her, housed her, and eventually she recovered. He also got his driver's license for situations in the future that may come up. But as Lee was cooking for Diana, he got a call from Zyion.

"How did you get my number?" He asked her.

"That's not the problem right now. There are cultists here, and they've captured Jimmy." Lee dropped his spatula.

"How the fuck did they capture Jimmy? I get it if they catch you, you're a weak little spider. But Jimmy?" Lee was flabbergasted.

"I don't know how they did it. But there was a man who was a hybrid of a polar bear with them." Zyion told him.

"Hybrids working with cultists. This is a rare occurrence." But just then, Lee remembered his master. The way he died. A leopard hybrid leaped from the ground and slit his throat. Lee kept that sight engraved into his mind for the day that he could get revenge.

"Share your location with me and I'll go there." Lee told her.

"Okay, see you there, captain." Zyion then hung up.

"Keller, you stay here with Diana. If there are any cultists or intruders, here." He tosses Keller a pistol and several rounds of ammo.

"Do you just keep this on you?" Keller asked.

"Always prepared y'know?" Lee took off the apron and put his coat on. He slipped on his shoes and sprinted to the parking lot. He got into the car and warmed up the engine. After a few minutes, he left the parking lot and started heading towards the tundra.

As he sped through and in between the trees, he spotted a bunch of cultists surrounding a fire. But soon enough, they heard the car and they turned around. Lee sat in the car debating what his next action should be.

"Eh, fuck it!" He says as he speeds into the crowd of cult members. Some leaped away, while some were annihilated by the car. Lee jumped out and pulled on the car so it wouldn't hit a tree. He picked up some oroborn along the way and hid it in his pockets. He took it out and made it cover his hands.

Lee leapt into the crowd, bashing a few skulls in the process. As he punched his way through the crowd, he got hit in the head by a stick and fell to the ground. He turned over, and as he was going to get stabbed, Zyion pulled the man by her webs. Zyion is a brown recluse hybrid, she can inflict venom into the veins of the people she scratches.

Lee did a kip up and knocked another member down. He turned and back handed another, he swept their legs and punched their faces with his oroborn covered fists. But as he was, a few pieces of oroborn got lodged into his fist and he started bleeding. But Zyion swung in and took down the rest of the cultists.

"Argh! Holy fuck this hurts!" Lee growled as he gripped his wrists tightly.

"Don't pull them out! They are preventing you from bleeding out." Zyion told him.

"Okay." Lee limped over to the fire and blew it out with some left over oroborn. They untied Jimmy and carried him into the car. Since Lee's hand was all messed up, Zyion had to drive them home back in the capital.

Back in the capital, Jimmy was taken care of and Lee had the shards removed from his hands. But even after that, Lee still felt strange. It was like his senses were heightened and he could feel everything around him. His eyesight was perfect, and his breathing calmed. It seemed like he was perfectly healthy, but Lee knew something was up.

Lee sat in the living room of Diana's apartment with a dung beetle, a brick, and a shard of oroborn. He stuck the oroborn into his hand, and clasped the beetle in the other. He then felt energized, he felt so much better. Lee grabbed the brick and started squeezing on it. And soon, cracks started forming. Lee squeezed it so hard it collapsed in his hand.

"Oh ho ho! That's cool. If I put oroborn into my body that's mixed with an animal's DNA, I can temporarily become a hybrid. That's fucked, but cool. Woo! This shit hurts." Lee stands up and throws the materials in the trash and checks in on Diana. As he opened the door, she sat on the edge of the bed, shivering.

"Hey, you good?" He asked her.

"Yes, I'm just a little cold." She said. "What's going to happen after I recover? Will you make me go back home?" Diana asked.

"No, I'd never send you back to that hell." Lee told her, she smiled and jumped up to hug him. "Hey, hey, it's going to be okay." He reassured her while patting her back.

"Please don't go Lee." She said with tears in her eyes.

"Hey, hey. I'm not going anywhere. Me, Keller, Jimmy, and Zyion will never leave you. Never again." Lee held her close, but not as strong as he would like. He still felt the oroborn reacting in his body and feared that he would harm Diana if he squeezed her harder.

"Thank you, Lee." She said as she passed out. There were tears running down her cheeks. Her eyes were bagged and her hair was disheveled. Lee carried her back onto the bed and covered her with the blanket. He sighed and sat down.

"Fuck. My head feels like shit." He then fell asleep.

The next morning, someone knocked on the door. Lee woke up from the knocking, and so did Diana. Lee got up and started heading to the door. When he opened it, Mohammed stood in front of him.

Mohammed was a king Cobra hybrid. He can intimidate other hybrids by making himself look bigger, and wields a spear coated in his own venom. He has short black hair, and his skin is relatively dark. He has a slight beard and has many scars on his arms and body.

"How the fuck do y'all keep finding me? Doesn't matter anyways, it makes my life easier." Lee said as he went to the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of water and sat at the table.

"So, I heard what happened to Diana. Is she okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, she's getting better." Lee said. "But I haven't gotten much work done because of the state that she is in."

"Damn, well, how's life?" Mohammed asked.

"Huh, pretty good so far. I've finally got my license and now I'm a commander." Lee said.

"Nice, nice. Well, I have a little proposition for you." Mohammed said while waving his hands.

"It better not be a fucking dare." Lee told him.

"No, no, it isn't. You and Keller haven't kept in contact with the others, have you?" He asked.

"No." Lee answered.

"Well, Jimmy told me that he likes Zyion and wants to confess but is nervous about being rejected. So what if, we make a bet?"

"Ha, fine. What are you betting on?" Lee asked.

"I'm betting on him not getting rejected." He said.

"Fuck you. You set me up into a position where I look like an asshole." Lee thought for a second, and then thought of a way to counter Mohammed's bet.

"Fine, I bet that Zyion will confess first." Lee said as he crossed his arms.

"Hehe, very clever as always."

"Well, how much are we betting?" Lee asked.

"500 rubles." Mohammed said.

"Ok." Then they shook hands.

"Hey, have you talked to Finna as of late?" Mohammed asked.

"No, but I heard that she has been dispatched to the oroborn mine in the mountains." Lee said.

"Ok, shouldn't we go there for reinforcement. Any team can enter you know."

"Yeah, oh shit. Lemme show you something." Lee took out a piece of oroborn from a bag and a dead dung beetle he kept for testing. He stabbed the dung beetle with the shard, and then stabbed himself.

"Gimme your hand." Lee told him, Mohammed held out his hand and Lee started to squeeze it. Mohammed started to feel the agonizing pain of his bones beginning to crush under the immense pressure.

"Ahh! Ok, ok. That's it!" Lee let go and Mohammed clenched his hands. And just then, Keller bursts in through the front door.

"What, what happened?" She stood there confused, she ran in just to see her step-brother and their old friend at a table with his hand all purple.

"Keller, we're going to the oroborn mine." Lee told her.

"Ok, what the fuck happened?" She asked.

"He stab-" Lee quickly grabbed Mohammed by the mouth to keep him from talking.

"Oh nothing much, just making bets and catching up on life." Lee lied, but did he really?

Lee stood up and went to get Diana.

"Hey, are you able to fight?" Lee asked her.

"I think so." She answered.

"Okay, good. We're going to the oroborn mine. Get your gear." Lee told her.

"Okay." she said softly as she got off the bed.

A few hours later, a Ch-47 Chinook landed at the summit of the mountain. The back hatch opened up and out came Lee and the others. Lee wore a hoodie and joggers with sneakers. He had tied his hair back in a bun also. Mohammed was in a button down shirt with a loose collar, and shorts. Instead of sneakers or boots, he just wore sandals. Jimmy had a red and black button down shirt with a square pattern that barely fit him. He had brown cargo pants and brown Tim's on. Keller wore an oversized hoodie with shorts that covered half of her thighs. She had knee high socks and black sneakers on. Zyion just wore a black T-shirt and long black pants. On her feet were black sneakers and her hair was in a ponytail. Diana had a white T-shirt and over that was Lee's jacket that was way too big for her. She also wore a skirt and sneakers.

"Ahh. The mountain air, you must've breathed this air many times." Lee said jokingly.

"And you eat dogs now come on." Jimmy shot back.

"Damn! Personally I wouldn't take that kind of disrespect." Mohammed said to Lee. Both Lee and Jimmy turned to fire at him.

"Bro shut up!" Jimmy said.

"You look like a burnt caterpillar with down syndrome." Lee added.

"Your best dance is ascending and spinning in the air in a T pose my guy." Jimmy said after.

The girls chuckled at the boys banter, and they continued into the mines.

"Fucking hell, this place is a mess." Jimmy said. As he looked around, he noticed a woman with a brown tail. The area around her eyes was bloody, but he could make out scales. Then he realized. Tall, brown hair, brown scales and tail, it was Finna.