19 Your Woman

After an hour of heavy discussion, Peaches returned to the dining room where Renee, Naya, and Levana quietly sat. She served them lunch, as that was her main duty in the mansion, but everyone looked too troubled to eat.

Levana's eyes were swollen and red. It was pretty obvious she had cried her eyes out before coming down the stairs to join everyone for the meeting with Lysander. Naya's face was as rigid as ever, it was impossible to read her, and Renee, she was always far away from reality, her mind was never in the present, it looked more like she was struggling to contain her sorrows, and Peaches somehow wanted to smack Lysander for hitting everyone with the tough truth.

"You guys," Peaches began softly, taking her seat and smiling gently at three of them. "I know everyone is going through a rough patch right now, I completely understand that it's not easy to accept the fate that our city is in and just move on like nothing happened. We don't know how many of us will survive this tragic epidemic, but we should be grateful for the lives we have now, rather than finding ourselves turning into some mutant creatures, right?"

Levana exhaled noisily through pursed lips after listening to Peaches little comforting speech, except none of it was working for her at the current moment, not when her perfect life was starting to come true only to have everything crumble overnight.

"Nothing matters now, monsters or not, we're all doomed either way." She sniped, "everything makes complete sense now. Master Zander is right about everything, if the system spoke about us being selected amongst nine billion inhabitants, this means our city is not the only one suffering from this chaos, and since other countries are currently facing what we're facing, where in heaven's name does the stupid system want us to evacuate to?"

Fresh tears escaped Levana's red-rimmed eyes, but she quickly wiped them away with the back of her sleeve, "I watched my parents turn into these monsters, including my siblings, none of them survived this mysterious plague, and it was crazy, how they all fell into this coma at the same time. I questioned life afterwards, because what's the use of my existence if I have no one to share my emotions with? I had to kill my family with my own two hands, I couldn't save either of them so you shouldn't tell me to just bottle up my guilt as if they would go away overnight, cause they won't!"

"It's not your fault that the circumstances pushed you to do what you had to do, and trust me, you've misunderstood my intention." Shifting her chair closer to Levana, Peaches gently pulled the crying lady into her arms, petting her hair affectionately.

"We've all faced something tragic in these past two days, you can cry on me if you want to, it's fine."

"Who didn't watch their loved ones turn into something they weren't, what's more insane is that the ones who created the virus aren't here to even mend their goddamn mistakes." Naya scoffed bitterly and leaned forward to grab a bowl of chicken noodle soup, "sulking, crying, whatever it is you ladies wanna do, it won't change what has happened. There's no use crying over spilt milk, what we need to work on is how to move from here and survive the apocalypse."

Peaches nodded her head in agreement, "isn't that what the guild is for? We're here as a team, and I believe with time, we ladies will get to know one another better, and we can work together to face the crisis happening. According to Zander, he's heading out tonight with Bobby to get the gadgets, and by dawn tomorrow, it will be Eric and Vincent's turn to head out and gain more necessary supplies as we prepare for the evacuation."

"Is that what the guild is about, phantom court?" Renee finally found the courage to join the harmless conversation, and Peaches nodded her head in response.

"Who owns the guild if I may ask?"

"The phantom court leader is actually Grand Master Cullen, I'm not sure if you've heard of him, but he's a renowned big-time mafia Lord around this part, and we're all pretty terrified of him." She informed Renee in a cautious whisper, "it will be best if you stick with Zander or Bobby, you'll be safer around them than with Cullen."

"Big-time mafia?" Renee glanced at her surroundings with a subconscious intent, and her suspicion clicked. No wonder the building was so strategically confusing, and that explains the oppressive aura too. What house could have the best weapons to hold out monsters if it wasn't a Mafia domain? She hasn't really stepped out to see what it looked like on the outside, but knowing it belongs to a mafia now, the security here must be highly tight and advanced.

Lord Cullen, that name rang a bell, and the only time she's heard someone mention that name was when a group of college mates kept whispering about it, and the second day after that name became rampant, the students who spread the names of the mighty Cullen's went missing and haven't been found till date. That recollection made her feel even more nervous about staying here, and she wondered why when she's never even met this person.

"You girls should eat up before it gets cold." Peaches instructed, gently pushing the warm bowl of chicken noodle soup towards Renee and Levana. "Eat, even if you don't feel like it, because your body needs it, and you can't risk demeaning your stats. We have lots of work to do after, how about some alone girl time where we can all sit and share what we know about the system, that way we can all improve our knowledge and be ready for what's to come."

"Is it okay if I take my meals upstairs?" Renee gently grabbed her bowl of chicken soup. Even if the delicious aroma of Peach's cooking was making her mouth water, she couldn't imagine herself eating while knowing her brother was still unconscious. He must be hungry too, probably more than her, so she'll share her meal with him, just like they've always done together.

"Hold on." Peaches rose from the chair and quickly went to the kitchen. She returned a minute later with a tray, and another bowl of soup resting atop it. "You must be heading to his room right? The guy you were brought with? Feed him this, it'll strengthen him."

Renee's gaze landed on the lentil soup, the savory aroma feeling her nostrils, and she smiled gratefully at Peaches. "Thank you."

Glancing at the remaining two and making them aware of her leave, Renee made her way to the staircase. Robinson was indeed right, the people here, or the ones she's interacted with so far have been nice to her, especially Peaches. Actually, she's more interactive around everyone and likes making new friends, it was pretty obvious since she keeps insisting they all do something together.

Maybe staying here won't be as bad as she thought, and at least she'll have the opportunity to see new faces instead of the ones belonging to mutated monsters. She will be safe here, her brother will also find safety here, and since everyone is interested in knowing what happened, that makes staying here more beneficial, cause she will also grab more information about the mutants.

Reaching the top of the stairs, Renee remembered the exact room belonging to her brother. Thankfully, it was just two doors away by her right, and after confirming it visually, she twisted the door knob and entered. However, Renee halted at the entrance when Robinson and Lysander turned their heads to see her walk in, but that wasn't even the case.

Cyrus was sitting up on the bed, fully awake, and he seemed to be complaining about something before she barged in on the three of them.

"Cyrus?" Renee blinked in bewilderment, staying rooted to her spot, and her brother's hardened expression softened the minute he noticed her presence.

"Cyrus!" It all happened so quickly that Renee hardly knew when she brushed past both men only to throw her arms around Cyrus. The tray she brought was resting on the bedside table, and she was unable to visualize how she accomplished all those movements in a matter of seconds, just so she could hold her brother.

A torrent of emotions surged through her heart when he equally embraced her, and she was unable to keep up the bold facade. Unrestrained tears rolled down her eyes, and she pulled back to see him smiling dorkily at her, and she knew instantly that she hadn't imagined it, he was really awake!

"From now on, I'll be the one behind the wheels," she sniffed back her tears, glaring at his apologetic expression, "do you hear me?"

"Heh, I'll consider it once you learn how to operate your phone properly." Teased Cyrus, patting her head like the comforting brother he was, and Renee quickly wiped her tears away. She was surprised to see he was awake already, since Robinson had told her it'd take a day or two for him to regain consciousness.

"Are you fine now? Does your head hurt?" Renee's gaze lingered worriedly on the bandage wrapped around his head, but her brother waved it off like it wasn't a big deal.

"Here, I brought you this." Setting her bowl of chicken noodle soup aside, she handed him the tray with the lentil soup, placing it on his legs, "eat this and you'll feel better again."

"Hold on," Cyrus held her arm when she made attempts to stand up from the edge of the bed, and Renee noticed how his green eyes shifted warily between the two men behind her, only to settle his alarming gaze on her.

"What is this place?"

Renee opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out of it. She hardly knew how she was going to start explaining everything that's happened so far to him.

"We will give you two some privacy." Robinson added softly, and he joined Lysander who was already leaving the room.

"Why did you do that?" Robinson couldn't help but ask his unpredictable cousin once they were alone in the corridor, "are you trying to flaunt your new abilities, or is there something more to what I'm seeing that you're not telling me?"

"Get to the point."

"You shared 25% of your vitality value to those two, that's 50% vitality value in total, all gone, and your body system is left with quite a big loss. If your level was any lower, you would be dead by now." Robinson's hazel eyes narrowed in concern, and he tilted his head suspiciously.

"How strange, not even Cullen would risk such a thing for her and her brother, but you did. If I didn't know better, I'd assume she was your woman, and not my brother's."

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