The Cleaner - Chapter 12

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Red water pooled around Sophie's feet and toes. She watched it swirl over the rusted drain with a schooled disconnect. Too many years washing blood from her flesh had desensitized her. Now it was no different than washing away the dirt and grime that accompanied it. Yet she still watched it until the water turned clear again. Her sins had been forgiven - or they would have been if she believed in the old ways. A belief she had given up on long before Eden outlawed any type of religion. Why would a god allow her father to mock him so severely? Her only answer was that there was no god.

Finally pulling herself from the darkness of the drain, she tilted her face up into the chilly water. Having registered the degrees of it through the tell-tale goosebumps on her flesh, she was grateful for it sparking a response her damaged nerves normally could not measure. Neither heat nor cold affected her. Not until her body gave visible signs. She ignored the shivers. Her need for a shower outweighed the obvious dismay of her body's falling temperature. It had been a gracious commodity in helping to reduce Derek's fevered temperature. She wasn't so sure he'd welcome it now.

The suds from shampoo were still running down her face when she heard the knock. Having done this long enough and thinking she knew Derek enough to know he wouldn't bother her unless necessary, she immediately turned the shower off and listened to him. His words persuaded her from the clawed feet tub. Ignoring the need for a towel, she walked to the small window in the room and pulled herself up on tiptoe to peer out through the boards. She didn't see anything. "Mechanical?" She asked more to herself though she knew he could hear her. The council hadn't used anything mechanical since...

Her wet feet slapped the thin layer of water on the tiled floor as she ran back to the door and wrenched it open. Within seconds she had grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him down with her into the tub. His head she covered with her arms, her cheek pressed tightly to his temple, she tried to drape the rest of her body over him as well as she could though his size far exceeded her own. 

Always protect the chosen.

Derek had expected to see her stepping out of the bathroom fully dressed a few minutes later and so he was leaning casually against the wall next to the bathroom door in order to wait for her to get ready, listening to the mechanical sound that was getting closer quickly. What he definitely hadn't expected was a completely wet and naked Sophie pulling him into the bathroom forcefully and pushing him into the wet and very cold bathtub and a second later he found himself buried underneath her, his chin resting almost comfortably between her breasts. "Uhm..." he mumbled in utter confusion while his brain tried to catch up with what actually was going on right now.

Only when the bullets started flying around them, hitting the side of the bathtub did her actions start making sense. Derek realized that she was actually trying to protect him, which reminded him of the fact that he hadn't told her yet that he was difficult to kill with bullets. She didn't know about his healing abilities. He had been shot before and even though it was painful as fuck he wouldn't die from it. She, however, would, or so he assumed. Making him aware of the fact that he actually knew not much about her either. Not really. 

He still felt the strong urge to reverse their positions so that he would be able to cover her with his body instead but the bathtub was really small and he was stuck at the bottom of it. Besides, he was pretty sure that Sophie would knock him out if he tried to struggle against her grasp right now and so he only managed to wriggle his arms around their bodies. For a moment this felt like a grotesque embrace of some sorts until he finally had his arms free to protect her head in return. The bullets didn't stop flying for what seemed an eternity and chips of the ceramic bathtub were showering down onto Sophie's bare back and Derek's arms, nicking at their skin but not causing any serious damage.

Glass shattered near them and every time the bullets pierced the side of the porcelain tub Sophie flinched slightly and eventually screamed when it seemed like it wasn't going to stop. When it suddenly did, their ears pulsed and the ringing momentarily deafened them. Rather than underestimate the thing outside, she kicked the shower lever up. The cold water instantly rained down on them and as it did she shifted her mouth closer to his ear to whisper. 

"The cold water will help to drop our body temperatures. It'll measure our vitals. Slow your breathing and calm your heart. As soon as it moves on, we leave."

The cold water was a shock but Derek remained as still as he could, trying to control his breathing and his heart rate but it was difficult to calm down. Adrenaline was rushing through his veins, the beast inside of him wanting to fight and not to hide and additionally there was a completely naked woman lying on top of him with a very nice pair of breasts he didn't fail to notice, despite his attempts to ignore them. He had been in absurd situations before but this definitely outmatched everything else.

Time stood still as Sophie listened for the heavy steps of the cleaner outside. With the shower it proved tricky but a few minutes later she decided it was safe and moved away from Derek to step from the tub and stand. If he thought otherwise, since his hearing was superior to her own, she knew he'd pull her back. When he didn't, she quickly collected her clothing to shove her body back into. With water still clinging heavily to her flesh, it proved difficult and probably comical to watch if they were not in such a dire situation.

"What was that?" He asked while climbing from the tub after her. His slowly returning hearing couldn't pick up on the things movement. Assuming it moved on, it was best they do the same. Derek couldn't help but taking a peak at her naked form and once again didn't fail to notice that she looked amazing. But he also noticed the numerous scars across her body. They appeared to be bite marks and he instinctively knew what and who had caused them. She had been bitten so often she probably wasn't able to count them any longer. Then again, she may have known where each and every one came from. Would he be too forward to ask? 

His eyes were drawn to one bite mark that looked very fresh. It only could be a few days old, had she actually been bitten in that cellar? She hadn't shown any signs of pain. Derek averted his eyes again because he suddenly felt as if he was preying on something that was very intimate, and he wasn't talking about her naked body. 

Being naked was an almost normal state for wolves since clothes often got torn or even lost during a shift and hunting was way more fun naked anyway. He felt very comfortable within his skin and he also was very comfortable about other naked people. Sophie didn't seemed to be too concerned about it either since she not even once had tried to cover herself somehow. While Sophie struggled into her clothes, he checked himself for injuries, nothing too severe to worry over. 

Sophie's back, however, looked as if someone had whipped it and there was blood coming from numerous small nicks. It was nothing life threatening but it surely was painful. Sophie simply seemed to ignore it. When she finally put on her shirt, he could see the blood seeping through it. It looked strangely like blooming flowers and he watched her back almost in fascination while he listened to her explanations.

"It's called a cleaner," Sophie said. "They're sent out once we reach the summit to clear our area of any unwanted. Unwanted being, failed chosen, exiles or escapees of Eden. The council likes to keep tight control over all of the island. It shouldn't be here. Not until our arrival there is confirmed." She turned to face him once she was fully dressed, taking care to pull her soaked hair up and away from her face. "I think someone in the council knows who you are and doesn't want either of us to make it to Eden."

Rather than force her wet feet into her boots, Sophie carried them with her to the living room where she left them by the door while she found a bag and packed it quickly with necessities. "We have to keep moving. Once the leader of the council realizes it is out, he'll bring it back in. He's very...meticulous when it comes to the trials. Until that time, we have to put as much distance between us and it as we can."

Derek had followed her back into the living room. His pants were soaked with ice cold water and he was shivering but since they were his only pants, he would have to keep them on until they were dry. Luckily he hadn't been wearing his shoes and he'd been shirtless. And at least he had gotten his shower. Of sorts. 

He quickly grabbed the few things he deemed necessary such as the water bottle, his makeshift weapon with what he had killed the corpses before and that he had carried around with him since. He also packed the jerky and after some consideration, his filthy and torn T-Shirt. He wouldn't put it back on until he was able to clean it but it was the only shirt he had so he wouldn't leave it behind. 

The noise had drawn in some corpses outside but there weren't too many. Derek and Sophie had no trouble fighting their way through them when they left the cabin and then they were on the run once again. Only this time, Derek actually noticed that he wasn't in great form. It wasn't just the poisoning his body only recently had overcome, it mainly was the fact that he hadn't eaten properly in a few days. Healing required energy, energy he usually got through food. 

In addition, he was growing frustrated with the fact that he still had too many open questions and that they never seemed to have time for her to answer them, let alone for him to ask. How would he be able to contribute properly if he always only knew the half of what was going on? If he even knew that much. 

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