*Thump* *Thump*
We rode over another speed bump. Ever since we sat down, I've just been reminiscing about my past, and it seemed he may have noticed my focus was elsewhere, so the entire car ride so far has been absent of conversation. Only the occasional speed bump and brakes from the vehicle could be heard.
I turned my head to peer at the man beside me. Though he wasn't looking at me, I could still see that stunning set of sharp, steely grey eyes. At first, I thought they were a shade of blue from the lighting, but I noticed it not long after.
His dark, short, spiky hair was well-conditioned and had a silky-looking texture. The air conditioning within the car shifted his bangs ever so slightly from side to side.
His lips looked like they could do with a dab of chapstick, but it could easily be fixed. The texture of his skin was nice and smooth too; if I hadn't known any better, I would've thought that he was a model or hidden celebrity of some kind.
Maybe he's actually secretly a fuckboy. If that was the case, it would kinda make me feel a little better about separating them, but seeing him reject me so firmly earlier, I don't think that's the case.
'Why am I even thinking about morals when I'm stealing this man away?! Does it even matter if I'm "in the right" or something like that? Maybe I'm not cut out for this whole cheating thing… No, this face and body are too much for me not to desire. If I could convince him to fuck me even when he has someone, then he must've already had a few indecent thoughts like that before then.
I'm starting to get excited about this younger man. Is this how those cougars feel about their prey? I'm sure some people would call me a cougar too at my age. Fufu~ acting like one probably wouldn't be too bad, ooh, I got it. How about I act more like how a milf would, being mommy to the man might not be too bad!'
At that moment, he finally noticed my gaze. His eyes darted to me and back to the road before he slowed the vehicle and turned his head.
"Uh, Abby? Is something wrong? Why are you staring at me like that?"
"Fufu~ I'm just amazed by what I'm looking at, that's all."
I laid my head on his shoulder and pulled myself closer to him.
"Hey! What are you doing?! Did you already forget I told you that I'm taken?!"
I got a hold of myself in my seat and pouted.
"Come on now, don't you remember you agreed to embrace me?"
"I-I suppose, wait… why did I accept again? I-"
I panicked as he questioned himself.
'Wait, did I just break my own hypnosis on him? Fuck, how do I activate it again!? I have to stall him until I can figure it out!'
"U-uh, I guess it must've been a spur-of-the-moment response, but no take-backs! " You're a man of your word, aren't you?"
"Uh, yeah, I suppose. I think there might be something wrong with my memory. 15 min- wait, has it really been 15 minutes since we left that office? Oh god, I'm losing my mind. Abby, what about you? How's your memory? Is it just me?"
"I…uh-"
My eyes darted away for a few seconds as my guilt somewhat overwhelmed me for a moment.
'Oh fuck, I think I might have just made it worse. At least he moved on from the sex thing, I guess. Damn, isn't he a little too aware?! He's noticing such small discrepancies. What is he counting every single minute that passes or something?!
When I read novels with powers like this, isn't that first person supposed to succumb immediately to it?! Where's my beginner's luck!?
Calm down, Abby; let's let him be the only one with memory loss. That way, I can be the voice of reason. He won't be able to rely on his own memory at times, and if that's the case, he'll have to rely on me.
If I pretend to have lost memory as well, then we'll just be on equal footing, but that means there's always the possibility he'll be suspicious of why I wasn't affected.
I just gotta choose one!'
"-actually still remember everything. Is there something that you feel odd about? I could fill you in about it if you want."
"I- *sigh* never mind, I probably just didn't realize how long we were resting after running. Anyways, we're here, but it looks like others might have definitely made it here before us."
============
*** MC POV ***
============
I stepped on the brake slowly till we came to a halt, and I turned off the car.
'She hesitated in her speech… is that just my imagination since we just came from a stressful situation, or could there be something more to it? Her eyes had even looked away from me.
Is a doctor like her seriously someone who has a problem looking people in the eyes? She may not look at people when she performs her medicine, but what about afterwards? I don't know how social doctors have to be, though, so I could be wrong there.
Still, I can't shake the ominous feeling of those purple eyes.
I feel like something about me is different from before, but I can't put my finger on it. Unless my common sense has changed, I think I'm fine for the most part.
I guess I'll just hope whatever changed won't affect my future too drastically.'
As I stepped out of the vehicle, I looked at the area that was only told existed on the plant grounds. If it weren't for Robert, I wouldn't have even known where to go in order to get here.
Two-layered gates enclosed the only entrance to a small windowless building hidden within the confines of the plant grounds between buildings and through side paths. Directly attached to the right side of the building was an open garage that was missing its vehicle.
Both gates had already been slid open to the lone building. Its silhouette short and unassuming. If it weren't for the gates, I wouldn't think twice about this building; I'd have probably thought it was a janitorial building or something along those lines.
I pulled out the makeshift spear I made from the car while Abby trembled as she held her gun behind me.
When we advanced to the front of the building in the center, I reached for the doorknob.
'How should I approach this? Yelling out his name as soon as I get in, or by sweeping the area? Though announcing myself might not be the best idea, at least if Robert is inside, then I won't get shot by accidentally spooking him. But if these monsters were inside or even around me somewhere, they'd know. I guess I could text or call him, but he didn't respond before.
'Maybe I'm just completely overthinking this, or maybe I'm not! Fuck, doing something is better than nothing. I'll just open the door and deal with whatever is on the other side when I see it.'
Pulling open the door, I entered quickly and scanned the room. Compared to the rest of the plant that we've seen, this place felt more in line with reality, at least the reality of yesterday.
The room Abby and I barged into was just a small office area at the far side of the room. The side we were at had lockers on one side, shoe storage near the door, and a coat rack nearby.
The lights were turned on in the building, and four doors at different angles from their frame were the focus of my view. To the right was a closed door, but considering the garage from earlier, I immediately disregarded that as an option to clear. In the back was another door, but the exit side above also helped me disregard that option.
On the left wall, there were two doors; the door closest was only opened a crack, but no light came from within. The other door was wide open, and I could see light from within, but the way the door opened outward blocked my view of the inside. I started moving toward the closest door, but I soon heard chatter from an open room. Indistinct murmurs came from within, which made me hesitate in clearing the room in front of me.
The only thing I could tell was that it was a single person's voice. I let my guard down a little, at least believing it was human, and headed in that direction, but as I came close to the door, the murmurs stopped, and an uneasy feeling filled up a pit in my mind.
I turned to see how Abby was handling it, but just as I turned, I noticed the door to the room we left behind was pushed open, and a handgun began to protrude from the doorway.
In that moment, I was frantic and quickly reached for my gun.
A rigid, steady voice sounded as Abby looked at me with confusion, before quickly gaining a hint of fear.
"Put your!... hands… up…"
Abby, immediately startled, spun and pointed her weapon at the man, though her entire body was shaking during the motions.
As streaks of light ran over his face, I lowered Abby's shaky arms down.
"Nova, is that you? How'd you find me? And who's this?"
"Robert! Honestly, if you weren't here, I would've probably just left. This was the last place I really had in mind. And this unlucky soul was actually a visitor who was on the plant's tour. Was that voice in the other room from you?"
"Other voice? … There's someone else?"
"Huh?! Wait-"
"Nah, I'm just kidding. Yeah, it was me. I thought you were something else. I'm sure you've seen those monsters. I saw them start doing things some mindless creatures wouldn't be able to, like open a door, so I had to prepare for anything, even if that meant they learned how to drive."
He pulled out a radio to show me. Pretending the radio in the other room was on was quite good, especially when they hid in a less conspicuous room, such as that unlit, mostly closed one.
"Opening doors? I sure hope this is less like a hivemind and more just individual creatures."
"Yeah, also if you're here for any usable equipment like weapons or armor, then you're outta luck. It looks like the gear here was only allotted for a single team of five and not for any more members. There is a decent amount of ammunition remaining, though, along with their cleaning bench."
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to top up at least. What do you plan on doing now, Robert? After I woke up in this mess, I wanted to find you before I left."
"Wait, just how long did you sleep for?! Whatever, my plan is pretty clear, I gotta go back to my family. I'm surprised that you stayed here to look for me; don't you have a fiancé or something to get back to? If you think I have some sort of grand plan, you're mistaken; you shouldn't have cared this much to look for me; for all you know, I could've been a dead man."
"Well, I got to figure out that you're alive; that's good enough for me even if we're going to separate soon. Let's at least get to the parking lot first."
I thought I heard soft thumping and held my hand up.
*Thump* *Thump*
There was silence for a few moments before the sudden sound of glass shattering and metal crumpling rang out from outside, and a car alarm went off soon after.
We all went to the front door with a morbid curiosity, and there was the abomination from before, one of its arms smashing into the roof of the car Abby and I took to get here.
In that moment, there was dead silence on our end.
'How did it find us?!'
In our stupor, the monster had swiveled its head in our direction.