Page 18 of Beautiful Prey

I put up my hand. “It’s fine. Just whenever you have a thought. But I also want you to think about what you want to talk about in the next session. Because, sorry to say, it can’t always be about me.”

“Too bad.” He sighed. “How about we split the session fifty-fifty?”

I laughed, then clipped out, “Not a chance.”

CHAPTER FIVE

The sessions got easier once they became a routine. Emery still had trouble talking about his past, but he was opening up more and more as the days went. Inch by slow inch, I chipped at the walls of his mind while discovering more about the man behind the monster.

It started to disturb me how untroubled our conversations became. They were, dare I say, almost refreshing. And I didn’t use that word lightly. When I first met him, I was prepared to encounter a dimwitted, but vicious, personality. Emery was vicious, of course. But the way he talked about the world or the things that mattered to him, he was so passionate that sometimes it left me speechless. He drew me in, into his world.

If it weren’t for the bond we already held in blood and rage, I wouldn’t have hesitated forming something else entirely, even if it’s just an uncomplicated friendship.

But everything about our situation was complicated, whether he knew it or not. Yet, I could tell he was trying to make that connection too. Sometimes, I caught him just watching me, the heat of his gaze making me shiver. The need for something more than professional between us was there in the commentshe made too, in those amused little quips and jabs that were innocent yet deeply inquisitive.

He wanted my attention, and mine alone. Dr. Langley or a nurse would stop by often to see how we were doing and he hardly ever looked their way; he didn’t respond to them either. I don’t know why he chose me, why he was willing to talk to me. I grew paranoid that he knew something, after all. That he knew who I really was and he was playing me. But there was no way he could since they had kept me out of the trial. Not to mention he hadn’t seen me that night. He had no access to information here either except for the fictional books they gave him. And through careful questioning, I concluded he really had no idea. That weirdly, he just liked talking to me.

Because of that, he let me in, let me see a real part of him. It was only when he tried to do the same with me, to get me to open up to him more than I cared to, that I cowered away. Every time he tried to get beyond the therapist and to see Eve, I could see the hope there. It was as if a shadow of him extended out, reaching for me, hoping I would accept the calloused hand he offered, only for me to turn away in fear and disgust. Only for that mere second would I see the hurt in his gaze before it was gone.

I knew he wanted more from me than I could give. He would test me, but he understood our sessions were as far as we could ever dare go. Just two people talking as if time stood still and everything that happened didn’t matter. Just in that moment. Only in that moment.

There, in that shadowy, decaying room, we were safe.

“Oh my god, you are so wrong,” I said, smacking my hand on the thin metal table between us. “Like what is wrong with your head right now?Alien Threewas one of the worst they made! How can you put it over two? Two!” A few of the pieces on the checkerboard had moved, so I shifted them back into place. Thered checkers were dominating the black, but I got a double jump on the next turn.

“Two isn’t even scary. Problem number one,” he argued. “And secondly, it's just an overblown action movie. The aliens are hardly a threat if one woman can take on their queen. Where is the dread? The hopelessness? I’ll tell you where—in three.”

I pressed my fingers to my temples. “No, screw that, they killed off everyone from two in the opening credits! It was bullshit, a slap in the face!”

“That’s what makes it good. The shock factor that sets up the atmosphere for the entire movie. No one is safe. As every Alien movie should be. Red piece—five down, three across—move up.”

I clicked my tongue, annoyed, as I slid his chip into place. There went my double jump. “Four was at least unique; three was just painful to watch.”

The chains slid across his chair as he tried to draw up his hand to point a finger at me like he was going to scold me. “Four was unrestrained garbage.” He seethed. “I had nightmares about that damn humanoid alien abomination for a week. And because it was so damn stupid looking. And don’t get me started on the clones.”

I had to laugh a little at that. I jumped over his red chip and took it off the board. Behind me, the rain pattered against the window softly. It was a dreary day, but I didn’t mind. The heat had finally kicked in and I had brought a sweater. And the nurses had offered me a coffee which I kept by me in a paper cup. Unfortunately for Emery, he wasn’t allowed any.

The games had been my idea. I wanted something to distract him while we talked. Just sitting there face to face was awkward, and he fidgeted a lot with his hands.

Most sessions in the last two weeks had gone like this. We sat, talked, maybe played a game. I learned something about him, even if small. And I let him ask questions too. There wereonly a few times that he closed up on me, or had one of those episodes where something set him off and he had to calm a little. But he never channeled his anger toward me. He never threatened me or made me uncomfortable.

We only had to cancel one session. He had been in the blackest mood imaginable and nobody knew what set him off. But something had. Badly. He couldn’t be contained, and it took the guards two hours to calm him. He was too dangerous for a sedative so they let him go off in his room, cracking the wall with his fists, trying to talk him down. I had begged Dr. Langley to let me see him but of course he refused.

“I don’t think he would have even heard you, Eve. He was trapped in his own mind. It can happen to the ones with extreme PTSD. Sometimes, the nightmares are so vivid they become a reality.”

“Is that why he still wears the mask?” I asked. “Is it something to do with the trauma?”

“I believe so,” Dr. Langley said honestly. “This is just a theory, but I think he uses the mask to hide himself from the things that haunt him. And Emery has many ghosts. When he was initially taken, they tried to pry it off him, but they only got it past his nose before he attacked one of the officers, almost biting their fingers off. He scared the rest so badly they didn’t dare try again.”

The next time I saw him after that, he was quieter but calmer.

“Sorry about that, Evee,” Emery had said.

“It’s alright.” I’d asked if he wanted to talk about it and wasn’t surprised when he refused, so we moved on.

I took a sip of my coffee. “I can agree at leastAlien Fourwas the weirdest by far. I think my official ranking would beAlien,Alien Isolation,Aliens,Alien Three, then four.” I looked up to notice him watching me instead of the board.

“Isolation?” he asked.

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