More and more often, Gary found himself being put in situations that forced him to lie because the truth was just too bizarre and there were things he needed to hide no matter what. Making matters even worse, he had more than one secret and all of the people around him only knew certain parts or had been lied to in regards to others.
His mother was currently in the hospital, yet when she woke up he would someday have to explain where he had managed to acquire the money to help them pay for bills. Gary had told Amy that he had been helping out another friend of his with their family business, yet he had deliberately avoided mentioning that this ‘family business’ had him work as a Transporter for the Underdogs.
As for Tom, his best friend still believed that Gary had become a Werewolf due to a strange package, yet he knew nothing about where it had come from. Overall, the green haired teenager had done his best to keep the other away from anything gang related, be it him having been in one, and naturally him being the active leader of another. Thinking how Tom would react knowing these things shook him at times.
Then there was Kai who was the only one aware of the situation with the Underdogs and now that he thought about it, his upperclassman also knew about the Dem family problems, as well as Billy. He knew pretty much everything except that his underclassman wasn’t exactly a hundred percent human anymore.
There was a worry on Gary’s mind about how the others would react if they found out the truth. It would be one thing if he had been an Altered, yet his situation appeared to be something else entirely. He didn’t want them to know for fear he would lose them. Aside from his family and Tom the Howlers was all he had right now.
The worst part of it all, was that Gary was a horrible liar. Often he said the first thought that came to his head, which this time was. ‘Whoh, it really healed I must have superpowers.’ Thankfully he bit his tongue back this time before saying anything.
When Marie tried to look at his other hand, he had instantly hidden both of them behind his back.
‘What the… am I an idiot? It’s not like if she can’t see my hands she will now believe whatever I say.’ Gary chided himself.
“You two also saw that glass shard pierce his hand, right?” Marie questioned the two high school boys who were still behind the bar. “I’m not going crazy, heck he even took it out and right here I have a rag full of blood!” The high school girl lifted it up seemingly to convince herself as much as Innu and Kai. Meanwhile, Gary scooted around to reposition himself so his fellow gang members wouldn’t be able to see his next action.
While Innu looked on the floor and could see that there was indeed a large shard with blood on it. There was no doubt in his mind that they had all seen the same thing.
‘What do I do? Should I just confess to being an Altered? No, that will just open another can of worms, meaning I would have to come up with more lies to hide it. There’s only one thing I can do.’
Instead of adding it to the web of lies he had already spun, the green haired teenager decided to do something more drastic.
[Skill activated Claw Drain]
His fingers started to grow slightly and so did his sharp and hard nails. It would hurt but Gary had no choice and with his hands behind his back the others wouldn’t be able to see. It was at that moment, that he used the ‘claw’ to dig into his hand, creating a large cut across it.
[You are suffering from minor blood loss]
[If too much blood is lost it will continue to lower your HP]
‘Sh*t, this hurts way more than that stupid little piece of glass. The things I do to keep up this lie… maybe it would have been easier to tell them the truth.’
There was a worry on Gary’s mind though, that since he wasn’t in a fight his passive healing or perhaps even his emergency healing might take effect.
Claw Drain only lasted a total of 2 seconds at Level 1 and while that might be detrimental during a fight, for his current purposes it was perfect. By the time everyone looked from the rag back him his hands had already reverted to normal. He lifted up his hand with blood dripping down it.
“Sorry, I just didn’t want you to put alcohol on the right hand.” Gary apologised. “Alcohol on an open wound seriously hurts, but you’re right it needs to get disinfected. I just put some blood on the other hand hoping you wouldn’t find out. The cut is still there, it’s just on the other hand.”
Hearing this, Marie let out a big sigh.
“Just come over here, you big cry baby.” The high school girl shook her head, while Gary willingly went over, and placed his hand out. She could see a big cut, and started to get to work, not even questioning why it looked so ‘fresh’. The green haired teenager didn’t even have to act to let out a cry when the alcohol came into contact with his wound. He just hoped that the emergency or passive healing wouldn’t kick in so quickly that Marie could see it healing on the spot.
In the end, Marie bandaged it up, and it looked like she hadn’t noticed anything strange. However, the other two boys in the room weren’t as convinced. The high school girl might not have paid enough attention to the fight, but both Kai and Innu were more than ninety percent sure that the shard of glass should have gone through the other hand. To top it off, his strange actions were definitely because he was hiding something.
‘Why the need to cover it up, Gary?’ Kai wondered, as he started to think back to certain events. ‘Wait, could it be possible… it seemed too crazy to be true, but if I put everything together, your fast improvement and what happened in the park with Tom and that wolf-type Altered, but how… is that it? Was that what was inside the briefcase Damion is so crazy about and why you’re running from the Underdogs?’
Of course, Kai had no way to test out the conclusion he had reached. Confronting the other directly wouldn’t yield much. He would have to either wait or find a way to make his underclassman confess to it himself, though he didn’t know how close his thoughts were to the actual reality. For now, he intended to keep their gang leader’s secret a secret.
‘This is getting exciting. If that’s really the case, we’ll be able to seriously accelerate the progress of my plans.’ A large grin started to appear on the bleach blonde teenager’s face.