[Edit] well here's the first of the edited chapters. I didn't change all that much it's just slightly longer and I added so more stuff. Enjoy

Reading back through my old artist comments makes me disgusted in myself. I talked like a 12 year old

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

Within These Walls

Chapter 1

I would be lying if I told you that I expected any of this. It would seem easy to think that living with Providence and fighting more Evos than I can count for the last couple of years would make nothing surprise me anymore. If anything it should have only made me more wary of the unexpected. I can't say that any amount of past experience would have lessened the blow of being forced to run from the only people I have ever considered my family. The only people that ever bothered to help. I didn't expect to be standing in my shower for hours in an attempt to escape the ever present sickly copper scent of blood that clung to my skin. I didn't expect to be holding what's left of my sanity together and trying to understand why these things always happened to me. Why did these things always have to happen to me? Most of all, I definitely didn't expect to be holding back the monster that I know was there; lurking within the shadows of my mind. I could feel it clawing at its' mental confines, waiting for the moon to rise so it could come out and play again. I could feel itsnapping and flashing bloody images behind my eyelids and release grating laughter that echoed through the very recesses of my mind. I could feel it twitching and stirring every waking moment of every waking day. Now, within these walls, it's going to paint them with the blood of everyone I hold dear, and I'm helpless to stopit.

The bite wound on my right shoulder painfully throbbed as I walked through the halls of Providence just to do something to occupy myself. I mean, the injury shouldn't hurt this much, should it? Holiday had said it was healing fine. Holiday herself had sewn and bandaged said wound yesterday. What had started out as a dull ache when I had woke up this morning had slowly evolved into a full-fledged burn throughout the course of the day. Not to mention I just felt plain awful in general. Like the feeling before you actually get sick that starts out as a pressure in your head that promises cold medicine and restless nights to come.

Step. Wince. Step. Wince. Step. Wince.

This pattern was getting real old real fast. It wasn't THAT bad, well that's what I told them. Frederico had to have apologized to me at least a couple hundred times after the sun had risen, and he had returned to his senses. Eventually I had enough of the repeated; 'I'm so sorry Rex I didn't know what I was doing!' that just to get him to stop freaking out I flashed one of my dashing smiles and told him I had fought scarier Evos than a little Chihuahua like him. Frederico; however, didn't seem convinced, but that was probably due to the blood dripping down my arm to form a small puddle on the ground.

In all honesty, the bite hurt like hell and it kinda tingled in a weird way. Going by the reaction I got from Holiday, the bite wasn't exactly a pretty sight either. It hurt even worse than the time Van Kleiss tried to steal my nanites, and that was saying something. I was no wimp, I could take down Evos that could destroy cities. I practically ate Evos for breakfast! I could even steal Six's favorite suit (even though they all look the same) and live! So no itty bitty little bite is going to slow me down!

A particularly painful jolt from my shoulder broke me from my inner pep talk. Maybe the little bite could use an ice pack. I stole one from one of the many medical supply closets from around the base and headed for my room for some much needed rest.

The obvious lack of obnoxious snoring and discarded banana peels let me know Bobo wasn't around which allowed me to have some welcomed privacy. Another jolt from the bite had me stumbling to my bathroom. I didn't remember taking off my jacket or shirt nor do I remember unwrapping the bandages from my shoulder. What I do remember for certain is looking at the angry inflamed wound on my shoulder, which definitely didn't look good. In fact, it looked a lot worse than when Holiday had bandaged it less than eight hours ago and somehow the stitches had come undone. Following an unwise prod at the inflamed flesh revealed it was also leaking a reddish looking puss. The telltale signs of infection were ever present just by the mere sight of it.

Something was off, my nanites should have sped up the healing process, not let it get worse! Something was telling me I would need more than an ice pack to deal with this. Something more being a visit to the sexy doctor named Doctor Holiday. Even so, it seemed like the universe had different plan, because right when I was reaching for my communicator it buzzed to life in my ear producing static before a distinguishable voice could be heard.

"Rex, meet in training room 5-B in 15 minutes for your afternoon training; if you are late again there will be consequences," Six's stern voice could be heard through the communicator.

I was about make a smart reply about how nannies were supposed to take care of their charges, not beat them to the ground; but the communicator shut off before I could utter a word. I openly groaned and rolled my eyes knowing what training with Six would entail just as it did every day. I really didn't feel like dealing with Six's grueling training today. Personally, I just wanted to sleep off the building sinus headache and whatever my shoulder was doing. Maybe I could still go visit Holiday and get a letter from the doctor to escape what probably is the inevitable.

A fresh spike of pain lanced up my arm as I jerked my shoulder in the wrong direction once again re-bandaging the wound. I guess just add another thing to my ever growing personal list: sleep, possibly eat a slice of pizza and get my shoulder checked out by Holiday. Whatever, I guess training with Six came first due to the fact he probably wouldn't take the slightest bit of pity on me. Enduring one day of shitty training seemed like a lot better of an option than experiencing Six's wrath. If I was late again he would most likely take away my new video game. The thought almost dropped me to my knees. NO! Noah and I were planning to beat it this weekend! We were about to defeat the horde queen and save all of virtual mankind! We had spent too many sleepless Mountain Dew fueled nights on that game alone. I couldn't let Noah or all of virtual mankind down! I put my jacket on as fast as I could and booked it out of my room, while trying not to slip on the piles of dirty clothes. I flew through the halls and some interns on my Rex Ride making my way towards the training room. The intensified ache in my shoulder went unnoticed when really that should have been the first sign that something was seriously wrong.

What do you think?