Number

Mary bandaged Lucius's wounded hand.

"All done!"She said while looking up at Lucius.

She met eyes with Lucius and she looked away immediately. While Lucius stared at his patch-up hand. He turned his hand, front and back and used his fine hand to gently hold it. Then, he placed both his hands on his chest and hissed, smiling.

Mary looked up at him, seeing his bright, innocent smile. Then, she looked at his hands that were held to his chest, it was like he was expressing his gratitude.

Suddenly, she noticed a black stain on the right side of his shirt, next to the spot where his hands were at. She pointed out to him.

"You have a stain on your shirt...Want me to help you wash it away?"Mary said while still pointing to it.

He glanced down at his shirt, surprised and nodded. He pulled his shirt off and Mary looked away, panicked.

He was shirtless now and stared at Mary confused. Then, hissed. Mary didn't look at him and held out her hand.

"Put your shirt on my hand."Mary said, still looking away.

He placed his shirt on Mary's hand and hissed. While Mary took his shirt and was finding the spot where the stain was.

"Where is it? It was here when you wear it. How is it gone now?"Mary asked, full of questions in her head."Did I see wrong?"

She looked up and saw Lucius with his muscular and now shirtless body.He was looking at her.

She blushed and looked away, avoiding his stare. Then, peek at him from the corner of her eyes.

He has a really fit body even after staying close up in a house for years. Mary thought while continuing to peek at him, examining his body.

Suddenly, she noticed something on his chest. It looked like a number but she couldn't see it clearly while she was peeking.

She turned her head to face Lucius, her eyes were stuck on the number, No.050.She looked at it and remembered some of the experiments have these numbers.

"Lucius, you have these numbers too...I didn't know you have them. I even mistook it for a stain."She said, blushing while chuckling awkwardly.

Lucius looked at his chest and hissed. Then, shook his head. For some reason, he indicated his tail, using his pointer. Then to the numbers, like he was telling her something related to the numbers.

Mary placed her hand on her chin and thoughts, seriously.

What does he mean? He points to his tail and the number. Is his tail related to his number? No...that sounds weird if I put it like that. Tail...snake tail...Does he mean experiments?...and numbers mixed experiments? Does he mean all the experiments have numbers?

"Lucius, do you mean all the experiments have numbers?"

He nodded.

"Oh...that's what you wanted to tell me... and here's your shirt!"She said, shoving his shirt to him and quickly running away from the awkwardness. She zoomed to the broken fence, where they first came into the pond and stood there waiting for Lucius.

Lucius stared at her, confused. Then, shook his head, aggressively and squeezed dried his shirt. Waters dribbled down from his shirt as he squeezed.

After a while, his shirt was almost dried but it was still a little wet, at least it wasn't as drenched as before. He wore his shirt again, covering most of his muscles and slithered next to Mary.

As they were about to walk out of the pond, Mary spoke.

"Wait a minute!" She said while shoving her hands into her pockets and pulling out a box."We forgot about it. Let's open it right now."

She removed the cover and took out the small piece of paper. Backyard, it wrote.

"Backyard. Hm? Should we go there?"She asked while looking at Lucius.

He stared at the paper and nodded. Next, he gazed at the pond's surroundings and shook his head.

"What is it?"Mary asked but Lucius didn't reply.

Instead, he placed his bandaged arm around Mary's waist and threw her up on his shoulder.

"What are you doing, Lucius!?"Mary yelled, shocked."Put me down! I'm not injured I can walk on my own."

But Lucius only smiled at her and placed his finger on his mouth, asking Mary to keep quiet. Mary stopped struggling and kept quiet as he walked away from the pond.

It was quiet...a little too quiet. The angler fish-looking experiment that was as big as the mansion was nowhere to be seen. Lucius gazed around the grounds as he slithered while holding Mary on his shoulder.

He gazed up at the sky and looked around again, unsure if it was a great idea to walk on this quiet ground. It was great he didn't meet the experiment but something about this same place felt off.

Then, he stopped and threw Mary off his shoulder. Mary was startled and fell to the ground, she managed to block her fall with her hands. But her palm was bruised and was bleeding from the fall.

"Ouch! It hurts!Lucius!Why did you do that without giving me a-"

She was interrupted by Lucius's fierce hiss. She glanced up and saw a dark, shadow figure on top of Lucius. It was the same size as him and it was pinning him to the ground, stopping him from getting up.

It has a fluffy long tail, two long ears, and red glowing eyes, it seemed like a fox but it was covered with dark fur and a sharp thing was on its back like a shark's fin.

It was trapping Lucius's wrist in its paws with great force that Lucius couldn't even free himself. It opened its mouth wide, revealing its sharp teeth.

While Lucius did the same and hissed, fiercely at it. He used his snake tail to wrap around the experiment's body and gripped it tightly. The experiment let out a cry but didn't soften up its grip instead it sunk its teeth into Lucius's shoulder.

Fresh blood dripped down onto the muddy ground while Mary looked at the scene, trembling from head to toe not knowing what to do.

Lucius hissed in pain and wrapped his tail higher onto the experiment's neck. He tightened his tail about to crush its neck but was stopped by a voice.

"Stop! That's enough!"A male voice called out while a man slowly walked closer to them.