"Am I that frightening?"

Her mind processed the words, but they sounded different to her. The echoes were certain he was sneering, mocking her. Of course he was frightening. He was angry, and when he was angry, he hunted.

Didn't he?

"You've never swung at me."

The words cut through her panic a little bit more. Why was she swinging? She didn't want to hurt Sylar, did she? He was her friend.

[Danger. Monster.] Roared the echoes, fed by the toxin in her blood stream. She stared at him as she cowered, unable to stop herself from backing up further. She watched his tail swish behind him, and the playbacks kept jolting to the surface of her thoughts. She didn't want to get hit by the claws, that tail. His fangs. It would hurt. She didn't want to feel it. The memories still haunted her dreams, they were haunting her now. She had to get away.

"What did I do to you Evelyn?"

She shut her eyes and swallowed, trying to hold onto the words. Her head throbbed with pain as she fought against the echoes and their assumed logic. Was it the echoes she was fighting? Maybe that voice was just her. Her own fear.

[Toxic.] The word was surprising, sudden even. Playbacks hazily cut through, bringing back memories of when she drank, or when she was electrocuted. Memories of when the echoes were disoriented, when things didn't seem right. Things didn't seem right now. Something was interfering. He was right, she shouldn't feel this afraid. But she couldn't stop her hands from shaking, and she couldn't put down the weapon.

"Something's not right." She whispered, holding a hand to her head. The sai pressed awkwardly against her face while she refused to drop it, and she gulped, keeping her eyes closed. "Can't think. Fear...so much fear..." She backed into the wall, unknowingly coming back in contact with lingering toxins there. The fear started to build again.

"Just stay back!" She was yelling. Why was she yelling? She moved towards the exit. She needed air. She needed to think.

Unaware that his toxin was making Evelyn's condition worse by the moment, Sylar did manage upon a thought that would help despite the ignorance. Being down here was damaging, not just to Evelyn, but anyone from up top, nobody could spend too long down here without something wrong happening. This dank dark world was meant just for Sylar, and though it was a lonely truth, he needed to get Evelyn out of here until she figured out how to regain her composure.

It was odd, usually seeing fear kind of excited Sylar like it was stoking some inner itch that his mutation had, a hunger to be fearsome, but when he knew it was Evelyn afraid of him, truly afraid of Sylar, it bothered him. It almost hurt to know even a friend could look upon him in horror, a sad truth. "You need air, run back top Evelyn, get out of here." Sylar said, trying to help her but his words could be misconstrued, twisted by his mutation and voice. Run, get out, flee, were all words that meant to escape from something dangerous.

It seemed Evelyn had the same idea though, her body inching away from him, back towards a ladder to leave this horrible place. Sylar stepped forward again though the girl warned him repeatedly to stay back. "You don't belong down here Evelyn, nobody belongs to my world." Sylar said, his anger all but gone and replaced with the usual melancholy he suffered through during his lonesome life. "I don't want to hurt you, but I think I am." He said, before he took a step back this time, thinking it might be best if he left the area, and just go away from her. He could find somewhere to vent his own frustration safely, maybe go break into some convenience store and eat the pain and confusion away.

The longer she stayed, the harder it was for Evelyn to concentrate. Sylar's words were hard to comprehend when all she could hear was menacing snarls and growls. The echoes struggled to analyze the situation, and the playbacks were melding memories with imagination. She could feel the pain of Sylar's past attacks, the other sewer monster, and the fear of being trapped in the tunnels. [Run!] The echoes screamed, but her legs couldn't seem to move. She heard one of the sai clatter to the ground as she finally reached the ladder. She sank to her knees, clinging to the metal but unable to pull herself up towards daylight.

"Go away, just go away..." She whimpered quietly, shutting her eyes and turning her head away. The rational thoughts were disappearing again. She couldn't remember what they had been talking about, or why she was hear. All she could think was she had to get away, but couldn't force herself to move.

Whatever it was that he was doing to Evelyn, he had to get her away from him, time for her to think and figure it out, or time for it to pass. But the girl was becoming more and more enfeebled by the fear, was this really the extent of what Sylar could do to someone? Was he more horrifying than he realized, a real monster just like his mother had once called him? He wanted to wallow in his self-pity but had no time, Evelyn was one of the few people he could call a friend, and he needed to help her, or at least get her to run off on her own.

The boy tensed, knowing the girl had carried a weapon earlier, and not sure if it could hurt him or not, but he couldn't be cowardly about this. He ran forward, his clawed feet barely making any noise as they carved scratches into the stone beneath him. He reached down to grab Evelyn with one of his arms, doing his best not to cut the girl with his weaponized hands as he did so. "Sorry Evelyn, I have to." His words were meant to explain his actions, to try and remind her that he cared about the girl who'd befriended a sewer monster. However that toxin controlling her brain would probably read it as a eulogy, that he was going to finish her off.

Kicking and screaming, or whatever Evelyn might decide to do, the boy yanked her up off the ground, and quickly made his way up to the surface through he ladder and man hole. Free of the toxic air Sylar had created in the sewers, Evelyn's body would eventually be able to start fighting the venom in her brain and blood, but that'd still take awhile unbeknownst to either of them. Still holding the girl Sylar dashed for the edge of the alley and planted her there, just close enough to the city street that the girl could call for help from her world.

Sylar released his grasp on her, and retreated back into the darkness of the alley as he leapt up and climbed a wall of a building. Hidden in the shadows of the building, but with a vantage point so he could observe Evelyn he hoped the girl would eventually recover or get help. It hurt him to realize he could scare even a friend this bad, this new change...something about it had truly brought out his monstrous side. He wondered if the only human part of him left were these thoughts he was having right now. "Something is wrong with me Evelyn." He whispered into the darkness. "I think I might have to start avoiding you...no everyone all together." He was starting to realize it might be time to return to his life of solitude, rather than risk truly hurting another mutant or friend.

Somewhere in her mind, Evelyn knew something was wrong. But the fear was suffocating her, drowning her thoughts, her powers. As Sylar approached, she whimpered, readying for an attack. She had somehow managed to get both sai, holding them tightly, but her muscles wouldn't move to strike. She couldn't hurt him. It didn't feel right.

And then he was carrying her towards the surface. She could feel herself scream, then clamp her mouth shut and clutch the weapons. She wriggled for freedom, but there was still a level of restraint. She didn't want to hurt him...

Then she was outside, the smells of the sewers vanishing and her brain trying to process where she was. Sylar was talking, but she could only drop the sai and pull her legs close, shivering and cowering, mentally overwhelmed. Her own power growth flickered on and off. She tried to breathe, gulping in the air, but the toxins were still heavy in her bloodstream.

"Echoes, not echoes...doesn't make sense, just doesn't make sense..." She found herself muttering into her legs, tugging on her hair and trying to piece it together. He was snarling at her, no, he was talking. He was saying something, but none of it seemed clear. It was like when she talked to that girl who had the power to make people forget. Her powers were hitting a brick wall, thrashing to get through.

"Go... I mean, don't go..." Playbacks rushed to the surface, older memories to try and evade the fear she was feeling. Sylar as her friend, Sylar having pizza, Sylar as someone she wanted to be around, despite being dangerous. She reached out a hand towards him, despite the terror, trying to make him understand. The fear was still there, but he was her friend. It didn't feel right being afraid. He hadn't done anything this time.

Sylar had put some distance between himself and Evelyn, hoping it might help her clear her head. Something about the sewers, about his presence had terrified her like he'd never done on even his best days acting out the monster. The girl mumbled about her powers, trying to make sense of the situation. But fear never made sense, real fear was this primal emotion that high jacked your body and killed your thoughts. Even Sherlock Holmes as he liked to think of Evelyn couldn't stand up to real terror, no one could. And Sylar would know, he was slowly becoming terror incarnate.

She extended her hand out towards him, pleading for him to stay with her but also urging him to leave. She couldn't make sense of her feelings or thoughts mixing with that urge to just run till your legs gave out. Sylar remembered that feeling, that urge to just run away from the scariest moment of his life. It was the day he left human society behind, and ran from his Mother's abandonment. The fear of being unwanted and alone, and now he'd inflicted a terrible fear upon her.

"Evelyn...I can't..." He fumbled on his words, unsure of what to say. He had always got sort of a kick out of being scary at times, learning to embrace the thing that had alienated him as a means of coping. But this was too much, it was like just being near him was toxic. "I can't stay Evelyn. Look at what I've done, I'm like poison to you." He said, unaware he'd hit the nail directly on the head. "If I stay away, if I keep to the shadows, maybe it won't happen anymore."

He was terribly sad at this moment, his mind suddenly confronted with the fear that he might have to never again mingle with one of his few friends, and a good one at that. Evelyn was important, and her friendship helped the boy figure out his own teenage angst and mutant confusions, but now he just wanted her to recover. To be feared like this...wasn't fun, it was more like a punch to the gut from a trusted friend. His tail hung low in the shadows,and he refrained from entering the light, unsure of what to do now. Besides possibly vanish back into the sewers and avoid the world for some time as he figured this out.

The more she breathed clean air, the more the poison lost it's hold on her. It was slow, but enough to make her realize how guilty Sylar felt. She didn't want him to leave like this. He hadn't done anything. Maybe she was afraid. Maybe it was just her fault. She held out her hand again, trying to make him come back.

"Please Sylar... Don't go like this. We need to figure this out..." Figure this out... Something was wrong. She had to solve it. She had to figure out what was causing the problems. I'm like poison to you...

Poison. Poison?

"Sylar... you...you changed today. Maybe, something else happened. And... and something happened with me... we just need to figure out what." She held her head in her hands, trying to make sense of things. She rubbed her temples, a headache growing.

"You know me. I wouldn't...I don't....things have happened, but..." She sounded like a broken record. But she was desperately trying to communicate with him. "You're my friend..." She finally stammered. Even if he didn't make sense of anything else, maybe he would get that.

Sylar stopped himself from fleeing into the darkness, the only constant presence in his life, the chill of the shadow wouldn't comfort him this time. And Evelyn terrified though she was, still reached out for him, the boy unable to abandon the girl after he'd done this to her. He tried to explain why he should leave, but detective she was it seemed Evelyn was still trying to figure things out even when under the effects of a full blown panic attack.

She mentioned change, reminding Sylar of just how this event started. Sylar's mutation had started as mere physical prowess, strength beyond even the mightiest of creatures. But soon he began to change, his body morphing into something else. Then came the eyes, a new type of vision to bless the blind boy and help him navigate a new environment. Perhaps Evelyn was right, he had grown more tonight, maybe something about his new growth did this? Or the change in location? Sylar wasn't the bright one here, and Evelyn was so high on fear she could barely conjugate a sentence. But she was trying, he had to try too.

He stepped forward a few steps, his new body blending with the shadows of the alley almost too well. As if the darkness refused to relinquish Sylar to the light, to Evelyn's world. "Friend." He mouthed the word, barely audible as he tried to figure out the best course of action. Seeing Sylar would re-trigger that lingering fear in Evelyn's mind, his venom enhanced by his physical presence, but as the effects began to wear off, her mind and power would be able to figure out the lies from the truth. "I know Evelyn...but I don't know if I can be your friend. I'm barely human anymore, and this..." He was referring to her reaction to him, a reaction he'd once tried to force out of her, his instincts in control but the boy inside had eventually taken over and formed a bond, one that managed to keep Sylar attached to his human side as time went on.

"This isn't right Evelyn, even you're scared of me now. Even if you don't want to be, you still are..." He couldn't make sense of it. Had he grown that much more hideous with this shed? Or was it something more? Something deeper? The idea of envenomation still eluded him, after all, who would believe in an animal that could sting actual fear directly into your blood stream? "Have I grown so monstrous?" He asked, a question somewhat for Evelyn, but more for himself.

They were communicating. It was a start. He seemed quiet, guilty, upset. She just felt drowned in her own thoughts, her own fears. But those were slowly shifting as she listened to Sylar talk, watched him move. She was scared of him. How could she be scared of him? The images in her head didn't match up. She put a hand to her forehead and tried to think. There had to be an answer.

"I was, but I feel like... It doesn't feel right. You didn't do anything. I don't know why I felt afraid. I wish you could understand. You've had bad days, but this wasn't one of them." Have I grown so monstrous? She looked at him, and despite his attempts to keep a distance, she wanted to reach him. Help him understand. She stood shakily and took a step forward, trying to bridge the gap.

"Sylar, you're not monstrous. Whatever happened, it's going away. We have to figure this out. You're my friend, I promise. I just... I wish..." Her head hurt and she shut her eyes, sinking back against the wall. The echoes were still mingling with memories, playbacks rushing through the massive amounts of information. "I don't think it's just you... something wrong with me..." She whispered. He had said something earlier, responded. Almost as if...

"What did you mean when you asked if that was what you were? Sylar, what did you see?"

Evelyn grew stronger as she cleared her mind and her lungs filled with fresh air, how fitting that the closer to her world she was, the more she flushed Sylar from her system, as if the boy was an invader to be fought off. Sylar had lost his own courage though, the thoughts of being stuck alone in the dark frightening him once again. He'd spent a long time alone in the dark, and just when he'd thought he'd grown used to it, various people had tried to pull him out, back into a world he'd been afraid of, and that taste had made him afraid of the dark once more.

It was like being trapped between two monsters that foamed at the mouth for a taste of you. Her step forward pushed him a step back, the darkness wrapping ever more around the boy's visage, all but his few human features remaining visible in the darkness. She tried to fight through the haze, to comfort him and reach out. But Sylar wasn't just tasting the fear this time, hearing it, smelling it, touching it. The most powerful human sense had always been sight, and Sylar had never been gifted with it, his entire life a blur of darkness until Evelyn thrust something into his mind.

Sylar's few sight had been himself, clad in rage and a black hunger, a nightmare. And it had terrified him. She might say he wasn't monstrous, she might reach out and pat his head when he was upset. But in the end he'd still been able to scare her. "I don't think anything is wrong with you Evelyn. It scared me too, what I saw." His voice was shaky and upset, the confusion of this whole night having already pushed him past the limits he'd grown into for pain from his mutation.

"I saw me Evelyn. I saw what you see, I knew I didn't look normal. I knew I was scary. But I'd never seen a monster before." Sylar's brain was wracked with the thoughts of all the people he'd scared and threatened since he ran away from home. Had they all dealt with the same monster Evelyn had shown him?

I saw me.

It didn't make sense. Evelyn knew Sylar couldn't see, or saw differently than she did. He seemed to rely on other senses to get around in the dark, his eyes clearly adapted long past typical human sight. So the statement was jarring, confusing really. She could remember the memories that rushed through her head, but why did he see it? Her brain struggled with the new information, wanting to draw conclusions but resisting them. "How could you... I don't know... It's true, I do have memories of you, that are...frightening. But I have good ones too. I don't know how you saw them though. I wish I could show you the better ones..." Now she felt guilty.

There were two real possibilities here she had to consider: one, Sylar could read minds, and had seen what she her memories as she relived them. The playbacks were powerful, and she couldn't imagine what they would be like to someone who never experienced them. The other possibility though was somehow, she had shared the playbacks with him. She had never done something like that before, but powers did tend to grow in unexpected ways. Her perfect memory had arrived when she was thirteen, taking away the ability to dream forever. Was she going to be cursed now to share those bad memories with others? It was one thing to carry the burden, another to pass it off. That frightened her, perhaps even more than Sylar had.

"Memories... are terrible things...if you let them be. Sylar, everyone has moments they want to forget. For most people, memories will fade and loose strength with time. That doesn't happen for me. Things that frightened me will never loose potency. It's why I don't sleep much. But I've learned to see past the bad things. Every person had a bad side, a bad day, a terrible moment. Whether it's you, or Serena, or myself. But there are good things too. You only saw the monster from one moment in my memories. But you didn't see the friend who saved me, and you didn't see the friend I rely on for advice when other people don't really understand. I've seen your monster, and sometimes he lives outside your head. But you help me deal with mine..." She picked at her fingernails. She wasn't good at putting words together like this, but she desperately wanted to comfort him and take back whatever happened. He frightened her, but she had done the same to him. That was hard for her to deal with as well.

If only she could imagine what that vision had been like to Sylar. It must be similar to what people consider an epiphany or a bolt of inspiration from a God himself. To never know color or form, to know nothing of the world but empty blackness, and then see it clad around a person like a living suit of skin. The scariest thing Sylar would ever see was himself, and nothing would change that. Evelyn was befuddled, unable to put these pieces together since she was too confused or missing too much information. Humbling to think the girl wasn't as all knowing as Sylar imagined.

She tried to spin her words into something to comfort him, something to steal him away from that dark place deep in his gut. But no matter how much Sylar managed to rise out of that slude, the beast would always pull him back, always have at least one terrible claw dug into his soul. Because Sylar and the Monster were one, and now he knew what it looked like. His mind was flooded with but one image, the sight of himself. His sense of fear and guilt had doubled, and he realized more than ever that he had to contain it. If nobody else would imprison him, he would do it, to save people like Evelyn. He'd wished he'd known all along just how scary he truly was.

Sylar hadn't forgotten the other things he'd done, the time he'd saved her, and the times she'd save him. Mutants weren't like humans, their lives were fantastic and frought with chaos, so they had to take care of one another, far more so that the superflous way that normals treated one another. "I won't ever forget this memory. What I am was burned into my brain. I've no idea what you look like Evelyn. Are you pretty? Do you have freckles or dark skin? Are you blond or brunette? My entire world is filled with human like things constructed from heat. But I know what I look like."

Sylar lifted one of his claws, the ferocious appendage sticking out from the shadows, the bladed fingers spitting off a shine from what little light could reach them. It was like having knives for finger, even Sylar's touch was dangerous. Evelyn spoke of dealing with her own monster, and Sylar realized he needed to figure out an actual answer to himself, before he couldn't hold it back anymore. "Whether or not the monster only comes out at times Evelyn. My monster is real, it's not some emotional trauma or abandonment issue." Even though in reality both of those terms could explain why Sylar's psyche was so damaged. "I'm dangerous Evelyn, really dangerous. I know now, I can't just be leashed, I need a cage. Even Roach won't be able to stop me if I give into that again."

Sylar had caged himself before, locked away beneath the stone of New York, but that sewer wouldn't work anymore. Too many people had pulled the bars from that place. He needed clarity, he needed control. He needed a cure for the hunger. Or else Evelyn's memory would just come to pass again, he needed to protect the few friends he had, from himself.

"You need to have a plan for me Evelyn. For when the monster comes back, you really will run out of lives at this point." He said, a small glimmer of the boy inside escaping through a joke he'd told before.

Evelyn didn't know what had happened, but the guilt was wresting in her gut all the same. Somehow, she had shown Sylar how frightening he was, and all her words, all her efforts to comfort him vanished in a puff of smoke. For once, she had cursed someone with an image they couldn't forget. That seemed to hurt more than any injury he had ever inflicted on her. She slowly stepped away, doubting herself. Maybe he was a monster, but she felt like she had done something just as harmful. She looked at the ground, trying to drown out his words.

"I'm sorry, Sylar. I don't know... I wish I could take it back... Of all the things you could have seen..." The fear was gone, and the grief was building. Once more, she caused more trouble than good it seemed.

You need a plan for me...

She shook her head, biting her lip. "I don't want a plan. I now what it looks like, but I can't think of you that way. I can't imagine hurting you. I would never forgive myself... I just...I can't." Her words were becoming disjointed again, this time driven by her emotional struggle. She didn't want to think of this. She hated what was happening.

Hearing Evelyn be concerned rather than afraid reminded Sylar of just how kind she was, even to someone as dangerous as he. He'd have smiled if he knew how to, but instead he just kept to his spot, his body aching to flee from the confusion and pain of the night. "I already knew what I was Evelyn, even when I wasn't in control I knew what I was doing. Now I just have the image to go with it." That image was new fuel for Sylar's crusade of self loathing, it was more reason for his need for containment, for a leash.

He knew that this revelation and the idea of being afraid of him was hurting Evelyn, but he couldn't alleviate pain, he couldn't soothe her. Sylar was a living weapon, and he was realizing that trying to play the part of something else would always end poorly. He spoke softly, breaking up her refusal to think of him as dangerous. "The problem is...I can imagine hurting you. Just like tonight, being near me means getting hurt. That's what I am. Being near me terrified even you Evelyn, you don't want to admit it, but you recognize the danger."

Evelyn's power meant the girl was nigh a genius at understanding a situation, or figuring out a solution to a problem, and even she couldn't not be afraid of Sylar. This meant Sylar was by definition dangerous, just like fire was hot or water wet, Sylar was to be feared. The Boogeyman indeed was his real name it seemed, a fitting description for what he was. "Even if I keep my distance, will eventually just speaking to me be dangerous? I don't know what's different about me Evelyn, besides all the new skin and bone, but it's bad news for everyone else. Eventually talking to you from the dark like this will even be dangerous, I need to know you won't just end up on the menu someday when I lose it." Sylar suddenly found some bit of courage, not to defend himself, or ease his pain, but rather to protect his friend.

"I need to know the last thing I remember won't be the image of what could have happened that night." Sylar turned to face the darkness behind him, staring into the one constant he had in his life.
"You should go home Evelyn, Get some rest, clear your head. And realize that being friends with me won't last forever." Pushing Evelyn away like this somehow made Sylar feel better about what he'd done, just like he'd done so long ago. Being alone hurt...but if being alone meant they didn't die, that they didn't see just how dark Sylar's heart could get, somehow made that loneliness not so crushing. Maybe Sylar's human side was just a big softie after all, but this callous monster had already eaten half of that.

Evelyn listened, trying to shake off the feeling of helplessness that was growing. Guilt rolled over her, and she hugged her arms across her chest, staring at the ground. She couldn't lie to him, not after he'd seen what he had. But she desperately wished the things he was saying weren't so true.

"There just...has to be another way. No matter what's happened, you're still you. And until that stops being true, I don't want to hurt you." She wanted to promise it would never happen. That even if he was a monster, she wouldn't hurt him. But if that time came, she knew the instinct to survive could overcome even the desire to protect a friend. If he some day turned into a monster, she might have to defend herself. Whether it would be enough...

Today wasn't that day though, and instead, she wanted to stop things before they ever got that far. There had to be an option. Training, or something. She would find it.

In the meantime, she let herself walk towards the street to get a cab home, shooting one last look his way. As it was, things would only get worse hanging around. She just wished that weren't true. Whatever happened with her powers, she couldn't even try to comfort him without making it worse.