Against the Tide - A New Elysium Story [Complete]

16. Chains and Kisses

There was something hiding in the fog.

Whispers and wisps of the past danced through the haze and flitted across the waves, accompanied by their soft rushing. There was a promise in the salty air, words spoken long ago and then discarded, forgotten.

A voice tore through a veil, and called her back into the world.

"Null!"

She felt a pair of hands again, on her arms, shaking her softly. They were not like the hands that had dragged her out of the darkness. She gave in willingly, and let herself be pulled along.

"Null, wake up!"

She opened her eyes and stared up at Lars, who was kneeling next to her in the sand.

"Oh finally!" he exclaimed, but there was something unexpected in his voice.

Something underneath the relief. It was anger, she realized.

"What... happened?" she asked, as she sat up and looked around.

They were back at the beach, but it was daytime. There was dense fog all around them, and the sand felt wet and cold. A chill began to seep into her bones and she shivered.

"Guards," he just said, "I got sloppy with the hack when..."

She gripped his hand hard as the memory came back to her. The wooden door. The room. The terminal. A sum of money and folder filled with files about a girl who had died on Thanatos 3.

And who had been brought back.

"What happened then?" she asked, her voice strained.

"You.... you happened!"

He jumped to his feet, and she was certain of it now. He was angry, for the first time ever since she had met him. She stared up at him wide eyed, and he stared back down, his fists clenched and his black eyes overflowing with that emotion, and with pain.

"You just... shut me in!" he snapped.

"I did... what?" She blinked at him, baffled.

"You shut me in, into that dark space where there's no time!" His voice was loud, he was almost yelling now. "It took me forever to get out- I mean... well..."

He fell silent again and heaved a weary sigh. Nothing made any sense, to neither of them.

"I don't remember that," she said sheepishly.

He clenched his teeth, and then he kneeled down next to her again and took her face in both of his hands.

"Look at me," he commanded.

And when she did, she plunged into the darkness of his eyes. She could see the memory through them, but also her own, as she had been in control of the body.

They had both stared at the images on the screen, unable to move, to say something, or even to think something. Behind them, there had been steps. The noise of heavy boots on expensive parquet. And the clang and clutter of heavy duty combat armor.

"Freeze!" One of the guards shouted. "Get up and step away from that terminal. Slowly!"

She got up, slowly, and raised her hands. She turned around, and they found themselves face to face with seven members of the Aenara Guard.

"What the fuck..." one of them exclaimed.

When they spotted her face, and her pitch black eye, they knew.

"Careful! She broke into here... who knows what she's capable of!"

"We should shoot her right here on the spot! Just to be sure!"