Destruction - The Oasis Project Book 2 (Complete)

Seventeen - Ira

In a matter of days, Doctor Nita taught me how to disarm, break bones, where to shoot to kill, and where to shoot to take someone down while keeping them alive for some time. It was an art involving anatomy, muscle memory, and mental exercise. Although I didn't have the extreme precision of movement that Wu had, Nita was impressed by my progress. Doctor A dropped in to watch a couple of times, afterwards telling her to hurry for some extraction plan. Not once did Doctor A mention the incident with Desmond and Celestia, but she didn't look bothered by it either.

"What's this extraction plan?" I asked Nita when I got the chance.

She smiled at me, unfazed. We walked down the empty hallway at night. "Four has been missing for months. The top people want you as part of the mission to get her back. They aren't taking any chances."

"What happened to her?" I realized that it wasn't a great question, but I was too tired to find another phrasing.

"We still don't know for sure. She was assigned to look into an organization in Egypt, but we lost contact with her after about three days." Nita kept her voice down as we neared the sleeping quarters. She licked her lips before continuing, "Out of everyone, she would've been the hardest to capture. For a long time, there's been a lot of back and forth about sending a search party and rescue team, but the superiors have hesitated because it's too risky. Maybe now that you're with us, we can finally convince them. Four's a good person and she deserves better."

I grimaced; I wasn't with anyone, but I was intrigued. "You are a bit invested in us, huh? That's good to know."

We stopped at my door, and Nita waited for me to open it, resting her weight on one leg with a hand on her hip. "Ira, we're not robots here. The people higher up might be because they don't see you and talk to you every day. Even the Chinese doctors who aren't looking after you, they'd care if something happened."

"Again, good to know." I opened the door to my room and Nita smiled me again as she told me goodnight. I tried one too, but couldn't bring myself to radiate friendliness. Someone used to tell me that smiling with one cheek made me look like a murderer. I couldn't deny that it was just a part of my identity now.

󠁌♟♙♟♙

I dreamed about the mesh of voices in the pitch black cell. I was straining to make out one of them. There must be something in the mess that made sense, something useful. I just wanted to hear one word, but I heard knocking instead.

"Who is it?" I called out. The knocking stopped, and just when I thought I'd imagined it, it started back up again. Groaning, I slid out of bed and walked to the door barefoot. Opening it, I couldn't hide my irritation. "Yes?"

It was Celestia, thick eyebrows and thick lips, standing slightly taller than me. I resented the fact that I wasn't a few inches taller. She opened her mouth to speak but I closed my eyes.

"Wrong number," I said with a sigh. "He's next door."

"He doesn't know I'm here," Celestia said quietly, locking her brown eyes with mine, looking shaken. She self-consciously touched one of her gills, which looked swollen - that must've been my doing. "Can I talk to you? Please." The last word sounded like a deflating tire.

I let out an unintelligible grumble before letting Celestia in. Shutting the door firmly and turning on the light, I let Celestia sit awkwardly on the couch, on the side farthest from my bed. I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall. "Okay, now you're here. Talk."

Celestia's lips trembled for a few seconds before she blurted out, "Who is Desmond?"

"The guy you're with. I told you."

"But who is he? You said I hated him, he poisoned me, but I don't remember a Desmond." Celestia's expression grew more horrified as she went on. "Some of the others call him Desmond, but J- Two said he never liked his first name and has been called Jaysen all his life. And y-you said Desmond and Jaysen were different people?" Once again, she reached up to her neck to touch her sore gill.

"Very different," I said. I folded a leg beneath me as I sat on my bed. "Celestia, I'm new here; help me understand. How the fuck does one person completely disappear from your memory and how does an asshole get all of your projected love for the guy who disappeared? Died, even. I know that Desmond can manipulate people to trust him, but this doesn't entirely sound like what he can do."

There was a long pause as Celestia considered my words. A large tear trailed down her brown skin. She looked down at her trembling hands. "We were friends," she said in a tiny voice.

"Who?" I felt like I'd taken a bullet.

"You and me." Celestia looked right at me. "You were all I had."

I tried to recall what she was talking about. All I could dig up at such short notice were images of water splattering on the floor, and Celestia knocking back Desmond's cocktails while I told her to stop.

"Why do I hate you so much?" Celestia frowned as she spoke. She looked at me as if I was a ghost. "I remember us being friends, then all of a sudden I have this overwhelming hate... What did you do?"

Jaysen was floating with his back out of the water. I heard a gunshot and a voice. Was I ordered to kill him? Before I could think more, Celestia shot up from the couch and began pacing the room.

"What is going on, Ira?" She inhaled sharply and looked at me with terrified eyes. "Why does nothing make sense?"

"I didn't do anything," I said. "You tried to kill me."

"I was threatened to do that," her words were getting more frantic. "If it was my choice, I-I wouldn't have killed anyone no matter how much I hated them." I could believe that. "But what did you do?"

"Nothing," I maintained.

"God!" She collapsed onto the couch again and began to weep. I watched her cry, not knowing what to do.

"Celestia, when you first came here, what happened?"

"Doctor Nita showed me the sea and she started training me."

"You weren't thrown into an isolation cell for months and psychologically tortured?"

Celestia shook her head, puzzled. "That's what that horrible room you were in was for?"

"Yes," I replied. "Are you sure they didn't do that to you?" When she nodded again, I ran out of ideas. A long silence stretched between us as we stared at each other, for the first time in years as less than enemies. Celestia's expression softened over time.

"Can you tell me about Jaysen?"