MOTHERS

◙twenty-five◙

A thread of rage weaved into Lola's mind—but it wasn't her rage. It came from above, literally pouring through the floor-boards and filtering into her. Discharging into her perceptive brain and creeping under her empathizing skin.

Rivo?

She'd sent him upstairs moments before, to inspect the area and determine how many humans were hiding there. Lola had sensed them and their fear, concentrating on upper floors. They needed to be assessed, then eliminated. Not one soul could remain alive to tell the tale of the carnage that had happened at Price Laboratories.

No one but the mothers, but they weren't going anywhere, anyway. Not that they'd dare try. They were still huddled together, their faces were turned towards Lola, watching, waiting, likely anticipating their own deaths to come shortly.

"We won't kill them unless they disobey," Lola's ancestor said. Her mother, so it appeared, so it claimed. A queenly alien with many extra embryos to spare and much chaos to create in her wake. Much revenge to exact. "They might die of natural causes, after giving birth one too many times. Such a death would be honorable, as they'd be spending their last breaths expanding our family."

Lola shuddered at the notion of human women dying to give her more siblings. She didn't want more siblings, now that she thought about it. Star was angry and angsty enough for all of them, Rivo had more resentment in him than the common criminal, and Cole was a mystery that Lola had yet to fully penetrate. More siblings meant more work for her, more internal digging to decipher intentions and report them to her mother. More getting to know and more powers to assess.

More competition.

"Rivo," said Lola, sneaking into Rivo's consciousness. "What's happening?"

The air grew cold, shifting to stale and bleach-ridden. The blaring purple lights ceased flashing, momentarily leaving Lola and everyone else in obscurity, before bright overhead neons switched on, blasting into Lola's eyes.

She covered her face, blinking to regain her sight. Sudden, loud thuds drew her attention, and she squinted through the brightness to witness cameras dropping from the ceiling, smashing to the ground. Cameras that Rivo was supposed to be regulating, deactivating. Now they were completely dismantled, ruined. Was he the one causing their destruction?

At least the lights were back on, and she was no longer seeing everything in shades of purple. But why would they reactivate? What did this mean?

This makes no sense.

"Rivo, what was that? What's going on?" His fury increased, clustering inside her gut and making her experience it with him; but she had no idea why.

She heard the clicks of doors unlatching, the squeaks of hinges as they opened. Lights were switching on everywhere, igniting the corridor and rooms, revealing the true bloodbath she and her siblings had caused. The graying limbs with dead fingers, the cut-off heads staring at her, stuck in awe. And the blood, the blood stained onto the white-tiled floors, splashed across the white walls, dripping from the white ceiling.

She'd known what they'd done, but to see it all displayed in shining lights further drove home their bloody intentions. It further proved that she and her siblings would stop at nothing to eradicate this laboratory, erase all its work, and finish off its workers.

When she'd first woken in her dank cell, enclosed by its pristine, padded walls, she'd never imagined she'd be capable of such carnage. Sure, she'd enjoyed it; but it also took a lot of her energy.

"Someone messed with the system," said Rivo, his dark voice awakening inside Lola's mind as she scrutinized his thoughts. "They were watching us up here, on those cameras. That's why I'm destroying them all. No evidence, no trace. They were tuning in to all our conversations, sitting around plotting to stop us. So I stopped them."