The Sound of Death

03

I let it sink in.

But even as it completely submerged in the dark abyss of my vacant brain, I still had only one question.

"Who is Rerotics?"

He was silent but beneath those cobalt eyes, I knew something was brewing, taking form from micro to massive-

"Who?" Dexter's low voice caused the hair on my arms and back to rise. "Who? Who? Who?" His voice had risen to heights of frequency that could've bursted my eardrums.

Anger: He couldn't control his temper.

He glared at the camera at the corner of the room, and then his death gaze was directed at me.

"Are you asking me who Rerotics is?"

My cheeks warmed as my head bobbed up and down, but some things had to be done.

Dexter sighed. His perfectly immaculate fingers were a brilliant white against the gloss of his dark hair as they ran through them. "One," he started, his voice adjusting to a calm leveled tone. "Rerotics is the Root Defense Base of the Ring." Judging by my expression, he quickly added, "Now don't ask me what the Ring is?"

I rolled my eyes. He was literally asking what Earth was. "You have already proved yourself a brainless oaf. Why bother?"

Dexter's lips quirked upwards. "Maybe you should say that to a mirror."

"If my existence in this place is for your mere entertainment, maybe I could leave."

"Technically speaking, you can leave." I cocked my eyebrows as he continued, "Once the State metes out your punitive measures for wiping out the existence of an innumerable count of workers, and turning the Acerbic department of Rerotics to a graveyard that-"

"Whoa," I said, raising my hands in an attempt to slow him down. "You think this is one of those violent games or something, Dexter?"

"No. Why?"

"From what I see, these things happen only in movies and video games."

He stood up briskly, walked up to the circuit board on the steel wall, and let his fingers play with the keys like it was piano. A moment later, the holographic screen reappeared. I cringed at the sight of the picture on display. From what I could confer, it was the main lounge of a high security facility of the Ring.

And if I hadn't been there, I would have thought the Rerotics designer would have had a platonic attraction for red. But I knew.

I knew the walls weren't naturally red.

I knew the Fusion suits were designed to resist even the Attery Fog that could bore through thick sheets of titanium. I knew they were silver, not red.

I knew the control panels were steel infused. They were not red.

I knew people of different colors; paper white to charcoal black. These people, lying on the ground like they had fallen to a slumber, were stained red.

"You can destroy a kingdom to bits." My heart leapt at the cold fingers that pressed on the thin fabric that covered my shoulder. His lips were inches from my ears when he said, "It will rise again."

The picture changed. Another room. Another group of people, blood pools everywhere.

"But if you destroy its foundation, the base of its survival, Airyn." The pictures were like thorn pricks to my restless heart. One after the other, the same horror, the same gore, the same atmosphere. "It can never rise again."