GOLDEN AGE | ON HIATUS

XIII | SASHA

"Sash? You okay?"

She forced a smile onto her face. "Yeah. Fine and diddly," she said, but the air had been knocked out of her lungs, so maybe she didn't say anything at all, in the end. Either way, he didn't answer - she hadn't expected him to. Maybe she'd imagined him, too, a vision of black diamond and icy gold, shimmering opalescent edges that blurred with heat. Maybe he was a mirage, a trick of the eye, and once she reached out, he'd be gone.

Sasha sighed, rifling through the cabinet that marked the records starting with "O". It was the second place that she'd decided to look, after discovering nothing under the "P" section. In a folder entitled "Project ORDER" she found a few stray sheets, but not much to go off of.

"It's not a lot, but it's a log from fifteen years ago."

"So before the project," Wildfire mused as he continued typing, his screen flashing with green.

She nodded, even though she knew he couldn't see her. Reading the small black print, she slid her finger along the words, sounding them out in her head. As much as it made her feel like a child, it was better than fumbling aloud. Even around Wildfire, she wasn't sure whether she was ready for him to see her weakness in the way she saw it - blunt and ugly. Sasha quickly realised that the words were in fact names, names that she mostly recognised, along with ethnicities, blood types and more numbers that she didn't understand. She skimmed through it, reading the lines in bold.

Narcissa Regina Corvus, Italian, Filipina, and Vietnamese, Alexa Garcia and Felix Corvus.

Finneas Connor Johnson, Caribbean (mainly Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago), Karen Johnson and Emmanuel Johnson.

Jasper Jaehyung Lee, Korean and Japanese, Marissa Lee and (presumed) Yamato Nakamura.

Rex Lorenzo Corvus, Italian and Vietnamese, Isabella Corvus and Anthony Corvus.

The last one had been crossed out in angry red ink.

A shiver ran down Sasha's spine, and she raced across the room to Wildfire. He had his back to her, tapping at the control panel, but he turned around as soon as she arrived. A slow grin spread over his face as she indicated the sheet, albeit soon disappearing when he began to read it, replaced with a plethora of expressions, notably shock and fear.

"Holy crap. Rex Corvus. That's not..."

"Related to Narcissa?"

"I mean, it's not exactly 'Smith', so I would guess so. And it says they're both Italian. Also, good news. I've figured out how to disable the panic alarm for the top floors, which is where they should-" he stopped suddenly, tearing his away from the keyboard.

A man was watching them from the other end of the room. At least, the figure looked like a man, until he stepped out and Sasha realised that he couldn't have been much older than her. The white light that had previously left him shrouded in shadow now caught every one of his sharp facial features - a long nose, angular cheekbones, and almond shaped eyes. Eyes that looked vaguely familiar, Sasha thought, starting towards him and clearing her throat.

"Oh, Sasha. Do you really think that's gonna work, little siren?"

She shuddered at the sight of a flash of red in his otherwise black irises, smudges of coal on tan Mediterranean skin. The boy raised his hand as Sasha's lips parted, and she let out a choked sound, the force of an invisible hand closing around her neck. Writhing in pain, she set her sights on his figure, trying to race toward him, but the force grew stronger the more she struggled, pressing on the rest of her body.