Severance (Book 1: Rise Of Chaos)

Chapter 13

She got something good when she rounded the corner and saw Ridley walking towards her. She gave a polite smile as the two of them crossed paths. "Hey." She said, then her smile dropped away as she noticed the look on his face. It was contemplative, and serious. He barely even acknowledged her. "Hey, trenchcoat." Mia said, snapping her fingers in front of his face. Blinking, Ridley turned to her.

"Oh, Mia. Sorry, I didn't see you there." Mia tilted her head. "You alright? You look like you're thinking about something." Ridley shook his head. "It's nothing, I promise." Crossing her arms, Mia raised an eyebrow. "You know, for a Proctor, you're a bad liar. I know something's up, so you might as well tell me." Shrugging his shoulders, Ridley kept his blank expression. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Frowning slightly, Mia walked closer to him, a bit upset. "Seriously? We've done so much together already and you still don't trust me?" Ridley considered this for a few seconds, then sighed, looking around. "Fine, but not here. My room." Walking down the corridor, Mia wondered what the big thing was that he had to talk to her in private about. Hopefully it was something to do with business rather than anything else.

Making it to his room, Ridley opened the door and then walked in, locking it behind Mia. Ridley's room was more bare than hers, the only real form of decoration being a small picture of a cherry blossom tree on the wall. "Nice place." Mia said with a hint of sarcasm. Ridley was standing, so Mia decided to do the same. "So, what's up?" Ridley looked into her eyes. "The symbol we've been seeing everywhere? I think I understand what it means."

Flashing back to the night that she and Ridley first met, Mia saw the wendigo attacking her along with the symbol on it's chest. "Really? But I thought Ethleir couldn't even figure it out." Looking a bit guilty, Ridley continued. "I was in the library...and I went into the forbidden archives. I had to know. I found this parchment with the symbol on it, as well as some sort of poem written in ancient text."

Recounting the poem word for word to Mia, it was enough to send chills down her spine. But the line that stood out to her the most was the one that made her heart almost stop. From dreams he births within her head, to bathe the world in a shade of red. Not saying anything after Ridley was done, he could see the shocked look on her face. "Mia? Are you alright?" Finally looking back up, Mia stared at him. "I have something to tell you too."

She told him about the dream that she'd constantly had over and over again, how she could only remember bits and pieces of it, and how it scared her every time. "I look down from the building...and I see hundreds of people dead. And the streets...they're all red. Like they're bathed in blood." Looking into Ridley's eyes, he could tell she was terrified. The poem seemed to be talking about her.

Thinking about this, Ridley reached out to grab her shoulder. "Mia, I know that it all sounds like you, but keep in mind, this poem was written thousands of years ago." Mia frowned. "You think that makes it fake?! Look at all the stuff that we've seen in the past few days. I'm a magic superhero who has a teleporting cat as a pet, I just fought a guy with an electric amulet, as well as chased down a dragon in a Mustang!"

Before he could ask about the amulet part, Ridley felt Mia shrug off his hand. "Don't try to convince me that it isn't real. Because from what I've experience, I don't even know what's impossible anymore." Ridley sighed. "You're right. You deserve to know. But if I tell Ethleir, then I could be cast out of the Order for good." Mia opened her arms. "Who cares?! This could mean the end of the world, they're not going to fire you for trying to protect it!"