The Fallen |BxB| ✓

15 | In My Head

↞[Luke]↠

"In the early eighteenth century, a series of witchcraft trials took place in Chesterfield," Bella read out loud from the piece of a newspaper clipping she was holding in her hand. Her face was buried in the file. "They burned and crushed accused men and women to death, around two-hundred people. This is messed up!"

Without looking away from the faded page on conspiracies about UFO's, I sighed and said, "Bella, you're getting distracted again. If you keep doing this, we'll definitely miss the basketball game."

"But they were burned alive, in this very town," her voice verberated a few octaves high. Someone hushed us and we both nodded apologetically. Bella continued in a low whisper. "See, I was right about finding more town history in archives than the internet," she said and flung the article back into a file filled with similar documents.

"Yeah, but did you find anything useful?" I closed the binder, a cloud of dust puffed in the air. Placing it back into the archive drawer, I took out a new file labeled "12." I flipped through the loose pages, from faded articles to handwritten documents. I stopped on the one detailing an economic collapse in the mid-1900s. "What are we even looking for?" I asked her tiredly and shoved the paper in her hand. Even if looking through the archives was wearisome, the surprise of knowing the town's history was kind of fun.

Bella curiously observed it, her features perking up in amusement. "Huh. Turns out, the town wasn't always a paradise with snobby as fuck rich people."

"Seems pretty big. I wonder what the turning point was," I mumbled while still reading from Bella's hand.

"The employment rates rose after Polaris started the dam construction. And after it was finished, there were job opportunities at the hydropower plants. Check this out." She passed me another binder with a bunch of pinups related to Polaris.

She pointed to a multi-colored but faded picture. "That guy was a scientist there, he won some Nobel prize, my dad told me about it back when he worked for them. He made some breakthrough discovery; something sciency."

I stared at the picture of a middle-aged feeble-framed man with an insipid look, posing sternly for the camera. Behind him was a pair of men looking identical, like bodyguards. A sickening feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. Both the men standing behind the scientist wore black suits above white button-up. Their gazes were hidden behind sunglasses, and black hair slicked backward.

No, this is just a coincidence.

"Bella..." I spoke out, voice coming out smaller and weaker than I wanted.

"Yeah?" she asked without looking at me.

"Polaris' still a thing, right?"

She closed the folder in her hands and looked at me with a frown. "Luke, hon, are you living under a rock? Who do you think supplies you all of that electricity?"