I slipped a quarter into the slot of the vending machine, staring at the bag of Doritos that I was currently craving. My eyes slipped towards my reflection as the machine began to work, pushing the bag of chips down the chute. Only a day ago I had blindly jumped out of a window and landed amongst glass shards and grass. I had thrown my hand out to catch my fall only to sprain my wrist. Ow. For a hot second I thought I had broken it. The fall had also given me a nasty little bump on the head. I wasn't aware of what was going on until I opened my eyes to find Jin had thrown me over his shoulder and we were racing through the trees that quickly separated into streets.
I poked at the scratch that was on my cheek. It was annoying and just so there. I sighed, bending over to grab the bag of chips. I winced slightly at the soreness of my body. I reached into my back pocket to grab my phone when I paused, realizing that I didn't have it anymore. After we had started running, I called Viola and left a voicemail (again) to let her know that I would call her as soon as I was able. I had then tossed my phone (without any prompt from Echo or Jin) because it doesn't take a genius to figure out that people find people through phones.
Settling onto the steps with my chips, I stared out into the bustling city of LA wondering just what the hell I was going to do next. A soda can plopped down on the left side of me, a body on the right. I looked over to see Jin, he smiled lazily. "Figured you could use that with those."
"Thanks," I smiled.
"I'm sorry," Jin said quietly, looking down at his own soda.
"For what?" I frowned, staring at him.
"Getting you into this whole situation," Jin rubbed his jaw. "The PAU was a safe place, once upon a time. And I thought it still was."
"You had no idea," I looked back out towards the city. "And as you said I was a special case."
"We should've gone straight Di. He would've known if you were a true rider or not. But I didn't want to go to him because I didn't want him to look at me like I was an idiot for not being able to tell myself. And then we get into a bigger mess than we would have if I would have just kept my ego in check." A muscle jumped in Jin's jaw.
I licked my lips. "You didn't happen to figure out what happened to my sister, did you?"
"No," Jin's voice with heavy with guilt.
I swallowed thickly, closing my eyes. "They probably have her by now. Don't they?"
"More than likely," Jin replied quietly, his voice barely above a whisper.
"What do we do?" I whispered.
"We go to your home and try to figure out where to go from there," Jin said quietly.
"I think I might need something a little bit stronger than a soda." I commented.
"Don't we all," Jin said wryly.
"You went with the director that one day," I commented.
"I did," Jin nodded. "I noticed his behavior was off when we came here. And thus when he got called to investigate another 'case' I tagged along. In his investigation, it didn't seem right. The way he handled it, the way he conducted it. And so, I began to do my own digging. I should've realized that when they postponed your results and retested you that they had somehow involved you. And because I didn't realize what was going on, I didn't even think of your sister until it was too late."
I wanted to be angry but I couldn't. No one could've known, and Jin had a past with Director Momsen. He must've trusted him. And in order to trust him, he must've known him. I closed my eyes, world of emotions dashing through me. I didn't know what to feel, and I had no idea what was right. I wanted to be angry about no one knowing that my sister was in danger. But at the same time, how could you suspect your friends to be manipulating you. Not only that but also a government organization whose entire existence was to protect you. I sighed heavily, "I could be angry. I should be angry, in all honesty. But what good would that do? I'm worried and scared for Viola because she has no idea what's going on or why. I just want to find her and make sure she is safe."
"She probably isn't," a voice said behind us.
I looked over my shoulder to see Echo. She had cuts all over her body that she had merely smeared some medicine over and that was that. A bruise was forming on her shoulder, and I wondered if she had caught me in the fall. Jin huffed next to me, "You shouldn't say things like that."
"It's the truth," Echo's blue eyes were cold. "They have been experimenting on those who are paranormal or have traces of paranormal in their DNA. They have been creating a drug to heighten the abilities of those who are already gifted, and to give abilities to those who are not. Viola has traces because her sister is a dragon rider. The first day we arrived they probably grabbed her."
"Why are they doing this?" I asked.
"They want a super soldier," Jin replied heavily.
"And why would they want that?"
"It's the government, why else?" Echo snapped. I recoiled from her tone.
"They want to make the PAU into ALDAR." Jin's eyes widened as he looked up at Echo.
"ALDAR?" I echoed faintly.
The blonde's face, while already cold, became positively frozen. But not with blankness, with pure unrelenting fury. "ALDAR was formed during World War II and continued on in the shadows even after Nazi Germany collapsed. We were trained to investigate and eliminate any threat to our government and to our world. The paranormal one. ALDAR became known for having assassins and agents that quite literally, the shadows. And so, of course, idiotic, stupid humans decide to try and mimic it. Und Amerikaner und ihre verdammten Egos denken immer, dass sie alles besser machen können. Despite the fact that those who are begabtes are considered monsters, es sing Menschen, die die wahren Monster sind."
And with that Echo spun on her heel and re-entered the room with a very enthusiastic door slam. I blinked, simply sitting there for a moment before looking at Jin. "I caught most of that but then things got a bit blurry."
"She's German," he pointed out.
"Obviously," I replied in kind.
"Was Momsen always like this?" I asked.
"No, he was...he was a great man with vision and heart. It's why I – why he was chosen unanimously to be director. Because he had shown his heart, and his value over the years and we thought we could trust him. I was stupid." Jin muttered to himself at the end.
"No, you simply trusted someone's character. Who is this Sophie Grimm person?" I asked.
"To be honest, I don't really know much about her. Nearly six months after he was instated, she arrived as just a nurse and then after eleven months she was the official doctor. " Jin said.
I frowned, "And you have no idea where she came from?"
"None. I heard the story of her mother being a werewolf, which I do believe but I just find the entire thing of after the fact a little...suspicious." Jin downed the rest of his soda. Crunching the can into a ball in his hand, he then threw it, making it into the trashcan that was five feet away.
My eyebrows shot up in appreciation but I continued on, "What are your thoughts on what actually happened?"
"I think she felt lowly her entire life. And that her mother purposely hid her lycanthropy from her for a reason. And when Sophie did end up finding out about it, she tried to trigger her human body into transforming. See, one of the things is that if you are a blood offspring of a werewolf and your lycanthropy gene never becomes active, you will be immune. You will have some of the same weaknesses as a regular werewolf, a preference for red meat – especially on nights of the full moon – and vampire venom will be poisonous, and dogs will be afraid of you, etc. Feeling lowly, and discovering that her gene was dormant, I'm sure she became bitter. Wanted to experiment, to figure out just why she couldn't be special too." Jin inhaled and held it for a moment. He released his breath with a groan of frustration. "I've seen it a million times, but I just didn't connect the dots."
"Everyone is allowed for a mistake or two," I commented.
"As long as it doesn't endanger lives." Jin ran a hand through his hair and then stood up. "Get some rest, we have a long day tomorrow."
I watched him walk away into the night and wondered if I should have said anything. I didn't want him to feel as though all of this rested on his shoulders, yet I also didn't know the history he had with the PAU or Momsen. I couldn't exactly comfort someone only knowing two percent of the actual situation.
"Don't worry about him," Echo said behind me. I looked to see that she had changed into black jeans and turtle neck. Her hair was gathered atop of her head and on her shoulder was a cat. I blinked and stared. She looked at him and chuckled. "This is Paiute, my familiar."
"I – uh....okay," my thoughts were not processing. "I think I saw him with you the other night actually...and wait a second isn't he like the same color as the cat on your arm."
"Essentially Paiute is my soul. There's a special place in nightmares that rip your very soul from you. And yet, they remain tethered and so that soul becomes its own being. And that is what Paiute is. When I became a druid, my soul was snapped back into my body but I now have the ability to kind of...shift pieces in a way. And Paiute is now that piece. When he isn't in his form, he is within me. " Echo said, smiling fondly. He purred and rubbed against her cheek.
"Huh," and then I realized something. "That's what the PAU and all these other organizations are missing, isn't it? The nightmare."
Echo's eyes snapped towards me, alive with fire. I recoiled underneath the intensity. She seemed realize what expression she had because it softened and she averted her eyes. "Yes. And I am terrified everyday that someone will discover how to get there."
"Do you remember how to get there?" I asked.
She closed her eyes. "Yes."
"Do you think someone will actually be able to figure it out?" I wondered.
"It takes just the right combination of ingredients to trigger it. And it takes one person surviving the nightmare to come out and want to use it on the world." Echo said.
"What happens?" I wanted to know, why was it so terrifying?
Echo's eyes became weighted and they were heavy with sadness. She reached out her hand and touched my temple with her fingertips. Suddenly, it was as though gravity had been ripped from my feet and I was falling. I swallowed bile as nausea rocked my stomach. And as quickly as it happened I was standing again. I looked around to notice that I was within a forest. But it wasn't a normal forest.
The sky was red, and the trees were black. There was a silence that was quite literally pressing. And as I stepped forward, my feet were sluggish to move, as though too heavy or stuck to something. I looked down at black grass and saw that there was the softest glimmer. I reached down to touch it. It was warm and wet, and when I brought my hand up to look closer at it, it was red. I turned slowly to look behind me and saw Viola, her blonde hair rippling across the grass and her throat torn. Blood spatter was on her face and body. She was so pale, and so incredibly dead. I opened my mouth to scream –
- and found myself staring at Echo. Her face was grim. My heart was thudding from the terror that had just poisoned it, but not only that. As I blinked and my vision cleared, I noticed that other than Echo's blue eyes and darker hair...she looked scarily similar to Viola. I frowned, and stepped closer to her. Immediately Echo recoiled, "What're you doing?"
"You look a lot like my sister," I said. "Viola. Like, near identical."
Echo opened her mouth to say something, alarm coloring her features when Paiute released a warning call. Before I even knew what was happening I was being tackled to the ground as the city night exploded into gunfire. I screamed, curling into myself and I heard Marek yell inside my head Scarlet! Scarlet, are you okay?
I could barely respond as Echo straddled me and pulled a gun from her boot. She began to fire rapidly, her expression stonily calm. For a brief moment, silence fell and she quickly got up and hauled me up. We bolted, heading towards the door. We ducked inside and slammed the door shut. Jin and Marek were inside; the latter was bristling, while the former had a gun. They both relaxed slightly when they saw us but didn't drop their defenses. I ran across the room to get behind the both of them. Echo grabbed a bag and she rifled through it. She tossed something to Jin, who caught it and then handed it to me. I took it without looking at it, until I felt the cold bite of the metal. I looked down to see a gun in my hand and nearly dropped it but Marek's tail wrapped around my hand. "I know you don't want to, but you might need it. I don't like it either, but I understand it."
"Finally," Echo muttered. Paiute creeped along the window, his ears flicking to and fro. "They are surrounding the room. But there's something else, I can't hear any other person despite us and them."
"What do you mean? All the other rooms are empty?" Jin asked.
Marek cocked his head then growled softly, "The familiar is correct. There is no other person."
"They tricked us," Jin said softly.
I stared at the back of his head in shock, wondering what this meant. I swallowed thickly, and struggled to keep a hold of the gun, which was becoming slippery in my sweating palms. There was silence and then a knock on the door. I flinched at the unexpected noise; I guess perhaps I expected something louder and more abrupt. Everyone froze for a moment. And then Echo – who was closer towards the door – said, "What?"
"Come on," it was Dr. Grimm. "You know that you won't be able to fight us. So, just come on out now. Peacefully."
"Peacefully?" Echo chuckled. "That's quite the amusing statement. You have proven over and over again that you are not peaceful."
"You're right," the doctor chuckled on the other side of the door.
There was a creak behind me. I whirled to find myself face to face with Director Momsen. And I screamed. I didn't even see his gun move, only felt it when he hit me in the temple. My vision flashed painfully white and I collapsed on the ground. Before Momsen could do anything else to me, Marek climbed over the top of me and roared at him. With a shaking hand and in a daze, I touched my temple, feeling the warm blood coat my fingers.
"Scarlet," Echo said quietly, I hadn't realized she was so close. Why was she so close? She had just been across the room a moment ago. "Don't worry everything will be fine. You'll be fine."
I know I would be fine, I felt fine. Wait, was my feeling fine not a good thing? Why did Echo look so worried and where had Jin gone? Marek? Marek where did you go?
Scarlet? Scar? Are you okay, whatever you do, don't close your eyes. Scarlet? Please, promise me.
Why shouldn't I close my eyes?
Don't be afraid. Please. I'm right here with you.
Where are you? I can't help it, Marek. I am afraid. I can barely think properly. Everything is fuzzy.
I'm here, Scarlet.
"Scarlet," my vision immediately sharpened and I found myself back in the underground halls of the PAU. There was an incredible throbbing in the side of my head, and my hair was matted against my neck and I knew it was blood. And I was nauseous just thinking about it. I looked towards Echo and she was staring at me, gripping my upper arm. "Are you okay?"
"Where's Marek?" I asked, not seeing him.
"They separated him from us, along with Paiute. Even Jin." Echo stated. I realized we were standing in one spot with guards all around us. Why were we standing in one spot?
"Why are we still together?"
"Because, I am your druid. As long as we are together, I am passive." Echo smiled wryly at me.
"Why are we standing in one place? I thought they would be having us...well you know escorted somewhere that has bars." I commented.
"Because," Echo drawled. "They don't want us to see something."
And then she kicked out the guard's knees next to her, spinning to knock him on the ground. I ducked – immediately regretting it as nausea punched me in the stomach – and ran forward. Echo grabbed my arm and pulled me around, and we began to run. Dizziness rattled my brain and I struggled to remain present. That's when it happened, the click. Somehow, despite my being human and particularly weaker than Echo, I managed to make her stop.
Standing at the end of the hall was Viola. My beautiful sister. Blue jeans clinging to her slim legs, long blonde hair spilling over her shoulders, but there was something off about her. Her skin...it was a little too pale, and her eyes. They seemed lighter than before. Instead of their deep brown, they seemed almost red.
"Vi?"