The Hate Complex

II - Queen

She sat alone in her office, reading the reports of the day by the dim light of the furnace burning in the corner. She slept in the lab most nights; she was head scholar after all, she had duties to attend to. The reports were much the same as those of every other day, the group had extracted various mysterious unnamed substances, none of which seemed likely to be what they were searching for. She sighed heavily. They had reached a dead end, she knew; nobody wanted to admit it, except for Harwin, but they were getting nowhere. Queen shoved the papers in a desk draw and drew herself up to the window.

The name had not been her choice, but she supposed she had earned it with her authority, so she had long ago accepted it, despite its inauthenticity. She often found herself staring out at the empty wilderness which stood solemnly beyond her office, and contemplating her research. What were they even looking for? Sometimes the answer was ambivalent, but it came to her instantly then; they were looking for life, consciousness, the unnameable element which separates living organisms from inanimate objects, in order to replace it, the very same substance that had been seeping away from the North for the past ten years, ever since the 'fall', when the livestock had begun to die out. It would not be confined to the North though; it was expanding all the time. The less complex creatures had come first, but many humans had gone with them. It was like God was finally taking back what was rightfully his, what he bequeathed to the world upon it's creation, only to see it abused and defiled.

"There is no God", she muttered to herself. Or at least God was dead. He was certainly dead to her; no bearded man sat a thunderous throne in the sky to watch over her now, nobody was there to judge her, to condemn her. There came an abrupt ringing sound from the desk, and she turned, reaching towards it. She picked up the phone awkwardly, obtuse, brick like thing it was, and firmly pushed the recieve button, to greet whoever may be calling. She had suspicions as to who it was.

"I'm glad you finally picked up." The voice that came from the speaker was deep and husky, confirming her suspicions.

"I've been busy all day", she muttered, and a soft sigh came from the phone.

"Well", the speaker sighed wearily. "Now that you're on the line, I have a few things to ask you." Queen listened warily.

"Go on then, I don't have all night", she said angrily. She was in no mood for a chat, she had other things to attend to.

"Alright, no need to get snippy. I need to talk to you, whatever duties you may have can wait." He sighed heavily. She was silent, disconcerted; what could be so pressing that he would discredit the very task he himself set her to work on?

"I heard they've started calling you Queen." He gave soft, warm laugh. "I should've thought of that, way you commanded me when we were abed together. I used to just call you Elin, remember?" He sounded sad. Queen reddened at his comment. She had been different then, her desires had taken over her, stopped her from thinking straight. She spoke abruptly, and sharper than she meant to.

"Whatever we did twenty years ago is dead and gone, just like the old me, whoever she was. My old name died with her, let them call me what they wish. Now please get to the point, I told you, I haven't got all night." He hesitated for a moment.

"I-", he began, hesitating again before giving a great sigh. "I... just wanted to speak to you, see how your research was going." He sounded unsure. She was immediately suspicious; she was good at recognising lies.

"What did you really want to ask me?"

"Oh, nothing of import... just how it was going."

"You mean you wanted to know how I myself am doing?" The man could be foolishly sentimental sometimes. He began again in his husky tones, but he spoke abruptly, too abruptly.

"Yes! That's it, Elin, I haven't seen you in too long, we should be closer." Queen decided she would never wrangle the truth out of him. In any case, she hadn't the strength for lie detecting anymore, so she played along.

"I... am fine. Research has been going well enough I suppose." That was a lie, but he'd never been as good as her at detecting such things.

"I'm glad to hear it, now, I must go... I have duties to attend to myself." He hung up suddenly. Queen put the phone down, disconcerted. What could the man truly want? He had wanted to ask her something, but found he hadn't the courage. He used to be like that, she remembered, back when they were children. But it was strange that he should act like that now, with all the power he had. He had been given various names by his people; the Golden One, He Who Brings Justice, Hammerhand, Sunset Wielder. She considered that last one a little too on-the-nose for her liking; he did indeed wield a mighty blade that he had christened 'Sunset', or so she had heard. She had not seen him since he had given her this research task three years ago. Despite all the power he now wielded, and his alleged mighty blade, whenever she pictured him she still saw the little red-nosed boy who had shared her bed. It felt an obscene stretch of the imagination to her that the same boy would gain such power, but life was often strange; reality did not adhere to her expectations, she ought to know that well enough by now.

She strode to her office door, opened it quickly, and hurried without, shutting the door behind her hastily. She walked heavily to a room down the corridor, and once within, spotted the high cupboard and opened it's door. Within were four disembodied heads, one of a rat, a lizard, a German Shepherd, and a woman, and she reached inside and pulled them out. They were frozen solid, thankfully. Her office was the only warm place in the building now; her walls were insulated to keep in the heat from the stove. The rest of the building was like the depths of winter, so as to preserve the many experiments they had set up from the evening before. Their refrigerator was not tiny, but it certainly would not fit the dozens of pieces of organic matter that they needed to keep cold and fresh. She had grown tired of the blood extraction experiments, and so had the team, from the look of them; it was time to move on to something else. Tomorrow, they would attempt to instil life, consciousness, a 'soul', into these heads, using whatever they had extracted from the blood. Queen's hopes were not high, but she had to keep trying. She was the only thing between the world's life, and total annihilation.