Project LOSS

Chapter 25

Curtains billowed about the windows. Lani would sometimes air the place out after spraying chemicals and must have forgotten to close them.

Humans... Always forgetting things and making mistakes.

Vrethie left them open despite the chill in the air, for no distinct reason he could fathom. If he had closed them, choosing to forgo the brisk wind that stung his nose and formed bumps on his forearms, he would never have heard Meredith's scream: “You’re killing her!”

Curious, he leaned out the large window to discover Meredith hanging off Kai’s fist in her best, albeit futile, attempt to restrain him. When it dawned on Vrethie exactly what Meredith was attempting to stop, he almost fell out of the window in a panic, mouthing the words, “Oh f**k,” in a rare and involuntary display of profanity.

Gathering his senses, Vrethie teleported down to find Kai swatting at Meredith with one hand and choking the life out of Onaiah with the other. “You didn’t even give her a chance to say anything!” Meredith shouted before the abrupt appearance of Vrethie silenced her.

“She killed Milo,” Kai explained to his brother, letting the girl drop to the floor.

“She didn’t, not really. PAVE was controlling her then. She’s not working for them anymore.” Vrethie tried his best to explain the situation to Kai, his hot-headed brother, notorious for not listening to reason.

“How convenient,” Kai scoffed.

“I know, but it’s true.”

Kai screwed up his face. “What difference does it make now? She’s half dead. It would be crueller not to finish her at this point.”

“No! Please don’t.” Vrethie cried. He threw himself between Kai and the girl.

“Why?” Kai seemed genuinely confused by Vrethie’s vehement protest.

“I… just… just…” Vrethie was unsure himself. He couldn’t find the words to explain what was in his heart. He knew the girl was important. Special, even.

“Oh right. That clears up everything. Thanks for the in-depth analysis of the situation Vreth,” Kai retorted. “Okay, since you’re so attached to her, I will let her live if you do something for me.”

“Okay….”

“Explain what happened between you and Dad.”

Vrethie did not want to give up his secret but saw no other choice.

“Something in the accounts wasn’t adding up, so I looked through the documents and dug a little deeper. I found out Jimmi had been putting up the money for a lot of the jobs we were doing and using our money to do it. It made no sense but when I confronted him, he went mad! Told me he hated us; we were monsters who had done nothing but ruin his life. I made him leave before you heard any of it. The only explanation that makes any sense, to me at least, is that he either had his own agenda or was working for someone we wouldn’t have approved of.”

“Jimmi told me that the jobs were coming from the First, but that you were commissioning them,” Kai admitted.

When did you see Jimmi? Vrethie thought but didn’t dare ask. There was no point in turning this into another argument about their so-called father.

“Then he’s working with the First himself. It’s the only explanation that makes any sense.” Vrethie threw up his arms. “Though why the First would do that… I don’t know.”

Although Kai’s frown suggested he was less-than-satisfied with Vrethies explanation, he relinquished Onaiah into his brother’s care as he’d promised. Vrethie cradled her limp form, looking down at her with loving concern. “Why didn’t you just come to me?” he asked the girl who could offer no answers, brushing blood-soaked hair from her face that had already begun to matt and stick.

“We don’t have time for this,” Meredith whined with some urgency. “If the First really is behind all those jobs, then it follows that he is also responsible for freeing you from PAVE. He is up to something big, and pretty soon you wont be able to stop him.”

You know something, Vrethie realised. Meredith was an expert at keeping her mind hidden, with huge opaque walls surrounding her thoughts. Vrethie could tear into them if he chose, and had considered it in the past. Her mental pleas were the only thing stopping him.

Vrethie didn’t know or care why Meredith was having such a fierce reaction to this news. It wasn't his problem; he had concerns of his own. He could dig through Meredith’s subconscious later. At the moment the only had one thing on his mind. He shook the comatose beauty, feeling despair and panic rise exponentially with her lack of responsiveness.

“I told you Vreth; she’s pretty much done for.”

“Urrghh,” Vrethie let out a wordless sound of pain, ignoring his brother’s words.

“You ever notice that life has a kind of symmetry to it, like, a poetic justice?” Kai began.

“What?” Vrethie snapped, slowly losing his patience with Kai.

“Well, the only person with the ability to save her was Milo, and she killed him. It’s almost ironic in a weird way.”

Vrethie thought Kai might have continued his impromptu philosophical ramble had he not looked down and took heed of Vrethie’s dire facial expression.

“We can help her later?” Meredith offered.

“How?!” Vrethie screamed his response a few decibels louder than intended.

“You said she’s a PAVE agent, right? Maybe they can fix her?” Meredith offered the first helpful suggestion since his arrival at the scene, but it would not do.

“PAVE won’t help her, she went rogue.”

“Why?” Meredith’s confusion was not to be unexpected; PAVE was the saviour of the human race, after all. “Their methods have always been questionable, but I always believed they operated with the greater good in mind.”

“I don’t understand what they’re playing at, to be honest. All I can say for certain-something is very wrong.” Vrethie answered honestly and informatively with the limited information he’d gathered on the subject. Most of what he understood about PAVE came from his adoptive father, and he‘d never questioned that information until now. PAVE was a collaboration of powerful psychics and warriors whose aim was to break the control of the First and return humanity to its former glory.

Vrethie remembered the tale Jimmi had spun word for word:

“They meant to create just one of you. Cant say for sure why two of you were born. Maybe the power was too much for one body. They used psychics in place of the thousands of minds needed to summon a god with lighting as their power source, along with the best technology and genetic engineering available. They wanted a cure, but they wanted to keep control also, but they couldn’t control either of you and would have destroyed you. Mai and I decided to release you upon what remained of the world, for better or worse.”

 “Look, I’m sorry about your friend, Vrethie, but there are bigger things happening here that need your attention. Like now. You need to find out what the First is planning.”

“She’s not my friend,” whispered Vrethie solemnly, completely missing the point of Meredith’s persistent badgering.

“Kai, bite her,” Meredith motioned towards the unconscious girl.

“Why? What?” Kai asked. “Why on earth would I do that?”

“Just try it. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Vrethie could see what Meredith was thinking as it stood on the tip of her mind. She thought Kai and the First were similar in more than just appearance.

“She thinks you have the same power as the First,” Vrethie informed Kai bluntly in an emotionless monotone. He felt oddly dreamy, as though a misty fog had risen around his brain, strangling and dulling his mind. It was undoubtedly a defence mechanism against his grief but acknowledging that fact did nothing to ease the effects.

“I’m the opposite of the First. He changes them. I change them back,” Kai insisted.

“Then why do certain people keep their powers or become more powerful after you bite them? I honestly think you have the same powers as he does,” Meredith said.

“No.” Kai shook his head. Crossed his arms. Vrethie knew his brother did not want to consider it. He did not want to consider that he might be in any way like the monster who had all but decimated the planet.

“Just try?” Vrethie asked. He would try anything to save her, the only girl who had ever sparked his interest. Maybe it was because he couldn’t see her every thought, but he hoped it was something more. Fate perhaps. That the only girl who could remain a mystery just happened to be the most beautiful person in the world.

“It won’t work,” Kai insisted.

“Just. Try,” Vrethie repeated, keeping his tone commanding rather than pleading. He knew from years of experience that if Kai really didn’t want to do something, there was literally no way to affect his decision. No amount of cajoling, reasoning or demanding would change the boy’s mind once it was made up. On this occasion, however, something in Vrethie’s expression roused Kai to action. He exposed the girl’s neck and took a bite, sinking his larger than average fangs into her pale flesh.

“All that’s going to happen is she’s gonna have blood loss on top of brain damage,” Kai said as he stood and took a step back, keeping his eyes on the girl as two little beads of red swelled and made tracks down her neck. The vigilance with which he stared down at the girl suggested he did not believe his own words.

After a moment or two—what felt like an eternity to Vrethie—Onaiah snapped into a sitting position and released a deafening scream. She surveyed her surroundings with the wide eyes of a wild animal, taking in the startled faces of Meredith and Kai before settling on Vrethie and bursting into a flood of tears. It was not the reaction Vrethie had been hoping for, but at least she was alive and conscious.

“I’m not sure how I feel about this,” Kai muttered. Vrethie understood his brother's confusion. If Kai’s power really was identical to that of the First, then Onaiah would be forever bound to him; an unwilling slave to his will in much the same way as she had been a puppet for PAVE.

No wonder she’s crying, Vrethie thought. He felt a little like crying himself.

 “Oh, do be quiet,” Kai scolded her into silence at last.

“Guys, I don’t mean to be a repetitive bore, but we should really find out what the First is playing at,” Meredith pushed, either not caring or not fully understanding the implications of the latest turn of events.

“Do you have a plan?” Vrethie enquired, finally deciding to take an interest in what Meredith was saying, if only to take his mind off everything else.

“In all honesty, I’ve been putting off confronting the First. I think now might just be the time,” Kai told Vrethie, staring at him as though gaging his reaction. He knew Kai trusted him, but Vrethie had kept secrets. Big ones. He couldn’t blame Kai for having doubts.

“But how? Only the infected can pass through his interdimensional hideout and getting inside will only be the first hurdle in what is bound to be a massively dangerous mission,” Meredith offered. She sure did know a lot about the First.

It wasn’t exactly common knowledge that the First was not only holed up underground but was stationed within a dimensional rift; a reality set slightly apart from the rest of the world that could only be breached by the First and his army. Very few people had ever broken into the underground haven, but luckily enough, Vrethie knew of a man reputed to know a way in.

“I think I might know of a way in.” Vrethie smiled lightly. “We need to pay Sammy Fortune a visit.”