Project LOSS

Chapter 19

Someone, please help them! Onaiah blasted repeatedly, sending out a silent SOS to anyone with the mental capacity to receive such a message.

Before Onaiah, a chained queue of ordinary humans cowered in fear, dwarfed by a behemoth of a creature. It had to be something PAVE cooked up in one of their not-so-secret experimental laboratories. No human could have mutated into such a monstrosity by pure chance alone. The ground shook beneath her feet as the thing postured and stamped, grabbing mindlessly at its victims, separating flesh from bone and limb from limb as it pulled one chained victim after another. A conveyer belt of horror and death.

Among the humans a young woman stood with her child, holding the infant close to shield the baby’s eyes and ears from the horrors while whispering the empty promise, “Everything will be fine.” The woman removed a red scarf to serve as a blindfold for the child as it yanked the pair toward certain death. Onaiah could not bear to let another child die. She would be forced to jump in against the orders of PAVE.

The head of the organisation watched from above, and although he was too far away to see clearly, Onaiah somehow knew he had the same creepy smile plastered across his face. The second she stood out of line in defence of those humans, he would be upon her and realising the magnitude of her subordination would surely destroy her. Heroic action would render her brother’s sacrifice a waste and sweep away any heroic notions she had of taking down the organisation from the inside. It was a no-win situation, and Onaiah was about to give up hope, but her mind would not stop returning to the boy. The one with the ice-blue eyes who had caught her spying and let her go.

She closed her eyes tight and pictured him, wishing with all her heart for him to appear before her.

Please, please help me, Vrethie…

 She prayed. She pleaded. She wanted it so desperately that when she opened her eyes to find he had appeared; she figured it must be a hysteria-induced mirage. She watched him take a step toward the beast and raise his arm before an intense white light engulfed the courtyard, obscuring her vision of the scene.

Through squinted eyes, she saw him turn toward her and was sure he intended her harm. Their eyes met and time stood still. Her exhaled breath hung in the air, tiny droplets of moisture—suspended in the glare of residual light from the blast—sparkled like jewels, reflecting in their eyes as they shared what was probably the most profound and meaningful exchange of her life.

He understood the sentiments she conveyed; regret, gratitude and sorrow, and acceptance and relief that her death would by Vrethie’s hand rather than the evil thing that masqueraded as a boy. He zig-zagged off in a blur and was out of sight by the time it took to inhale the air back into her lungs.

The boy-thing, as she now thought of him, appeared at her side, sporting a look of genuine surprise.

 “What was that?” He frowned. This boy who had given Onaiah hordes of information on Vrethie didn’t seem to recognise his adversary.

Maybe you don't know what he looks like because you never leave this place…

Onaiah shrugged, feigning shock equal to that of the boy-thing with ease since Vrethie had surprised her by letting her live yet again.

“Well, I guess I was wrong about you,” he said, though he appeared to remain sceptical. Onaiah upheld the stony exterior of the PAVE agent she used to be, her facial muscles remembering the familiar, dead-pan expression all too well. She couldn’t figure out what he found more shocking; the impromptu rescue, or the revelation that he may have been wrong about something.