Draimon: Fracture: Erasend- Book 1: Deascension

Chapter 18: New Reality

It was the anniversary of both when my mother and father got together and of her death. The building radiated a coldness, one I was still young enough to feel. I rubbed my hands together, pulled my black hair in and closed my jacket. As I waited for my father, I paced on the spot staring at the void black and white synsis that made up the building. With black synsis, the same material that made up my clothes. Unlike the bodies here and other synsis, it will never fall from age.

 I tried my best not to breathe in as the stench filled my nostrils, I just had to come in when dad was finding her room, I thought. I looked into one of the preparation rooms. They had different hair colours; white, dark green, light blue, some even had different skin colours. I knew many were, like myself, Necroians. The trick was to look at the pupil. Black equalled Necroian. I could also tell as they were not choking and working without tire. With this, I could also see Cryoians nearly blending in despite their all-white hair and pupils with different shades between them. 

Unlike the Necroians, they wore beak-like masks to hide the stench of the bodies and weren't shivering. They were also in a separate corner of the room. Looking closer, I saw the floor shimmer and that they were at work freezing the bodies.

 They did so by spaying the bodies with a solution to freeze them. From school, I knew it was a mix of Cyroian blood to freeze; Phyion to increase the potency, Aquarian so it could be sprayed along with various chemicals.

The frozen bodies were then sent away to another part of the Grave-house. Looking in at the two groups only made me notice my coldness more. I should have brought red Synsis instead; I was of the age when I could enjoy it.

"Caliran!" My father called out as he walked towards me. Unlike myself, he was old enough that he only covered his privates; at his age, clothes were useless. His white hair was far longer than mine, though. "There you are," he said, rubbing my head as he reached me.

"You should have said I needed red Synsis," I said, punching him in the chest with all my strength. No reaction.

"It's cold?" He asked, breathing out his breath visible, "guess it is, first time I noticed," he said. "look, we don't need to stay long if you don't want to. I don't need to."

"Ok," I replied, "well did you find her room."

"Yes, it's just a bit farther in," he said as he walked down the lit corridor, "I had the managers turn the lights up for you," he said.

"Thanks," I replied.

"Just don't stare at them unless you want your eyes to hurt for the next couple days.

"Right," I sighed, "so when I'm young, I have to be careful about getting injured as to not be in pain for longer."

"Hhhh, don't be too careful; you shouldn't deny yourself those experiences. Trust me, you will thank yourself when you are older," he replied.

"That's it when I'm older I feel nothing, not even touch, I even heard rumours our senses and emotions dull." Upon those words, my father turned like a storm and hugged me.

"They aren't true," he said.

"Well then, what are even the positives of being a Necroian."

"Pain immunity, wound-sealing and night vision do make us pretty good Monster hunters."

"Yeah, I find Monsters really damn interesting, but I don't want to risk my life fighting them," I said. 

My father rubbed his chin in thought after standing up, "remind me how often other sub-species have to sleep," how often I thought, racking my brain for the answer.

"About eight every twenty-four, I think," I answered.

"Already at thirty-five, you stay awake for around fifty hours before feeling tired. Once you reach your hundreds, you will be able to stay awake for a hundred plus. Imagine how many games and shows you can play and watch, and you only have to sleep for a fraction of the time."

"Yeah," I replied.

"Though I would not mind having an Enorian's memory," he said as he opened a door.

I looked at the names on the iron slap in the centre, trying to find her name. I scanned the board until I found it. Ulla. Finding the name was our way of connecting with her after her passing. My father placed down his offering of flowers, among the others, and we stood in silence. After a while, I finally spoke.

"So how was she, what was she like," my father replied.

"O, she was wonderful, bit strange though."

"How come?" I asked; he took a moment before replying.

"Well, for one, she loved adored violence, not inflicting it herself, but she loved gory shows; she even enjoyed watching the outside streams." He explained, "at first I was a little disturbed by it, but she explained that death is just a normal part of life, and in time I grew to understand it."

"Ok," I replied, "anything else," I asked.

"A yes, how could I forget before I met her my life was miserable, and I was on antidepressants," he sighed, "until one day I was walking down the street, and she just bumped into me. I don't know why she did it, but she wanted to know me, so I let her."

"And?" I asked.

"We talked for a bit at my home, and she told me that yes, life is pain, and there will be bad moments, but you just have to live through those moments to get the best out of life."

"She really did make you feel better. How are you now that she is gone."

"She told me nothing lasts forever and that death comes for everything eventually."

"Bit dark, don't you think?" I said back to him.

"It is, but she then said that we should live life to our fullest for that reason," he said happily, "I think that prepared me for her accident."

"Are you all right with saying how it happened?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm all right, you can know," he said with a slight stutter in his voice.

"You were very young at the time and at school when it happened. "We were driving along a road at night. I can't remember why but I remember a lorry was passing us until it swerved to the left towards and hit our car." My father stopped to breathe for a moment," she managed to throw me out, but she couldn't get out, the lorry's cargo crate fell onto the car crushing it, and the vehicle then erupted into a bright blue fire."

"That must have been hard to see," I said.

"It was," he replied, "I immediately called for the fire brigade and an ambulance. It took everything before they extinguished it. Like it had a soul and refused to die. No remains were found; the fire consumed everything of her, no bones, no ashes, nothing. There were even no burn marks on the car."

"That must have been a real shock," I replied.

"It was, but I was grateful we had you," he said, bending down to give me a big hug, "she was very eager to have you, I might add as well, maybe I'll explain it when you are older."

"Can we stay like this for a little longer? It's nice."

"Of course," he replied as he got his knees and wrapped his arms around me."

"Come on, time to go now, I think your cold," he said after a couple of minutes had passed. He could see I was shivering.

"CORPSER SIGHTED ON FLOOR TWENTY!" Sounded over the speakers.

"Ok, definitely time to leave, were even on the same floor as that thing.

"What's a Corpser?" I asked.

"A, yes, you are not old enough to learn about Monsters," he breathed in, "uhh, and you're young enough to get nightmares still, right promise me that once I tell you this, you wouldn't think about it too much."

"What happens if I get nightmares? I asked.

"They attract Night-wraiths, but we really should go. I'll tell you on the way down," he said as he guided me to a lift which we entered and carried us down.

"There're lifts!" I cried out, my legs still tired from the steps.

"Of course there are, but I wasn't going to use them when there was exercise to be had. That strength will stay with you until you die. Right you wanted to know about Corpsers?

"Yes, I have only heard of the Outwaller Monsters."

"Fine, I'll tell you about the Infiltrator Monsters," he said reluctantly, "they are these. I don't really know what they look like, but they enter corpses to reanimate them and gain the person's memories. They can even fuse bodies to further their intelligence."

"YELLOW SLUDGE SIGHTED ON FLOOR TWENTY-ONE!" The loudspeakers blared again.

"O those beneficial parasites which give their host electomancy and near limitless energy."

"Yeah, they can revive the not-long dead by jump-starting their heart, and green sludges can revive long-dead by regenerating dead flesh," he said, mashing the down button, "they will fight each other to grow, which will give us more time, but when we land we need to run."

Suddenly the lift shock, it bouncing slightly.

"O, come on," my dad said. A pale tentacle burst through the floor with a clump of heads stitched together into a jaw following. He took a panel and slammed it down on the opening, then went to open the doors. I climbed his back and went through the entrance to the floor above.

 "Good, now pull me up," he said. I grabbed his arms and pulled against the resistance. Until it vanished, and I threw his torso.

"Your legs!" I cried with him walking on his arms and his body swaying; I saw that the wound had already sealed. My father jumped and pulled a red switch, and within seconds a team of Aeroians arrived and raced towards the lift. 

"Take the outside way," one of them said as she and the other began setting the Devourer alight, one of them being pulled in by an arm. I ran to a wall where my father waited, him trying and failing to reach an escape chute. I picked him up and pulled my body into the escape chute; we fell down, but I saw that the chute ahead was torn apart, causing us to fall. I saw trees ahead, so I kicked off the wall with my feet. We tumbled through the branches and hit the ground. I pulled myself off my father.

"Thanks," as I picked him and ran out the Grave-house with several others following.

Once we had gained a fair distance between the Grave-house and us, I sat myself down on a bunch with him beside me.

"Was that a ******* Devourer?" I asked.

"Yep, and it must have been a high one to avoid detection like that, probably found and absorbed all other Monsters in that Grave-house."

"How did it get in?" I asked.

"We don't know," he answered, "we know Sludges hide their spawn points, and living blood, bone and muscle can come alive when the person is dead, but we don't know how the others get in."

"You went through that whether you went to see her?" I asked.

"Yes," he said, "though it is down to chance really, there are no good days to go. I stared at where his legs used to be.

"So how do you get your legs replaced," I asked.

"Two options; I can either get mechanical legs, but those require maintenance and take time to attune to. The other is getting a Bioian limb; I winced at the idea.

"And there's a business for that."

"Quite a good one, the limb can then be attached with either Bioian or Necroian blood, one heals whereas the other seals..." My father kept talking, but I saw a black flower growing out of the path which drew my attention.

 He kept talking about using the method to add and change body parts, but I just kept looking at the flower until I decided to pick it. "Cal," he called when I picked it and sat back down with it in my hands.

"Yeah, yeah, dad, but look at this," I said, holding up the black flower, it shimmering in the light, "it was growing out of hard brown Synsis."

"I would be careful with that," he replied, "looks kinda like a Night-wraith with those petals.

"Well, it doesn't have any limbs to kill me, so I think'll be good," I replied, "and with it having nothing, I can actually find out how the **** it works." I knelt down on the ground, so we were at eye level, "did you know that there are Outwaller Monsters who can cause storms by themselves to hunt? How can they do that: tornados, lighting, bullet-rain, explosion storms, acid rain what causes them. Sludges how do they work, this flower was growing out on Synsis, I can study it, and it wouldn't mess with my temperature and eat me." 

First, I smelled it, a smell that could only exist in nightmares. I recoiled but did not stand up. I fell, my back and head hitting the hard ground. My eyes were heavy. I couldn't keep them open. Everything was blurry. My head was spiralling. I heard the distorted voice of Father and pain on my face. My eyes closed like a vault door, and everything went as black as a moonless night. Of course, being my last thought.