THE ARREST
1321 Words
The resonance bit.
Kael’s lungs hitched. A jagged, wet sound tore from his throat as air finally rediscovered his windpipe. It felt like swallowing broken glass. His heart, stagnant seconds ago, gave a violent, rebellious kick against his ribs.
He gasped, his face still pressed into the freezing gravel. The Apathy Snow was crusting over his eyelashes. Every nerve ending in his body was a live wire dipped in acid.
"God," he wheezed. The word was a wreck. It sounded like a man being born in a furnace.
Adia groaned next to him. The sound was low and primal. She was radiating. Even with his eyes clamped shut, Kael could feel the heat of her restored Well. The Source within her had refilled during the blackout, surging back with a vengeance that made the very air around her head shimmer.
Kael pushed his palms into the roof. The grit of the tar paper felt like needles.
"Get up," he croaked, his teeth clattering.
Adia just stared at the purple sky, her pupils still swimming in gold. "You... you were dead, Kael. I felt the light go out." She said.
"Shut up," Kael snapped. He tried to stand, but his knees were water. He collapsed back down, his shoulder hitting the brick vent. "Just... shut it."
He fumbled for his belt. His fingers were thick, clumsy things. He reached into the emergency pouch of his shredded undersuit and pulled out the case.
Obsidian glass.
The Resonance Dampeners were heavy. They nullified. They were designed to turn a sun into a guttering candle.
Kael crawled toward her, reaching for her right wrist. "Don't. Kael, don't put those things on me. We just... we felt the Null. You know what we are now." Adia flinched, trying to pull away. Her heels scraping the wet roof.
"I know what my orders are," Kael hissed. His pale blue eyes were bloodshot, wild with the terror he couldn't purge. He grabbed her arm.
Her skin was scorching. The contact sent a jolt of pure fire up his arm, but he didn't let go. He couldn't.
SNAP.
The first cuff locked.
Adia screamed. It wasn't a loud sound, but a jagged rip of agony as the obsidian teeth of the dampener bit into her flesh. The gold light under her skin curdled, turning a sickly, bruised amber, trapped beneath the surface.
"You're hurting me!" she choked out, her face contorting.
"Good," Kael lied. His chest was tight. He felt a phantom pinch in his own wrist as the cuff closed on hers. He ignored it. He grabbed her left hand and forced the second ring shut.
TCK-CLICK.
The circuit was severed. The warmth on the roof vanished. The freezing rain of the Grief Storm reclaimed the space instantly, soaking them both to the bone. Adia slumped, her forehead hitting the gravel. She looked small. Dim.
"Can you walk?" Kael asked, his voice shaking.
"Go to hell," she whispered into the dirt.
Kael reached down, hooking his hands under her armpits. He hauled her up with a messy balance. Every time his heart beat, he felt a strange, rhythmic echo coming from her chest.
"Walk, or I drag you," he muttered, leaning his weight against her to keep them both upright.
They staggered toward the fire escape. Adia’s legs were stiff, her breathing shallow and ragged.
"You're shaking, Auditor," she taunted, her voice a thin thread. "The big, bad statue is falling apart."
"I said stay quiet," he growled. He checked his wrist comms. The screen was cracked, but the signal was live. "Transport, this is Prime 01. Extraction complete. Sector 4, Roof 9. Move."
"Copy, Prime. ETA three minutes. Watch the skies."
Kael leaned his head against the rusted railing of the fire escape, pulling Adia close to his side. He wanted to throw her off the ledge. But the dark was pressing in, and the memory was a shadow at his heels.
"Why didn't you let me go?" Adia asked. She looked up at him, her eyes searching his sharp, scarred face. "Back there. In the silence. You could have walked away."
Kael looked at her lips. They were bruised, still wet from the rain. He felt a spike of something hot and shameful in his stomach.
"I have a job to do," he said, his voice flat.
"Liar," she spat. "You're scared. You're terrified that if you're alone, you'll vanish."
Kael gripped the obsidian cuffs, his knuckles turning white. "One more word and I'll gag you."
"Do it," she challenged. "At least then I won't have to listen to you lie to yourself."
A low hum began to vibrate through the air. A shadow larger than the clouds drifted over the roof. The Mint Transport. It was a sleek, black coffin of a ship, hovering silently on graviton thrusters. A searchlight cut through the sleet, blinding them.
The side hatch slid open. Six Enforcers in full Coffin-Suits stood there, Null-Rods held across their chests. They didn't move. They were statues.
Kael felt a wave of nausea. He looked at his former peers and saw only the emptiness. He saw the void he used to be.
"Sir," the lead Enforcer droned through a vox-caster. "Target secured?"
"Target secured," Kael said, stepping onto the ramp, pulling Adia with him.
The interior of the ship was freezing. Sterile. It smelled of ozone and recycled air. Kael didn't let go of Adia’s arm as the ramp retracted. He led her toward the heavy containment chairs in the center of the hold.
"Seat her," Kael ordered the soldiers.
"I've got her," he added quickly when an Enforcer reached out.
He pushed Adia into the chair. The magnetic locks engaged around her waist and shoulders. She didn't fight. She just watched him with those dim, amber eyes.
Kael stood back, his chest heaving. He looked at his hands. They wouldn't stop trembling.
"Prime," the pilot's voice came over the internal speakers. "Heading for the High District. Secure Wing 10. Archon is waiting for your report."
The ship lurched, banking hard toward the glowing spires in the distance.
Kael sat in the bench opposite Adia. He closed his eyes, trying to find the Absolute Zero he had lived in for two decades. It was gone. The room was too loud. The hum of the engines was a roar. The smell of the Enforcers' suits was foul.
And Adia.
He could feel her through the deck plates, through the air.
He looked at her wrists. The obsidian was glowing a faint, angry red where it touched her skin.
"Kael," she said softly.
"Don't," he whispered.
"It's starting," she said. Her voice was full of a strange, terrible pity. "The noise. You can't turn it off now, can you?"
Kael looked at the Enforcers. They were staring straight ahead, unmoving. He leaned forward, his face inches from Adia’s.
"If you don't stop talking," he hissed, "I'll make sure they extract every single drop of you until there's nothing left but a shell."
Adia leaned her head back against the metal rest and smiled. It was the saddest thing Kael had ever seen.
"They're already doing it to you, Auditor. Look at your eyes."
Kael caught his reflection in the polished black bulkhead of the ship.
His eyes were a vivid, electric blue, swirling with a storm he couldn't control. And as the ship pierced the clouds of the High District, the blue began to bleed into a deep, agonizing crimson.
Kael gasped, clutching his head. The resonance in his chest suddenly spiked, a high-frequency scream that only he could hear.
"Wait," he groaned. "Stop the ship."
"Problem, Prime?" the Enforcer asked, stepping forward.
Kael didn't answer, looking at Adia.
Her heart wasn't just matching his pulse anymore.
It was leading it.
And then, every light in the transport flickered and died, leaving them in a darkness that wasn't silent at all.
It was screaming.
…
- Writer
