The Adorned

by Elimelec Gonzalez-Roman

  Chapter

  29

  Degrading Perfection

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  I told Ms. William to pick me out some normal looking clothes in Coalastar and then hopped up and left towards Rebecca’s resident. I slit through the crowd of annoying, babbling, and gawking woman to break free onto the more deserted pavement that lead to the residential areas.

  Many things were going through my mind; more than I’ve ever had before in any given moment because right now: I felt an unusual pervaded and darker version of panic. And to be honest, there was no reason for me to feel this way: can human emotions be so out of whack like this? Could there be some rational allocation that could interpret and inject the proper dose of tranquil to ease these forms of malfunction?

  No, no, what am I thinking? Do I actually believe that this body I’m in could hold bound to imperfections? As adorned, as perfected and beautiful and blissful, and any other word that defines perfection better than what I’ve used, mean that I out of all of the people don’t flow the same way?

  I stopped, looped around to stare behind me. There it was… so I was wrong all along, the fiend whom I thought was actually a man: Dr. Harris, was in fact an actual beast.

  This grizzly looking thing, long snout, and rigid, yet sharp, blood stained teeth, gnawed and grinded, sniffing and purring. It stood on his hind legs, erecting its body, and outstretching its long and slender paws towards me. Its muscles broadened, claws slowly released from its paws, and cricketing-purring brought forth a wistful snarl.

  I couldn’t move. My mind wanted me to run away, but my muscles were as stiff as the very pavement my feet stood upon.

  “Guardian, calm yourself!” Oliver bellowed.

  And there he was, he who I sought, coming to rescue me… and then this odd, déjà vu type moment struck me like a slap in the face. This felt awfully familiar to me, too familiar… the only difference was: Rebecca wasn’t with me this time.

  And he called this ugly, wolf-looking thing a Guardian?

  Oliver snapped his fingers.

  “I command you to YIELD, NOW!” He yelled again.

  The Guardian faced him and fiercely roared, whining and dispersing this disgusting mucus from its nostrils.

  “He’s not a threat; so I’d suggest calming yourself.”

  The Guardian shook his head and reamed its long arm against the pavement, spreading spider-webbing cracks across the surface. It got back on all four and its long hair that stretched from his hunchbacked back down to his long, thin tail, spiked up. It barked uncontrollably.

  I remained frozen.

  Oliver however had some type of slender, gadget held against his ear; though the fiend’s outbursts cut my hearing, one of the indecipherable words were: EMQ.

  The ground trembled. A mass of clattering, and powerful blows to the ground got closer, and closer. I turned around and noticed more Guardian type fiends approaching from all directions.

  “Sam…” I heard Oliver say.

  He moved closer to me.

  “This is a classified event… every person who witnesses anything to do with our outside forces are released indefinitely. Thus why Mr. Cove had to be taken away, he saw what you saw; he saw this out of control Guardian.” Oliver explained.

  I didn’t think this felt like the proper time to actually explain things, especially when there were a bunch of them closing in from every direction. But since he did specify: Out of Control, he could have meant this one exclusively, out of the rest, was actually disobeying his wishes. Which obviously it was.

  “I’ll say more after this, but for now… just relax.”

  Relax? Did he seriously tell me to: Relax? This gigantic thing seemed eager to rip me into shred and there are even more of them coming… how can I relax?

  I fell on my knees. Oliver grasped my collar.

  “Sam!” He yelped.

  My empty stomach gurgled until I splattered vomit all over the ground. I felt awful, my hands shivered, my throat burned, and my head felt due to just tumble off my shoulders.

  I felt another hand clutch onto the back of my shirt: it dragged my limp body off the pavement. My eyes however were still on; and I saw the other Guardians pounce and fight against the renegade one.

  The taunts and barks, scratching and grinding, it all tore into me too. I felt what that stray one felt. I screamed at the top of my lungs until I couldn’t hear anything anymore… until I didn’t see any more… until the cold, comforting numbness consumed my whole.

 

  I opened my eyes.

  “Welcome back, Sam.” I heard someone say. The deep voice was unrecognizable to me.

  “Good to see you well.”

  That one I did recognize, that was Oliver.

  I lifted my head from the comfort of the pillow and noticed I was alone in this small, square sized room, with a single bed, and a door.

  “Explain Oliver.” I said.

  “It’s not over yet Sam, you’re in your final year and soon you’ll progress to your LCP destination: we’ll explain a little, but we’re not allowed to until you’ve left the Preteritus Facility to ensure discretion.” The deep voice said.

  “Oliver, tell me what I witnessed, please!”

  “Let me explain. There is a final class to our domesticated powers that ensure tranquil resolutions and perfections in our installation: The Myrmidons and Guardians. We look and seek those that wish to mal… and that person thus far is Dr. Harris Brown; he who’s defied us too many times already and we’ve yet to capture him.

  And then that renegade Guardian… who for some strange reason saw you as a threat. Guardians are tamed by us, but also have their own special exclusions and hunches, and they follow instincts… and you were its target. We normally don’t deploy necessary protocol on indiscriminate accusations since their hunches are such a rarity, but when only one has a predestined hunch…then that’s when problems persist.”

  “We’ve been highly monitoring you Sam. And thanks to you we were able to find that hidden house in Monarch’s Reach; a place of ridicule where Dr. Harris hid his spouse…”

  “Please, let me give an explanation. I owe him that right.” Oliver interrupted.

  Still no name to that low voiced man. Oliver did well to hide it and I didn’t exactly know where I was. A white bed, and completely white room… nobody around but their voices speaking to me through speakers on the far right corner near the door.

  I remained attentive. I hadn’t budged.

  “What my fellow Myrmidon speaks is true. You and Rebecca led us to Dr. Harris’s old hideout… but he cleaned that place out so well that we couldn’t even find a single trace to his new location. However, this did bring a bunch of assumptions and determinations on the table: He can have others. So we’re scouting, sending our Guardian’s to venture throughout the outskirts to locate any other place like the one in Monarch’s Reach.”

  I grimaced, “H-how did you lose him back in the Funerals?” I asked.

  That I was truly curious about. I had this premonition Oliver let him go… I just know he did! There is something there, Oliver and Dr. Harris know each other, but perhaps that information I can only dig up if I ask Dr. Harris in person.

  “You spotted him at the Funerals?” The low voiced man erupted at Oliver.

  There was this moment of silence.

  “I don’t know what ill trickery Dr. Harris used, one moment I was eye to eye with him and the next my face was in the dirt, you were gone too. When the monitoring system located you, you we’re already back at your Caretaker’s.”

  I thought for a second. That’s what happened to me too, all of a sudden I just blacked out… could this have really happened to Oliver to?

  “Tell me about The Dark Times.”

  “That I can’t talk about until you’re released from Preteritus.” Oliver said.

  “Oliver we must head and inform the Council about our accomplishment, we can’t let this boy debrief us like we’re some criminals
! The hell with it, release him from custody and let’s go.” The man said.

  “Understood. Sam, I’ll contact you later.”

  So they left me here all by myself without saying a single word on how to get out of this tiny cubical. I rose from the bed and inched towards the door. I pressed my head against it to see if I could hear anything on the other side: footsteps, a lot of footsteps.

  I felt hesitant to even grab a hold of the knob, but this small area in my brain had an unrelenting curiosity to press forward: to venture in onto this uncharted local where I was left. But then again this place could easily be the Council Offices near the Jefferson Building, and I’m in some kind of debriefing special-room or something… I grinned at my own unbelievable array of consecutive imaginary jabber.

  I opened the door and stared down the hallway, nothing but an endless corridor… for a second I thought I was staring down the same hallway I saw when I was first released from my Consolation Chamber. I shook my head and the room came back to normal. I was in the Medical Facility.

  I didn’t see many people inside the Medical Facility as I made my way through. Of course the extraordinarily attractive reception lady, but the lobby was empty, and I hardly saw any nurses either; just one… and not a single patient in any of the wide open rooms. I wandered if I’d just imagined those footsteps I heard.

  I stood still staring out the door in the lobby. The day outside was a lot different. Dark, gloomy, and I heard hissing wind outside the glass doors. I felt terrified, those Guardians… what if they were still out there, sniffing my tracks: another renegade maybe?

  “What’s wrong, err…,” the lobbyist hesitated, “Mr. Sam, correct?”

  I turned to her and nodded.

  She giggled. “Cat’s got your tongue?”

  Cat has my tongue, what?

  “Excuse me?”

  “You’re very quiet and standing there, looking out the door… are you waiting for someone?”

  She was so beautiful that her grin took my breath away.

  “How long have I been in here?”

  She tapped her pen on the table and shuffled through some papers on her desk.

  “Hmm… well, it doesn’t show anyone checking you in, however, there’s a no-name entry here that states, if this no-name is in fact you, you’ve been here for roughly a little over 2 hours.” She said.

  I rushed out in a sprint passed the double doors and ran as fast as I could through these haunted and vacant pavements leading to the Residential Area. Paranoia grasped my conscious; I repeatedly glared behind me, making sure no Guardian would appear out of the blue like it did before. I didn’t know if I could handle so much pressure; for the first time I actually believed that I needed to take my medication. But then again, I was eager to see Rebecca.

  Sheets of hazy rain prickled my face delicately as it came down. I slowed down to catch my breath. I stopped near townhouse: 221. I stared through the dreary alleyway that leads to Monarch’s Reach, I didn’t know why, but I longed to just see Rebecca passing by.

  At that moment, flashes of lightning illuminated the alleyway enough to catch glimpse of a shadowed passerby with illuminated blue eyes, but the glimpse wasn’t enough to differentiate him to be anyone I know. It continued by until another vibrant flash extinguished the shroud. I wiped the dripping water from my face and held my position, staring at the exact same spot to see if I could witness another random passerby. However, my hesitation and fear kept on holding me back from jumping the fence and just running to witness these mysterious Myrmidons… or at least I thought they were Myrmidons. I still have yet to grasp the entire glowing-blue-eyes concept, and the word: Myrmidon for that matter.

  I felt filthy and disgusting. Drenched in water from head to toe, my feet all gushy and muddy… ugh. I was actually afraid to even show my face at Rebecca’s house. I peered behind my shoulder again, a natural thing that has besieged my cognizant, and I somehow couldn’t even bend my attention to anything else besides something jumping out at me.

  But I continued to stare back; there was nothing but drizzling rain clapping against the muddy pavement, and tall perfect trees slumped over water-falling mounds of water against the permeating soil and water. I couldn’t put a finger on the change of atmosphere, and I’ve yet to fully grasp this rain… I’ve read of rain, seen pictures of it, but never have I experienced being caught in one. Two years here and not a single drop of water has befallen, and now all the perfection I saw washed away.

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