by A. Giacomi
He slowly pulls away my hospital gown, making sure to press his fingers to my flesh at every opportunity. He stares at me for a moment. “You’re beautiful, just as you are,” he whispers before pulling me to the floor and pressing himself to me.
Every inch of my flesh calls to him, begging to be touched. I wasn’t strong enough to deprive my entire body of this moment. I was surprised to find how natural the moment felt. I had been fighting Marcus this entire time, but deep down I knew I could never escape him. He and I were one.
CHAPTER TWENTY
DR. AUGUST
Access to Eve had been eliminated. We no longer had any direct contact with her and this led me to snoop around as much as possible. I had heard rumours that the child she was carrying had died at birth. I wanted to comfort her, but it was clear that no one would be allowed near her, except Agent Williams of course. That worried me. He could poison her mind so easily.
Williams had been changing, it was something more than just the Azrael Virus and I finally needed to call upon an old friend for help. I had been avoiding it since first being told of Vincent’s presence in the facility. I had hoped to conduct a few experiments and produce a cure, but his blood samples attacked any sort of antidote I attempted to create. It was as if the virus was playing a game of chess and anticipating my every move. I knew I would never win this game, but perhaps I could learn something.
I scan my clearance card and provide a fingerprint scan before entering the restricted area that held my best friend, and two former students. All their fates hung in the balance. Since Eve was M.I.A, and Agent Williams could not be trusted, it was up to me to come up with a plan to not only save the world, but save my friends.
Vincent’s room was freezing. CSIS had decided to keep him cryogenically frozen so that he wouldn’t decay any further or pose a threat to anyone. Agent Williams had warned me of the dangers of waking him, but I needed him and there wasn’t any more time I could waste.
As I turn off the machines, my heart races. A countdown of sixty minutes begins and an alarm would ring once Vincent had properly defrosted. The technology made me chuckle, it was as though they were using a giant microwave to defrost my friend.
The minutes go by slowly and I am forced to think about so many things I would rather forget. My mind first thinks about my family. I knew in my heart that I would never see them again. They might already be dead, but I would never know it. My gut instinct told me that I would die down here. This underground facility was more of a tomb, and someday I would be buried here, alone, and forgotten.
I try to shrug off the feeling of impending doom as I sip my coffee, but I can’t calm myself. CSIS had been calm enough for all of us. We knew very well that the virus was now spreading rapidly and here we were, hiding out, waiting for the world to end. My assumption was that CSIS was waiting until this all blew over, but it wasn’t going to blow over, not until we figured out whose heart we had to sacrifice. I feel that Vincent would have all the answers, that is if he didn’t wake up a starving zombie. I had no idea what state he would awaken in, and in earnest, I hoped that Vincent would tear my heart out as an offering, I felt that it would be just, or that it would perhaps make us even. I had failed so many people in this facility, but none more than Eve and Vincent. I was supposed to look after them, but instead, I put them in harm’s way for my own agenda.
I rub my palms over my face trying to brush away my self-loathing. The only thing that would make me feel better would be some progress today.
I decide to close my eyes for a moment, but when I reopen them I am shocked to find that only two minutes remain on the timer. Vincent would soon rise.
Readying myself, I watch Vincent’s fingers begin to twitch. Sweat beads above my brows as I wait to find out if Vincent truly had any human qualities left. I walk closer so that I may view his face and just as I am about to reach down to touch his face and hand clasps around my wrist with such force I fear it might be broken.
Vincent sits up in his glass sarcophagus, still clutching at my wrist awkwardly. His eyes are wild and fiery as he stares at me.
“Vincent, please. It’s me…Whalther. I came to help.”
His grip around my wrist loosens. “Whalther?”
“Yes Vincent, Walther.” I place my free hand on his shoulder and he releases my wrist entirely. I guess he remembers me after all.
“Walther, where am I?” he asks groggily.
“You are in an underground CSIS facility. You were brought here from Egypt. Do you remember what happened in Egypt?”
He nods, but he’s far less interested in that part of the story.
“Where is Lita? My kids? Are they alright?”
I shrug. “I don’t know Vincent, Lita and I don’t talk anymore.”
“Why?”
I search my mind for the right words. “She blames me for your death I suppose. I blame me too…everyday.”
Vincent looks at me with pity in his eyes. “Walther, I don’t blame you for what happened. I wanted the gold and the glory just as much as you did. I took the rock, I paid the price. I should be the one apologizing…”
“And why’s that?” I ask.
“I tried to stop him from biting her…but he wanted her. For some reason he chose her.”
“Who are you talking about Vincent?”
“You know very well who I’m talking about, Walther…The Dark King of course. He was the one who attacked Eve in the tombs.”
Vincent lurches forward and grabs at his stomach.
I reach out to comfort him, but he pushes me away.
“No, stay away, there isn’t much time left,” he screams. “He’s here, Walther, I can feel him in the walls, I can feel him in the air. Somehow he is in here with us. He seeks her.”
I begin to panic, I had felt as though that presence from Egypt had somehow followed us home, but I had convinced myself that it was just my paranoia. Clearly, he had found a way in, and I had an idea how the king might have done it.
“Listen, Vincent, I need your help…We found drawings in the tombs depicting a sacrifice. A heart. There was also a stack of documents in the tomb and a prophecy written on one of the pages. The prophecy states that if the red stones travel, they will infect the land, and The Fallen Angel will reign on Earth. To stop him will take the heart of an innocent soul that basks in the love of the damned. Whose heart do they want? Eve’s?”
Vincent grabs at his stomach violently, almost as if to silence it.
“No, Walther…Eve does not have a beating heart. She is the vehicle that will bring the heart. It must be someone she loves.”
I gasp, remembering that Cam and Alex were locked up just down the hall. I had not shared the prophecy with Agent Williams, and I prayed he hadn’t quite put the pieces together himself yet.
Vincent calls to me and I am forced out of my stupor.
“Dear friend, we are out of time,” he says sadly.
As the growling of his stomach grows louder, I begin to understand his urgency.
“I understand, Vincent, I will go fetch you some food.”
“No!” he shouts, grabbing my wrist firmly once more. “No! I don’t wish to do this anymore. I want it to be over!”
I shake my head at him. “But Vincent, I just got you back, I can’t…let me at least attempt to cure you first. There are many amazing scientists on site that I’m working with, they’re brilliant, Vincent, let them heal you.”
He shakes his head. “There is no time left to focus on me, Dr. August. You must save the others, and I am so tired of killing. I want to be at peace. This is no life.”
My heart burns with anger. “How could you ask this of me? You and I were brothers once. Let me at least try to save you!”
“No Walther, it’s time to let me go!”
He smashes one of the panels of his glass sarcophagus and
hands me a larger shard.
“If you get out of here Walther, promise me you’ll go see Lita and the kids. Tell them I love them, make things right with them.”
A slight smile crosses his face as he points to his ear. “Now be sure to aim here, and don’t hesitate, my hunger is growing.”
“I promise, Vincent,” I say almost silently as I pat him on the back, my other hand turning the machine back on. The cold mist begins to circle the room as Vincent looks at the glass shard longingly.
The shard of glass rests in my hand. Vincent and I hold it together, and he helps me guide it to its final resting place. His body stiffens as the freezing begins again, he crashes back into what remains of the glass sarcophagus and lays there motionless.
Before leaving the area, I clean up the other pieces of glass and make sure the rest of the machines are back on. I didn’t want Agent Williams to know what I had done, at least not yet. There was still a game to play, and if I was to be the victor, it would be best to keep him in the dark.
I turn to look at Vincent one last time. “Goodnight, dear friend. I pray you rest in peace this time…I’m so sorry I couldn’t do things properly.”
A wave of guilt hits me as I wander out into the silent halls. I could never do right by him, but there were bigger things at stake than promises.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ALEX
I had spent many hours giving Cam the silent treatment since entering the facility. I simply didn’t want to answer the questions I knew he wanted to talk about. It had all been too painful for me to bear. Most moments in the cell I found rocking back and forth trying to erase memories and silence my emotions. There was some jealousy toward Cam as well, he didn’t have to endure these memories, he hadn’t seen what I had, and I suppose that made him luckier.
Each day I felt myself slipping away, losing my mind. Soon there would be nothing left of me. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep. I wasn’t even sure why my body kept on living.
“Alex…for the love of god talk to me!” his voice interrupts my daily staring out of our rather large bedroom window.
“Shut up, Cam.” I snort back, but it doesn’t silence him.
“You want to know something dumb? ...this bullshit right here.” Cam points to the space between us. “You’re supposed to be my best friend and now we can’t even talk? Since when do you hide things from me? Since when do you push me away? Especially now, they could kill us at any moment and here you are wasting the hours ignoring me.”
I slap him.
I didn’t want to do it, but the painful war of emotions within me couldn’t take his guilt trip right now.
“You are such a little fucking boy, Cam. I’m sorry your mommy and daddy had issues and somehow you never got the balls to grow up, but that’s your fault now. You have to open your eyes at some point. Some people can’t see the sunny side of things. I can’t…”
My hands start to shake and the rest of me begins to follow suit.
“Maybe I didn’t grow up as you say, maybe I’m damaged, but I know what survival looks like, and you aren’t doing it right. You need to talk to me, Alex. You’re dying on the inside and I can see it.”
I shake harder trying to reject his truth. I was scared. I didn’t want to relive what I’d seen. He holds me close to him and I feel more at ease, more like myself.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
“Just forget it, start fresh,” Cam says while rubbing my shoulders.
When my composure finds me I ask, “What do you want to know anyway, Cam?”
“I want to know what happened that night. You were there, you escaped. Where is Mr. Brenner…is he alive? Then where did you go after?”
Giving a heavy sigh, I sit on our little plastic bench and begin to tell him about hiding at the top of the stairs watching as they clubbed him in the head and then murdered Mr. Brenner.
He must have already known Mr. Brenner had died, he must have felt that truth, but now it was given life, the words coming out of my mouth made it real, and it stung. Cam had thought of Mr. Brenner as a second father or first father since his dad wasn’t exactly the most qualified.
The second question is equally difficult to answer.
“Next, we went to my dad’s boss’ cottage and it seemed like a great hideout until Dad got bitten. He hid the bite from us and turned one night, devouring my mother. There was barely anything left of her when I went to check out the sounds.”
My sobs begin to fill our box. I couldn’t say what came next. Saying it would crush me. Words made it real, Janna was gone.
Beginning to hyperventilate, I pace our cell, pushing Cam away from me. I needed some space and there was very little of it in here.
“Stay back a moment,” I say between quickened breaths.
I press my forehead against the cool glass wall. That felt better.
“She’s gone isn’t she?” he asks, not wanting to pry any further.
My lips quiver, but I manage to whisper, “Yes.”
All the anger and rage finds me again as the memories flood back. I had been trying to keep them silent; trying not to think or feel was so much easier than this.
With clenched fists, I stare out the large glass wall in silence. A security guard rounds the corner with two trays. Lunch was here. He doesn’t look at us as he approaches, perhaps afraid he wouldn’t follow orders if he saw us as human beings.
Cam gets his tray first and digs in immediately. Then the guard places the tray down by my feet. I grab his wrist as he does so. I knew touching a security guard would result in some punishment, but I didn’t care, I needed revenge, anyone in the facility would do.
He begins to go for his gun, but I grab the fork from my food tray and plunge it into his eye where the object remained. In a panic, he feels around for the fork and when he realizes it would be too painful to remove I decide to help him out. I grab at the fork while the man is too busy freaking out and pull until a loud pop is heard in the cell. Cam is screaming for me to stop, but I tell him to “shut up” again, I wasn’t the same, logical Alex he once knew. I had seen too much and had lost my mind. Every day I felt a little crazier, and I didn’t have any reason to stay sane anymore. My family had been laying the footwork for years with their constant fighting and bickering, and who would have thought that not having them around anymore would make me most insane? It should have been refreshing not to hear their judgment, their cruel words, their inability to complement one another, but instead, I missed those assholes. They were my assholes and this guard was going to pay for my loss.
Cam tries to tackle me in order to control my rage, but I had become a wild animal. I kick the screaming man as I add to his injuries. Cam gets in front of him at one point trying to spare him some pain, but what he didn’t realize was that my desperation made me irrational. I punch Cam square in the jaw without sympathy. He stumbles back a bit, but looks more shocked than in pain, but he backs away angrily, leaving me to continue hitting the guard with fists, legs, elbows, whatever will cause him to bruise or bleed. It was the therapy I needed.
I continue to beat him until more guards appear. They take me by my arms and lead me over to the corner where they zip tie my wrists and ankles together. Screaming like a mad woman, I bite one of them drawing blood and that’s when one of their fists finds my jaw making the room grow dark, and my body goes limp.
***
When my eyes open once more, I find my body contorted, my limbs still held in place by the zip ties. My entire body aches.
Cam approaches, he should be angry with me, but instead, he apologizes.
“Why are you sorry? I hit you remember?” The cruelty still lurking in my voice.
“Oh I remember, it was a good one…but what I also remember is that you’ve lost everything. I think you’re entitled to be furious with the world. It hasn’t been kind to
you…I will remind you, however, that you do have me. I’m still here, and I wish you were too. I wish you were a better fighter, Alex. You gave up and let them win, let them destroy who you are until all that’s left is that rage. If you don’t fight back and hold onto who you are, you might as well be dead, Al…can you just try? For me? There’s not a lot to be grateful for, I get it, but please…fight…be Alex, I need her with me. I miss her.”
His unyielding kindness broke me. There was something so pure and innocent about Cam. He was this angel that tried to protect everyone and comfort them, and here I was being a little demon. I didn’t deserve his kindness. If he had just punched me we’d be square, but now I felt I owed him. I needed to make this right.
“I’m sorry, Cam. I will try. You’re right I don’t like what I’ve become. I feel like I’m a monster, but I don’t know how to erase everything…you know? Everything haunts me.”
“Don’t erase anything. Take it and recycle it into strategy. Do you want revenge? Then let’s redirect that energy to getting out of here. They’re going to watch you closer if they find you to be a threat. So do me a favour and be tame.”
He had a point of course, if they hated me they would begin to look for reasons to get rid of me. Right now they needed me, but when that changed I would be eliminated first.
I nod. “Cam, I promise you. No more psycho Alex. I’ll be as sweet at Mary Poppins.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.” Cam chuckles. “I mean you’re more of a spoonful of whoop-ass kind of girl, and I like that. Don’t abandon who you are, just stop tearing people’s eyes out. That’s especially gross.”
We both fill the cell with laughter. Cam had pulled me out of the darkness once more.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
AGENT WILLIAMS
A pile of top secret folders is delivered to my desk this morning. It had been some time since I had heard any news from CSIS about our current status. I had been much too consumed with the baby and now that it was over, I needed to focus on something else. Eve had become a comfort to me; the loss of our daughter had brought us together again. I was grateful for that at least.