I nodded again and stepped away from him. I went to Andi first, shaking her arms and saying her name but she didn’t budge. Harvey went to Sariel and pulled the blanket off his chest, then ran her hand down his arm and yanked the needle from it. He jerked up and gazed around the room before landing on me and stopping. He didn’t speak or attempt to move, just watched me with a blank expression.
I found the needle in Andi’s arm and pulled it free, then stepped back as she woke the same was her father had. Harvey and Max moved from bed to bed, waking the others, but I kept watching Andi. She wasn’t focusing the way she normally did or reacting in any way I’d expected her to. She was empty, almost lifeless, just staring at me the same as the others were.
It seriously creeped me out.
Harvey clapped her hands together and they shifted their eyes to her.
“Alright, people, we gotta get out of here.” She quickly moved around them and shifted herself slightly behind me. I looked at Max, who was staring at Sara with his eyes squinted and a frown on his face.
“Max?” His head jerked toward me and stood, pulling Sara to her feet beside him.
The room darkened and the shadows bled from the corners until it covered us completely. Harvey gripped my shirt and shifted closer. Her body trembled against my back, but didn’t know how to reassure her, I wasn’t sure what was happening either. As quickly as it came the shadow reseeded from the middle of the room, and a girl stood in its place.
I stepped forward without thinking, and she tilted her head to the side. Her hair was so black it blended into the shadows around her, and eyes so blue they glowed in the darkness. She was wearing a leather suit, one so tight it framed her like a second skin, and on her hips were weapons. Guns I’d never seen until the guard aimed one at me moments before. She had swords poking out from her shoulders, some similar to Andi’s but longer.
I took another step and she raised her hand, narrowing her eyes at me like she was trying to solve the same mystery.
“How?” I covered my mouth with my hand to hold in the cry wanting to escape. “How?” I asked again and she tilted her head the other way.
She jerked slightly and her face changed, covered by a mask of indifference. Her fingers snapped and she was gone, the darkness disappearing with her. As soon as the light was back in the room our people rose from their beds.
I was in shock.
Everything about the place confused me. From the people in coma’s to the way our family reacted to us, and then to the girl who looked like someone it couldn’t be. I knew it wasn’t her but the resemblance was unnerving. The similarities were far too close to be random.
Which made me wonder, who was she and why did she have Raven’s face?
Chapter eighteen
Max
After we were able to see again and everyone snapped out of whatever trance they were in. We made it out of the building without any issues, walked straight out of the front gate without seeing a soul.
I didn’t like it.
Something about the entire situation was off, it felt wrong, and it was making me uneasy. There were not nearly enough guards for one thing, and then we were able to walk out without there being any at all. There were no alarms sounded, and the fact our family all had their weapons with them was a bit strange. Who captures people and lets them keep their swords?
Oh, and then there was the girl, let’s not forget about her.
Who in the hell was the person who appeared out of the darkness like the grim reaper? A girl with the same face as Misty, one I would recognize anywhere, despite the different hair color. She might not have had the same expressions Misty did, but even with her blank stare, the face was identical.
Something was definitely not right about any of it.
We walked to the truck silently, where Levi was waiting with a smile none of us shared. I was able to slip again, for reasons I didn’t understand and used it to take the adults home by pairs. Levi and Misty were both going to ride back with me, and once again I was sure something was wrong. Misty told Sebastian about it and he nodded, no response, no threat about keeping my hands to myself, just one simple nod.
It was like the invasion of the body snatchers, no joke.
After I took the last of them home, I came back and found Misty and Levi in the truck ready to go. We made it a few hours before any of us spoke, but eventually Levi broke the ice.
“So, what the hell was that about?” he asked and leaned between the seats, looking from me to Misty. “Seriously, your parents always scare the shit out of me, you know, with me being human and all. But that was something else. They didn’t say one word, not one single word. They didn’t even thank us for saving them.”
I glanced at Misty, who was staring out the window and waited for her response. She shrugged her shoulders, but nothing else. I raised my eyebrows in the mirror, meeting Levi’s stare from the back and shook my head.
I didn’t know what was going on either, but something else was bothering her. I saw the way she looked at the girl, the way her eyes widened and her face drained of color. She recognized her, which wasn’t surprising since it was the same face she saw on herself every day.
I wanted to push her for answers, but I kept my mouth shut. She’d tell me when she was ready, at least I hoped she would.
We’d been back for twelve hours and in those hours there wasn’t a single word spoken in my house. Reed and Sara were moving around like ghosts, shifting from one thing to another and not focusing on anything. I tried slipping to Misty’s room like I’d done every night for the last few years, but for the first time in those years, I was blocked. Which didn’t make me too comfortable.
I took my truck and headed to her house, wondering if Andi finally decided to ward the property against me. I knew she’d known about my visits, but she’d never stopped me before.
The lights were off when I pulled up, but I knocked anyway. Misty cracked the door open and slid out, then grabbed my hand and practically dragged me back to the truck.
“What are you doing?” she asked and glanced back to the house. She was wearing tiny shorts and a cut off shirt, not hiding much from my eyes as they devoured her on their own. I snapped my head up with she cleared her throat.
“I wanted to check on you, but I couldn't slip.”
“Really?” She looked back to the house and let out a sigh, then buried her face in my chest. “Some thing’s wrong with them.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” I said and ran my hand down her back, careful not to touch her skin. “Have they said anything to you?”
She shook her head and sniffled, then told me what’d been going on there. She said when she got home, they were both sitting at the kitchen table staring at the wall and not speaking. When she sat down and tried to talk to them, they stared at her until she got up and left. Then after sitting for a couple hours they went to their room and shut off the light.
“We’ll figure it out, maybe the drugs need to wear off or something.” I hadn’t thought about it until I said it, but it made sense. Maybe they’d been so drugged up they were still feeling it. When they woke up the next day everything would go back to normal.
“Maybe,” she said and leaned her back against the truck.
I stood next to her, feeling like I was miles away, but wishing I could be closer. I wanted to talk to her, to ask her to open up, but I was afraid to say anything. I didn’t like the space between us, the distance I’d forced out of fear, or the awkwardness I’d felt because of it. Months ago I wouldn’t have thought twice about wrapping my arms around her and holding on tight, I wouldn't have hesitated to ask what was wrong. I had been planning to ask her to prom and then talk to her about our relationship, the feelings I was having, and I’d hoped she’d felt the same. But things had changed, and until I was ready to tell her the truth, they’d have to stay strained.
“I should go,” I said and pushed away from the side of my truck. She nodded and turned to head inside, then stopped before the step
s and tilted her head slightly over her shoulder.
“Good night, Max.”
“Have sweet dreams, Misty.”
I didn’t want to leave her alone, but I needed to get home. I stayed in the driveway until her bedroom light shut off.
When I made it back to the house, Reed and Sara were silently sitting in the living room staring at the wall. The same way Misty said her parents were. I walked through and went to bed without trying to talk to them.
I really hoped I was right and everyone would be back to themselves the next morning. If not, we had a much bigger problem than I had thought.
Chapter nineteen
Misty
I saw her in my dreams, and again when I’d wake up. Everywhere I looked I saw her, or at least I thought I did. A shadow would fall over me and I’d start searching. A girl with black hair would pass by and I’d stop to get a better look.
I was going crazy.
But it was nothing compared to whatever Andi and Sebastian were doing. They’d lost it completely, walking around the house like zombies. There was nothing behind their eyes, and neither of them spoke at all. They’d been back for over a week and nothing had changed since the first night. I kept hoping Max had been right and the drugs would wear off, but it didn’t seem like it was going to happen. I was pretty sure it wasn’t drugs causing the problem. Something had changed them while they were gone, and they were no longer the people I knew and loved.
Ezra was supposed to go home after school the next day, but I didn’t want him to. I’d asked Beth to keep him a while longer, but he was ready to be home. He wanted to see his parents, which I understood, but I didn’t want him to see them like that. I didn’t want him to be afraid of them like I was.
I was laying in my bed and staring at the ceiling, afraid to fall asleep. It’d been a long time since I’d felt that way, and I hated it. I kept my sword with me, tucked under my mattress, praying I wouldn’t have to use it. I had to go to school in the morning, so staying up all night wasn’t a good idea. I forced myself to relax and eventually I felt sleep taking me under.
When my eyes cracked open, my room was pitch black, but I knew it was morning. My heart pounded in my chest, and my body was locked tight. I blinked a few times and between one second and the next, my room was filled with sunlight. I gasped, trying to suck air back in my lung and rolled over.
Laying on the pillow next to my head was a piece of paper. My hand shook when I reached over to grab it and my stomach dropped when I read what it said.
Be careful. Do not trust them. They are not what you think they are.
I jumped up and ran around the room, looking behind the closet door first and then under the bed.
“Where are you?” I asked out loud, knowing she wasn’t there to answer.
I gripped the note in my hands and pulled it to my chest. It couldn’t be her, there was literally no way for it to be the same girl from my memories, but a part of me hoped it was. I hoped there was a chance I was wrong, and she’d been brought back to life somehow.
But if she wasn’t, again I had to ask myself, who was she?
We had subs in most of our classes, and by the afternoon, I was afraid to leave school. My anxiety had been eating at me all day until it finally took over and became overwhelming. Max wasn’t saying much, but it wasn’t too unusual for him. Before my last class, I went in search of Emily and found her in the library.
“Hey, can I talk to you?” I asked and took the chair beside her. She was sitting at one of the long tables and had books opened and laid out. I glanced at the one she had been reading, then snapped my head to her. “You think some thing’s wrong, too?” I pointed at the page she had open. It was a record of patients from the NBRC from years ago, outlining what they were able to find out about them.
Emily closed the book and folded her hands in her lap, then looked at me with sadness I wasn’t used to seeing on her face. Although she was technically my adopted great-grandmother, she only appeared to be in her forties- at most. She was always fresh and bright-eyed, but that wasn’t how she looked then.
“There is something,” she started to say and reached out to grab another book, sliding it over to us. “I’m not sure what’s going on to be honest, darling.” She flipped a few pages and moved it between us. “It says here they were toying around with the idea of creating a type of solider, one who was born human but altered in ways to obtain the ability to control large amounts of power.”
“Where did you get these?” I asked, looking from one to another. I’d not seen them before, and there’s no way this stuff was public knowledge.
“I stole them years ago.”
“Why?”
“Because there was always something about that place I didn’t feel right about. Gary Addison might be the Chief of Military now, but before that, he was a scientist and a friend. Or I thought he was at first anyway.”
Gary Addison became the Chief of Military a couple years after the war, claiming the world needed to be ready for another attack. I’d heard his methods of training were far more intense than the military had been prior. I’d never met him but I’d see him on the new enough to know he was intimidating. He would stare through the screen like he could see into your living room, and was watching your every move. But as scary as I thought he was, most of the world followed his every word, bowing to his every demand. He was a wolf leading sheep, there was no doubt about it.
“What happened?” I asked, and propped my head on my hand, using my elbow on the table to hold it up.
“The war happened. One day he was a simple man who wanted answers we couldn't give him, and the next he was an enemy who blamed all nephilim for the government failing.”
“How did he become Chief of Military if he was just a scientist?”
“He’d gone into the Marines when he was still a young man and was able to fly through ranks with ease. His passion was science, but his cold heart was for war. I didn’t want to see it back then, but Charles always did. He warned me about him, and eventually forbid me from speaking to him. But I’d always kept my eye open for where he was and how he was doing. Over the years it was clear he’d changed, but I was never able to find the reasons why. When he started funding the research facility, I knew it had something to do with the nephilim.”
She closed the books and piled them up, then turned in her chair to face me.
“After the war, he was promoted to Chief, there weren’t many options left at the time and he was the most qualified. I knew something terrible would come from it, but there was nothing to be done,” Emily said and met my eyes, searching for something in them I didn’t understand. “The focus of Gary’s research hadn’t just been about creating the perfect soldier, it was how to create the perfect weapon and control it.”
“By weapon you mean person, right?”
She nodded and turned away, leaning back her chair and exhaling loudly.
“Yes, and I’m afraid he’s figured it out.”
“Figured what out?”
Without looking at me she whispered.
“He’s figured out how to make people his puppets.”
After Emily’s confusing words of discouragement, she got up and left me alone with only one book.
“Be cautious, darling. I fear there is more going on than we know about,” she said before she closed the door. I nodded and looked down and read the title of what she left behind.
NH- Hybrid
I flipped the cover over and scanned through a few chapters. Reading about the old government's illegal mind control practices. They would take soldiers and condition them into weapons, breaking them down in order to control their every move. It said they used this technique for all different types of things, everything from government officials to assassins.
Is that what happened to my family? Were they brainwashed and turned into the Chief's puppets? I shook my head, getting rid of those thoughts before they took root. There was no way it would be possib
le for a human man to brainwash any of them, especially not Andi. They were only there for a week, and all of them had been through far worse in the past. But if they weren’t brainwashed, then what was wrong with them?
I left the library and went in search of Thomas, finding him in his room sitting behind his desk. He had his head down and his eyes closed. He waved me in when I knocked, but didn’t raise to look.
“Why did you want us to research them?” I asked, knowing there had of been a meaning behind it. It was too convenient, too perfectly timed for it to be coincidence.
“To be completely truthful with you, it was because I’d hoped Levi would find something we hadn’t.”
I laid the book in front of him and crossed my arms over my chest. Cracking his eyes and pulling it closer, he nodded his head.
“I’ve seen this one,” he said and glanced up at me. He looked tired, stressed, and not nearly as put together as I was used to seeing him. “But nothing in any of the books Emily has can tell us exactly what they’ve been doing there.”
I pulled a seat closer and dropped in it, then rubbed my hands over my face.
“There’s something wrong with them,” I said and looked out the window. The other kids were heading to their cars, going on with their lives unaware of what was going on behind the scenes. Ignorant to the fact their teachers and principle had been taken and changed, I wished I was. I wished I could have been living in the same state of ignorant bliss, but I couldn’t. “They came back changed and it’s scaring me.”
“I know.” Thomas stood and walked around the desk, then knelt in front of me and took my hands in his. “I don’t know exactly what’s happened to them, but I promise to keep looking until I figure it out. Until I do though, maybe try to keep some distance. I hate to say this, but be very cautious of all of them... especially your parents.”
I told him I would and gave a hug before leaving. I’d gone there hoping he could give me some insight on what was going on, but it appeared nobody knew. Addison had done something to those we cared about, but there was no telling what it was. It was sad seeing them walk around like shells, but it was terrifying not knowing what they would do. They were the most powerful beings on Earth and the fact something was off with their minds didn’t make me comfortable. It was easy to be scared of a predictable monster, but that kind of fear was nothing compared to the fear I felt of my family who didn’t have control of themselves.
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