Kiara frowned at him.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this.” She ran a hand through her hair slowly, twisting one of her feet at a sharp angle as she dug her toes into the snow.
“It’s the best lead we have to follow up on,” said Victor. “If we just let it sit, then more women will end up dead. We’ll be careful.”
Kiara met his gaze and then nodded slowly. Victor felt a bit of her tension transfer over to him, and he did his best to compartmentalize it as they started walking across the snowy park.
If I see anything or hear anything, I’m not going to take the time to ask questions.
The two of them pushed through the trees and into the forest. There was a road that ran into it from the city, but Victor insisted that they walk parallel to it, on the off chance that it was being watched.
He held his phone in one hand, watching their position relative to the cabin in his maps app. Father Auggie’s cabin was a bit out of the way, a few miles to the north of where they entered the forest. A long driveway led out to it from the road, making the cabin much more secluded than other domiciles in the area.
“Keep your onyx aura flared,” said Kiara. “Just enough to enhance your senses.”
Victor nodded and bound the aura to his eyes and ears. His awareness extended instantaneously, but all it told him was that the forest was empty and cold. The falling snow did a good job of obscuring anything more than a few hundred yards out, and the snow on the ground absorbed sound like an acoustic sponge.
They both left almost identical tracks through the snow, side by side, which were slowly covered by the falling snow in their wake. If the circumstances had been typical, Victor would have thought about snowshoeing, or finding a hill of powder to glide down on his old snowboard, or hell, making a snow angel.
Two women have died. This isn’t fun, and I’m not here to play games.
“Shhh!” Kiara hissed out and suddenly grabbed his shoulder. “Did you hear that?”
Victor held still and listened. The only sound he could hear was of the snow settling on frozen trees, and the wind. Trees surrounded them, and it had been almost an hour since the city had last been visible behind them.
“I don’t hear anything,” he said.
“Listen,” said Kiara.
Victor listened, flaring his onyx aura slightly as he did. He did hear something, and it sounded a little like someone sobbing.
“Come on,” said Kiara. “But be ready.”
The noise was coming from deeper within the forest, diagonally off to the side from where Father Auggie’s house would have been. The two of them crunched through snow and Victor wished that each step didn’t make so much noise.
Kiara saw the figure before he did, reaching out and grabbing his forearm with cold, tight fingers. It was a small person, hunched over in the snow, maybe the size of a large kid or an underdeveloped teenager. And the noise, the sobbing, was coming from their direction.
“Hello?” Kiara stepped forward slowly, her voice tense and sharp. “Are you okay?”
As they approached, Victor saw that it was a young girl, maybe thirteen or fourteen, wearing a tattered white dress. Her hair was jet black and ran down past her shoulders. She was turned away from them and appeared to be running her hands through the snow as she cried.
Something’s not right here…
“We can help you,” said Kiara. “We can get you to safety. Are you a member of the church?”
The girl didn’t say anything, and Victor and Kiara moved closer. She moved one of her hands up to flick snow to the side. Her fingers were longer than they should have been, at least twice the normal length, and thin enough to pass for twigs.
“Please…” said Kiara. “We came to…”
Her words trailed off as the girl stood to her feet and turned to look at them. She flicked hair out of her face, and Victor felt his jaw drop open.
She had hundreds of eyes, each of them as jet black as her hair and crammed together against what would have once been her forehead and upper cheeks. Her mouth was strangely segmented, hanging from the bottom of her head loosely. Rows of oversized, sickle-shaped teeth poked out from her gums, along with a foot long tongue that slithered across them.
The girl took a step toward them and let out an inhuman shriek.
“Fuck!” Victor flared his scarlet aura. “Get ready!”
He hesitated instead of immediately binding it to the girl and blasting her away, remembering what had happened last time. The girl leaped through the air, taking advantage of the moment, and slammed into his chest with a vicious head-butt.
“Victor!” Kiara countered with a hard roundhouse of her own, knocking the biosplice back. Another noise came from the trees to their right. Victor looked over and saw dark shapes moving through the forest, hidden by the shadows of early evening.
“We have to go!” Victor hopped up and took a few steps back the way they’d came, dragging Kiara with him. “Now!”
Another biosplice appeared, a man with shaggy hair, enormous clawed hands, and shocking speed. He ran toward them on all fours and leaped into an attack. This time, Victor didn’t hesitate and bound his scarlet aura with enough energy to make an explosive crack in the air as he released it.
Flames struck the man full in the chest, knocking him back and into a tree. Kiara was still fighting the girl, alternating between blasts of fire and ice and being thwarted each time by the creature’s dexterity.
Two more enemies appeared from either of Victor’s flanks. One of them was grotesquely deformed, with a body covered in scales, an oversized head, and tumor-like lumps protruding from the stomach and shoulders. The other was the purple woman they’d fought the other day.
The grotesque biosplice let out a wet, phlegmy roar as it charged forward. Victor bound his scarlet aura with all the energy had. The fireball he let out flew forward and slammed into the monster, exploding a hole into its abdomen and stopping it in its tracks. Victor smiled triumphantly and had begun to turn to face the others when something slammed into him from behind, forcing him to the ground. The shaggy-haired biosplice had recovered and was snarling at him, fangs bared.
“Kiara!” shouted Victor. “Run!”
The insect girl was on top of her. Kiara was attacking with ice, but her opponent moved faster than she could target, like a fly avoiding a swatter. Victor didn’t have time to watch her, and even the split second glance gave the grotesque biosplice a chance for a free shot.
A fist the size of a bowling ball slammed into Victor’s back. He felt pain shoot through him, and something splintered in his shoulder. The frozen top layer of snow cut his face as he fell forward into it, and he only had time to pull himself up before his enemies were upon him again.
“No! Nooooo!” Kiara’s screams filled his ears. Victor tried to stand up and run to her, but the shaggy biosplice grabbed one of his ankles and pulled him back down.
The purple biosplice had a vice-like grip on one of Kiara’s arms, and the spider girl was slowly moving toward her, almost mockingly so.
“The fight is over,” said the purple biosplice. “Put that one to sleep.”
Victor scampered across the snow on all fours, but he wasn’t quick enough. The shaggy biosplice pulled out a small gun and fired it at him. A dart pierced through the skin of his stomach. Victor pulled it out almost instantly, but he could already feel the effect of what it had been intended to do.
“They will do nicely,” said the shaggy biosplice, his voice deep and grave. He broke out into a laugh, and Victor felt the world fade to black.
CHAPTER 20
Victor felt the cold before anything else. His body shivered in spasms, and his fingers and toes were numb. Slowly, and with great effort, he opened his eyes and sat up. His hands were bound with metal manacles, and when he pulled against them, he could feel that they were bolted into something sturdy.
From what he could tell, he was in a basement. The room was pitch black, and it took hi
m a second to consider his options. He focused on his onyx aura and bound it to his eyes.
And nothing happened. The room was still dark, and his body hadn’t projected the color of the aura. He tried again, this time binding his scarlet aura for a tiny spurt of flame. It didn’t work.
“Dammit.” He took a deep breath and began feeling the cold, dank concrete around him. “Kiara?”
From somewhere nearby, he heard a soft moan. Victor repositioned himself, moving within his limited range of shackled movement. He found Kiara lying on the ground nearby, bound in a same manner.
“Are you okay?” he whispered. She felt warm, and that was more relieving to him than anything else could have been.
“…What happened?” Kiara groaned and slowly sat up. “We were… in the forest…”
“Our enemies captured us,” said Victor. “I guess we should have worked out a contingency plan for tranquilizer darts.”
“No…” Kiara took a deep breath, her teeth chattering from the cold as she did. “No, no, no… This is bad.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment, and Victor realized that she was cycling through her auras, desperately trying them just as he had.
“It’s no use,” said Victor. “I think they gave us something to block our powers.”
“Nanoblockers,” whispered Kiara. “The fucking bastards.”
Neither of them said anything. Kiara moved in closer, leaning against him so the two were sitting back to back and holding each other up.
“We have to work out a plan,” said Victor. “They obviously wanted us alive. There must be some way we can leverage our way out of here.”
“Victor…” whispered Kiara. “This… this is really hard for me.”
What?
Kiara’s voice was strained, and it was laced with the kind of fear that goes beyond what a person can reasonably suppress. Victor frowned in the darkness. He could feel Kiara shivering against him, and knew that it wasn’t due to the cold.
“We’re going to be okay,” said Victor. “We’ll figure something out. I’m not worried.”
It was a lie. The only thing Victor was sure of was that if he gave up, it was over. A sudden weight settled on his shoulders that hadn’t been there before, a weight that he hadn’t felt in a very long time.
“I’m sorry,” whispered Kiara. “I don’t do so good… in the dark. At least not without my auras.”
“It’s okay,” said Victor. “Everyone has their thing.”
He briefly considered a dozen different escape plans in the silent moment that followed. All of them led to the same conclusion. The two of them were tired, cold, powerless, miles out in the wilderness, guarded by genetically enhanced enemies, and it was the middle of winter. They were totally fucked.
“Kiara…” Victor chewed his lip, wanting more than anything to get her opinion. “What do you think? Any ideas?”
“I can’t…” Her voice was weak and tenuous. “I can barely think right now. I’m sorry, Victor.”
“Just keep talking,” he said. “Talk to me about it. We’re in this together.”
She didn’t say anything for a long moment. Victor started to fear that his prodding had given her a panic attack, or worse.
“It’s been this way for a while,” she said. “Years now, at least. Something happened to me when I was younger, and ever since then…”
She laughed, and it sounded more frightened than her voice or even a scream.
“What was it?” Victor asked, his voice soft. “It might help to tell someone…”
“My parents,” whispered Kiara. “I don’t know if you ever heard from Lucy what happened to them, did you?”
Victor frowned.
“Kronenberg mentioned the basic details to me,” said Victor. “I never probed Lucy for more than that.”
“She probably wouldn’t have told you if you had,” said Kiara. “It’s a tender subject for us.”
She paused, and Victor waited for her to continue.
“I… was with them, when they were taken,” she said softly. “I was there when they were murdered. They were tortured first, in a dark room, just like this one. I… don’t remember it that well.”
Jesus Christ. And now here we are, in almost the same situation.
“The only time it comes back enough for me to remember is when I go to sleep,” said Kiara. “Almost every night. It’s always the same nightmare. We were walking home after eating dinner. The man grabbed my mom first, and then threatened her until we got into the van, and then…”
“Kiara…” Victor reached his hand behind him and found her fingers. He gave them a tight squeeze, feeling how cold they were.
“It’s just a blur from then on,” whispered Kiara. “But I always hear their screams when I dream. Always.”
“How did you escape?” asked Victor.
“I don’t remember,” said Kiara. “They found me walking down the sidewalk in a daze a few days later. Lucy sobbed over me at the hospital. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen her cry.”
Victor squeezed her hand more tightly. He tried to find something, anything to say to make her feel better.
“The nightmares have stuck with me, ever since that day,” she said. “I stopped sleeping, stopped even trying to sleep. I was prescribed more drugs than I could count, and saw more sleep therapists than I knew existed.”
“None of it worked?”
“Nothing worked.” Kiara took a deep breath. “Nothing, except for the auras.”
That explains it.
“Did Lucy give you the nanites to help?” asked Victor.
“I stole them, and injected myself,” said Kiara. “I used her keycard to get in after hours, and took them from the lab on the thirteenth floor. Lucy almost lost her job because of it. I still don’t know why she didn’t.”
“Last night,” said Victor. “That was why you were using your azure aura.”
“…Yeah. It helps me sleep.”
The silence in the room felt intimate and deeply familiar. Victor lifted a chained hand to his head, listening as the heavy metal links rattled from the movement. Kiara’s fingers were still in his hand, and after a few minutes, she moved them, squeezing.
“Your turn,” she whispered.
“What?”
“Please.” Her voice was tired, ragged, and scared. “I want to know how you got your nanites. I asked Kiara, but she said you were vague about it.”
Victor chewed on his lip.
I can’t just lie to her. But I haven’t told anyone…
“It will help me calm down,” said Kiara. “Please. Just tell me.”
Victor sighed.
We probably aren’t getting out of this alive, are we?
“Fine,” he said softly.
CHAPTER 21
“Did Lucy ever tell you about my father?” asked Victor.
Kiara nodded slightly, though Victor felt the movement rather than saw it, the two of them sitting back to back as they were.
“Only a little,” she said.
“He was one of the founding partners of Monteiro Corporation,” he said. “It was him and Eli Monteiro. From what I remember, my dad was the brains of the operation, while Eli was the business minded one.”
Victor paused and took a deep breath.
“My mom died when I was little,” he said. “From cancer.”
“I’m sorry,” said Kiara.
“Part of the reason why I think my dad was so driven to develop and find applications for nanotechnology was because of that, and how sudden it was. From her diagnosis to her death was only a couple of months. The only thing that would have saved her was a perfect treatment.”
The memories began to flood back to Victor in full force. He swallowed, and then continued.
“My life was normal enough when I was younger,” he said. “My dad was too busy with his work on most days to pay me much attention, and obviously, I didn’t have a mother. But it was normal, outside of that… until the fall
ing out.”
“I’ve heard about this, too,” whispered Kiara. “When your dad left the company.”
“He didn’t just leave,” said Victor. “As far as I can tell, he was either forced out, or it was some kind of ideological difference between him and Eli Monteiro.”
“I see.”
“We left Undercliff City and moved to another state. I was only nine years old, and honestly, I took the move pretty well.”
Victor blinked.
This is the hardest part to explain, and the hardest part to process, let alone say out loud.
“My dad… became distant. He kept working on his projects, to the exclusion of almost everything else. I was probably thirteen or fourteen years old when he really started to lose touch, and I was eighteen when it happened.”
“When what happened?” whispered Kiara.
“When I got my nanites.”
The room was silent for half a minute. Kiara squeezed his hand again.
“It might help to talk about it,” she whispered. “Lucy told me that your dad was dead. She said that you were vague about how-”
“He’s dead,” said Victor, sharply. “Does it matter how he died?”
“I don’t know, does it?”
Victor felt a dozen different emotions fighting for supremacy inside of him. Something gave way, and he felt himself slowly drawing in air.
“My dad began doing different kinds of research and experiments,” he said. “He used the nanites… on himself.”
Kiara didn’t say anything, and after a couple of seconds, Victor continued.
“He could only use one of the auras,” said Victor. “But he tested it, and began actively using it in his day-to-day life.”
“Which aura?” asked Kiara.
“…The onyx aura.”
The basement was silent. Victor didn’t know if Kiara was stunned by the revelation or terrified by what that meant in practical terms.
“He used it on random people at first,” said Victor, in a quiet voice. “Taking control of them, seeing how far he could control them from, and what they’d do for him. I’d see random people walking into and out of our house at all hours, moving robotically, like a bunch of mindless puppets, moving at the tug of their strings.”
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