Endeca (The Escapism Series)

by Dee, Maria

  “Wonderful. Maybe then on this date, I could convince her otherwise—about becoming an immorta.”

  “Good luck with that,” he chuckled, taking off.

  ~

  Once at the loft, I grabbed hold of Calliope and spun her round and round.

  “Easy, easy. Why are you in such a good mood?” she giggled.

  “Sort of was under the weather and now I’m back to my tip top shape. Feeling better than ever!”

  “So you wouldn’t mind visiting Marla this afternoon? I have to attend a lab. Think we have the same TA. Reese something-or-other. He asked if I knew you because we’re the only two who’ve attended the least amount of tutorials and when I said I did, he didn’t seem all that surprised.”

  “Oh, right. He’s given me an extension before.”

  “Surprisingly, he was immune to my beauty and charm. I dropped your name and boom—extension granted. How different it is to be in college.”

  “He wouldn’t give you an extension?”

  “He refused, and then changed his mind at the drop of your name. Do you have any idea why?”

  I had no clue. Why on earth would he help my friend? Maybe he knew Orion and extended him a favor. He sure as hell didn’t know me as I was the epitome of absenteeism.

  “He’s a nice guy, actually. I guess I set the precedent for extensions. Just take the extension and don’t look back.”

  Calliope nodded favorably.

  “I’ll go visit Marla. Has Nicholas been by to see her lately?” I asked, sheepishly.

  “He has. The guy stays for hours on end. He’s there right now,” she said, motioning to her phone. “He just messaged me to come by. Said there’s some progress although nothing significant. Landon just left for a midterm. Poor guy practically sleeps by her bed in that rickety chair.”

  “Any progress is good. I’ll head over now.” I was dying to know how Marla was doing and undeniably anxious to see Nicholas. I wanted to tell him everything that had transpired but the fact of the matter was, it’d only make matters worse. With Nicholas out of the picture, Orion stepped up. There was already a wedge between us, and I didn’t intend on adding fuel to the fire.

  I had become a regular at the hospital, even recognizable to some as I swung through the cafeteria picking up two coffees. The attendant nodded a simple, pleasant nod of acknowledgment. The hospital was a morose place in general. A place where ill people visited, those who had suffered from trauma, illness and for some, it was a place to die. Walking down the hall, I felt the pain and suffering of some and the relief and happiness of the others, however few in comparison. I reached Marla’s room and there, outside her door, he stood somberly.

  “I brought coffee,” I yelped. Seriously. That’s what I said. Not a ‘hello, how are you?’ or ‘how you holding up’ or even ‘I miss you and want you back.’ I thought to say all of those things but the words couldn’t find my mouth. Just the blatant and obvious could.

  “Thanks,” he nodded, taking a cup graciously. We both sat in the private waiting room. The silence overcame me and I stood up.

  “Visiting hours are over,” he snapped.

  “How so? It’s not even late.”

  “They’re running tests and examining her now. They said she was showing signs of improvement for a short while.”

  “That’s good, right?”

  “I’m concerned for her, Xenia,” he whispered, frowning before pressing his lips into a taught line.

  “We all are. You’re a real good friend, you know that?” He was an even better boyfriend. When I couldn’t be by Marla’s side because of my guilt ridden state, he was.

  “I’ve missed you,” he whispered. “What have you been up to?”

  The truth? “School stuff. Mostly catching up.” When did the truth ever help?

  “Have you seen Orion since Marla’s accident?” he asked, raising his brow with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. I stood motionless, unsure of the best way to explain that Orion was present by default. That moment of hesitation burned me a new one.

  “I should go,” he stood up, ready to leave.

  “Wait, can we start over?” I asked. He once asked me and I thought it’d do no harm to try.

  He paused and turned, looking over his shoulder. I could see the corner of his lips turn up signalling an window of opportunity.

  “Hello, I’m Xenia Sanders,” I said, stretching my arm across to reach for his hand. “Do you come here often?”

  “Nicholas,” he strained to compose himself. “I’m visiting a friend. Marla Holmes, maybe you know her?”

  “Oh, yes. Marla is an old friend of mine. And that isn’t just a line. Like old, straight outta the womb, kind of friends.”

  He smirked, amused by my candor.

  “What’s your angle, Xenia?”

  “I want things to be back to the way they were, P-O.”

  “P-O?”

  “Pre-Orion.”

  “Of course. My feelings haven’t changed. Have yours?”

  “Never…wait. I should mention a tiny detail of relevance. I sort of have a date with Caleb.”

  “What?” He looked confused and ran his hand through his brown hair, which grew longer from the first time I saw him. It ran past the bottom of his earlobes to just above the angle of his jaw. He shaved less and the stubble on his face suited him in a rugged, manly way.

  “It’s not a real date. I just did it to…” hmm…change direction and change it fast! “…to find out more about Caleb, and the others. So technically, it’s a date with an immorta of Endeca.”

  He hugged me carefully and the familiar smell of his skin mixed with the scent of body wash was divine.

  “I really wanted to see Marla,” I sighed, disappointed.

  “Tomorrow.” On that note, he walked me to my car.

  “Have fun on your date,” he jeered playfully.

  “Oh, I intend on it. It’s actually a threesome. Apparently Kiran is joining us.” Nicholas’ shoulders dropped at the sound of Kiran’s name.

  “Any word on Corlissa?” he asked, playfulness aside.

  “That’s what I hope to find out tonight.” Corlissa’s whereabouts was the appetizer to my main course.

  ∼

  Caleb showed up and in a way that took me by surprise. He was dressed in formal attire, black suit and tie. Kiran was dressed in his casual yet trendy style. He looked like he rolled out of bed but always on his good side.

  “Dude, what’s up with the suit?”

  “It’s a date. Why aren’t you dressed accordingly?”

  “Because I haven’t been living under a rock,” he snickered.

  “Jeez, I could hear you two bickering from inside. Come on in,” I said, opening the front door wide.

  Caleb smiled as this time he was invited in—how quickly things had changed. “Kiran insisted on coming, given he’s of my ternio.”

  “Is Orion part of your ternio?”

  “No. Each century, since the first, there were three extraordinary Diplozoes, each destined for Endeca,” said Caleb.

  “Corlissa and I with Caleb for the 20th century. We’re ternio of Magia,” he explained.

  “Ternio’s are by century? But that’d mean…”

  “Yes. The other is ternio of Oculos which includes Viola, Sebastian and Castiel of the 18th century…you’ve already experienced the likes of them. Edric, Orion and Nicholas of the 19th century are the ternio of Delsult.”

  “What about me? I’m not of a ternio, now am I?”

  “No, you’re the last one. The first and last are linked, just like the rest of us. With every one accounted for, that leaves Daisy,” he raised his brow.

  “Cool. That means we’re linked? Daisy and I? I wonder what we share…”
>
  “Only you know that, unfortunately. One can only speculate,” he said, referring to none other than Orion, maybe even Caleb.

  The first and the last are linked—interesting. Especially never having met the first of Endeca seeing as how she was displaced and quite possibly in a doll. A theory I was working toward proving.

  “Nice scarf. Ou, silk,” he said, assaulting it with his eyes then hands.

  “If it weren’t for you finding it, it’d have ripped to shreds,” I whispered, securing the scarf to my neck.

  “I found it?”

  “Freshman week. We met in central pond. You later met me in the parking lot…you enlightened me so to speak.”

  “Yeah, right. And risk having Orion behead me? He was very touchy those days about awakening you. As if there was some fear for the world.”

  “If it wasn’t you then…” I spoke aloud but mostly to myself. “Who else would’ve wanted to warn me…awaken me?” Edric hadn’t risen yet and Orion, like how Kiran put it, wasn’t for awakening me. That only meant…

  “Would you know if someone used your source, even for a fleeting moment? Look,” I said, placing my hand on his temple. Flashes of that day poured through me to Kiran.

  “Son of a Bitch!”

  Kiran stood up, about to take off and I grabbed a hold of his arm. “Wait. Don’t go after him. I need to talk with him first.”

  “He used my source—that’s forbidden.”

  “I know but desperate times called for desperate measures…he’s a good person, you know that.”

  “How can you be so calm about this. He’s been lying to us.”

  “Oh, I’m pissed alright. I just want to be the first one to scold him.”

  “Can I watch? If there’s anything I like more, it’s a good scolding.”

  I giggled, “Sure, I’ll let you know when.”

  With the open portal, Kiran’s unshielded thoughts transferred to me during the flash back. Corlissa and her lost fragment consumed him more than he led on.

  “Kiran, I have something to tell you. Promise you won’t be mad.”

  He sighed deeply, “Fine. Just tell me.”

  “I came across Corlissa’s fragment once before…her actual fragment.”

  His eye’s widened and his face blanched slightly. “She’s traceable?”

  Caleb sat there, adjusting his tie uncomfortably. “Can we get to the part where Xenia consents to becoming an immorta so that we could move on to Corlissa.”

  “Caleb, would you be so kind as to get us some drinks? We’re working here.”

  He stood up, visibly annoyed as he headed for the kitchen.

  “It happened when I somehow summoned Endeca. She came to me but she wasn’t seeking restoration. It was as though she herself didn’t know her state…blinded to it even,” I said, walking over to the bay window. The moon cast a pretty light over the house, and I mused as the light shifted from the top of the house to the side.

  I experienced a deja vu. If Caleb casted a hex to blind a Lifter from its source, then that meant someone, of his lot, did just the same. Their ternio dealt with magic and deities. Could Caleb have done this? It didn’t make any sense. But that only left one other person.

  “I’m sorry, Xenia,” Kiran uttered, before he struck the side of my head with what felt like a metal bar, knocking me straight out. It was quick and stung like nothing I’d ever felt before.

  ~

  When I awoke I heard familiar sounds, bound to a very familiar bed, even a familiar metal band secured around my head. Suction tubes stuck to my warm damp skin on my forehead, chest and upper arms. I hesitantly opened my eyes in a panic but this time, I wasn’t alone. In the room stood the white coats and behind them, I could see Corlissa’s limp body. I quickly shut my eyes. My worst nightmare was coming true.

  How did I end up back in the dome and why would Kiran bring me back?

  Just as the sounds travelled closer, I remained as still as I could. Nurse Maggie, judging by her touch and tone, opened my right eyelid, forcefully pinning it back with a tool. She placed a drop in the center, examining it. Her face was only inches from my own and I was introduced again to the familiar smells, while I was held captive in the dome, even her rotting skin—she was one of them with her veiny face and robotic movements. Betsy smelled the same, but she was different. I could feel it in the way she cared for me. Her face was less veiny looking and more human looking; a younger victim of the E-SOM. My only recollection of the E-SOM were the faceless white coats, being as they wore breathing masks afraid to breath the very air we breathed as though we were virulent.

  Were we contagious?

  Too many of them and just…me. Kiran had sent me, but was this even a good plan? The white coats left and I sat up, immediately. Something didn’t look or feel right. Corlissa’s body was frail, her face was gaunt and her vitals were…absent.

  I tried travelling back, drawing on the earth’s energy but I couldn’t shift through the energy field here—it was barricaded. I reclined after hearing nearby commotion and just then, Maggie returned examining my unclamped (painful) eye. She released my eyelid, poking it with her cold, scaly forceful finger confused.

  “Gloves! Where are your gloves?” shouted a white coat. “These undead never learn.”

  “We m-m-must stop them,” she stuttered, machine-like. My eyes were shut but I could hear her shuffling about, clanking metal on metal, organizing utensils. I got the feeling that she was just as evil before transforming into whatever undead thing she’d become.

  And then something odd happened. Flashes entered my mind but they didn’t belong to me. Through Maggie’s brief touch, I picked up her memories.

  She eavesdropped on a discussion between the white coats and another. I saw a file and picked it up—Corlissa’s file. It said she had completed trial three of the immunization study and that progression was where it should be except for one altercation. Her body rejected the live vaccine and formed antibodies. Her source was no longer active…an empty shell of a body used to make antibodies for the ESOM’s production. Humans had failed the first trial and Diplozoe DNA rejected the vaccine. The only group to pass the first trial were prime Diplozoes. However, the end results were abysmal. Those who were prime didn’t turn into Diplozoes. They didn’t even remain human, instead they became…undead.

  They found an antidote to the vaccine and had only used it on staff including nurses. Nurse Betsy and Maggie were infected and in turn, undead. The antidote did not change them back to humans; it just sedated them, kept them from eating and killing humans. Kept them from triggering a chaotic mass population exodus—essentially, the antidote dodged an apocalypse.

  Diplozoes given the vaccine became ill and their source decayed. If they got the antidote then it’d mean reversal. A chance to live. Another memory flashed in sequence: a diplozoe bartered with the white coats for his sister. It was the antidote so that Corlissa could live. Kiran had discovered his sister’s whereabouts but he knew she wasn’t salvageable in her state while in the dome. She was destined for the white room—a room equipped for the final destination of our kind. So he agreed to the E-SOM’s terms, whereby he used magic and made her invisible (to Endeca) but he was bound to Corlissa, being of the same ternio, in turn they became untraceable to one another. Strategically, it worked to the E-SOM’s advantage. Kiran couldn’t track her, and no one else could either preventing the union of Endeca. The white coats reassured Kiran of Corlissa’s impending release just as soon as the trial antidote had been completed. My meddling only worried Kiran further; he wouldn’t let anyone compromise her safety. Sparkles of light dispersed slowly before I returned to the present.

  Ten beds were visible except for one, which was sectioned off by a curtain. I tiptoed over and drew the curtain to find an unknown source. She was blond, around the age of s
even and similarly, dead-looking except there was no smell of decay as one would expect. Almost as if her body had been preserved. With closer inspection I realized I knew her.

  Under the sheets, and in her embrace was the doll I had first seen in the abandoned mansion. Daisy. It was Daisy, the girl who looked just like the doll.

  Find the window to her fragment and you’ll see what I mean.

  Hesitantly, I reached for the doll. Instead, her arm wouldn’t budge. Rigor mortise had set in. I reached for the intact glass eye, and just as I had seen in my dreams, I pierced it with my thumb, breaking it and drawing blood in the process. What happened next was unlike anything I had imagined. Her mummified arm released and she awoke.

  I released her doll and stepped back, terrified. Her black saucer eyes melded into the white, forming a greyish swirl. They shut again, as if nothing had happened.

  “Xenia, I got it. We have to go,” Kiran whispered, holding Corlissa’s limp body and a vile in his hands.

  “You used me as a diversion?” I scurried over, helping him prop Corlissa over his shoulder.

  “One big ass diversion. Come on! We have to go, we have to go,” he panted incessantly.

  “What about her?” I asked, confused. I couldn’t leave her there. However messed up she seemed, Endeca would know what to do. With Kiran pressing me for an escape, I quickly reached to touch Daisy’s face, my linking source.

  “Xenia! Now,” he demanded.

  I sighed heavily and scurried along his side, exiting through the very doors Betsy had sent me through. Once outside, Betsy ushered us to a car.

  “Betsy!” I shouted, wrapping my arms around her. She smelled different; decay had set in and her face had become just as veiny as Maggie’s.

  “Xenia. G-g-go n-now!” she urged.

  Kiran placed Corlissa’s source in the back seat and was half in the driver’s side. “Get in, hurry.”

  I looked back at Betsy and even being undead, compassion translated through her cold and otherwise detached face.

  Was this the beginning of what the future would be like? A bunch of undead, friendly beings one drop away from mercifully eating the human race into extinction?