Endeca (The Escapism Series)

by Dee, Maria

  “I can’t. I have to get Daisy,” I cried. “Go without me,” I said, backing away.

  “Wait, take this,” he shouted, throwing me a vile. “It’s the antidote. You’ve been compromised, but this time with the virus. Take it once you leave.”

  “I will,” I stuttered, my watery eyes and endearing smile were the only thanks I could express. Kiran’s reaching eyes rescinded right before he sped off.

  Betsy’s stark expression changed into what looked like worry. She motioned with her eyes after Kiran.

  “I can’t, Betsy. I have to save her.”

  She nodded, turning away facing the dome. Maybe I was mistaken, but she appeared to be strategizing, although nothing in her body language or expression would lead you to the same conclusion.

  “Will you help me?”

  “Of c-c-ourse,” she muttered, craning her creaky neck. Her blood shot eyes examined me thoroughly. “I’m h-h-hun-g-gry.”

  “This isn’t the place or the time for a quick…bite…” I snapped before the realization hit me. “W-what do you eat?” Thanks to every horror movie I had ever seen, I had a feeling I was the daily special.

  “H…hum…ans,” she grunted. Her jaw remained open and her vocal cords emitted a growl that vibrated through into a disquieting hum.

  Fan-frigging-tastic.

  “Why aren’t you attacking me then?” The longer I spent with her, the harder it was becoming for her to articulate. Maybe her blood-human levels were getting low…

  “You’re w-warm…a…alive,” she pointed at me. She had a conscious? The antidote worked but what would happen once the supply ran out?

  I followed her through the dome. Her pace wasn’t any slower, but it seemed a little more rigid than the average human.

  Someone turned the corner and I hid behind a trolley.

  “M-my shift. G-go,” she ordered a subservient, but he was human. He seemed confused and carried on. Betsy growled and stabbed him in the center of the head with a syringe from her pocket. Once his body collapsed, I rushed to her side.

  “What was that?” I asked, motioning to her hand.

  “V-vaccine t-trial for h-humans.” She stared down at the person in observance; the body changed quickly from pale white to bluish, and veiny looking.

  “It failed trial I see.”

  “N-no. It’s a-available in the m-market. M-mass production.”

  Oh God.

  She inhaled deeply and rumbled, falling to her knees, feasting uncontrollably. I looked away, horrified by what I had witnessed—looked like she found a loop hole in the menu.

  Betsy stood up, wiping her bloodied mouth and carried on as though nothing had happened. I followed her down the corridor where Daisy’s body rested.

  “Daisy, can you hear me? I’m here to help.” I reached into my pocket pulling out the vile. “You and I…we’re bonded. I can’t leave you to die.”

  I poured the contents of the vile down her throat and just as I was about to take the rest, a white coat appeared. He activated an alarm and white coats appeared left, right and center.

  Alarms blared and sirens activated.

  Just as the end neared, I shut my eyes and pressed my eyelids tightly, wishing for a quick end to my life. The dome vibrated from the bottom up and Daisy remained motionless, helpless. There was nothing else I could do to wake her. The earth shook and I realized it wasn’t by the hands of the E-SOM—it was otherworldly. The scent that flooded my olfactory pathways revived my fragments from the innards of my source.

  Before I could count to ten, Nicholas appeared as did the rest of Endeca. The white coats ran away but, one by one, they were slaughtered by an invisible presence. I scanned the room to find the presence hovering by the far end. Her red eyes emitted energy that eradicated the white coats and undead left behind.

  Nurse Maggie appeared, lunging herself at Kiran. He had returned and with Corlissa’s body resting by his feet. “Y-you’re an abominat-tion.”

  Just as soon as Nyxta’s cutting gaze fell upon Maggie, a gust of wind past us all and Daisy grasped Maggie by the throat.

  It worked! A shattered glass eye, my blood, and a touch riddled by Corlissa’s essence.

  “Hello mommy, it’s been too long,” she said, before she snapped her neck, decapitating her. “You’re the abomination.”

  Maggie looked old, but I’d have never imagined her to be over three centuries old. How did she manage to live that long? The E-SOM was more advanced than I gave them credit for.

  All twenty two eyes rested on another undead individual—Betsy. She burped having gone for seconds. With a look of apathy, she seemed ready to face her demise or quite possibly, in need of a nap.

  Nyxta flashed by her, and just before she unleashed her wrath, I shouted in protest.

  “Nooo! Not her. She helped me…us…escape from the dome. Look,” I offered, connecting with Nyxta, eye to eye, allowing her to sear what she needed. In a second, she turned to face Betsy, she pressed her hand against the center of her chest and the Betsy that stood before us changed, for the better. Her youth was restored to her in the most magical of ways. A powerful white light filled her body first and then her hair came to life, like garden snakes, each stand curled into its own spiral assault. The rosy hue returned to her cheeks and her red lips filled out in contrast to her alabaster skin. She sighed deeply and opened her beautiful eyes. She stood before us, revived and by Nyxta. She stared down at her hands and then her arms and touched her face.

  “I’m alive,” she uttered. The color in her eyes swirled green and black. She was more than alive—she was like us.

  “You have done us a great honor and for exhibiting such bravery, I have given you life in the only way possible,” she said, nodding in my direction.

  Betsy looked aghast but nodded in understanding. There was no other way to go around it. Her alternative was bleak as it stood…

  Kiran rested Corlissa’s source on the cot next to him. Daisy slowly approached her, examining her frail body. She rested her hand onto Corlissa’s abdomen and closed her eyes.

  “Come back to me sister.” Her touch was the key to reverse the hex casted long ago. The magic that displaced Corlissa’s fragments from her source and Daisy’s fragment into a Doll.

  “The chant, you must say it in reverse,” said the Corlissa I had come to know but it was an illusion, never her actual source. I knew it predated Nyxta but I wasn’t entirely sure.

  Nyxta faced the false embodiment of Corlissa, which disintegrated into the air. Instead, it took the form of a black mass of energy, forming into the outline of a female body. Nyxta got down on one knee, in reverence. “Our holiness, thank you for your mercy.”

  The black mass lingered, suspended midair.

  Daisy started the incantation, “Quattuor erunt lux lucet tantum. Utraque unum, et malum in adiutorium meum.” The incantation immediately reawakened Corlissa.

  “I’ve restored balance to Endeca. Anoint them all. Guide them night keeper, and have them guide the prime ones into the next era of evolution,” said the dark energy field before it formed into a tornado of force, combusting into the atmosphere.

  Kiran had given her the antidote in time. Corlissa looked around, frazzled by our presence and collapsed into Kiran’s embrace, emotionally and mystically drained.

  With the return of Daisy, my link source, and Corlissa’s awakening, the eleven braced for the unexpected now that we were one step closer to uniting.

  “What was that?” I asked of Nyxta. Whether it was a spirit or deity, it was strangely ubiquitous in all its time around us.

  “The eternal source,” she beamed. “Our Creator.”

  And then there were two

  There were many things I thought I’d never believe in. Our existence for one and a few others like deitie
s, creators, God. I watched as Daisy and Corlissa rekindled. Both Daisy and Corlissa were displaced from their sources in an attempt to escape the E-SOM and for Daisy, to escape her horrid mother, Maggie.

  “Should I confront her now?” I asked Orion.

  “Now is as good a time as any.”

  I felt nervous even though on the outside, she appeared as any other seven year old girl, on the inside she was a four hundred year old immorta. She was the first of our kind to evolve and she was my linking source—a 17th century immorta, the first destined for Endeca. Was this the fundamental side of me that Orion and the others feared?

  I approached her hesitantly but she turned to face me expectantly. “Xenia, you’ve done more than your part in our restoration,” she commended, while Corlissa’s eyes remained fixed on me.

  “Well, Kiran actually forced me here. I didn’t know what was going on,” I offered, humbly.

  “He may have prompted it all, but you located my fragment and without you, I wouldn’t be here—Endeca needed us.”

  It felt nice to serve a purpose, although one could argue that we all served a purpose in the grand scheme of life.

  “What are we going to do about this λ-vaccine?” I asked out loud. Everyone looked at one another before Corlissa addressed the matter.

  “The E-SOM could use a healthy dose or two,” she smirked, and her wild eyes danced on fire.

  “Precious, you’ve been back for but five minutes and you’re already waging war,” Sebastian uttered, amused.

  “Yes, but a war we could now win.”

  Kiran nodded as did Daisy, Caleb, Viola, and Castiel. However, the 19th century ternio unanimously disagreed.

  “Looks like we have a standstill,” said Nyxta, continuing. “And you, Xenia? Where do you stand on either matter?”

  “Either matter?”

  “War and becoming immorta—one could only happen with the other.”

  I grimaced at the thought of either. I didn’t like the idea of war but then again, I couldn’t stand by and watch innocent humans die by vaccine, or worse, become undead. If one was to stop the E-SOM from circulating such deadly vaccines, there’d be no other way around it. War was the answer, and time was of the essence. The main question was how could one wage war upon such evil that lurked in hiding? Maybe Nyxta could help or Betsy as she knew the ins and outs of the dome or what was left of it.

  “I’ll think about it. It looks like I have no other choice.”

  “Xenia,” Nicholas roared, his grief stricken face was willing me to reconsider.

  “I have to think about it. That’s all,” I reiterated. Edric nodded humbly before he vanished. Orion came by my side as did Nicholas. It was an awkward moment to say the least.

  “I’ll leave you to think things through,” Nicholas said, shooting Orion looks of daggers. Orion was never one to follow suit. He smirked derisively at Nicholas’ futile attempt to leave me by my lonesome.

  “Immortality is awesome,” he whispered, playfully. I couldn’t help but smirk.

  “Well it is. And if we’d united as Endeca, you wouldn’t have needed the antidote.”

  The antidote!

  I reached into my pocket and quickly swallowed the contents of the vile. “Thanks for the reminder,” I said, nervously, “So I’ll be invincible, forever frozen and have to watch my family and friends slowly pass on.”

  “You wouldn’t have to stay frozen, Xenia,” she intervened. Daisy looked rather robust and eager. “Immortality is of our preference. You can stay the age of your enlightenment. Should you choose to forgo eternal youth; you could age, however gracefully as you please.”

  “If that is the case, why is it that you stayed seven…for centuries?”

  “Our fragments travel between sources, relieving the source intermittently. Our fragments are the tortured parts of our being, the parts that preserve everything that you’ve experienced from past lives to present. I died at the age of seven and my fragment couldn’t be retraced, but now that I have been restored, I’m evolving, maturing with every second,” she explained.

  Magnificent. I was in awe. “How fast will you mature?”

  “Pretty fast,” Orion jumped in, nodding. I didn’t care to know any more.

  Queen Nyxta announced, “For the interim, we’ll locate the manufacturing plants and demolish their supply of vaccine. Sebastian, Castiel, come with me. Play time is over.” The two of them grimaced at one another. I wondered what became of them and judging by their expressions, it was a treat for them to be out of whatever hell dimension they resided in.

  And one by one, the eleven dissipated leaving me with Daisy and Orion. “Do you need a place to stay? After all, it’s like we’re family so you’re welcome to stay with me.”

  “You mean, stay with you and your human family?” she asked, displeased.

  “Is there a problem?”

  “I have a dwelling in store, thank you.”

  “Okay, where’ll you be staying? I’d like to spend some time with you, if I may.”

  “Very well. Orion’s.”

  I could sense his smug face from across the room.

  “Ah. Okay, be seeing you,” I hastened to say and drew Orion aside. “What are you trying to pull?”

  “What seems to be the problem? My brother lives with you, so I thought, why not reciprocate. A friendly gesture is all,” he grinned wide.

  “Some gesture. You’re being your usual conniving self.”

  “A little, but in all fairness, it’s only to spend more time with you.”

  “I’ll tell Edric to pack tonight,” I sneered. Orion wasn’t the least bit thrown by my response.

  “As you wish,” he sighed.

  On that note, we parted ways. Daisy was my link and Orion was hogging her. It wasn’t fair but I couldn’t just tell a four hundred year old immorta what to do. She knew the doors were open but I presumed living with humans wasn’t on her top ten list now that she was restored.

  I travelled back to the online world and back in my house, Edric skulked alone.

  “When do your parents get back?”

  “One month or so. Business trip turned into a tropical getaway.”

  “Yessssssssss. The house to ourselves. Where’s Daisy?”

  “That’s what I need to talk to you about. She’s staying at Orion’s.”

  Edric didn’t look the least bit surprised. “He’s something alright,” he uttered, “so when is he expecting me?” His clairvoyance never ceased to amaze me.

  “Soon, I suppose. I just want you to know, it’s not like I wanted you to leave but he swayed Daisy. Now that my parents are gone, she could stay with me and we could get to know one another. I could learn more about my roots. Maybe she knows who my bio-father is.”

  He nodded sympathetically. “I’ll miss this place.”

  “I’ll miss you too. Thanks for everything, Edric. You saved my neck more than once.”

  “I just returned the favor,” he humbly replied. He didn’t do well with goodbyes, although this was more of a ‘see you later’ kind of thing.

  I decided to drop by the hospital to check on Marla’s status before visiting hours were over. With so much that had gone on, it provided a nice escape while it lasted, but now came the time to face the harsh reality before me. There was no running from the truth, the possibility that Marla’s fate could go either way. I prepared in the best way that I could, mentally bracing for any news.

  The hospital was surrounded by a different energy field than what I could remember. The sky was darkening and the air was crisper. Something was coming our way, something grim.

  With only a meter away from Marla’s room, I heard silence, which was unusual for this ward. Inside her room, I drew the curtain and her bed was empty. Something clenched, and
squeezed deeply in the center of my chest before it released and rampantly picked up speed. I ran out to the nurses’ station.

  “Where’s Marla? Marla Holmes. She’s gone!”

  The nurse looked up, disheveled and alarmed. “That can’t be. I just checked her vitals. She was fine.” She got up and briskly walked over. Any slower and I would’ve dragged her there myself.

  The nurse stood in front of Marla’s bed. She relaxed her brow and grimaced. “She’s here,” she uttered in relief. “Now take your shenanigans elsewhere, ‘k?”

  I looked at the empty bed, rubbed my eyes, and looked again.

  Empty.

  “Why can’t I see her?” I asked, distressed. Something weird had happened as though a hex was casted to shield me from…holy shit, it belonged to her.

  The nurses’ disapproving look and tired eyes said it all. “I have half a mind to revoke your visitor’s privileges and have you committed.”

  She was serious. I left in a hurry and dialed his number. He didn’t answer in his usual peppy way.

  “Hey Kiran…you in the mood to revoke a hex?”

  ~

  I had never been to Kiran’s place before but I didn’t want to meet anywhere else. He seemed rather edgy once I arrived.

  “I’m the one who is preventing Marla’s recovery. I’m the one responsible for her demise in this world.”

  “Calm down, Xenia. You didn’t know the Lifter belonged to her. How could you?”

  “We need to reverse the hex.”

  “That’d mean she’d reunite and you’d die in the process.”

  “I don’t care. I can afford a life. She can’t.”

  “She has a life…offline,” he pointed out, in reminder.

  “I can’t lose her, Kiran. Death isn’t in her cards.”

  “Paths change—nothing is set in stone.”