by Darren Lewis
“Okay.” She said quietly. “Just a daydream then.” And she rolled her eyes, not quite believing that was all it had been.
Actually it was a memory.
Ellie spun quickly this time.
“What the he….?”
Down here, came the interruption.
Ellie felt a hot pulse in her hand and she looked down as she lifted the orb. It was pulsing soft to bright orange. It reminded Ellie of Jack's nightlight. The soft glow inducing a calming effect. Ellie relaxed and completely unselfconsciously addressed the glowing ball she held before her.
“Was that you?”
The orb flashed brightly.
No. It was the orb you're holding in your other hand.
Ellie blinked and gave her free hand a quick look before flushing with embarrassment. Her gaze once again settled on the orange orb and she cocked an eyebrow at it.
Humans the voice sighed.
*
The voice of the orb Ellie listened to as it explained itself was quite bizarre. It fluctuated from male to female, from a single voice to a chorus all speaking the same words. To increase the ever-bizarre situation was the voice bypassing Ellie's ears completely and talking straight into her mind.
It's so wonderful to be outside after all this time. Isabelle kept me locked away for years. The orb paused, and to Ellie the silence seemed sad. She was a troubled lady, I hope she found some peace. Ellie instinctively looked back up the road towards Isabelle's decrepit house at the mention of the old woman's name. She tried to put some order to her thoughts on this ever-increasingly hot and confusing day.
“Eridan and Celestine created you?” She asked.
Yes.
“And Celestine died to bring you to life?”
I'm afraid so.
“But Eridan never mentioned you being able to speak. You sound alive!”
The orb flashed wildly, and Ellie sensed through this form of communication that it was thinking of a way to explain.
I spent years in a basement with Cole. I had no way of learning or expanding my knowledge of the world. But when you, well, the other you, took me back in time, I was by her side. All those years of experience became a part of me. I learned and grew and was able to draw more from the people around me, including their memories.
The orb sighed.
They're all here.
“What do you mean?”
The voices became loud and Ellie swore they bounced off the inside of her skull.
Rosa, Edric, Agnes, Isabelle, Arianne, Charles, Zheng, Faye, Cole, Eridan, Celestine, Ellie…
On and on until Ellie dropped to her knees and, letting the orb fall to the ground, she clutched her hands to her ears uselessly to stop the noise.
“Stop!” She screamed and it ended in an instance.
Sorry. The orb whispered. I consumed so much my own consciousness developed. I guess I'm truly the sum of my parts. The orb's voice took on a sardonic tone. Though some experiences I could do with forgetting. Human emotions are very disturbing.
Ellie stayed on her knees and gave the orb a faraway nod of agreement. After the din had quietened the orb began speaking normally, and Ellie became distracted by its voice. She recognised it.
Sorry, am I boring you?
Ellie blinked and her eyes widened as she found the answer.
“When I woke up at Isabelle's house it was you!” She accused the orb. “You told me 'they're coming.' ” Ellie aimed a finger at the orange ball.
Well, yes. I don't want to be captured and after such a magical disturbance they'll certainly be on their way.
“Who?” Ellie demanded.
Isabelle told you. The Institute.
Ellie rocked back onto her heels and cast a wary glance over her shoulder at the oncoming helicopters, edging ever closer.
“Is that them?” She asked, her voice muffled by speaking into her shoulder.
No doubt. It's been a good while since I last encountered their kind, and if their spotters are still any good I'll stand out like a floodlight at midnight.
Ellie gave the orb an alarmed look.
“What about me?”
Well, you were holding me and you are talking to me. They certainly won't believe that's a coincidence. You'll be seized and taken for questioning and when they realise who you are… The orb trailed off and Ellie picked it back up.
“But why? Who are they? What do they want you for and what about me?” Ellie resisted the urge to shake answers from the ball.
Ellie. You not only have your memories of Rox but of the dragons and the Ellie before you. They capture and contain such people. Anybody who possesses magical traits or anybody believed to have been in close contact with such people are simply taken away.
The thud of the helicopter blades seemed to be getting louder and Ellie hunched her shoulders. A memory drifted in of Cole and Eridan. Cole had been injured, his wing broken by one of his kind. Then Eridan had appeared and repaired the break using the orb.
Amazing, whispered the orb.
“Sometimes it's like trying to remember a dream and the events get all scrambled up. But other times it's something that will come to me with complete clarity.” Ellie stood slowly and continued walking down the road, wondering what was going to happen to her next.
I can show you. Who they are, what they do. What happened to you. That 'daydream' you had took less than a second.
Ellie came to a stop and blew out an exasperated breath.
“Okay! Later, okay? I think enough has happened today already without anything else confusing the issue!”
Alright. I just hope we have the opportunity later.
Ellie gave the orb a sour glance and walked on at a brisk pace.
*
“Cerys? Are you up there?”
Cerys stood atop an enormous ice blue glacier. It cracked and groaned as it moved slowly but ever onwards down the valley towards the ocean. That was not her concern, however. The four salivating hungry wolves that flashed their razor-sharp teeth at her currently occupied her attention, as she attempted to keep them from her tasty flesh.
“Cerys!”
Without blinking, Cerys slowly unsheathed the sword strapped to her back. The sword was a gift from the local shaman. He said it contained the properties of the stars and the power to defeat many enemies. Cerys brought it to bear on the ugly beasts she faced and she whispered a prayer to The Lord of Steel.
“Young lady, answer me!”
Cerys flinched and jolted back to reality. She placed the book down carefully, and massaged her hand back to life from where she had been holding the book too hard in her excitement.
“What?” She shouted back, annoyed at the interruption. Silence was her answer. She growled softly and swung her legs off the bed, wincing as they ached far too much. It felt like they had been on a bike ride and forgotten to mention it to her. She stretched quickly and left her bedroom for the hallway. She looked over the banister straight into her mum's steely gaze. Cerys rolled her eyes.
“Pardon?” She said sweetly.
Her mum smiled slightly.
“That's better. Now why don't you go outside? You must be sweltering up there?”
Cerys shrugged.
“I'm alright. I was reading.”
Cerys' mum shrugged in defeat. She loved the fact that Cerys would devour any book or magazine article given to her. She'd easily gone through books intended for her age at school and was now determined to convince her parents to let her read more adult books. It would've been an easy decision to make as both Cerys' parents were avid readers from an early age, however, one side effect of Cerys' reading was that she became the main characters for a short time afterwards. Cerys called it 'method reading.' Her mum and dad called it cute when she was younger, and damn creepy now she was older. They had both banned her from any book by Stephen King until she broke the habit.
“Alright. Well, would you like to…” Whatever her mother thought Cerys might like to do was lost as
her dad burst into the downstairs hallway.
“You have to come see this. It's weird.” He shot a quick glance straight up at Cerys. “You as well.” And with that he grabbed his wife's hand, pulled and they both disappeared from Cerys' view. Cerys wiped her brow. The stairs seemed to funnel the heat straight up to her. Her shoulders slumped as she trudged down the stairs certain that her father was overcome by heat and was hallucinating about a bee or wasp attacking him. Cerys paused for a second as a vivid image of being chased by thousands of wasps popped into her head.
Weird, she thought and continued on. The front door was open so Cerys could see Dad pointing at something apparently fascinating while Mum shook her head. As she neared the door she heard a rapid whup whup noise, as if she was banging her tongue against the inside of her lower jaw very, very quickly. It didn't take Cerys long to place the noise as a helicopter, maybe more than one, but she failed to understand what could've gotten her Dad so worked up. As she left the house behind and followed her parents' gaze she became even more appreciative of their house's location. It was built upon the crest of a hill a few miles from the centre of the village, and a few miles from its outskirts. The fields around the house were bare and had been so for years, and Cerys saw exactly what her Dad was so excited about.
Two black helicopters were moving slowly towards the village centre and Cerys's immediate reaction was that they were seeking something or someone. She could also hear the sirens of a plethora of emergency vehicles nearing the outskirts of the village proper. With one road in and out they didn't seem to be making any quick progress as they had yet to pass her house. With her parents intent just to stand and gawp from a distance, Cerys let her natural instincts of a twelve going on fifty year old kick in and took the opportunity to slip out of the garden and onto the main road. She decided she wasn't being nosey and instead, feeling very much like the Ice Warrior Princess she was reading about, went to investigate.
*
“Lily! Hey, Lily!” Cerys screeched and then coughed, the dry heat of the day closing her throat. The noise from the helicopters was starting to drown out any normal noise at ground level. It was also creating quite a spectacle for the inhabitants of the village. Most of them were standing in their gardens anxiously waiting to see what drama was about to unfold, while the more adventurous were in the street. It was how Cerys chanced upon Lily, bumping into her friend as she weaved her way around the adults. Lily gave her a distracted nod in greeting and then ignored her, raising her phone and recording the scene for future entertainment and to upload it to the internet if something exciting occurred.
Cerys tutted in annoyance and leaned in close to Lily's ear.
“What do you think is going on?” She shouted. “Escaped serial killer? Aliens?”
Lily lowered her phone slowly and gave her friend an exasperated look.
“Not everything is a book or a movie, Cerys.” Lily yelled back, frowning all the while.
“Or the movie of the book!” Cerys added. “The book's always better anyway.” Cerys said to herself. “But remember what our English teacher Mr Muldoon said, 'truth is stranger than fiction.' ”
Lily let loose an unheard sigh.
“Killer ducks then?” Lily laughed this time and shoved Cerys' shoulder before returning to her recording. Cerys grinned at making Lily laugh and looked down the road. The grin fell from her face as she watched one of the black helicopters advancing on a single figure coming down the road. She grabbed Lily's shoulder for attention and pointed.
“Is that Ellie?”
*
“Why in the name of sweet Jesus is there cello tape all over this house?” Dad cried. He and Mum had spent the best part of ten minutes ripping tape from every door and window frame in the house. The tape was leaving behind a good amount of sticky residue in the heat, causing them both to count to ten on numerous occasions. Mum shrugged and looked at Jack, who shrugged in return. Dad flopped onto the sofa and rubbed his fingers together, the leftover tape balled up like snot. He tried to flick it away unsuccessfully.
“Another minor mystery. Maybe we should call Mulder and Scully.” Dad said to himself. Jack sat down next to his Dad.
“Who?” He asked.
Dad gave him a look filled with the fake sadness older people inflict upon the younger generation when they don't know something.
“Never mind, kiddo.” And he reached out and ruffled his son's blond hair, grimacing as some of it came off on his sticky hand. Mum was still working at de-taping the windows when she stopped and turned to her husband and young son.
“What's that noise?”
Dad cocked his head and heard the faint, but strengthening whup whup sound from outside. He cocked an eyebrow.
“Helicopter? Bit warm for a car chase, isn't it?” Dad and Jack went over to the window with Mum and peered into the sky but saw nothing. Dad nudged Jack's shoulder. “Wanna go see?” Jack grinned.
“Well, if you see any speeding cars or bank robbers come straight back inside.” Mum instructed and she walked out of the room. Dad and Jack made their way into the front garden. Jack gave Dad a puzzled look.
“How would we recognise bank robbers?” He asked.
“Oh, you know. Striped jumpers, a black mask and a big bag saying 'Swag.' ”
Jack narrowed his eyes at Dad. It was tricky to know when Dad was being silly sometimes, and he certainly didn't want to bump into a bank robber! They both walked out of the front garden and into the street. A few neighbours were also out and facing the same way. After a few waves of hello, Dad and Jack turned to see what the neighbours were looking at. In the distance, but closing quite fast, were two black helicopters. Both had blacked out windows so neither pilot was visible.
“That's strange.” Dad said. Jack looked away from the helicopters to Dad.
“What?”
“Police helicopters don't have blacked out glass and they have identification on them. Stickers, labels that say 'police.' ” He explained so Jack would understand. Jack shrugged and looked back towards the house to see if Mum had come out to see. What Jack saw made his jaw drop and flap his hand against Dad's leg.
“What's wrong, mister?”
Jack didn't say a word and simply pointed at the house. Dad turned and the same expression came over his face. The roof looked as though a giant had been using it for punching practice. A great big gaping hole had been formed above the main bedroom.
“What the hell is going on?” Dad asked quietly. Strange images flashed into his mind. Taping up the doors, jumping into a bath, scared for his family's safety. Ellie. Where was Ellie?
On the street a girl's shout broke the stream of odd imagery in his head.
“Is that Ellie?”
Dad turned and saw Cerys and Lily. Cerys was pointing further up the road, the direction the helicopters were coming from. He followed Cerys's pointed finger and saw his daughter coming towards him.
*
Ellie could not shake the vulnerability she felt. The constant noise from the rotors seemed to be grinding down her common sense and she was sure that the pilots of both helicopters were staring right at her. A quick look over her shoulder, however, allayed her fears slightly when she saw the helicopters stop their approach and hover. A large, black SUV came into view over the rise of the hill and screeched to a halt. Several figures emerged and rushed into the house they'd stopped next to. Ellie groaned. They were running into Isabelle's house.
*
“Ground team reporting in. The house is clear but we have a deceased woman in the front garden.”
Sloan stroked his cheek with his index finger. The spotters had directed the air and ground teams to this location. Sloan activated his comm switch.
“Secure the body for transportation and standby.”
“Copy that.”
Sloan took his earpiece out and walked to a corner of the operations centre. Sitting alone at a standard desk with no computers, phones or any access to the normal outsid
e world was Cassandra, a spotter for the Institute. Cassandra's particular gift allowed her to locate disturbances of a magical origin and focus in on them. It wasn't always accurate, like a mobile phone signal it could be blocked by a high output of electricity like a thunderstorm, or simple geography such as a hill. Like all members of the Institute with a magical background their freedom, such as it was, was limited to not being stored away like so many others that had been captured and spending their entire lives within the building. Depression was common among them so most were kept in a drug-fuelled state, granting them little dignity. Cassandra had reacted harshly to the drugs forced into her system and now sought comfort and solace in food. The years of abuse had left her massively overweight.
Cassandra was sitting with a map of the area the teams were deployed in with her pudgy hands placed flat over the village. Her breathing was heavy and laboured.
“Are you still sensing anything in the village?” Sloan asked.
Cassandra gazed up into Sloan's eyes and he repressed an urge to look away. When Cassandra was spotting her eyes became devoid of colour and became creamy white.
“There's a faint reading at the house but…” Cassandra trailed off and pressed her hands down harder upon the map, making it wrinkle and crack, and her breathing became unsteady. “Great power, oh, it's moving away.” Cassandra then smiled at Sloan. “So beautiful…run!” Her eyes cleared and she looked around her as if seeing Sloan and the room for the first time. She hurriedly turned back to the map and shouted above her hands at the village and screamed. “RUN!”
Sloan tore the map away from Cassandra and looked over to his guards.
“Get her out of here!” Anthony and Dana half ran and took the now blubbering woman away. Sloan forced his earpiece back in.
“Ground team. Target is still in the area. Quite possibly very close by and running!”
*
Ellie had no choice but to simply keep on walking away from Isabelle's house. She tried engaging the orb in conversation about the Institute, but it insisted that it couldn't explain and would have to show her. After a few more unsuccessful attempts to gain information the orb didn't bother answering and to Ellie the silence felt like a great big sulk on the orb's part, and then it screamed into Ellie's mind but in a new voice making her flinch, nearly dropping it.